OGDEN — Ogden police revealed Wednesday they foiled a plot by white supremacists to attack Jewish athletes during the 2002 Winter Games.
Just days before the Olympics began Feb. 8, investigators in both Salt Lake City and Ogden were looking for two men who were allegedly making pipe bombs intended for "Jewish-related venues" and athletes, said Ogden Police Lt. Loring Draper with the Ogden Weber Gang Unit.
In January, an informant told the gang unit that members of a white supremacist group were making pipe bombs to be used on the Jewish contingency at the Olympics, Draper said. Investigators felt the source was credible and started keeping surveillance on those allegedly involved.
Lending further credence to the rumor, gang detectives in Salt Lake City had developed similar information that pipe bombs were going to be delivered from Ogden and stored at a house in Salt Lake, Draper said.
"We were pretty convinced it was a valid threat," he said.
Investigators said it was unclear whether the alleged plot was specifically targeted against the Israeli Olympic team, which had fewer than 10 members, or all Jewish athletes.
The people being watched by detectives were on parole, but investigators did not have solid evidence against them to put them back in prison. Even though detectives were sure a plan was in the works, they did not have any physical evidence. In fact, investigators have never found any of the alleged pipe bombs.
"We had nothing on them," Draper said.
The big break for police came less than a week before the opening ceremonies when investigators found a man who allegedly had been severely beaten recently by the men under surveillance. With that information, officers were able to arrest a man for parole violation just a few days before the Olympics and the other man two days after the Olympics began, Draper said.
The FBI's Olympic Joint Terrorism Task Force was aware of the alleged plot, said supervisory special agent Kevin Eaton. But despite a thorough investigation, "We could never corroborate the fact that pipe bombs existed or that a plot was in place," he said.
Agents even went to a place in Davis County where the pipe bombs were allegedly being stored and found nothing, Eaton said.
The men being watched were capable of making pipe bombs and known to be violent, Eaton said. But there was never any evidence to suggest any pipe bombs were actually made, he said.
Members of the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command and the Salt Lake Olympic Committee were also alerted to the alleged plot, Draper said.
An official with the International Olympic Committee could not say if the IOC was aware of the alleged plot but stressed the extreme measures taken to ensure athletes' safety, especially after the attacks of Sept. 11.
"The security at the Olympic Games has been priority No. 1 of the IOC," the official told the Deseret News. "All the measures were taken to ensure the security of all athletes, with no distinction."
Officials from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee referred inquiries about the alleged plot to public safety officials and stressed that security measures were taken to protect Olympic athletes both inside and outside the Olympic Village at the University of Utah.
"We would not have been aware of a threat of that specific of a nature," SLOC spokeswoman Caroline Shaw said. "There were security measures for the athletes at all times, but I'm not going to disclose what they were."
Even though charges for the alleged pipe bomb scheme will never be filed, the gang unit received an award this month at a northern Utah law enforcement awards banquet for defusing a potentially tragic situation and saving an unknown number of lives.
Rabbi Frederick L. Wenger of Congregation Kol Ami said a shiver was felt in the Jewish community when they learned of the alleged plot Wednesday. The community already had a security plan in place, and it will be enhanced in light of this information, he said.
But even though this is a time of heightened security, "our daily and spiritual lives will go on as they were," Wenger said.
Draper said this incident was just the latest in a recent string of increased white supremacist activity in the Ogden area.
There are four main white supremacist groups residing in Ogden, Draper said. All of them have origins in the Utah State Prison or another correctional facility in the state. The white supremacists started becoming more active in the Ogden area last summer as many of them were paroled from prison, he said.
"These guys were coming out and wanting to express their views," Draper said.
Nationally, Draper said recruitment for Aryan Nation groups has been up since Sept. 11.
The first big incident for Ogden police came in late November when detectives learned of a plot to firebomb the house of a racially mixed couple. Members of the white supremacist group wanted to turn their street into a place for white people only.
Detectives began a round-the-clock surveillance on the house. Investigators learned the original plot was to firebomb the house by Christmas. That later changed to New Year's Day, Draper said. The man allegedly behind the plot was located on New Year's Eve and arrested.
Just a few days later, the alleged plot targeting Jewish athletes at the Olympics was uncovered.
Since November, Draper said about 15 white supremacists have been arrested in Ogden and sent back to prison, most of them for charges far less dramatic than a firebombing scheme.
But over the next few years, Ogden police are expecting hundreds of white supremacists to settle in Weber and Davis counties as hundreds of them are paroled.
Not only are the groups continuing to recruit in prison and grow rapidly, they have also begun recruiting outside of prison, Draper said.
"They pretty much support Adolf Hitler's theory. They're Nazis, and the Jewish people are one of their major targets," Draper said.
Contributing: Derek Jensen
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com