Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 15 March 2018

Alleged leader of bombing

could be threatening figure

By MICHAEL TARM
AMY FORLITI
TERESA CRAWFORD
Associated Press
CLARENCE, Ill. (AP) — A former sheriff's deputy and
purported ringleader in the bombing of a Minnesota
mosque emerges in court documents as a sometimes-
threatening figure with anti-government views who
also wrote books and attracted others into his shadowy
group.
Michael Hari, 47, allegedly intended for the attack to
scare Muslims into leaving the U.S. He and two associ-
ates were charged Tuesday with traveling from rural
Clarence, Illinois, about 120 miles south of Chicago, to
carry out the Aug. 5 pipe-bomb assault on the Dar Al-
Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota.
The explosion caused a damaging fire just as morning
This 2011 photo shows the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in West Feliciana Parish, La. A prayers were about to begin, but no one was hurt.
transgender woman who tried to visit her incarcerated brother claims Louisiana prison officers Even before his arrest, the self-described entrepreneur
at the facility ordered her to remove her underwear and told her she would have to reveal her and watermelon farmer had a background that in-
genitalia before she could leave. cluded working in law enforcement, floating ideas for
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) a border wall with Mexico, fleeing with his daughters to
Lawsuit: Central America during a custody dispute and suing
the federal government for allegedly cutting in on his
Prison ordered transgender visitor to strip food-safety business.
Court papers say Hari promised his accomplices $18,000
for their participation in the mosque attack. But the
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN tions spokesman Ken Pas- the same as any man who complaints in the case do not portray him as well off,
Associated Press torick said the department is screened for a prison visit. citing an informant who said Hari frequently stayed at
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — doesn't comment on pend- “Surely, the (prison) is not his parents' home because he had no running water or
A transgender woman who ing litigation. strip-searching every man electricity.
tried to visit her incarcerat- The suit seeks unspecified who goes through the ma- Hari describes some of his political views in a federal
ed brother claims Louisiana punitive damages and chine,” he added. lawsuit he filed last month against the Department of
prison officers ordered her compensation for Nelson's Dylan Waguespack, board Agriculture in which he complains it was cutting in on his
to remove her underwear "emotional distress." It also president of Louisiana Trans food-safety certification business, Equicert.
and told her she would asks the court for an order Advocates, said mistreat- "The People of the United States have rejected the
have to reveal her genita- barring prison officials from ment of transgender in- Marxist doctrine that the government shall own the
lia before she could leave engaging in similar discrimi- mates is a pervasive prob- means of production," he wrote.
the facility. natory conduct. lem in the state’s prisons Under the screen name "Illinois Patriot," Hari posted 19
China Nelson, a 48-year- Nelson's suit says guards and jails. Transgender pris- videos to YouTube in the past two months, most of them
old New Orleans resident, stopped her from enter- oners are often “housed anti-government monologues delivered in a smooth,
said in a lawsuit filed Tues- ing the maximum-security incorrectly,” subjected to matter-of-fact voice. He wears a balaclava that ob-
day that officers at Louisi- prison last September after dehumanizing conditions scures all but his eyes.
ana State Penitentiary at a body screening machine and aren’t adequately In a March 11 video titled "A Cry for Liberty," Hari criticiz-
Angola insisted on search- detected an "unknown ob- protected from violence es the Justice Department as "a political animal," and
ing her vehicle after she re- ject" in her pants. from other inmates, he said. calls the government "completely illegitimate."
fused to take off her pants "When an unknown guard “That’s a big concern of He spoke to the Chicago Tribune last year for a story on
and underwear. stated that she saw 'some- ours,” Waguespack said. “It Illinois residents seeking contracts to help build the bor-
Nelson, who sued under her thing' in Ms. Nelson's pants, is a widespread problem.” der wall with Mexico championed by President Donald
given name Donald, filed Ms. Nelson acknowledged After two guards escorted Trump. Hari said he had drafted a $10 billion construc-
the federal suit against the that she was born a male her to a men’s restroom tion plan.
state Department of Public as indicated on her driver's and instructed her to re- In addition to Hari, authorities charged Joe Morris, 22,
Safety and Corrections. It license in an effort to ex- move her pants and un- and Michael McWhorter, 29. All three men live in Clar-
accuses several unnamed plain the 'something' the derwear, she refused and ence, a community with a population of just a few doz-
prison guards of violating guard stated she saw," the said she would forego the en people encircled by farm fields. During a reporter's
her Fourth Amendment suit says. visit and wait in her vehi- visit on Wednesday, at least four homes displayed Con-
rights against unreason- One of Nelson’s attorneys, cle while her mother and federate flags — one flying high atop a flagpole in a
able searches and seizures. Galen Hair, said his client a brother visited her other front yard.q
Department of Correc- should have been treated brother, the suit says.q