James Ellison (polygamist)

James Ellison was a white supremacist and extremist leader from San Antonio, Texas who, in 1971, founded the radical organization The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord. Ellison purchased a convert|250|acre|km2|sing=on strip of land near Elijah, Arkansas to serve as his compound. He was also a close associate of both Richard Wayne Snell and Timothy McVeigh.

Leadership

Ellison was a polygamist who was jailed for a period of time, along with his 'high priest' Kerry Noble in federal prison. Robert G. Millar became one of his spiritual advisers, who was the founder of Elohim City. He was also mentored by Richard Girnt Butler of the Aryan Nations and Robert Miles, founder of The Mountain Church in Cohoctah, Michigan. Both extreme right leaders taught and practiced the sect of Christian Identity, a religion the FBI yet has on its watch list as an 'extremist religion'. Ellison had very close ties to the KKK and the Northern Idaho group, Aryan Nations, in Hayden, Idaho, led by Richard Butler. Miles had a very active prison ministry and newsletter, relating mostly to the violent white Aryan groups, of which there are many, most notably, the Aryan Brotherhood. The image here is neo-Nazi racists. After Ellison was released from prison, he moved to Elohim City, where he married Millar's granddaughter.

An important note here is that Ellison, Noble, and the entire Council of Elders at CSA were very much influenced and mentored by many outside sources. It was this nine man council that deliberated on the spiritual meaning and direction of CSA activities.

Purpose

The CSA was an organization that believed doomsday was imminent, and the convert|250|acre|km2|sing=on compound that was set up in Elijah became a community for its members. There they trained their members in paramilitary operations. The group strongly believed in white supremacy, and held a particularly strong sense of anti-Semitism. Like the other prominent extreme right groups, they referred to the United States Government as "ZOG", for Zionist Occupied Government. Contrary to the ambitions of The Order, they professed that the United States government would dissolve from its own corruption. The military leader of the group, who used the name Randall Rader during his stay at CSA, left the group in a rift with Ellison and joined a newly forming group in Idaho called "The Order". It was The Order that declared war on the United States government in a 21 page declaration. Virtually all of the members of that group have been imprisoned on felony charges ranging from robbery to murder. Its founder, Robert Jay Matthews, died in a fiery shoot-out on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound off the coast of Seattle. Matthews signature poem was:

Lay down your bibles and pick up a gun
It's time to deal in lead.
We are the armies of the damned
The soldiers of the already dead!

Operations

After it was set up, the CSA began targeting local and federal agents, including the sheriff who participated in the later siege on the organization's compound and the U.S. Attorney, Asa Hutchinson, who would negotiate a peaceful conclusion to the siege and later prosecute CSA members. CSA assassins would monitor the homes of their targets and actually practice mock assassinations of the targets with scoped rifles and practiced attacks in a mock "Combat City". The perimeter of the CSA compound had 100, 200, and 300 yard indicator plates nailed to trees to allow the defenders to adjust their sights accordingly to engage attackers. The central rallying point in the event of attack was a concrete bunk house that housed the communications radios next to the 95 foot tower, which itself, was constructed for defense. The perimeter of the compound had built-in bunkers for one to three men and each was numbered as a post and assigned to individuals as an 'area of responsibility'.

The many weapons obtained for their training were purchased through a member's federal license (FFL). The line infantryman carried a Ruger Mini-14 .223 rifle. Many of these were illegally modified to fire selectively. As in the early days of the Marine Corps, the squads were set up in four man fire teams. One man carried a Heckler and Koch Model 91 rifle in .308 Winchester (7.62 NATO) that was modified via a technique the organization sold to 'brother groups' that converted the rifle to a select fire weapon (machinegun). The Elite "A" Team had black SWAT clothing and some fairly sophisticated weapons such as, the .22 caliber Ruger target pistol fitted with integral silencer, and several of the MAC-10 submachineguns in both 9MM and .45 Auto, also with attached suppressors. These men trained in the covert aspects of military action, and were to be the core of the defense innitiative. No doubt, this training lent itself to assassination.

By the end of their operations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) obtained 155 Krugerrands, one live light antitank rocket (LAAW), 94 long guns, 30 handguns, 35 sawed-off shotguns and machine guns, one heavy machine gun (a Japanese copy of the WWI Lewis, in .303 caliber), and a quantity of C-4 explosives. Much of this arsenal was stolen. In 1983, CSA member William Thomas accompanying Richard Wayne Snell and Steven Scott attempted to dynamite a natural gas pipeline near Fulton, Arkansas, without success. Scott was arrested for the offense. Numerous other members had been incarcerated by 1985 for offense ranging from racketeering to weapons deals. This would eventually bring about the downfall of Ellison's CSA.

The CSA also had links with other radical organizations, including the Aryan Brotherhood, The Mountain Church, and The Order, all of which were dangerous white supremacist organizations, advocating the violent overthrow of the United States Government. Many of their members were seen traveling in and out of the compound, and after a search of the compound, several stolen vehicles including one belonging to The Order were recovered.

Things began to go downhill for the organization after the alleged member, Richard Wayne Snell, was arrested for killing an African-American police officer. Snell was later tied to the killing of a gun store owner in 1981, obtaining and using the very same gun, the serial number of which had been removed by the CSA armorer, Kent Yates, who himself was arrested on Friday the 13th of July in 1984, on an outstanding warrant out of New Mexico for firearms violations in Farmington. He was later also charged and convicted of weapons manufacture and modification for the CSA. He wrote a few books on survival, weapons modification and silencers that are out of print.

After the incident with Snell the FBI began hunting for ways to infiltrate the CSA compound and stop the organization which they deemed dangerous. They finally obtained warrants under Arkansas state law to arrest Ellison, the leader of the CSA, for multiple firearms violations. (The FBI later claimed that at all times they had an 'inside man' at CSA.)

The siege: April 20, 1985

The ATF set up what is assumed to be around 300 federal agents in Elijah, having them pose as fisherman because the area was a common destination for anglers. On the morning of April 20, 1985, they moved in and surrounded the CSA compound, putting some in fishing boats to seal off the lakeside area of the Compound. There they waited, until a few hours later when two guards emerged from the compound. They appeared to be unaware of the presence of the Officers, and walked towards a sniper hold-out, until finally an officer yelled commands to return to the compound, with which the guards complied. Later, an unnamed individual emerged from the compound and talked with the federal agents and reported to Ellison that the FBI were outside to negotiate his surrender and the emptying of the Compound. Ellison emerged later, and FBI agents realized he would not go down without a firefight, but the FBI negotiators convinced him that the CSA would certainly lose if they had one. They convinced him they wanted peaceful cooperation, and he asked that his spiritual adviser, assumed to be Millar, come to the compound to instruct him. The individual was flown to the area and seemed eager to convince Ellison to stand down, understanding that otherwise there would be certain bloodshed. They allowed the individual into the compound, and the FBI instructed him to call in every 30 minutes to report how negotiations were going.

Attorney Asa Hutchinson, who would later go on to successfully prosecute Ellison and other leaders of the CSA, put on an FBI flak jacket and entered the compound to personally join negotiations, ultimately leading to a peaceful conclusion to the armed stand-off. After several calls requesting more time, early on the morning of the 4th day of the siege, Ellison, his command, and all of the males in the compound emerged, and surrendered themselves to authorities. Women and children were earlier evacuated to nearby motel housing at government expense.

Charges

U.S. Attorney Asa Hutchinson charged Ellison and most of his leadership with illegal weapons possession, and Ellison faced the maximum 20 years prison sentence. Ellison was later released in 1987 in a negotiation with officers where he testified against the leader and several head members of the Aryan Nations, the parent organization for the prison group Aryan Brotherhood, rumored to have been strengthened by Robert Miles during his time in federal prison. All seven men were arrested and indicted on charges of sedition. His testimony was however, a sham as the jury found all the defendants not guilty on all charges citing they 'did not find the federal witness credible'. Upon his release from federal prison, he moved to Elohim City.

Richard Wayne Snell, the man who shot and killed both the police officer and a pawn shop owner, was sentenced to death by lethal injection, which was administered just hours before the Oklahoma City Bombing took place.

[Note on Snell: "Wayne" as his friends called him, was an anomaly amongst the racists. His fetish was black women and pornography, and he operated autonomously using the CSA compound as his 'hole in the wall'. His running mate, Steven Scott, gave up this information in a federal prison holding cell to one of the then members. Both, practices of race mixing and lewd and lascivious behavior were forbidden by doctrine, though polygamy was prominent.]

Possible ties to the Oklahoma City Bombing

There are several claims that the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City Bombing was tied to the 'New Day' teachings of Elohim City. No proof, however, has ever been established. Elohim City was assembled for the purpose of gathering 'prophets of the New Day'. Robert Millar envisioned himself to be the 'Shepard of Shepards' traveling to numerous alternate societies, many of whom were and remain, communes. His ambition as a charismatic Christian leader, was to unite these 'underground' organizations. He appeared several times at the Padanaram Settlement, in southern Indiana, but contrary to reports, members of the Padanaram Settlement did not concur with the radical calling of either Millar or Ellison who made two appearances there. 'The Valley' was and remains known more as a cultural hub for artists and philosophers and until roughly 2003, operated the largest deciduous hardwood sawmill in five states. Timothy McVeigh was tied to several radical religious organizations, however, McVeigh was not yet exposed to the charismatic messages of these groups in his early teen youth and was just joining the Army when the CSA compound was sieged and broken up.

Also, the Oklahoma City Bombing occurred very close to the 10-year anniversary of the siege of the CSA compound. But the most plausible link is that Richard Wayne Snell, who was executed on the day of the bombing, had planned a similar attack on the Murrah building in 1983 after becoming upset with the IRS. Not only that, but Snell was heard taunting jailers that something drastic would happen on the day of his execution. It is plausible that McVeigh may have been mentored by Snell since Snell frequented gun shows, a CSA practice until shortly before Snell made active contact with the group he is documented to have been a part of. Of itself, that is understandable since he hid out there between pawn shop robberies. He did not, however, reside on the property. CSA considered him to be a 'Patron'. Shortly after McVeigh was released from the Army he became very active at gun shows. *Note

(It is from the erroneous accounts in one of Tom Clancy's books that images of CSA bank robbery were born.) The single incident of CSA involvement to rob a pawn shop in Springfield, Missouri, was in fact, foiled by a CSA member on the orders of Jim Ellison, unbeknown to Wayne Snell, who headed up the plan. It was in regard to this event which Ellison saw a "sign from God" that they should not carry out the attempt; NOT the Oklahoma City Federal Bldg.

The death knell of CSA was their attempt to kill an FBI agent named Jack Knox, the agent assigned to investigate the group, and a Federal judge who presided over the affair that brought about the eventual action against Gordon Kahl, a tax protester and member of The Posse Comitatus, by federal agents at Leonard Ginter's home (affectionately called 'The Bunker', due to its construction of concrete covered with earth). Ellison was obsessed with assassinating both of these men, since he revered Kahl as a hero. Like McVeigh, incidentally, Kahl was a decorated American soldier; Kahl earned a Silver Star in the Korean War, and McVeigh a Bronze Star in the first Gulf War - Desert Storm.

References

* [http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Elohim.asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=3&item=ec Extremism]
* [http://www.tkb.org/CaseHome.jsp?caseid=272 Terrorism Knowledge Base]
* [http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/american/adl/paranoia-as-patriotism/covenant.html The CSA]