THE COURIER-JOURNAL • SUNDAY. APRIL 22. 2001

A Closer Look: Militias in AmericaTimothy McVeigh execution

After a sui^e, militias on the waneArrests, loss ofinterest amongfactors cited

The Courier-Journal and TheIndianapolis Star are collaborating to cover the executionof TimothyMcVeigh.

By ANDREW WOLFSONThe Courier-Journaland JOHN MASSONThe Indianapolis Star

Six years after the Oklahoma City bombing made"militias" part of the American vocabulary, the numberof such groups nationwidehas dwindled dramatically, aresult of law-enforcementcrackdowns and withdrawalof members who grew tiredof waiting for a revolutionthat never came, militiawatchdogs say.

The Southern Poverty LawCenter's most recent figuresshow the number of militiagroups dropping from apeak of 370 in 1996 to 68last year.

But militias continue to bestrong in the Midwest, particularly in a corridor thatruns from Michigan to Kentucky and east to Ohio, according to the civil-rights organization based in Montgomery, Ala., other privatewatchdog groups and militialeaders.

"We are having a resurgence of new members,"said Stan Wilson, who commands the militia in Hancock County, Ind., east of Indianapolis, which describesitself as a moderate group.

Militia membership everywhere jumped immediate yafter Timothy McVeighblewup the Alfred P. MurrahFederal Building on April 19,1995, but then oegan to decline, according to the FBIand private watchdog organizations.

No direct links werefound between the bombingthat killed 168 people andthe militia movement, although McVeigh, who isscheduled to be executed inTerre Haute, Ind., on May16, attended a few militiameetings in Michigan^

Still, "we got painted withthe same broad brush" afterthe bombing, said PhillipCrousore, regimentalcommander of the Indiana's TippecanoeCounty militia, andthe image of mi- ' | Jlitia membersas mad » ^bombers '

many of which 'offer paramili-tary training to [rebuff expected 'government Jj | ^attacks, arepartof %,what is known asthe patriot miove- SBment. (PiPlThe New York- . ,based Anti-Defa- \mation League nfsays the move- • siment includes \ 'Ta collection of ' ' > S\groups, many , tmore extreme •.than .militias, 'Imown as "sov- 'j--,

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ereign citizens," tax protesters,Ciinstian ^patriots, ChristianIdentitjr groups and white supremacists.

While many of the remainingmilitias disclaim violence andterrorism, experts say some ofthe more extremist organizations still present a gravethreat. In the past three years,several militia leaders havebeen convicted in conspiraciesto bomb government buildingsand utilities, and to assassinatestate and federal officials, includingjudges and senators.

In St. Petersburg, Fla., forexample, militia leader DonaldBeauregard was sentenced lastJuly 28 to five years in federalprison for conspiring to incitecivil war by bombmg powerlines to St. Petersburg andTampa.

"Something's got to bedone," Beaureigard, a convenience-store manager,said to hisco-conspirators in a conversation recorded by police. "Theydon't listen to our yells, ourcries. We tried the ballot box.Maybe some of the sheep inthis country will wake up andsee what's really going on. '̂

In Michigan, North AmericanMilitia leaders Brad Metcalfand Randy Graham were sen-,tenced in May 1999 to 40 and55years in pnson, respectively,for plotting to blow up federalbuildings and threatening tomurder Gov. John Engler, U.S.Sen. Carl Levin and federaljudges.

Graham claimed he was only^ilty of talking, but the federaljudge who sentenced him said:"This was not talk in a coffeeshop. Randy Graham was a domestic terrorist,one triggerpull

away from killing people andblowing upbuildings."

And in Texas, militia leaderBradley Glover was sentencedon Jan. 7,1999, to fiveyears onweapons charges connected toa p ot to attack Fort Hood,which he targeted because hebelieved the Army was training'Chinee spldiersthere.

Radical rightnot going away' On its Militia-Watchdog.org

Web site, the Anti-DefamationLeague cautions that eventhoughmostmilitia igroups saythey only operate defensively,"the extremely high levels ofparanoia most such groups possess means that they oftenthink theyare actingjustifiablywhen they are not."

"And even groups that maynot pose a danger can spawnindividuals committed to violent or extremeacts," it says.

The Southern Poverty LawCenter says the patriot movement "is a shadow of its former,self," a decline it attributes toseveral factors, including thearrest of hundreds of membersin the past few years. According to Its most recent "intelli-

.gence report," many membersand would-be militia membershave lost interest —"too bored,too tired, too worried about doing possible jail time."

Instead, the center says,"right-wing extremists are increasingly joining race-basedhate groups or taking up 'lone-wolf type terrorist activity."

While most militia groupsdon't espouse racial bigotry,FBI Director Louis Freehwarned at a 1999 congressionalhearing on counterterrorismthat "hate philosophies" had

"begun to creep intothe militiamovement." That includes the"pseudo-religion" of ChristianIdentity, which provides both areligious basis for racism, andanti-Semitism, he said, describing it as a disturbing trend that"will only strengthen the radical elements of the militias."

, Militia groups — includingthe Kentucky State Militia —say they don't discriminatebased on race. Wilson, for ex-iample, said a variety of ethnicgroups are represented in theIndiana Citizens Volunteer Militia, and "we want people of allraces to join."

There is no centralized militia leadership, and differentchapters hold far differentviews, said retired FBI SpecialAgent Donald Bassett. Heheads the independent CrisisIncident Analysis Group,whichreviews and tries to preventviolence between governmentand militia groups, as well asmore extremist onganizations.

Some militias, such as theone in Kentucky, have neverbeen linked to any crime, according to the state police andtheAnti-Defamation League.

Writing in the FBI's Law Enforcement Bulletin in 1997, twoof the FBI's leading experts onmilitias noted that the movement is "far from the monolithic terrorist conspiracy thatsome media accounts have portrayed it to be."

At the same time, agentsJames Duffy and AlanBrantleysaid, "The potential for deathand destruction emanatingfrom the most radical elementsof the movement" made it oneof the most significant socialtrends of the 1990s.

Militias ignored .before bombing ..

Before the Oklahoma Citybombing —the worst act of terrorism on American soil — mostlaw-enforcement and media organizations ignored militias,writing them on as "overgrownboys playing with guns m thewoods," said Ken Stem, an analyst for the American JewishCommittee and author of "AForce on the Plain: The American Militia Movement and thePolitics of Hate."

Many militia leaders, including those in Indiana and Ken-tuclqr, condemned the bombing,while others alleged thatMcVeigh was a patsy in a government conspiracy to embarrass and vilifythe patriot movement,said MarkPitcavage, who :monitors it for the Anti-Defama- ition League from Columbus,Ohio. '

And while piiblicity aboutthebombing, including suggestionsthat itwasmilitia-based, initiallyattracted more members to the :movement, it eventually hadthe :opposite effect, according to the 'Anti-Defamation Leagjue and |otherorganizations. 1

"When you shine a light on !something like that, it's often ;like flipping on the light when •you come mto the kitchen," saidDevin Burghart, director ofBuilding Democracy Initiative at jthe Centerfor New Community, 'a Chicago think tank. "Thecockroaches tend to scatter."

But even with a decline ofmembers, there are militias invirtually every state, accordingto theAnti-Defamation League.

They arosein. theearly 1990sas a reaction to fears that thefederal government was aboutto confiscate firearms from its

M

1995 ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOMilitia members prepared for guerrilla warfare trainingduring a demonstration exercise In northern Idaho.

citizens, according to the FBIand other organizations.

The federal government's rolein confrontations with theBranch Davidians near Waco,Texas, in 1993 and with RandyWeaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, ayear earlier further fueled conspiratorial beliefs that the government wasbecoming more tyrannical and attemptmg to reverse constitutional guarantees,according to Duffy, who servedin the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group, and Brantley,who works in the bureau's Profiling and Behavioral Assessment Unit.

Militia leaders said gun-con-trol legislation was a prelude tosocialist one-world governmentor "New World Order." Claiming they were the legal and ideological heirs to the Minutemenwho fought at Lexington andConcord, militiamen and womenpositioned themselves as a lastdefense against the government,according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Still, many militias and others

who espouse anti-governmentbeliefs remain law-abiding citi?zens and do not advocate terrorist acts, Duffy and Brantley saidin a paper that recommendedthat law enforcement reach outto talk to nonviolent militiagroups.

Assessing the threat posed bymilitia groups, the agents saidthey fall into four categories,from those that engage in noknown criminal activity and saythey'll respond only to government provocation, to fringegroups that often attract individuals with "frank mental disorders" and plot and engage inhomicide, bombings and otherten'orist acts.

Just weeks after the Oklahoma City bombing, Freeh andthen-Attorney General JanetReno ordered agents in the FBI's56 field offices to open lines ofcommunication with militias,and meetings were held in manycities, including Indianapolis. •

FBI Special Agent Doug Garrison, who worl^ in the Indianapolis office, said the meetings

DWINDLINGNUMBERS

The number of self-described"patriot" groups - a category thatincludes militias - has steadilydeclined since its peak in 1996,according to the most recentfigures from theSouthemPovertyLaw Center:

pp. F/lilitias and patrioi groups-.All pattiol groups V

^8 •' I IMa QfouDS atone

Note; Numbers for 20DO due out in May

7ME COURIER-JOUi=iNAL

helped calm tensions.'It was just to let them know

... we weren't the big, bad FBIlurking behind every tree andinterested in what they were doing on weekends when theywere out having meetings," Garrison said. "They feared the FBI.They feared that we were wiretapping their phones, or following them around; and thatwasn't true."

Garrison said the bureauwants to keep lines of communication with the militias open asMcVeigh's execution nears. Buthe said that doesn't meanthere's a heightened threat.

'Most of the militia peopledon't view Tim McVeigh as ahero," Garrison said. 'He's akiller of innocent people. I don'tthink there's much disagreement on that."