COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- The wave of bombs that rocked Idaho in September 1986 were meant to 'terrorize' residents who opposed the white supremacist Aryan Nations movement, federal informant Robert Pires testified Wednesday.
Pires, 23, serving a 10-year prison term for his part in Aryan-inspired murder, bombings and attempted bank robbery, testified in preliminary hearings for two fellow white supremacists accused of the bombings.
Prosecutors claimed the trio formed a self-styled 'Strike Force, the Order II' which bombed three buildings, including a federal building and a Catholic rectory.
'The use of the bombs would be to terrorize people in Coeur d'Alene,' Pires said, who detailed the scheme he claimed was masterminded by defendant David Ross Dorr, 34, of Athol, Idaho.
Ed Hawley, 22, of Athol, is charged with setting bombs in four Coeur d'Alene buildings and exploding three of them. Dorr is charged with aiding and abetting on all four counts.
Hawley and Dorr are serving time on federal counterfeiting convictions, while Pires pleaded guilty to the bombing charges in February. Pires agreed as part of a plea bargain to testify against Dorr and Hawley.
Pires said the men also planned to use the bombings diversions to rob banks and break into a National Guard Armory. The guns and money would be used to finance 'the cause' of a white supremacist revolution, Pires said.
Dorr believed the blasts would force Coeur d'Alene residents to leave the area, lower property values and make it easier for white supremacist families to move into the area, Pires said.
No one was injured in the Sept. 29, 1986, blasts and Pires said the men did not carry out the robberies because there were too many police and witnesses near the targets.
Earlier that month, Pires and Hawley bombed the home of the Rev. Bill Wassmuth, chairman of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, Pires said.
The Aryan Nations spawned several violent splinter groups in the past five years, including The Order. Nearly a dozen members of that group were convicted in federal court in Seattle of racketeering charges in connection with murder and nearly $4 million in bank and armored car robberies.
Pires said he decided to turn himself in and inform on the others when the group talked of more violent crimes and executions.
Dorr had compiled a 'hit list' that marked federal judges, FBI agents, community leaders and Aryan Nations Church founder Richard Butler for assasination, Pires said.
Butler was not considered militant enough, he said.
'It was going downhill fast,' Pires said. 'Ed was getting more uncontrollable. Mr. Dorr had plans for bombs that would have killed people and leveled buildings.'
The hearings will determine if there evidence for the two men to be bound over to 1st District Court to stand trial.
