Imagine a group of individuals armed to the teeth and trained in militant camps who believe that the American government is a symbol of greed. They are willing to lay down their lives to kill members of this government and anyone else who gets in their way. In the minds of many Americans, groups like this exist halfway across the world in war-torn countries like Afghanistan or Iraq. They practice Islamic extremism and lead disparate lives than the Americans they want to kill. The reality of the situation is that, along with networks like al-Qaeda, there are groups just like the one described above here in America.
Time magazine has a piece this week that delves into the world of these extreme groups titled, "The Secret World of Extreme Militias." The reality of the situation, however, is that these militias are not much of a secret; they're just in the midst of a resurgence following publicized events like the Waco siege, the Ruby Ridge incident, and the Oklahoma City Bombing.
The militias of today preach something akin to a governmental end of days, when they will actively engage in armed combat with troops in America -- whether from the U.N., the United States, or some other third party. They are ready and feel that this apocalypse is on the verge of commencement. Take this quote from the Time article:
Kevin Terrell, a self-described colonel who founded a group of "freedom fighters" in Kentucky and predicts war with "the jackbooted thugs" of Washington within a year, says he has to fend off hotheads who call him a "keyboard commando."
You know that the situation is serious when the man predicting overt war with the United States government within a year is portrayed as the voice of reason.
But while some may think that Kevin Terrell and his compatriots are all talk, there have been numerous examples of this type of far right extremism that have either led to violence or were narrowly prevented from leading to violence.
There is James Cummings, a neo-Nazi residing in the small town of Belfast, Maine. Cummings was shot by his wife Amber on December 9, 2008, and what investigators found in the Cummings' home was disturbing, to say the least. Cummings, who adored Adolf Hitler and was applying to become a member of the National Socialist Movement, was stockpiling materials to create a dirty bomb. According to his wife, Cummings planned on using the dirty bomb to kill President Obama and had even practiced crossing through checkpoints with dangerous material in his motor home. For comparison, Cummings was, according to Time, "far ahead of Jose Padilla," the American citizen initially charged with planning to detonate a dirty bomb and declared an enemy combatant by the Bush administration before finally being convicted of supporting terrorism.
Six months later a man named James Von Brunn walked into the Holocaust Museum and killed security guard Stephen Johns. Brunn, a white supremacist who had taken members of the Federal Reserve Board hostage in the 1980s, calling it a citizen's arrest for treason, was actually targeting David Axelrod, President Obama's top advisor. Von Brunn died before being brought to trial.
Nine months after Johns' murder, a group of self-described "Christian warriors" called the Hutaree were arrested across the midwest on numerous charges, not the least of which included planning to kill a police officer and attacking the funeral procession with land mines and roadside IEDs. Hutaree members partook in the kinds of paramilitary training sessions described in the Time magazine article and believed that they were preparing for the arrival of the Antichrist. They are scheduled to go to trial in February, 2011.
So why does this matter? Because it seems that what the media and government want to focus on is Islamic terrorism when we face threats from both foreign and domestic groups. We need to remember that Islamic extremist groups do not have a monopoly on terrorism, and not for some political correctness dictat, either. Terrorism is terrorism -- whether committed by whites, blacks, Latinos, Christians, Jews, Muslims -- and needs to be addressed.
What really struck me in the Time article was the unwillingness of federal law enforcement to speak about right wing extremist terrorism, despite the very real examples of it the past couple of years. In fact, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has forbade public discussion of the subject following a DHS report entitled "Rightwing Extremism." According to Time, the report contained passages that could have been misconstrued to suggest a threat from normal anti-government opinions or military veterans in general.
In this post-9/11 world, when our focus tends to be on airlines (the threat level for the entire country is yellow, or elevated, yet for flights it is orange, or high) and Islamic extremism, we need to remember that no group has monopolized the threat of terrorism against this country. We need to be prepared not only for a foreign-based act, but also one that could just as easily be conceived by Americans on her own soil.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this post stated that the Hutaree were arrested for killing a police officer. This has been changed to reflect that they were arrested for planning to kill a police officer.
Follow Matt Kane on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RealMattKane
The government is blamed for all of our problems while corporate robber barons, criminals, and the banks are allowed to get off without any blame at all. In fact Republicans like to say that if only all this legal stuff the government is trying to do like laws and sh_t would just go away then the corporations could do whatever they want and that would be freedom. You know like rape and pillage America. Cool stuff like that there.
In reality it is in fact the Federal Reserve that has caused all of our heart ache in the latest economic downturn. The only winners in our wars are the banks. As foreclosures increase the banks end up owning everything and on pennies for the dollar.
I have been using the PDF, this is much easier.
I will be sure to spam it all over HP.
http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/01/terrorism-in-europe/
Facts is facts....
Peace/Salaams/Shalom
http://www.harangue.org/2010/08/a-history-of-progressivism-in-america.html
By the way I am an actual American too......
Peace
You would know why these groups exist and why people feel safer because they are there, not threatened by militias.
You would also know that you should have not just the will, but the ability to defend yourself.
That you don't support these people, your fellow Americans, in favor of Islamic extremists is just another indicator of your inability to connect with or understand the true spirit of this nation.
That you don't support these people is really just a smoke screen to hide the fact that you have turned you back on your responsibility you have to everyone in this nation to defend yourself, the best you can, so that you don't have to force everyone else to defend you.
Do your duty, join your local militia!!
You would send old men out to fight in your place?
Ones who have ALREADY done their part?
Your augment sounds like what it is, you justifying your delusions.
Read a history book and then get a grip.
I never mentioned William Ayers in this post, so I'm confused as to why that reference is being brought up.
All I'm saying is focus on both Islamic extremists as well as militia extremists. Is this what you object to?
In the United States today, the rift between reality and reporting has peaked. There is no longer a mere credibility gap, but rather a literalTruth Emergency in which the most important information affecting people is concealed from view. Many Americans, relying on the mainstream corporate media, have serious difficulty accessing the truth while still believing that the information they receive is the reality. A Truth Emergency reflects cumulative failures of the fourth estate to act as a truly free press.
http://www.mediafreedominternational.org/2009/12/21/inside-the-military-media-industrial-complex-impacts-on-movements-for-peace-and-social-justice/
Anyone standing in the way of corporate bottomlines can be labeled terrorists and it certainly isn't limited to religions or Government hate groups,, although these story lines do hold cover for many situations.
I mean come on this does not have anything to do with them.
I know they are HP top stories, but give it a break.
We're now in the "Blackwater" era,,, companies that can be employed to carry out military type missions anywhere in the world,,,,,,, in any country,,,,,,,, including the USA....
False security indeed.