LOS ANGELES : Fisher Pleads Not Guilty to Racist Bomb Plot Charge

Christopher David Fisher, the 20-year-old Long Beach man accused of building bombs as part of a plan to launch a race war, pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court.

Fisher bowed his head through most of the brief hearing before Chief Magistrate Judge Volney V. Brown Jr., but answered firmly when asked a series of questions about his rights and his plea.

Brown also accepted a not guilty plea from a second suspected white supremacist, Christian Gilbert Tony Nadal, who was indicted with his wife and another man for allegedly manufacturing firearms and possessing illegal machine guns and silencers. Nadal is not accused of having any connection with Fisher, but was arrested last month as part of an undercover operation into Southern California white supremacist groups.

In all, nine people were charged or indicted in connection with the federal investigation. Most attention has focused on Fisher because authorities say he was the leader of a group known as the Fourth Reich Skinheads, which allegedly carried out three bombings and was plotting an attack on the First African Methodist Episcopal Church.