The Second Wave Return of the Militias A Special Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center Montgomery, Alabama August 2009 The Second Wave Return of the Militias

the southern poverty law center is a nonprofit organization that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation. Its Intelligence Project, which prepared this report and also produces the quarterly investigative magazine Intelligence Report, tracks the activities of hate groups and the nativist movement and monitors militia and other extremist anti- government activity. Its Teaching Tolerance project helps foster respect and understanding in the classroom. Its litigation arm files lawsuits against hate groups for the violent acts of their members.

MEDIA AND GENERAL INQUIRIES Mark Potok or Heidi Beirich Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Ala. (334) 956-8200

www.splcenter.org

This report was prepared by the staff of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC is supported entirely by private donations. No government funds are involved. © Southern Poverty Law Center. All rights reserved. southern poverty law center

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

The Second Wave: Return of the Militias 5

Nativists to ‘Patriots’: Cross-Pollinating the Movement 11

Terror From the Right : 75 Plots and Racist Rampages 13 southern poverty law center

Introduction By Mark Potok

The 1990s saw the rise and fall of the virulently antigovernment “Patriot” movement, made up of para- military militias, tax defiers and so-called “sovereign citizens.” Sparked by a combination of anger at the federal government and the deaths of political dissenters at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, the movement took off in the middle of the decade and continued to grow even after 168 people were left dead by the 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City’s federal build- primary enemy — is headed by a black man. That, coupled with ing — an attack, the deadliest ever by domestic U.S. terrorists, high levels of non-white immigration and a decline in the per- carried out by men steeped in the rhetoric and conspiracy theo- centage of whites overall in America, has helped to racialize the ries of the militias. In the years that followed, a truly remarkable Patriot movement, which in the past was not primarily moti- number of criminal plots came out of the movement. But by vated by race hate. One result has been a remarkable rash of early this century, the Patriots had largely faded, weakened by domestic terror incidents since the presidential campaign, most systematic prosecutions, aversion to growing violence, and a of them related to anger over the election of Barack Obama. At new, highly conservative president. the same time, ostensibly mainstream politicians and media They’re back. Almost a decade after largely disappearing pundits have helped to spread Patriot and related propaganda, from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven tax from conspiracy theories about a secret network of U.S. con- defiers and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers centration camps to wholly unsubstantiated claims about the around the country. “Paper terrorism” — the use of property president’s country of birth. liens and citizens’ “courts” to harass enemies — is on the rise. Fifteen years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote And once-popular militia conspiracy theories are making the then-Attorney General Janet Reno to warn about extremists in rounds again, this time accompanied by nativist theories about the militia movement, saying that the “mixture of armed groups secret Mexican plans to “reconquer” the American Southwest. and those who hate” was “a recipe for disaster.” Just six months One law enforcement agency has found 50 new militia train- later, Oklahoma City’s federal building was bombed. Today, the ing groups — one of them made up of present and former Patriot movement may not have the white-hot fury that it did police officers and soldiers. Authorities around the country in the 1990s. But the movement clearly is growing again, and are reporting a worrying uptick in Patriot activities and pro- Americans, in particular law enforcement officers, need to take paganda. “This is the most significant growth we’ve seen in 10 the dangers it presents seriously. That is equally true for the to 12 years,” says one. “All it’s lacking is a spark. I think it’s only politicians, pundits and preachers who, through pandering or a matter of time before you see threats and violence.” ignorance, abet the growth of a movement marked by a proven A key difference this time is that the federal government — predilection for violence. the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its

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The Second Wave Around the country, evidence accumulates of a return of the militias and the larger antigovernment ‘Patriot’ movement By Larry Keller

In Pensacola, Fla., retired FBI agent Ted Gunderson tells a gathering of antigovernment “Patriots” that the federal government has set up 1,000 internment camps across the coun- try and is storing 30,000 guillotines and a half-million caskets in Atlanta. They’re there for the day the government finally declares martial law and moves in to round up or kill

American dissenters, he says. “They’re going to keep right, like the militias, that in the past were not primarily track of all of us, folks,” Gunderson warns. motivated by race hate. Contributing to the racial animus Outside Atlanta, a so-called “American Grand Jury” have been fears on the far right about the consequences issues an “indictment” of Barack Obama for fraud and of Latino immigration. treason because, the panel concludes, he wasn’t born in Militia rhetoric is being heard widely once more, often the United States and is illegally occupying the office of from a second generation of ideologues, and conspiracy president. Other sham “grand juries” around the coun- theories are being energetically revived or invented anew. try follow suit. “Paper terrorism” — the use of property liens, bogus legal And on the site in Lexington, Mass., where the open- documents and “citizens’ grand juries” to attack enemies ing shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in 1775, and, sometimes, reap illegal fortunes — is again proliferat- members of Oath Keepers, a newly formed group of law ing, to the point where the government has set up special enforcement officers, military men and veterans, “mus- efforts to rein in so-called “tax defiers” and to track threats ter” on April 19 to reaffirm their pledge to defend the against judges. What’s more, Patriot fears about the govern- U.S. Constitution. “We’re in perilous times … perhaps far ment are being amplified by a loud new group of ostensibly more perilous than in 1775,” says the man administering mainstream media commentators and politicians. the oath. April 19 is the anniversary not only of the battle It’s not 1996 all over again, or 1997 or 1998. Although of Lexington Green, but also of the 1993 conflagration at there has been a remarkable rash of domestic terrorist the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the incidents since Obama’s election in November, it has not lethal bombing two years later of the Oklahoma City fed- reached the level of criminal violence, attempted terrorist eral building — seminal events in the lore of the extreme attacks and white-hot language that marked the militia right, in particular the antigovernment Patriot movement. movement at its peak. But militia training events, huge Almost 10 years after it seemed to disappear from numbers of which are now viewable on YouTube vid- American life, there are unmistakable signs of a revival eos, are spreading. One federal agency estimates that 50 of what in the 1990s was commonly called the militia new militia training groups have sprung up in less than movement. From Idaho to New Jersey and Michigan to two years. Sales of guns and ammunition have skyrock- Florida, men in khaki and camouflage are back in the eted amid fears of new gun control laws, much as they woods, gathering to practice the paramilitary skills they did in the 1990s. believe will be needed to fend off the socialistic troops The situation has many authorities worried. of the “New World Order.” Militiamen, white supremacists, anti-Semites, nativ- One big difference from the militia movement of the ists, tax protesters and a range of other activists of the 1990s is that the face of the federal government — the radical right are cross-pollinating and may even be enemy that almost all parts of the extreme right see as the coalescing. In the words of a February report from law primary threat to freedom — is now black. And the fact enforcement officials in Missouri, a variety of factors that the president is an African American has injected a have combined recently to create “a lush environment strong racial element into even those parts of the radical for militia activity.”

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“You’re seeing the bubbling [of antigovernment senti- right. In February, the FBI launched a national operation ment] right now,” says Bart McEntire, who has infiltrated targeting white supremacists and “militia/sovereign cit- racist hate groups and now is the supervisory special agent izen extremist groups” after noting an upsurge in such for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and organizations, The Wall Street Journal reported. The aim Explosives in Roanoke, Va. “You see people buying into is to gather intelligence about “this emerging threat,” what they’re saying. It’s primed to grow. The only thing according to an FBI memo cited by the newspaper. you don’t have to set it on fire is a Waco or Ruby Ridge.” Increasingly, sovereign citizens are claiming they Another federal law enforcement official knowl- aren’t subject to income taxes — so much so that the edgeable about militia groups agrees. He asked not to be Department of Justice last year kicked off a National Tax identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly Defier Initiative to deal with the volume of cases. At the about them. “They’re not at the level we saw in ’94-’95,” same time, more and more seem to be engaging in “paper he says. “But this is the most significant growth we’ve terrorism,” even though more than 30 states passed or seen in 10 to 12 years. All it’s lacking is a spark. I think it’s strengthened laws outlawing the filing of unjustified only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.” property liens and simulating legal process (by setting up pseudo-legal “common law courts” and “citizens’ grand Shots, Plots and ‘Sovereigns’ juries”) in response to sovereign activity in the 1990s. In fact, threats and violence from the radical right already A Michigan man whose company allegedly doubled are accelerating (see last section of this report, a list of as the headquarters of a militia group, for example, was 75 domestic terrorist plots and rampages since 1995). In arrested in May on charges that he placed bogus liens recent months, men with antigovernment, racist, anti- on property owned by courthouse officials and police Semitic or pro-militia views have allegedly committed a officers to harass them and ruin their credit. In March, series of high-profile murders — including the killings of authorities raided a Las Vegas printing firm where meet- six law enforcement officers since April. ings of the “Sovereign People’s Court for the United Most of these recent murders and plots seem to have States” were conducted in a mock courtroom. Seminars been at least partially prompted by Obama’s election. allegedly were taught there on how to use phony docu- One man “very upset” with the election of America’s first ments and other illegal means to pay off creditors. Four black president was building a radioactive “dirty bomb”; people were arrested on money-laundering, tax and another, a Marine, was planning to assassinate Obama, weapons charges. as were two racist skinheads in Tennessee; still another Due to a spike in “inappropriate communications,” angry at the election and said to be interested in join- including many from sovereign citizens, the U.S. Mar- ing a militia killed two sheriff’s deputies in Florida. A shals Service has opened a clearinghouse in suburban man in Pittsburgh who feared Jews and gun confisca- Washington, D.C., for assessing risks to court personnel. tions murdered three police officers. Near Boston, a white The incidents include telephone and written threats man angered by the alleged “genocide” of his race shot against federal judges and prosecutors, as well as bomb to death two African immigrants and intended to mur- threats and biochemical incidents. In fiscal 2008, there der as many Jews as possible. An 88-year-old neo-Nazi were 1,278 threats and harassing communications — killed a guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, more than double the number of six years earlier. The D.C. And an abortion physician in Kansas was murdered number of such incidents is on pace to increase again in by a man steeped in the ideology of the “sovereign citi- fiscal 2009. Sovereign citizens account for a small per- zens” movement. centage of the cases, but theirs are more complex and So-called sovereign citizens are people who sub- generally require more resources, says Michael Prout, scribe to an ideology, originated by the anti-Semitic assistant director of judicial security for the marshals. Posse Comitatus of the 1980s, that claims that whites are a “They are resourceful groups,” he adds. higher kind of citizen — subject only to “common law,” not Some sovereign citizen attempts to skirt the law have the dictates of the government — while blacks are mere been farcical. An Arkansas jury needed only seven min- “14th Amendment citizens” who must obey their govern- utes in April to convict Richard Bauer, 70, of robbing a ment masters. Although not all sovereigns subscribe to or bank. Bauer had argued that the government took his even know about the theory’s racist basis, most contend money several times, leaving him with almost nothing. that they do not have to pay taxes, are not subject to most “I’m a constitutionalist,” he insisted, adding that “every laws, and are not citizens of the United States. single act was justifiable.” A month earlier, a Pennsylvania Authorities and anecdotal evidence suggest that sover- man charged with drunken driving told court officials eign citizens — who, along with tax protesters and militia that they lacked jurisdiction over him because he was a members, form the larger Patriot movement — may make “sovereign man.” Then he changed his mind and pleaded up the most dramatically reenergized sector of the radical guilty. In Nevada, a sovereign citizen — perhaps a Dr.

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Seuss fan —used the peculiar punctuation of names that It’s not known how large Oath Keepers is. But there is is favored by the movement; his name, he declared, was some evidence beyond the group’s mere existence to sug- “I am: Sam.” gest that today’s Patriots are again making inroads into law But few of the cases are that amusing. In February, a enforcement — the leak of the DHS report, along with those New York man who once declared himself a “sovereign of a couple of similar law enforcement reports, was likely citizen” of the “Republic of New York” and said that he the work of a sworn officer. Rhodes claims to know a fed- enjoyed studying “the organic Constitution and the Bill eral officer leaked the DHS report, and says Oath Keepers is of Rights” allegedly shot and killed four people. His mur- “hearing from more and more federal officersall the time.” der case was pending at press time. The group does seem to be on the radar of federal law enforcement officers. In May, a member complained on Swearing at the Government the group’s website of a visit to his farm by FBI agents Oath Keepers, the military and police organization that who asked him, he said, about training he provides in was formed earlier this year and held its April muster firearms, survival skills and the like. on Lexington Green, may be a particularly worrisome One Oath Keeper is longtime militia hero Richard example of the Patriot revival. Members vow to ful- Mack, a former sheriff of a rural Arizona county who fill the oaths to the Constitution that they swore while collaborated with white supremacist Randy Weaver on in the military or law enforcement. “Our oath is to the a book and who, along with others, won a U.S. Supreme Constitution, not to the politicians, and we will not obey unconstitutional (and thus illegal) and immoral orders,” the “This is the most significant growth we’ve group says. Oath Keepers lists 10 orders its members won’t obey, including two seen in 10 to 12 years. All it’s lacking is a that reference U.S. concentration camps. That same pugnacious attitude was on spark. I think it’s only a matter of time display after conservatives attacked an April report from the U.S. Department of before you see threats and violence.” Homeland Security (DHS) that suggested a resurgence of radical right-wing activity was under Court decision that weakened the Brady Bill gun con- way. “We will not fear our government; they will fear trol law in the 1990s. “The greatest threat we face today us,” one man, who appeared to be on active duty in the is not terrorists; it is our federal government,” Mack says Army, said in an angry video sent to the Oath Keepers on his website. “One of the best and easiest solutions is to blog. In another video at the site, a man who said he depend on local officials, especially the sheriff, to stand was a former Army paratrooper in Afghanistan and Iraq against federal intervention and federal criminality.” described President Obama as “an enemy of the state,” Mack’s views echo those of the Posse Comitatus, which adding, “I would rather die than be a slave to my gov- believed that sheriffs are the highest law enforcement ernment.” The Oath Keepers site soon began hawking authorities in America. “I pray for the day that a sheriff T-shirts with slogans like “I’m a Right Wing Extremist in this country will arrest an IRS agent for trespassing or and Damn Proud of It!” attempting to victimize citizens in that particular sheriff’s In April, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes — a county,” Mack said in a video he made for Oath Keepers. Yale Law School graduate and former aide to U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (a Texas Republican and hard-line libertarian) — wor- Why the Return? ried about a coming dictatorship. “We know that if the day Why are militias and the larger Patriot movement mak- should come where a full-blown dictatorship would come, ing a comeback? or tyranny … it can only happen if those men, our broth- The original militia movement took off in the mid- ers in arms, go along and comply with unconstitutional, 1990s, with the first large militias appearing in 1994 unlawful orders,” Rhodes told conspiracy-minded radio and growth continuing over the next several years. The host Alex Jones. “Imagine if we focus on the police and movement reflected widespread anger over what was military. Game over for the New World Order.” seen as the meddling of a relatively liberal administra- He’s not the first to think so. In the 1990s, retired tion in Washington — from gun control to environmental Phoenix cop and conspiracy enthusiast Jack McLamb laws to a variety of other federal mandates. But what created an outfit called Police Against the New World really ignited the movement was the bloodshed in Ruby Order and produced a 75-page document entitled Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas. In 1992, during a stand- Operation Vampire Killer 2000: American Police Action off between white supremacist Randy Weaver’s family Plan for Stopping World Government Rule. in Idaho and federal agents — a confrontation that began

7 southern poverty law center with Weaver’s sale of an illegal weapon — Weaver’s son stresses and strains, from the seemingly inevitable rise and wife were killed, along with a U.S. marshal. The of multiculturalism to the faltering economy to another following year, some 80 members of the gun-loving liberal administration, this one headed by a black man. Branch Davidian cult died in a fire that ended a 52-day Similar factors have driven the number of race-based standoff with federal agents in Texas. Thousands of hate groups, as distinct from Patriot groups, from 602 Americans saw these events as proof that the federal in 2000 to 926 in 2008, according to research by the government was prepared to murder its own citizens Southern Poverty Law Center. in order to enforce a kind of liberal orthodoxy — a so- “This frequently happens when elections favor the called “New World Order” (NWO) that reflected the political left and the society is seen as moving toward economic and political globalization that militia back- greater social equality or away from traditional societal ers felt was robbing their country of its independence hierarchies,” Chip Berlet, a long-time analyst of the rad- and unique culture. ical right at Political Research Associates, said in a June The movement was animated by a welter of con- newsletter. “In this scenario, it is easier for right-wing spiracy theories, the bulk of them decrying NWO plots demagogues to successfully demonize liberals,” immi- that were said to be aimed at imposing socialism on the grants and others. United States, sending patriotic Americans to prison In fact, the anti-immigration movement is both fuel- camps, destroying farmers with secret weather machines, ing and helping to racialize the antigovernment Patriot and so on. Most militia enthusiasts also blamed the resurgence. More and more, members of nativist groups 1995 Oklahoma City bombing on the government — it like the Minutemen are adopting core militia ideas and was a “false flag” operation carried out by the Clinton fears (see next section of this report). And they have con- Administration, they contended, and designed to soften tributed their own conspiracy theories — about the secret up the American public to accept draconian anti-terror- Mexican “Plan de Aztlan” to reconquer the American ism legislation. Southwest, and another involving the secretly arranged But the movement of the ’90s ultimately wound down, merger of the United States, Mexico and Canada into a almost petering out after the turn of the millennium. That “North American Union” — to the long list of nefarious was for a variety of reasons, including the arrests of many plots already identified by the Patriot movement. militia backers in terrorist plots, the jailing of hundreds Far-right fears of conspiracies have come from of others on weapons violations, and the violence the other quarters, as well, most notably from the so-called movement continued to produce even after 168 people, “birthers” who have filed a series of lawsuits making the including 19 children, were murdered in Oklahoma City claim that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. These spurious by men steeped in the ideology of both militias and racist claims first gained traction when prominent extrem- hate groups. The failure of any of the many dire Patriot ists like writer Jerome Corsi, politician Alan Keyes and predictions or conspiracy theories to come true also hurt Watergate felon and radio show host G. Gordon Liddy the movement, as did the 2000 election of a conserva- questioned the validity of the president’s birth certifi- tive president, which had the effect of defusing militia cate. Many Patriots have also adopted conspiracy theories backers’ anger. Apocalyptic warnings from militia lead- about secret government involvement in events like the ers about an expected “Y2K” collapse on Jan. 1, 2000, also Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the crash of TWA turned out to be entirely without merit, becoming a kind Flight 800 in 1996. of final nail in the coffin of the movement. “The current political environment is awash with Now, it seems, they are back. Every month, there are seemingly absurd but nonetheless influential conspir- militia trainings announced around the country — and acy theories, hyperbolic claims and demonized targets,” untold numbers that are not publicized. The Internet Berlet concluded. “And this creates a milieu where vio- teems with training videos, information about meetings lence is a likely outcome.” and rallies, far-fetched rumors and conspiracy theories. Joining 1990s militia stalwarts like Gunderson and Mack Going Mainstream is a new generation of activists, as exemplified in the case A remarkable aspect of the current antigovernment of Edward Koernke. Koernke’s father, Mark Koernke, was movement is the extent to which it has gained support a prominent ’90s militia propagandist known as “Mark from elected officials and mainstream media outlets. from Michigan.” The elder Koernke served nearly six Lawmakers complaining about the intrusiveness of the years in prison on charges that included assaulting police. federal government have introduced 10th Amendment Today, his son hosts an Internet radio show devoted to resolutions (reasserting that those powers not granted all things militia. to the federal government remain with the states) in The current resurgence has several apparent causes. about three dozen states. In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry In the largest sense, it is again a response to real societal raised the prospect of secession several months after

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Obama’s inauguration — a notion first brought up there ernment spending and taxation, some demonstrators in the ’90s by the militia-like Republic of Texas. U.S. Rep. called for the sovereignty of the states, abolition of the Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she feared that the Federal Reserve (a long-time bogeyman of the radi- president was planning “reeducation camps for young cal right), and an end to “socialism” in Washington. people,” while U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), evok- At the Jacksonville, Fla., July tea party, some protest- ing memories of the discredited communist-hunter Sen. ers carried signs that compared President Obama to Joseph McCarthy, warned of 17 “socialists” in Congress. Adolf Hitler. Fox News host Glenn Beck, who has called Obama a Once again, fearful Patriots are scurrying to prepare fascist, a Nazi and a Marxist, even re-floated militia con- for what they see as the coming societal meltdown, stock- spiracy theories of the 1990s alleging a secret network piling not only weaponry but food and an array of other of government-run concentration camps. items. Newsletter publisher Lee Bellinger, for instance, peddles Social Chaos Survival Guide: Smart, Savvy Precautions to Make “The current political environment is awash with You Self-Reliant in These Dangerous seemingly absurd but nonetheless influential Times and warns of “impending national social chaos.” The book, conspiracy theories, hyperbolic claims and de- he says, is “for people who want to stand their ground without attract- monized targets, and this creates a milieu where ing a whole lot of attention — either from the authorities” or “mobs of violence is a likely outcome.” desperate fellow citizens.” The recent Department of The original movement also had its mainstream back- Homeland Security report also pointed to the role of the ers, but they were largely confined to talk radio; today, Internet in the current movement: “Unlike the earlier Beck is just one of the well-known cable TV news per- period, the advent of the Internet and other informa- sonalities to air fictitious conspiracies and other unlikely tion-age technologies since the 1990s has given domestic Patriot ideas. CNN’s Lou Dobbs has treated the so-called extremists greater access to information related to bomb- Aztlan conspiracy as a bona fide concern and ques- making, weapons training and tactics, as well as targeting tioned the validity of Obama’s birth certificate despite of individuals, organizations and facilities, potentially his own network’s definitive debunking of that claim. On making … the consequences of their violence more severe.” MSNBC, commentator Pat Buchanan suggested recently that white Americans are now suffering “exactly what Whither the Militia Movement? was done to black folks.” On FOX News, regular con- Evidence that angry Americans are arming themselves tributor Dick Morris said, “Those crazies in Montana for action is growing. In March, for instance, a Spokane, who say, ‘We’re going to kill ATF agents because the Wash., man pleaded guilty to illegally possessing two U.N.’s going to take over’ — well, they’re beginning to grenade launchers, 54 grenades, 37 machine guns, eight have a case.” silencers and a variety of explosives in a storage unit. The At the same time, players like the National Rifle man had an “End the Fed” bumper sticker on his vehi- Association, which in the 1990s publicly attacked federal cle. In May, another Washington resident was charged law enforcement agents as “jackbooted thugs,” are back with keeping an illegal cache of weapons that included at it. Two months before the election last fall, firearms an M-16 machine gun, four silencers, and two guns made manufacturers joined forces to promote NRA member- by a local gunsmith and inscribed with “Christian war- ship in a national campaign ominously dubbed “Prepare rior” and “NObama.” for the Storm in 2008.” In Nebraska, a jury convicted Allison Klanecky Gun shows, too, are back as major venues for mili- for possession of unregistered grenade components. tia-like ideology. In a video produced in April by Max Prosecutors said that a search of Klanecky’s barn and Blumenthal, senior writer at the online news site The an underground bunker turned up dozens of containers Daily Beast, one man interviewed at a show said, “If of explosive powder, fuses and other components that Obama tries to get rid of our guns, it’s just a step away could be used to make up to 93 grenades, plus an unregis- from trying to take away everything else.” Another said tered 12-gauge military shotgun called a “Streetsweeper.” show attendees were “preparing for the worst.” Klanecky was involved in an end-times group called The Patriot ideology also has crept into the anti-tax “tea Prophecy Club that sells conspiracy books and DVDs on parties” that were staged by conservatives around the everything from the New World Order to globalism and country in April and July. In addition to protesting gov- the 9/11 attacks.

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A good illustration of antigovernment Patriot move- son wrote on Jones’ Infowars.com website. “If they come, ment paranoia was the reaction to a National Guard come loaded for war!” exercise planned for April in the little town of Arcadia, That incident showed how quickly militia enthusi- Iowa. The guardsmen had intended to conduct a four-day asts now mobilize, thanks to the Internet. The National mock search for an arms dealer that would include patrol- Guard rapidly scaled back its planned exercise, although ling the town’s streets, distributing photos of the fictional it denied that the deluge of complaints had anything to bad guy and knocking on doors of residents who agreed do with its decision. to participate in the drill. The sounds of violence are growing louder. The Idaho Alex Jones, the radio host and conspiracy theorist, Citizens Constitutional Militia recently posted an open- got wind of the plans and interviewed a National Guard ing for a “field sniper.” Around the same time, an Ohio official, setting off an avalanche of angry calls and vis- Militia member, face hidden by a bandana and voice dis- its to his website from people who feared the exercise torted electronically, posted a video to YouTube. “People was really about imposing a dictatorship or martial law need to wake up and start buying some of these,” he said on the country. “Tell them that ANY violation of your as he displayed a semi-automatic rifle. “Things are real rights will result in a ‘Live Fire Exercise,’” one such per- bad, and they’re going to get a lot worse.”

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Nativists to ‘Patriots’ As evidence of a militia resurgence mounts, nativist vigilantes are increasingly adopting the ideas of the ‘Patriot’ movement By David Holthouse

CAMP VIGILANCE, Calif. — A call to arms from ResistNet blares through this makeshift camp near the small community of Boulevard: “We all know what happens when you back an animal into a corner — it fights back. The way I see it, that’s exactly the direction this country is heading. They’re backing us into a corner. It’s getting to be time to fight back.”

Located two-and-a-half miles north of Mexico in the Increasingly, Minutemen are giving credence to the high, rugged desert of unincorporated eastern San Diego sort of fringe conspiracy theories that have long typified County, Camp Vigilance, known colloquially as “Camp V,” militia and other so-called Patriot groups. Although the is a sizable Minuteman border vigilante compound situ- Minuteman movement from its inception has been perme- ated amidst 170 privately owned acres. ated with the Aztlan or “reconquista” conspiracy theory Adjacent to active human and narcotics smuggling cor- — which holds that the Mexican government is driving ille- ridors, Camp V consists of roughly 100 tent camping sites, a gal immigration into the U.S. as part of a covert effort to half dozen or so full RV docking bays, a bunkhouse, a radio “reconquer” the American Southwest — the conspiracy the- communications center, a mess hall and meeting grounds, ories that are now taking root in the movement have little all within a gated and well-guarded security perimeter. or nothing to do with border security or immigration. They On this night in late May, a dozen or so Minutemen are include the belief that a massive cover-up has been con- checking their weapons, testing batteries in their night- ducted regarding Barack Obama’s birth certificate, which vision goggles and thermal-vision scopes, donning body supposedly shows that he was born in Africa and is there- armor and making other preparations for sundown- fore ineligible to serve as president of the United States. to-sunup reconnaissance patrols. A public address At several eastern San Diego County vigilante camps in system plugged into a massive RV amplifies ResistNet, an mid-May, there were serious discussions about the global Internet radio program broadcast by the Patriot Network, banking system being controlled by an ancient secret soci- which promotes conspiracy theories and right-wing anti- ety called the Illuminati. Another theory floated involved a government militancy. Since the beginning of this year, cult devoted to the Egyptian god of the afterlife, Osiris, oper- ResistNet and other Patriot Network programs have ating within the NASA space agency and perhaps arranging become quite popular at Camp V, as well as other remote with extraterrestrials for a hostile takeover of Earth. Minuteman outposts in southern California and Arizona. Further indicating the nativist-to-Patriot drift of the The broadcast continues: “I can see the true American Minutemen is the fact that in recent months a number of patriots are being backed into a corner. They’re getting Minuteman factions have begun promoting the ideology of ready to strike back at their captors, the greedy, evil so-called “sovereign citizens,” a bizarre pseudo-legal phi- vipers in the high offices of this land.” losophy whose adherents claim they’re not U.S. citizens and Such exhortations have little to do with border security are not subject to federal or state laws, only to “common law or undocumented immigration, the issues that launched courts” — a sort of people’s tribunal with no judges or law- the original Minuteman Project in 2005 and inspired its yers. The most notorious advocates of sovereign citizens many spin-offs, imitators and splinter factions. Instead, ideology include Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry the antigovernment screed ringing through Camp V rep- Nichols and members of the now defunct Montana Freemen, resents a significant, ongoing shift in the nativist vigilante a violent militia outfit. The larger Patriot movement is made subculture, as major elements of various Minuteman orga- up of tax protesters, militia members and sovereign citizens. nizations appear to be morphing into a new paramilitary Accompanying the rise of conspiracy theories and sov- wing of the resurgent antigovernment “Patriot” movement. ereign citizen ideology within the Minuteman movement

11 southern poverty law center has been a spike in online and campfire chatter about the a sovereign citizen “criminal complaint petition” demand- potential need for armed insurrection in the near future. ing that Obama appear before an “American Grand Jury” This trend toward contemplated violence was most graph- to answer charges of treason. ically illustrated by the May 30 home invasion murders of Hundreds of Minutemen signed the petition at a large a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter in Arivaca, Ariz., Minuteman “muster,” or rally, in Cochise County, Ariz., in that were allegedly orchestrated by the leader of Minutemen late May. More than a dozen Minuteman organizations American Defense to fund her group’s vigilante activities. were represented at the rally, along with members of the All of these disturbing nativist-to-Patriot trends have Arizona Citizens Militia, a traditional Patriot militia that taken shape during a period in which, by all indications, regularly conducts armed survivalist training exercises the number of Latino immigrants attempting to cross the in the mountains and woods of northern Arizona. During U.S. border has dropped to record lows, due in large part one recent exercise, members were “waterboarded” by a to the country’s faltering economy. According to a June “professional interrogator.” report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Also present at the Cochise County muster were the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions fell to members of Minuteman American Defense (MAD), the 724,000 last year. That marked the lowest level since 1973 Everett, Wash.-based group led by Shawna Forde, who and a decline of more than 50% from 2000, when appre- was arrested less than a month later in the May 30 dou- hensions peaked at 1.67 million. ble murder in Arivaca, Ariz. Also arrested were MAD Despite this marked drop in undocumented border Operations Director Jason Bush and a third MAD mem- crossings, however, the number of Minuteman border ber. According to law enforcement authorities, the three operations, paramilitary training exercises and rallies believed the man they killed was a narcotics trafficker continues to increase, and new Minuteman groups con- who kept large sums of money in his trailer. tinue to form. What’s changed is that instead of focusing Forde’s half-brother, Merill Metzger, told the Arizona exclusively on undocumented immigration, growing Daily Star that shortly before the murders Forde started numbers of Minutemen and their fellow travelers now talking about forming an “underground militia” that perceive immigration as merely a glaring symptom of a would be funded by robbing drug dealers. “She was talk- much broader problem. The larger problem, they believe, ing about starting a revolution against the United States involves shadowy conspiracies threatening American government,” he said. sovereignty, unwelcome demographic changes polluting Following her arrest, Forde was denounced by key American culture, and a potentially totalitarian govern- Minuteman leaders including Jeff Schwilk, head of the ment, driven by an illegitimate president, bent on seizing San Diego Minutemen, a hard-line group with a well- all firearms, trampling the Constitution and imposing a deserved reputation for confrontational tactics. The fascist-socialist system on a pathetically docile citizenry. fact that a hothead like Schwilk has become a de facto “We’re still concerned about the border intruders, but spokesman for the Minuteman movement indicates how since this all started we’ve become aware of the fact that bor- radicalized the movement has become since its early days der intruders are just pawns in the big game,” says “Jawbone,” of media-friendly publicity stunts involving retirees sit- a member of the Campo Minutemen, a particularly hard- ting in lawn chairs armed only with binoculars. core faction based a few miles east of Camp V. “Stopping the In a mid-April mass E-mail to followers, Schwilk linked border intruders isn’t going to keep the shit from hitting the his group’s resistance to “the invasion from Mexico” with fan. If and when it does, we’ll be ready. All this [Minuteman the greater cause of thwarting the “socialist takeover” of border operations] is just a dress rehearsal for the big dance.” America. In the same E-mail, Schwilk announced the One of the leaders of the Campo Minutemen, Britt formation of the Patriot Coalition, made up of 23 orga- “Kingfish” Craig, recently appeared on “Patriot’s Pipeline nizations including Minuteman factions, tax-protest Radio Show” along with co-guest Lloyd Marcus, the groups, pro-gun rights groups and two anti-immigration singer-songwriter responsible for “Tea Party Anthem,” outfits listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law a protest ditty written for the “tea party” tax protests that Center. A subsequent press release described the common took place across the country April 15. cause of the groups under the motto, “Secure Borders, “Tea Party Anthem” has become the Campo Constitution and Rule of Law.” It stated that “Patriotic and Minutemen fight song. Most of its members know at least Constitutional American grassroots groups” had come the first verse by heart: “Mr. President! Your stimulus is together to “fight the growing threats to our region and sure to bust./It’s just a socialist scheme./The only thing to the taxpaying American citizens.” it will do/Is kill the American Dream.” It used to be that Minutemen declared their vigilance As part of their campaign to stop President Obama against foreign invaders. Now they’re taking a stand from killing the American Dream, various Minuteman against perceived enemies both foreign and domestic. groups, including the Campo Minutemen, are distributing “Revolution is brewing!” Schwilk declared.

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Terror From The Right 75 plots, conspiracies and racist rampages since Oklahoma City

At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a 7,000-pound truck July 28, 1995 bomb, constructed of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and nitromethane Antigovernment extremist Charles Ray Polk is arrested after trying to racing fuel and packed into 13 plastic barrels, ripped through the heart purchase a machine gun from an of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The explo- undercover police officer, and is sion wrecked much of downtown Oklahoma City and killed 168 people, later indicted by federal grand jury including 19 children in a day-care center. Another 500 were injured. for plotting to blow up the Internal Although many Americans initially suspected an attack by Middle Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas. At the time of his arrest, Polk is Eastern radicals, it quickly became clear that the mass murder had trying to purchase plastic explosives actually been carried out by domestic, right-wing terrorists. to add to the already huge arsenal he’s The slaughter engineered by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, men amassed. Polk is sentenced to almost steeped in the conspiracy theories and white-hot fury of the American 21 years in federal prison. radical right, marked the opening shot in a new kind of domestic political October 9, 1995 extremism — a revolutionary ideology whose practitioners do not hesitate Saboteurs derail an Amtrak passen- to carry out attacks directed at entirely innocent victims, people selected ger train near Hyder, Ariz., killing essentially at random to make a political point. After Oklahoma, it was one person and injuring about 70 no longer sufficient for many American right-wing terrorists to strike at others. Several antigovernment messages, signed by the “Sons of a target of political significance — instead, they reached for higher and Gestapo,” are left behind. The per- higher body counts, reasoning that they had to eclipse McVeigh’s attack petrators remain at large. to win attention. What follows is a detailed listing of major terrorist plots and racist November 9, 1995 Oklahoma Constitutional Militia rampages that have emerged from the American radical right in the years leader Willie Ray Lampley, his wife since Oklahoma City. These have included plans to bomb government Cecilia and another man, John Dare buildings, banks, refineries, utilities, clinics, synagogues, mosques, memo- Baird, are arrested as they prepare rials and bridges; to assassinate police officers, judges, politicians, civil explosives to bomb numerous tar- rights figures and others; to rob banks, armored cars and other criminals; gets, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, gay bars and abortion and to amass illegal machine guns, missiles, explosives and biological and clinics. The three, along with another chemical weapons. Each of these plots aimed to make changes in America suspect arrested later, are sentenced through the use of political violence. Most contemplated the deaths of to terms of up to 11 years in 1996. large numbers of people — in one case, as many as 30,000, or 10 times Cecilia Lampley is released in 2000, while Baird and Willie Lampley — the number murdered on Sept. 11, 2001. who wrote letters from prison urging Here are the stories of plots, conspiracies and racist rampages since others to violence — are freed in 1995 — plots and violence waged against a democratic America. 2004 and 2006, respectively.

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December 18, 1995 and 15 homemade hand grenades drawing sentences of up to nine years An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on his property in Hood River, Ore. in prison. The plot participants are employee discovers a plastic drum Hamblin is sentenced to almost all released in subsequent years. Gary packed with ammonium nitrate and four years in federal prison, and is Curds Baer, who drew the heaviest fuel oil in a parking lot behind the released in March 2000. sentence after being found with 400 IRS building in Reno, Nev. The device pounds of ammonium nitrate, a bomb failed to explode a day earlier when April 12, 1996 component, is freed in May 2004. a three-foot fuse went out prema- Apparently inspired by his reading turely. Ten days later, tax protester of a neo-Nazi tract, Larry Wayne July 27, 1996 Joseph Martin Bailie is arrested. Shoemake kills one black man A nail-packed bomb goes off at the Bailie is eventually sentenced to 36 and wounds seven other people, Atlanta Olympics, which are seen by years in federal prison, with a release including a reporter, during a racist many extremists as part of a Satanic date of 2027. An accomplice, Ellis shooting spree in a black neighbor- “New World Order,” killing one per- Edward Hurst, is released in 2004. hood in Jackson, Miss. As police close son and injuring more than 100 others. in on the abandoned restaurant he Investigators will later conclude the January 18, 1996 is shooting from, Shoemake, who is attack is linked to 1997-1998 bombings Peter Kevin Langan, the pseud- white, sets the restaurant on fire and of an Atlanta-area abortion clinic, an onymous “Commander Pedro” kills himself. A search of his home Atlanta gay bar and a Birmingham, who leads the underground Aryan finds references to “Separation or Ala., abortion facility. Suspect Eric Republican Army, is arrested after a Annihilation,” an essay on race rela- Robert Rudolph — a reclusive North shootout with the FBI in Ohio. Along tions by neo-Nazi National Alliance Carolina man tied to the anti-Semitic with six other suspects arrested leader William Pierce, along with an Christian Identity theology — flees around the same time, Langan arsenal of weapons that includes 17 into the woods of his native state is charged in connection with a long guns, 20,000 rounds of ammuni- after he is identified in early 1998 as string of 22 bank robberies in seven tion, and countless military manuals. a suspect in the Birmingham attack, Midwestern states between 1994 and and is only captured five years later. 1996. After pleading guilty and agree- April 26, 1996 Eventually, he pleads guilty to all ing to testify, co-conspirator Richard Two leaders of the Militia-at-Large of the attacks attributed to him in Guthrie commits suicide in his cell. of the Republic of Georgia, Robert exchange for life without parole. Two others, Kevin McCarthy and Edward Starr III and William James Scott Stedeford, enter plea bargains McCranie Jr., are charged with man- July 29, 1996 and do testify against their co-con- ufacturing shrapnel-packed pipe Washington State Militia leader John spirators. Eventually, Mark Thomas, bombs for distribution to militia Pitner and seven others are arrested a leading neo-Nazi in Pennsylvania, members. Later in the year, they are on weapons and explosives charges pleads guilty for his role in help- sentenced to terms of up to eight in connection with a plot to build ing organize the robberies and years. Another Militia-at-Large pipe bombs to resist a feared inva- agrees to testify against Langan and member, Troy Allen Kayser (alias sion by the United Nations. Pitner other gang members. Shawn Kenny, Troy Spain), is arrested two weeks and four others are convicted on another suspect, becomes a federal later and accused of training a team weapons charges, while conspir- informant. Langan is sentenced to a to assassinate politicians. Starr is acy charges against all eight end in life term in one case, plus 55 years in released from prison in 2003, while a mistrial. Pitner is later retried on another. McCarthy is released from McCranie gets out in 2001. Kayser, that charge, convicted and sentenced prison in 2007, while Stedeford’s convicted of conspiracy, is released to four years in prison. He is released release date is set in 2022. Thomas in early 2002. in 2001. receives eight years and is released in early 2004. July 1, 1996 October 8, 1996 Twelve members of an Arizona Three “Phineas Priests” — racist and April 11, 1996 militia group called the Viper Team anti-Semitic Christian Identity ter- Antigovernment activist and self- are arrested on federal conspir- rorists who feel they’ve been called described “survivalist” Ray Hamblin acy, weapons and explosive charges by God to undertake violent attacks — is charged with illegal possession of after allegedly surveilling and vid- are charged in connection with two explosives after authorities find 460 eotaping government buildings as bank robberies and bombings at the pounds of the high explosive Tovex, potential targets. All 12 plead guilty two banks, a Spokane newspaper and 746 pounds of ANFO blasting agent or are convicted of various charges, a Planned Parenthood office. Charles

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Barbee, Robert Berry and Jay Merrell grenades, live shells for grenade while Shawn and Catherine Adams, are eventually convicted and sen- launchers, artillery shells and a couple, are freed in 2006. Edward tenced to life terms. Brian Ratigan, a other military gear. Salyers was dis- Taylor Jr. is released in early 2007. fourth member of the group arrested charged earlier from the Marines, separately, draws a 55-year term; he where he taught demolitions and April 23, 1997 is scheduled for release in 2045. sniping, after tossing a live grenade Florida police arrest Todd Vanbiber, (with the pin still in) at state police a member of the neo-Nazi National October 11, 1996 officers serving him with a search Alliance’s Tampa unit and the shad- Seven members of the Mountaineer warrant in 1995. Following the 1997 owy League of the Silent Soldier, Militia are arrested in a plot to blow raid, Salyers, an alleged member after he accidentally sets off pipe up the FBI’s national fingerprint of the underground Black Dawn bombs he was building, blasting records center, where 1,000 people group of extremists in the military, shrapnel into his own face. He is work, in West Virginia. In 1998, leader is sentenced to serve three years for accused of plotting to use the bombs Floyd “Ray” Looker is sentenced to 18 weapons violations. He is released on the approach to Disney World to years in prison, with a release date of from prison in 2000. divert attention from a planned string 2012. Two other defendants are sen- of bank robberies. Vanbiber pleads tenced on explosives charges and a March 26, 1997 guilty to weapons and explosives third draws a year in prison for pro- Militia activist Brendon Blasz is charges and is sentenced to more viding blueprints of the FBI facility to arrested in Kalamazoo, Mich., and than six years in federal prison. He Looker, who then sold them to a gov- charged with making pipe bombs and is released in 2002. Within two years, ernment informant who was posing other illegal explosives. Prosecutors Vanbiber is posting messages on neo- as a terrorist. say Blasz plotted to bomb the fed- Nazi Internet sites boasting that he eral building in Battle Creek, the has built over 300 bombs success- January 16, 1997 IRS building in Portage, a Kalamazoo fully and only made one error, and Two anti-personnel bombs — the television station and federal armor- describing mass murderer Timothy second clearly designed to kill ies. But they recommend leniency on McVeigh as a hero. arriving law enforcement and res- his explosives conviction after Blasz, cue workers — explode outside an a member of the Michigan Militia April 27, 1997 abortion clinic in Sandy Springs, Corps Wolverines, renounces his After a cache of explosives stored Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. Seven peo- antigovernment beliefs and coop- in a tree blows up near Yuba City, ple are injured. Letters signed by erates with them. He is sentenced Calif., police arrest Montana the “Army of God” claim responsi- to more than three years in federal Freemen supporter William Robert bility for this attack and another, a prison and released in late 1999. Goehler. Investigators looking into month later, at an Atlanta gay bar. the blast arrest two Goehler asso- Authorities later learn that these April 22, 1997 ciates, one of them a militia leader, attacks, the 1998 bombing of a Three Ku Klux Klan members are after finding 500 pounds of explo- Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic arrested in a plot to blow up a natu- sives — enough to level three city and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics ral gas refinery outside Fort Worth, blocks — in a motor home parked bombing, were all carried out by Texas, after local Klan leader Robert outside their residence. Six oth- Eric Robert Rudolph, who is cap- Spence gets cold feet and goes to the ers are arrested on related charges. tured in 2003 after five years on the FBI. The three, along with a fourth Goehler, with previous convictions run. Rudolph avoids the death pen- arrested later, expected to kill a huge for rape, burglary and assault, is sen- alty by pleading guilty in exchange number of people with the blast — tenced to 25 years to life in prison. for a life sentence, but simultane- authorities later say as many as He is later accused of stabbing his ously releases a defiant statement 30,000 might have died — which was attorney with a shank and charged defending his attacks. to serve, incredibly, as a diversion with attacking prison psychologists. for a simultaneous armored car rob- January 22, 1997 bery. Among the victims would have May 3, 1997 Authorities raid the Martinton, been children at a nearby school. Antigovernment extremists set fire to Ill., home of former Marine Ricky All four plead guilty to conspiracy the IRS office in Colorado Springs, Salyers, an alleged Ku Klux Klan charges and are sentenced to terms Colo., causing $2.5 million in dam- member, discovering 35,000 rounds of up to 20 years. Spence enters the age and injuring a firefighter. Federal of heavy ammunition, armor pierc- Witness Protection Program. Carl agents later arrest five men in con- ing shells, smoke and tear gas Jay Waskom Jr. is released in 2004, nection with the arson, which is

15 southern poverty law center conceived as a protest against the tax napping, robbery and conspiracy. armored car heists. New Order mem- system. Ringleader James Cleaver, Kehoe and Lee will also face state bers plotted to assassinate a federal former national director of the anti- charges of murdering an Arkansas judge and civil rights lawyer Morris government Sons of Liberty group, is family, including an 8-year-old girl, in Dees, blow up the Southern Poverty accused of threatening a witness and 1996. Kehoe ultimately receives a life Law Center that Dees co-founded eventually sentenced to 33 years in sentence on that charge, while Lee is and other buildings, poison water prison, with a release date of 2030. sentenced to death. Lovelace is sen- supplies and rob banks. Wallace Accomplice Jack Dowell receives 30 tenced to death for the murder of a Weicherding, one of the men, came to years and is scheduled to be freed suspected informant, but because of a 1997 Dees speech with a concealed in 2027. Both are ordered to pay court rulings is later resentenced to gun but turned back rather than pass $2.2 million in restitution. Dowell’s life without parole. Kehoe’s brother, through a metal detector. In the end, cousin is acquitted of all charges, Cheyne, is convicted of attempted all six plead guilty or are convicted of while two other suspects, Ronald murder during a 1997 Ohio shootout weapons charges, drawing terms of Sherman and Thomas Shafer, plead with police and sentenced to 24 years up to seven years in federal prison. guilty to perjury charges in connec- in prison, despite his helping author- New Order leader Dennis McGiffen tion with the case. ities track down his fugitive brother is released in 2004, the last of the six in Utah after the shootout. Cheyne to regain his freedom. July 4, 1997 went to the authorities after Chevie Militiaman Bradley Playford Glover began talking about murdering their March 18, 1998 and another heavily armed antigov- parents and showing sexual interest Three members of the North ernment activist are arrested before in Cheyne’s wife. American Militia of Southwestern dawn near Fort Hood, in central Michigan are arrested on firearms Texas, just hours before they planned January 29, 1998 and other charges. Prosecutors say to invade the Army base and slaugh- An off-duty police officer is killed the men conspired to bomb federal ter foreign troops they mistakenly and a nurse terribly maimed when buildings, a Kalamazoo television believed were housed there. In the a nail-packed, remote-control bomb station and an interstate highway next few days, five other people are explodes outside a Birmingham, Ala., interchange, kill federal agents, arrested in several states for their abortion facility, the New Woman All assassinate politicians and attack alleged roles in the plot to invade Women clinic. Letters to media out- aircraft at a National Guard base — a series of military bases where lets and officials claim responsibility attacks that were all to be funded by the group believes United Nations in the name of the “Army of God,” the marijuana sales. The group’s leader, forces are massing for an assault same entity that took credit for the Ken Carter, is a self-described mem- on Americans. All seven are part bombings of a clinic and a gay bar ber of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations. of a splinter group from the Third in the Atlanta area. The attack also Carter pleads guilty, testifies against Continental Congress, a kind of mili- will be linked to the fatal 1996 bomb- his former comrades, and is sen- tia government-in-waiting. In the ing of the Atlanta Olympics. Eric tenced to five years in prison. The end, Glover is sentenced to two years Robert Rudolph, a loner from North others, Randy Graham and Bradford on Kansas weapons charges, to be Carolina, is first identified as a sus- Metcalf, go to trial and are ultimately followed by a five-year federal term pect when witnesses spot his pickup handed sentences of 40 and 55 years, in connection with the Fort Hood truck fleeing the Birmingham bomb- respectively. Carter is released from plot. The others draw lesser terms. ing. But he is not caught until 2003. prison in 2002. Glover is released in 2003, the last of He ultimately pleads guilty to all four the seven to get out. attacks in exchange for a life sentence. May 29, 1998 A day after stealing a water truck, December 12, 1997 February 23, 1998 three men shoot and kill a Cortez, A federal grand jury in Arkansas Three men with links to a Ku Klux Colo., police officer and wound two indicts three men on racketeering Klan group are arrested near East other officers as they try to stop the charges for plotting to overthrow St. Louis, Ill., on weapons charges. suspects during a road chase. After the government and create a whites- The three, along with three other the gun battle, the three — Alan only Aryan People’s Republic, which men arrested later, formed a group Monty Pilon, Robert Mason and they intend to grow through polyg- called The New Order, patterned Jason McVean — disappear into the amy. Chevie Kehoe, Daniel Lee and on a 1980s terror group called The canyons of the high desert. Mason is Faron Lovelace are accused of crimes Order (a.k.a. the Silent Brotherhood) found a week later, dead of an appar- in six states, including murder, kid- that carried out assassinations and ently self-inflicted gunshot. The

16 southern poverty law center skeletal remains of Pilon are found to hide out in Ireland and France. clinic in Sacramento. Both brothers, in 1999 and show that he, too, died of Two fellow anti-abortion extremists, whose mother at one point refers in a gunshot to the head, another appar- Loretta Marra and Dennis Malvasi, a conversation to her sons’ victims ent suicide. McVean is not found, but make plans to help Kopp secretly as “two homos,” eventually admit most authorities assume he died in return. Kopp, also suspected in the their guilt — in Matthew’s case, in a the desert. Many officials believe the earlier sniper woundings of four newspaper interview. Matthew, who three men intended to use the water physicians in Canada and upstate at one point badly injures a guard in truck in some kind of terrorist attack, New York, is arrested in France as he a surprise attack, commits suicide in but the nature of their suspected picks up money wired by Marra and 2002. Tyler, who pleads guilty to an plans is never learned. Malvasi. He eventually admits the array of charges in the case, and is shooting to a newspaper reporter — given two sentences amounting to July 1, 1998 claiming that he only intended to 50 years to be served consecutively. Three men are charged with con- wound Slepian — and is sentenced to spiracy to use weapons of mass life in prison plus 10 years. In 2003, July 2, 1999 destruction after threatening Marra and Malvasi are sentenced to Infuriated that neo-Nazi leader Matt President Clinton and other federal time served after pleading guilty to Hale has just been denied his law officials with biological weapons. federal charges related to harboring license by Illinois officials, follower Officials say the men planned to use a fugitive. Benjamin Nathaniel Smith begins a a cactus thorn coated with a toxin three-day murder spree across Illinois like anthrax and fired by a modified June 10, 1999 and Indiana, shooting to death a pop- butane lighter to carry out the mur- Officials arrest Alabama plumber ular black former college basketball ders. One man is acquitted of the Chris Scott Gilliam, a member of the coach and a Korean doctoral student charges, but Jack Abbot Grebe Jr., neo-Nazi National Alliance, after he and wounding nine other minor- and Johnnie Wise — a 72-year-old attempts to purchase 10 hand gre- ities. Smith kills himself as police man who attended meetings of the nades from an undercover federal close in during a car chase. Hale, separatist Republic of Texas group — agent. Gilliam, who months earlier the “Pontifex Maximus,” or leader, are sentenced to more than 24 years paraded in an extremist T-shirt in of the World Church of the Creator, in prison. The men are set for release front of the Southern Poverty Law at first claims to barely know Smith. in 2019. Center’s offices in Montgomery, tells But it quickly emerges that Hale has agents he planned to send mail bombs recently given Smith his group’s top July 30, 1998 to targets in Washington, D.C. Agents award and, in fact, spent some 16 South Carolina militia member Paul searching his home find bomb-mak- hours on the phone with him in the T. Chastain is charged with weap- ing manuals, white supremacist two weeks before Smith’s rampage. ons, explosives and drug violations literature and an assault rifle. Gilliam Conveniently, Hale receives a regis- after allegedly trying to trade drugs pleads guilty to federal firearms tered letter from Smith just days after for a machine gun and enough C-4 charges and is sentenced to 10 years his suicide, informing Hale that Smith plastic explosive to demolish a five- in prison. He is released in early 2008. is quitting the group because he now room house. The next year, Chastain sees violence as the only answer. pleads guilty to an array of charges, July 1, 1999 including threatening to kill Attorney A gay couple, Gary Matson and August 10, 1999 General Janet Reno and FBI Director Winfield Mowder, are shot to death Buford Furrow, a former member of Louis Freeh. He is sentenced to 15 in bed at their home near Redding, the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations who has years in federal prison, with release Calif. Days later, after tracking pur- been living with the widow of slain scheduled in 2011. chases made on Mowder’s stolen terrorist leader Bob Mathews, strides credit card, police arrest brothers into a Jewish community center near October 23, 1998 Benjamin Matthew Williams and Los Angeles and fires more than 70 Dr. Barnett Slepian is assassinated James Tyler Williams. At least one bullets, wounding three boys, a teen- by a sniper as he talks with his wife of the pair, Matthew Williams (both age girl and a woman. He then drives and children in the kitchen of their use their middle names), is an adher- into the San Fernando Valley and Amherst, N.Y., home. Identified ent of the anti-Semitic Christian murders Filipino-American mailman as a suspect shortly after the mur- Identity theology. Police soon learn Joseph Ileto. The next day, Furrow der, James Charles Kopp flees to that the brothers two weeks earlier turns himself in, saying he intended Mexico, driven and disguised by carried out arson attacks against to send “a wake-up call to America to friend Jennifer Rock, and goes on three synagogues and an abortion kill Jews.” Furrow, who has a history

17 southern poverty law center of mental illness, eventually pleads Trix cereal, is sentenced to five years of God, Yahweh’s Warriors” that guilty and is sentenced to two life in federal prison. He is released in contains what officials call a list terms without parole, plus 110 years 2004, a year after accomplice James of targets, including a local fed- in prison. Troy Diver is freed following a simi- eral building and the FBI’s Oregon lar conviction. offices. Springmeier, an associ- November 5, 1999 ate of the anti-Semitic Christian FBI agents arrest James Kenneth March 9, 2000 Patriots Association, is eventually Gluck in Tampa, Fla., after he wrote Federal agents arrest Mark Wayne charged with setting off a diversion- a 10-page letter to judges in Jefferson McCool, the one-time leader of the ary bomb at an adult video store in County, Colo., threatening to “wage Texas Militia and Combined Action Damascus, Ore., in 1997 as part of a biological warfare” on a county jus- Program, as he allegedly makes plans bank robbery carried out by accom- tice center. While searching his home, to attack the Houston federal build- plice Forrest Bateman Jr. Another police find the materials needed to ing. McCool, who was arrested after 2001 raid finds small amounts of make ricin, one of the deadliest poi- buying powerful C-4 plastic explo- bomb materials and marijuana sons known. Gluck later threatens sives and an automatic weapon from in Bateman’s home. Eventually, a judge, claiming that he could kill an undercover FBI agent, earlier Bateman pleads guilty to bank rob- 10,000 people with the chemical. plotted to attack the federal build- bery and Springmeier is convicted After serving time in federal prison, ing with a member of his own group of the same charges. Both are sen- Gluck is released in early 2001. and a member of the antigovern- tenced to nine years, and have ment Republic of Texas, but those release dates in 2011. December 5, 1999 two men eventually abandoned the Two California men, both mem- plot. McCool, however, remained April 19, 2001 bers of the San Joaquin Militia, are convinced the UN had stored a cache White supremacists Leo Felton and charged with conspiracy in con- of military materiel in the building. girlfriend Erica Chase are arrested nection with a plot to blow up two In the end, he pleads guilty to fed- following a foot chase that began 12-million-gallon propane tanks, a eral charges that bring him just six when a police officer spotted them television tower and an electrical months in jail. trying to pass counterfeit bills at a substation in hopes of provoking Boston donut shop. Investigators an insurrection. In 2001, the for- April 28, 2000 quickly learn Felton heads up a tiny mer militia leader, Donald Rudolph, Immigration attorney Richard group called Aryan Unit One, and pleads guilty to plotting to kill a fed- Baumhammers, himself the son that the couple, who had already eral judge and blow up the propane of Latvian immigrants, goes on a obtained a timing device, planned tanks, and testifies against his for- rampage in the Pittsburgh area to blow up black and Jewish land- mer comrades. Kevin Ray Patterson against non-whites, killing five marks and possibly assassinate and Charles Dennis Kiles are ulti- people and critically wounding a black and Jewish leaders. They also mately convicted of several charges sixth. Baumhammers had recently learn another amazing fact: Felton, in connection with the conspiracy. started a tiny white supremacist a self-described Aryan, is secretly They are expected to be released group, the Free Market Party, that biracial. Felton and Chase are even- from federal prison in 2021 and demanded an end to non-white tually convicted of conspiracy, 2018, respectively. immigration into the United States. weapons violations and obstruction, In the end, the unemployed attor- and Felton is also convicted of bank December 8, 1999 ney, who is living with parents at robbery and other charges. Felton, Donald Beauregard, head of a militia the time of his murder spree, is sen- who previously served 11 years for coalition known as the Southeastern tenced to death. assaulting a black taxi driver, is sen- States Alliance, is charged with con- tenced to serve more than 21 years spiracy, providing materials for a March 1, 2001 in federal prison, while his one-time terrorist act and gun violations in As part of an ongoing probe into a sweetheart draws a lesser sentence a plot to bomb energy facilities and white supremacist group, federal and is released in 2007. cause power outages in Florida and and local law enforcement agents Georgia. After pleading guilty to sev- raid the Corbett, Ore., home of Fritz October 14, 2001 eral charges, Beauregard, who once Springmeier, seizing equipment to A North Carolina sheriff’s dep- claimed to have discovered a secret grow marijuana and weapons and uty pulls over Steve Anderson, a map detailing a planned UN take- racist literature. They also find a former “colonel” in the Kentucky over mistakenly printed on a box of binder notebook entitled “Army Militia, on a routine traffic stop as

18 southern poverty law center he heads home to Kentucky from spiring to bomb the offices of U.S. rounds of ammunition. Also found a white supremacist gathering in Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.) and the are “intel sheets” with personal North Carolina. Anderson, who is an King Fahd Mosque in Culver City. information about law enforcement adherent of racist Christian Identity Authorities say a confidential infor- officers, their spouses and children. theology and has issued violent mant taped meetings with the two in Although officials are convinced the threats against officials for months which the bombings were discussed Project 7 plot was real, Burgert ulti- via an illegal pirate radio station, and Krugel said the JDL needed “to mately is convicted only of weapons pulls out a semi-automatic weapon do something to one of their filthy charges and draws a seven-year sen- and peppers the deputy’s car with mosques.” Rubin later commits tence; he is to be released in 2010. Six bullets before driving his truck into suicide in prison, officials say, just others are also convicted of or plead the woods and disappearing for 13 before he is to go on trial in 2002. guilty to weapons charges. Brockway months. Officials later find six pipe Krugel pleads guilty to conspiracy gets a suspended sentence for har- bombs in Anderson’s abandoned in both plots, and testifies that Rubin boring a fugitive, but is sent to prison truck and 27 bombs and destruc- conspired with him. Krugel dies in for violating its terms. She is released tive devices in his home. In the end, prison in 2005. in early 2008. Anderson apologizes for his actions and pleads guilty. He is sentenced January 4, 2002 July 19, 2002 on a variety of firearms charges to 15 Neo-Nazi National Alliance member Acting on a tip, federal and local years in federal prison. Michael Edward Smith is arrested law enforcement agents arrest after a car chase in Nashville, Tenn., North Carolina Klan leader Charles December 5, 2001 that began when he was spotted sit- Robert Barefoot Jr. for his role in an Anti-abortion extremist Clayton Lee ting in a car with a semi-automatic alleged plot to blow up the Johnson Wagner, who nine months earlier rifle pointed at Sherith Israel Pre- County Sheriff’s Office, the sher- escaped from an Illinois jail while School, run by a local synagogue. In iff himself and the county jail. awaiting sentencing on weapons Smith’s car, home and storage unit, Officers find more than two dozen and carjacking charges, is arrested officials find an arsenal that includes weapons in Barefoot’s home. They in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wagner’s odys- a .50-caliber rifle, 10 hand grenades, also find bombs and bomb compo- sey began in September 1999, when 13 pipe bombs, binary explosives, nents in the home of Barefoot’s son, he was stopped driving a stolen semi-automatic pistols, ammunition Daniel Barefoot, who is charged that camper in Illinois and told police and an array of military manu- same day with the arson of a school he was headed to Seattle to murder als. They also find teenage porn on bus and an empty barn. The elder an abortion provider. He escaped in Smith’s computer and evidence that Barefoot — who broke away from February 2001 and, while on the lam, he carried out computer searches for the National Knights of the KKK mailed more than 550 hoax anthrax Jewish schools and synagogues. In several months earlier to form his letters to abortion clinics and posted one of his E-mails, Smith wrote that own harder-line group, the Nation’s an Internet threat warning abortion Jews “perhaps” should be “stuffed Knights of the KKK — is charged clinic workers that “if you work for head first into an oven.” Smith is with weapons violations and later the murderous abortionist, I’m going sentenced to more than 10 years in sentenced to more than two years. to kill you.” Wagner is eventually prison, with an expected release date In 2003, Barefoot’s wife and three sentenced to 30 years on the Illinois in 2011. men, including Barefoot Sr., are charges. In Ohio, he is sentenced to charged with the murder of a former almost 20 years more, to be served February 8, 2002 Klan member. In 2007, a judge rules consecutively, on various weapons The leader of a militia-like group Barefoot Sr. mentally incompetent to and car theft charges related to his known as Project 7 and his girlfriend stand trial for murder and commits time on the run. In late 2003, he also are arrested after an informant tells him indefinitely to a mental hospital. is found guilty of 51 federal terror- police the group is plotting to kill Sharon Barefoot was released from ism charges. He is scheduled to be judges and law enforcement offi- prison in July 2009. released in 2046. cers in order to kick off a revolution. David Burgert, who has a record for August 22, 2002 December 11, 2001 burglary and is already wanted for Tampa area podiatrist Robert J. Jewish Defense League chairman assaulting police officers, is found Goldstein is arrested after police, Irving David Rubin and a follower, in the house of girlfriend Tracy called by Goldstein’s wife after he Earl Leslie Krugel, are arrested in Brockway along with an arsenal allegedly threatened to kill her, find California and charged with con- that includes pipe bombs and 25,000 more than 15 explosive devices in

19 southern poverty law center their home, along with materials to in the case, Joan Humphrey Lefkow, guilty of weapons violations and sen- make at least 30 more. Also found are who he has publicly vilified as some- tenced to 12 years in federal prison. He homemade C-4 plastic explosives, one bent on the destruction of his is to be released in 2012. grenades and mines, a .50-caliber group. (Although Lefkow originally rifle, semi-automatic weapons, and ruled in WCOTC’s favor, an appeals April 3, 2003 a list of 50 Islamic worship centers court found that the complaint Federal agents arrest antigovernment in the area. The most significant brought by an identically named extremist David Roland Hinkson in discovery is a three-page plan detail- church in Oregon was legally jus- Idaho and charge him with trying ing plans to “kill all ‘rags’“ at the tified, and Lefkow reversed herself to hire an assassin on two occasions Islamic Society of Pinellas County. accordingly.) In guarded language in 2002 and 2003 to murder a fed- Eventually, two other local men are captured on tape recordings, Hale eral judge, a prosecutor and an IRS also charged in connection with the is heard agreeing that his security agent involved in a tax case against plot, and Goldstein’s wife is arrested chief, an FBI informant, should kill him. Hinkson, a businessman who for possessing illegal destructive Lefkow. Hale is found guilty and earned millions of dollars from his devices. Goldstein pleads guilty sentenced to serve 40 years in fed- Water Oz dietary supplement com- to plotting to blow up the Islamic eral prison; he is not expected to be pany but refused to pay almost $1 Society and is sentenced to more released until 2037. million in federal taxes, is convicted than 12 years in federal prison, with in 2004 of 26 counts related to the a release date in 2013. His wife was January 18, 2003 tax case. In early 2005, a federal jury released in 2006. James D. Brailey, a convicted felon finds him guilty in the assassination who once was selected as “governor” plot as well. He is not expected to be October 3, 2002 of the state of Washington by the released until 2040. Officials close in on long-time anti- antigovernment Washington Jural government extremist Larry Raugust Society, is arrested after a raid on April 10, 2003 at a rest stop in Idaho, arrest him and his home turns up a machine gun, an The FBI raids the Noonday, Texas, charge him with 16 counts of making assault rifle and several handguns. home of William Krar and stor- and possessing destructive devices, One informant tells the FBI that age facilities that Krar rented in the including pipe bombs and pressure- Brailey was plotting to assassinate area, discovering an arsenal that detonated booby traps. He is accused Gov. Gary Locke, both because Locke includes more than 500,000 rounds of giving one explosive device to an was the state’s real governor and of ammunition, 65 pipe bombs and undercover agent, and is also named because he was Chinese-American. remote-control briefcase bombs, and as an unindicted co-conspirator in A second informant says that Brailey almost two pounds of deadly sodium a plot with colleagues in the Idaho actually went on a “dry run” to cyanide. Also found are components Mountain Boys militia to murder a Olympia, carrying several guns into to convert the cyanide into a bomb federal judge and a police officer, and the state Capitol building to test capable of killing thousands, along to break a friend out of jail. A dead- security. Eventually, Brailey pleads with white supremacist and anti- beat dad, Raugust is also accused of guilty to weapons charges and is sen- government material. Investigators helping plant land mines on property tenced to serve 15 months in prison. soon learn Krar was stopped earlier belonging to a friend whose land was He is released in 2004. in 2003 by police in Tennessee, who seized by authorities over unpaid found several weapons and coded taxes. He eventually pleads guilty February 13, 2003 documents in his car that seemed to 15 counts of making bombs and is Federal agents in Pennsylvania arrest to detail a plot. But Krar refuses to sentenced to federal prison. Raugust David Wayne Hull, imperial wizard of cooperate, and details of that alleged was released in early 2008. the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan plan are never learned. He pleads and an adherent of the anti-Semitic guilty to possession of a chemical January 8, 2003 Christian Identity theology, alleging weapon and is sentenced to more Federal agents arrest Matt Hale, that Hull arranged to buy hand gre- than 11 years in prison, where he dies. the national leader of the neo- nades to blow up abortion clinics. The Nazi World Church of the Creator FBI says Hull also illegally instructed June 4, 2003 (WCOTC), as he reports to a followers on how to build pipe bombs. Federal agents in California Chicago courthouse in an ongoing Hull, who published a newsletter in announce that former accoun- copyright case over the name of his which he urged readers to write tant John Noster, in prison since group. Hale is charged with solicit- Oklahoma bomber Tim McVeigh “to November 2002 for car theft, is ing the murder of the federal judge tell this great man goodbye,” is found under investigation for plotting a

20 southern poverty law center major terrorist attack. Noster was boasts that instead of merely pro- up. Eventually, Braden, who also first arrested as part of a car theft nouncing the white-supremacist “14 possessed neo-Nazi literature and ring investigation, but officials who Words” slogan (“We must secure the reportedly hated blacks and Jews found incendiary devices in his sto- existence of our people and a future from an early age, pleads guilty to len camper continued to probe his for White children”), he will carry conspiring to blow up the armory. activities. Eventually, they find out 14 violent attacks. A former mem- He is sentenced to prison, where his in various storage facilities three ber of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations, release is expected in 2017. pipe bombs, six barrels of jet fuel, Gillespie is found guilty of the attack five assault weapons, cannon fuse, and later sentenced to 39 years in October 25, 2004 a large amount of ammunition and federal prison, with an expected FBI agents in Tennessee arrest farm- $188,000 in cash. Law enforcement release date of 2038. hand Demetrius “Van” Crocker after officials, who describe Noster as an he tried to purchase ingredients for “antigovernment extremist,” allege May 24, 2004 deadly sarin nerve gas and C-4 plas- at a press conference that he “was During the attempted robbery of a tic explosives from an undercover definitely planning” on an attack Tulsa bank by Wade and Christopher agent. The FBI reports that Crocker, but do not elaborate. In addition Lay, a father-and-son pair of political who local officials say was involved to prison time in that case, Noster extremists, security guard Kenneth in a white supremacist group in the draws another five years in 2009, Anderson is shot to death. Both rob- 1980s, tells the agent that he admires after pleading guilty to two weap- bers are wounded, and are arrested a Hitler and hates Jews and the govern- ons charges. short time after fleeing the bank. At ment. He also says “it would be a good trial, Wade Lay testifies that he and thing if somebody could detonate October 10, 2003 his son acted “for the good of the some sort of weapon of mass destruc- Police arrest Norman Somerville American people” and in an effort tion on Washington, D.C.” Crocker is after finding a huge weapons cache to “preserve liberty.” Other evi- convicted of trying to get explosives on his property in northern Michigan dence shows the pair hoped to get to destroy a building and imprisoned that includes six machine guns, a money to pay for weapons that they until an expected release in 2030. powerful anti-aircraft gun, thou- intended to use to kill Texas officials sands of rounds of ammunition, who they believed were responsible May 20, 2005 hundreds of pounds of gunpowder, for the deadly 1993 standoff between Officials in New Jersey arrest two and an underground bunker. They the authorities and religious cultists men they say asked a police infor- also find two vehicles Somerville in Waco. In the end, Wade Lay is mant to build them a bomb. Craig calls his “war wagons,” and on which sentenced to death for first-degree Orler, who has a history of burglary prosecutors later say he planned to murder, while his son gets 25 years arrests, and Gabriel Carafa, said to mount machine guns as part of a plan for armed robbery. be a leader of the neo-Nazi World to stage an auto accident and then Church of the Creator and a mem- massacre arriving police. Officials October 13, 2004 ber of a racist Skinhead group called describe Somerville as an antigov- Ivan Duane Braden, a former The Hated, are charged with illegally ernment extremist enraged over the National Guardsman discharged selling 11 guns to police informants. death of Scott Woodring, a Michigan from an Iraq-bound unit after supe- Carafa gave one informant 60 pounds Militia member killed by police a riors noted signs of instability, is of urea to use in building him a bomb, week after Woodring shot and killed arrested after checking into a mental but never said what the bomb was a state trooper during a standoff. health facility and telling counselors for. Police say they moved in before Somerville eventually pleads guilty about plans to blow up a synagogue the alleged bombing plot developed to weapons charges and is sentenced and a National Guard armory in further because they were concerned to six years in prison. He is scheduled Tennessee. The FBI reports that about the pair’s activities. They taped to be released in late 2009. Braden told agents that he planned Orler saying in a phone call that he to go to a synagogue wearing a trench was seeking people in Europe to April 1, 2004 coat stuffed with explosives and get help him go underground. Orler is Neo-Nazi Skinhead Sean Gillespie himself “as close to children and the sentenced to more than 10 years in videotapes himself as he firebombs rabbi as possible,” a plan Braden also prison, while Carafa draws seven. Temple B’nai Israel, an Oklahoma outlined in notes found in his home. City synagogue, as part of a film he In addition, he intended to take June 10, 2005 is preparing to inspire other racists and kill hostages at the Lenoir City Daniel J. Schertz, a former member to violent revolution. In it, Gillespie Armory, before blowing the armory of the North Georgia White Knights

21 southern poverty law center of the Ku Klux Klan, is indicted in grenades, an improvised grenade Perry Landis. Landis, who is to be Chattanooga, Tenn., on federal weap- launcher, a Sten Mark submachine sentenced in late 2009, allegedly tells ons charges for allegedly making gun, a silencer, 2,500 rounds of undercover agents he wanted to kill seven pipe bombs and selling them ammunition and almost 100 mari- Gov. Ed Rendell. Hall is sentenced to to an undercover informant with juana plants. Raymond Kirk Dillard, more than two years. the idea that they would be used to the founder and “commander” of murder Mexican and Haitian immi- the group, pleads guilty to criminal August 24, 2008 grant workers. The informant says conspiracy, illegally making and pos- White supremacists Shawn Robert Schertz demonstrated how to attach sessing destructive devices and being a Adolf, Tharin Robert Gartrell and the pipe bombs to cars, then sold felon in possession of a firearm. Other Nathan D. Johnson are arrested him bombs that Schertz expected to members of the group — Bonnell in Denver during the Democratic be used against a group of Haitians “Buster” Hughes, James Ray McElroy, National Convention on weap- and, separately, Mexican workers Adam Lynn Cunningham and Randall ons charges and for possession of on a bus headed to work in Florida. Garrett — also plead guilty to related amphetamines. Although police say Schertz eventually pleads guilty to charges. Although Dillard, who com- they talked about assassinating pres- six charges — including teaching plained about the collapse of the idential candidate Barack Obama, how to make an explosive device; American economy, terrorist attacks they are not charged in connection making, possessing and transferring and Mexicans taking over the coun- with that threat because officials see destructive devices; and possessing a try, reportedly told his troops to open their talk as drug-fueled boasting. pistol with armor-piercing bullets — fire on federal agents if ever con- Police report the three had high- and is sentenced to 14 years in prison. fronted, no shots are fired during the powered, scoped rifles, wigs, camou- He is to be released in 2017. April raid, and the “commander” even flage clothing and a bulletproof vest, points out booby-trap tripwires on his along with the crystal methamphet- March 19, 2006 property to investigators. Dillard and amine. Gartrell was released from U.S. Treasury agents in Utah arrest Garrett draw the harshest sentences, prison in June 2009, while Johnson David J. D’Addabbo for alleg- with releases scheduled for 2012 and was to be freed in 2010. Adolf, who edly threatening Internal Revenue 2018, respectively. was already wanted on other charges, Service employees with “death by drew a longer sentence. firing squad” if they continued to June 8, 2008 try to collect taxes from him and his Six people, most of them tied to the October 24, 2008 wife. D’Addabbo, who was reportedly militia movement, are arrested in Two white supremacists, Daniel carrying a Glock pistol, 40 rounds of rural north-central Pennsylvania Cowart and Paul Schlesselman, are ammunition and a switchblade knife after officials find stockpiles of arrested in Tennessee for allegedly when he was seized leaving a church assault rifles, improvised explosives plotting to assassinate Barack Obama service, allegedly wrote to the U.S. and homemade weapons, at least and murder more than 100 black peo- Tax Court that anyone attempting some of them apparently intended ple. Officials say Schlesselman and to collect taxes would be tried by a for terrorist attacks on U.S. officials. Cowart, a probationary member of “jury of common people. You then Agents find 16 homemade bombs the racist skinhead group Supreme could be found guilty of treason and during a search of the residence White Alliance, planned to kill 88 immediately taken to a firing squad.” of Pennsylvania Citizens Militia people, then behead another 14. (Both In August D’Addabbo pleads guilty recruiter Bradley T. Kahle, who alleg- numbers are significant in white to one charge of threatening a gov- edly tells authorities that he intended supremacist circles. H is the eighth ernment agent in exchange for the to shoot black people from a roof- letter of the alphabet, so double 8s dismissal of three other charges of top in Pittsburgh and also predicts stand for HH, or “Heil Hitler.” The threatening IRS agents. He is sen- civil war if Barack Obama or Hillary number 14 represents the “14 Words,” tenced to time served and released Clinton are elected president. A raid a popular racist saying.) The pair are the same year as his arrest. on the property of Morgan Jones indicted on charges that include results in the seizure of 73 weapons, threatening a presidential candi- April 26, 2007 including a homemade flame thrower, date, possessing a sawed-off shotgun, Five members of the Alabama Free a machine that supposedly shot bolts taking firearms across state lines to Militia are arrested in north Alabama of electricity, and an improvised can- commit crimes, planning to rob a in a raid by federal and state law non. Also arrested and charged with licensed gun dealer, damaging reli- enforcement officers that uncov- weapons violations are Marvin E. gious property, and using a firearm ers a cache of 130 homemade hand Hall, his girlfriend Melissa Huet and during the commission of a crime.

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December 9, 2008 contact with white supremacists but fatally shot during a gun battle with Police responding to a shooting at a spent the previous six months read- pursuing officers. Cartwright’s wife home in Belfast, Maine, find James ing racist websites, told them he later tells investigators that her hus- G. Cummings dead, allegedly killed was “fighting for a dying race.” Luke band was “severely disturbed” that by his wife after years of domestic also says he formed his racist views Barack Obama has been elected pres- abuse. They also find a cache of radio- in large part after watching videos ident. He also reportedly believed active materials, which Cummings on Podblanc, a racist video-shar- the U.S. government was conspir- was apparently using to try to build ing website run by longtime white ing against him. The sheriff tells a radioactive “dirty bomb,” along supremacist Craig Cobb. When he reporters that Cartwright had been with literature on how to build such later appears in court for a hearing, interested in joining a militia group. a deadly explosive. Police also dis- Luke, charged with murder, kidnap- cover a membership application ping and aggravated rape, has etched May 31, 2009 filled out by Cummings for the neo- a swastika into his own forehead, Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion Nazi National Socialist Movement. apparently using a jail razor. extremist who was involved with the Friends say that Cummings had antigovernment “freemen” move- a collection of Nazi memorabilia. April 4, 2009 ment in the 1990s, allegedly shoots The authorities say Cummings was Three Pittsburgh police officers — to death Kansas late-term abortion reportedly “very upset” by the elec- Paul Sciullo III, Stephen Mayhle provider George Tiller as the doctor tion of Barack Obama. and Eric Kelly — are fatally shot is serving as an usher in his Wichita and a fourth, Timothy McManaway, church. Adherents of “freemen” December 16, 2008 is wounded after responding to a ideology claim they are “sovereign Kody Ray Brittingham, a lance cor- domestic dispute at the home of citizens” not subject to federal and poral in the U.S. Marine Corps, Richard Andrew Poplawski, who other laws, and often form their own is arrested with four others on had posted his racist and anti-Semitic “common law” courts and issue their attempted robbery charges. A views on white supremacist websites. own license plates. It was one of those search of his barracks room at Camp In one post, Poplawski talks about homemade plates that led Topeka Lejeune, N.C., allegedly turns up wanting a white supremacist tattoo. police to stop Roeder in April 1996, white supremacist materials and a He also reportedly tells a friend that when a search of his trunk revealed a journal written by Brittingham con- America is controlled by a cabal of pound of gunpowder, a 9-volt battery taining plans to kill Barack Obama. Jews, that U.S. troops may soon be wired to a switch, blasting caps and Brittingham is indicted for threaten- used against American citizens, and ammunition. A prosecutor in that case ing the president-elect of the United that he fears a ban on guns is coming. called Roeder a “substantial threat to States, a crime that carries a maxi- Poplawski later allegedly tells investi- public safety,” citing Roeder’s refusal mum penalty of five years in federal gators that he fired extra bullets into to acknowledge the court’s authority. prison and a fine of up to $250,000. the bodies of two of the officers “just But his conviction in the 1996 case is to make sure they were dead” and ultimately overturned. In the more January 21, 2009 says he “thought I got that one, too” recent case, Roeder is charged with On the day after Barack Obama is when told that the fourth officer sur- murder and could face up to life in inaugurated as the nation’s first black vived. More law enforcement officers prison if convicted. president, Keith Luke of Brockton, are killed during the incident than in Mass., is arrested after allegedly any other single act of violence by a June 10, 2009 shooting three black immigrants domestic political extremist since the Eighty-eight-year-old James von from Cape Verde, killing two of 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Brunn, a longtime neo-Nazi, walks them, as part of a racially motivated up to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial killing spree. The two murders are April 25, 2009 Museum and allegedly shoots to apparently only part of Luke’s plan Joshua Cartwright, a Florida National death security guard Stephen Johns to kill black, Latino and Jewish peo- Guardsman, allegedly shoots to death before he is himself shot and crit- ple. After being captured by police, two Okaloosa County, Fla., sheriff’s ically wounded by other officers. he reportedly says he planned to go deputies — Burt Lopez and Warren Von Brunn, who earlier served six to an Orthodox synagogue near his “Skip” York — at a gun range as the years in connection with his 1981 home that night and “kill as many officers attempt to arrest Cartwright attempt to kidnap the members of the Jews as possible.” Police say Luke, on domestic violence charges. After Federal Reserve Board at the point of a white man who apparently had no fleeing the scene, Cartwright is a sawed-off shotgun, has been active

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in the white supremacist movement (MAD), an anti-immigrant vigilante June 25, 2009 for more than four decades. As early group that conducts “citizen patrols” Longtime white supremacist Dennis as the early 1970s, he worked at the on the Arizona-Mexico border — is Mahon and his brother Daniel are Holocaust-denying Noontide Press, charged with two counts of first- indicted in Arizona in connection and in subsequent decades, he comes degree murder for her alleged role with a mail bomb sent in 2004 to a to know many of the key leaders of in the slayings of a Latino man and diversity office in Scottsdale that the radical right. A search of von his 9-year-old daughter in Arivaca, injured three people. Mahon, for- Brunn’s car after the museum attack Ariz. Forde allegedly orchestrated merly tied to the neo-Nazi White turns up a list of other apparent tar- the May 30 home invasion because Aryan Resistance (WAR) group, gets, including the White House, the she believed the man was a narcot- allegedly left a phone message at the Capitol, the National Cathedral and ics trafficker and wanted to steal office saying that “the White Aryan The Washington Post. A note allegedly drugs and cash to fund her group. Resistance is growing in Scottsdale. left by von Brunn in his car reads: Authorities say the murders, includ- There’s a few white people who “You want my weapons; this is how ing the killing of the child, were are standing up.” In a related raid, you’ll get them … the Holocaust is part of the plan. Also arrested and agents search the Indiana home of a lie … Obama was created by Jews. charged with murder are the alleged Tom Metzger, founder of WAR, but Obama does what his Jew owners tell triggerman, MAD Operations he is not arrested. On the same day, him to do. Jews captured America’s Director Jason Eugene “Gunny” white supremacist Robert Joos is money. Jews control the mass media.” Bush, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, arrested in rural Missouri, appar- He is charged with murder. a local member of MAD. Authorities ently because phone records show say that Bush had ties to the neo- that Dennis Mahon’s first call after June 12, 2009 Nazi Aryan Nations in Idaho, and the mail bombing was to Joos’ cell Shawna Forde — the executive direc- that Forde has spoken of recruiting phone. Joos is charged with being a tor of Minutemen American Defense its members. felon in possession of firearms.

s s s

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