From: James Madison #0 @176:700/500 via 176:400/0 PRNet Re: Militias 0AREA:PRMLITIA 0PID: BWRA 3.02 [Eval] 0MSGID: 176:700/500.0 2fa47e25 The Arizona Republic Sunday, April 23, 1995 MILITIA MOVEMENT CARRIES WEAPONS AND DEEP GRUDGES MILITIA MEMBERS ARMED AND FURIOUS By Paul Brinkley-Rogers and Rich Robertson Once, they operated in the shadows of the U.S. landscape. But as federal investigators comb the high desert near Kingman for evidence linking Timothy McVeigh, a suspect in the bombing in Oklahoma City, to the fast-growing citizens militia movement, the clandestine paramilitary cells that have sprung up in 36 states find themselves in the limelight. Their members are secretive, obsessed by visions of surveillance helicopters, foreign troops already in the country, even by the belief that bar codes on the backs of street signs are guides for their enemies. Their low profile and their suspicion of authority have made them enigmas for law-enforcement organizations, whom they number among their enemies. They call themselves "freemen" and "sovereign citizens." They espouse tax resistance and gun ownership, and they believe in minimal government, with some acknowledging no higher authority than county sheriffs. Their literature often is filled with predictions of violent warfare against the federal government. Increasingly, violence has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Militia members rally around Randy Weaver, an Idaho white separatist who was the target of a federal siege in 1992 that resulted in the deaths of his wife and 14-year-old son. They also consider a raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, that killed 80 men, women and children in 1993 a call to arms. Both are proof that the federal government is out of control and have prompted many people who are frustrated with society to band together, militia members say. Gun-control legislation, such as the Brady law, which requires a five-day waiting period for the sale of handguns, also has caused membership to swell. Many new members say they are convinced the Clinton administration is trying to outlaw all gun ownership so that only the federal government will be armed. "Throw in the general-public theory that all politicians are corrupt and that they take payoffs from crooks and drug dealers, and you get the picture," says Walt Benning, a member of the Arizona Militia, one of a half-dozen larger armed groups in the state dedicated to resisting the federal government. "This country needs a second American Revolution, not a bunch of talk in Congress. We want things put right. We don't approve of terrorism, but I tell you, I can understand why some of the guys got frustrated." Benning and other militia activists say they have taken an irrevocable oath to defend the Constitution by executing, if necessary, corrupt domestic leaders. They also have vowed to use arms to stop the United Nations from taking over the United States. They are ready to die, they say, in a war they predict is inevitable between their ragtag forces and the federal government. Arizona, according to a federal law-enforcement official, is one of eight key states in the national militia network. Members keep in touch through clandestine regional meetings, postings on the Internet and by meeting at right-wing or white supremacy conventions. There is no national leader, though there are plenty of loud voices. The need for secrecy to protect against their foes' surveillance means many groups exist only as small cells. Some members say they have run into other militia groups that they never knew existed while training in the wilderness. Gary D. Hunt, a man who splits his time between Florida and Arizona with an organization called Sons of Liberty, claims that he was present at the Branch Davidian siege and in fliers urging Americans to arm themselves "against tyranny" compares the cult members' deaths to sacrifices made by the Minutemen at Concord in 1775. Both the cult raid and the first shots of the American Revolution occurred on April 19, which is a holy day for militia members. Last week's Oklahoma City bombing also took place on April 19, and one of the "material witnesses" reportedly had a counterfeit driver's license with that date listed as his birthday. Although militia cells dot the country, their spiritual center is in the rural West, law-enforcement sources say. The Militia of Montana and U.S. Militia Association of Idaho have become touchstones for those determined to get as far away from the federal government as possible. James "Bo" Gritz, a former right-wing presidential candidate who enjoys a modest following in the Phoenix area, is creating an armed community on 200 acres he refers to as "Almost Heaven." In a recent newsletter, Gritz called for the execution of federal officials involved in the Weaver and Branch Davidian incidents. The John Trochmann family, which runs the Militia of Montana, also claims membership in the Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi group police say advocates violence against homosexuals, Jews and African-Americans. Aryan Nations encampments in Idaho attract white supremacists who are arming themselves for a racial Armageddon. Other key states include Michigan, Florida, Texas, Colorado and Utah. A 1994 study by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith that examined militia organizations in 13 states including Arizona, claimed that militia members were stockpiling weapons and other military equipment, such as special suits needed to deal with chemical and biological warfare. After members of the Blue Ridge Hunt Club, a Virginia militia, were arrested in possession of illegal weapons, police found a computer disk in the home of the group's leader with a draft of a newsletter outlining a series of terrorist acts. An official of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said the group intended to further arm itself by raiding a National Guard armory. The Patriots in Colorado sell videotapes including "The New World Order: Communist Groups Supported by Hillary Clinton" and others that tell how mysterious black helicopters are scrutinizing, terrorizing and even poisoning loyal Americans throughout the Mountain States. This helicopter theory also is espoused by several Arizona militia groups. Guardians of American Liberties, another Colorado group with a chapter in Phoenix, urges Americans to get ready to rid the nation of corruption and says that the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve Bank are tools of a conspiracy involving crooked politicians. Steve Gehring, who owns a convenience market north of Payson and is a member of the Militia of Arizona, said last week, for example, that its members have done "extensive investigations" against a variety of local judicial officials who he said will be "indicted by a citizens' grand jury" and put on trial before a "township supreme court." He said these officials include sheriff's deputies, county attorneys, justices of the peace and Superior Court judges. Like some militias, the Florida State Militia, led by Robert Plummer, takes aim at minority groups, including Jews, African-Americans and Hispanics. Plummer alleges that Russian, Iranian, Mexican and even Chinese troops secretly are operating on U.S. soil and exhorts Americans to buy guns and ammunition now "before our government-leader traitors stop such sales and give our country to the enemy." Many militias apparently are all-white, but in other states, like Michigan, some militia groups have been recruiting minority members. "Black people are sick and tired of the mess we are in, and we're damn mad at the federal government for putting us in it," William Beavis, a black man, said in a northern Michigan Regional Militia newsletter, adding that he was welcomed by the white membership of the five-man "rifle cell" he joined. --- FMail 0.98a * Origin: CyberSupport Hq/Co.A PRN/Surv/FIDO/+ (602)231-9377 (176:700/500) 0SEEN-BY: 1/3 100/0 15 17 200 102/230 200/0 43 300/0 400/0 2 4 6 9 13 15 16 17 0SEEN-BY: 400/19 24 26 28 29 32 100 500/0 600/0 700/0 1 10 11 12 18 22 100 410 0SEEN-BY: 700/500 513 514 610 612 613 0PATH: 700/500 513 0 100/0 400/0