Posted on 11/16/2001 5:34:04 PM PST by gumbo
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Waagner suspected of mail crimes
But officials aren't saying what those suspected crimes are. Specifically, they are not saying whether they are trying to link Waagner to anthrax threats mailed last week to 200 abortion clinics, including at least three in western Pennsylvania. The letters, signed by the "Army of God, Virginia Dare Cell", arrived in Federal Express packages that contained a powder. It was the second such mailing in two months. Waagner's name has been linked to the "Army of God" term in the past. Following his escape from federal prison in June, a letter purportedly written by him appeared on Virginia minister Donald Spitz's "Army of God" Web site. The writer threatened to kill those who worked for abortion providers. In a message left at The Derrick late Wednesday, John Wisniewski of the U.S. Postal Inspections Service in Pittsburgh confirmed the agency is investigating Waagner for committing crimes through the mail. But he declined to comment on what those crimes might be, citing the ongoing investigation. "Because he is only a suspect at this point and no charges have been filed yet, I really can't divulge any additional details of our investigation. But we are actively involved in locating Mr. Waagner and apprehending him," he said. Wisniewski's comments came hours after about a dozen U.S. Postal inspectors, U.S. marshals, FBI agents and state police on Wednesday searched Waagner's former home in a wooded area along Route 308 north of Clintonville. On Thursday, U.S. Marshal Frank Policaro of Pittsburgh confirmed that investigators removed items from the Waagner home. He declined to specify what was removed from the home, saying he had not reviewed it yet. Waagner's wife and children reside in the home, and some family members were home at the time of the search, FBI Special Agent Bob Rudge said Wednesday. But the family was not the target of Wednesday's search. There is no indication the family has been harboring Waagner, Policaro said. What authorities sought and what evidence led them to focus on the home would likely be contained in the application for a search warrant filed in federal court. However, the court often seals warrants in cases such as Waagner's. Attempts by the newspaper to locate a search warrant in area federal courts were not successful. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Brysh of the U.S. Attorney's office in Pittsburgh declined to comment on whether that office obtained a search warrant for the case. "I can't really comment on any ongoing investigative effort. I can say that such warrants and affidavits are (typically) placed under seal," he said. Repeated calls to the U.S. Attorney's office in Erie were not returned. Policaro said the Waagner investigation has been "quiet" since September when the fugitive briefly surfaced in Tennessee. Investigators hoped to generate new leads by going back to Waagner's home base, he said. "This is nothing new for somebody on the top 15 Most Wanted to periodically search a home in hopes of finding leads to the whereabouts of the wanted person," he said. Both he and Rudge said authorities have no information leading them to believe Waagner is in this area. Ranked among the FBI's 10 Most Wanted with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and abortion clinic bomber Eric Roberts, Waagner faces a host of charges ranging from escape to robbery to weapons violations in several states. The U.S. Marshals Service has been leading the search for Waagner, but he is also wanted by the FBI in connection with a Harrisburg bank robbery and other offenses and on warrants for burglary and other charges filed by state police in Venango County. Although listed on both the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service's most wanted lists and repeatedly profiled on the television show America's Most Wanted, Waagner has eluded capture since his escape from federal prison in February. He last surfaced in September after he allegedly abandoned a wrecked car containing a pipe bomb and anti-abortion literature on the side of a Memphis, Tenn., freeway, then hijacked a van in an area 40 miles away. Waagner's years-long alleged crime spree began here in 1999 with the theft of a GMC Yukon from A. Crivelli Chevrolet in Reno. Though his accomplice, former Kennerdell resident Jason M. Miller, was captured after a robbery, Waagner escaped and stayed on the run for four months during which time he said he committed robberies and stole weapons and vehicles while stalking abortion clinics. He was captured in September 1999 on the side of an Illinois highway when a stolen Winnebago carrying him, his wife and their eight children broke down. At trial in December 2000 in Urbana, Ill., on weapons and theft charges, Waagner testified he had been watching abortion clinics for months and was stocking up on weapons to kill doctors who provided abortions because God had asked him to be his warrior. He has not, however, taken any direct action against them. Two months later he used a comb to open a door and escape through the ventilation system in a new DeWitt County, Ill., jail. Authorities believe he timed his escape so he could leap onto a passing train and avoid detection. Since then Waagner has been indicted for robbing a Harrisburg bank in May and on Wednesday Rudge indicated Waagner is likely to be indicted for a bank robbery in August at the Erie Millcreek Mall. A reward of more than $75,000 is being offered for information leading to Waagner's arrest. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts should call the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation or their local law enforcement.
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Doubt he even had anything to do with the (non-anthrax-containing) letters sent to Planned Parenthood. That sounded like a somewhat sophisticated operation, and from this article's description of Waagner, not something he'd be capable of.
Just posted this because I knew at least a few FReepers were interested in the PP letters and theories on who sent them. (My guess: some PP insider did it).
At trial in December 2000 in Urbana, Ill., on weapons and theft charges, Waagner testified he had been watching abortion clinics for months and was stocking up on weapons to kill doctors who provided abortions because God had asked him to be his warrior. He has not, however, taken any direct action against them.
And should I take this to mean the author knows he has not?
It's a small town newspaper. I've seen equally bad writing in the NY Times, though.
By Frederick Clarkson
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/06/27/waagner/print.html
June 27, 2001 | As a romantic outlaw, fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner is no John Dillinger. But if he and his friends in the Army of God are successful, the 44-year-old career criminal could become a folk hero, even a martyr, to the violent antiabortion movement.
Waagner, who escaped from the DeWitt County Jail in Clinton, Ill., in February and has eluded capture since, says he's been driving across the country stalking abortion clinics, assembling a cache of weapons and compiling dossiers on clinic staff in order "to kill as many of them as I can." Clayton made his threats on the "Clayton Waagner Message Board," hosted by the antiabortion Army of God. "Pray," he asks his supporters, "that every one I kill causes a hundred to quit."
Waagner's threat has galvanized abortion providers, clinic defenders and law enforcement officials into a state of high alert, while Army of God leaders are cheering Waagner on and calling on pro-lifers to give him shelter. "Go Waagner, go!" cheered Army of God "chaplain" Rev. Michael Bray on the message board (which has now been shut down without explanation). Bray hails the fugitive as a "fellow who goes for the gusto," and urges antiabortion activists to help Waagner continue "giving the slip to federal agents" by hiding him in their homes.
"If someone doesn't catch him soon, he's going to kill someone," says an alarmed Ann Glazier, director of clinic security for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "He meets all the criteria," she continued. "He has weapons; he has money; he is clear about what he wants to do; and he has a means of getting from one location to another."
"It's a tough case," says senior inspector Geoff Shank of the U.S. Marshals Service, the division of the Justice Department responsible for, among other things, keeping track of federal prisoners. "We arrest people all over the world," Shank observed, "so there is nowhere he can hide. Waagner is a convicted felon who has escaped from prison. And we will pursue him till we get him, no matter how long it takes. Pro-life or pro-choice has nothing to do with it."
Waagner is currently on the U.S. Marshals' Most Wanted List.
At the time of his escape, Waagner, of Kennerdell, Pa., was awaiting sentencing -- 15 years to life -- after his conviction on federal weapons and stolen vehicle charges. Since then, the crafty criminal has repeatedly slipped though the police dragnet, leading cops on a chase while stealing cars and robbing at least one bank. He has apparently recruited accomplices, including an unidentified man who drove the getaway car for the bank stickup last week outside Harrisburg, Pa.
"Thanks to some very generous bank financing" -- an apparent reference to the Harrisburg heist (and, the FBI believes, possibly others), Waagner says he is ensconced in a "very secure safe house" and has assembled "the tools I would need to wage war."
Waagner is far from a populist antihero, merrily thumbing his nose at the cops. His beliefs and plans are more comparable to those of the grimly methodical Timothy McVeigh, the Aryan Republican Army and other violent far-right revolutionaries of the past decade, including, of course, the Army of God, a shadowy, loosely affiliated band of antiabortion terrorists who've taken responsibility for assorted clinic violence. Waagner envisions himself pitted against "the most powerful country in the world" -- a country that views him as a terrorist.
"They're right," he declares. "I am a terrorist. And that's the reason I'm posting this letter."
Waagner likes to taunt the feds. In his message, he describes how he fled unseen across open fields in the winter, "dressed as a pumpkin" -- an apparent reference to his prison-issue orange jumpsuit. He also ridicules the marshals' national manhunt. "Where is all this manpower going? he wonders. "Sure they're watching my house. I've driven by there." But Waagner claims "they haven't been watching the clinics very close. I know this because [I've] been watching them close and I saw no U.S. marshals, nor did any see me."
"It doesn't bother me," senior inspector Shank says of the taunts. "You get this stuff all the time."
The only confirmed Waagner sighting since his escape was at a Tennessee truck stop. But staffers at several abortion clinics, including one in Harrisburg, believe they have seen him. Shank, while not out ruling out the possibility, says that there are no confirmed sightings of Waagner at clinics. But at his trial last year, Waagner testified that he had stalked over 100 clinics in 19 states.
This Waagner doesn't sound like the type who would sit down at a desk and meticulously type professional looking envelopes to dozens of abortion clinics -- does he?
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