From: Kelly Pruitt #0 @176:700/0 via 176:400/0 PRNet Re: Newspaper Article 1/2 0AREA:PR_NET 0MSGID: 176:700/0.0 87FD5AD5 0TID: WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 93-0237 Monday, April 24, 1995 The Sun /B7 Bombing has California militias on the defensive McClatchy News Service SACRAMENTO - Roseville auto mechanic Doug Fales, a leader of the Placer County militia, saw his liberty in peril in 1993 when the fiery siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, convinced him that government was waging war on gun owners and religion. He suspects the Federal Emergency Management Agency is out to control U.S. residents by dissolving state boundaries and dividing the country into regions. And he is joined by others in the militia movement in his belief that there are "these black helicopters at Mather Air Force Base, the FEMA headquarters" that could guide United Nations troops in a takeover of America. Now members of California militia groups, who have been arming themselves with an arsenal of weapons and a boundless distrust of the government, are standing guard against what they claim are lies by authorities and smears by the media after Wednesday's deadly explosion in Oklahoma. "I personally suspect foul play of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) or the FBI." said Mike Howse, a unit commander of a 75-member citizens militia group in Fort Bragg, Mendocino County. He contends the government itself may have carried out the Oklahoma City bombing in order to frame militia movement "patriots." "What better way to stop a movement than to use the emotional tactic of dying children?" asked Howse, who said Michigan Militia associates whom he telephoned after the attack told him that the bombing suspects are not militia members. "What better way to make the citizens think the movement is just a bunch of nuts?" Well-connected to a national network of citizen militia groups, militia members in California claim to have units in more than half of the state's 58 counties. Howse claims membership in the state has reached 50,000, though no official figure is available. Many of the California groups share an anti-gun control agenda and the same suspicion of the government as their brethren elsewhere. More unique to California, many feel an added sense of siege -- believing that they must be prepared for the lawlessness that could overwhelm the state if a riot erupts or a massive earthquake hits. "Our information is that the militia movement really got started in the midwest, but it has been spreading like wildfire here," said Anastasia Steinberg, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League in San Fran- cisco and a militia researcher who recently slipped into a meeting of a militia group in the East Bay. "Some people are simply exercising their rights to arm themselves for self- defense. They have that right," Steinberg said. "But the problem is these paranoid myths: They have a fixation with Waco ... (that) they really believe there is a conspiracy by the government to ban all weapons and an order to wage war on Americans." In the Shasta County community of Shingletown, near Redding, 33-year-old former real estate salesman Dean Compton founded the National Alliance of Christian Militia, a group he describes as an umbrella for citizen militias in 14 states. "Patriots across America have said 'I"m ready to defend my friends, defend my community, defend my country,"' said Compton, who claims millions of Americans have joined the movement. He said militia members abhorred the Oklahoma City attack and couldn't have been involved. "We sat in front of our televisions and cried with everybody else when we saw those babies being carried out," he said. "There is not a militia group within the United States that advocates a pre-emptive strike against the citizens of the United States." FBI special agent Tom Griffin in Sacramento said law enforcement's knowledge of militia groups in the state is extremely limited because federal law pro- hibits authorities from infiltrating or gathering information on domestic groups without clear evidence of criminal activity. "In the case of these groups, they may be banding together and talking about why they don't like the government, but they have not committed any crime," Griffin said. There has been no confirmed militia link to terrorism in California. While some California militia groups say their memberships surged after the deaths at the Branch Davidian compound and the 1992 shootout in Idaho between U.S. marshals and white separatist Randy Weaver, many say they harbor no sense of war against the government and seek to dispute that belief. But they are armed and ready to protect Californians from other evils. "We don't see a Waco, Texas, thing happening in Orange County," said T.J. (Continued to next message) --- * Apex v4 * The sea changes color. But the sea does not change. þ wcECHO 4.0 ÷ Nautilus II, San Bernardino (909)880-3229 USR 28.8 kBaud --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 * Origin: PRN SouthWest Regional Center (310)676-0492 (176:700/0.0) 0SEEN-BY: 1/3 100/0 15 17 200 800 102/230 200/0 43 300/0 400/0 2 4 6 9 13 15 16 0SEEN-BY: 400/17 19 24 26 28 29 32 100 500/0 600/0 304 700/0 1 10 11 12 18 22 0SEEN-BY: 700/100 410 513 610 612 613 0PATH: 700/0 100/0 400/0 From: Kelly Pruitt #0 @176:700/0 via 176:400/0 PRNet Re: Newspaper Article 2/2 0AREA:PR_NET 0MSGID: 176:700/0.0 87FD5AD6 0TID: WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 93-0237 (Continued from previous message) Johnson, an Anaheim firearms instructor who heads a network of citizens groups called The Orange County Corps. "What we want to do is be prepared for the major earthquake or if a riots break out if O.J. Simpson gets convicted." In anticipation of such an occurrence, Johnson said: "Our goal is to make sure our neighbors are properly supplied with food, water, first aid, medical support and firearms and ammunition." Message written at 1:58am, on Wednesday, April 26, 1995. --- * Apex v4 * The sea changes color. But the sea does not change. þ wcECHO 4.0 ÷ Nautilus II, San Bernardino (909)880-3229 USR 28.8 kBaud --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 * Origin: PRN SouthWest Regional Center (310)676-0492 (176:700/0.0) 0SEEN-BY: 1/3 100/0 15 17 200 800 102/230 200/0 43 300/0 400/0 2 4 6 9 13 15 16 0SEEN-BY: 400/17 19 24 26 28 29 32 100 500/0 600/0 304 700/0 1 10 11 12 18 22 0SEEN-BY: 700/100 410 513 610 612 613 0PATH: 700/0 100/0 400/0