had recorded last night’s phone call from Vasin Boonchanta, a Thai friend from the University of Texas days. He replayed the tape.
Darren, given your new position with the U.S. government, I thought you might want to know about a strange group of guys who took over the Chaing Mai Sports Club back in early January.”
“Of course. Where’s the Sports Club?”
“The club is in an isolated valley about seven kilometers from the city of Chaing Mai.”
“Does your family still have the computer store up there?”
“Yes. In Chaing Mai. And it’s making good money.”
“Great. Send me some!” Both laughed. “I assume you went to the Sports Club to play golf. Correct?”
“Right as usual. They wouldn’t let us play. In fact, we had a difficult time getting in to see the manager, who’s a friend of my dad.”
“Wow, they really had it shut down. Your country’s overrun with tourists, so what’s the big deal?”
“This group stood out from all the others. They had men from Mideast countries, Australia, United States, Canada, England, Germany, Russia and even Japan. The hotel staff figured another sex tour had taken over the hotel. But they never even asked about women. They never went out. Just stayed in the hotel the entire week.”
“Maybe they tried to work out some business deals. Did they represent one company?
“No. Not at all. According to the hotel staff, they acted very secretive, but no company connection existed as far as any staff member I talked to could find. Some identified their nationality to staff and taxi drivers through brief conversations that always turned to politics. They made critical remarks about our king to staff members. They said the Thai should rise up and take control of their own lives. The Thai were unnerved by this rudeness.”
“Yeah,” Darren said. “That didn’t show good taste. But that’s not unusual for Americans or Europeans, is it?”
“Let me finish.”
“Sorry.”
“We’re used to tourists asking about shopping, local foods, and similar subjects. And, as you know, big men’s groups are generally tours. These guys didn’t care about that stuff.”
“Okay.”
“Not only did they seem preoccupied with government, but rarely strayed from their private conference rooms. Staff left food on serving carts in the hall adjacent to the elevator. The staff had never encountered anything as crazy as that.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet that got their attention. What happened when they went to clean the dishes off the tables?”
“They couldn’t,” Vasin said laughingly. “Someone would call from the conference hall and inform the kitchen staff that the dirty dishes and remaining food could be picked up.”
Uhmmm,” groaned Darren as he wandered where all this would lead.
“Big guys guarded the outside doors to the conference and dining rooms, according to one of the Thai waiters I talked with. They said some of these guys searched all the rooms two or three times a day using hand-held devices.”
“Well, makes sense to me,” Darren said.
“But some of the other bellhops chimed in and said that other conferees said they didn’t have any products and didn’t come on any kind of company business. There was one American man registered as Reverend John Chudders from Fort Davis, Texas.”
“I’d say you just got my undivided attention!” Darren said.” Go on.”
“The staff said that all the men seemed odd.”
“And what does that mean?”
“They had never seen people dress so funny. They’re used to the Arab abas. Many had shaved heads, tattoos and layers of gold earrings and necklaces. All dressed shabbily, even the older guys.
“That’s terrible. I’m afraid shabby dress has become an American tradition.”
Vasin continued, “One of the bellhops met several of the bald, tattooed young men in the lobby when they checked out. He asked them if they planned to be Buddhist monks. The young guys smirked and skulked off.”
“The group certainly does sound strange. What do you think they were doing?”
“Oh, I think they’re bad guys. The manager of the club told us they acted like thugs.”
“And how did he define a thug?”
“As a terrorist. His fear prevented him from saying too much, but he did finally whisper to my dad that they talked about getting millions of U.S. dollars worth of guns.”
“And John Chudders attended!” Darren said aloud.
Darren couldn’t sleep after Vasin’s call. The more he thought about the meeting, the more it seemed that the patriots were, in fact, setting up a support network among the world’s politically disgruntled. In his seventies, John Chudders had become a key spokesman for America’s Christian identity movement, a loose-knit organization of right-wing extremist groups. Darren wanted to know who else attended that meeting. At 11:00 p.m. he grabbed the phone and called a friend in U.S. Immigration Services.
“Bob? Darren Hopkins here. Sorry to bother you so late. I need help. Can you go into your database and find some folks traveling to Thailand back in January? Probably left around January third.”
“Sure. How soon do you need it?”
“Well, can you get me something by eight in the morning?”
“I assume this is really important.”
“I promise you it is,” Darren said.
“Okay. But you owe me big time.”
“Okay. Anytime. Send me the info by email.” Darren gave him Chudder’s name and a list of another twenty-five key patriots that came off the top of his head. The FBI had aerial photos of Chudders’ community, hidden away and heavily fortified in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Some photos showed armaments being unloaded over many months. And Darren’s reporter friend in Austin hinted that Chudders’ group derailed Amtrak’s Sunset Limited in the early morning of October 9, 1995. The wreck claimed the life of one Amtrak employee and injured hundreds of passengers. The reporter refused to share his source.
The FBI also had photos, phone messages and other evidence showing religious zealots traveling between Chudders’ Davis Mountain enclave and other extremists’ encampments, such as the Aryan Nation’s hide-away in Idaho and groups in Washington, Montana, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona, to name a few of the most infamous.
The skinheads probably came from Germany, he mused. Darren had a New York Times article from April, 1995, in which a former German neo-Nazi leader with strong skinhead affiliations, stated that their racist propaganda and military training manuals came from right-wing groups in the United States.
A
