US Coast Guardsman jailed over Ku Klux Klan fliers

Reuters/December 19, 2006

Boston -- A U.S. Coast Guardsman was sentenced on Tuesday to a year in military prison for posting recruitment fliers for the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group, illegally storing explosives and other charges.

Petty Officer Chad Blair, 26, pleaded guilty at a court martial in Boston to posting the fliers last March and April at the Cape Cod Mall and at the Barnstable Municipal Airport, about 67 miles southeast of Boston.

Capt. Brian Judge, the presiding military judge, also expelled Blair from the Coast Guard on a bad conduct discharge, Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer Scott Carr said.

At a court martial on Monday, Blair admitted to storing seven unregistered weapons, explosive powder, grenade parts and fuses in military housing at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, a summer tourist destination known for its beaches.

Carr said Blair admitted to surfing a hate Web site while on duty and said he had contacted the California-based grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, a loose federation of U.S. groups whose members have included white supremacists.

He also pleaded guilty to charges of drunken and disorderly conduct, drinking on duty, making false official statements and mailing seven guns to his father's home in Louisiana after telling investigators he did not have any weapons, Carr said.

Investigators also seized several bomb-making books from his home, including "The Anarchist Cookbook", which contains recipes and instructions for making explosives, Carr said.