A white supremacist leader was arrested in Columbia, S.C. on February 19 for child molestation.
August Kreis III, 59, is charged with criminal sexual conduct of the second degree, according to The State, for alleged abuse of a female relative under 12 years of age. The former leader of Aryan Nation also showed her pornography, Richland County police state.
The girl’s mother filed report of incidents occurring in October 2013 with local police on February 3, leading to yesterday’s arrest.
His history of racist and anti-Semitic actions is long. Kreis began affiliation with various white supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, Christian Identity, and Posse Comitatus, beginning in high school, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports. He became leader of Aryan Nations in 2001, but resigned in 2012 while in prison for filing fraudulent benefits claims with the Veterans Administration.
Wednesday’s arrest is not the first time Kreis faces such claims. In 1997 his oldest daughter and now ex-wife alleged he abused their children physically and sexually, filing for protective orders in a Pennsylvania court.
Kreis was also arrested in 1991 for disorderly conduct at a Ku Klux Klan march in Pennsylvania. In 1998, two senior citizen neighbors told police he threatened them for their open support of an anti-racism group.
While Aryan Nations? leader in 2005, Kreis was investigated by the FBI for making public requests that the organization seek affiliation with al-Qaeda, and based on their shared hatred for blacks and Jews.
“You say they’re terrorists, I say they’re freedom fighters. And I want to instill the same jihadic feeling in our peoples’ heart, in the Aryan race, that they have for their father, who they call Allah. [?] I don’t believe that they were the ones that attacked us (on Sept. 11, 2001). And even if they did, even if you say they did, I don’t care!”
The FBI found no direct relation or contact between the two groups, however.
Kreis remains in custody at Lexington County’s Glenn Detention Center, where he’ll wait for a March 17 court date.
Local police say they’re also investigating other charges against Kreis.
Edited/Published by: WG
