June 16, 2009 1:07 PM
[UPDATE 7/8/09 Minuteman Murderer Confesses!]
Significant new material has come to light since I posted this morning on the arrest of two leaders of the Minuteman movement in Washington State for involvement in three murders. I have reposted the original article with the updated info, including the claim by one of the killers that she is a spokesperson for the national anti-immigrant group FAIR. Here is the updated article:
Jason Bush, a leader in the anti-immigrant Minuteman American Defense group, has been arrested and charged in the killing of three people. Two of those killed were murdered during a home invasion allegedly designed to fund the Minutemen, an armed anti-immigrant militia. The third involves the decade-old killing of a Latino.
Bush and Shawna Forde, who heads the Minutemen American Defense group, are charged with killing a man and his 10-year-old daughter while robbing their house to obtain funds for their anti-immigrant activities. The girl's mother was wounded during the "expropriation". Forde had been a leader in the Washington State Minuteman Civil Defense Corps until two years ago when she was ousted from membership. In 2007 she had organized a local rally for Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist.
Pima County, Az., police said that the Minutemen intended to kill the three people. The Minutemen believed that the father was involved in drug dealing and wanted to take money from him to fund their political activities.
Bush was also charged with killing Hector Lopez Partida in 1997 after he recently bragged about killing "a Mexican". He was tied to the killing of Partida by DNA evidence. He has a history of links to white power groups in addition to the Minutemen.
Shawna Forde gained notoriety earlier this year when she alleged that Latino gangsters had raped and beaten her. Local media reports in Washington State where she lives part of the year indicate that the attack has been described as a hoax by locals and that Forde herself has suggested, under pressure from a reporter that the attack was the work of her son's associates. Her son was recently sent to jail in what he said was an assault motivated by anti-gay prejudices. Forde had also claimed in 2008 that her daughter had been kidnapped by Latinos, which turned out not to be true.
ALIPAC, one of the principal anti-immigrant groups, described Forde in January as a "leader in this movement", while warning that the story of her "victimization" might not be entirely true. Jim Gilchrist used the alleged attack on Forde to claim that "hate crimes against patriots are now more prevalent as the economy weakens."
Gilchrist continued to back Shawna Forde even after other anti-immigrant groups began to back away from her pitiful lies. Here is what he wrote after her lies were exposed: "She is a stoic struggler who has chosen to put country, community, and a yearning for a civilized society ahead of avarice and self-glorifying ego. The Minuteman Project is proud to be a supporter of Shawna Forde’s Minutemen(women) American Defense (M.A.D.) [signed by] Jim Gilchrist, Founder and President, The Minuteman Project, Inc."
Here is video of Shawna Forde in which she is described as a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. [NOTE: FAIR now denies that Forde was their spokeperson and says that she misrepresented herself to the media.]
Forde's family has told reporters that she had recently decided to focus on recruiting Aryan Nations members into the Minutemen and that she hoped to spark a revolution against the Federal government. She told others that Bush was a veteran who had served overseas and she referred to him as "gunny". Forde's brother told reporters that Forde "sat right here on my couch and told me that she was going to start an underground militia. This militia was going to start robbing drug-cartel dealers — rob them and steal their money or drugs".
These killings are just the latest in an upsurge of anti-immigrant violence.
Forde's increased radicalism after the Obama election, her linking the anti-immigrant and white nationalist movements, and her goal of recruiting veterans to her terror cell clearly fit within the warning issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
Here is picture of Brisenia Flores, a little girl who will never see her eleventh birthday.
http://www.longislandwins.com/blog/in_the_news/minuteman_murders_the_glen_spe.php
More Links to the Minuteman Murders
Since the police first revealed the Minuteman connection to the murders of ten year Brisenia Flores and her father Raul, Long Island Wins has provided intensive coverage of this story. Here is an index of the most important articles we've posted:
The Crime
The shocking murder of a little girl and her father focused our attention on recent Minuteman activities in Arizona.
Minuteman Murderer Confesses!
The 911 call by a mother who had just seen her husband and child murdered.
Excerpts from the police reports on the murder investigation.
Anti-Immigrant Groups Deny Ties To Shawna Forde, The Mastermind Of The Murders
Although Forde was a part of Minuteman from its early years, anti-immigrant groups around the country immediately branded her an insignificant figure, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.
More on Shawna Forde's extensive connections with anti-immigrant groups.
While the Minutemen depict her as a minor figure, their own web site described Shawna Forde as a person in the leadership.
Shawna Forde had close ties to Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minutemen. Is Gilchrist an important figure in that movement?
This article looks at Gilchrist's communications with Forde after the killings.
Inside The Mind Of Shawna Forde
Video interview with Shawna Forde on "patrol" along the border.
Shawna Forde's blog from the Tea Party a month before the killings.
And here is an article the main Minuteman Project website published from Shawna Forde.
Here are first person reports of the Minuteman rally in Everett Washington organized by Shawna Forde at which Jim Gilchrist was the keynote speaker.
Did Shawna Forde shoot herself to gain sympathy for her cause.
Did Shawna Forde fake her "rape"?
The Glenn Spencer Connection
Glenn Spencer, one of the founders of the "border protection movement" and the man who inspired Suffolk's anti-immigrant movement had ties to Shawna Forde. She was arrested nearly two weeks after the killings immediately after visiting him.
Glenn Spencer speaks out on the Minuteman murders.
The Minutemen Speak
The weird response of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps to the media coverage of the murders.
The Civil War in the Anti-Immigrant Movement
The fallout from the killings has led to a brutal civil war among anti-immigrant groups, with vicious charges being traded by erstwhile allies.
Glenn Spencer's aide takes on the leader of ALIPAC.
Are Minutemen beginning to threaten each other's lives?
Anti-immigrant leader worries there may be more Shawna Fordes in "movement".
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy And The Minutemen
Steve Levy's endorsement in 2006 by the founder of the Minutemen.
Steve Levy and the Suffolk Minutemen.
Border Storm-Our new three-part series on the history of the Minutemen
Part-1 How the Minutemen became the heroes of the Right.
Part 2-The Minutemen Splinter Amid Charges of Racism and Theft
Part 3 The Minutemen: Dissolution and Death
Other Articles
The New York Times covers the Minuteman murders.
Boston Globe editorialized against the "climate of vigilantism" created by the Minutemen.
Anti-immigrant leader worries that there are more Shawna Fordes.
Minutemen are both bumbling and dangerous.
Round-up of new information on the murders 7/12/09
Did Jason Bush kill Washington State teen?
Jason Bush, the Minuteman gunman, has been charged in two other white power killings.
A lot of people are visiting this post. Please contact your local news outlets and ask them why they are not covering this story.
By Pat Young June 16, 2009 06:07 PM