Fwd: The American Taliban
Frances Morey
frances_morey@yahoo.com
Fri Jan 23 19:18:12 2004
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It is not just the stateless Al Quada we have to fear but the terrorists among us...
Some persons are totally transfixed on the idea that history will remember them, dammit!
Follow the motivation.
I read an interesting book, a book of photographs with bios on each page of persons who were wrongly convicted and since exonerated and freed, a number of them in Texas, who had been on death row. The most salient feature of the book was that most of the crimes were rapes with murders following the rapes, and they were freed by virtue of having exculpatory DNA evidence from that found in the criminalist's rape kit. A sitting judge told me that jurys get it right only about half the time. That means that innocents are in prison and guilty people are on the loose in about the same ratio. The name of the book is "The Innocents" and it is a very good read.
Now for the terrorists amongst us I think the death penalty is too good for them and I wish there was a more onerous way to deal with them. They are really mucking up our peace.
Frances
David Rubinson <rubinson@kab.com> wrote:
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:36:34 -0500
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: David Rubinson
Subject: The American Taliban
d97ff4.jpg
The American Taliban
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17637
Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet
January 22, 2004
As American soldiers continue their search for weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq, Atlanta author Daniel Levitas warns that the threat posed by
homegrown terrorists should not be overlooked. As evidence of the continued
danger, he points to the case of William Krar, a 62-year-old manufacturer
of gun parts and a right-wing extremist who has pleaded guilty in federal
court to possessing a sodium cyanide bomb and is due to be sentenced in
February, along with two compatriots. When Krar was arrested last April in
Texas, federal officials also found half a million rounds of ammunition,
more than 60 pipe bombs, briefcase bombs, land mine components, a cache of
deadly chemicals and a trove of neo-Nazi, antigovernment literature.
According to Levitas, who has testified for nearly two decades as an expert
witness in state, federal and Canadian courts, the Krar case is only the
most recent and dramatic example of the threat posed by domestic
terrorists. James Kopp, who was found guilty in 2003 for the 1998 shooting
of Dr. Barnett Slepian in Buffalo, New York, was affiliated with the
shadowy underground anti-abortion network the Army of God. Matthew Hale,
leader of the white supremacist group the World Church of the Creator, is
due to stand trial in Chicago this year on charges of soliciting the murder
of a federal judge. And Rafael Davila, a former Army National Guard
intelligence officer from Washington State, is awaiting trial in Spokane,
Washington on espionage-related charges for allegedly stealing -- and then
planning to distribute -- highly classified military documents to white
supremacists in North Carolina, Texas and Georgia.
"Americans should question whether the Justice Department is making
America's far-right fanatics a serious priority. And with the FBI still
struggling to get up to speed on the threat posed by Islamic extremists
abroad, it is questionable whether the agency has the manpower to keep tabs
on our distinctly American terror cells," Levitas told me.
Levitas' book traces the emergence of white supremacist paramilitary groups
from their roots in the post-Civil War period, through the segregationist
violence of the civil rights era to the present. He also examines the early
days of right-wing tax protest in the 1960s and 1970s, the farm crisis of
the 1980s and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. In addition, Levitas
outlines the contemporary movement's dangerous preoccupation with
biological warfare such as Anthrax.
Levitas recently spoke with me about the ideological roots of the white
supremacist movement; the current state of far right and neo-Nazi
organizing; the increase in anti-Semitism and anti-Arab bigotry in the wake
of 9/11; and, the likelihood that homegrown terrorists will strike again.
Levitas' book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award
in 2002.
d981c0.jpg
Levitas is a writer, researcher and expert on the activities of racist,
anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi organizations and the author of
The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia
Movement and the Radical Right recently released in paperback by St.
Martin's Press (Griffin).
We heard a lot about the militia movement in the 1990s. How come we don't
hear much about them today?
Daniel Levitas: The events of 9/11 have really overshadowed everything on
the subject of terrorism and so if the story is not about fanatically
violent Islamicists or the discovery of weapons of mass destruction in the
desert of Iraq, it is harder to focus the attention of both the media and
law enforcement. Of course, there have been high-profile stories about the
radical right here at home -- the arrest of alleged abortion clinic bomber
Eric Rudolph is a good example -- but, by and large, there is just less
interest in our American versions of Al Qaeda. Rest assured, if the
arsenals attributed to right-wing extremists were found in the hands of
people linked to Islamic terrorists here in the United States, we'd be
hearing very often and loudly about it from the U.S. Attorney General, John
Ashcroft.
That's straightforward enough. But isn't it also true that the militia
movement basically fell apart after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing?
The militias were dealt a major setback, yes, but the movement hasn't
entirely collapsed. Membership probably peaked at around 10,000 in the
mid-1990s, and then fell sharply due to all the negative publicity and an
extensive government crackdown after the destruction of the Murrah
building. Of course, the FBI and the Justice Department had been pretty
clueless about the militias before the bombing, but afterwards they put on
the heat. A lot of militia followers dropped out as a result. Some of them
also left the movement in fear and disgust. They signed up to fight the
blue-helmeted UN invaders of the `New World Order,' not kill innocent
American civilians. And for many of these activists, seeing 168 corpses
dragged from the rubble of the Murrah Building was enough to get them quit.
Didn't the Y2K millennium scare have something to do with the decline of
the militia movement, also?
Yes, but it was kind of icing on the cake. The militias really took it on
the chin in 1997 and 1998. Then, in the year or so leading up to Y2K, the
far right went into overdrive with its predictions of domestic chaos and
the end of civilization. A lot of this fear-mongering was built on the
racist prejudices of those far right activists living in isolated rural
communities in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest who believe that urban
blacks and other minorities will come streaming out of the cities during
times of chaos to wreak havoc. The militias told their followers to spend
thousands of dollars on weapons and other survivalist gear to survive the
coming riots. Basically, they merchandized the hell out of Y2K. But when
the millennium came and went without incident, quite a few supporters felt
ripped off and the militias lost further credibility and more recruits.
What about the people who didn't quit the movement?
They have become even more radicalized, more hard core. After all, they
believe that the Clinton administration bombed the Murrah building on
purpose -- and set up Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols as patsies in order
to persecute the "Patriot" movement. This is the same crowd that believes
that the planes used on 9/11 were remote-controlled by the Israeli Mossad
and the CIA. They used the tragedy at Waco to bolster their argument.
"Look," they said, "If Bill Clinton and Janet Reno could kill all those
innocent Branch Davidians down in Waco, what makes you think they weren't
behind the Oklahoma City bombing?" This all fit in rather nicely with
fanatical gun culture and extreme religious beliefs of the radical right.
After all, the Davidians were wanted on gun charges and had unconventional
religious beliefs. So, for those white supremacists that worship fully
automatic weapons and believe that Jews are the children of Satan, it
wasn't all that difficult to convince them that the government was out to
murder them, as well.
Is this really a new trend? I thought that this process of radicalization
began long before Oklahoma City. After all, back in 1984, there were
neo-Nazi groups like the Order, whose members killed radio talk show host
Alan Berg in Denver and plotted to overthrow the government.
You're absolutely right, but the Oklahoma City bombing and the events of
9/11 have accelerated that process. And the seeds for the destruction of
the Murrah building were planted many years earlier, in 1978, with books
like Turner Diaries by William Pierce [writing under the pseudonym Andrew
McDonald], the founder of the neo-Nazi group the National Alliance. As I
tell the story in the book, it also was men like William Potter Gale, who
founded the right-wing Posse Comitatus -- which is Latin for "Power of the
County" -- back in 1971, who helped move the radical right in a more
violent, revolutionary direction.
What set it all off, then; this process of far-right radicalization?
This really began as a rejection of the social progress of the 1960s, and,
most importantly, as a reaction to the actions taken by the federal
government and the courts to end segregation and promote civil rights,
however haltingly. But you can also go back further, to, say, 1948, when
President Harry Truman ended segregation in the military. Then came the
Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation with the Brown decision in
1954. And after that came the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting
Rights Act. By the early 1970s, you had this growing constituency of
Americans, many who had been involved in the losing fight to preserve
segregation, who now began to see the federal government as more of the
central enemy. The emerging antigovernment message of these groups owed a
great deal to the vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that had always
circulated within the movement. After all, the belief in an all-powerful
cabal of bloodthirsty Jews has been around for generations. It was in this
environment that William Pierce and others launched a deliberate effort to
refocus right-wing resentment from run-of-the-mill race hatred to a more
explicitly revolutionary philosophy. Groups like the Aryan Nations in Idaho
-- which is now defunct -- and the leaders of the Order did this too. They
left a lot of bodies in their wake, including more than a handful of
murdered law enforcement officials. After 20 years of that, it really was
kind of predictable that guys like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were
going to come along and do something as heinous as blowing up the Murrah
Building.
So race was a key issue in motivating people to join right wing groups and
movements, but what about the economy? Most people assume that recruiting
for groups like the KKK and the Militias goes best during an economic
crisis. Isn't this also a driving factor?
Economic issues and themes have always played a significant role in
right-wing propaganda and recruitment, but people still wrongly
overestimate its influence. After all, when the KKK grew to nearly four
million members in the 1920s, it was a period or tremendous economic
growth. And during the Great Depression that followed, many Americans
turned not to right-wing social movements but in the opposite direction,
joining labor unions and voting for Roosevelt. Yes, pro-Hitler demagogues
got a fair amount of mileage out of the Depression, but overall the country
shifted to the left. In the 1950s and '60s, when segregationists mounted
their huge campaign of "Massive Resistance" to integration, the economy was
booming. And when the militia movement got going in the early 1990s that
also was a period of economic growth. What really drove the militias was
passage of federal gun control legislation in 1993 and 1994, not fears
about the economy. Of course, during the farm crisis of the 1980s, when
interest rates hit double digits and farmers were filing bankruptcy in
droves, the radical right had an easier time selling their conspiracy
theories about "Jewish bankers." Basically, it is an oversimplification to
say that hard times lead to scapegoating and bigotry.
With everything you have said about the firepower and antigovernment zeal
of the radical right, the law enforcement community ought to take these
groups more seriously. Yet you've written critically about the FBI and the
Justice Department in this regard. Is enough attention being paid to the
paramilitary right?
The Oklahoma City bombing was a huge wake-up call to law enforcement
community and the American public. But there were incidents long before
1995, which also prompted increased scrutiny by the Feds. There were the
killings, in 1983, of two U.S. Marshals in North Dakota by Gordon Kahl, a
tax-protesting farmer and member of the Posse Comitatus. The Order also got
a lot of attention when it nabbed more than $3 million from an armored car
in California the following year. But one of the basic problems has been
that FBI and the Justice Department have not created substantial incentives
for those agents who do make a point of specializing in white supremacist
and neo-Nazi groups; it isn't really seen as a path to career advancement.
Before the post-Oklahoma City crackdown, there had not been a serious
effort to bust illegal right-wing activity since the Feds locked up
two-dozen members of the Order in 1985 and then went after the political
leaders of the movement with a raft of sedition indictments in 1987 -- and
failed. And there really has never been a concerted effort to infiltrate
and disrupt the violent wing of the anti-abortion movement. That has just
been deemed too politically sensitive.
Some Justice Department officials like to complain that their hands have
been tied because of the restrictive rules issued by Congress in the wake
of all the civil liberties abuses of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
that came to light in the mid-1970s. But I don't really buy that argument.
There is plenty of illegal activity on the radical right and ample probable
cause to initiate legitimate criminal investigations within the confines of
the law. Of course, in the post-9/11 era, a lot of those restrictions have
been severely weakened, so theoretically we shouldn't be hearing those
excuses.
What was the reaction of these groups to 9/11?
A number of neo-Nazi groups were tremendously animated: They praised the
terrorists of Al Qaeda, even though they denounced them in racist terms
because they were Arabs. "We may not want them marrying our daughters. But
anyone who is willing to fly a plane into a building to kill Jews is
alright by me," said one of the leaders of the National Alliance. "My only
concern is that we Aryans didn't do this and that the rag-heads are ahead
of us on the Lone Wolf point scale," said another. These folks call
themselves 'patriots' and defenders of the constitution, but some of them
are just as theologically committed to murder as the most violent fanatics
of radical Islam. Based on what we've seen post 9/11, we cannot afford to
be concerned about terrorism as simply a "foreign" phenomenon. From the
earliest days of the Ku Klux Klan, domestic hate groups have been all too
eager to perpetrate terrorism against their fellow Americans.
Given all that you've said, what is the state of the far-right movement today?
Thankfully, much of the movement is in pretty serious disarray, due to a
combination of factors, but that doesn't mean the potential for violence is
all that significantly diminished. If anything, the arrests in Tyler, Texas
in April 2002 show that even small numbers of right-wing activists can
build up a terrifying arsenal. The death of William Pierce, in July 2002,
left a big leadership vacuum, both in his group and in the movement.
Smaller, but equally militant groups like the World Church of the Creator,
based in Illinois, have been hit hard by recent arrests. In the case of the
WCOTC, its leader, Matthew Hale, is currently in federal prison facing
charges that he attempted to solicit the murder of a federal judge. Even
though membership in the Klan and other hate groups is down, the people
that have remained in the movement are more hard core. But there is
another, more dangerous problem that is affecting the political mainstream.
What is that?
What concerns me most is the rising level of prejudice and bigotry in
American society, and these attitudes have penetrated well beyond the
confines of the far right. More specifically, we're experiencing rising
anti-Semitism, skyrocketing anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry, heightened
hostility toward foreigners and immigrants and persistently high levels of
racism. In short, these trends don't bode well for the fabric of a
democracy ostensibly devoted to protecting civil rights and liberties. Of
course it is easy to point to the bombers and shooters of the radical right
and identify them as the problem. And they certainly pose a threat and a
challenge. In the end, however, their actions basically require a law
enforcement response, and there is not a whole lot that everyday citizens
can do to counteract the hard core criminality of domestic right-wing
terrorists.
When you talk about rising levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry
can you be more specific? How are these things measured?
According to the latest and most comprehensive surveys, fully 17 percent of
adult Americans are "strongly anti-Semitic." These 35 million people don't
disagree with Israeli policies toward Palestinians, or think that Jews
control the media. In order to be considered anti-Semitic according to this
research, you have to agree with a whopping six or more anti-Jewish
stereotypes like: "Jews have too much power," "Jews don't care what happens
to anyone but their own kind," "Jews always like to be at the head of
things," and more.
Anti-Semitism has been steadily declining since the end of World War II,
but this 17 percent figure is the first recorded increase since social
scientists first began asking these questions 40 years ago. That's
disturbing. Even worse, people 35 and younger appear to be more
anti-Semitic than preceding generations. Other polls have reliably found
that a shocking 65 million Americans still believe that Jews killed Christ,
58 million believe that Jews control Wall Street, 48 million think that
Jews control the media and 24 percent of those 55 years and older blame
"Jewish executives in Hollywood" for "sex and immorality in our popular
culture." That's anti-Semitism. But just because more people are feeling
increasingly uncomfortable with Jews doesn't mean they're friendlier toward
Arabs or Muslims, or vice-versa. Forty-four percent of people in one 2002
poll said they viewed Muslims as a "threat to the moral character of
America." That's double the number (21 percent) who said the same thing
about Jews. And in the wake of 9/11, nearly one-third of Americans endorsed
the idea of taking special security measures against Arab Americans and
immigrants who came from supposedly "unfriendly" countries.
When you talk about persistent levels of racism in society the data isn't
all that heartening, either. Forty percent of Alabama voters cast ballots
in favor of keeping a constitutional ban on interracial marriage as part of
the state constitution in the year 2000. Sixty percent of whites voted for
former Klansman David Duke in the 1990 race for U.S. Senate in Louisiana;
and Duke was still able to get 141,000 people to vote for him in 1996 when
he tried to run again. Thankfully, he is in federal prison right now after
pleading guilty to bilking his followers and cheating on his taxes.
What role, if any, has the Internet played in the spread of these ideas or
in the recruitment efforts by the radical right?
The Internet has certainly enabled folks on the far right to circulate
plenty of hate propaganda and scurrilous conspiracy theories at minimal
expense. This has helped with the spread of everything from Holocaust
denial to bogus tracts about black genetic inferiority and fear mongering
about non-white immigration. However, there is nothing preventing civil
rights groups and others from using the Internet to counter this propaganda
or promote an alternative worldview. So as "bad" as the Internet might be
as a vehicle to spread hate, it can and should be used in the opposite
fashion. The bigger question has to do with how the Internet is used to
actually organize people, and I don't think that right-wing paramilitary
groups have succeeded very well in that arena. The Internet is still not an
adequate substitute for old-fashioned, face-to-face organizing for these
groups.
In light of all we've discussed, what do you think should be done?
There is no single, simple answer to dealing with either the problem of
paramilitary terrorism or the bigotry that animates the radical right and
larger sectors of the public. Clearly, the Justice Department and other law
enforcement agencies need to make these groups a higher priority. And they
need to keep their focus consistent over the long term. When it comes to
the problem of broader prejudice in society, there are many things that
need to be done. More resources are needed for curriculum development and
work with young people. Religious, community and political leaders need to
condemn intolerance more forcefully. Legislation is clearly required to
deter and punish discrimination against a variety of groups. As America
approaches the year 2050, when whites will no longer be a majority in the
United States, we need to use the mechanisms and tools of Democracy, and
work even harder, to build a truly multi-racial, multi-cultural, inclusive
society.
Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right-wing groups and
movements. His column appears twice weekly in Working Assets'
Working For Change.
© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
David Rubinson
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Quote of The Day:
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Mahatma Gandhi
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<DIV>It is not just the stateless Al Quada we have to fear but the terrorists among us...</DIV>
<DIV>Some persons are totally transfixed on the idea that history will remember them, dammit!</DIV>
<DIV>Follow the motivation.</DIV>
<DIV>I read an interesting book, a book of photographs with bios on each page of persons who were wrongly convicted and since exonerated and freed, a number of them in Texas, who had been on death row. The most salient feature of the book was that most of the crimes were rapes with murders following the rapes, and they were freed by virtue of having exculpatory DNA evidence from that found in the criminalist's rape kit. A sitting judge told me that jurys get it right only about half the time. That means that innocents are in prison and guilty people are on the loose in about the same ratio. The name of the book is "The Innocents" and it is a very good read.</DIV>
<DIV>Now for the terrorists amongst us I think the death penalty is too good for them and I wish there was a more onerous way to deal with them. They are really mucking up our peace.</DIV>
<DIV>Frances<BR><BR><B><I>David Rubinson <rubinson@kab.com></I></B> wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:36:34 -0500<BR>To: (Recipient list suppressed)<BR>From: David Rubinson <RUBINSON@KAB.COM><BR>Subject: The American Taliban<BR><BR><BR>d97ff4.jpg<BR><BR><BR><BR>The American Taliban<BR><BR>http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17637<BR><BR><BR>Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet<BR>January 22, 2004<BR><BR>As American soldiers continue their search for weapons of mass destruction <BR>in Iraq, Atlanta author Daniel Levitas warns that the threat posed by <BR>homegrown terrorists should not be overlooked. As evidence of the continued <BR>danger, he points to the case of William Krar, a 62-year-old manufacturer <BR>of gun parts and a right-wing extremist who has pleaded guilty in federal <BR>court to possessing a sodium cyanide bomb and is due to be sentenced in <BR>February, along with two compatriots. When Krar was arrested last April in <BR>Texas, federal officials
also found half a million rounds of ammunition, <BR>more than 60 pipe bombs, briefcase bombs, land mine components, a cache of <BR>deadly chemicals and a trove of neo-Nazi, antigovernment literature.<BR><BR>According to Levitas, who has testified for nearly two decades as an expert <BR>witness in state, federal and Canadian courts, the Krar case is only the <BR>most recent and dramatic example of the threat posed by domestic <BR>terrorists. James Kopp, who was found guilty in 2003 for the 1998 shooting <BR>of Dr. Barnett Slepian in Buffalo, New York, was affiliated with the <BR>shadowy underground anti-abortion network the Army of God. Matthew Hale, <BR>leader of the white supremacist group the World Church of the Creator, is <BR>due to stand trial in Chicago this year on charges of soliciting the murder <BR>of a federal judge. And Rafael Davila, a former Army National Guard <BR>intelligence officer from Washington State, is awaiting trial in Spokane, <BR>Washington on
espionage-related charges for allegedly stealing -- and then <BR>planning to distribute -- highly classified military documents to white <BR>supremacists in North Carolina, Texas and Georgia.<BR><BR>"Americans should question whether the Justice Department is making <BR>America's far-right fanatics a serious priority. And with the FBI still <BR>struggling to get up to speed on the threat posed by Islamic extremists <BR>abroad, it is questionable whether the agency has the manpower to keep tabs <BR>on our distinctly American terror cells," Levitas told me.<BR><BR>Levitas' book traces the emergence of white supremacist paramilitary groups <BR>from their roots in the post-Civil War period, through the segregationist <BR>violence of the civil rights era to the present. He also examines the early <BR>days of right-wing tax protest in the 1960s and 1970s, the farm crisis of <BR>the 1980s and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. In addition, Levitas <BR>outlines the contemporary movement's
dangerous preoccupation with <BR>biological warfare such as Anthrax.<BR><BR>Levitas recently spoke with me about the ideological roots of the white <BR>supremacist movement; the current state of far right and neo-Nazi <BR>organizing; the increase in anti-Semitism and anti-Arab bigotry in the wake <BR>of 9/11; and, the likelihood that homegrown terrorists will strike again. <BR>Levitas' book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award <BR>in 2002.<BR><BR><BR>d981c0.jpg<BR>Levitas is a writer, researcher and expert on the activities of racist, <BR>anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi organizations and the author of <BR><HTTP: www.terroristnextdoor.com>The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia <BR>Movement and the Radical Right recently released in paperback by St. <BR>Martin's Press (Griffin).<BR><BR>We heard a lot about the militia movement in the 1990s. How come we don't <BR>hear much about them today?<BR><BR>Daniel Levitas: The events of 9/11 have really overshadowed everything on
<BR>the subject of terrorism and so if the story is not about fanatically <BR>violent Islamicists or the discovery of weapons of mass destruction in the <BR>desert of Iraq, it is harder to focus the attention of both the media and <BR>law enforcement. Of course, there have been high-profile stories about the <BR>radical right here at home -- the arrest of alleged abortion clinic bomber <BR>Eric Rudolph is a good example -- but, by and large, there is just less <BR>interest in our American versions of Al Qaeda. Rest assured, if the <BR>arsenals attributed to right-wing extremists were found in the hands of <BR>people linked to Islamic terrorists here in the United States, we'd be <BR>hearing very often and loudly about it from the U.S. Attorney General, John <BR>Ashcroft.<BR><BR>That's straightforward enough. But isn't it also true that the militia <BR>movement basically fell apart after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing?<BR><BR>The militias were dealt a major setback, yes, but the
movement hasn't <BR>entirely collapsed. Membership probably peaked at around 10,000 in the <BR>mid-1990s, and then fell sharply due to all the negative publicity and an <BR>extensive government crackdown after the destruction of the Murrah <BR>building. Of course, the FBI and the Justice Department had been pretty <BR>clueless about the militias before the bombing, but afterwards they put on <BR>the heat. A lot of militia followers dropped out as a result. Some of them <BR>also left the movement in fear and disgust. They signed up to fight the <BR>blue-helmeted UN invaders of the `New World Order,' not kill innocent <BR>American civilians. And for many of these activists, seeing 168 corpses <BR>dragged from the rubble of the Murrah Building was enough to get them quit.<BR><BR>Didn't the Y2K millennium scare have something to do with the decline of <BR>the militia movement, also?<BR><BR>Yes, but it was kind of icing on the cake. The militias really took it on <BR>the chin in 1997 and
1998. Then, in the year or so leading up to Y2K, the <BR>far right went into overdrive with its predictions of domestic chaos and <BR>the end of civilization. A lot of this fear-mongering was built on the <BR>racist prejudices of those far right activists living in isolated rural <BR>communities in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest who believe that urban <BR>blacks and other minorities will come streaming out of the cities during <BR>times of chaos to wreak havoc. The militias told their followers to spend <BR>thousands of dollars on weapons and other survivalist gear to survive the <BR>coming riots. Basically, they merchandized the hell out of Y2K. But when <BR>the millennium came and went without incident, quite a few supporters felt <BR>ripped off and the militias lost further credibility and more recruits.<BR><BR>What about the people who didn't quit the movement?<BR><BR>They have become even more radicalized, more hard core. After all, they <BR>believe that the Clinton
administration bombed the Murrah building on <BR>purpose -- and set up Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols as patsies in order <BR>to persecute the "Patriot" movement. This is the same crowd that believes <BR>that the planes used on 9/11 were remote-controlled by the Israeli Mossad <BR>and the CIA. They used the tragedy at Waco to bolster their argument. <BR>"Look," they said, "If Bill Clinton and Janet Reno could kill all those <BR>innocent Branch Davidians down in Waco, what makes you think they weren't <BR>behind the Oklahoma City bombing?" This all fit in rather nicely with <BR>fanatical gun culture and extreme religious beliefs of the radical right. <BR>After all, the Davidians were wanted on gun charges and had unconventional <BR>religious beliefs. So, for those white supremacists that worship fully <BR>automatic weapons and believe that Jews are the children of Satan, it <BR>wasn't all that difficult to convince them that the government was out to <BR>murder them, as
well.<BR><BR>Is this really a new trend? I thought that this process of radicalization <BR>began long before Oklahoma City. After all, back in 1984, there were <BR>neo-Nazi groups like the Order, whose members killed radio talk show host <BR>Alan Berg in Denver and plotted to overthrow the government.<BR><BR>You're absolutely right, but the Oklahoma City bombing and the events of <BR>9/11 have accelerated that process. And the seeds for the destruction of <BR>the Murrah building were planted many years earlier, in 1978, with books <BR>like Turner Diaries by William Pierce [writing under the pseudonym Andrew <BR>McDonald], the founder of the neo-Nazi group the National Alliance. As I <BR>tell the story in the book, it also was men like William Potter Gale, who <BR>founded the right-wing Posse Comitatus -- which is Latin for "Power of the <BR>County" -- back in 1971, who helped move the radical right in a more <BR>violent, revolutionary direction.<BR><BR>What set it all off, then;
this process of far-right radicalization?<BR><BR>This really began as a rejection of the social progress of the 1960s, and, <BR>most importantly, as a reaction to the actions taken by the federal <BR>government and the courts to end segregation and promote civil rights, <BR>however haltingly. But you can also go back further, to, say, 1948, when <BR>President Harry Truman ended segregation in the military. Then came the <BR>Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation with the Brown decision in <BR>1954. And after that came the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting <BR>Rights Act. By the early 1970s, you had this growing constituency of <BR>Americans, many who had been involved in the losing fight to preserve <BR>segregation, who now began to see the federal government as more of the <BR>central enemy. The emerging antigovernment message of these groups owed a <BR>great deal to the vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that had always <BR>circulated within the movement. After
all, the belief in an all-powerful <BR>cabal of bloodthirsty Jews has been around for generations. It was in this <BR>environment that William Pierce and others launched a deliberate effort to <BR>refocus right-wing resentment from run-of-the-mill race hatred to a more <BR>explicitly revolutionary philosophy. Groups like the Aryan Nations in Idaho <BR>-- which is now defunct -- and the leaders of the Order did this too. They <BR>left a lot of bodies in their wake, including more than a handful of <BR>murdered law enforcement officials. After 20 years of that, it really was <BR>kind of predictable that guys like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were <BR>going to come along and do something as heinous as blowing up the Murrah <BR>Building.<BR><BR>So race was a key issue in motivating people to join right wing groups and <BR>movements, but what about the economy? Most people assume that recruiting <BR>for groups like the KKK and the Militias goes best during an economic <BR>crisis.
Isn't this also a driving factor?<BR><BR>Economic issues and themes have always played a significant role in <BR>right-wing propaganda and recruitment, but people still wrongly <BR>overestimate its influence. After all, when the KKK grew to nearly four <BR>million members in the 1920s, it was a period or tremendous economic <BR>growth. And during the Great Depression that followed, many Americans <BR>turned not to right-wing social movements but in the opposite direction, <BR>joining labor unions and voting for Roosevelt. Yes, pro-Hitler demagogues <BR>got a fair amount of mileage out of the Depression, but overall the country <BR>shifted to the left. In the 1950s and '60s, when segregationists mounted <BR>their huge campaign of "Massive Resistance" to integration, the economy was <BR>booming. And when the militia movement got going in the early 1990s that <BR>also was a period of economic growth. What really drove the militias was <BR>passage of federal gun control legislation in
1993 and 1994, not fears <BR>about the economy. Of course, during the farm crisis of the 1980s, when <BR>interest rates hit double digits and farmers were filing bankruptcy in <BR>droves, the radical right had an easier time selling their conspiracy <BR>theories about "Jewish bankers." Basically, it is an oversimplification to <BR>say that hard times lead to scapegoating and bigotry.<BR><BR>With everything you have said about the firepower and antigovernment zeal <BR>of the radical right, the law enforcement community ought to take these <BR>groups more seriously. Yet you've written critically about the FBI and the <BR>Justice Department in this regard. Is enough attention being paid to the <BR>paramilitary right?<BR><BR>The Oklahoma City bombing was a huge wake-up call to law enforcement <BR>community and the American public. But there were incidents long before <BR>1995, which also prompted increased scrutiny by the Feds. There were the <BR>killings, in 1983, of two U.S. Marshals
in North Dakota by Gordon Kahl, a <BR>tax-protesting farmer and member of the Posse Comitatus. The Order also got <BR>a lot of attention when it nabbed more than $3 million from an armored car <BR>in California the following year. But one of the basic problems has been <BR>that FBI and the Justice Department have not created substantial incentives <BR>for those agents who do make a point of specializing in white supremacist <BR>and neo-Nazi groups; it isn't really seen as a path to career advancement. <BR>Before the post-Oklahoma City crackdown, there had not been a serious <BR>effort to bust illegal right-wing activity since the Feds locked up <BR>two-dozen members of the Order in 1985 and then went after the political <BR>leaders of the movement with a raft of sedition indictments in 1987 -- and <BR>failed. And there really has never been a concerted effort to infiltrate <BR>and disrupt the violent wing of the anti-abortion movement. That has just <BR>been deemed too politically
sensitive.<BR><BR>Some Justice Department officials like to complain that their hands have <BR>been tied because of the restrictive rules issued by Congress in the wake <BR>of all the civil liberties abuses of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover <BR>that came to light in the mid-1970s. But I don't really buy that argument. <BR>There is plenty of illegal activity on the radical right and ample probable <BR>cause to initiate legitimate criminal investigations within the confines of <BR>the law. Of course, in the post-9/11 era, a lot of those restrictions have <BR>been severely weakened, so theoretically we shouldn't be hearing those <BR>excuses.<BR><BR>What was the reaction of these groups to 9/11?<BR><BR>A number of neo-Nazi groups were tremendously animated: They praised the <BR>terrorists of Al Qaeda, even though they denounced them in racist terms <BR>because they were Arabs. "We may not want them marrying our daughters. But <BR>anyone who is willing to fly a plane into a building
to kill Jews is <BR>alright by me," said one of the leaders of the National Alliance. "My only <BR>concern is that we Aryans didn't do this and that the rag-heads are ahead <BR>of us on the Lone Wolf point scale," said another. These folks call <BR>themselves 'patriots' and defenders of the constitution, but some of them <BR>are just as theologically committed to murder as the most violent fanatics <BR>of radical Islam. Based on what we've seen post 9/11, we cannot afford to <BR>be concerned about terrorism as simply a "foreign" phenomenon. From the <BR>earliest days of the Ku Klux Klan, domestic hate groups have been all too <BR>eager to perpetrate terrorism against their fellow Americans.<BR><BR>Given all that you've said, what is the state of the far-right movement today?<BR><BR>Thankfully, much of the movement is in pretty serious disarray, due to a <BR>combination of factors, but that doesn't mean the potential for violence is <BR>all that significantly diminished. If anything,
the arrests in Tyler, Texas <BR>in April 2002 show that even small numbers of right-wing activists can <BR>build up a terrifying arsenal. The death of William Pierce, in July 2002, <BR>left a big leadership vacuum, both in his group and in the movement. <BR>Smaller, but equally militant groups like the World Church of the Creator, <BR>based in Illinois, have been hit hard by recent arrests. In the case of the <BR>WCOTC, its leader, Matthew Hale, is currently in federal prison facing <BR>charges that he attempted to solicit the murder of a federal judge. Even <BR>though membership in the Klan and other hate groups is down, the people <BR>that have remained in the movement are more hard core. But there is <BR>another, more dangerous problem that is affecting the political mainstream.<BR><BR>What is that?<BR><BR>What concerns me most is the rising level of prejudice and bigotry in <BR>American society, and these attitudes have penetrated well beyond the <BR>confines of the far right.
More specifically, we're experiencing rising <BR>anti-Semitism, skyrocketing anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry, heightened <BR>hostility toward foreigners and immigrants and persistently high levels of <BR>racism. In short, these trends don't bode well for the fabric of a <BR>democracy ostensibly devoted to protecting civil rights and liberties. Of <BR>course it is easy to point to the bombers and shooters of the radical right <BR>and identify them as the problem. And they certainly pose a threat and a <BR>challenge. In the end, however, their actions basically require a law <BR>enforcement response, and there is not a whole lot that everyday citizens <BR>can do to counteract the hard core criminality of domestic right-wing <BR>terrorists.<BR><BR>When you talk about rising levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry <BR>can you be more specific? How are these things measured?<BR><BR>According to the latest and most comprehensive surveys, fully 17 percent of <BR>adult Americans
are "strongly anti-Semitic." These 35 million people don't <BR>disagree with Israeli policies toward Palestinians, or think that Jews <BR>control the media. In order to be considered anti-Semitic according to this <BR>research, you have to agree with a whopping six or more anti-Jewish <BR>stereotypes like: "Jews have too much power," "Jews don't care what happens <BR>to anyone but their own kind," "Jews always like to be at the head of <BR>things," and more.<BR><BR>Anti-Semitism has been steadily declining since the end of World War II, <BR>but this 17 percent figure is the first recorded increase since social <BR>scientists first began asking these questions 40 years ago. That's <BR>disturbing. Even worse, people 35 and younger appear to be more <BR>anti-Semitic than preceding generations. Other polls have reliably found <BR>that a shocking 65 million Americans still believe that Jews killed Christ, <BR>58 million believe that Jews control Wall Street, 48 million think that
<BR>Jews control the media and 24 percent of those 55 years and older blame <BR>"Jewish executives in Hollywood" for "sex and immorality in our popular <BR>culture." That's anti-Semitism. But just because more people are feeling <BR>increasingly uncomfortable with Jews doesn't mean they're friendlier toward <BR>Arabs or Muslims, or vice-versa. Forty-four percent of people in one 2002 <BR>poll said they viewed Muslims as a "threat to the moral character of <BR>America." That's double the number (21 percent) who said the same thing <BR>about Jews. And in the wake of 9/11, nearly one-third of Americans endorsed <BR>the idea of taking special security measures against Arab Americans and <BR>immigrants who came from supposedly "unfriendly" countries.<BR><BR>When you talk about persistent levels of racism in society the data isn't <BR>all that heartening, either. Forty percent of Alabama voters cast ballots <BR>in favor of keeping a constitutional ban on interracial marriage as part of
<BR>the state constitution in the year 2000. Sixty percent of whites voted for <BR>former Klansman David Duke in the 1990 race for U.S. Senate in Louisiana; <BR>and Duke was still able to get 141,000 people to vote for him in 1996 when <BR>he tried to run again. Thankfully, he is in federal prison right now after <BR>pleading guilty to bilking his followers and cheating on his taxes.<BR><BR>What role, if any, has the Internet played in the spread of these ideas or <BR>in the recruitment efforts by the radical right?<BR><BR>The Internet has certainly enabled folks on the far right to circulate <BR>plenty of hate propaganda and scurrilous conspiracy theories at minimal <BR>expense. This has helped with the spread of everything from Holocaust <BR>denial to bogus tracts about black genetic inferiority and fear mongering <BR>about non-white immigration. However, there is nothing preventing civil <BR>rights groups and others from using the Internet to counter this propaganda <BR>or
promote an alternative worldview. So as "bad" as the Internet might be <BR>as a vehicle to spread hate, it can and should be used in the opposite <BR>fashion. The bigger question has to do with how the Internet is used to <BR>actually organize people, and I don't think that right-wing paramilitary <BR>groups have succeeded very well in that arena. The Internet is still not an <BR>adequate substitute for old-fashioned, face-to-face organizing for these <BR>groups.<BR><BR>In light of all we've discussed, what do you think should be done?<BR><BR>There is no single, simple answer to dealing with either the problem of <BR>paramilitary terrorism or the bigotry that animates the radical right and <BR>larger sectors of the public. Clearly, the Justice Department and other law <BR>enforcement agencies need to make these groups a higher priority. And they <BR>need to keep their focus consistent over the long term. When it comes to <BR>the problem of broader prejudice in society, there are
many things that <BR>need to be done. More resources are needed for curriculum development and <BR>work with young people. Religious, community and political leaders need to <BR>condemn intolerance more forcefully. Legislation is clearly required to <BR>deter and punish discrimination against a variety of groups. As America <BR>approaches the year 2050, when whites will no longer be a majority in the <BR>United States, we need to use the mechanisms and tools of Democracy, and <BR>work even harder, to build a truly multi-racial, multi-cultural, inclusive <BR>society.<BR><BR>Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right-wing groups and <BR>movements. His column appears twice weekly in Working Assets' <BR><HTTP: www.workingforchange.com>Working For Change.<BR><BR><BR>© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.<BR><BR>David Rubinson<BR>,,,, ,,,,<BR>\\\ ///<BR>~~~~~~~~~~{τΏτ}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<BR>~~~~~~~~~~( . ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<BR>:::::::::::::::::: ooo:::ooo
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<BR>:::::::::::::::::: ( ) :::( )::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<BR>( ) ( )<BR><BR><BR>in J A M A I C A<BR>YAH !! MON !!<BR><BR>Quote of The Day:<BR><BR>"First, they ignore. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you <BR>win."<BR>Mahatma Gandhi <BR><BR>> ATTACHMENT part 2 image/jpeg name=d97ff4.jpg; x-mac-type=4A504547; x-mac-creator=4A565752<BR><BR><BR>> ATTACHMENT part 3 image/jpeg name=d981c0.jpg; x-mac-type=4A504547; x-mac-creator=4A565752<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><p><hr SIZE=1>
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