Through the work of numerous law enforcement agencies, John McCabe, Christine Greenwood, and John Steele were arrested on November 18th on a variety of charges relating to current and past violent criminal activity. Christine Greenwood was the organizer of the Aryan Baby Drive and one of the leading members of the Women for Aryan Unity. John Steele was head of the Brandenburg Division of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations. Both were among southern California's most active and influential white supremacists. John McCabe, another Orange County White Supremacist, is also being held.

At the press conference announcing the arrests, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) applauded the work of the Orange County District Attorney's office, the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the Orange County Probation Department, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department, and others for their diligence. ADL also warned of the presence of active white supremacists in Orange County. Joyce Greenspan, Director of ADL's Orange County/Long Beach Region, said, "As an organization that has been monitoring extremist groups for more than 50 years, it is ADL's duty to alert the public that these groups and individuals are operating in our backyard."

"ADL knows that these individuals have recruited, held meetings and hosted white power concerts in Orange County for the past several years. As many as 150 people have been known to attend some of these events, which serve to indoctrinate attendees into lives dedicated to hate," said Greenspan. "Perhaps most disturbing are their attempts to draw young children into their bigoted way of life," Greenspan continued.

John Frederick Steele, of Long Beach, has been one of the most active leaders of the California branch of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations, known as the "Brandenburg Division" of Aryan Nations. The Brandenburg Division was headed for many years by Neuman Britton, one of the most loyal followers of Aryan Nations head Richard Butler (and for a while, Butler's designated successor). Upon Britton's demise in 2001, Steele rose to greater prominence, although as early as 1996, Steele was on the list of attendees atto the Aryan Nations World Congress held at its headquarters in Hayden Lake, Idaho.

Prior to joining Aryan Nations, Steele was active with the Ku Klux Klan in California, and maintained ties with Klan members in that state. Steele also has ties to a number of skinhead groups in Southern California.

Typical of Steele's actions was his attempt in the spring of 2002 to organize a white supremacist celebration of Hitler's Birthday on April 20, 2002. He publicized the event, advertised for white power bands, and rented a lodge in La Habra. For decoration and atmosphere, Steele gathered together a variety of Nazi-era artifacts, ranging from Nazi flags and clothing to canisters of Zyklon B, the infamous gas used at death camps during the Holocaust. However, at the last minute the event had to be cancelled, as Steele ran afoul of his probation officer (from a previous conviction), because possession of Nazi paraphernalia was a violation of his probation. This debacle marked the collapse of the Brandenburg Division of Aryan Nations, which has not been active since-former members have gone on to other groups.

Christine Greenwood is an active white supremacist who has spent most of her time in the movement involved with a group known as Women for Aryan Unity (WAU). WAU was founded in the 1980s in order to get women more involved as active white supremacists and to try to define what, in fact, it meant to be a female white supremacist. Members of the group came from a variety of sources, including the wives and girlfriends of male white supremacists, and skinheads and ex-skinheads. WAU members were often associated with other white power groups, ranging from the World Church of the Creator to the Hammerskin Nation.

Not surprisingly, WAU's message sfocused on the notion of women as subservient helpmates to their husbands; members were told to keep their husbands' homes, bear and raise their children, but also "if he should fall [to] take up his weapon, let his battlecry be yours, and fight on in his name." WAU publishes magazines and sdistributed electronic publications on the Internet such as "Aryan Strides;" these works explore the history of "Aryan women," promote survivalist techniques, and provide ways to expose children to "Aryan culture" that range from racist coloring books to homeschooling materials. WAU also works actively to support white supremacist inmates.

The WAU recruits members not only from around the United States, but also from other countries, mostly European. One of the WAU's most well-known activities has been its annual "Aryan Baby Drive," created by its California members in 1999, which collected donations of clothing and other items to distribute to poor white families. Greenwood was one of the organizers of this campaign.

In late 2001, Greenwood announced her resignation from WAU due to "personal and political" differences; this followed internal fighting within WAU and other white supremacist groups such as the World Church of the orCreation. Due to the resignation of Greenwood and others, WAU chapters in California collapsed, with former members becoming active in other ways.

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