U.S. police fear post-Obama Ku Klux Klan recruitment drive after woman is 'shot dead when she asked to leave initiation ritual'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:39 AM on 13th November 2008

Police fear race hate groups are stepping up recruitment over the Internet in  the wake of Barack Obamas U.S. election triumph.

The warning came after a woman was shot and killed during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ritual in Americas deep south.

Eight people have been arrested after the victim was allegedly killed when she said she no longer wanted to go through with the twisted ceremony and asked to go home.

Charged: Raymond Foster, head of the Ku Klux Klan chapter, has been charged with second-degree murder after Cynthia Lynch (pictured in a 2005 mug shot) was shot dead during initiation

Police found weapons, several flags and six white robes emblazoned with patches  reading KKK Life Member and KKK Security Enforcement at the groups remote  campsite in rural Louisiana close to where the womans body was found hidden  under some brush.

The woman, identified by the coroner's office late yesterday as Cynthia Lynch, 43, was recruited over the Internet to participate in the ritual and was then supposed to return to her home state of  Oklahoma to find other members for the white supremacist organisation.

Klan leader Raymond Foster, 44, was charged with murder and his followers   five men and two women aged between 20 and 30 were accused of obstruction of  justice.

Police said the group, calling themselves the Dixie Brotherhood, were seeking new members over the web following last weeks election of Americas first  black president.

The IQ level of this group is not impressive, to be kind, said Sheriff Jack  Strain following the arrests in Sun, Louisiana, about 60 miles north of New  Orleans.

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St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain, centtr, speaks at a news conference on the woman's death while KKK materials seized at the scene are displayed

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Chilling: Patches on garments found at the murder scene

Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research for the Anti-Defamation  League, said the Dixie Brotherhood appears to be a small, loosely organised  group.

This is not what I would call an established Klan group, he said. The Klan  has a pretty high association with violence. Some of these guys are just crooks  and sociopaths.

Watchdog groups and police are concerned that other white supremacists are also  increasing their efforts to rally support.

This is a tragic example of the kind of polarization we are seeing in some  parts of the country, said one senior officer.

There has also been a run on gun sales since the election, surpassing even the  days after the 9/11 terror attacks, with some buyers saying they are preparing  to protect themselves in the event of a race war.

Two white supremacist skinheads are still in jail charged with plotting to assassinate Mr Obama and dozens of blacks in a killing spree. Daniel Cowart, 20, and 18-year-old Paul Schlesselman met over the Internet just one month before their arrests in Memphis, Tennessee, eight days before the election.

Claiming the U.S. is in the midst of a race war, self-styled Grand Knight of the Ku Klux Klan Thomas Robb claimed he is now recruiting supporters from as far away as Britain through his website.

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Surrounded by the Secret Service, Barack Obama arrives at Reagan National Airport in Washington this week for a visit with George Bush at the White House. The Obamas have unprecedented security amid fears of a racial backlash

In an online rant, the hatemongerer welcomed Mr Obamas election because it  meant an awakening of the KKK.

His words are a throwback to one of the darkest episodes in US history in the 1950s and 1960s when the white-robed hooded mobs ran an organised campaign of  murder and race hate to fight the civil rights movement led by Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

President-elect Barack Obama faced more than 500 credible death threats during the election campaign and his family now has unprecedented Secret Service  protection.

But his extended family in Britain say they need more security in the aftermath of Mr Obamas victory.

Mr Obamas step-mother, Kezia, 65, was said to be worried about returning to her Bracknell, Berkshire, home.

My mother is extremely worried about returning to Berkshire. She is the U.S.  president's step-mother yet has no security around her home, said Abongo Obama, who had the same father as the new president.

He was speaking from the family home in western Kenya.