1 02-16-88 12:11 acs editors: jury selection begins at 10 a.m. est Security tight for tria

   1 02-16-88 12:11 acs

   editors:  jury  selection begins at 10 a.m. est Security tight
for trial of white supremacists

   FORT SMITH, Ark.  (UPI)  _  The  government  launched  another
offensive  in  its  war  against  the white supremacist movement,
placing 14 men on trial on charges of  seditious  conspiracy  and
plotting to assassinate federal officials.

   Tight  security  was  in  place  for  the opening of the trial
today, which marked the first time  sedition  charges  have  been
used against members of extreme right-wing groups.

   The men are charged in a 1983 plot to overthrow the government
and   establish   a   white  nation  in  the  Pacific  Northwest.
Prosecutors say the conspiracy was financed through robberies and
counterfeiting and was to be carried out by bombings, destruction
of utilities, pollution of public water supplies and killings  of
federal officials and minorities.

   Ten  defendants  are  charged  with  scheming to overthrow the
federal government.  One of those men and four others are charged
with plotting  to  assassinate  federal  officials  including  H.
Franklin  Waters, chief federal judge for the Western District of
Arkansas, and Jack Knox, an FBI agent in Little Rock, Ark.    The
charge carries a maximum sentence of up to life in prison.

   The  defendants  contend  federal  officials  are conducting a
witch hunt and trying to abridge their constitutional freedoms of
speech and religion.

   Security for the trial, which could last up to  three  months,
is  unprecedented  for  Fort  Smith,  a  city  of  74,000  on the
Arkansas-Oklahoma border.  A security fence  has  been  installed
behind  the  courthouse  and  cameras  and metal detectors placed
inside.

   Those charged  with  seditious  conspiracy  include  the  Rev.
Richard G. Butler, 69, a Bennett, Colo., native and leader of the
Aryan  Nations Church at Hayden Lake, Idaho; Robert E. Miles, 63,
a Bridgeport, Conn., native, and leader of the Mountain Church of
Jesus Christ the Savior at Cohoctah, Mich., who is a former grand
dragon of the Michigan Ku Klux Klan and is said to be the  No.  2
man  of  the  Aryan  Nations Church; and Louis R. Beam Jr., 41, a
Lufkin, Texas, native arrested last year after  a  shootout  near
Guadalajara, Mexico.   Beam is a former grand dragon of the Texas
Klan.

   Others facing sedition charges include David E.  Lane,  49,  a
Woden,  Iowa,  native  and  Denver  resident, affiliated with the
Klan, the Aryan Nations Church and The  Order;  Ardie  McBrearty,
60,  a  California  native and Gentry, Ark., resident, affiliated
with the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm  of  the  Lord  and  The
Order  as  intelligence chief and legal adviser; Bruce C. Pierce,
33, a Kentucky native and  former  resident  of  Metaline  Falls,
Wash.,  affiliated  with  the Aryan Nations Church and The Order;
Richard J. Scutari, 40, a New York native and security chief  for
The Order.

   Lane and Pierce were convicted of civil rights violations last
year  and  sentenced to 150-year prison terms in the 1984 slaying
of Jewish radio talk show host Alan Berg,  who  was  gunned  down
outside his Denver home.  Scutari was acquitted of the charges in
the same trial.

   The Fort Smith indictment was unsealed the same day the Denver
indictments were returned in the Berg case.

   After   Butler   surrendered  to  FBI  agents  that  day,  his
assistant, Richard Masker,  called  the  indictments  "a  Marxist
media extravaganza  staged  at  the  taxpayers'  expense.   It is
nothing more  than  a  head-hunting  expedition  in  true  Jewish
fashion."

   Beam  was  on  the FBI's list of most wanted fugitives when he
was arrested in Mexico in November.  At a hearing at  which  bond
was  denied,  Beam  was  questioned about his writings urging the
assassinations of  international  figures.    Justice  Department
attorney Markton Carlson asked Beam, "Who would you kill?"

   "International  bankers,  international  politicians  of  some
weight, that kind of thing.  Most of them white _ just like  you.
My duty is to absolutely oppose them and remove them from being a
threat," Beam answered.

   "You would commit murder for those reasons?"  Carlson said.

   "Murder?  It's not called murder when you kill an enemy," Beam
said.