APut 05/04 0455 Informant-Aryans SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- An FBI informant who was assigned

APut 05/04 0455 Informant-Aryans


   SPOKANE,  Wash.  (AP)  -- An FBI informant who was assigned to
infiltrate the white supremacist  Aryan  Nations  had  his  cover
blown  when  a  former Spokane police detective identified him to
Aryan leaders, a newspaper reported.

   The informant, identified only  as  a  disabled  ex-policeman,
told  The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle that he couldn't
comment further on whether former Spokane  police  detective  Dan
Newlun  had connections with the Aryans, pending discussions with
the FBI.

   The FBI has refused to comment.

   Newlun resigned from the force last June, saying he had become
addicted to cocaine in the course of undercover work.   He  later
filed a $2 million suit against the city.  The suit is pending.

   The  newspapers reported in their combined Sunday edition that
the  FBI  is  investigating  whether  the  Aryan  Nations  had  a
sympathizer  within  the Spokane police department and had access
to confidential intelligence information about the cult.

	The informant had his "cover burned" after Newlun and a  woman
companion  visited  the  Aryan  Nations  compound north of Hayden
Lake,  Idaho,  last  summer,  the  newspaper  reported,   quoting
unidentified law enforcement officials and other sources.

   Newlun  and  the  informant  previously  had  worked  on  drug
investigations for the department.

   The informant had visited the Aryan Nations compound for  more
than two  years.    He  was  designated  "official  Aryan Nations
photographer" and took photographs and video  tapes  during  last
summer's Aryan World Congress.

   His  FBI  affiliation  was  disclosed  after  that  gathering,
possibly during a Washington State Patrol criminal  investigation
into Newlun's cocaine addiction.

   The  informant  said  he  had talked to the State Patrol about
Newlun.

   Newlun, 36, is working out of town as a laborer  and  couldn't
be reached  for  comment.    His  wife,  Sally, said Saturday she
didn't know her husband had visited the Aryan compound.

   The 23-year-old woman who  accompanied  Newlun  to  the  Aryan
compound  said  she  and  Newlun  made the trip because they were
worried  about  the  well-being  of  the  informant,  the   paper
reported.  She was not identified.

   Retired  Spokane  detective  Tom Scott, who worked with Newlun
and knows the informant, said the informant "has  a  questionable
reputation."

   Scott  said  he  had  been  told  that  Newlun  had burned the
informant.

   "They had some kind of falling out," Scott  said,  speculating
it  might  have been over a statement the informant gave to State
Patrol detectives who investigated Newlun.

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