INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS
Training for the race
war: Robert Doyle,
Ronald Chaney and
Charles Halderman III
are accused of plotting attacks on black
churches and Jewish
synagogues.
6 splc intelligence report
[ D OM EST IC T ER RO R IS M ]
Principals in Race
War Plot Said to
Practice Neo-Pagan
Asatru Religion
Law enforcement officials in
November arrested five suspects
in connection with an ongoing
investigation of a group of white
supremacists in Virginia alleged
to be plotting to bomb and shoot
black churches and Jewish synagogues, with the aim of igniting a
race war. At least two of the conspirators were alleged adherents
of a racist version of a neo-Pagan
theology that has captured the
imagination of hundreds, and possibly thousands, of prison inmates.
In simultaneous raids, FBI
agents arrested Robert C. Doyle,
34, Ronald Beasley Chaney III, 33,
and Charles D. Halderman, 30, in
connection with the race war plot.
Henrico County law enforcement
officials arrested Chaney’s father,
Ronald Beasley Chaney Jr., 58, and
his wife, Terry Gun Chaney, 52, on
state firearms and drug charges.
Those arrested faced a potpourri of state and federal charges.
Doyle and Chaney III, who allegedly both met with undercover
agents posing as illegal arms dealers and discussed their plan to rob
and kill a local silver and jewelry
dealer, rob an armored car, and
use the proceeds to purchase an
arsenal and train for the coming
race war, were charged with conspiracy to possess firearms after
having been convicted of felonies.
Halderman, who has 17 previous felony convictions and a history of associating with the Aryan
Brotherhood, a Nazi-themed
prison gang, was charged with
conspiracy to commit robbery.
All three were ordered held
without bond.
Chaney’s parents did not face
federal charges and were not identified as co-conspirators in the
race war plot, but were held on
firearms and drug charges.
The FBI investigation began in
September, when agents received
information that Doyle and a
group of fellow travelers were
going to meet at his Chesterfield,
Va., home “to discuss acting out
in furtherance of their extremist
beliefs by shooting or bombing
the occupants of black churches
and Jewish synagogues.” Doyle
and Chaney III ordered firearms
from an undercover agent on
Oct. 25, and Chaney was arrested
Nov. 8, immediately after handing over cash for the purchase.
Doyle, Halderman and the elder
Chaneys were arrested later at
other locations.
According to federal officials,
Doyle and Chaney III adhere to
Asatru, an offshoot of the racist
Odinist religion that emphasizes
the magical elements of preChristian European polytheism,
RIVERSIDE REG