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This is a scalable context timeline. It contains events related to the event April 27, 2011: Conservative Pundits, Bloggers Speculate that Obama Waited to Release Birth Certificate to Paint 'Birther' Critics as 'Fringe'. You can narrow or broaden the context of this timeline by adjusting the zoom level. The lower the scale, the more relevant the items on average will be, while the higher the scale, the less relevant the items, on average, will be.
Senator Benjamin Tillman, an ardent segregationist who once said, 'My Democracy means white supremacy.' [Source: Black Americans in Congress]President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt signs the Tillman Act into law. The Act prohibits monetary contributions to national political campaigns by corporations and national banks. Roosevelt, dogged by allegations that he had accepted improper donations during his 1904 presidential campaign, has pushed for such restrictions since he took office (see August 23, 1902 and December 5, 1905). [Federal Elections Commission, 1998; Center for Responsive Politics, 2002 ; Moneyocracy, 2/2012] Senator Benjamin Tillman (D-SC), later described by National Public Radio as a "populist and virulent racist," sponsored the bill. [National Public Radio, 2012] In 1900, Tillman was quoted as saying about black voters: "We have done our level best. We have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate every last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it." [Atlas, 2010, pp. 205] Unfortunately, the law is easily circumvented. Businesses and corporations give employees large "bonuses" with the understanding that the employee then gives the bonus to a candidate "endorsed" by the firm. Not only do the corporations find and exploit this loophole, they receive an additional tax deduction for "employee benefits." The law will be amended to cover primary elections in 1911 (see 1911). [Campaign Finance Timeline, 1999]
Entity Tags: Benjamin Tillman, Theodore Roosevelt, Tillman Act
Timeline Tags: Civil Liberties
Father Charles Coughlin. [Source: Spartacus Schoolnet]Father Charles Edward Coughlin, an ordained Catholic priest, hosts what may be the first politically oriented national radio broadcast in US history. Coughlin, who started his political involvement as a supporter of President Roosevelt's New Deal, quickly becomes a virulent Roosevelt critic, calling Roosevelt's economic policies "socialism." By 1930, CBS broadcasts Coughlin's weekly radio show nationwide. Coughlin's harsh criticism of communist and socialist governments, such as the Soviet Union, widens to encompass the US government and many aspects of American life. He accuses the citizenry of "scorn[ing] the basic family and national doctrine of Jesus Christ," citing divorce statistics as "proof" of his assertions. He does not spare the corporations, blasting them for treating working families unfairly and warning of the dangers of the "concentration of wealth in the hands of the few." Coughlin begins claiming that American communists have infiltrated many levels of government and corporate leadership, and lashes out at what he calls the "Bolshevism of America." In April 1931, CBS refuses to renew his contract, and Coughlin organizes his own radio network which eventually claims over 30 radio stations and some 30 million listeners. In 1936, Coughlin, who has grown disillusioned with Roosevelt over his administration's failure to take over the nation's banking system and other of Coughlin's suggested reforms, forms a hardline anti-Communist, isolationist organization called the "Christian Front." When the US begins publicly opposing the German Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler, Coughlin turns on Roosevelt entirely, accusing him of advocating "international socialism or Sovietism," and praising Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini as "anti-Communist fighters." By 1940, according to playwright Arthur Miller, Coughlin is "confiding to his 10 million Depression-battered listeners that the president was a liar controlled by both the Jewish bankers and, astonishingly enough, the Jewish Communists, the same tribe that 20 years earlier had engineered the Russian Revolution.… He was arguing… that Hitlerism was the German nation's innocently defensive response to the threat of Communism, that Hitler was only against 'bad Jews,' especially those born outside Germany." Coughlin echoes Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels in claiming that Marxist atheism in Europe is a Jewish plot. He claims that America is overrun by "Jewry," resulting in critics labeling him a "fascist." Boston police discover that for several years Jewish youths in the city have been beaten and terrorized by what the Christian Science Monitor calls "Coughlinites and the Christian Front"; other assaults on American Jews are later found to have been carried out by people who support Coughlin, often with the complicity of local law enforcement and Catholic officials. The Christian Front collapses in January 1940 when the FBI raids its New York branch and finds a cache of weapons; FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover tells the press that the organization is planning the assassinations of a number of prominent Jews, communists, and "a dozen Congressmen." Coughlin's influence is badly damaged by the FBI's claims, and Coughlin's rhetoric continues to move to the extreme. By September 1940, he is calling Roosevelt "the world's chief warmonger," and in 1941 says that the US, not Germany or the Soviet Union, is the biggest threat to impose its domination on the world. "Many people are beginning to wonder who they should fear most," he says, "the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination." When the US enters World War II at the end of 1941, the National Association of Broadcasters arranges for Coughlin's broadcasts to be terminated. At Roosevelt's behest, the US Post Office refuses to deliver his weekly newspapers. And in May 1942, Coughlin is ordered by Archbishop Francis Mooney to cease his political activities or be defrocked. Although Coughlin will continue to write pamphlets about the dangers of communism until his death in 1979, his influence on American political thought ends in the first months of the war. [New York Times, 1/21/1940; Dinnerstein, 1995, pp. 132-133; Spartacus Schoolnet, 2010]
Entity Tags: Christian Science Monitor, Benito Mussolini, Arthur Miller, Adolf Hitler, CBS, Christian Front, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, Joseph Goebbels, National Association of Broadcasters, Francis Mooney, Charles Edward Coughlin
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda
The masthead for the March 7, 1939 issue of 'Liberation,' a magazine published by the 'Silver Shirts.' [Source: Georgetown Bookshop]White supremacist and ardent Nazi follower William Dudley Pelley, a New England native of what he calls "uncontaminated English stock," founds the Silver Shirts, a neo-Nazi organization, in Asheville, North Carolina, the same day that Adolf Hitler ascends to power in Germany. Apparently Pelley funds the organization through the proceeds of a best-selling book, Seven Minutes in Eternity, in which he claimed to have died and gone to "the beyond" for a seven-minute period. Pelley and his followers, including Henry Lamont "Mike" Beach (see 1969), dress themselves in silver shirts emblazoned with a large cursive "L," blue corduroy knickers, and gold stockings. Pelley considers himself a Republican, though he is not politically active in the usual sense. Anti-Semitic, Anti-Government - His efforts attract members from pro-Nazi groups, Ku Klux Klan chapters, and others sympathetic to his anti-Semitic views. In August 1933, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) will warn: "The Silver Shirts came into existence the early part of this year. They are enrolling white Protestant Christians as members of a Christian militia, through a plan of State encampments that are reported to extend into various states of the Union, with posts in every community." According to Silver Shirt documents obtained by the AJC, the group intends to bring about the establishment of a strictly Christian government in the US; accuses President Roosevelt of being a "dictator" and "set[ting] aside the Constitution, which they desire to restore"; intends to "save [the] United States from a state of Sovietism into which… the Jews are leading the country"; accuses Jews of being a "money power" bent on destroying the nation's economy via their "control" of the Federal Reserve; and says that "a people who constitute only 2.5 per cent of the population [Jews] to be held down to a 2.5 per cent influence in the American government, and we propose to see that it is brought about, race prejudice or no!" The group also advocates a form of direct democracy, in which citizens mail in their votes for or against pending legislation, and proposes the reorganization of America into what it calls a "colossus corporation," where "[e]very citizen shall be both a common and a preferred stockholder." Psychic Messages - Pelley claims to receive psychic messages from "the vastness of cosmos," including two sets of documents, the "Esoteric Doctrines of the Liberation Enlightenment" and the "Liberation Scripts," which set forth the "Christ government" he intends to establish. In a Silver Shirt newsletter, Pelley writes: "It is the order of things that those wicked and malignant spirits who have incarnated in certain sections of the Hebrew race trying to bring the downfall of the Christ Peoples, should meet a fearful fate in this closing of the Cycle of Cosmic Event. That contest is on-the-make and Hitler's job it has been to do the advance work. But Hitler is not going to finish that work. THE FINISH OF IT COMES RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA!" Pelley writes that "the Jew" is possessed of a "nomadic character, making him an internationalist whose ultimate objectives may well mean the destruction and disappearance of the United States." [American Jewish Committee, 8/24/1933; Ian Geldard, 2/19/1995; David Neiwert, 6/17/2003] Spike in Membership Will Dwindle - Pelley's group will enjoy its largest membership of some 15,000 in 1934; four years later, the group will dwindle to around 5,000 members. [The Holocaust Chronicle, 2009] Pelley will be convicted of sedition in 1942, and by the time he emerges from prison in 1950, his Silver Shirts will have long since disappeared. 'Christian Fascist' - In the early 1980s, graduate student Karen Hoppes will write extensively about Pelley. She will write of his Christian fundamentalism: "[T]he link with fundamental Christianity establishes the uniqueness of American fascism. The majority of fascist groups justified their existence by their desire to change the United States into a Christian society.… The relationship between the religious identity of these groups and their political demands can be shown by a careful survey of their rhetoric. The Christian fascist does not distinguish between the application of the terms anti-Christ, Jew, and Communist. Neither does he distinguish between Gentile and Christian." [David Neiwert, 6/17/2003]
Entity Tags: William Dudley Pelley, Karen Hoppes, Henry L. Beach, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, American Jewish Committee, Ku Klux Klan, Silver Shirts
Timeline Tags: US Domestic Terrorism
American Liberty League logo. [Source: David Pietrusza]Prominent Democrats and Republicans join together to form the American Liberty League (ALL). The organization, according to the founders, exists "to combat radicalism, preserve property rights, uphold and preserve the Constitution." ALL spokesman Jouett Shouse says ALL will fight to preserve "traditional American political values." According to the Encyclopedia of the Great Depression, ALL was organized by "disgruntled business conservatives, Wall Street financiers, right-wing opponents of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and defeated rivals within Roosevelt's Democratic Party." ALL is financed by, among others, industrialists Pierre, Irenee, and Lammot du Pont; former Democratic Party chairman John J. Raskob; financier E.F. Hutton; and executive Sewell Avery of the department store chain Montgomery Ward. Most of the politicians in the organization are Republicans, but these are joined by anti-Roosevelt Democrats such as Alfred E. Smith, who ran for president in 1928. Many ALL members were once part of the Association against the Prohibition Amendment, which fought to re-legalize the US liquor industry. ALL unsuccessfully fights to block federal regulations and additional taxes on business, the creation of public power utilities, pro-labor barganing rights, agricultural production controls and subsidies, New Deal relief and public jobs programs, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Social Security, and other Roosevelt-era programs and initiatives. According to the Encyclopedia, "critics effectively lampooned league members as champions of privilege, ungrateful critics of an administration that had saved capitalism, and vindictive and selfish individuals seeking revenge on a president for betraying his social class." ALL works diligently, but unsuccessfully, to unseat Roosevelt in 1936, backing Republican contender Alfred M. Landon. After Landon loses in a landslide to Roosevelt, the organization fades in prominence. The Encyclopedia concludes that ALL's "legacy of fund-raising tactics, ideology-driven issues research and public education, and coordination with partisan legislative and electoral campaigns foreshadowed today's political action committees and independent-expenditure organizations." [New York Times, 8/23/1934; Encyclopedia of the Great Depression, 1/1/2004] In 2003, columnist Ralph De Toledano will write, "The Liberty League was laughed out of existence by New Yorker cartoonists, who depicted its members looking out over Fifth Avenue and snorting that doomsday was here and Josef Stalin lurked in the bushes." [Insight, 9/2/2003] In 2010, writer Kevin Drum will compare the American Liberty League to the tea party movement (see September 2010). [Mother Jones, 9/2010]
Entity Tags: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, E.F. Hutton, Alfred M. Landon, Alfred E. Smith, Works Progress Administration, Sewell Avery, Pierre du Pont, American Liberty League, Jouett Shouse, John J. Raskob, Irenee du Pont, Kevin Drum, Lammot du Pont, Ralph De Toledano
Koch Industries logo. [Source: Koch Industries / Wikipedia]Oil magnate Fred Koch co-founds Wood River Oil and Refining Company, later renamed Koch Industries. The firm will grow to become one of the largest energy conglomerates in the US, and Koch will become an influential backer of right-wing politics. Koch is a virulent anti-Communist who will be one of the first members of the John Birch Society (JBS—see March 10, 1961 and December 2011), a far-right organization that reflects his hatred of Communism (he believes both the Republican and Democratic parties are irretrievably infilitrated by Communists) and opposes almost every aspect of governance in general. Koch will write glowingly of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's murderous suppression of Communists during World War II. Both Koch and the JBS have little use for minorities; of African-Americans, Koch will write, "The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America," and he will say that government welfare programs were designed to attract large numbers of blacks to the cities, where they would foment "a vicious race war." In 1963, using language that reporter Jane Mayer will later say "prefigures the Tea Party's talk of a secret socialist plot," Koch will warn that Communists would "infiltrate the highest offices of government in the US until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us." Koch's two sons, David and Charles, will have their father's political views deeply ingrained into them (see August 30, 2010). In 2007, David Koch will tell a reporter: "He was constantly speaking to us children about what was wrong with government.… It's something I grew up with—a fundamental point of view that big government was bad, and imposition of government controls on our lives and economic fortunes was not good." Gus diZerega, once a close friend of Charles's, will later say that the brothers transfer their father's hatred of Communism to the US government, which they will come to view as a tyranny. DiZerega will write that the Kochs, like many other hard-right conservatives, redefine "socialism" as almost any form of government which taxes citizens and regulates businesses. [New Yorker, 8/30/2010]
Entity Tags: Jane Mayer, Fred Koch, Koch Industries, David Koch, Gus diZerega, John Birch Society, Charles Koch
Portion of a 1955 cartoon warning against the evils of three government health programs, including water fluoridation. [Source: Spectator]As World War II is coming to a close, the US Public Health Service (USPHS) begins a pilot program in Michigan to add fluoride to selected cities' water supply, as a tooth-decay preventative. By 1950, 87 American towns and cities volunteer to have the agency fluoridate their water supply. By the early 1950s, water fluoridation is compulsory. Studies show that children between the ages of 5 and 9 show significantly smaller rates of cavities and tooth decay when they regularly drink fluoridated water, though studies of older children and adults are less clear. As the federal government begins rolling out its mandatory fluoridation program, far-right organizations such as the John Birch Society (JBS—see March 10, 1961 and December 2011) and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) begin taking rigid stances against it. The JBS, a staunchly anti-Communist organization, accuses the federal government of imposing "creeping socialism" and "Soviet Communism" on the nation by making fluoridated water mandatory, and warns Americans against the government "polluting our precious bodily fluids." (In 1993, JBS member Murray N. Rothbard differentiates between the brands of communism at work, saying, "[N]o, not Bolsheviks, guys: but a Menshevik-State Capitalist alliance.") The JBS, in accusations later echoed by Rothbard, accuses the government of working with aluminum manufacturer Alcoa to dump sodium fluoride, a byproduct of aluminum manufacturing, into the nation's water supply and rid Alcoa of the cost of disposing of the substance. The 1964 satirical film Dr. Strangelove features a character, General Jack D. Ripper, shouting, "Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?" [New American, 1/1993; Reason, 12/5/2001; Hileman, 5/2008] In 1988, the Fluoride Action Network notes that the two opposing camps—fluoridation is beneficial and has no side effects vs. fluoridation is useless and harmful—have fought to an argumentative standstill, with no middle ground between the two. Jacqueline Warren, an attorney with the National Resources Defense Council, says, "Neither side has given the other one rational moment." [Hileman, 5/2008] In the early 1990s, environmentalist and public health safety groups begin calling for new examinations of the impact of fluoride on the human body, pointing to "valid concerns" about fluoride having a toxic impact on the human body and on the environment. In 2008, one JBS member warns, perhaps sardonically, "Don't be surprised if we learn soon that the fluoride in Chinese toothpaste is nuclear waste from North Korea." [Reason, 12/5/2001; Mother Jones, 5/2008]
Entity Tags: Murray Rothbard, Jacqueline Warren, John Birch Society, Fluoride Action Network, Ku Klux Klan, US Public Health Service
Arthur Porth, a Wichita, Kansas, building contractor, files a claim in a Kansas court to recover his income tax payment of $151. Porth argues that the 16th Amendment is unconstitutional because it places the taxpayer in a position of involuntary servitude contrary to the 13th Amendment. The court rules against Porth, but the defeat does not stop him. For 16 years Porth continues battling the income tax requirement, finding new and inventive challenges to the practice. He claims that the 16th Amendment "put[s] Americans into economic bondage to the international bankers," a claim that the Southern Poverty Law Center will call "a thinly veiled anti-Semitic reference to the supposed 'international Jewish banking conspiracy.'" He also argues that because paper money is not backed by gold or silver, taxpayers are not obligated to pay their taxes because "Federal Reserve notes are not dollars." In 1961, Porth files an income tax return that is blank except for a statement declaring that he is pleading the Fifth Amendment, essentially claiming that filling out a tax return violates his right of protection from self-incrimination, a scheme that quickly becomes popular among anti-tax protesters. Porth becomes an activist and garners something of a following among right-wing audiences, traveling around the country distributing tax protest literature that includes a book, A Manual for Those Who Think That They Must Pay an Income Tax. He even issues his own "arrest warrants" against "bureaucrats" whom, in his view, violate the Constitution. In 1967, Porth is convicted of a number of tax evasion charges, but, as the Anti-Defamation League will later write, "he had already become a grass-roots hero to the nascent tax protest movement." His cause is championed by, among others, William Potter Gale, who will go on to found the racist, anti-government Posse Comitatus movement (see 1969). Gale uses the newsletter of his Ministry of Christ Church, a church espousing the racist and anti-Semitic theology of Christian Identity (see 1960s and After), to promote Porth and the early tax rebellion movement. Porth exhausts his appeals and goes to jail; though sentenced to five years' imprisonment, he only serves 77 days. One of Porth's most active followers is his lawyer, Jerome Daly, whose activism eventually leads to his disbarment (see December 9, 1968 and After). Daly meets Porth in 1965 and files his own "protest" tax return just days before Porth is indicted by a grand jury. Daly is also convicted of tax evasion; in 1969, a federal appeals court will issue a ruling invalidating what has by then become known as the "Porth-Daly Fifth Amendment Return." Porth receives the support of several far-right organizations, many of whom tie their racist views into his anti-tax protests. In a 1967 article for the far-right American Mercury magazine, tax protester and editor Martin A. Larson writes, "The negroes in the United States are increasing at a rate at least twice as great as the rest of the population," and warns that the tax burden posed by blacks "unquestionably doomed… the American way of life." Larson will later write regular columns for the white supremacist magazine The Spotlight, in which he will call black women prostitutes whose "offspring run wild in the streets, free to forage their food in garbage cans, and grow up to become permanent reliefers, criminals, rioters, looters, and, in turn, breeders of huge litters of additional human beings belonging to the same category." He will also write several books promoting Porth's anti-tax protest strategies. [Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2001; Anti-Defamation League, 2011]
Entity Tags: William Potter Gale, Arthur Porth, Jerome Daly, Martin A. Larson, Southern Poverty Law Center, US Federal Reserve
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda, US Domestic Terrorism
One of a number of semi-official 'Christian Identity' logos. [Source: KingIdentity (.com)]The "Christian Identity" theology, formerly a fairly benign expression of what is known as "British-Israelism" or "Anglo-Israelism," begins to spread throughout the US and Canada, particularly on the west coasts of these nations. This belief holds that white Americans and Canadians are the real descendants of the Biblical tribes of Israel. In 2003, author Nicole Nichols, an expert on far-right racist and religious groups in America, will define the concept of "Christian Identity" as practiced by many white supremacist and separatist groups. Christian Identity is not an organization, she will write, but an ideology that many organizations have adopted in some form or fashion. Christian Identity "elevates white supremacy and separatism to a Godly ideal," she will write, calling it "the ideological fuel that fires much of the activity of the racist far right." According to Christian Identity theology, Jews are neither the "true Israelites" nor the true "chosen people" of God; instead, Christian Identity proponents claim, Jews are descended from an Asiatic people known as the Khazars, who settled near the Black Sea during the Middle Ages. [Nicole Nichols, 2003; Anti-Defamation League, 2005; Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 5/30/2006] In 2005, the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance will write, "Followers tend to be involved in political movements opposing gun control, equal rights to gays and lesbians, and militia movements," and quote Michael Barkun, an expert on radical-right groups, as saying, "This virulent racist and anti-Semitic theology… is prevalent among many right-wing extremist groups and has been called the 'glue' of the racist right." [Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 5/30/2006] Beginnings; 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' - In the 1920s, William J. Cameron, editor of the Dearborn Independent weekly newspaper, popularized the anti-Semitic hoax manuscript called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which purported to detail the "secret teachings" of Judaism, including the planned takeover of the world's governments, the subjugation of non-Semitic races, and the bizarre, cannibalistic rituals supposedly practiced by Jews. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] Wesley Swift and 'Mud People' - In the 1940s, a former Methodist minister, Wesley Swift, started his own church, later known as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. Swift had deep ties to a number of radical right-wing groups including the Ku Klux Klan; Swift and his associates set the stage for the mutation of the Christian Identity into a loosely organized set of virulently anti-Semitic, racist belief systems that will come to be grouped together under the "Christian Identity" rubric. Swift himself taught that only the white race was created in the form of God, while Asian and African races were created from the "beasts of the fields," and thusly are subhuman creations. In Swift's version of Genesis, Eve, the wife of the first "true" man Adam, was seduced by The Serpent, who masqeueraded as a white man. Eve bore a son, Cain, who is the actual father of the Jewish people. This reinterpretation, sometimes called the "two-seed" or "seedliner" theory, supports the Christian Identity propensity to demonize Jews, whom Swift and others labeled the "spawn of Satan." Today's white Europeans and their American and Canadian descendants, Swift taught, are descended from the "true son" of Adam and Eve, Abel, and are the actual "chosen people" of God. Some Christian Identity adherents go even farther, claiming that subhuman "pre-Adamic" races existed and "spawned" the non-white races of the world, which they label "mud people." [Nicole Nichols, 2003; Anti-Defamation League, 2005] Permeates Racist, Far-Right Groups - By the 1960s, a new group of Christian Identity leaders emerges to spread the Identity theology through the radical, racist right in America and Canada, popularizing the once-obscure ideology. Most prominent among them are three disciples of Swift: James K. Warner, William Potter Gale, and Richard Butler. Warner, who will move to Louisiana and play a leading role in the fight against civil rights, founds the Christian Defense League and the New Christian Crusade Church. Gale, an early leader of the Christian Defense League and its paramilitary arm, the California Rangers, goes on to found the Posse Comitatus (see 1969), the group that will help bring about the sovereign citizen movement. Gale will later found the Committee of the States and serve as the "chief of staff" of its "unorganized militia." Butler moves Swift's Church of Jesus Christ Christian to Idaho and recasts it as the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s). Under the leadership of Butler, Gale, Warner, and others, Christian Identity soon permeates most of the major far-right movements, including the Klan and a racist "skinhead" organization known as the Hammerskins. It also penetrates many extreme anti-government activist groups. The Anti-Defamation League will write, "The resurgence of right-wing extremism in the 1990s following the Ruby Ridge (see August 31, 1992) and Waco standoffs (see April 19, 1993) further spread Identity beliefs." [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] Nichols will write: "Christian Identity enclaves provide a trail of safe havens for movement activists, stretching from Hayden Lake in northern Idaho (the Aryan Nations stronghold) to Elohim City on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border (see 1973 and After). Many white supremacists on the run from federal authorities have found shelter and support from Christian Identity followers." Some organizations such as the Montana Militia are headed by Identity adherents, but do not as a group promote the theology. [Nicole Nichols, 2003; Anti-Defamation League, 2005] Bringing Forth the Apocalypse - Many Christian Identity adherents believe that the Biblical Apocalypse—the end of the world as it is currently known and the final ascendancy of select Christians over all others—is coming soon. Unlike some Christians, Identity adherents do not generally believe in the "rapture," or the ascendancy of "saved" Christians to Heaven before the Apocalypse ensues; instead, Identity followers believe Jesus Christ will return to Earth only after the time of the "Tribulation," a great battle between good and evil, which will set the stage for the return of Christ and the final transformation of the world. Identity followers believe it is their duty to prepare for the Apocalypse, and some believe it is their duty to help bring it about. They tend to cast the Apocalypse in racial terms—whites vs. nonwhites. Identity adherents believe that worldly institutions will collapse during the "end times," and therefore tend to distrust such institutions, making Identity theology appealing to anti-government ideologies of groups such as militia, "Patriot," and sovereign citizens groups. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] 21st Century Identity - In the 21st century, Christian Identity groups are strongest in the Pacific Northwest of America and Canada, and the US Midwest, though Identity churches can be found throughout the US and in other parts of Canada. Identity churches also exist in, among other nations, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia, and South Africa (see June 25, 2003). The Anti-Defamation League will write: "Yet while spread far it is also spread thin. Estimates of the total number of believers in North America vary from a low of 25,000 to a high of 50,000; the true number is probably closer to the low end of the scale. Given this relatively small following, its extensive penetration of the far right is all the more remarkable." [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] Identity Violence - Identity adherents commit a number of violent acts, often against government and/or financial institutions, in an outsized proportion to their small numbers. In 1983, Identity adherent Gordon Kahl kills two US Marshals who attempt to arrest him on a parole violation, and kills an Arkansas sheriff before finally being gunned down by authorities (see February 13, 1983 and After). The white supremacist terrorist group The Order (see Late September 1983) contains a number of Identity members, including David Tate, who kills a Missouri Highway Patrol officer while attempting to flee to an Identity survivalist compound (see April 15, 1985). During the 1980s, small Identity groups such as The New Order (or The Order II) and the Arizona Patriots commit bombings and armored car robberies. After the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), Identity minister Willie Ray Lampley attempts a number of bombings (see November 9, 1995). In 1996, the Montana Freeman, led by Identity members, "stands off" federal authorities for 81 days (see March 25, 1996). Between 1996 and 1998, Eric Robert Rudolph, who has connections to Identity ministers such as Nord Davis and Dan Gayman, bombs an Atlanta gay bar (see February 21, 1997), several abortion clinics (see October 14, 1998), and the Atlanta Summer Olympics (see July 27, 1996 and After). In 1999, Identity member and former Aryan Nations security guard Buford Furrow goes on a shooting spree at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles (see August 10, 1999). [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]
Entity Tags: Eric Robert Rudolph, David Charles Tate, Willie Ray Lampley, William Potter Gale, Committee of the States, Church of Jesus Christ Christian, Christian Defense League, California Rangers, Anti-Defamation League, William J. Cameron, Arizona Patriots, Buford Furrow, Aryan Nations, Wesley Swift, New Christian Crusade Church, The New Order, Nord Davis, Nicole Nichols, Ku Klux Klan, The Order, Michael Barkun, Montana Militia, James K. Warner, Hammerskins, Richard Girnt Butler, Posse Comitatus, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, Gordon Kahl, Dan Gayman, Freemen
A Time magazine profile lambasts the racist, anti-Communist John Birch Society (JBS—see December 2011), in what is many Americans' first exposure to the group. It delineates the organization's penchant for secrecy, its domination by its "dictatorial" leader, Robert Welch, and its hardline battle against almost every element of the federal government as "agents of Communism." Forty to 60 percent of the federal government is controlled by Communism, the JBS believes. Time calls the organization "a tiresome, comic-opera joke" that nonetheless has cells in 35 states and an ever-widening influence. In Wichita, Kansas, JBS student members are trained to inform their cell leaders of "Communist" influences they may detect in their classroom lectures, and the offending teacher is berated by parents. A Wichita businessman who wanted to give a donation to the University of Wichita decided not to donate after being hounded by local JBS members, who wanted the university to fire professors and remove selected books from its library. "My business would be wrecked," the businessman explains, "if those people got on the phone and kept on yelling that I am a Communist because I give money to the school." Nashville, Tennessee, JBS members organize community members to verbally attack neighbors whom they suspect of Communist affiliations. JBS's current priority, Time writes, is to bring about the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Welch, who obtained his wealth from his brother's candymaking business, believes that Social Security and the federal income tax are all part of the "creeping socialism" that is taking over the federal government. He retired from the business in 1957 and founded the JBS shortly thereafter, naming it for a US Navy captain killed by Chinese Communist guerrillas after the end of World War II. Welch's seminal tract, "The Politician," accuses President Eisenhower and his brother Milton Eisenhower of being Communist plants, and accuses both men of treason against the nation. [Time, 3/10/1961]
Entity Tags: Milton Eisenhower, John Birch Society, Time magazine, Dwight Eisenhower, Robert Welch, Earl Warren
W. Cleon Skousen. [Source: Skousen2000 (.com)]Author W. Cleon Skousen, a supporter of the John Birch Society (JBS—see December 2011), writes an article attacking the Time profile of the JBS (see March 10, 1961) as being part of an orchestrated Communist attack on the organization. The article came about after the international Communist Party "ordered" the "annihilation" of the JBS, Skousen says. Skousen denies the group's penchant for secrecy, saying that it was openly set up in 1958 as a network of "study groups" examining the threat of Communism to American society. The organization, he writes, is nothing more than "a study group program with a strong bias in favor of traditional American constitutionalism." By 1960, the JBS earned the enmity of competing conservative groups, Skousen says, because the organization "had rallied together most of the best informed and hardest working patriots in many cities." However, he writes, JBS members tend to be part of other conservative movements as well. The JBS worked to defeat a bill, slated to be introduced in January 1961, that would largely defund the House Committee on Un-American Activities "so it could not investigate the Communist Party." Skousen says that JBS efforts derailed the bill, handing the American Communist Party "an overwhelming defeat." After the bill was defeated, Skousen says, "a manifesto… from Moscow" ordered the destruction of the JBS, as it posed the primary danger to "Communist progress" in the US. The Time magazine profile of the JBS was part of that effort, Skousen says, after the organization was attacked in the pages of the Daily People's World, a West Coast publication that Skousen says was "the official Communist newspaper" of that area. Within days, the information in the article was reprinted in Time's own article, which reached far more people than the People's World. "[T]he thing which astonished me," Skousen writes, "was the rapidity with which the transmission belt began to function so that this story was planted in one major news medium after another until finally even some of the more conservative papers had taken up the hue and cry." Skousen calls the article a Communist plant filled with fabrications and lies. He says that JBS leader Robert Welch's accusations that President Eisenhower and other pro-American world leaders are Communists were made in "private communication[s] to his friends" and were never part of official JBS principles, and took place well before Welch founded the JBS in 1957; therefore, Skousen writes, to report Welch's characterizations is to smear the JBS. Skousen also denies any racism or anti-Semitism on the JBS's part, and uses a sympathetic 1963 report by the California Senate Factfinding Committee to "prove" his claims. The report concluded that Welch and the JBS have "stirred the slumbering spirit of patriotism in thousands of Americans, roused them from lethargy, and changed their apathy into a deep desire to first learn the facts about communism and then implement that knowledge with effective and responsible action." Skousen concludes that while Americans are free to disagree with JBS principles and actions, any criticism of the organization should be considered potential Communist propaganda designed to smear the organization and reduce its effectiveness. If the criticism does not come from Communists themselves, it plays into Communist hands. As he claims to have been told by "[a] former member of the Communist Party National Committee," "The Communist leaders look upon the stamping out of the John Birch Society as a matter of life and death for the Party." [Our Republic, 1963]
Entity Tags: W. Cleon Skousen, Robert Welch, Daily People's World, Dwight Eisenhower, John Birch Society, Time magazine
Part of a poster distributed by the John Birch Society in Dallas in the days before President Kennedy's motorcade travels through that city. Kennedy will be assassinated while in the motorcade. [Source: Spartacus Schoolnet (.com)]The John Birch Society (JBS—see March 10, 1961 and December 2011), an anti-Communist organization that embraces racist and white supremacist ideologies, distrubutes posters throughout Dallas accusing President Kennedy of committing treason against the United States. The poster distribution is timed to coincide with Kennedy's visit to Dallas, where he is scheduled to drive through the city in a motorcade on November 22. Kennedy will be assassinated during that motorcade. The poster, designed to appear as a "Wanted" notice, enumerates the following "charges" against Kennedy: "Betraying the Constitution (which he swore to uphold). He is turning the sovereignty of the US over to the Communist controlled United Nations. He is betraying our friends (Cuba, Katanga, Portugal) and befriending our enemies (Russia, Yugoslavia, Poland)." "He has been WRONG on innumerable issues affecting the security of the US (United Nations, Berlin Wall, Missile Removal, Cuba, Wheat deals, Test Ban Treaty, etc.)." "He has been lax in enforcing the Communist Registration laws." "He has given support and encouragement to the Communist-inspired racial riots." "He has illegally invaded a sovereign State with federal troops." "He has consistently appointed Anti-Christians to Federal office. Upholds the Supreme Court in Anti-Christian rulings. Aliens and known Communists abound in Federal offices." "He has been caught in fantastic LIES to the American people (including personal ones like his previous marriage and divorce)." [Spartacus Schoolnet, 2008]
Entity Tags: John F. Kennedy, United Nations, John Birch Society
The transformative Civil Rights Act of 1964 passes Congress. The law makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, or gender in voting, public places, the workplace, and schools. Former President John F. Kennedy had argued for new civil rights legislation, saying that previous legislative efforts (see August 29, 1957 and May 6, 1960) did not go far enough. Kennedy waited until 1963 to send his legislation to Congress, and was assassinated before the bill was passed. On June 11, 1963, Kennedy told the public, "The negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day; one-third as much chance of completing college; one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man; twice as much chance of becoming unemployed; about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year; a life expectancy which is seven years shorter; and the prospects of earning only half as much." His successor, Lyndon Johnson, a conservative Southern Democrat, surprised many by pushing the bill instead of falling in line with conservative Southern Democrats who opposed it. Johnson and Senate leaders successfully fought back a filibuster by Senator Richard Russell (D-GA) and 17 other segregationist Democratic senators who tried to derail the bill; it passed the Senate on a 73-24 vote. Some believe that the passage of the bill is one of the major legislative acts that drives many Southern Democrats to leave the party for the increasingly conservative venue of the Republican Party. The word "sex," to prohibit gender-based discrimination, was added to the legislation at the last minute by Representative Howard W. Smith (D-VA), and some accused Smith of inserting the provision as a means to kill the entire bill. Smith argued that he was supportive of efforts by women's rights organizations, and inserted the language in a sincere effort to curb discrimination against women. Smith is joined by Representative Martha W. Griffiths (D-MI) in keeping the provision in the bill. Perhaps the most significant provision of the bill is the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), charged with implementing the law. The EEOC will use the practice of "affirmative action" to curb discrimination, including mandating hiring of minorities and women to alleviate many employers' practice of hiring white males almost exclusively, especially for more senior positions. President Johnson will extend his support to "affirmative action," and is perhaps the first public figure to use the phrase in addressing the public. [Spartacus Schoolnet, 2008; National Archives, 2012; American Civil Liberties Union, 2012]
Entity Tags: Lyndon B. Johnson, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, John F. Kennedy, Martha W. Griffiths, Richard Russell, Jr, Howard W. Smith
Farmer and mechanic Gordon Kahl, a World War II veteran who earned two Purple Hearts while flying bombing missions and a convert to the Christian Identity "religion" (see 1960s and After), now embraces the burgeoning anti-tax protest ideology (see 1951-1967). He writes a letter to the IRS telling it that he will never again "give aid and comfort to the enemies of Christ" by paying income taxes, which he calls tithing to "the synagogue of Satan." Kahl is a virulent anti-Semite who believes that World War II was engineered by Jewish bankers who had "created" and backed Adolf Hitler in order to subjugate "the feisty German people." Kahl denies that the Holocaust ever occurred, calling the concentration camps "mostly work camps" where less than 50,000 Jews died. Communism, he writes, is a "smoke screen" for "world Jewry," which uses every means at its disposal—including the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs—to deceive and undermine Christians. To his friends and family, Kahl is a loving father and husband and a scrupulously honest businessman, but as author Daniel Levitas will write in 2003: "These virtuous aspects of his character did not extend beyond his small Anglo-Saxon circle, however. Kahl's world was divided strictly into opposites and he felt only murderous contempt for those who fell on the other side of the line—satanic Jews, nonwhites, and the Christian lackeys of the International Jewish Conspiracy." Kahl is a firm believer in ZOG, the "Zionist Occupied Government" of the United States, and he believes that most law enforcement officials are either unwitting dupes of this "conspiracy" or knowing members. Kahl leaves California for the West Texas oilfields, and in 1973 joins the anti-tax, anti-government Posse Comitatus (see 1969). [Levitas, 2002, pp. 193] Kahl will be convicted of tax evasion (see 1975 - 1981) and, fleeing incarceration, will kill two police officers in a shootout and later die himself after killing a third (see February 13, 1983 and After and March 13 - June 3, 1983).
Entity Tags: Internal Revenue Service, Daniel Levitas, Gordon Kahl, Posse Comitatus
Roger Ailes (left) and Richard Nixon in a 1968 photo. [Source: White House Photo Office / Rolling Stone]Roger Ailes, the media consultant for the Richard Nixon presidential campaign, decides that Nixon should, during a televised town hall, take a staged question from a "good, mean, Wallaceite cab driver." Ailes is referring to the overtly racist third-party candidacy of Governor George Wallace (D-AL). Ailes suggests "[s]ome guy to sit there and say, 'Awright, Mac, what about these n_ggers?'" According to Nixonland author Rick Pearlstein, the idea is to have Nixon "abhor the uncivility of the words, while endorsing a 'moderate' version of the opinion." [Pearlstein, 5/2008, pp. 331; Media Matters, 7/22/2011] The suggestion is not used. Ailes will go on to found Fox News (see October 7, 1996).
Entity Tags: Rick Pearlstein, George C. Wallace, Richard M. Nixon, Roger Ailes
Timeline Tags: Nixon and Watergate, Domestic Propaganda, Elections Before 2000
The logo of the Posse Comitatus. [Source: Underground News Network]The Posse Comitatus, an anti-Semitic, right-wing "Christian Identity" organization (see 1960s and After), is founded by retired dry-cleaning executive Henry L. Beach in Portland, Oregon, who calls his organization the Sherriff's Posse Comitatus (SPC) or Citizen's Law Enforcement Research Committee (CLERC). Beach has supported Nazism since the 1930s, and formerly led a neo-Nazi organization called the Silver Shirts (see January 31, 1933). The Posse Comitatus is quickly taken over by William Potter Gale, a retired Army colonel who founded a similar organization called the US Christian Posse Association in Glendale, California, and manages to roll the two groups, and a few other loosely organized entities, into one. The Posse Comitatus dedicates itself to survivalism, vigilantism, and anti-government activities; its bylaws state that no federal or state governmental entity has any legal standing, and only county and town governments are legitimate. Furthermore, the organization believes that the entire federal government is controlled by Jews, and as such has no authority over whites. Beach's original Posse manual states, "[O]fficials of government who commit criminal acts or who violate their oath of office… shall be removed by the posse to the most populated intersection of streets in the township and, at high noon, be hung by the neck, the body remaining until sundown as an example to those who would subvert the law." According to a 1986 advisory published by the IRS, "members associated with some of the Posse groups wear tiny gold hangmen's nooses on their lapels." Posse members refuse to pay taxes whenever they can get away with it, and ignore laws that they feel cannot be enforced by "the enemy." Instead, they claim to abide by a "common law," defined as a set of principles that they themselves create and change at will. The organization begins making inroads into the farm communities of the Northwest and Upper Midwest after federal mismanagement of agricultural policies threatens the livelihood of many area farmers; the Posse tells them, "Farmers are victims of a Jewish-controlled government and banking system, federal taxes are illegal and loans need not be repaid." Some area farmers embrace the message, and the Posse begins heavily recruiting in Michigan. [Ian Geldard, 2/19/1995; Nicole Nichols, 2003] Anti-Government, Anti-Tax Ideology - The Posse Comitatus believes that the federal and state governments are inherently illegal and have no authority whatsoever; the highest elected official of the land, it says, is the county sheriff, who can form juries and call out "posses" of citizens to enforce the law as necessary. The movement strongly opposes paying taxes, particularly to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and considers money issued by the Federal Reserve System as illegal. It says that the Constitution's 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the right to tax citizens' incomes, was illegally ratified and therefore unconstitutional; moreover, it says, careful examination of federal law tells it that income taxes are entirely voluntary. The Federal Reserve System is, as one Posse publication puts it, "a private monopoly which neither the people nor the states authorized in the Constitution." The Federal Reserve's printed money violates the Constitution. Some, but not all, Posse Comitatus members also express racist and separatist views similar to those of Christian Identity believers (see 1960s and After); these members say that the Federal Reserve is controlled by a small cabal of international Jewish bankers who intend to destroy the American economy. [Mark Pitcavage, 5/6/1996; US Constitution: Sixteenth Amendment, 2011; Anti-Defamation League, 2011] Posse Comitatus members use the threat of violence, and sometimes actual violence, to express their anti-tax and anti-government ideologies (see 1972 and 1974). Township Movement - The Posse spawns a directly related ideology, the "township movement," led in part by Utah resident Walt P. Mann. Township advocates advocate setting up small sovereign communities that are answerable only to themselves. The Posse will set up a "constitutional township" on a 1,400-acre plot in Wisconsin and name it "Tigerton Dells," posting signs that say, "Federal Agents Keep out; Survivors will be Prosecuted." Tigerton Dells will appoint its own judges and foreign ambassadors before federal authorities seize the property (see 1984). Movement Spreads throughout Northwest, Plains States - By 1976, an FBI report says that the Posse Comitatus movement will consist of up to 50,000 adherents throughout the Northwest and Great Plains states. The center of the movement is at Tigerton Dells; Posse members there will disrupt local government meetings and assault public officials. The farm crisis of the early 1980s will allow the Posse to begin converting angry, frightened farmers throughout the region. In 1996, the Anti-Defamation League's Mark Pitcavage will write, "The Posse offered up targets for people to blame: the courts, the money system, the federal government, the Jews." Waging Legal Battles - While some Posse members offer violence to law enforcement and public officials (see February 13, 1983 and After), most of their battles with the government take place in court. Posse members most frequently use two common legal strategems: filing frivolous liens on the properties of public officials who oppose or anger them, particularly IRS agents, and flooding the courts with a barrage of legal documents, filings, motions, and appeals. The liens carry no legal weight but sometimes damage the recipients' credit scores and interfere with the recipients' ability to buy or sell property. The court documents, often written in arcane, archaic, and contradictory legal language, clog the court system and frustate judges and prosecutors. A related tactic is the establishment of "common law courts," vigilante courts that often threaten public officials. [Mark Pitcavage, 5/6/1996] Inspiration to Other Groups - The Posse Comitatus's ideology will inspire other anti-government groups, such as the Montana Freemen (see 1993-1994).
Entity Tags: US Federal Reserve, William Potter Gale, Walt P. Mann, Internal Revenue Service, Posse Comitatus, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Henry L. Beach, Mark Pitcavage, Sherriff's Posse Comitatus, US Christian Posse Association
Pat Buchanan, June 1969. [Source: Bettmann / Corbis]President Nixon's speechwriter, Pat Buchanan, writes a memo urging Nixon not to visit "the Widow King"—his term for civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife Coretta Scott King—on the first anniversary of her husband's assassination. Buchanan writes that a visit would "outrage many, many people who believe Dr. King was a fraud and a demagogue and perhaps worse.… Others consider him the Devil incarnate. Dr. King is one of the most divisive men in contemporary history." The memo will be publicly revealed in the 1980s. [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, 2/26/1996]
Entity Tags: Coretta Scott King, Richard M. Nixon, Patrick Buchanan, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Timeline Tags: Nixon and Watergate, Domestic Propaganda
William Pierce. [Source: Qbitblog (.com)]William Pierce, a white supremacist and a senior research scientist at Pratt and Whitney Advanced Materials Research and Development Laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut, quits the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP), the remnants of the American Nazi Party (ANP), which had begun to collapse after the August 1967 assassination of its leader, George Lincoln Rockwell, Pierce's mentor. Pierce leaves the organization after a violent argument with its leadership and joins the National Youth Alliance (NYA). This group formed from what was Youth for Wallace, a 1968 organization founded by Willis Carto to garner support on college campuses for segregationist George Wallace (D-AL)'s third-party presidential campaign (see 1964 and May 15, 1972). After the 1968 election, the group renamed itself and continued its work on university campuses. In 1974, after a bitter power struggle between Carto and Pierce, the organization splinters. Pierce calls his burgeoning organization the National Alliance, incorporating it in February 1974. In 2002, Carto will tell a reporter: "I started the Youth for Wallace. After the election, the Youth for Wallace head Louis Byers, he took the mailing list and went to Pierce and made a deal. That's where the National Youth Alliance came from, then Pierce changed the name." Carto will form the Liberty Lobby, which will publish a prominent white supremacist tabloid, The Spotlight, and will found the Institute for Historical Review, which will specialize in "proving" the Holocaust never happened. Pierce and Carto will remain bitter rivals. Pierce will write The Turner Diaries, an inflammatory "future history" of a white revolution in America that leads to the overthrow of the government and the extermination of minorities (see 1978), which Pierce will serialize in the Alliance's newsletter, "Attack!" (later renamed "National Vanguard"). [Center for New Community, 8/2002 ] Pierce is joined in creating the National Alliance by former John Birch Society (JBS—see March 10, 1961 and December 2011) co-founder Revilo P. Oliver. Pierce and Oliver will soon name Adolf Hitler "the greatest man of our era." [NewsOne, 2/24/2010]
Entity Tags: William Luther Pierce, Revilo P. Oliver, Willis Carto, National Youth Alliance, Louis Byers, National Alliance, George Lincoln Rockwell, George C. Wallace, John Birch Society, Liberty Lobby, American Nazi Party, National Socialist White People's Party, Institute for Historical Review
Roger Ailes, the senior media consultant for the Nixon administration (see 1968), writes, or helps write, a secret memo for President Nixon and fellow Republicans outlining a plan for conservatives to "infiltrate and neutralize" the mainstream American media. The document will not be released until 2011; experts will call it the "intellectual forerunner" to Fox News, which Ailes will launch as a "fair and balanced" news network in 1996 (see October 7, 1996). John Cook, the editor of the online news and commentary magazine Gawker, will call the document the outline of a "nakedly partisan… plot by Ailes and other Nixon aides to circumvent the 'prejudices of network news' and deliver 'pro-administration' stories to heartland television viewers." The document is entitled "A Plan for Putting the GOP on TV News." Ailes, currently the owner of REA Productions and Ailes Communications Inc., works for the Nixon White House as a media consultant; he will serve the same function for President George H.W. Bush during his term. Ailes is a forceful advocate for using television to shape the message of the Nixon administration and of Republican policies in general. He frequently suggests launching elaborately staged events to entice favorable coverage from television reporters, and uses his contacts at the news networks to head off negative publicity. Ailes writes that the Nixon White House should run a partisan, pro-Republican media operation—essentially a self-contained news production organization—out of the White House itself. He complains that the "liberal media" "censors" the news to portray Nixon and his administration in a negative light. Cook will say the plan "reads today like a detailed precis for a Fox News prototype." The initial idea may have originated with Nixon chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, but if so, Ailes expands and details the plan far beyond Haldeman's initial seed of an idea. [Roger Ailes, 1970; Gawker, 6/30/2011] In 2011, Rolling Stone journalist Tim Dickinson will write: "This is an astounding find. It underscores Ailes's early preoccupation with providing the GOP with a way to do an end run around skeptical journalists." [Rolling Stone, 7/1/2011] Focus on Television - Ailes insists that any such media plan should focus on television and not print. Americans are "lazy," he writes, and want their thinking done for them: "Today television news is watched more often than people read newspapers, than people listen to the radio, than people read or gather any other form of communication. The reason: People are lazy. With television you just sit—watch—listen. The thinking is done for you." Ailes says the Nixon administration should create its own news network "to provide pro-administration, videotape, hard news actualities to the major cities of the United States." Other television news outlets such as NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, and PBS News, are "the enemy," he writes, and suggests going around them by creating packaged, edited news stories and interviews directly to local television stations. (Years later, these kinds of "news reports" will be called "video news releases," or VNRs, and will routinely be used by the George W. Bush administration and others—see March 15, 2004, May 19, 2004, March 2005, and March 13, 2005. They will be outlawed in 2005—see May 2005.) "This is a plan that places news of importance to localities (senators and representatives are newsmakers of importance to their localities) on local television news programs while it is still news. It avoids the censorship, the priorities, and the prejudices of network news selectors and disseminators." Ailes and his colleagues include detailed cost analyses and production plans for such news releases. In a side note on the document, Ailes writes: "Basically a very good idea. It should be expanded to include other members of the administration such as cabinet involved in activity with regional or local interest. Also could involve GOP governors when in DC. Who would purchase equipment and run operation—White House? RNC [Republican National Committee]? Congressional caucus? Will get some flap about news management." Dirty Tricks - Ailes suggests planting "volunteers" within the Wallace campaign, referring to segregationist George Wallace (D-AL), whose third-party candidacy in 1968 almost cost Nixon the presidency. Ailes knows Wallace is planning a 1972 run as well, and is apparently suggesting a "mole" to either gather intelligence, carry out sabotage, or both. (Wallace's plans for another run will be cut short by an assassination attempt—see May 15, 1972.) Ailes also suggests having his firm film interviews with Democrats who support Nixon's Vietnam policies, such as Senators John Stennis (D-MS) and John McClellan (D-AR). Though Stennis and McClellan would believe that the interviews were for actual news shows, they would actually be carried out by Ailes operatives and financed by a Nixon campaign front group, the "Tell it to Hanoi Committee." In June 1970, someone in the Nixon administration scuttles the plan, writing: "[T]he fact that this presentation is White House directed, unbeknownst to the Democrats on the show, presents the possibility of a leak that could severely embarrass the White House and damage significantly its already precarious relationship with the Congress. Should two powerful factors like Stennis and McClellan discover they are dupes for the administration the scandal could damage the White House for a long time to come." Volunteers to Head Program - Ailes writes that he wants to head any such "news network," telling Haldeman: "Bob—if you decide to go ahead we would as a production company like to bid on packaging the entire project. I know what has to be done and we could test the feasibility for 90 days without making a commitment beyond that point." Haldeman will grant Ailes's request in November 1970, and will give the project a name: "Capitol News Service." Haldeman will write: "With regard to the news programming effort as proposed last summer, Ailes feels this is a good idea and that we should be going ahead with it. Haldeman suggested the name 'Capitol News Service' and Ailes will probably be doing more work in this area." Documents fail to show whether the "Capitol News Service" is ever actually implemented. [Roger Ailes, 1970; Gawker, 6/30/2011] Television News Incorporated - Ailes will be fired from the Nixon administration in 1971; he will go on to start a similar private concern, "Television News Incorporated" (TVN—see 1971-1975), an ideological and practical predecessor to Fox News. Dickinson will write: "More important, [the document] links the plot to create what would become Television News Incorporated—the Ailes-helmed 'fair and balanced' mid-1970s precursor to Fox News—to the Nixon White House itself." [Gawker, 6/30/2011; Rolling Stone, 7/1/2011] A former business colleague of Ailes's will say in 2011: "Everything Roger wanted to do when he started out in politics, he's now doing 24/7 with his network [Fox News]. It's come full circle." [Rolling Stone, 5/25/2011]
Entity Tags: John Cook, George C. Wallace, Fox News, Bush administration (43), Ailes Communications, H.R. Haldeman, George Herbert Walker Bush, Tim Dickinson, Television News Incorporated, Tell it to Hanoi Committee, REA Productions, John Stennis, John Little McClellan, Nixon administration, Roger Ailes
Roger Ailes, a former media consultant to the Nixon administration (see Summer 1970) who proposed a White House-run "news network" that would promote Republican-generated propaganda over what he calls "liberal" news reporting (see Summer 1970), moves on to try the idea in the private venue. Ailes works with a project called Television News Incorporated (TVN), a propaganda venue funded by right-wing beer magnate Joseph Coors. Conservative activist and Coors confidant Paul Weyrich will later call Ailes "the godfather behind the scenes" of TVN. To cloak the "news" outlet's far-right slant, Ailes coins the slogan "Fair and Balanced" for TVN. In 2011, Rolling Stone reporter Tim Dickinson will write: "TVN made no sense as a business. The… news service was designed to inject a far-right slant into local news broadcasts by providing news clips that stations could use without credit—and for a fraction of the true costs of production. Once the affiliates got hooked on the discounted clips, its president explained, TVN would 'gradually, subtly, slowly' inject 'our philosophy in the news.' The network was, in the words of a news director who quit in protest, a 'propaganda machine.'" Within weeks of TVN's inception, its staff of professional journalists eventually has enough of the overt propaganda of their employer and begin defying management orders; Coors and TVN's top management fire 16 staffers and bring in Ailes to run the operation. The operation is never successful, but during his tenure at TVN, Ailes begins plotting the development of a right-wing news network very similar in concept to the as-yet-unborn Fox News. TVN plans to invest millions in satellite distribution that would allow it not only to distribute news clips to other broadcasters, but to provide a full newscast with its own anchors and crew (a model soon used by CNN). Dickinson will write, "For Ailes, it was a way to extend the kind of fake news that he was regularly using as a political strategist." Ailes tells a Washington Post reporter in 1972: "I know certain techniques, such as a press release that looks like a newscast. So you use it because you want your man to win." Ailes contracts with Ford administration officials to produce propaganda for the federal government, providing news clips and scripts to the US Information Agency. Ailes insists that the relationship is not a conflict of interest. Unfortunately for Ailes and Coors, TVN collapses in 1975. One of its biggest problems is the recalcitrance of its journalists, who continue to resist taking part in what they see as propaganda operations. Ailes biographer Kerwin Swint will later say, "They were losing money and they weren't able to control their journalists." In a 2011 article for the online news and commentary magazine Gawker, John Cook will write: "Though it died in 1975, TVN was obviously an early trial run for the powerhouse Fox News would become. The ideas were the same—to route Republican-friendly stories around the gatekeepers at the network news divisions." Dickinson will write that one of the lessons Ailes learns from TVN, and will employ at Fox, is to hire journalists who put ideological committment ahead of journalistic ethics—journalists who will "toe the line." [Rolling Stone, 5/25/2011; Gawker, 6/30/2011] Ailes will go on to found Fox News, using the "fair and balanced" slogan to great effect (see October 7, 1996 and 1995).
Entity Tags: Paul Weyrich, John Cook, Fox News, Ford administration, Joseph Coors, Nixon administration, Television News Incorporated, Tim Dickinson, Roger Ailes, United States Information Agency, Kerwin Swint
A Posse Comitatus group (see 1969) in Michigan sends threatening notices to local law enforcement agencies about the agencies' enforcement of state tax laws against tax protester George Kindred. [Anti-Defamation League, 2011]
Entity Tags: Posse Comitatus
The massive Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) is signed into law by President Nixon. (The law is commonly thought of in the context of 1971, when Congress passed it, but Nixon did not sign it into law for several months.) The law is sparked by a rising tide of anger among the public, frustrated by the Vietnam War and the variety of movements agitating for change. The campaign watchdog organization Common Cause sued both the Democratic and Republican National Committees for violating the Federal Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA—see 1925), and though it lost the suit, it exposed the flaws and limitations of the law to the public. Common Cause then led a push to improve campaign finance legislation, aided by the many newly elected and reform-minded members of Congress. FECA repeals the toothless FCPA and creates a comprehensive framework for the regulation of federal campaign financing, from primaries and runoffs to conventions and general elections. The law requires full and timely disclosure of donations and expenditures, and provides broad definitions of both. It sets limits on media advertising as well as on contributions from candidates and their family members. The law permits unions and corporations to solicit voluntary contributions from members, employees, and stockholders, and allows union and corporate treasury money to be used for operating expenses for political action committees (PACs) or for voter drives and the like. It bans patronage or the promise of patronage, and bans contracts between a candidate and any federal department or agency. It establishes strict caps on the amounts individuals can contribute to their own campaigns—$50,000 for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, $35,000 for Senate candidates, and $25,000 for House candidates. It establishes a cap on television advertising at 10 cents per voter in the last election, or $50,000, whichever is higher. [Campaign Finance Timeline, 1999; Center for Responsive Politics, 2002 ; Federal Election Commission, 4/2008 ] The difference before and after FECA is evident. Congressional campaign spending reportage from 1968 claimed only $8.5 million, while in 1972, Congressional campaign spending reports will soar to $88.9 million. [Federal Elections Commission, 1998]
Entity Tags: Richard M. Nixon, Federal Corrupt Practices Act, Federal Election Campaign Act of 1972, Common Cause
Ben Klassen. [Source: Creativity Movement (.com)]Former Florida state legislator Benhardt "Ben" Klassen, who served as Florida chair of the 1968 presidential campaign of George Wallace (D-AL), forms the Church of the Creator (COTC) in Lighthouse Point, Florida. Klassen was born in the Ukraine in 1918, and later lived in Mexico and Canada before moving to California as an adult. He is a former elementary school teacher and an inventor, earning a patent for an electric can opener in 1954. He moved to Florida in 1958, where he became a successful real estate agent. He became a Republican representative to the Florida House of Representatives in 1965, where he campaigned against desegregation and the federal government. He is a lifetime member of the far-right John Birch Society (see March 10, 1961 and December 2011), though he has denounced the group as a "smokescreen for the Jews" and accused Wallace of "betraying" his supporters by intentionally courting African-American support. Klassen explains his race-based religion in his church's 511-page holy book, Nature's Eternal Religion. Among its "16 commandments": "It is our sacred goal to populate the lands of this earth with White people exclusively." Klassen popularizes the war cry "Rahowa," which stands for RAcial HOly WAr. [Anti-Defamation League, 1993; Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/1999] Members of the COTC, according to Klassen's writings, see "every issue, whether religious, political, or racial, [a]s viewed through the eyes of the White Man and exclusively from the point of view of the White race as a whole.… We completely reject the Judeo-democratic-Marxist values of today and supplant them with new and basic values, of which race is the foundation." While most right-wing extremist groups use Christianity to justify their racism, Klassen and the COTC attack Christianity as a "tremendous weapon in the worldwide Jewish drive of race-mixing." Klassen writes that Jews "concocted" Christianity "for the very purpose of mongrelizing and destroying the White Race." According to Klassen, Jews are "parasites" who "control and manipulate the finances, the propaganda, the media, and the governments of the world." [Anti-Defamation League, 7/6/1999] In 2004, author Chip Berlet will write that Klassen's religion, "Creativity," claims that whites are destined "to rule the world and thus fulfill the purpose of the universe. To attain this destiny, it is necessary to destroy the enemies and race traitors who prevent this from happening. The primary enemies are Jews, blacks, and other 'mud people,' and white race traitors, including most Christians. Klassen credits the influence of Hitler's Mein Kampf in the development of his views.… What Klassen did was to pick up ideas from the theories of [German philosopher Friedrich] Nietzsche, pantheisim, Odinism, and Celtic paganism as filtered through German Nazi retelling of the Norse heroic warrior myths, to create a religion of Aryanist white supremacy. Discarding the details, he created a form of cosmotheism in which the supreme power is the collective will of the Aryan race. The duty of every member of the Aryan race is to reflect the ideals of the heroic warrior and do battle with the enemies of the race.… Like other forms of fascism, the idea of action is central to the philosophy, as is the celebration of violence and the spilling of blood as part of a rite of passage to full adulthood." [Chip Berlet, 2004]
Entity Tags: John Birch Society, World Church of the Creator, Benhardt ("Ben") Klassen, Chip Berlet
Wisconsin Posse Comitatus (see 1969) activist Thomas Stockheimer, who founded the Wisconsin chapter in 1970 from his own organization, the "Little People's Tax Advisory Committee," and several of his followers lure IRS agent Fred Chicken to a farm in Abbotsford, Wisconsin, and assault him. Stockheimer is later convicted of felony assault against Chicken, and after losing an appeal, becomes a fugitive. During his appeals process, Stockheimer introduces future Posse Comitatus leader James Wickstrom to the Posse Comitatus (see February 14-21, 1983 and 1984). Stockheimer's anti-Semitism, racism, and anti-tax philophophy are what attracts Wickstrom to the group. [Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2004; Anti-Defamation League, 2011]
Entity Tags: Posse Comitatus, Fred Chicken, James Wickstrom, Thomas Stockheimer
G. Gordon Liddy, one of the "Plumbers," is convicted of an array of crimes related to the Ellsberg break-in (see September 9, 1971), and is sentenced from six to twenty years in prison. He faces concurrent charges of violating the civil rights of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding (see March 7, 1974). [O.T. Jacobson, 7/5/1974 ]
Entity Tags: 'Plumbers', Lewis Fielding, G. Gordon Liddy, Daniel Ellsberg
Timeline Tags: Nixon and Watergate
James Wickstrom. [Source: Southern Poverty Law Center]James Wickstrom, a tool salesman and former mill worker angered by what he saw as less-qualified African-American workers bypassing him in receiving raises and promotions, meets Thomas Stockheimer (see 1974), a member of the violent anti-tax, racist, and anti-Semitic organization Posse Comitatus (see 1969). Wickstrom walks by Stockheimer's "Little People's Tax Party" office in Racine, Wisconsin, each week, and is accosted by Stockheimer, who asks him: "Do you know who you are? Do you really know who you are? Do you know that you're an Israelite?" Initially Wickstrom is offended at being called, he believes, a Jew, but after a discussion, leaves with two audiotapes of sermons by Posse founder William Potter Gale that tell him he is a member of God's chosen people, a member of the "true" Israelite tribe; Jews are the offspring of Satan and are unworthy of being called Israelites. Blacks, Gale preaches, are subhuman, no better than beasts of the field, and merely tools of the Jewish conspiracy to destroy white Western society. Wickstrom finds Gale's message appealing, and he joins Stockheimer in setting up a Bible study group. Wickstrom follows in Gale's footsteps and becomes an adherent of the Christian Identity ideology (see 1960s and After). Stockheimer flees Racine ahead of the police, who intend to have him complete his jail sentence for assaulting an IRS agent, and Wickstrom quits his job and moves to Schell City, Missouri; he will later explain the move, saying, "I wanted to be with like-minded people." He buys property near Identity minister Dan Gayman, becomes a teacher at a small private school operated by Gayman and another Identity minister, Loren Kallstrom, and in 1977 founds his own church, Mission of Jesus the Christ Church, living off tithes and donations. After a falling out with Gayman, in 1978 Wickstrom moves back to Wisconsin, at the invitation of Posse member Donald Minniecheske, who wants him to take part in the establishment of a Posse compound on the shores of the Embarrass River (see 1978 - 1983). [Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2004]
Entity Tags: William Potter Gale, Dan Gayman, Donald Minniecheske, Loren Kallstrom, Posse Comitatus, Thomas Stockheimer, James Wickstrom
Financial and insurance consultant Irwin Schiff uses the anti-tax arguments of Arthur Porth (see 1951-1967) and Marvin Cooley (see 1970-1972) to bring the anti-tax protest message to a much more mainstream audience than Porth, whose appeal was largely confined to right-wing and racist audiences. Schiff, who bills himself as "America's leading untax expert," will appear on national television for more than 25 years before eventually going to jail for tax evasion. His biggest impact comes with his 1976 book, The Biggest Con: How the Government is Fleecing You. His second book, published six years later, is called How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes. The Biggest Con earns him $135,000 in royalties over the two years that follow its publication, and $85,000 in royalties for the decade following. In 1978, Schiff is charged for failing to file tax returns, and eventually convicted; he will be convicted of similar charges in 1985 and again in 2005. He tells one judge: "I only received federal reserve units, not dollars. I received no lawful money upon which a tax can be collected." The US government says Schiff owes over $2.6 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties. [Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2001; Tax Protester Dossiers, 10/23/2010] In 1996, Schiff will be a candidate for the Libertarian Party's nomination for president. [C-SPAN, 7/5/1996]
Entity Tags: Libertarian Party, Arthur Porth, Irwin Schiff, Marvin Cooley
Amendments to the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA—see February 7, 1972 and 1974) passed by Congress after the controversial Buckley ruling by the Supreme Court (see January 30, 1976) bring FECA into conformity with the Court's decision. The amendments repeal expenditure limits except for presidential candidates who accept public funding, and revise the provisions governing the appointment of commissioners to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The amendments also limit the scope of PAC fundraising by corporations and labor unions. The amendments limit individual contributions to national political parties to $20,000 per year, and individual contributions to a PAC to $5,000 per year. [Federal Elections Commission, 1998; Center for Responsive Politics, 2002 ] However, the Constitution restricts what Congress can, or is willing, to do, and the amendments are relatively insignificant. [Campaign Finance Timeline, 1999]
Entity Tags: Federal Election Commission, Federal Election Campaign Act of 1972, US Supreme Court
Cato Institute logo. [Source: Cato Institute]The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, launch the libertarian Cato Institute, one of the first of many think tanks and advocacy organizations they will fund (see August 30, 2010). While records of the Koch funding of the institute are not fully available, the Center for Public Integrity learns that between 1986 and 1993 the Koch family gives $11 million to the institute. By 2010, Cato has over 100 full-time employees, and often succeeds in getting its experts and policy papers quoted by mainstream media figures. While the institute describes itself as nonpartisan, and is at times critical of both Republicans and Democrats, it consistently advocates for corporate tax cuts, reductions in social services, and laissez-faire environmental policies. One of its most successful advocacy projects is to oppose government initiatives to curb global warming. When asked why Cato opposes such federal and state initiatives, founder and president Ed Crane explains that "global warming theories give the government more control of the economy." [New Yorker, 8/30/2010]
Entity Tags: Center for Public Integrity, Cato Institute, Ed Crane, Charles Koch, David Koch
Masthead of one of Ron Paul's newsletters. [Source: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education]A number of newsletters released by Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), a self-described libertarian and strict Constitutionalist, contain what many believe to be racially objectionable remarks and claims. Paul's monthly newsletters are published under a variety of names, including "Ron Paul's Freedom Report," "Ron Paul Political Report," and "The Ron Paul Survival Report." The newsletters are published by several organizations, including Paul's non-profit group the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, and a group called Ron Paul & Associates. For a time, Ron Paul & Associates also publishes "The Ron Paul Investment Letter." In 1996, a challenger for Paul's House seat, Charles "Lefty" Morris (D-TX) makes public some of the racially inflammatory content in Paul's newsletters. The newsletters will be publicly exposed in a 2008 article in the New Republic (see January 8-15, 2008). The content, culled from years of newsletters, includes such claims and observations as: From a 1992 newsletter: "[O]pinion polls consistently show only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action." Politically "sensible" blacks are outnumbered "as decent people." The same report claims that 85 percent of all black men in the District of Columbia have been arrested, and continues: "Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the 'criminal justice system,' I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.… [W]e are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, [but] it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings, and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers." The same 1992 edition has Paul claiming that the government should lower the age at which accused juvenile criminals can be prosecuted as adults. "We don't think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23," the newsletter states. "That's true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary, and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such." The newsletter also asserts that sophisticated crimes such as "complex embezzling" are conducted exclusively by non-blacks: "What else do we need to know about the political establishment than that it refuses to discuss the crimes that terrify Americans on grounds that doing so is racist? Why isn't that true of complex embezzling, which is 100 percent white and Asian?" Another 1992 newsletter states, "[I]f you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be." An undated newsletter excerpt states that US Representative Barbara Jordan (D-TX), who is African-American, is "the archetypical half-educated victimologist" whose "race and sex protect her from criticism." The newsletters often use disparaging nicknames and descriptions for lawmakers. Jordan is called "Barbara Morondon." Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is a "black pinko." Donna Shalala, the head of the Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration, is a "short lesbian." Ron Brown, the head of the Department of Commerce during the Clinton administration, is a "racial victimologist." Roberta Achtenberg, the first openly gay public official confirmed by the US Senate, is a "far-left, normal-hating lesbian activist." Newsletter items through the early 1990s attack Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., renaming him "X-Rated Martin Luther King" and labeling him a "world-class philanderer who beat up his paramours," "seduced underage girls and boys," and "made a pass at" fellow civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy. One newsletter ridicules black activists who wanted to rename New York City after King, suggesting that "Welfaria," "Zooville," "Rapetown," "Dirtburg," and "Lazyopolis" were better alternatives. The same year, King is described as "a comsymp [Communist sympathizer], if not an actual party member, and the man who replaced the evil of forced segregation with the evil of forced integration." One 1990 excerpt says of the King holiday: "I voted against this outrage time and again as a congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day!" An undated excerpt from a newsletter entry titled "Needlin'" says: "'Needlin',' a new form of racial terrorism, has struck New York City streets on the tony Upper West Side. At least 39 white women have been stuck with used hypodermic needles—perhaps infected with AIDS—by gangs of black girls between the ages of 12 and 14. The New York Times didn't find this fit to print for weeks and weeks, until its candidate David Dinkins [New York City's first African-American mayor] was safely elected. Even then the story was very low key, with race mentioned many paragraphs into it. Who can doubt that if this situation were reversed, if white girls had done this to black women, we would have been subjected to months-long nationwide propaganda campaign on the evils of white America? The double standard strikes again." The excerpt is presumably published sometime after 1989, when Dinkins is elected mayor of New York City. In 2011, NewsOne reporter Casey Gane-McCalla will write, "I could find no evidence of this 'epidemic' and the article seems to have no point other than to make white people scared of black people." A December 1989 "special issue" of the Investment Letter addresses what it calls "racial terrorism," and tells readers what to expect from the 1990s: "Racial Violence Will Fill Our Cities" because "mostly black welfare recipients will feel justified in stealing from mostly white 'haves.'" In February 1990, another newsletter warns of "The Coming Race War." In November 1990, an item advises readers: "If you live in a major city, and can leave, do so. If not, but you can have a rural retreat, for investment and refuge, buy it." In June 1991, an entry on racial disturbances in Washington, DC's Adams Morgan neighborhood is titled, "Animals Take Over the DC Zoo," calling the disturbances "the first skirmish in the race war of the 1990s." In June 1992, the Ron Paul Political Report publishes a "special issue" that explains the Los Angeles riots, claiming, "Order was only restored in LA when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began." The looting, the newsletter writes, is a natural byproduct of government indulging the black community with "'civil rights,' quotas, mandated hiring preferences, set-asides for government contracts, gerrymandered voting districts, black bureaucracies, black mayors, black curricula in schools, black TV shows, black TV anchors, hate crime laws, and public humiliation for anyone who dares question the black agenda." It also denounces "the media" for believing that "America's number one need is an unlimited white checking account for underclass blacks." The newsletter praises Asian merchants in Los Angeles for having the fortitude to resist political correctness and fight back. Koreans, the newsletter writes, are "the only people to act like real Americans" during the riots, "mainly because they have not yet been assimilated into our rotten liberal culture, which admonishes whites faced by raging blacks to lie back and think of England." Another newsletter entry from around the same time strikes some of the same chords in writing about riots in Chicago after the NBA's Chicago Bulls win the championship: "[B]lacks poured into the streets in celebration. How to celebrate? How else? They broke the windows of stores to loot, even breaking through protective steel shutters with crowbars to steal everything in sight." The entry goes on to claim that black rioters burned down buildings all along Chicago's "Magnificent Mile," destroyed two taxicabs, "shot or otherwise injured 95 police officers," killed five people including a liquor-store owner, and injured over 100 others. "Police arrested more than 1,000 blacks," the newsletter claims. In 2011, Gane-McCalla will write that the newsletter entry falsely accuses blacks of perpetuating all of the violence, when in reality, the violence was perpetuated by people of all ethnicities. One thousand people—not 1,000 blacks—were arrested. And, he will write, "two officers suffered minor gunshot wounds and that 95 were injured in total, but the way Paul phrased it, it would seem most of the 95 officers injured were shot." An undated newsletter entry says that "black talk radio" features "racial hatred [that] makes a KKK rally look tame. The blacks talk about their own racial superiority, how the whites have a conspiracy to wipe them out, and how they are going to take over the country and wipe them out. They only differ over whether they should use King's non-violent approach (i.e. state violence) or use private violence." An undated newsletter entry discusses "the newest threat to your life and limb, and your family—carjacking," blaming it on blacks who follow "the hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos." The entry advises potential carjacking victims to shoot carjackers, then "leave the scene immediately [and] dispos[e] of the wiped-off gun as soon as possible." The entry concludes: "I frankly don't know what to make of such advice, but even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self-defense. For the animals are coming." [Houston Chronicle, 5/21/1996; New Republic, 1/8/2008; NewsOne, 5/6/2011] According to author and militia/white supremacist expert David Neiwert, much of Paul's information about black crime comes from Jared Taylor, the leader of the American Renaissance movement (see January 23, 2005). Taylor, Neiwert will write, cloaks his racism in "pseudo-academic" terminology that is published both in a magazine, American Renaissance, and later in a book, The Color of Crime, both of which make what Neiwert calls "unsupportable claims about blacks." [David Neiwert, 6/8/2007] Conspiracies, Right-Wing Militias, and Bigotry - The newsletters often contain speculations and assertions regarding a number of what reporter James Kirchick will call "shopworn conspiracies." Paul, as reflected in his newsletter, distrusts the "industrial-banking-political elite" and does not recognize the federally regulated monetary system and its use of paper currency. The newsletters often refer to to the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1978, a newsletter blames David Rockefeller, the Trilateral Commission, and "fascist-oriented, international banking and business interests" for the Panama Canal Treaty, which it calls "one of the saddest events in the history of the United States." A 1988 newsletter cites a doctor who believes that AIDS was created in a World Health Organization laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland. In addition, Ron Paul & Associates sells a video about the Branch Davidian tragedy outside Waco (see April 19, 1993) produced by "patriotic Indiana lawyer Linda Thompson" (see April 3, 1993 and September 19, 1994), as a newsletter calls her, who insists that Waco was a conspiracy to kill ATF agents who had previously worked for President Clinton as bodyguards. Kirchick will note that outside of the newsletters, Paul is a frequent guest on radio shows hosted by Alex Jones, whom Kirchick will call "perhaps the most famous conspiracy theorist in America." Connections to Neo-Confederate Institute - Kirchick goes on to note Paul's deep ties with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank in Alabama founded by Paul's former chief of staff, Lew Rockwell; Paul has taught seminars at the institute, serves as a "distinguished counselor," and has published books through the institute. The von Mises Institute has a long history of support for white-supremacist neo-Confederate groups, including the League of the South, led by Confederate apologist Thomas Woods (see October 14, 2010). Paul will endorse books by Woods and other neo-Confederates. Paul seems to agree with members of the von Mises institute in their view that the Civil War was the beginning of a horrific federal tyranny that ran roughshod over states' rights. Paul, in his newsletters and speeches, has frequently espoused the idea of states' secession as protest against the federal government. Lamenting the South African Revolution - In March 1994, a newsletter warns of a "South African Holocaust," presumably against white South Africans, once President Nelson Mandela takes office. Previous newsletters call the transition from a whites-only government to a majority-African government a "destruction of civilization" that is "the most tragic [to] ever occur on that continent, at least below the Sahara." Praise for Ku Klux Klan Leader's Political Aspirations - In 1990, a newsletter item praises Louisiana's David Duke, the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, for coming in a strong second in that state's Republican Senate primary. "Duke lost the election," the newsletter says, "but he scared the blazes out of the Establishment." In 1991, a newsletter asks, "Is David Duke's new prominence, despite his losing the gubernatorial election, good for anti-big government forces?" The conclusion is that "our priority should be to take the anti-government, anti-tax, anti-crime, anti-welfare loafers, anti-race privilege, anti-foreign meddling message of Duke, and enclose it in a more consistent package of freedom." Duke will in return give support to Paul's 2008 presidential candidacy. Attacking Gays, AIDS Research - Paul's newsletters often praise Paul's "old colleague," Representative William Dannemeyer (R-CA), a noted anti-gay activist who often advocates forcibly quarantining people suffering from AIDS. Paul's newsletters praise Dannemeyer for "speak[ing] out fearlessly despite the organized power of the gay lobby." In 1990, one newsletter mentions a reporter from a gay magazine "who certainly had an axe to grind, and that's not easy with a limp wrist." In an item titled, "The Pink House?" the newsletter complains about President George H.W. Bush's decision to sign a hate crimes bill and invite "the heads of homosexual lobbying groups to the White House for the ceremony," adding, "I miss the closet." The same article states, "Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities." If homosexuals are ever allowed to openly serve in the military, another newsletter item concludes, they, "if admitted, should be put in a special category and not allowed in close physical contact with heterosexuals." One newsletter calls AIDS "a politically protected disease thanks to payola and the influence of the homosexual lobby," and alternates between praising anti-gay rhetoric and accusing gays of using the disease to further their own political agenda. One item tells readers not to get blood transfusions because gays are trying to "poison the blood supply." Another cites a far-right Christian publication that advocates not allowing "the AIDS patient" to eat in restaurants, and echoes the false claim that "AIDS can be transmitted by saliva." The newsletters often advertise a book, Surviving the AIDS Plague, which makes a number of false claims about casual transmission and defends "parents who worry about sending their healthy kids to school with AIDS victims." Blasting Israel - Kirchick will note that the newsletters are relentless in their attacks on Israel. A 1987 issue of the Investment Letter calls Israel "an aggressive, national socialist state." A 1990 newsletter cites the "tens of thousands of well-placed friends of Israel in all countries who are willing to wok [sic] for the Mossad in their area of expertise." Of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (see February 26, 1993), a newsletter said, "Whether it was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little." Another newsletter column criticizing lobbyists says, "By far the most powerful lobby in Washington of the bad sort is the Israeli government" and that the goal of the "Zionist movement" is to stifle criticism. Violent Anti-Government Rhetoric - In January 1995, three months before the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), a newsletter lists "Ten Militia Commandments," describing "the 1,500 local militias now training to defend liberty" as "one of the most encouraging developments in America." It warns militia members that they are "possibly under BATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] or other totalitarian federal surveillance" and prints bits of advice from the Sons of Liberty, an anti-government militia based in Alabama—among them, "You can't kill a Hydra by cutting off its head," "Keep the group size down," "Keep quiet and you're harder to find," "Leave no clues," "Avoid the phone as much as possible," and "Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." Slandering Clinton - Newsletters printed during President Clinton's terms in office claim that Clinton uses cocaine and has fathered illegitimate children. Repeating the rumor that Clinton is a longtime cocaine user, in 1994 Paul writes that the speculation "would explain certain mysteries" about the president's scratchy voice and insomnia. "None of this is conclusive, of course, but it sure is interesting," he states. Distance from Newsletter - In 2008, Paul campaign spokesman Jesse Benton will attempt to distance Paul from the newsletters, saying that while Paul wrote some of their content, he often did not, and in many instances never saw the content. Benton will say that the frequent insults and vitriol directed at King are particularly surprising, because, Benton will say, "Ron thinks Martin Luther King is a hero." In 1996, Paul claims ownership of the content, but says that Morris took the newsletter quotes "out of context" (see May 22 - October 11, 1996). In 2001, Paul will claim that he did not write any of the passages, and will claim having no knowledge of them whatsoever (see October 1, 2001). Most of the newsletters' articles and columns contain no byline, and the Internet archives of the newsletters begin in 1999. In 2008, Kirchick will find many of the older newsletters on file at the University of Kansas and the Wisconsin Historical Society. Kirchick will note the lack of bylines, and the general use of the first person in the material, "implying that Paul was the author." Kirchick will conclude: "[W]hoever actually wrote them, the newsletters I saw all had one thing in common: They were published under a banner containing Paul's name, and the articles (except for one special edition of a newsletter that contained the byline of another writer) seem designed to create the impression that they were written by him—and reflected his views. What they reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays." Paul, Kirchick writes, is "a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics." Kirchick will conclude: "Paul's campaign wants to depict its candidate as a naive, absentee overseer, with minimal knowledge of what his underlings were doing on his behalf. This portrayal might be more believable if extremist views had cropped up in the newsletters only sporadically—or if the newsletters had just been published for a short time. But it is difficult to imagine how Paul could allow material consistently saturated in racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and conspiracy-mongering to be printed under his name for so long if he did not share these views. In that respect, whether or not Paul personally wrote the most offensive passages is almost beside the point. If he disagreed with what was being written under his name, you would think that at some point—over the course of decades—he would have done something about it." [New Republic, 1/8/2008; NewsOne, 5/6/2011] In 2008, Paul will deny writing virtually any of his newsletters' various content (see January 8-15, 2008 and January 16, 2008).
Entity Tags: David Rockefeller, Sr., William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton, David Duke, US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Trilateral Commission, Thomas Woods, World Health Organization, David Neiwert, David Dinkins, Council on Foreign Relations, Alex Jones, Barbara Jordan, Bilderberg Group, Casey Gane-McCalla, Charles ("Lefty") Morris, The New Republic, Sons of Liberty, William Dannemeyer, Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Linda Thompson, Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, Jesse Benton, Lew Rockwell, Samuel Jared Taylor, League of the South, Eleanor Holmes Norton, James Kirchick, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Donna Shalala, Ron Paul and Associates, Ron Paul, Roberta Achtenberg, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ronald H. Brown
Oil billionaire David Koch runs for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket. David and his brother Charles are the primary backers of hard-right libertarian politics in the US (see August 30, 2010); Charles, the dominant brother, is determined to tear government "out at the root," as he will later be characterized by libertarian Brian Doherty. The brothers have thrown their support behind Libertarian presidential candidate Ed Clark, who is running against Republican Ronald Reagan from the right of the political spectrum. The brothers are frustrated by the legal limits on campaign financing, and they persuade the party to place David on the ticket as vice president, thereby enabling him to spend as much of his personal fortune as he likes. The Libertarian's presidential campaign slogan is, "The Libertarian Party has only one source of funds: You." In reality, the Koch brothers' expenditures of over $2 million is the campaign's primary source of funding. Clark tells a reporter that the Libertarians are preparing to stage "a very big tea party" because people are "sick to death" of taxes. The Libertarian Party platform calls for the abolition of the FBI and the CIA, as well as of federal regulatory agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Energy. The platform proposes the abolition of Social Security, minimum-wage laws, gun control, and all personal and corporate income taxes; in return, it proposes the legalization of prostitution, recreational drugs, and suicide. Government should be reduced to only one function, the party proclaims: the protection of individual rights. Conservative eminence William F. Buckley Jr. calls the movement "Anarcho-Totalitarianism." The Clark-Koch ticket receives only one percent of the vote in the November 1980 elections, forcing the Koch brothers to realize that their brand of politics isn't popular. In response, Charles Koch becomes openly scornful of conventional politics. "It tends to be a nasty, corrupting business," he says. "I'm interested in advancing libertarian ideas." Doherty will later write that both Kochs come to view elected politicians as merely "actors playing out a script." Doherty will quote a longtime confidant of the Kochs as saying that after the 1980 elections, the brothers decide they will "supply the themes and words for the scripts." In order to alter the direction of America, they had to "influence the areas where policy ideas percolate from: academia and think tanks." [New Yorker, 8/30/2010]
Entity Tags: Libertarian Party, Brian Doherty, Charles Koch, Ronald Reagan, David Koch, William F. Buckley, Ed Clark
A portion of the cover of 'Mirache on Main Street.' [Source: Book Covers (.com)]Nashville musician Frederick "Tupper" Saussy III, who makes a living writing advertising jingles, writes a popular anti-tax protest book, Miracle on Main Street. Along with claiming that taxation is illegal (see 1951-1967, 1970-1972, and 1976-1978), Saussy concocts a fraudulent kind of "checkbook" money he calls "Public Office Money Certificates," and says tax protesters can use them to pay their debts. The "certificates," he claims, are "redeemable in dollars of the money of account of the United States upon an official determination of the substance of the money of account." The idea will be copied by Posse Comitatus protesters (see 1969) and, later, by the Montana Freemen (see 1993-1994). In 1985, Saussy will be convicted of tax evasion and will become a federal fugitive. [Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2001]
Entity Tags: Frederick ("Tupper") Saussy III, Posse Comitatus, Montana Freemen
The federal government passes even more amendments to the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA—see February 7, 1972, 1974, and May 11, 1976). The new amendments simplify campaign finance reporting requirements, encourage political party activity at the state and local levels, and increase the public funding grants for presidential nominating conventions. The new amendments prohibit the Federal Election Commission (FEC) from conducting random campaign audits. They also allow state and local parties to spend unlimited amounts on federal campaign efforts, including the production and distribution of campaign materials such as signs and bumper stickers used in "get out the vote" (GOTV) efforts. [Federal Elections Commission, 1998; Center for Responsive Politics, 2002 ] The amendment creates what later becomes known as "soft money," or donations and contributions that are essentially unregulated as long as they ostensibly go for "party building" expenses. The amendments allow corporations, labor unions, and wealthy individuals to contribute vast sums to political parties and influence elections. By 1988, both the Republican and Democratic Parties will spend inordinate and controversial amounts of "soft money" in election efforts. [National Public Radio, 2012] While the amendments were envisioned as strengthening campaign finance law, many feel that in hindsight, the amendments actually weaken FECA and campaign finance regulation. Specifically, the amendments reverse much of the 1974 amendments, and allow money once prohibited from being spent on campaigns to flow again. [Campaign Finance Timeline, 1999]
Entity Tags: Federal Election Commission, Federal Election Campaign Act of 1972
Lee Atwater. [Source: NNDB (.com)]Republican political strategist Lee Atwater, in a discussion with political science professor Alexander Lamis, discusses the Republican strategy of using racism to win elections. Lamis will later quote Atwater in his book Southern Politics in the 1990s. Atwater takes Lamis through the evolution of Republican appeals to racism: "You start out in 1954 by saying, 'N_gger, n_gger, n_gger.' By 1968 you can't say 'n_gger'—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights, and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'N_gger, n_gger.'" Atwater will go on to manage the 1988 presidential campaign of George H. W. Bush, where he will oversee the use of what is considered one of the most overtly racist campaign ads in modern history, the "Willie Horton" ad (see September 21 - October 4, 1988). [New York Times, 10/6/2005]
Entity Tags: Lee Atwater, Alexander Lamis, Republican Party
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda, Elections Before 2000
Douglas Bay, Dominica. [Source: Happy Tellus (.com)]Two of three mercenaries accused of plotting to overthrow the government of the tiny Caribbean island nation of Dominica are found guilty of conspiracy and violation of the Neutrality Act. Stephen Don Black, a prominent Alabama Ku Klux Klan leader, and Joe Daniel Hawkins, a Klansman from Mississippi, are found guilty of the charges. Both are found not guilty of violating five firearms statutes. The plot began in 1979, when the neighboring island country of Grenada was taken over by a socialist regime with ties to the Communist government of Cuba's Fidel Castro. Mike Perdue, a former Marine and prominent white supremacist, discussed retaking Grenada with ousted former Prime Minister Eric Gairy. Perdue sought out Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke, who put him in touch with white supremacist Donald Clarke Andrews, then living in Canada. Andrews had led the white supremacist group Western Guard, and after serving a jail sentence for neo-Nazi activities, founded a new pro-Aryan group, the Nationalist Party of Canada. Andrews convinced Perdue that Dominica might be a good place from which to stage a coup in Grenada. Dominica was in the grip of grinding poverty, having been devastated by a hurricane in 1979 and plagued with racial violence from a splinter group of Rastafarians called the Dreads. The island's government was unstable and, Perdue and Andrews believed, ripe for overthrow. Perdue partnered with another supremacist, Wolfgang Droege, and began planning to stage a coup that would place former Prime Minister Patrick John back in power. Even though John was something of a leftist, and wanted to displace the much more right-wing and pro-American Prime Minister, Eugenia Charles, in September 1980 Perdue and John agreed in writing to commence what they called "Operation Red Dog," a violent coup with the goal of placing John back in charge of the government. The Washington Times will later report: "The coup forged some odd alliances. [It] united right-wing North Americans and Caribbean leftists, white nationalists and black revolutionaries; First World capitalists and Third World Socialists." Canadian writer Stewart Bell later describes Perdue as a man of no real political convictions and a lust for money who routinely lies about his Vietnam experience (he never served in Southeast Asia, and did not tell his companions that he was a homosexual), and Droege as a German-Canadian high school dropout with neo-Nazi sympathies. Others involved in the putative coup are nightclub owner and white supremacist Charles Yanover, gunrunner Sydney Burnett-Alleyne (who supplied the initial connection to John), Black, Hawkins, and a small number of others. The mercenaries' plan was to put John back in power; in return, John would give them license to use the island as a haven for casinos, drug smuggling, and money laundering. Almost from the outset, the conspiracy was infiltrated by two agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), John Osburg and Wally Grafton, who were alerted to the planned coup by charter boat captain Mike Howell. Perdue had tried to hire Howell to take the mercenaries to Dominica, and told Howell that his was a CIA operation. Members of the operation also talked to others about it; one even gave a "secret" interview to a radio reporter in Hamilton. Osburg and Grafton alerted law enforcement authorities; on the night of the raid, federal authorities overwhelmed the small band of mercenaries, arrested them all, and confiscated a large number of firearms, 10 pounds of dynamite, over 5,000 rounds of ammunition, and a large red-and-black Nazi flag. The operation was later derisively termed the "Bayou of Pigs," a joking reference to the 1961 attempt by right-wing American mercenaries to overthrow Castro's government. John was arrested in Dominica. Perdue and six other participants have already pled guilty to violating the Neutrality Act. Before his sentencing of three years in prison, Black says, "What we were doing was in the best interests of the United States and its security in the hemisphere, and we feel betrayed by our own government." [Time, 5/11/1981; United Press International, 6/21/1981; New Times, 2/19/1998; Washington Times, 10/5/2008; Winnipeg Free Press, 11/2/2008] After serving his jail term, Black will go on to found the influential white supremacist organization Stormfront (see March 1995 and June 22, 2008).
Entity Tags: Eugenia Charles, Washington Times, Eric Gairy, Don Black, David Duke, Charles Yanover, Wally Grafton, US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Wolfgang Droege, Stormfront, Ku Klux Klan, John Osburg, Joe Daniel Hawkins, Mike Howell, Sydney Burnett-Alleyne, Mike Perdue, Donald Clarke Andrews, Stewart Bell, Patrick John
Ben Klassen, the founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973), moves the church from Florida to a large lot in Mulberry, North Carolina, opening a post office box in nearby Otto. He chooses the site because he believes Florida is too dangerous to live in. "I think South Florida is due for a lot of turmoil when bloody fighting breaks out," he says. "Actually, I expect the financial collapse of the entire country, and blood will be flowing in the streets." He and fellow COTC members build a personal residence, a three-story church, a small warehouse, and a "school for gifted boys." Klassen begins calling himself "Pontifex Maximus" of the church, a Latin term meaning "high priest," and begins writing a newsletter, "Racial Loyalty." Later in the year, COTC is granted an exemption from state taxes based on its status as a church. [Anti-Defamation League, 1993; Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/1999] In the years to come, the Mulberry site will become a full-fledged "compound." A September 1992 article in Mirabella magazine will observe that the "seventeen-acre landscaped compound… includes small-arms firing ranges, paramilitary barracks, and other buildings.… Inside a large converted barn that serves as headquarters, church founder and leader, Ben Klassen… sits beneath a large painted portrait of Adolf Hitler, 'The greatest leader the white race ever had,' says Klassen.… Since 1990 groups of committed young men have traveled here for extensive political mining under Klassen's tutelage. The recruits wear white berets or cowboy hats, live in the barracks, and practice shooting with automatic weapons on the firing range. Many are older teenagers. 'Exceptional boys,' Klassen calls them." [Anti-Defamation League, 1993]
Entity Tags: World Church of the Creator, Benhardt ("Ben") Klassen
The Dartmouth Review, a conservative weekly student newspaper funded by off-campus right-wing sources (see 1980), runs an article opposing affirmative action that many feel is blatantly racist. The article is titled "Dis Sho' Ain't No Jive, Bro," written by former Review chairman Keeney Jones. The article is the third in a series of attacks on affirmative action by Jones; the earlier articles featured Jones wishing he could medically darken his skin so he could get into medical school, and his claim that he was taking speech lessons to learn how to speak "black." This article is written entirely in Jones's version of "black dialect," and features the following selection: "Dese boys be sayin' dat we be comin' to Dartmut'and not takin' the classics. You know, Homa, Shakesphere; but I hes' dey all be co'd in da gound, six feet unda, and whatcha be askin' us to learn from dem? We culturally 'lightened, too. We be takin' hard courses in many subjects, like Afro-Am studies, women's studies, and policy studies. And who be mouthin' 'bout us not bein' good road? I be practicly knowin' 'Roots' cova to cova, 'til my mine be boogying to da words! And I be watchin' the Jeffersons on TV 'til I be blue in da face." Upon receiving the article, Review board member Jack Kemp (R-NY), a Republican congressman, resigns from the board, saying Kenney's article "relied on racial stereotypes" and undoubtedly offended many readers. "I am even more concerned that others found in it some support for racist viewpoints," Kemp continues, and concludes: "I do not want my name to appear in your paper. I am concerned that the association of my name with the Dartmouth Review is interpreted as an endorsement and I emphatically do not endorse the kind of antics displayed in your article." The Review appears unmoved by Kemp's resignation, with editors saying they hope to replace him with televangelist Jerry Falwell. Editor Dinesh D'Souza says the paper bears no responsibility for any allegations of racism, and tells a New Hampshire reporter, "It is not the Dartmouth Review but the Afro-American Society which is the primary cause of racial tension on campus." The undergraduate council and the faculty later votes to condemn the Review for creating a racially divisive atmosphere; Dartmouth's president will write a letter saying the Review performs "offensive practices," but that the issue cannot be solved by "violence or intolerance." [Dartmouth Free Press, 9/20/2006]
Entity Tags: Dartmouth Review, Dartmouth Afro-American Society, Dartmouth College, Jack Kemp, Jerry Falwell, Keeney Jones, Dinesh D'Souza
President Reagan and Dartmouth Review editor Dinesh D'Souza, 1988. [Source: Exiled Online (.com)]The Dartmouth Review, a conservative weekly student newspaper funded by off-campus right-wing sources (see 1980), publishes a satirical piece called "Grin and Beirut," that compares an Israeli settlement in West Beirut to a temporary structure just erected by Jewish students at Dartmouth to celebrate the harvest and saying it was built on "the West Bank of College Hall." The structure, known as a sukkah, is where the students gather for meals during the eight-day Succoth holiday. "The Zionists have gone too far with the erection of a ceremonial 'sukkah' settlement on the West Bank of College Hall," the Review writes. Two days later, unidentified vandals destroy the structure. Many Dartmouth students and faculty members believe the Review's apparent anti-Semitism incited the vandalism, including a rabbi with the university. Even the conservative Manchester Union-Leader, one of New Hampshire's staunchest press supporters of the Review, criticizes the Review for its writings. One of the article's co-authors says he regrets writing the piece, and the Review publishes an apology saying that it is "committed to fighting not only vandalism but also the psychological bigotry that can precipitate it." [Boston Globe, 10/5/1990; Dartmouth Free Press, 9/20/2006] In 2006, the Dartmouth Free Press will write that Review staffers may have destroyed the sukkah. The reporter will note that any contrition or commitment to "fighting vandalism [and] psychological bigotry" was not in evidence in later years, when Review staffers used sledgehammers to destroy shanties built by students as part of protests against apartheid in South Africa. [Dartmouth Free Press, 9/20/2006] The Review is currently edited by Dinesh D'Souza, who will go on to become a policy adviser in the Reagan administration and a prominent conservative speaker and pundit. [Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: Dinesh D'Souza, 2/25/2005]
Entity Tags: Dartmouth College, Manchester Union-Leader, Dartmouth Review, Dinesh D'Souza
An undated photo of LeRoy Schweitzer. [Source: WorldNews]LeRoy Schweitzer, a crop duster in Montana and Idaho, becomes increasingly frustrated and resentful at what he considers interference by the government. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Schweitzer moves toward becoming an anti-government tax resister. He becomes fascinated by the legal ideology of the Posse Comitatus (see 1969), attends numerous Posse meetings, and has some contacts with members of The Order (see Late September 1983). Schweitzer, well-liked by his neighbors and friends, begins to worry them with his increasing extremism. He helps a friend, Bernard Kuennan, mount a legal defense against charges of letting his dog roam unvaccinated, and the two hammer the judge with questions about the differences between "admiralty" and "common law" (see Fall 2010). He defies police officers who stop him for traffic violations. He moves to Montana, where he refuses to get a license to fly his Cessna crop duster, resulting in federal arrest warrants. His refusal to pay federal taxes causes the IRS to seize his plane in November 1992, his Bozeman, Montana home, and other equipment, and sell it all to pay his $389,000 delinquent tax bill, dating back to the 1970s. Thoroughly radicalized, Schweitzer meets Rodney Owen Skurdal, another legal manipulator. Skurdal is an ex-Marine and Posse Comitatus advocate who, during litigation of a worker's compensation suit in the 1980s, tells the judge that the federal government lacks the authority to print paper money and demands, fruitlessly, to be paid his compensation in gold bullion. One Wyoming newspaper claims that Skurdal's extremism begins after he suffers a fractured skull in 1983, the source of the compensation claim; Skurdal's former wife says after the injury that Skurdal refuses to use a Social Security number or driver's license. Skurdal, like many in the Posse, is an adherent to the virulently racist Christian Identity belief system (see 1960s and After), and in court filings claims non-whites are "beasts," and Jews "the children of Satan." Skurdal routinely intertwines Identity, Posse Comitatus, Biblical, and Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) tenets in his court filings (see 1994). In 1993, the IRS seizes his farm near Roundup, Montana, for back taxes; Skurdal continues to occupy the farm and no local official dares to evict him. In late 1994, Skurdal invites Schweitzer to move in with him; they are joined by Daniel Petersen in early 1995. The three become the nucleus of what will become the Montana Freemen. Skurdal's farm becomes a headquarters for the nascent organization, with computers, fax machines, laser printers, and satellite dishes going round the clock. The inhabitants post a sign on the edge of the property, reading: "Do Not Enter Private Land of the Sovereign.… The right of Personal Liberty is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed to every citizen, and any unlawful interference with it may be resisted." Local authorities want to curb the group, but do not want to risk violence and bloodshed. Musselshell County Sheriff G. Paul Smith says: "These people want to be martyrs. I don't know how far they are willing to carry that." Moreover, Smith and his small sheriff's department are outnammed and outgunned. [Mark Pitcavage, 5/6/1996]
Entity Tags: The Order, Bernard Kuennan, Daniel Petersen, Posse Comitatus, G. Paul Smith, Montana Freemen, LeRoy Schweitzer, Rodney Owen Skurdal
Gordon Kahl. [Source: Anti-Defamation League]Posse Comitatus (see 1969 and 1983) member and anti-tax protester Gordon Kahl (see 1967 - 1973) and three Posse members gun down two US marshals who are attempting to arrest Kahl in a confrontation near Medina, North Dakota. The two marshals are among a group of six attempting to apprehend Kahl in a 1977 income tax case after he violated his probation by refusing to file a tax return (see 1975 - 1981); he has been a fugitive since 1981. Initial Attempts to Negotiate Peaceful Surrender Fail - In that year, Kahl refused to turn himself over to North Dakota federal marshal Harold "Bud" Warren after a number of telephone conversations in which Kahl insisted that he had been "illegally" convicted by the "forces of Satan." Warren decided that Kahl's probation violation was "hardly a serious crime" and decided not to pursue it, partially because he knew Kahl was a crack shot and feared he would lose officers in any attempt to arrest him. Increasing Involvement in Posse Activities - Kahl moved to Arkansas, where he visited the compound of the white supremacist Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord organization. A member of that organization, Leonard Ginter, hid Kahl from federal authorities. Kahl's wife, under tremendous stress from the situation, tried and failed to negotiate a settlement with the IRS, resulting in her excoriation by her 23-year-old son Yorie, who accused her of cooperating with "the tithing collectors of the Jewish-Masonic Synogogue [sic] of Satan." Kahl became more and more involved in Posse Comitatus activities, traveling to Kansas and Colorado. Return to North Dakota, Confrontation with Police - In January 1983 he and Yorie Kahl returned to North Dakota with the intention of setting up a Posse "township" near Medina, which they envisioned as being free from state and government control. Kahl's station wagon is observed by Stutsman County deputy sheriff Bradley Kapp, who informs the Marshal Service in Bismarck. Warren's successor, Kenneth Muir, authorizes Kahl's arrest, and drives to Medina with Deputy Marshal Carl Wigglesworth to join two other deputy marshals, Robert Cheshire Jr. and James Hopson Jr. Kapp is spotted by some of his Posse colleagues, who quickly join him in planning to forcibly resist any arrest attempt. Reportedly, they receive the assistance of Medina police chief Darrell Graf, who is allegedly a Posse sympathizer. Kahl, Yorie Kahl, and Posse members David Broer and Scott Faul flee Medina in two Posse members' cars, but the ruse only briefly confuses the marshals, and two police cars with flashing lights quickly apprehend Kahl and Broer. One car is driven by deputy police chief Steve Schnabel; the other by Muir and Wigglesworth. Kapp, Cheshire, and Hopson are close behind in a third vehicle. Kahl and Broer turn off the road into a driveway, and Kahl, armed with a modified Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle, prepares to open fire on the approaching police officers. The others leap out of their cars and, armed with Mini-14s, take up positions in a ditch. When the marshals arrive moments later, they get out of their cars and order the Posse members to lay down their weapons. One of the Posse members opens fire, and in the 30-second volley that ensues, Kahl and his fellow Posse members lay down a deadly fire that inflicts heavy damage on the outgunned marshals. Kahl wounds Kapp and Schnabel with two shots, and kills Muir with a shot to the heart. Muir fires off a single shot that gravely wounds Yorie. Hopson is struck in the head by a ricocheting bullet that causes permanent brain damage. Rifle fire from Yorie and Faul fatally wounds Cheshire. Kapp, severely injured, manages to shoot Yorie three more times, then takes cover. Kahl executes the dying Cheshire with a shot to the head, then points his rifle at the downed Schnabel, but chooses not to kill him, instead taking his police cruiser and fleeing the scene. He takes the injured Yorie to a Posse member, Dr. Clarence Martin; Yorie and Kahl's wife Joan are arrested later that night at the hospital, and Yorie tells FBI agents some details of the confrontation. Faul, Broer, and Posse member Vernon Wegner are also arrested; Faul refuses to tell police or FBI investigators where Kahl might have fled to. Police find Schnabel's abandoned police cruiser. Two days later, police surround Kahl's farmhouse and bombard it with tear gas, only to find it abandoned. They do find a store of weapons and ammunition, and a collection of Posse Comitatus pamphlets and related documents. Kahl's family insists that law enforcement efforts to apprehend Kahl are unfair, and complain that he is being "hunted like a dog." Joan Kahl appears on television and tearfully pleads with her husband to surrender, to no avail. FBI and US Marshals descend on the local Posse Comitatus headquarters, and offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest, but Kahl has disappeared into the shadows of the far-right militia network. [Ian Geldard, 2/19/1995; Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2001; Levitas, 2002, pp. 194-200; Nicole Nichols, 2003; Anti-Defamation League, 2011] Kahl's murder of the marshals will be used by Posse Comitatus leader James Wickstrom to promote the anti-tax movement (see February 14-21, 1983). Four months later, Kahl will die in a bloody standoff with police officers in Arkansas (see March 13 - June 3, 1983).
Entity Tags: Robert Cheshire Jr, Steve Schnabel, Scott Faul, Yorie Kahl, Posse Comitatus, Vernon Wegner, Leonard Ginter, Kenneth Muir, Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord, Carl Wigglesworth, Bradley Kapp, Joan Kahl, Darrell Graf, Clarence Martin, Gordon Kahl, James Hopson Jr, James Wickstrom, Harold ("Bud") Warren, David Broer
Robert Jay Mathews, a white supremacist and activist (see 1980-1982), gives a speech at the National Alliance convention in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on his efforts to recruit farmers and ranchers into the "white racialist" movement (see 1969). Mathews receives the only standing ovation of the convention. He also renews his acquaintance with Thomas Martinez, a former Ku Klux Klansman from Philadelphia, and becomes close friends with him. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006] Mathews will go on to found The Order, one of the most violent anti-government organizations in modern US history (see Late September 1983). He will die during a 1984 standoff with FBI agents (see December 8, 1984).
Entity Tags: Robert Jay Mathews, National Alliance, The Order, Thomas Martinez
The logo of 'The Order.' [Source: Eye on Hate (.com)]Robert Jay Mathews, a white supremacist and activist (see 1980-1982 and September 1983), invites eight men to his property in Metaline Falls, Washington: neighbor and best friend Kenneth Loft; former Ku Klux Klansman David Edan Lane; Daniel Bauer; Denver Daw Parmenter; Randolph George Duey and Bruce Carroll Pierce of the Aryan Nations; and National Alliance recruits Richard Harold Kemp and William Soderquist. Mathews and his eight guests found a new organization called, variously, "The Order," "The Silent Brotherhood" or "Bruder Schweigen," and "The White American Bastion." The group uses the story depicted in the novel The Turner Diaries as its framework, determining to use violence and crime to destabilize the US government and establish a whites-only society. In the novel, "The Organization" finances its revolution by armed robberies, counterfeiting, and other crimes designed to disrupt the US economy. Mathews decides his group will use the same plan. Mathews is also inspired by real crimes, such as a failed 1981 armored car heist by the Black Liberation Army. [Kushner, 2003, pp. 222-223; HistoryLink, 12/6/2006]
Entity Tags: The Order, Daniel Bauer, Bruce Carroll Pierce, David Edan Lane, Denver Daw Parmenter, Kenneth Loft, Randolph George Duey, William Soderquist, Robert Jay Mathews, Richard Harold Kemp
Bruce Pierce, a member of the white supremacist guerrilla group The Order (see Late September 1983), is arrested in Yakima, Washington, for passing counterfeit $50 bills at a local mall. Pierce obtained his counterfeit bills from an operation coordinated with the Aryan Nations in western Idaho. Pierce is interviewed by a Secret Service agent, but refuses to give him any real information. Order leader Robert Jay Mathews (see Late September 1983), worried that Pierce might talk to police or another prisoner, tries to finance Pierce's bail by robbing a bank north of Seattle. Mathews escapes with over $26,000, but most of the money is ruined when an exploding dye pack stains the bills. Pierce eventually posts a $250 bond and is released. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006] Pierce will later murder Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After).
Entity Tags: Robert Jay Mathews, Alan Berg, Aryan Nations, Bruce Carroll Pierce, The Order
Members of the white separatist, anti-Semitic group Posse Comitatus (see 1969) begin to drift away from the group after federal and state authorities seize the "township" of Tigerton Dells, Wisconsin, which the group has created as part of its "breakaway" nation. The organization is also destabilized by negative media attention after one of its members, Gordon Kahl, killed two US marshals and was later killed himself in a violent confrontation with federal and state officials in Arkansas (see February 13, 1983 and After). Some of the Posse members will take up membership in other white supremacist Christian Identity (see 1960s and After) groups such as Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s). The organization will not entirely dissipate, but quickly loses influence and membership (from a height of some 50,000) to newer groups. [Ian Geldard, 2/19/1995; Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2004; Southern Poverty Law Center, 2010]
Entity Tags: Aryan Nations, Posse Comitatus, Gordon Kahl
Bruce Pierce, a member of the secretive white supremacist organization The Order (see Late September 1983), pleads guilty to passing counterfeit currency (see December 3-23, 1983). He believes he will receive a light sentence as this is his first criminal offense, but because he shows no remorse for his actions and refuses to divulge information about his connections to the Aryan Nations, he is sentenced to two years in federal prison. Instead of reporting to prison, Pierce holes up with Order leader Robert Jay Mathews and becomes a federal fugitive. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006] Pierce will later murder Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After).
Entity Tags: The Order, Aryan Nations, Robert Jay Mathews, Bruce Carroll Pierce
Two members of the white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), Bruce Pierce and Richard Kemp, bomb the Congregation Ahavath Israel Synagogue in Boise, Idaho. They use the first bomb Pierce has assembled, and it does little damage. Order leader Robert Jay Mathews is angry over the bombing, not because he disapproves, but because he feels the bomb should have destroyed the building. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006] Pierce will later murder Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After).
Entity Tags: Congregation Ahavath Israel Synagogue, Alan Berg, Bruce Carroll Pierce, Robert Jay Mathews, The Order, Richard Harold Kemp
Robert Jay Mathews, the founder and leader of the secretive white-supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), has decided the group should murder Denver radio host Alan Berg. Berg, a Jewish liberal with a confrontational style, has frequently sparred with white supremacists and neo-Nazis on the air, and for this reason Mathews has decided he must die. Mathews sends Order member Jean Margaret Craig to Denver to observe Berg's movements and determine if he is a viable target. Mathews decides that the "hit" on Berg will take place in June. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006] Mathews and three Order members will kill Berg a month later (see June 18, 1984 and After).
Entity Tags: Jean Margaret Craig, Robert Jay Mathews, The Order, Alan Berg
Alan Berg. [Source: Denver Post]Alan Berg, a Jewish, progressive talk show host for Denver's KOA 850 AM Radio, is gunned down in his driveway as he is stepping out of his car. The murder is carried out by members of the violent white-supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), a splinter group of the Aryan Nations white nationalist movement. Berg, who was described as often harsh and abrasive, regularly confronted right-wing and militia members on his show. Federal investigators learn that The Order's "hit list" includes Berg, television producer Norman Lear, a Kansas federal judge, and Morris Dees, a civil rights lawyer and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Radio producer Anath White later says that some of Berg's last shows were particularly rancorous, involving confrontational exchanges with anti-Semitic members of the Christian Identity movement (see 1960s and After). "That got him on the list and got him moved up the list to be assassinated," White will say. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006; Rocky Mountain News, 5/1/2007; Denver Post, 6/18/2009] Preparing for the Murder - Order leader Robert Jay Mathews had already sent a colleague to Denver to determine if Berg was a viable target (see May 17, 1984). The four members of the assassination team—Mathews, Bruce Pierce, David Lane, and Richard Scutari—assemble at a local Motel 6 to review their plans. Pierce, the assassin, has brought a .45 caliber Ingram MAC-10 submachine gun for the job. All four men begin to surveill Berg's townhouse. Gunned Down - At 9:21 p.m., Berg drives his Volkswagen Beetle into his driveway. Lane, the driver, pulls up behind him. Mathews leaps out of the car and opens the rear door for Pierce, who jumps out and runs up the driveway. Berg exits his vehicle with a bag of groceries. Pierce immediately opens fire with his submachine gun, pumping either 12 or 13 bullets into Berg's face and body before the gun jams. (Sources claim both figures of bullet wounds in Berg as accurate.) Pierce and Mathews get back into their car, rush back to the Motel 6, gather their belongings, and leave town. Three of the four members of the "hit squad" will soon be apprehended, charged, and convicted. Pierce is sentenced to 252 years in prison, including time for non-related robberies, and will die in prison in 2010; Lane is given 150 years, and will die in prison in 2007. Neither man is prosecuted for murder, as the evidence will be determined to be inconclusive; rather, they will be charged with violating Berg's civil rights. Scutari, accused of serving as a lookout for Pierce, and Jean Craig, accused of collecting information on Berg for the murder, will both be acquitted of culpability in the case, but will be convicted of other unrelated crimes. Mathews will not be charged due to lack of evidence of his participation; months later, he will die in a confrontation with law enforcement officials (see December 8, 1984). [Rocky Mountain News, 5/1/2007; Denver Post, 6/18/2009; Denver Post, 8/17/2010] In sentencing Pierce to prison, Judge Richard Matsch will say of the murder, "The man [Berg] was killed for who he was, what he believed in, and what he said and did, and that crime strikes at the very core of the Constitution." [Denver Post, 8/17/2010] Re-Enacting a Fictional Murder? - Some will come to believe that the assassins may have attempted to re-enact the fictional murder of a Jewish talk-show host depicted in The Turner Diaries (see 1978). [Rocky Mountain News, 5/1/2007; The Moderate Voice, 11/30/2007] 'Opening Shot ... of a Truly Revolutionary Radical Right' - Mark Potok of the SPLC will characterize Berg's murder as an early event leading to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). "In a sense, it was one of the opening shots of a truly revolutionary radical right," Potok will say, "perfectly willing to countenance the mass murder of American civilians for their cause." [Denver Post, 6/18/2009] Berg's ex-wife, Judith Berg, will travel around the country in the years after her ex-husband's murder, speaking about what she calls the "disease and anatomy of hate," a sickness that can infect people so strongly that they commit horrible crimes. In 2007, she will tell a reporter that Berg's murder was a watershed event that inspired more hate-movement violence. "What happened to Alan in the grown-up world has reached into the youth culture," she will say. "It opened the door to an acceptance of violence as a means of acting on hate.… While our backs are turned toward overseas, hate groups are having a heyday. People are very unhappy; they're out of work and jobs are scarce. They're ripe for joining extremist groups. We need to understand what happened to make sure it doesn't happen again." [Rocky Mountain News, 5/1/2007] White later says of Pierce, Lane, and their fellows: "It's left me to wonder what makes somebody like this. I think these people didn't have much opportunity in their lives and scapegoat. They blame others for not making it." [Denver Post, 8/17/2010]
Entity Tags: Norman Lear, Robert Jay Mathews, Richard Scutari, Morris Dees, Richard P. Matsch, Mark Potok, Jean Margaret Craig, Judith Berg, Alan Berg, Anath White, Aryan Nations, Bruce Carroll Pierce, David Edan Lane, KOA 850 AM Radio, The Order
David Lane, a member of the secretive white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983) and one of the group members responsible for murdering Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After), gives $30,000 in counterfeit bills (see December 3-23, 1983) to Thomas Martinez in Philadelphia. Martinez is not a member of The Order, but has reluctantly agreed to pass on the bills on the group's behalf. Martinez ignores Lane's advice to pass on the bills in New Jersey and not his own neighborhood, and passes over $1,500 in neighborhood stores. On June 28, he is arrested after a liquor store owner alerts authorities about the fake bills. Martinez is questioned by the Secret Service, but though he is fully aware of The Order's array of crimes, tells his questioners nothing. He telephones Order leader Robert Jay Mathews, asking that he give him $1,600 for an attorney. Mathews tells Martinez to be patient, that the group is planning another robbery (see March 16, 1984 and April 19-23, 1984), and he will then send him the money. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006]
Entity Tags: David Edan Lane, Alan Berg, Robert Jay Mathews, US Secret Service, Thomas Martinez, The Order
Three FBI agents in a green US Forest Service truck drive onto the wooded Idaho property of Gary Yarborough, a member of the white supremacist group The Order (see August 1984 and After). They are met with gunfire and retreat. They return in the evening with a search warrant. Yarborough has fled into the woods (and will escape to join leader Robert Jay Mathews), but in his cabin the agents find a large collection of evidence of The Order's crimes, including documents, explosives, gas grenades, cases of ammunition, pistols, shotguns, rifles, two Ingram MAC-10 submachine guns with silencers, gas masks, knives, crossbows, assault vests, radio frequency scanners, and other equipment. Among the cache of weapons is the MAC-10 used to kill Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After). Based on the evidence found in Yarborough's cabin, the FBI decides to begin arresting members of The Order. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006]
Entity Tags: Robert Jay Mathews, Alan Berg, Gary Lee Yarborough, The Order, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Robert Jay Mathews. [Source: Wikimedia]Robert Jay Mathews, the leader of the neo-Nazi, white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983 and June 18, 1984 and After), is killed during a standoff with federal authorities at a rented vacation home near Smugger's Cove on Whidbey Island, Washington State. Mathews has been on the run after escaping from federal custody in November 1984 and in the process wounding an FBI agent in the leg (see November 23-24, 1984). On December 3, the FBI's Seattle office received an anonymous tip that Mathews and other Order members were hiding in three hideouts on Whidbey Island, and were heavily armed. The FBI dispatched 150 agents to the island to ensure none of the members escaped. By December 7, the FBI had all three hideouts located and surrounded. Four members of the group surrender without incident, but Mathews refuses, instead firing repeatedly at agents from inside the Smuggler's Cove house. After 35 hours of fruitless negotiations, agents fire three M-79 Starburst illumination flares into the home, hoping that the house will catch fire and drive Mathews out. Instead, Mathews either chooses to remain inside the house, or is unable to leave. He dies in the flames. The FBI recovers his charred body the next morning. News reports about the siege are the first many Americans hear of The Order and its war against what it calls the "ZOG," or Zionist Occupation Government, which Mathews and others characterize as a "Jewish cabal" running the US government. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006] In 2003, researcher Harvey Kushner will write of Mathews, "For many on the racist right, he died a martyr." [Kushner, 2003, pp. 223]
Entity Tags: Harvey Kushner, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Jay Mathews, The Order
After the death of Robert Jay Mathews, the founder and leader of the white supremacist group The Order (see December 8, 1984), federal authorities decide to "roll up" the group. Federal prosecutors from six states meet secretly in Seattle and decide to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) against Order members. Under RICO statutes, all defendants are considered co-conspirators and are jointly responsible for all the crimes committed by the group (see October 28, 1983, December 3-23, 1983, March 16, 1984, April 19-23, 1984, April 29, 1984, May 27, 1984, June 18, 1984 and After, June 24-28, 1984, July 19, 1984, and November 23-24, 1984). The RICO Act also allows the government to seize and forfeit all property and assets used by the criminal organization to further its goals. Between December 1984 and March 1985, the Justice Department builds a massive conspiracy case against The Order. On April 15, 1985, a grand jury in Washington State returns a 20-count indictment against 23 members of The Order with racketeering, conspiracy, and 67 separate offenses. By this time, 17 members of The Order are in custody; by the month's end, all but one member, Richard Scutari (see March 19, 1986), are in custody. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006]
Entity Tags: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Richard Scutari, Robert Jay Mathews, US Department of Justice, The Order
Dartmouth College chaplain Richard Hyde files a libel and invasion of privacy lawsuit against the conservative Dartmouth Review, a student newspaper funded by off-campus conservative sources (see 1980). Hyde files the suit in response to the Review's repeated characterization of him as a supporter of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), an organization that promotes pedophilia and child pornography. The Review has often characterized Hyde as homosexual. It eventually settles the case out of court and prints an apology. [Dartmouth Free Press, 9/20/2006]
Entity Tags: Dartmouth College, North American Man Boy Love Association, Richard Hyde, Dartmouth Review
Dennis Ryan, 15, helps his father torture and kill a man. Michael Ryan, a partially disabled farmer in Rulo, Nevada, has for three years followed the violent white supremacist teachings of the Posse Comitatus (see 1969) through Posse leader James Wickstrom (see 1975 - 1978), who in 1982 told him to prepare for Armageddon. After speaking to Wickstrom for the first time in Kansas, Ryan told his son to quit playing football and begin practicing with a rifle. Wickstrom adopted Ryan as something of a protege, and steered some of his supporters towards him, making him a leader in local Posse circles. In 1985, Dennis, on his father's orders, shoots James Thimm in the face. His father had become angry with Thimm. When Thimm does not die, the elder Ryan chains him inside a hog shed, kicks and beats him, and forces him to have sex with a goat. Dennis, again complying with his father's orders, shoots off Thimm's fingers and partially skins him. The elder Ryan sodomizes Thimm with a shovel and finally kicks him to death. The entire procedure takes two weeks. In 2001, Dennis Ryan will tell a reporter: "I don't hold Wickstrom responsible for the crime I committed. I hold him responsible for getting my dad into it.… Wickstrom didn't make my dad kill anybody, but he planted the seed. He planted it in my dad and then he helped it grow." Author Daniel Levitas will agree, telling the reporter, "There could not have been the tragedy in Rulo if there was not a James Wickstrom." Dennis Ryan wil add: "He was looking for something to believe in. He didn't like blacks to begin with. I don't think he was ever a popular person growing up. I think that it was the right time for the wrong thing. He was weak and you don't let someone indoctrinate you into something like that unless you are weak-minded. He was all screwed up." Former Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord member Kerry Noble will say of Wickstrom: "[He] is dangerous to the extent of provoking others. He is typical of leaders. They won't do violent stuff, yet that's all they'll preach. They'll push buttons, but they are extremely cowardly." Dennis will recall: "Jim Wickstrom was the reason Dad got into this stuff. He's the one who showed Dad how to talk to Yahweh, the reason we started getting guns and preparing for Armageddon. He was always so amazed at all the weaponry and how well Jim Wickstrom and his followers in Tigerton Dells (see 1978 - 1983) were armed." After moving from Whiting, Kansas, to a farm in Rulo, Ryan ordered his family to steal farm equipment, livestock, and weapons in the name of Yahweh. Dennis will recall that the crimes were based on Wickstrom's teachings, saying: "We were supposed to kill all Satan's people. Dad was supposed to be the King of Israel and I was the Prince. He was supposed to die before the New Jerusalem was brought down from Yahweh, and then I'd be the king. I believed it 110 percent. All the way. Hell, I helped kill a man for it, and I never once questioned it.… Wickstrom wasn't physically a constant presence in our lives, he wasn't over all the time at the house or always on the phone with my dad, but he was there in that he was Dad's teacher. We had all of his fliers and cassettes. Dad would even listen to Wickstrom while he was taking the garbage out." Dennis will say that by 1985 Ryan had become obsessed with religious fervor and his conviction that Armageddon was imminent. He became more and more violent, focusing much of his rage on Luke Stice, the five-year-old son of follower Rick Stice, whom he savagely abused until March 1985, when he broke Luke's neck. Rick Stice helped Ryan bury his child. Dennis will serve a 12-year prison sentence for his role in the death of James Thimm. Michael Ryan will be sentenced to death. Dennis, after serving his sentence, starting a family, and becoming a carpenter, will have no further contact with his father. He has little trust in organized religion. He says: "I look at the Bible and it scares me because I know how people twist it and use it for their own benefit. I don't want some man up there telling me what God expects of me. I was told that before, and I killed someone.… So many people interpret the Bible so many different ways. I mean, take 9/11. That's their religious beliefs. They're no different than what my dad did except they actually carried it out. As far as killing thousands of people—that was his goal, too." [Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2004]
Entity Tags: Rick Stice, Daniel Levitas, Dennis Ryan, James Thimm, Kerry Noble, Luke Stice, Posse Comitatus, James Wickstrom, Michael Ryan
Mark Alan Lingenfelter is convicted of attempting to kill the mayor of Weslaco, Texas, with a pipe bomb. The Lingenfelters, a family of Wisconsin dairy farmers with a fondness for the anti-government Posse Comitatus ideology (see 1969), are members of a UFO cult called the "Outer Dimensional Forces" (ODF), led by a man calling himself "Nodrog" who built a base for UFOs to land. The ODF's prize possession is a fifth-dimensional Armageddon Time Ark which would be used to rescue a chosen few from Armageddon; Nodrog sells spaces aboard the craft. After ODF members clashed with local authorities in Weslaco, Lingenfelter attempted to kill the mayor with a pipe bomb that blew up a car in front of the paint store where the mayor works. Merlon Lingenfelter Sr. initially represents his son in court; his pronouncements are characterized as bizarre by some observers. The senior Lingenfelter tells a Brownsville, Texas, reporter, "Your president, all supporting bloodsuckers of the United States, plus all bloodsuckers of Canada and Mexico, have been duly served and convicted in the Outer Dimensional Forces Foursquare Court at Alternate Base, of triple high treason." Mark Alan Lingenfelter chooses to represent himself as the trial wears on, but he is convicted and jailed. [Mark Pitcavage, 1997]
Entity Tags: Mark Alan Lingenfelter, "Nodrog", Posse Comitatus, Merlon Lingenfelter, Sr., Outer Dimensional Forces
Vice President Bush, planning to leave for Iraq on a secret errand to persuade Saddam Hussein to escalate his bombing of Iranian targets in order to increase pressure on Iran to release American hostages (see July 28-August 3, 1986), is briefed by two top National Security Council aides, Oliver North and Howard Teicher, before leaving for the Middle East. Teicher will later recall: "We told him what the status was, that [US] arms had gone to Iran. We were preparing him for a possible briefing by either [Shimon Peres, the prime minister of Israel] or [Amiram] Nir [Peres's counterterrorism adviser]. We didn't want him to discuss it with anyone else, for security reasons. He asked us some questions, but he didn't express any opinions." While Bush will repeatedly deny ever discussing the Iranian arms sales with William Casey (see July 23, 1986), a former CIA official will say in 1992 that Casey did brief Bush extensively about the program. "Casey felt Bush had a methodical, orderly manner for the task," the official will say. "[Casey] had great confidence in him to carry it out. He said he briefed Bush in great detail about the initiative to bomb Iran." [New Yorker, 11/2/1992]
Entity Tags: Howard Teicher, Amiram Nir, George Herbert Walker Bush, Shimon Peres, Oliver North, William Casey, Saddam Hussein
Timeline Tags: Iran-Contra Affair
Faced with revelations of his possible involvement in the Iran-US arms-for-hostage deals (see November 3, 1986), Vice President George Bush, who has been heavily involved in the deals both with Iran and with its enemy Iraq (see July 23, 1986), denies knowing anything about anything. He tells the press that he knew nothing about any administration officials objecting to selling arms to Iran: "If I had sat there, and heard George Shultz and Cap [Caspar Weinberger] express it strongly, maybe I would have had a stronger view. But when you don't know something it's hard to react…. We were not in the loop." Weinberger, the Secretary of Defense, telephones Shultz, the Secretary of State, and snaps, "He was on the other side [supporting the arms deals with Iran]. It's on the record! Why did he say that?" Former National Security Council aide Howard Teicher, who was deeply involved in the arms-for-hostage deals with Iran, will say in 1992, "Bush definitely knew almost everything about the Iranian arms-sales initiative. I personally briefed him in great detail many times. Like so many others, he got premature Alzheimer's after the arms sales became public." [New Yorker, 11/2/1992]
Entity Tags: Caspar Weinberger, Howard Teicher, George Shultz, George Herbert Walker Bush
Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran, Iran-Contra Affair
Dan Rather interviews Vice President Bush, watching him on a monitor. Neither Rather nor the CBS viewers can see Bush's consultant Roger Ailes off-camera. [Source: Media Research Center]Roger Ailes, a former media consultant to the Nixon administration (see Summer 1970), comes up with a bold plan to help his new client, Vice President George H.W. Bush, who is running for president. Bush is neck-deep in the Iran-Contra scandal (see Before July 28, 1986, August 6, 1987, and December 25, 1992) and, as reporter Tim Dickinson will later write, comes across as "effete" in comparison to his predecessor Ronald Reagan. Ailes decides to use an interview with combative CBS News reporter Dan Rather to bolster his client's image. Ailes insists that the interview be done live, instead of in the usual format of being recorded and then edited for broadcast. Dickinson will later write, "That not only gave the confrontation the air of a prizefight—it enabled Ailes himself to sit just off-camera in Bush's office, prompting his candidate with cue cards." Rather is in the CBS studio in New York and has no idea Ailes is coaching Bush. As planned, Bush begins the interview aggressively, falsely accusing Rather of misleading him by focusing the interview on Iran-Contra. (It is true that CBS had not informed the Bush team that it would air a report on the Iran-Contra investigation as a lead-in to the Bush interview, a scheduling that some in the Bush team see as a "bait-and-switch.") When Rather begins to press Bush, Ailes flashes a cue card: "walked off the air." This is a set piece that Bush and Ailes have worked out beforehand, based on an embarrassing incident in Rather's recent past, when Rather angrily walked off the CBS set after learning that his newscast had been pre-empted by a women's tennis match. Clenching his fist, Ailes mouths at Bush: "Go! Go! Just kick his ass!" Bush fires his rejoinder: "It's not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set?" In their 1989 book The Acting President: Ronald Reagan and the Supporting Players Who Helped Him Create the Illusion That Held America Spellbound, CBS host Bob Schieffer and co-author Gary Paul Gates will write: "What people in the bureau and viewers at home could not see was that the response had not been entirely spontaneous. As the interview progressed, the crafty Ailes had stationed himself beside the camera. If Bush seemed to be struggling for a response, Ailes would write out a key word in huge letters on his yellow legal pad and hold it just beneath the camera in Bush's line of vision. Just before Bush had shouted that it was not fair to judge his career on Iran, Ailes had written out on his legal pad the words.… Three times during the interview, Bush's answer had come after Ailes had prompted him with key words or phrases scribbled on the legal pad." Dickinson will later write: "It was the mother of all false equivalencies: the fleeting petulance of a news anchor pitted against the high crimes of a sitting vice president. But it worked as TV." Ailes's colleague Roger Stone, who worked with Ailes on the 1968 Nixon campaign, will later say of the interview: "That bite of Bush telling Rather off played over and over and over again. It was a perfect example of [Ailes] understanding the news cycle, the dynamics of the situation, and the power of television." [Associated Press, 7/6/1989; NewsBusters, 1/25/2008; Rolling Stone, 5/25/2011] After the interview is concluded, Bush leaps to his feet and, with the microphone still live, says: "The b_stard didn't lay a glove on me.… Tell your g_ddamned network that if they want to talk to me to raise their hands at a press conference. No more Mr. Inside stuff after that." The unexpected aggression from Bush helps solidify his standing with hardline Republicans. The interview gives more "proof" to those same hardliners that the media is hopelessly liberal, "their" candidates cannot expect to be treated fairly, and that the only way for them to "survive" encounters with mainstream media figures is through aggression and intimidation. [Salon, 1/26/2011] Conservative commentator Rich Noyes will write in 2008 that Bush's jab at Rather exposed the reporter's "liberal bias," though he will fail to inform his readers of Ailes's off-camera coaching. [NewsBusters, 1/25/2008]
Entity Tags: Rich Noyes, CBS News, Bob Schieffer, Dan Rather, George Herbert Walker Bush, Tim Dickinson, Gary Paul Gates, Roger Stone, Roger Ailes, Ronald Reagan
Entrance to Fort Riley, Kansas. [Source: US Military (.com)]Terry Nichols, a 33-year-old Michigan farmer and house husband described as "aimless" by his wife Lana, joins the US Army in Detroit. He is the oldest recruit in his platoon and his fellow recruits call him "Grandpa." During basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Nichols meets fellow recruits Timothy McVeigh (see 1987-1988), who joined the Army in Buffalo, New York, and Arizona native Michael Fortier. All three share an interest in survivalism, guns, and hating the government, particularly Nichols and McVeigh; unit member Robin Littleton later recalls, "Terry and Tim in boot camp went together like magnets." For McVeigh, Nichols is like the older brother he never had; for Nichols, he enjoys taking McVeigh under his wing. Nichols also tells McVeigh about using ammonium nitrate to make explosives he and his family used to blow up tree stumps on the farm. The three are members of what the Army calls a "Cohort," or Cohesion Operation Readiness and Training unit, which generally keeps soldiers together in the same unit from boot camp all the way through final deployment. It is in the Army that McVeigh and Nichols become enamored of the novel The Turner Diaries (see 1978), which depicts a United States racially "cleansed" of minorities and other "undesirables" (McVeigh is already familiar with the novel—see 1987-1988). All three are sent to the 11 Bravo Infantry division in Fort Riley, Kansas, where they are finally separated into different companies; McVeigh goes to tank school, where he learns to operate a Bradley fighting vehicle as well as becoming an outstanding marksman. [New York Times, 5/4/1995; New York Times, 5/28/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 91-95; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 30; Nicole Nichols, 2003] McVeigh later says he joined the Army because he was disillusioned with the "I am better than you because I have more money" mindset some people have, and because he was taken with the Army's advertisement that claimed, "We do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day." [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] Fellow unit member Specialist Ted Thorne will later recall: "Tim and I both considered ourselves career soldiers. We were going to stay in for the 20-plus years, hopefully make sergeant major. It was the big picture of retirement." [Serrano, 1998, pp. 31] Nichols Leaves Army, Tells of Plans to Form 'Own Military Organization' - In the spring of 1989, Nichols, who planned on making a career of military service, leaves the Army due to issues with an impending divorce and child care, but his friendship with McVeigh persists. Fellow soldier Glen Edwards will later say that he found Nichols's choice to serve in the Army unusual, considering his virulent hatred of the US government: "He said the government made it impossible for him to make a living as a farmer. I thought it strange that a 32-year-old man would be complaining about the government, yet was now employed by the government. Nichols told me he signed up to pull his 20 years and get a retirement pension." Before Nichols leaves, he tells Edwards that he has plans for the future, and Edwards is welcome to join in. Edwards will later recall, "He told me he would be coming back to Fort Riley to start his own military organization" with McVeigh and Fortier. "He said he could get any kind of weapon and any equipment he wanted. I can't remember the name of his organization, but he seemed pretty serious about it." [New York Times, 5/28/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 96, 101] McVeigh Continues Army Career, Described as 'Strange,' 'Racist,' but 'Perfect Soldier' - McVeigh does not leave the Army so quickly. He achieves the rank of sergeant and becomes something of a "model soldier." He plans on becoming an Army Ranger. However, few get to know him well; only his closest friends, such as Nichols, know of his passion for firearms, his deep-seated racism, or his hatred for the government. McVeigh does not see Nichols during the rest of his Army stint, but keeps in touch through letters and phone calls. Friends and fellow soldiers will describe McVeigh as a man who attempts to be the "perfect soldier," but who becomes increasingly isolated during his Army career; the New York Times will describe him as "retreating into a spit-and-polish persona that did not admit nights away from the barracks or close friendships, even though he was in a 'Cohort' unit that kept nearly all the personnel together from basic training through discharge." His friends and colleagues will recall him as being "strange and uncommunicative" and "coldly robotic," and someone who often gives the least desirable assignments to African-American subordinates, calling them "inferior" and using racial slurs. An infantryman in McVeigh's unit, Marion "Fritz" Curnutte, will later recall: "He played the military 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All of us thought it was silly. When they'd call for down time, we'd rest, and he'd throw on a ruck sack and walk around the post with it." A fellow soldier, Todd Regier, will call McVeigh an exemplary soldier, saying: "As far as soldiering, he never did anything wrong. He was always on time. He never got into trouble. He was perfect. I thought he would stay in the Army all his life. He was always volunteering for stuff that the rest of us wouldn't want to do, guard duties, classes on the weekend." Sergeant Charles Johnson will later recall, "He was what we call high-speed and highly motivated." McVeigh also subscribes to survivalist magazines and other right-wing publications, such as Guns & Ammo and his favorite, Soldier of Fortune (SoF), and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home (see November 1991 - Summer 1992). Regier will later tell a reporter: "He was real different. Kind of cold. He wasn't enemies with anyone. He was kind of almost like a robot. He never had a date when I knew him in the Army. I never saw him at a club. I never saw him drinking. He never had good friends. He was a robot. Everything was for a purpose." [New York Times, 5/4/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 86; Serrano, 1998, pp. 30; Nicole Nichols, 2003] McVeigh is taken with the increasing number of anti-government articles and advertisements in SoF, particularly the ones warning about what it calls the impending government imposition of martial law and tyranny, and those telling readers how to build bombs and other items to use in "defending" themselves from government aggression. [Serrano, 1998, pp. 27-28] McVeigh is not entirely "by the book"; he knows his friend Michael Fortier is doing drugs, but does not report him to their superior officers. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] McVeigh is promoted to sergeant faster than his colleagues; this is when he begins assigning the undesirable tasks to the four or five black specialists in the group, tasks that would normally be performed by privates. "It was well known, pretty much throughout the platoon, that he was making the black specialists do that work," Regier will recall. "He was a racist. When he talked he'd mention those words, like n_gger. You pretty much knew he was a racist." The black soldiers complain to a company commander, earning McVeigh a reprimand. Sergeant Anthony Thigpen will later confirm Regier's account, adding that McVeigh generally refuses to socialize with African-Americans, and only reluctantly takes part in company functions that include non-whites. Captain Terry Guild will later say McVeigh's entire company has problems with racial polarization, "[a]nd his platoon had some of the most serious race problems. It was pretty bad." In April 1989, McVeigh is sent to Germany for two weeks for a military "change-up program." While there, he is awarded the German equivalent of the expert infantryman's badge. In November 1989, he goes home for Thanksgiving with Fortier, and meets Fortier's mother Irene. In late 1990, McVeigh signs a four-year reenlistment agreement with the Army. [New York Times, 5/4/1995] McVeigh Goes on to Serve in Persian Gulf War - McVeigh will serve two tours of duty in the Persian Gulf War, serving honorably and winning medals for his service (see January - March 1991 and After). Nichols and McVeigh will later be convicted of planning and executing the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Entity Tags: Ted Thorne, Terry Guild, Todd Regier, Terry Lynn Nichols, Robin Littleton, Michael Joseph Fortier, Charles Johnson, Glen Edwards, Marion ("Fritz") Curnutte, Anthony Thigpen, Timothy James McVeigh, US Department of the Army
The Bush presidential re-election campaign, trailing Democratic challenger Michael Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts, in the polls, decides on a "two-track" campaign strategy. The strategy is crafted by campaign manager Lee Atwater. The "high road" track will be taken by President Bush and the campaign directly, attacking Dukakis's record on law enforcement and challenging his reputation as having led Massachusetts into a period of economic growth (the so-called "Massachusetts Miracle"). The "low road," designed by Atwater to appeal to the most crude racial stereotypes (see 1981), is to be taken by ostensibly "independent" voter outreach organizations. Because of a loophole in campaign finance rules, the Bush campaign could work closely with "outside groups" and funnel money from "independent" organizations to the outside groups, while denying any connections with those groups were they to run objectionable or negative political ads. Atwater wants to avoid a potential backlash among voters, who may turn against the campaign because of their antipathy towards "attack politics." Atwater and his colleagues determine that the outside groups will use "brass knuckle" tactics to attack Dukakis, and because the ads come from these "independent" organizations, the Bush campaign can distance itself from the groups and even criticize them for being too negative. In 1999, InsidePolitics.org will write: "In so doing, Bush's presidential effort would train a generation of campaign operatives how to run a negative campaign. Its 'two-track' approach would become a model of how to exploit campaign finance laws and use outside groups to deliver hard-hitting messages on behalf of the candidate. Over the course of the following decade, this strategy would become commonplace in American elections." The idea of "outsourcing" attack ads had been popularized by the 1980 Reagan presidential campaign, which used what it called "independent expenditures" to finance "outside" attacks on its Democratic opponent, President Jimmy Carter. In 1988, "independent" conservative groups spend $13.7 million on the Bush campaign, most of which goes towards attacks on Dukakis. In comparison, progressive and liberal groups spend $2.8 million on behalf of Dukakis—an almost five-to-one discrepancy. Most of the outside money is spent on television advertising. InsidePolitics will write, "Increasingly, candidates were discovering, electoral agendas and voter impressions could be dominated through a clever combination of attack ads and favorable news coverage." [Inside Politics (.org), 1999] The result of Atwater's "two-track" strategy is the "Willie Horton" ad, which will become infamous both for its bluntly racist appeal and its effectiveness (see September 21 - October 4, 1988). An earlier "independent" ad attacking Dukakis's environmental record provides something of a template for the Horton ad campaign. The so-called "Boston Harbor" ad, which depicted garbage floating in the body of water, challenged Dukakis's positive reputation as a pro-environmental candndate. The ad helped bring Dukakis's "positives" down, a strong plus for Bush, whose record as an oil-company executive and reputation as a powerful political friend to the oil companies hurts him in comparison with Dukakis. In July 1988, Readers Digest, a magazine known for its quietly conservative slant, publishes a profile of Horton titled "Getting Away With Murder." The Bush campaign reprints the article and distributes it by the tens of thousands around the country. [Regardie's Magazine, 10/1/1990; Inside Politics (.org), 1999]
Entity Tags: Readers Digest, InsidePolitics (.org), George Herbert Walker Bush, Lee Atwater, National Security Political Action Committee, William ("Willie") Horton, Michael Dukakis
The image of Willie Horton as shown in the 'Weekend Pass' campaign ad. [Source: University of Virginia]A political advertisement on behalf of the George H. W. Bush presidential campaign appears, running on televisions around the country between September 21 and October 4, 1988. Called "Weekend Pass," it depicts convicted murderer William "Willie" Horton, who was granted 10 separate furloughs from prison, and used the time from his last furlough to kidnap and rape a young woman. The advertisement and subsequent media barrage falsely accuses Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts, of creating the "furlough program" that led to Horton's release, and paints Dukakis as "soft on crime." It will come to be known as one of the most overly racist political advertisements in the history of modern US presidential politics. Ad Content - The ad begins by comparing the positions of the two candidates on crime. It notes that Bush supports the death penalty for convicted murderers, whereas Dukakis does not. The ad's voiceover narrator then states, "Dukakis not only opposes the death penalty, he allowed first-degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison," with the accompanying text "Opposes Death Penalty, Allowed Murderers to Have Weekend Passes" superimposed on a photograph of Dukakis. The narrator then says, "One was Willie Horton, who murdered a boy in a robbery, stabbing him 19 times," accompanied by a mug shot of Horton. The voiceover continues: "Despite a life sentence, Horton received 10 weekend passes from prison. Horton fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend." At this point, the ad shows another picture of Horton being arrested while the accompanying text reads, "Kidnapping, Stabbing, Raping." The ad's narration concludes: "Weekend prison passes. Dukakis on crime." The ad is credited to the "National Security Political Action Committee." [Inside Politics (.org), 1999; Museum of the Moving Image, 2008; University of Virginia, Introduction to American Politics, 11/18/2009] 'Soft on Crime' - The ad is a reflection of the measures the Bush campaign is willing to undertake to defeat the apparently strong Dukakis candidacy. Dukakis is a popular Democratic governor and widely credited with what pundits call the "Massachusetts Miracle," reversing the downward economic spiral in his state without resorting to hefty tax increases. At the time of the ad, Dukakis enjoys a 17-point lead over Bush in the polls. Bush campaign strategists, led by campaign manager Lee Atwater, have learned from focus groups that conservative Democratic voters, which some call "Reagan Democrats," are not solid in their support of Dukakis, and are swayed by reports that he vetoed legislation requiring teachers to say the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the school day. They also react negatively when they learn that during Dukakis's tenure as governor, Horton had been furloughed and subsequently raped a white woman. Atwater and the Bush campaign decide that Dukakis can successfully be attacked as a "liberal" who is "not patriotic" and is "soft on crime." Atwater, who has a strong record of appealing to racism in key voting groups (see 1981), tells Republican Party officials, "By the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name." Although Dukakis had vetoed a bill mandating the death penalty for first-degree murder in Massachusetts, he did not institute the furlough program; that was signed into law by Republican governor Francis Sargent in 1972. The ads and the accompanying media blitz successfully avoid telling voters that Sargent, not Dukakis, instituted the furlough program. [Regardie's Magazine, 10/1/1990; Inside Politics (.org), 1999] Running the Horton Ad - The ad is sponsored by an ostensibly "independent" political organization, the conservative National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), headed by former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Thomas Moorer. NSPAC's daughter organization "Americans for Bush" actually put together the ad, created by marketer Larry McCarthy in close conjunction with Atwater and other Bush campaign aides; Atwater determined months before that the Horton ad should not come directly from the Bush campaign, but from an "independent" group supporting Bush, thus giving the Bush campaign the opportunity to distance itself from the ad, and even criticize it, should voters react negatively towards its message (see June-September 1988). The first version of the ad does not use the menacing mug shot of Horton, which McCarthy later says depicts "every suburban mother's greatest fear." McCarthy and Atwater feared that the networks would refuse to run the ad if it appeared controversial. However, the network censors do not object, so McCarthy quickly substitutes a second version of the ad featuring the mug shot. When Democrats and progressive critics of the Bush campaign complain that Bush is running a racist ad, Bush media adviser Roger Ailes says that neither he nor the campaign have any control over what outside groups like "Americans for Bush" put on the airwaves. InsidePolitics will later write, "This gave the Bush camp plausible deniability that helped its candidate avoid public condemnation for racist campaigning." Accompanying Newspaper Reports, Bush Campaign Ads - The ad airs for the first time on September 21. On September 22, newspapers around the nation begin publishing articles telling the story of Angie and Clifford Barnes, victimized by Horton while on furlouogh. On October 5, the Bush campaign releases a "sister" television ad, called "Revolving Door." Scripted by Ailes, the commercial does not mention Horton nor does it show the now-infamous mug shot, but emphasizes the contention that Dukakis is "soft on crime" and has what it calls a "lenient" furlough policy for violent convicts. The central image of the ad is a stream of African-American inmates moving slowly in and out of a revolving gate. The voiceover says that Dukakis had vetoed the death penalty and given furloughs to "first-degree murderers not eligible for parole. While out, many committed other crimes like kidnapping and rape." At the same time, Clifford Barnes and the sister of the youth murdered by Horton embark on a nationwide speaking tour funded by a pro-Bush independent group known as the Committee for the Presidency. Barnes also appears on a number of television talk shows, including those hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Geraldo Rivera. Barnes and the victim's sister also appear in two "victim" ads, where Barnes says: "Mike Dukakis and Willie Horton changed our lives forever.… We are worried people don't know enough about Mike Dukakis." In 1999, InsidePolitics will write that the media gives the "Revolving Door" ad a "courteous reception," and focuses more on the two ads' impact on the election, and the Dukakis campaign's lack of response, instead of discussing the issues of race and crime as portrayed by the ads. It is not until October 24, less than two weeks before the election, that anyone in the mainstream media airs footage of critics questioning whether the ads are racially inflammatory, but these appearances are few and far between, and are always balanced with appearances by Bush supporters praising the campaign's media strategy. [Inside Politics (.org), 1999; Inside Politics (.org), 1999; University of Virginia, Introduction to American Politics, 11/18/2009] Denials - Bush and his vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle will deny that the ads are racist, and will accuse Democrats of trying to use racism to stir up controversy (see October 1988). Failure to Respond - The Dukakis campaign will make what many political observers later characterize as a major political blunder: it refuses to answer the ads or dispute their content until almost the last days of the campaign, hoping that viewers would instead conclude that the ads are unfair without the Dukakis campaign's involvement. The ads will be hugely successful in securing the election for Bush (see September-November 1988). [Museum of the Moving Image, 2008]
Entity Tags: Angie Barnes, Clifford Barnes, Committee for the Presidency, Dan Quayle, George Herbert Walker Bush, Americans for Bush, InsidePolitics (.org), Francis Sargent, Michael Dukakis, William ("Willie") Horton, Lee Atwater, National Security Political Action Committee, Thomas Moorer, Roger Ailes, Larry McCarthy
The "Willie Horton" ad campaign, a pair of ads launched by an "independent" organization on behalf of the Bush re-election campaign and by the Bush campaign itself (see June-September 1988 and September 21 - October 4, 1988), is considered an immediate success by veteran political observers, in spite of what many call its overtly racist appeal. Because the first ad, "Weekend Pass," was the product of an ostensibly independent organization, the Bush campaign is able to keep a distance between itself and the ad. In the last weeks of the campaign, some polls show that voters blame President Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis almost equally for the negative tone of the campaign. While the ads only ran a relatively small number of times, news networks run the ads repeatedly, often adding their own analysis while the images of the ads run in the background. According to InsidePolitics, only once does any journalist challenge the "deceptive information from Bush's crime ads.… By amplifying Bush's claims, news reporters gave the ads even greater legitimacy than otherwise would have appeared. News accounts quoted election experts who noted that Bush's tactics were effective and that Dukakis' failure to respond was disastrous. Because these assessments appeared in the high credibility framework of news broadcasts, they came across as more believable than had they been aired only as paid advertisements." The "Weekend Pass" and "Revolving Door" ads have a palpable effect on the electorate, energizing voters who cite "law and order" as one of their major concerns for the nation, and driving many of them towards voting for Bush. Less discussed but equally powerful is the racial effect of the ads. Polls show that many white voters feel fearful because of the ads, and feel that Bush, not Dukakis, will make them safer from crime. InsidePolitics notes that the Bush campaign "had picked the perfect racial crime, that of a black felon raping a white woman." Later research will show that many viewers saw the Horton case as more about race than crime; many subjects exposed to news broadcasts about the Horton case responded in racial terms, with studies finding that the ads "mobilized whites' racial prejudice, not their worries about crime." InsidePolitics will write: "Viewers became much more likely to feel negatively about blacks in general after having heard the details of the case. It was an attack strategy that worked well on several different levels for Republicans." [Inside Politics (.org), 1999; University of Virginia, Introduction to American Politics, 11/18/2009] After the election, a New York Times voter poll will rate the "Revolving Door" ad as the single most influential ad of the campaign. The ad was particularly effective among white women, many of whom said that after watching it during the campaign, they began to view Bush as "stronger on crime" and as the candidate who would keep them "safer." In 1999, InsidePolitics will write that voters often conflated the two ads, and it is unclear from poll responses whether they differentiated between the independently produced ad and the Bush campaign ad. InsidePolitics also notes the powerful impact of the Horton ad's clear reference to rape. Dukakis's campaign manager Susan Estrich will say: "The symbolism was very powerful… you can't find a stronger metaphor, intended or not, for racial hatred in this country than a black man raping a white woman.… I talked to people afterward.… Women said they couldn't help it, but it scared the living daylights out of them." [Inside Politics (.org), 1999]
Entity Tags: Michael Dukakis, William ("Willie") Horton, George Herbert Walker Bush, Susan Estrich, InsidePolitics (.org)
The "Willie Horton" (a.k.a. "Weekend Pass") campaign ad, produced by an "independent" political organization on behalf of the Bush re-election campaign (see June-September 1988 and September 21 - October 4, 1988), and the Bush campaign's accompanying ad, "Revolving Door," draw accusations from the Democratic challenger, Michael Dukakis, that they are racist in their appeals. President Bush denies the accusations that race has anything to do with the ads, or even that racism exists. He calls the Dukakis accusations "some desperation kind of move," and says: "There isn't any racism. It's absolutely ridiculous." Dukakis is leveling these accusations, Bush says, because he "is weak on crime and defense and that's the inescapable truth." Bush accuses Dukakis of lying about his record, and accuses the Democrat of both racist and sexist behavior, though he gives no details or evidence. Bush's vice-presidential candidate, Dan Quayle, agrees, and accuses the Dukakis campaign of behaving in a racist manner, saying: "It's totally absurd and ridiculous. I think it shows just how desperate they really are, to start fanning the flames of racism in this country." Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has accused the Bush campaign of trying to incite racial fears through the Horton ad, and Dukakis's vice-presidential candidate, Lloyd Bentsen, says there seems to be "a racial element" in the Bush campaign's strategy. In contrast to Bush's denials, Bush media adviser Roger Ailes jokes with reporters about the ads, saying that the campaign's only question about the Horton ad was whether to portray Horton "with a knife in his hand or without it," and accuses Dukakis's campaign of spreading racism about Hispanics in its own ads. Bush states that he is "fully behind" both the "Weekend Pass" and "Revolving Door" ads. [New York Times, 10/25/1988]
Entity Tags: Lloyd Bentsen, Dan Quayle, George Herbert Walker Bush, Jesse Jackson, William ("Willie") Horton, Michael Dukakis, Roger Ailes
The Dartmouth Review, a conservative weekly student newspaper funded by off-campus right-wing sources (see 1980), marks the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a Nazi rampage through the Jewish communities of Germany in 1938, by depicting Dartmouth College president James Freedman as Adolf Hitler on its front cover. Freedman is Jewish. The article accuses him of searching for a "final solution" to the problem of conservatives at Dartmouth, a specific reference to the Holocaust. Many Dartmouth students and faculty members accuse the Review of overt anti-Semitism (see October 1982 and October 4, 1990). The Review will later apologize, not to Freedman, but to those who might have been offended. [Boston Globe, 10/5/1990; Dartmouth Free Press, 9/20/2006]
Entity Tags: James Freedman, Dartmouth Review, Dartmouth College
James Nichols, a Michigan farmer, anti-government white separatist, and the brother of Terry Nichols (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990), formulates a plan to use a "megabomb" to destroy an Oklahoma City federal building; an unnamed FBI informant will later tell the FBI that James Nichols specifically indicates the Murrah Federal Building. Nichols, who says he is upset over the US's "role" in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, shares the plan with the informant, who will swear to the information in 1995, after James's brother Terry Nichols is arrested for helping destroy the Murrah Building (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). "[James] Nichols… made a specific reference to a federal building in Oklahoma City and began looking through the toolshed and workbench for a newspaper clipping depicting the Oklahoma City building," the informant will say, according to an FBI affidavit. Nichols is unable to find the newspaper clipping, the informant will say, and instead draws a diagram remarkably similar to the Murrah Building. Nichols "later located a newspaper article containing a reference to the Federal Building in Oklahoma City and showed it" to the informer, the affidavit says. The informer is a regular visitor to the Nichols farm. [New York Times, 6/13/1995; Nicole Nichols, 2003] James Nichols routinely stamps US currency with red ink in a protest against the government, and calls his neighbors "sheeple" for obeying authority "like livestock." A neighbor, Dan Stomber, will recall Nichols criticizing him and others for using drivers' licences and Social Security cards, and for voting and paying taxes. "He said we were all puppets and sheeple," Stomber will tell a reporter. "That was the first time I ever heard that word." Stomber will not recall Nichols discussing any plans to bomb any federal buildings. [New York Times, 4/24/1995] After the Oklahoma City bombing, a friend of Nichols, an Indiana seed dealer named Dave Shafer, will tell authorities that Nichols showed him a diagram of a building remarkably similar to the Murrah Building, still under construction at the time, and said that building would be an excellent target. Shafer will say that he thought Nichols was joking. [Serrano, 1998, pp. 110] It is possible that Shafer and the unnamed FBI informant are the same person. Five years ago, a group of white supremacists had conceived of a plan to destroy the Murrah Building (see 1983).
Entity Tags: Terry Lynn Nichols, Murrah Federal Building, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Dave Shafer, James Nichols, Dan Stomber
Two Democratic organizations in Ohio file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in the matter of the now-infamous "Willie Horton" ads used to great effect by the Bush re-election campaign (see June-September 1988 and September 21 - October 4, 1988). The complaint alleges that the ostensibly independent political organization that created and financed the first ad, the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), violated the law on independent expenditures (see May 1990 and After). The complaint uncovers numerous connections between NSPAC and the Bush campaign. However, the FEC refuses to charge the Bush campaign with campaign finance violations. [Inside Politics (.org), 1999]
Entity Tags: National Security Political Action Committee, Federal Election Commission, George Herbert Walker Bush
Timeline Tags: Civil Liberties, Domestic Propaganda, Elections Before 2000
African-American writer Anthony Walton writes for the New York Times Magazine his thoughts on the overtly racist "Willie Horton" ad campaign launched the year before by the Bush re-election campaign (see June-September 1988 and September 21 - October 4, 1988). Walton writes: "George Bush and his henchmen could not have invented Willie Horton. Horton, with his coal-black skin; huge, unkempt Afro, and a glare that would have given Bull Connor or Lester Maddox [infamous white supremacists who abused African-Americans in the 1950s and '60s] serious pause, had committed a brutal murder in 1974 and been sentenced to life in prison. Then, granted a weekend furlough from prison, had viciously raped a white woman in front of her fiance, who was also attacked. Willie Horton was the perfect symbol of what happened to innocent whites when liberals (read Democrats) were on the watch, at least in the gospel according to post-Goldwater Republicans. Horton himself, in just a fuzzy mug shot, gave even the stoutest, most open, liberal heart a shiver. Even me. I thought of all the late nights I had ridden in terror on the F and A trains, while living in New York City. I thought Willie Horton must be what the wolf packs I had often heard about, but never seen, must look like. I said to myself, 'Something has got to be done about these n_ggers.'" Walton recounts several instances where he himself has been the victim of racism, and notes that in many eyes, he and Horton are interchangeable: "If Willie Horton would become just a little middle-class, he would look like me.… [I]n retrospect, I can see that racism has always been with me, even when I was shielded by love or money, or when I chose not to see it. But I saw it in the face of Willie Horton, and I can't ignore it, because it is my face." [New York Times Magazine, 8/20/1989]
Entity Tags: William ("Willie") Horton, Anthony Walton
James Wickstrom (see 1975 - 1978), the Posse Comitatus (see 1969) leader who recently spent over a year in prison for impersonating a public official (see 1983), is again sentenced to 38 months in prison for his role in a plot to print and distribute $100,000 in counterfeit bills for the 1988 Aryan Nations World Congress. The counterfeit bills were to help fund paramilitary activities. By the time Wickstrom is released in 1994, the Posse Comitatus has all but dissolved (see 1984). In 2001, author Daniel Levitas will say: "Wickstrom's light has been fading ever since the compound at Tigerton Dells shut down (see 1983). Wickstrom's heyday was in the period from 1978 to 1985. That was his period of peak influence. Since then he's hopscotched around and been able to gather small groups of people around him, but he'll never return to his former stature in the movement." Wickstrom will continue speaking to small groups, selling his speeches through the mail and the Internet, and running an obscure weekly Internet-based radio show, which he will abandon in 2003. He will attempt to take leadership of a splinter faction of the disintegrating Aryan Nations organization (see 2003, 2004, and September 2004 and After). [Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2004]
Entity Tags: Aryan Nations, James Wickstrom, Posse Comitatus, Daniel Levitas
The Supreme Court, in the case of Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, rules that the Michigan Chamber of Commerce (MCC) cannot run newspaper advertisements in support of a candidate for the state legislature because the MCC is subject to the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, which prohibits corporations from using treasury money to support or oppose candidates running for state offices. The Court finds that corporations can use money only from funds specifically designated for political purposes. The MCC holds a political fund separate from its other monies, but wanted to use money from its general fund to buy political advertising, and sued for the right to do so. The case explored whether a Michigan law prohibiting such political expenditures is constitutional. The Court agrees 7-2 that it is constitutional. Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy dissent, arguing that the government should not require such "segregated" funds, but should allow corporations and other such entities to spend their money on political activities without such restraints. [Public Resource (.org), 1990; Casebriefs, 2012; Moneyocracy, 2/2012] The 2010 Citizens United ruling (see January 21, 2010) will overturn this decision, with Scalia and Kennedy voting in the majority, and Kennedy writing the majority opinion.
Entity Tags: Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Anthony Kennedy, Michigan Campaign Finance Act, US Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia
The Ohio Democratic party and a group called Black Elected Democrats of Ohio file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over the infamous "Willie Horton" campaign ad of 1988 (see September 21 - October 4, 1988), claiming that the "outside" organization that released the ad, the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), violated the law on independent expenditures, and that NSPAC functioned as an arm of the 1988 Bush presidential campaign. According to the complaint, it was legal for NSPAC to expend funds criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis and supporting President Bush's election only if the expenditures were independent and uncoordinated between the two organizations. Any spending that was made "in cooperation, consultation, or concert, with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate, his authorized political committees, or their agents," represented an illegal "in-kind contribution" in excess of federal contribution limits. The FEC conducts an investigation into the relationship between NSPAC and the Bush campaign. The investigation uncovers several ties between the two organizations. For example, Larry McCarthy, the NSPAC media consultant who, as a top marketing expert for the NSPAC's "Americans for Bush" organization, created the Horton ad, worked for top Bush campaign adviser Roger Ailes; McCarthy was a former senior vice president of Ailes Communications, Inc. (ACI), which functioned as the main media consulting firm for the Bush campaign. McCarthy tells investigators he worked at ACI until January 1987, but continued to work with ACI on "a contractual basis" until December 1987, when he began working as Senator Robert Dole (R-KS)'s media consultant. McCarthy admits to having a number of contacts with Ailes during the Bush-Dukakis campaign, but says some of them were "of a passing social nature," such as "running into one another in restaurants or at airports." He denies discussing "anything relative to the Bush presidential campaign, NSPAC, or political matters." McCarthy's story is contradicted by Ailes, who tells the FEC that he had talked to McCarthy twice about opportunities to work for the Bush campaign, opportunities Ailes says McCarthy lost by working for NSPAC. The FEC also discovers that another former ACI employee, Jesse Raiford of Raiford Communications, worked on the Horton ad, and while doing so "simultaneously received compensation from NSPAC and the Bush campaign." Raiford also "expended NSPAC funds for the production of the Willie Horton ad." Though there is clear evidence of illegal connections and complicity between the Bush campaign and NSPAC, the FEC's Board of Commissioners deadlock 3-3 on voting whether to bring formal charges against the two organizations. The swing vote, commissioner Thomas Josefiak, says the explanations from Ailes and McCarthy about their lack of substantive contacts during the campaign "were plausible and reasonably consistent." Josefiak says both were guilty of "bad judgment" and may have acted "foolish[ly]," but did nothing warranting legal action. The FEC also determines that Raiford only "performed technical tasks" for the two organizations, "and played no role in any substantive or strategic decisions made by either organization." The commissioners conclude that neither organization violated campaign finance law. [Inside Politics (.org), 1999]
Entity Tags: National Security Political Action Committee, Roger Ailes, Raiford Communications, Thomas Josefiak, Michael Dukakis, Jesse Raiford, Ailes Communications, Americans for Bush, Larry McCarthy, George Herbert Walker Bush, Black Elected Democrats of Ohio, Federal Election Commission, Democratic Party of Ohio
The Dartmouth Review, a conservative weekly student newspaper funded by off-campus right-wing sources (see 1980), says that the deaths of 1,400 Muslim pilgrims and 7,000 Australian penguins are "equally tragic." Three weeks later, the Review publishes what it calls "a heartfelt apology… to all the penguins of the world." [Dartmouth Free Press, 9/20/2006]
Entity Tags: Dartmouth Review
A Web graphic opposing the 'New World Order.' [Source: Human Symbiose (.org)]In a speech discussing the post-Cold War world, President Bush outlines his vision of a "New World Order." Bush says: "We stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective—a new world order—can emerge: a new era—freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace." The Southern Poverty Law Center will later write that many people, particularly white supremacists and separatists, take Bush's phrase "as a slip of the tongue revealing secret plans to create a one-world government." [Sweet Liberty, 9/11/1990; Southern Poverty Law Center, 6/2001] In 1995, Michigan gun dealer and right-wing activist Frank Kieltyka will describe the "New World Order" to a Buffalo News reporter. According to Kieltyka, the "New World Order" is backed by the US government and led by, among other organizations, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). "We're moving towards the Communists," Kieltyka will warn. The belief in this "New World Order" will be emphasized in coming years in the militia movements and by right-wing publications such as The Spotlight, an openly racist, anti-government newsletter. [Stickney, 1996, pp. 157-158]
Entity Tags: Trilateral Commission, George Herbert Walker Bush, Frank Kieltyka, Council on Foreign Relations, Southern Poverty Law Center, The Spotlight
GOPAC logo. [Source: Mullings (.com)]A New York Times editorial derides a recent effort by a conservative political action committee to label political opponents with slanderous epithets. According to the editorial, GOPAC, the GOP Political Action Committee chaired by Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA), has issued a glossary mailed to Republican state legislative candidates urging them to use the following words to characterize their Democratic opponents: "sick," "traitors," "bizarre," "self-serving," "shallow," "corrupt," "pathetic," and "shame." GOPAC later "regretted" including the word "traitors" in that list of characterizations, the editorial reports, but has continued to back the use of the other epithets. The glossary is part of a pamphlet entitled "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control," and features a letter from Gingrich advising the candidates to step up the personal invective against their opponents because, he writes, vilification works. The Times writes: "Mr. Gingrich's injunction represents the worst of American political discourse, which reached a low during the dispiriting presidential campaign of 1988 (see September 21 - October 4, 1988). Then, more than ever before, negative argument displaced reasoned discussion about how a nation might best be governed. The sound bite reigned. Attack commercials flourished. The signs this year aren't any better. Evidence that negative campaigning can come back to sink the sender has had little impact. The races for governor in California and Texas have already seen the same slash and burn. No doubt the proceedings will grow more rabid still as November nears. Negative discourse serves democracy poorly. The temptation to avoid serious debate is already great. It increases as the stakes soar and slander becomes a rewarding, easy option. The issues of the day go untended. The whole affair takes on the character of the gladiator's art. The GOPAC glossary may herald a descent into even lower levels of discourse. It comes blessed by a politician of some influence—the Republican whip in the House—and it is intended for candidates on the state level, many of them presumably running for the first time. Even though Mr. Gingrich himself may not have seen the list before it was mailed, this is a disturbing document. The nakedness of the GOPAC offering also makes it useful. There must be limits to the negative politics that voters will bear; the bald appeal to invective will certainly probe those limits. For now, it should be said that some adjectives in the glossary aptly describe the glossary itself: shallow, sensationalist, and, yes, shame(ful)." [New York Times, 9/20/1990; Propaganda Critic, 9/29/2002; Propaganda Critic, 9/29/2002] Later in the year, the pamphlet will win the Doublespeak Award from the National Conference of Teachers of English. [Propaganda Critic, 9/29/2002] Gingrich and GOPAC will expand upon the original pamphlet in 1995, after Gingrich becomes speaker of the House (see 1995).
Entity Tags: National Conference of Teachers of English, New York Times, Newt Gingrich, GOP Political Action Committee
Almost 2,500 protesters gather on the Dartmouth College green to protest the conservative, off-campus Dartmouth Review, a student newspaper given to extremes of racial and political rhetoric (see 1980). The protest is sparked by the Review's recent publication of a selection of Nazi propaganda on Yom Kippur, one of the highest of Jewish holy days. The selection, printed on the paper's masthead, was from Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf, and read: "I therefore believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator: By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord's work." The protest is led by Dartmouth president James Freedman, and made up of a wide swath of students, faculty, and alumni. "This has been a week of infamy for the Dartmouth community," Freedman says. "The Dartmouth Review has consistently attacked blacks because they are black, women because they are women, homosexuals because they are homosexuals, and Jews because they are Jews," he says; two years before, the Review had compared Freedman, who is Jewish, to Hitler, and compared his policies to the Holocaust (see November 9-10, 1988). College trustees call the Hitler publication "a criminal act of sabotage." Trustee Accuses University President of Using Incident to 'Incite Hatred' - The Boston Globe describes Review trustee and former editor Dinesh D'Souza, a former policy adviser in the Reagan administration, as both "contrite and combative" over the incident. D'Souza apologizes for the publishing of the Hitler selection, then moments later accuses Freedman of using the incident to incite hatred against the Review. "This case is Dartmouth's Tawana Brawley," he says, referring to the 1987 case of a young African-American woman who some believe falsely accused several white men of raping her. "You have a sabotage, a hoax, a dirty trick that is being ruthlessly and cynically exploited by the college leadership in order to ruin the lives of many innocent students. President Freedman has emerged as the Al Sharpton of academia." (Sharpton, a New York pastor and civil rights leader, was one of Brawley's most public advocates.) Protesters line up one after another to urge the college to repudiate the newspaper. Dartmouth officials say that the newspaper has damaged the college's reputation and diminished the school's ability to recruit top students and faculty, particularly minorities. Religion professor Arthur Hertzberg calls the Hitler quote another "act of ongoing hooliganism" in a string of politically and racially explosive actions by the Review, and tells the crowd: "This is not a hating college. This is not an anti-Semitic college. This is not an institution of infamy. It is a community of warmth and love." Professor: Responsibility Lies with Conservative Funders - Hertzberg says his quarrel is not with "the 20 or 30 misguided young people who edit the Review." Rather, he says, it is with the prominent conservatives who support the paper. The Review is financed mostly by off-campus, conservative organizations and foundations; it has an annual budget of some $150,000, and faces high legal bills. Hertzberg says the paper's key backers include former Treasury Secretary William Simon; former Chase Manhattan Bank chairman George Champion; National Review editor William F. Buckley Jr.; and conservative commentator and former Nixon speechwriter Patrick Buchanan. "My quarrel is with those out there who put up hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with which to contaminate this campus," Hertzberg says. "They should be ashamed of themselves." Board Member Accuses Liberals of Planting Hitler Quote - Review advisory board member George Gilder, a conservative economist, says the Hitler quote was planted by someone who wishes the newspaper ill: "Do you think any conservative in the world would deliberately put that into the magazine? It's obviously an attack by somebody who infiltrated the ranks." Gilder says Freedman and liberals at Dartmouth are using the Hitler incident "to try to kill the Review, just as they try to kill conservatism whenever it rises up on campus." Editor in chief Kevin Pritchett collects the issues of the newspaper, and, with three other senior staffers, publishes an open letter denying any involvement in publishing the quote and accusing a staff "insider" of somehow inserting it. Review supporters in New York and Washington, DC, demand that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conduct an investigation to find the "saboteur," and Review adviser Jeffrey Hart releases a written response that attacks Freedman for falsely accusing the Review of racism (see March 15, 1982, 1983, and August 2002) and intolerance (see 1981, 1984, 1985, and July 1990). [Boston Globe, 10/5/1990; Dartmouth Free Press, 9/20/2006] Days later, Simon publishes an editorial in the New York Times decrying the Review's reference to Hitler, but calling the publication of the quote "sabotage" and saying: "[s]omeone secretly gained access to the production process.… Since the slur was deviously implanted in a section that remains unchanged from week to week, the subterfuge eluded the proofreaders." He describes Pritchett as "horrified" by the incident, says that any accusations of anti-Semitism on the Review's part are "preposterous," and accuses Freedman of orchestrating a protest against the Review "that quickly metamorphosed into an instrument of hate—hate directed against student journalists who, as a result, suffered death warnings, threats of violence, as well as mean-spirited accusations." The Review serves to "question, challenge, and even deride the dominant liberal orthodoxy on the campus, exposing its hypocrisies," Simon writes, and calls any attempt to call the Review to account "political opportunism." [New York Times, 10/20/1990] Investigation Finds Quote Included by Staff, Editors - The ADL will indeed conduct an investigation, and will find that the Hitler quote was from a well-thumbed book in the Review's office. It will conclude that a Review staffer had inserted the quote with the knowledge and apparent complicity of the senior editors. The ADL will call the publication of the quote "obviously an anti-Semitic act," and write, "Prior acts of the Review and the past conduct of its members have contributed, the commission believes, to the creation of an environment which condoned and even encouraged a member of the Review to include the offensive Hitler quote." The investigation notes that the Review has frequently published other offensive comments such as "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" and "genocide means never having to say you're sorry." History of Anti-Semitism - The Review has a history of anti-Semitic publishings (see October 1982 and November 9-10, 1988). D'Souza says Review trustees have repudiated such actions, which he calls the work of unpolished and overzealous staffers who sometimes run the Review like "a half-baked, ramshackle student paper." Review President, Contributors Resign over Furor - C. Tyler White, president of the Review, will soon resign in protest. "I cannot allow the Review to ruin my life any further," he will write. "The official Review response, which I co-signed and helped distribute, avoids the main thrust of the issue. It does not emphasize our sorrow in this dreadful act of malice, nor does it claim responsibility for letting it reach newsprint.… The editor in chief has failed in his job, and now we must wear the albatross of anti-Semitism because he won't take responsibility for the issue's contents." Review contributors David Budd and Pang-Chun Chen resign along with White, writing, "We are conservatives, but we are not Nazis." Budd writes that the Review's apology implied "let's put the blame on someone else." Congressional Involvement - US Representative Chester Atkins (D-MA) delivers a letter concerning the incident to Freedman, accusing the Review of "fomenting hatred and intolerance." The letter is signed by 84 of Atkins's fellow Congress members. Atkins is running for re-election against a Review board member, John MacGovern. Atkins says MacGovern should step down as a board member; MacGovern refuses, saying the Review's senior editors are not responsible for the Hitler quote. [Boston Globe, 10/5/1990; Dartmouth Free Press, 9/20/2006]
Entity Tags: Dartmouth Review, Chester Atkins, Dartmouth College, X.XXX XXX, Arthur Hertzberg, Anti-Defamation League, William F. Buckley, Patrick Buchanan, William Simon, Kevin Pritchett, George Gilder, James Freedman, Dinesh D'Souza, George Champion, XXX-XXX XXX, Jeffrey Hart, John MacGovern, David W Budd
Timothy McVeigh during the time he served in the Army. [Source: Viceland (.com)]Sergeant Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) gives three months of military service in the Persian Gulf War as a gunner on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle before returning home; during his time there, he paints the name "Bad Company" on the side of the vehicle. "He was a good soldier," Sergeant James Ives, who serves with McVeigh, will later recall. "If he was given a mission and a target, it's gone." [New York Times, 4/23/1995; Serrano, 1998, pp. 34; Douglas O. Linder, 2001; CNN, 2001] McVeigh earns a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal while overseas, along with a number of citations and ribbons. [Serrano, 1998, pp. 25-26] Staff Sergeant Albert Warnement, the commander of McVeigh's Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Kuwait, later recalls: "He was against the National Command Authority's decision to go to war. McVeigh did not think the United States had any business or interest in Kuwait, but… he knew it was his duty to go where he was told, and he went." [Stickney, 1996, pp. 110] Experiences in Kuwait, Iraq - Fellow soldier Todd Regier later recalls that McVeigh was "definitely excited about going to Desert Storm. He was a perfect gunner. He was the best gunner we had." McVeigh is part of a Bradley crew which spends its first few weeks sitting idly in the Saudi Arabian desert while American aircraft attack Iraqi defenses (see January 16, 1991 and After). Sergeant Anthony Thigpen later recalls that while the other soldiers play cards, write letters, and chat to relieve their boredom, McVeigh spends his time cleaning his weapons. The 2nd Battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment, McVeigh's unit, is one of those that makes the initial drive into Kuwait when the invasion begins (see February 23, 1991 and After). McVeigh's unit sees less intense action than some, and fellow soldier Roger L. Barnett will later recall that McVeigh shows little interest in shooting unarmed and defenseless Iraqis. At one point, McVeigh shoots an Iraqi soldier from some 2,000 yards away in the head, using the Bradley's 25mm cannon. McVeigh wins a medal for the shot. He later recalls of the shooting: "His head just disappeared.… I saw everything above the shoulders disappear, like in a red mist." He becomes angry when he learns that many Iraqis do not want to fight, and are equipped with inferior gear. According to an aunt, McVeigh is deeply disturbed about the fighting in Iraq. "When he came back, he seemed broken," she later tells a reporter. "When we talked about it, he said it was terrible there. He was on the front line and had seen death and caused death. After the first [killing], it got easy." While posted in Kuwait, McVeigh writes to a friend in the US that he hates Saddam Hussein: "Chickensh_t b_stard. Because of him, I killed a man who didn't want to fight us, but was forced to." However, a fellow soldier, Kerry Kling, later recalls McVeigh being proud of the shot that killed the Iraqi. Sergeant Royal L. Witcher, McVeigh's assistant gunner on the Bradley, later recalls the soldiers' dismay at their experiences with Iraqi soldiers. "I think it kind of shocked most of us," he will say. "We had thought that they were our enemies, and then for us to encounter something like that with a mass of people giving up." After the offensive, McVeigh's unit is assigned to guard duty, and spends the remainder of the war relatively inactive. [New York Times, 5/4/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 113; Serrano, 1998, pp. 36-38; CNN, 12/17/2007] McVeigh will later recall being angry at the situation in Kuwait. In a letter to a reporter, he will write: "We were falsely hyped up [about the enemy]. And we get there and find out that they are normal like you and me. They hype you up to take those people out. They told us we were to defend Kuwait where the people had been raped and slaughtered (see October 10, 1990). War woke me up. War will open your eyes." Of the Iraqi soldiers, he will write, "I felt the army brainwashed us to hate them." [Serrano, 1998, pp. 36-37] Withdraws from Special Forces Training - After returning to the US, McVeigh begins 21 days of Special Services training at Camp McCall, west of Fort Bragg, North Carolina (see October 1990). He is thrilled to be joining Special Forces, and is confident that he will pass the grueling physical and psychological assessments. However, he leaves the training at Camp McCall during the second day. He later tells people he withdraws because of a leg injury. Some military officials will say that preliminary psychological screening shows him to be unfit for Special Forces, leading some reporters to conclude that McVeigh was kicked out of training, but those conclusions are inaccurate: McVeigh's screenings are not processed until long after he leaves, and his withdrawal is entirely voluntary. McVeigh later says that he begins training with a friend, Specialist Mitchell Whitmire (one source spells his name "Whitmyers," apparently in error), days after returning from overseas duty. He will say that he is in poor physical condition, mentally and physically exhausted from his time in combat, and unready for the physical demands of Green Beret training. He does not accept an offer extended to him and other combat veterans to take some time off and try again at a later date. Instead, after two arduous days of physical workouts, McVeigh and Whitmire leave the training program before McVeigh's assessments can be graded and reviewed. On his Statement of Voluntary Withdrawal, McVeigh writes, "I am not physically ready, and the rucksack march hurt more than it should." Ives will recall McVeigh as being "extremely disappointed." Thigpen later recalls: "Everybody knew he was highly upset. We never knew the reason why he didn't make it. We figured, you don't make it, you don't make it. But he was definitely angry. He was upset, very upset." Fellow soldier James Fox later tells a reporter that McVeigh's withdrawal from Special Forces training was a defining moment for him, saying, "Whether he withdrew or was kicked out, it still was a failure and very easily he could externalize blame." McVeigh then takes a 30-day leave to visit his sister Jennifer in Florida, and to spend some time in upstate New York, where he grew up (see 1987-1988). [New York Times, 4/23/1995; New York Times, 5/4/1995; New York Times, 7/5/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 115-119; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 41-42] Author Brandon M. Stickney later writes, "It was revealed in confidence to [me] that answers McVeigh gave on the psychological tests were apparently a bit off-center, not the answers of a man capable of long-term assignments with the exclusive and tight Special Forces." Stickney will also write that McVeigh may be suffering from "Gulf War Syndrome," a mysterious series of maladies apparently caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. [Stickney, 1996, pp. 117-118] In 1993, McVeigh will write a letter to his sister Jennifer giving a very different explanation of his reason for withdrawing from Special Forces tryouts (see October 20, 1993). After he returns from active duty, he begins displaying increasingly eccentric behavior (see March 1991 and After). McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Entity Tags: Brandon M. Stickney, Timothy James McVeigh, Todd Regier, US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, US Department of the Army, Albert Warnement, Anthony Thigpen, Roger L. Barnett, Royal L. Witcher, Rick Cerney, Bruce Williams, Robin Littleton, James Fox, Catina Lawson, James Ives, James Hardesty, Mitchell Whitmire, John Edward Kelso
Sergeant Timothy McVeigh, a decorated Army gunner, returns from serving three months in Operation Desert Storm (see January - March 1991 and After). Disillusioned and discouraged by his experiences and his failure to succeed in Special Forces training, McVeigh returns to Fort Riley, Kansas, and begins displaying increasingly odd behavior, always carrying a weapon and talking incessantly about the constitutional right to bear arms. His friend and fellow soldier Bruce Williams later recalls that McVeigh is no longer the "Iron Mike" that he had known during training at Fort Benning. "I'd hang out and go to the parties and drink Budweiser," Williams will recall. "Tim just stayed in his room playing Nintendo." McVeigh rents a house off post with two fellow soldiers, Corporal John Edward Kelso and Sergeant Rick Cerney, in Herington, Kansas, some 40 miles from Fort Riley. Kelso later recalls he and Cerney trying to "josh with him" and get him to relax. "It was so easy to put him over the edge," Kelso will recall. "He was so gullible, so vulnerable. He was so unbalanced about being tough. He was just kind of a nerd." Sergeant Royal L. Witcher, McVeigh's assistant gunner during active duty in Kuwait and Iraq, later recalls that McVeigh is uncomfortable sharing the house with the two, and persuades Witcher to let him move in with him instead. McVeigh moves into Witcher's Herington home and immediately claims the larger of the two bedrooms, blocking the window with a camouflage poncho. Witcher later says he knew better than to enter McVeigh's room. McVeigh keeps at least 10 guns in the house, Witcher will recall, saying: "They weren't exposed, they were hidden. He had a couple in the kitchen, a couple in the living room under the couch. I think there was one in the bathroom, behind the towels. As you go up the steps there was a little ledge and he kept one in there, a .38 revolver." McVeigh also keeps two guns in his car and a shotgun at the home of a sergeant who also lives off post. Witcher never asks why McVeigh keeps so many guns. "I don't know if he was paranoid or what," Witcher will recall. "Or maybe he had some friends that were after him. I don't know." On occasion, McVeigh sells guns to fellow soldiers. He cleans all of his weapons twice a week, and takes them to a lake to shoot every weekend. Witcher never recalls McVeigh having any dates. On a few occasions, the two have conversations. "He was a very racist person," Witcher will recall. "He had very strong views against, like, political things, like that." Witcher will say he does not share McVeigh's racist views: "He pretty much knew my views and he didn't talk too much about it around me." McVeigh constantly complains about government intrusiveness, Witcher will recall, taking umbrage with items he reads in the newspaper on a daily basis. Witcher will remember McVeigh dropping out of the National Rifle Association (NRA) when that organization seems to be softening its stance on the banning of assault rifles. He begins spending more and more time poring over gun magazines, and spends more and more time in the pawnshops and gun dealerships in nearby Junction City. [New York Times, 4/23/1995; New York Times, 5/4/1995; New York Times, 7/5/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 42; Douglas O. Linder, 2001; CNN, 2001] Becomes Conspiracy-Minded, Involved with Extremist Groups - Ives will recall that after his failed attempt to join Special Forces, McVeigh becomes involved with extreme right-wing political groups off-post. Ives cannot identify the groups, but, he will say, "cults is what I call them." Witcher will recall nothing of any such involvement. [New York Times, 4/23/1995; New York Times, 5/4/1995] Ives may be referring to a group of soldiers who begin meeting off-base to take action against gun control and government interference in their lives, a group McVeigh meets with at least once. His unit member Robin Littleton later recalls McVeigh becoming increasingly "bitter" and conspiracy-minded, reading books about the Kennedy assassination and becoming "convinced that the government was behind it all. He also started reading a lot of fiction, all of it to do with big business and the military planning on overthrowing the government. He started to rant on about the private armies that were springing up inside the federal government, and how the CIA and FBI were out of control." At least one local girl, Catina Lawson, shows some interest in McVeigh, but his anti-Semitic rants and his professed admiration for Adolf Hitler quickly terminate her interest. [Stickney, 1996, pp. 120, 125-127] Warnement later recalls corresponding with McVeigh in 1992 and 1993, after Warnement is transferred to Germany. "He sent me a lot of newsletters and stuff from those groups he was involved in," Warnement will recall. He will say that because the literature is so extremist, he throws it away rather than being caught with it. "There were newsletters from [militia leader] Bo Gritz's group, some other odd newsletters, some from the Patriots; then he sent that videotape 'The Big Lie' about Waco. He seemed quite a bit different after the war than he'd been before." The Branch Davidian debacle (see April 19, 1993) infuriates McVeigh, Warnement will recall (see April 19, 1993 and After). McVeigh is also angered by the use of Army units for drug-enforcement duties on the US-Mexican border, the deployment of infantry during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and UN command over US forces during fighting in Somalia. "He thought the federal government was getting too much power," Warnement will recall. "He thought the ATF [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] was out of control. Then, of course, when Waco happened, he really felt the ATF was out of control.… He wasn't happy about Somalia, that if we could put the United States under basically UN command and send them to Somalia to disarm their citizens, then why couldn't they come do the same thing in the United States?… It had a kind of logic to it, but it really didn't take into account the flip side of things. I kind of had the feeling that he might be headed for trouble because he was never the type of person to back down." [New York Times, 7/5/1995] In February 1992, McVeigh sends Warnement a copy of The Turner Diaries, a racially inflammatory novel about a white supremacist genocide in the US (see 1978). He also includes a news article concerning a black militant politician. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] Accepts Early Discharge - Like many soldiers, McVeigh is encouraged to leave as part of the military's postwar "drawdown." McVeigh soon takes an early discharge and leaves the Army entirely (see November 1991 - Summer 1992). Sergeant James Hardesty, who served in Kuwait with McVeigh, later says that many soldiers such as McVeigh and himself felt like "discarded baggage." [New York Times, 5/4/1995; Serrano, 1998, pp. 42-43] Fellow soldier Roger L. Barnett later recalls: "He wasn't the same McVeigh. He didn't go at things the way he normally did. It used to be, a superior commanding soldier would tell him to do something and he'd do it 110 percent. He didn't have the same drive. He didn't have his heart in the military anymore." [New York Times, 7/5/1995] Future Oklahoma City Bomber - McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Entity Tags: John Edward Kelso, Catina Lawson, James Hardesty, Albert Warnement, Rick Cerney, Bruce Williams, US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, US Department of the Army, Robin Littleton, Roger L. Barnett, Timothy James McVeigh, Royal L. Witcher
Dean Harvey Hicks, an engineer from Costa Mesa, California, launches a mortar attack on an IRS service center in nearby Fresno. He had earlier attempted twice to bomb a West Los Angeles IRS office, once with a truck-borne fertilizer bomb (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), and had attempted two other bomb and mortar attacks on IRS offices in Southern California between 1987 and 1990. None of the attacks caused serious damage. The FBI learns that he is planning to bomb an FBI office in Los Angeles. Investigators believe that Hicks has nursed a grudge against the IRS since 1981, when the agency disallowed an $8,500 charitable deduction for the Universal Life Church and assessed a hefty penalty against him. Hicks will confess to launching the attacks, and says he attacks the IRS offices because an IRS employee laughed at him when he called with a question. After arresting Hicks, FBI investigators find what they will describe as "a virtual bomb factory" in his garage, along with letters in Hicks's handwriting claiming responsibility for the attacks on behalf of a group called "Up The IRS Inc." It is unclear if this group actually exists or is merely a creation of Hicks's. Hicks's job gave him access to some of the materials used in the bombing, investigators will conclude, and they will trace the purchase of other explosive components to him. In September 1988, Hicks stole and then exploded a 1971 Toyota Corolla in a parking garage in the basement of a building containing an IRS office in Los Angeles. The owner later received $500 in the mail from an anonymous source. The car was stolen from the parking lot of Hicks's place of employment, and investigators will tie the Corolla's theft and bombing to Hicks. The 1990 truck bombing was prevented by firefighters after Hicks fired mortar shells at the truck; had the mortar shells detonated the 2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate it contained, it could have done tremendous damage and killed hundreds of people. At his trial, Hicks will claim, "The way I set the timing [of the bombings] was intended to cause the greatest amount of display with minimal injury to anyone around it." Hicks will receive 20 years in prison. [Los Angeles Times, 7/30/1991; Associated Press, 8/17/1991; Anti-Defamation League, 2011]
Terry Nichols, a shy loner and Army veteran (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) in Michigan, moves to Henderson, Nevada, outside Las Vegas. He tells friends he wants to attempt a career as a real estate agent, a plan that fails to bear fruit. When his Filipino bride Marife joins him (see July - December 1990), she is six months pregnant with a child that is not his. Nichols may be troubled about the circumstances of the child's conception, but he does not talk about it, and accepts the child, a son they will name Jason Torres Nichols, as his own. In the fall, Nichols takes his wife and son back to his home town of Decker, Michigan. [New York Times, 5/28/1995; New York Times, 12/24/1997] Nichols will later be convicted of conspiracy in the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Entity Tags: Terry Lynn Nichols, Jason Torres Nichols, Marife Torres Nichols
Former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, facing multiple counts of lying under oath to Congress about, among other things, his knowledge of the US government's involvement in the resupply operation to the Nicaraguan Contras (see October 10-15, 1986), his knowledge of the role played by former CIA agent Felix Rodriguez in the resupply (see December 17, 1986), and his knowledge of third-party funding of the Nicaraguan Contras (see November 25, 1986), agrees to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of withholding evidence from Congress. Abrams agrees to the plea after being confronted with reams of evidence about his duplicity by investigators for special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh as well as from testimony elicited during the House-Senate investigation of 1987 (see July 7-10, 1987) and the guilty plea and subsequent testimony of former CIA agent Alan Fiers (see July 17, 1991). Abrams pleads guilty to two counts of withholding information from Congress, to unlawfully withholding information from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, and admits lying when he claimed that he knew nothing of former National Security Council official Oliver North's illegal diversion of government funds to the Contras (see December 6, 1985, April 4, 1986, and November 25-28, 1986). Abrams says that he lied because he believed "that disclosure of Lt. Col. [Oliver] North's activities in the resupply of the Contras would jeopardize final enactment" of a $100 million appropriation pending in Congress at the time of his testimony, a request that was narrowly defeated (see March 1986). Abrams also admits to soliciting $10 million in aid for the Contras from the Sultan of Brunei (see June 11, 1986). [Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters: Chapter 25: United States v. Elliott Abrams: November 1986, 8/4/1993]
Entity Tags: Elliott Abrams, Alan Fiers, Contras, Felix Rodriguez, House Intelligence Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lawrence E. Walsh
Timothy McVeigh, a nascent white supremacist and survivalist (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) who is in the process of taking "early termination" from the US Army after being denied a position in Special Forces (see January - March 1991 and After), moves back in with his father in Pendleton, New York. Initially, he joins a National Guard unit and tries unsuccessfully to join the US Marshals. He is formally discharged from the Army on December 31, 1991. His final psychological assessment from the Army shows him to be under extreme stress and experiencing a powerful sense of disillusionment with the federal government. In January 1992, he goes to work for Burns International Security Services in Buffalo after leaving the Guard (see June 1992), and quickly rises to the rank of inspector. [New York Times, 5/4/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Mickolus and Simmons, 6/1997, pp. 810; Serrano, 1998, pp. 48; Douglas O. Linder, 2001; CNN, 2001; CNN, 12/17/2007] (A New York Times report later says McVeigh leaves the Army in early 1992. A book about McVeigh, One of Ours, claims that McVeigh returns to Pendleton after leaving the Army around Christmas of 1991.) [New York Times, 5/4/1995; Serrano, 1998, pp. 44] Depressed, Suicidal, Detached, Enraged - Over time, McVeigh becomes increasingly depressed and reportedly considers suicide; friends and colleagues will describe him as deteriorating both mentally and physically, and, in the words of the New York Times, will describe him as "an increasingly unstable man who wavered between gloomy silences and a hair-trigger temper, who lost so much weight he seemed anorexic, and who could follow simple orders but could not handle pressure or take independent action." Lynda Haner-Mele, a supervisor for Burns Security in Kenmore, New York, later recalls working with McVeigh at the Niagara Falls Convention Center. She remembers calling him "Timmy" and worrying about his weight loss. "He seemed almost lost, like he hadn't really grown up yet," she will say. She is unaware of his Army service, later recalling: "He didn't really carry himself like he came out of the military. He didn't stand tall with his shoulders back. He was kind of slumped over.… That guy did not have an expression 99 percent of the time. He was cold. He didn't want to have to deal with people or pressure. Timmy was a good guard, always there prompt, clean, and neat. His only quirk was that he couldn't deal with people. If someone didn't cooperate with him, he would start yelling at them, become verbally aggressive. He could be set off easily. He was quiet, but it didn't take much." Increasingly Radicalized - McVeigh becomes increasingly radicalized, growing more disenchanted with the idea of a federal government and distressed about the possibility of a federal crackdown on gun ownership. He talks about the government forcibly confiscating the citizenry's guns and enslaving citizens. He writes angry letters to newspapers and his congressman on subjects such as his objection to inhumane slaughterhouses and a proposed law prohibiting the possession of "noxious substances," and warns against an impending dictatorship if action is not soon taken (see February 11, 1992). He urges friends to read a novel, The Turner Diaries (see 1978), which tells the story of a white supremacist revolt against the US government and the extermination of minorities, and gives copies to his friends and relatives. He begins acquiring an arsenal of guns, and sets up a generator and a store of canned food and potable water in his basement so that he would be self-sufficient in case of emergency. He applies to join the Ku Klux Klan, but decides against it because, he believes, the KKK is too focused on race and not enough on gun rights. The Times will later write: "While there was no firm evidence that Mr. McVeigh belonged to any organized right-wing paramilitary or survivalist groups, there was considerable evidence that he sympathized with and espoused their beliefs. He voiced their ideas in conversations, he wrote letters expressing them, he read their literature, and attended their meetings. And he lived, worked, and traded weapons in areas where the paramilitary groups enjoy considerable support, according to numerous interviews." In the summer of 1992, McVeigh moves to Michigan to stay with his old Army friend Terry Nichols, telling friends he is leaving to find a "free state" in which to live. McVeigh's and Nichols's shared hatred of the federal government continues to grow. [New York Times, 5/4/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Mickolus and Simmons, 6/1997, pp. 810; Douglas O. Linder, 2001; CNN, 2001; Douglas O. Linder, 2006; CNN, 12/17/2007] Reportedly, McVeigh tells people that the Army has placed a computer chip in his buttocks to keep him under surveillance. [People, 5/8/1995] McVeigh's fellow security guard, Carl Edward Lebron Jr., later recalls long conversations with McVeigh that center around "politics, secret societies, some religion and conspiracy theories," UFOs, and government conspiracies to addict its citizens to illegal drugs. Lebron wonders if McVeigh himself might belong to a secret society of some sort, perhaps a Freemason sect. Lebron will recall McVeigh showing him Ku Klux Klan newsletters and gold coins, some minted in Canada. Lebron becomes worried enough about McVeigh's apparent instability to tape-record some of their conversations, and keep notes of what McVeigh tells him. What seems to worry Lebron the most is McVeigh's talk about stealing weapons from Army bases. In August, McVeigh quits his job at Burns, telling coworkers: "I got to get out of this place. It's all liberals here." Lebron bids him goodbye, saying, "Stay out of trouble," to which McVeigh replies: "I can't stay out of trouble. Trouble will find me." [Serrano, 1998, pp. 48-57] Law professor Douglas O. Linder will later speculate that McVeigh's radicalization may have been triggered, and was certainly deepened, by the FBI's raid on the Ruby Ridge compound of white supremacist Randy Weaver (see August 31, 1992 and August 21-31, 1992). [Douglas O. Linder, 2006] McVeigh later tells his lawyers that during this time, he became increasingly stressed because of what he will call his "heightened sense of awareness of what the news was really saying." He becomes increasingly obsessed with the news, raging at politicians for trying to blend politics and the military, and at the government for "strong-arming other countries and telling them what to do." He becomes increasingly enraged by what he calls the increasing anti-gun sentiment in the US, and the "liberal mindset that all things in the world could be solved by discussion." He learned in the military that most problems can best be solved by aggression, he will say, citing physical fights he had with fellow soldiers and angry confrontations with fellow security workers. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] Movements Cloudy - McVeigh's movements are somewhat cloudy during this period. A New York Times report will say that McVeigh and Nichols may have lived together in Marion, Kansas, not Michigan, and McVeigh may have moved to Kingman, Arizona, during this time or sometime later. [New York Times, 4/23/1995] Future Oklahoma City Bomber - McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City, with Nichols's aid (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). Haner-Mele will have difficulty believing McVeigh orchestrated the bombing. "Timmy just wasn't the type of person who could initiate action," she will say. "He was very good if you said, 'Tim, watch this door—don't let anyone through.' The Tim I knew couldn't have masterminded something like this and carried it out himself. It would have had to have been someone who said: 'Tim, this is what you do. You drive the truck.'" [New York Times, 5/4/1995] McVeigh's cousin Kyle Kraus, who received a copy of The Turner Diaries from McVeigh, puts the book away until after the bombing, when he will reread some of it. Horrified, he will contact the FBI; the copy will become an exhibit in McVeigh's criminal trial (see August 10, 1995). [Serrano, 1998, pp. 51]
Entity Tags: Burns International Security Services, Carl Edward Lebron Jr, Ku Klux Klan, Lynda Haner-Mele, Douglas O. Linder, US Department of the Army, Randy Weaver, William ("Bill") McVeigh, Kyle Kraus, Terry Lynn Nichols, Timothy James McVeigh
The "Aryan Republican Army" (ARA) commits at least 22 bank robberies across America's Midwest. The ARA is modeled after the violent white supremacist organization The Order (see Late September 1983), which had funded itself primarily through robbing armored trucks. For a time, the group's headquarters is in Elohim City, Oklahoma (see 1973 and After). The ARA's leaders claim to be dedicated to the "overthrow of the US government, the extermination of American Jews, and the establishment of an Aryan Republic" on the North American continent. Members are required to read the infamous Turner Diaries (see 1978), a novel depicting the overthrow of the US government by white separatists and the genocide of minorities. The robberies in all secure between $250,000 and $500,000 for the group. Robbery Spree - During the height of their robbery spree, ARA members target a bank about once a month, hitting banks and financial institutions in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, and Kentucky. Sometimes the robbers dress like construction workers and flee in junk cars bought specifically for the escape. Sometimes they leave fake bombs and smoke grenades to delay pursuit; sometimes they speak in foreign languages to confuse authorities. In a December 1994 heist, one robber wears a Santa Claus suit, shouts "Ho, ho, ho!" to customers, and leaves a bomb tucked in a Santa hat. During a March 1995 robbery, the robbers leave a pipe bomb in an Easter basket. On one occasion the robbers leave a copy of the Declaration of Independence in the ashtray of an abandoned getaway car. Sometimes they wear caps or bandannas bearing the logos of the FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF). On another occasion the robbers buy a getaway car, a Ford Fairlane, in the name of a retired FBI agent who had worked white supremacist cases in the Northwest; on the front seat of this car they leave an article about Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). When FBI agent Jim Nelson takes his speculations about the ARA public, group members send letters to several Midwestern newspapers mocking him and calling themselves the "Mid-Western Bank Bandits." Arrests and Convictions - By late 1995, federal and state authorities will arrest most ARA members; ARA leader Peter Kevin Langan will be convicted on multiple charges of bank robbery, and another ARA leader, Richard Guthrie, will commit suicide in prison after cooperating with authorities. Michael William Brescia and Kevin William McCarthy also cooperate with authorities in return for reduced sentences. Others convicted include Mark William Thomas and Scott Stedeford. Promotional Video Gives Principles - In a two-hour promotional video made in January 1995 and called "The Armed Struggle Underground," Langan, calling himself "Commander Pedro," appears in a ski mask alongside others in fatigues brandishing weapons and fistfuls of cash. In the video, Langan says: "Our basic goal is to set up an Aryan republic.… Don't mistake us for cultists. We, ladies and gentlemen, are your neighbors." Langan also says the ARA supports "ethnic cleansing" similar to what the Serbians are carrying out in Kosovo. Another ARA member tells viewers that ARA intends to declare war on the American government and promises a "courthouse massacre." In the video, ARA members state their principles: all racial minorities are subhuman, Jews are "Satan's spawn," whites of northern European descent are "chosen people," and a United Nations-led "New World Order" (see September 11, 1990) threatens freedom in the United States. [Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/4/1997; Anti-Defamation League, 8/9/2002; Nicole Nichols, 2003; Nicole Nichols, 2003; New American, 11/28/2005] Oklahoma City Bomber a Member - In 2001, the FBI will state that McVeigh was an ARA member. It is possible that money "laundered" by him shortly before the bombing (see November 1994) came from an ARA bank robbery. [Nicole Nichols, 2003]
Entity Tags: Michael William Brescia, Elohim City, Aryan Republican Army, Jim Nelson, Mark William Thomas, The Order, Scott Stedeford, Kevin William McCarthy, Richard Guthrie, Peter Kevin Langan, Timothy James McVeigh
A young Louis Beam, dressed in his Ku Klux Klan regalia. [Source: Edit International (.com)]In a number of venues, including "The Seditionist" magazine and an Illinois publication called "The War Eagle: A Voice and Forum for Revolutionary Pan-Aryanism," white supremacist Louis Beam calls for "leaderless resistance," or cells of fighters who report to no one. Beam writes that the idea originated in the early 1960s as part of preparations for a Communist takeover of the United States; he has adapted it to the idea of resisting what he calls the threat of "federal tyranny" and the federal government's "ever increasing persecution and oppression." Beam writes that the usual "pyramidal" scheme of organization, "with the mass at the bottom and the leader at the top," is "not only useless, but extremely dangerous for the participants when it is utilized in a resistance movement against state tyranny.… In the pyramid type of organization, an infiltrator can destroy anything which is beneath his level of infiltration and often those above him as well. If the traitor has infiltrated at the top, then the entire organization from the top down is compromised and may be traduced at will." Beam recommends the independent "cell system" of organization, and cites two examples: the Revolutionary War-era "Sons of Liberty" and the more recent use of "cells" by Communist infiltrators in the US. Beam writes that if the cell system is adopted without the top layer of leadership—leaderless "phantom cells"—this can thwart government efforts to infiltrate and monitor the groups. Every cell must have the same fundamental ideology and agenda, Beam writes, and then can be trusted to operate independently, taking actions that further the cause of the larger group without top-down direction. He concludes: "America is quickly moving into a long dark night of police state tyranny, where the rights now accepted by most as being inalienable will disappear. Let the coming night be filled with a thousand points of resistance. Like the fog which forms when conditions are right and disappears when they are not, so must the resistance to tyranny be." Beam's idea will be used by many in the so-called "Patriot Movement." The "Patriot Movement" is later defined by founder John Wallace and by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a loose confederation of anti-government organizations, groups, and individuals who believe that the US government is illegally infringing on citizens' liberties. The "Patriot Movement" is largely comprised of right-wing, separatist, and white supremacist organizations, groups, and individuals. [The Seditionist, 2/1992; New York Times, 7/5/1995; Southern Poverty Law Center, 6/2001; John Wallace, 2007]
Entity Tags: Louis R. Beam, Jr, John Wallace, Southern Poverty Law Center, Patriot Movement
National Guardsman Timothy McVeigh (see January - March 1991 and After, November 1991 - Summer 1992, and June 1992) writes a letter (some sources will call it an "editorial") that is published in the Lockport, New York, Union-Sun & Journal. His letter, published under the title "America Faces Problems," reads in part: "What is it going to take to open up the eyes of our elected officials? AMERICA IS IN SERIOUS DECLINE. We have no proverbial tea to dump; should we instead sink a ship full of Japanese imports?… Is a civil war imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that! But it might." McVeigh continues: "Crime is out of control. Criminals have no fear of punishment. Prisons are overcrowded so they know they will not be imprisoned long.… Taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate 'promises,' they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up, we suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight. The 'American Dream' of the middle class has all but disappeared.… Politicians are further eroding the 'American Dream' by passing laws which are supposed to be a 'quick fix,' when all they are really designed for is to get the official reelected. These laws tend to 'dilute' a problem for a while, until the problem comes roaring back in a worsened form. (Much like a strain of bacteria will alter itself to defeat a known medication.)" McVeigh then writes: "Racism on the rise? You had better believe it… ! At a point when the world has seen communism falter as an imperfect system to manage people; democracy seems to be heading down the same road.… Maybe we have to combine ideologies to achieve the perfect utopian government.… Should only the rich be allowed to live long?" Lockport is a small town north of Buffalo, and serves McVeigh's home town of Pendleton. McVeigh will have a second letter published in March 1992, that one mainly focusing on the joys of hunting and extolling the "clean, merciful shot" of the deer hunter. Both letters are signed "Tim" and have a preprinted address label pasted beneath the signature. McVeigh will be accused of detonating a massive fertilizer bomb in Oklahoma City; the Union-Sun & Journal managing editor, Dan Kane, will inform the FBI of McVeigh's letters after McVeigh is taken into custody (see April 21, 1995) on suspicion of perpetrating the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), and reprint them. Kane will speculate: "I think the letter was triggered by something that happened in the service. Here's a man who just got through seeing a lot of blood" in the Persian Gulf war. He was dissatisfied in general with the way the government was operating, and politicians in particular." Kane will add: "There was one paragraph in particular that made my heart stop a little bit. It was the one that said, 'shed blood…' After Oklahoma City, I certainly look at it as a sort of eerie and prophetic statement." [Los Angeles Times, 4/27/1995; New York Times, 4/27/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 53; CNN, 12/17/2007] McVeigh's letter is in response to a previous letter he wrote to US Representative John LaFalce (D-NY), the representative of his home district, which received no response. McVeigh's letter primarily focused on his concerns about the illegality of private citizens possessing "noxious substances" such as CS gas for protection. [Serrano, 1998, pp. 53]
Entity Tags: Dan Kane, John LaFalce, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, Timothy James McVeigh, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Terry Nichols, a white supremacist member of the so-called "Patriot Movement" (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990 and February 1992), renounces his US citizenship via a "nonresident alien" declaration to the Evergreen, Michigan, Township Clerk. "[T]here is total corruption in the entire political system," Nichols says; "the entire political system from the local government on up thru and including the President of the United States, George Bush." He adds: "I no longer am a citizen of the corrupt political corporate state of Michigan and the United States of America.… I follow the common laws, not the Uniform Commercial Codes, Michigan Statutes, etc., that are all colorable laws.… I lawfully, squarely challenge the fraudulent usurping octopus of jurisdiction/authority that does not apply to me. It is therefore now mandatory for… the so-called IRS, for example, to prove its jurisdiction." He calls himself "a nonresident alien, non-foreigner, stranger to the current state of the forum." Many will later detect language similar to that used by the Posse Comitatus movement (see 1969). Nichols has already sent his bank a letter revoking his signature on a credit card application, in an attempt to avoid paying $14,000 in credit card debt (another source will say Nichols owes closer to $40,000), writing in part: "I came across some information and in researching it further I have found that your credit, money, and contracts are all based upon fraud, etc., as stated in my revocation document." The bank wins a lawsuit to compel Nichols to pay his debt; Nichols attempts to pay the debt with a fraudulent "Certified Fractional Reserve Check," a scheme somewhat similar to the fraudulent checks advocated by the Montana Freemen (see 1993-1994), which the bank refuses to accept. During the court proceedings, Nichols, ordinarily an unusually quiet and shy man, repeatedly defies judicial orders to, among other things, come to the front of the courtroom, and at one point tells the judge, "I'm… a layman, a natural person, a freedom of common-law citizen under threat and duress and to challenge the jurisdiction of this court." Circuit Judge Donald A. Teeple will later recall: "He was hollering in a loud voice. I informed him that if he didn't keep quiet, I'd send him to jail. Then he decided to come around the rail" and participate quietly in the hearing. [New York Times, 4/23/1995; New York Times, 5/28/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; New York Times, 12/24/1997; Southern Poverty Law Center, 6/2001; Nicole Nichols, 2003; Nicole Nichols, 2003] Both Terry Nichols and his brother James (see December 22 or 23, 1988) routinely stamp their paper money with the words "Discharged Without Prejudice," a phrase indicating they do not accept its validity. The money-stamping is popular among Posse Comitatus members (see 1969) as they claim money not backed by gold lacks credibility. They also refuse to buy license plates for their vehicles or register them. James Nichols will also renounce his citizenship sometime later [Nicole Nichols, 2003; Nicole Nichols, 2003] , telling local courthouse officials that he is "no longer one of your citizens or a resident of your de facto government." In mid-1992, Nichols will spend several days in jail for refusing to recognize a court's authority to make him pay child support; after those days in a cell, he will agree to the court's mandate. [New York Times, 4/24/1995; Serrano, 1998, pp. 109] Nichols will later be convicted for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995 and December 23, 1997).
Entity Tags: Montana Freemen, James Nichols, Posse Comitatus, Donald A. Teeple, Terry Lynn Nichols
"Racial Loyalty," the monthly newsletter published by the racist Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), reprints an essay by David Lane on "the Christian Right-wing American Patriots, C.R.A.P. (since that is what they do to [sic] the future of all White children)." Lane is a member of the far-right terrorist group The Order (see Late September 1983) and is serving a 40-year racketeering sentence, as well as a 150-year term for civil rights violation in connection with the 1984 murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After). Many far-right organizations who espouse their own versions of Christianity (see 1960s and After), including the Ku Klux Klan, oppose the COTC's rejection of Christianity. [Anti-Defamation League, 1993]
Entity Tags: World Church of the Creator, Ku Klux Klan, David Edan Lane, The Order
Former Army soldier Timothy McVeigh (see January - March 1991 and After and November 1991 - Summer 1992) is discharged from the New York Army National Guard after a brief stint. He is granted a general discharge "under honorable conditions." His reason for discharge is "incompatible occupation," a description often applied to reservists whose employers want them to work full time. [New York Times, 4/27/1995] McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Entity Tags: New York Army National Guard, Timothy James McVeigh
White supremacist Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990 and November 1991 - Summer 1992) closely follows the culminating events of the Ruby Ridge, Idaho, siege (see August 31, 1992). McVeigh is appalled by the government's conduct, as is his friend Terry Nichols, with whom he is staying (see Summer 1992). [Douglas O. Linder, 2001; CNN, 12/17/2007] McVeigh has been closely following the events at Ruby Ridge since the siege began in April 1992, both in local newspapers and in publications such as the National Rifle Association's American Hunter and the racist, separatist Spotlight, and will complain that the mainstream media gives only the government's version of events. He will later recall this as a "defining moment" in his life. [Stickney, 1996, pp. 147-148; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Entity Tags: National Rifle Association, Terry Lynn Nichols, Timothy James McVeigh
White supremacist Randy Weaver surrenders after an 11-day standoff with federal authorities at his cabin on Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The standoff cost the lives of Weaver's wife and son, and a US marshal. The incident, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, will "galvanize… many on the radical right." [Southern Poverty Law Center, 6/2001]
Entity Tags: Randy Weaver, Southern Poverty Law Center
Radio personality Rush Limbaugh hosts his own late-night television show; Roger Ailes, the Republican campaign consultant (see 1968, January 25, 1988, and September 21 - October 4, 1988), is his executive producer. On this show, Limbaugh gives his response to African-American filmmaker Spike Lee's recommendation that African-American children be allowed to skip school to watch his biographical docudrama Malcolm X: "Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater and then blow it up on their way out." [Media Matters, 10/27/2009] Ailes will go on to found Fox News (see October 7, 1996).
Entity Tags: Shelton Jackson ("Spike") Lee, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes
Terry Nichols. [Source: Oklahoma City Police Department]White separatist Terry Nichols (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990, December 22 or 23, 1988, April 2, 1992 and After, and October 12, 1993 - January 1994) makes a number of trips to the Phillippines, apparently to meet with al-Qaeda bomber Ramzi Yousef and other radical Islamists. Nichols will later help plan and execute the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). Nichols's wife is a mail-order bride from Cebu City; Nichols spends an extensive amount of time on the island of Mindanao, where many Islamist terror cells operate. This information comes from a Philippine undercover operative, Edwin Angeles, and one of his wives. Angeles is the second in command in the militant group Abu Sayyaf from 1991 to 1995 while secretly working for Philippine intelligence at the same time (see 1991-Early February 1995). After the Oklahoma City bombing, Angeles will claim in a videotaped interrogation that in late 1992 and early 1993 Nichols meets with Yousef and a second would-be American terrorist, John Lepney. In 1994, Nichols meets with Yousef, Lepney, and others. For about a week, Angeles, Yousef, Nichols, and Lepney are joined by Abdurajak Janjalani, the leader of Abu Sayyaf; two members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah, both of whom are working with Yousef on the Bojinka plot (see January 6, 1995); and a half-brother of Yousef known only by the alias Ahmad Hassim (this is a probable reference to Yousef's brother Abd al-Karim Yousef, who is living in the Philippines at this time). Elmina Abdul, Angeles's third wife, will add additional details about these 1994 meetings in a taped 2002 hospital confession to a Philippines reporter days before her death. She only remembers Nichols as "Terry" or "The Farmer," and doesn't remember the name of the other American. She says: "They talked about bombings. They mentioned bombing government buildings in San Francisco, St. Louis, and in Oklahoma. The Americans wanted instructions on how to make and to explode bombs. [Angeles] told me that Janjalani was very interested in paying them much money to explode the buildings. The money was coming from Yousef and the other Arab." [Gulf News, 4/3/2002; Insight, 4/19/2002; Manila Times, 4/26/2002; Insight, 6/22/2002; Nicole Nichols, 2003] ("The other Arab" may be a reference to the Arab Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, because Janjalani's younger brother later claims Abu Sayyaf was funded in its early years by Yousef and Khalifa.) [CNN, 1/31/2007] Abdul claims Nichols and Lepney are sent to an unnamed place for more instructions on bomb-making to destroy a building in the US. She also says that Angeles and others in Abu Sayyaf believe Yousef works for the Iraqi government. [Insight, 6/22/2002] The Manila Times later reports that "Lepney did indeed reside and do business in Davao City [in the Southern Philippines] during 1990 to 1996." One bar owner recalls that when Lepney got drunk he liked to brag about his adventures with local rebel groups. [Manila Times, 4/26/2002] In 2003, Nicole Nichols (no relation to Terry Nichols), the director of the watchdog organization Citizens against Hate, will explain why an American white supremacist would make common cause with Islamist terrorists. Two unifying factors exist, she writes: an overarching hatred of Jews and Israel, and a similarly deep-seated hatred of the US government. [Nicole Nichols, 2003] After Nichols takes part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), Wali Khan Amin Shah will attempt to take the credit for plotting the bombing for himself and Yousef, a claim federal authorities will not accept (see April 19, 1995 and 10:00 a.m. April 19, 1995 and After).
Entity Tags: Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Ramzi Yousef, Wali Khan Amin Shah, Nicole Nichols, Elmina Abdul, Terry Lynn Nichols, Abu Sayyaf, Edwin Angeles, Abd al-Karim Yousef, John Lepney, Abdul Hakim Murad, Abdurajak Janjalani
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, US Domestic Terrorism
The outgoing President Bush pardons six former Reagan officials for any crimes they may have committed as part of their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. One of the six, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, was slated to go on trial in January 1993 on charges that he lied to Congress about his knowledge of arms sales to Iran and funding from other countries for the Nicaraguan Contras (see July 24, 1992). Weinberger's case was expected to reveal details of then-Vice President Bush's involvement in the affair. Bush has refused to turn over a 1986 campaign diary he kept that may contain evidence of his involvement. Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh says of the pardons, "[T]he Iran-Contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed." The pardons "undermine… the principle that no man is above the law. It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office—deliberately abusing the public trust without consequence." Walsh says that he believes Bush may have pardoned Weinberger to conceal his own complicity and possibly criminal actions in Iran-Contra. Bush also pardons former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane and former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, both of whom have already pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of withholding information from Congress. Bush also pardons Clair George, the former head of the CIA's clandestine services, convicted earlier in December of two felony charges of perjury and misleading Congress. Finally, he pardons two other CIA officials, Duane Clarridge, who is awaiting trial, and Alan Fiers, who pled guilty to withholding information from Congress, and who testified against George. For his part, Bush says he is merely trying to "put bitterness behind us" in pardoning the six, many of whom he said have already paid a heavy price for their involvement. Senator George Mitchell (D-ME) is sharply critical of the pardons, saying, "If members of the executive branch lie to the Congress, obstruct justice and otherwise break the law, how can policy differences be fairly and legally resolved in a democracy?" [New York Times, 12/25/1992]
Entity Tags: Robert C. McFarlane, Caspar Weinberger, Alan Fiers, Clair George, Lawrence E. Walsh, Contras, George Herbert Walker Bush, Duane Clarridge, Elliott Abrams, George Mitchell
An image of a fraudulent 'Freeman check' signed by LeRoy Schweitzer. [Source: Anti-Defamation League]During this time period, over a dozen Montana anti-government tax resisters—the kernel of what will become the "Montana Freemen" movement (see 1983-1995)—establish themselves, creating what they term "common law courts" in Garfield and Musselshell Counties, and mounting a massive bank fraud scheme. [Billings Gazette, 3/25/2006] Beliefs - According to a Washington Post article, the Freemen espouse a number of beliefs that directly contradict federal, state, and local laws. These are: All forms of organized government are illegitimate and have no right to perform duties routinely assigned to governments, from collecting taxes to requiring automobile licenses. Thusly, the Freemen can perform a multitude of actions, such as defying foreclosures, issuing arrest warrants, and even putting government officials on "trial." They can also act as their own central banks and defraud the government, financial institutions, and area merchants. Racist 'Christian Identity' Ideology - According to the Montana Human Rights Network and local citizens, most of the Freemen espouse some form of "Christian Identity" religious ideology, which claims that whites are inherently superior to other "inferior" races (see 1960s and After); they also hold radical anti-government views. [Washington Post, 4/1996; Washington Post, 4/9/1996; Billings Gazette, 3/25/2006] The Anti-Defamation League traces the roots of the Freemen ideology to the the Posse Comitatus movement (see 1969). [Mark Pitcavage, 5/6/1996] They call themselves "Freemen" because, in their view, white Christian males have special "Freemen" citizenship status, while non-whites, non-Christians, and women have second class status or worse. Freemen are above government prosecution and taxation. As US currency has no intrinsic value, any loans taken by Freemen need not be repaid. The US government is run by Jews and therefore has no legitimacy. "Common law" is the rule of the land. [New York Times, 6/15/1996] The Reverend Jerry Walters of Roundup, Montana, will later characterize the Freemen's beliefs as a "bizarre distortion of the Christianity taught in most churches on Sundays." (Rodney Skurdal will file a $100 billion lien against Walters after Walters refuses to alter his sermons to reflect Skurdal's Christian Identity beliefs.) The Post will observe: "American history is littered with examples of how hard economic times produce hard-edged political splinter groups, but the Freemen of Montana are a particularly virulent strain. Their philosophy, a hodgepodge drawn from the Old Testament, the Magna Carta, the anti-tax Posse Comitatus of the 1980s, and a highly selective reading of the Constitution, is laced with racism and talk of a Jewish conspiracy, and puts them at the extreme of the Christian patriot movement." Steven Gardner of the Coalition for Human Dignity will say: "The Freemen have, in effect, appointed themselves judge, jury and executioner. They are trying to form their own shadow government for a white Christian republic." [Washington Post, 4/1996; Washington Post, 4/9/1996; Mark Pitcavage, 5/6/1996; Billings Gazette, 3/25/2006] "What's driving them is their biblical and theological agenda," Walters will say. "Their anti-government conspiracy theories, their anti-tax stance—they're looking at these things through the lens of Christian Identity." [Washington Post, 4/9/1996] Fraudulent Liens - LeRoy Schweitzer and the others concoct a scheme to generate money by filing phony liens against various Montana property owners, or the Montana or US government. The liens have no value; however, once they are created, it takes time for bank computers to recognize them as invalid. During that "window" of time, the liens can be used to generate money transfers from unsuspecting banks. The Freemen file the liens and deposit fake money orders at other banks to be drawn upon the bank listing the lien. The money orders are usually signed by Schweitzer, though Skurdal, Daniel Petersen, and William Stanton (see October 17, 1994) also sign them on occasion. The money orders look quite official, though sometimes they deliberately spell the words "United States" with a lowercase "u." The Freemen also issue bogus checks labeled "Certified Bankers Check—Controller Warrant," instead of a bank name, along with account and lien numbers. Many checks are drawn against a non-existent account in a Butte, Montana, branch of the Norwest Bank. The checks state that they are also redeemable at the Office of the US Postmaster. The scheme is, on the whole, quite profitable. The Freemen also sell the money orders, advertising them to their fellow citizens as a quick means of getting out of debt. One distributor explains on a Web site: "LeRoy Schweitzer does have their [sic] own monetary system. When you attend their course on location, they will issue you CHECKS times two (biblical) to pay off all IRS debts and all loans to banks for no charge. They are having success in this area, but it is hard fight [sic]." One Omaha, Nebraska, county treasurer will later explain, "People see these and, if you're a very unsuspecting person, they really do look authentic." [Mark Pitcavage, 5/6/1996] Schweitzer, Skurdal, and Petersen are influenced by Roy Schwasinger, described by federal authorities as a right-wing con artist and head of the Colorado extremist group "We the People." Schwasinger originated the financial schemes that the Freemen run. [New York Times, 6/15/1996] Appointing Themselves as Legal Officials - The Freemen appoint themselves "justices," issue "arrest warrants," and flood local courts and counties with what the Billings Gazette will term "bogus documents." One of the documents, written by the three Freemen leaders, Skurdal, Schweitzer, and Petersen, is interpreted by local law enforcement officials as a threat. It states: "We the Honorable justices, will not hesitate to use our Lawful force by whatever means necessary to fully support, protect, guarantee, and defend our (common) Law… and… Right of self governing as a free sovereign and independent state." District Court Judge Peter Rapkoch calls the documents "a bucket of snakes." In July 1994, one of the Freemen, Skurdal, is prohibited by court order from filing or recording any "frivolous" document with any Montana county clerk of court, clerk and recorder, or the secretary of state (see 1994); Montana Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean A. Turnage calls Skurdal's filings "not only nonsensical but meritless, frivolous, vexatious, and wasteful of the limited time and resources of this court, of the clerk of this court, and of the various public officials and counsel that are forced to deal with and respond to Mr. Skurdal's abuse." Garfield County prosecutor Nick Murnion files misdemeanor charges of impersonating public officials against 13 residents and a felony charge of solicitation of kidnapping against Ralph Clark for a $1 million bounty posted around the county for court officers, the sheriff, and Murnion. Garfield County Sheriff Charles Phipps organizes a posse of about 90 local residents to come to the aid of his outmanned, outgunned three-person department (see January 1994). Murnion eventually files felony criminal syndicalism charges against Freemen members. US Attorney Sherry Matteucci works with local and state officials to share information on anti-government activities. "I think their purpose is to intimidate people and to cause chaos in governmental operations," she says. [Washington Post, 4/9/1996; Chicago Tribune, 4/19/1996; Mark Pitcavage, 5/6/1996; Billings Gazette, 3/25/2006]
Entity Tags: Charles Phipps, Daniel Petersen, Montana Human Rights Network, LeRoy Schweitzer, Jerry Walters, Jean A. Turnage, William Stanton, Anti-Defamation League, Sherry Matteucci, Nick Murnion, Steven Gardner, Posse Comitatus, Peter Rapkoch, Rodney Owen Skurdal, Ralph Clark, Montana Freemen, Roy Schwasinger
White separatist Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990), already mulling over plans to bomb an Oklahoma City federal building (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), quits his job with an upstate New York security company (see November 1991 - Summer 1992), sells all of his belongings except what will fit into his car, and begins traveling around the US attending gun shows and militia events. Not all militia movements are characterized by the racist ideology that helps impel McVeigh, but many are, and many white hate groups are making common cause with militias. McVeigh ekes out enough money selling knives, fatigues, and copies of The Turner Diaries (see 1978) to continue his travels, and meets a number of like-minded people. One gun collector who knows McVeigh from the circuit will later tell investigators: "He carried that book all the time. He sold it at the shows. He'd have a few copies in the cargo pocket of his cammies. They were supposed to be $10, but he'd sell them for $5. It was like he was looking for converts.… He could make 10 friends at a show, just by his manner and demeanor. He's polite, he doesn't interrupt." The gun collector, who refuses to give his name to a reporter, also recalls McVeigh living mostly in his car and carrying a "big pistol" with him at all times. An undercover detective will later recall McVeigh showing people at one 1993 gun show in Phoenix how to convert a flare gun into a rocket launcher, and giving out documents with the name and address of the FBI sniper who had shot the wife of white supremacist Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge (see August 31, 1992). Psychology professor Gerald Post will later say, "Gun shows have become town hall meetings for racists and antigovernment radicals." At McVeigh's trial, prosecutors will say that McVeigh used the gun shows to "fence stolen weapons, make contacts to buy bomb materials, and hone his terrorist skills." During his travels, McVeigh writes to his sister Jennifer, saying that the government is planning to disarm gun owners and incarcerate them in concentration camps. [New York Times, 7/5/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Douglas O. Linder, 2001] Author Brandon M. Stickney will later write: "Today, this part of McVeigh's life would be difficult even for Tim to document, but it was during this odyssey of uncertainty that he became seriously involved in a dangerous world. Tim was now driven by a desire for 'citizen action,' or a movement by the people to alter the liberal thinking of politicians and officials in power.… [I]t is believed that during those lost days, he was frequently exposed to the growing 'paramilitary' underworld of Michigan and other states. Groups whose members were upset with taxes, political corruption, and incidents like Ruby Ridge spoke of organizing 'militias.'" [Stickney, 1996, pp. 150] Meets Fellow Anti-Government Figures at Gun Shows - Along the way, McVeigh meets Andreas Strassmeir, the head of security for the far-right white supremacist community at Elohim City, Oklahoma (see 1973 and After). He also meets gun dealer Roger Moore at a gun show; McVeigh's partner Terry Nichols will later rob Moore (see November 5, 1994) as part of McVeigh and Nichols's bomb plot. [New York Times, 7/5/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Douglas O. Linder, 2001; Nicole Nichols, 2003] Moore is an outspoken man who loudly boasts about his love of country and his hatred for the federal government. He frequently says he would be more than willing to take part in a violent assault against federal law enforcement officials, but, he says, his girlfriend, Karen Anderson, will not let him get involved in such activities. He will later tell a reporter: "I don't give a sh_t. I'll put on my flak vest, take a bunch of godd_mn guns in my van, and if I get in a firefight, so be it. I wanna run around and dig up a lot of stuff, but she will not let me go anywhere." [Serrano, 1998, pp. 59] Admires Davidian Attack on Federal Law Enforcement Officials - McVeigh has recently developed a crippling habit of gambling on football games, and has maxed out several credit cards, severely damaging his financial status, though by the end of 1992 he had paid off all but one $10,000 debt. According to his later recollections, he is depressed and frustrated by his inability to find someone to love. He spends some time in Florida, living with his sister and working for her husband as an electrician. He meets Moore while in Florida, and shares a table with him at one gun show. He finds Miami too loud and the people offensive, so he leaves shortly after his arrival. It is at this time that he first learns of the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993), and while watching news coverage of the event, tells his sister that the Davidians "must be doing something right, they are killing Feds." [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996]
Entity Tags: Roger E. ("Bob") Moore, Karen Anderson, Jennifer McVeigh, Andreas Strassmeir, Brandon M. Stickney, Gerald Post, Timothy James McVeigh, Terry Lynn Nichols
Bomb damage in underground levels of the WTC in 1993. [Source: Najlah Feanny/ Corbis]An attempt to topple the World Trade Center in New York City fails, but six people are killed and over 1,000 injured in the misfired blast. The explosion is caused by the detonation of a truck bomb in the underground parking garage. An FBI explosives expert will later state, "If they had found the exact architectural Achilles' heel or if the bomb had been a little bit bigger, not much more, 500 pounds more, I think it would have brought her down." Ramzi Yousef, who has close ties to Osama bin Laden, organizes the attempt. [Village Voice, 3/30/1993; US Congress, 2/24/1998] The New York Times will report on Emad Salem, an undercover agent who will be the key government witness in the trial against Yousef. Salem will testify that the FBI knew about the attack beforehand and told him it would thwart the attack by substituting a harmless powder for the explosives. However, an FBI supervisor called off this plan and the bombing was not stopped. [New York Times, 10/28/1993] Other suspects were ineptly investigated before the bombing as early as 1990. Several of the bombers were trained by the CIA to fight in the Afghan war and the CIA will conclude, in internal documents, that it was "partly culpable" for this bombing (see January 24, 1994). [Independent, 11/1/1998] 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is an uncle of Yousef and also has a role in the bombing (see March 20, 1993). [Independent, 6/6/2002; Los Angeles Times, 9/1/2002] One of the bombers even leaves a message, which will be found by investigators, stating, "Next time, it will be very precise." [Associated Press, 9/30/2001]
Entity Tags: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden, World Trade Center, Emad Salem, Central Intelligence Agency
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline
Future Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995) goes to the site of the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993 and April 19, 1993), to see if the gun ownership rights of the Davidians are being curtailed (see January 23, 1993 - Early 1994). Federal agents block his passage to the compound, but McVeigh stays for a few days sellling bumper stickers, pamphlets, and literature; among his offerings are titles such as "Make the Streets Safe for a Government Takeover," "Politicians Love Gun Control" (featuring a Nazi swastika and a Communist hammer and scythe), "Fear the Government that Fears Your Gun," and "A Man with a Gun is a Citizen, A Man without a Gun is a Subject." McVeigh is particularly horrified by the FBI's use of Bradley fighting vehicles, the tanks he manned during Desert Storm (see January - March 1991 and After), in the siege. He tells a student reporter: "The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control." The normally self-effacing and reticent McVeigh even climbs up onto the hood of his car to be seen and heard better. "You give them an inch and they take a mile," he says of the federal government. "I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control." McVeigh leaves Waco after a few days and goes to Kingman, Arizona, to visit an Army buddy, Michael Fortier (see May-September 1993); he later goes to Arkansas to meet with a gun-dealing friend, Roger Moore, who calls himself "Bob Miller" at the gun shows they frequent (see January 23, 1993 - Early 1994); though he wants to build ammunition with Moore, McVeigh does not stay long, and later recalls Moore as being a dictator and a "pr_ck." During his time in Waco, McVeigh becomes known to federal agents, in part because of an interview with a reporter from Southern Methodist University's school newspaper, the Daily Campus. The published interview, printed on March 30, includes a photograph of McVeigh. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 67-70; Douglas O. Linder, 2001; Southern Poverty Law Center, 6/2001; Nicole Nichols, 2003; Douglas O. Linder, 2006] He is also captured on film by a crew from the Texas television station KTVT, a CBS affiliate, sitting on the hood of his car just outside the compound. [Stickney, 1996, pp. 155] Later he will tell friends at a Pennsylvania gun show that he crawled up to the perimeter fence erected by the FBI around the Davidian compound "without being seen by any of the agents," and will warn one gun dealer, George (or Greg) Pfaff, that the Davidian standoff "could be the start of the government coming house-to-house to retrieve the weapons from the citizens." [Serrano, 1998, pp. 71] The college reporter, Michelle Rauch, will later testify in McVeigh's criminal trial. She will recall meeting McVeigh on a hill outside the Davidian compound, where protesters and observers are gathered. She will recall that the hilltop was "a few miles" from the compound, making it difficult for the people gathered there to see any of the activities around the compound. McVeigh tells Rauch that the local sheriff should have just gone down with a warrant and arrested Davidian leader David Koresh. Rauch will recall McVeigh as being calm, and finds his statements quite helpful to her understanding of the protesters' objections to the FBI standoff. Her article quotes McVeigh as saying, "It seems like the ATF [referring to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, sometimes abbreviated BATF] just wants a chance to play with their toys, paid for by government money"; "The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people"; "You give them an inch and they take a mile"; "I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government"; and "The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control." McVeigh, according to the article, considers the BATF mere "pawns" of the federal government, and blames the government for the standoff, saying it violated the Constitution in surrounding the Davidian compound. The standoff, he says, is just the first step in a comprehensive government assault on the citizenry and Americans should be watchful for further actions. [Douglas O. Linder, 2006]
Entity Tags: Roger E. ("Bob") Moore, Gregory Pfaff, Michelle Rauch, Branch Davidians, David Koresh, Timothy James McVeigh, US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Michael Joseph Fortier
White separatist Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990 and November 1991 - Summer 1992) meets white supremacist Andreas Strassmeir (see 1973 and After) at a gun show in Tulsa, Oklahoma (see January 23, 1993 - Early 1994). Strassmeir is the chief of security at Elohim City, a white supremacist compound in eastern Oklahoma. McVeigh will go on to blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995); a precursor of the McVeigh-Nichols bomb plot was hatched in 1983 by Elohim City residents (see 1983). McVeigh will make at least two visits to Elohim City before carrying out the bombing (see October 12, 1993 - January 1994 and September 12, 1994 and After), though federal investigators will rule out any involvement by Strassmeir or any other Elohim City residents in the bombing plot (see August 1994 - March 1995). [Douglas O. Linder, 2006]
Entity Tags: Andreas Strassmeir, Timothy James McVeigh, Elohim City
Several dozen libertarian, right-wing "patriot," and gun rights activists protest outside the besieged Branch Davidian compound (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993, March 1, 1993, and March 25, 1993). In addition, right-wing extremist Linda Thompson has a cadre of armed "unorganized militia" members involved in the protests. [Moore, 1995] The protests will lead some in the Justice Department to speculate that organizations such as Thompson's may attempt to effectuate an armed "rescue" of the Davidians (see April 17-18, 1993).
Entity Tags: US Department of Justice, Linda Thompson, Branch Davidians
Timeline Tags: US Domestic Terrorism, 1993 Branch Davidian Crisis
Combat engineering vehicles (CEVs) lined up outside the blazing Branch Davidian compound. [Source: PBS]The FBI and local law enforcement officials begin their planned assault on the besieged Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993, March 1, 1993, and April 17-18, 1993), despite indications that the Davidians inside the compound will retaliate either by firing on the gathered law enforcement officials, by torching the main residential building, or perhaps both (see April 18, 1993). [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Warning - At 5:55 a.m., Richard Rogers, the commander of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), orders two combat engineering vehicles (CEVs, unarmed modifications of Bradley fighting vehicles and the primary means for deplying CS "riot control agent" into the main building) deployed to the main building. One minute later, senior negotiator Byron Sage telephones the residence and speaks with Davidian Steve Schneider. At 5:59, Schneider comes to the phone. Sage tells him: "We are in the process of putting tear gas into the building. This is not an assault. We will not enter the building." Schneider replies, "You are going to spray tear gas into the building?" Sage says, "In the building… no, we are not entering the building." At the conclusion of the conversation, Schneider or another Davidian throws the telephone out of the building. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] Minutes later, Schneider slips out, retrieves the phone, and ducks back inside. [Time, 5/3/1993] Combat Vehicles Begin Deploying Gas, Davidians Open Fire - At 6:02 a.m., the two CEVs begin inserting CS gas into the compound, using spray nozzles attached to booms. The booms punch holes through the exterior walls of the building. The FBI uses unarmed Bradley Fighting Vehicles to deploy "ferret rounds," military ammunition designed to release CS after penetrating a barricade such as a wall or window. As the CEVs and the Bradleys punch holes into the buildings for the deployment of the gas, Sage makes the following statement over the loudspeakers: "We are in the process of placing tear gas into the building. This is not an assault. We are not entering the building. This is not an assault. Do not fire your weapons. If you fire, fire will be returned. Do not shoot. This is not an assault. The gas you smell is a non-lethal tear gas. This gas will temporarily render the building uninhabitable. Exit the residence now and follow instructions. You are not to have anyone in the tower. The [guard] tower is off limits. No one is to be in the tower. Anyone observed to be in the tower will be considered to be an act of aggression [sic] and will be dealt with accordingly. If you come out now, you will not be harmed. Follow all instructions. Come out with your hands up. Carry nothing. Come out of the building and walk up the driveway toward the Double-E Ranch Road. Walk toward the large Red Cross flag. Follow all instructions of the FBI agents in the Bradleys. Follow all instructions. You are under arrest. This standoff is over. We do not want to hurt anyone. Follow all instructions. This is not an assault. Do not fire any weapons. We do not want anyone hurt. Gas will continue to be delivered until everyone is out of the building." Two minutes later, Davidians begin firing on the vehicles from the windows. The gunfire from the Davidians prompts Rogers and FBI commander Jeffrey Jamar to decide to change tactics; at 6:07 a.m., the assault forces begin deploying all of the gas at once instead of dispersing it in a controlled manner over the course of 48-72 hours as originally envisioned. [Dean M. Kelley, 5/1995; PBS Frontline, 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996; USMC Weapons, 2002] (Jamar will later testify that before the assault even began, he was "99 percent certain" that the FBI would have to escalate its assault because the Davidians would open fire.) [House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] As a CEV demolishes the back wall of the gymnasium area of the compound, negotiators broadcast: "David, we are facilitating you leaving the compound by enlarging the door.… Leave the building now." [Cox News Service, 1/30/2000] Jamar will later explain that the Bradleys do not carry military weaponry. "Of course we had all the firepower removed," he will say in a 1995 interview. "There were no cannons or anything on them. We used them for transportation. And they're more than a personnel carrier—they're a track vehicle. I mean it's mud, just thick mud there the whole time. And the agents learned how to drive 'em. But the idea was to protect them as best we could. And we didn't know—they talked about blowing a 50—did they have rockets? Who knows? Did they have explosives buried in various vicinities? Are they prepared to run out with Molatov cocktails? What's in their mind?" Jamar is referring to threats made by Koresh and other Davidians to blow up FBI vehicles. As for the CEVs, they are tanks modified for construction and engineering purposes, and are often used as bulldozers. Observers watching the events live on television or later on videotape will sometimes mistake the CEVs for actual tanks, though two M1A1 Abrams tanks are actually on site and take part in the assault. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995; PBS Frontline, 10/1995] House Report: Davidians Would Certainly Consider FBI's Actions an Assault - A 1996 report by a House of Representatives investigative committee (see August 2, 1996) will note that it is almost impossible for the Davidians not to consider themselves under assault, with tank-like vehicles tearing holes in the building, CS being sprayed everywhere, grenade-like projectiles crashing through windows, men in body armor swarming around the compound, and the sounds of what seems like combat all around them. "Most people would consider this to be an attack on them—an 'assault' in the simplest terms," the report will find. "If they then saw other military vehicles approaching, from which projectiles were fired through the windows of their home, most people are even more likely to believe that they were under an assault. If those vehicles then began to tear down their home there would be little doubt that they were being attacked. These events are what the Davidians inside the residence experienced on April 19, yet the FBI did not consider their actions an assault." Moreover, the FBI did not consider the close-knit, home-centered community the Davidians have long since formed. "Their religious leader led them to believe that one day a group of outsiders, non-believers, most likely in the form of government agents, would come for them," the report will state. "Indeed, they believed that this destiny had been predicted 2,000 years before in Biblical prophecy. Given this mindset, it can hardly be disputed that the Davidians thought they were under assault at 6 a.m. on April 19." [House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] Monitoring from Washington - At 7:00 a.m., Attorney General Janet Reno and senior Justice Department and FBI officials go to the FBI situation room to monitor the assault. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Buildings Breached - At 7:30 a.m., a CEV breaches the side of one of the main buildings and injects large amounts of tear gas into the interior of the compound. At 7:58 a.m., gas is fired into the second floor of the back-right corner of the building. The FBI asks for more ferret rounds, and by 9:30 a.m., 48 more ferret rounds arrive from Houston. The assault is hampered by the FBI's dwindling supply of ferret rounds, a CEV with mechanical difficulties, and high winds dispersing the gas. Another CEV enlarges the opening in the center-front of the building, with the idea of providing an escape route for the trapped Davidians. A third CEV breaches the rear of the building, according to a later Justice Department report, "to create openings near the gymnasium." [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Clinton Told Assault Progressing Well - At about 11 a.m., Reno briefs President Clinton, tells him that the assault seems to be going well, and leaves for a judicial conference in Baltimore. During this time, a CEV breaches the back side of the compound. At 11:40 a.m., the FBI fires the last of the ferret rounds into the building. At 11:45 a.m., one wall of the compound collapses. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Transcriptionist Escapes - Ruth Riddle, the typist and transcriptionist sent inside the compound by the FBI to help Koresh finish his "Seven Seals" manuscript (see April 18, 1993), escapes the compound before the fire. She brings out a computer disk containing the unfinished manuscript. [Dean M. Kelley, 5/1995] Davidians Set Fires throughout Compound - At 12:07 p.m., according to the Justice Department and House reports, the Davidians start "simultaneous fires at three or more different locations within the compound." An FBI Hostage Rescue Team member reports seeing "a male starting a fire" in the front of the building. Later analyses show that the first fire begins in a second-floor bedroom, the second in the first floor dining room, and the third in the first floor chapel. Evidence also shows that the fires spread according to "accelerant trails," such as a trail of flammable liquid being poured on the floor. Some of the Davidians' clothing found in the rubble also shows traces of gasoline, kerosene, Coleman fuel (liquid petroleum, sometimes called "white gas"), and lighter fluid, further suggesting that the Davidians use accelerants to start and spread the fires. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] Within eight minutes, the main building is engulfed in flames. One explosion, probably from a propane gas tank, is observed. Later investigation will find a propane tank with its top blown off in the debris. [House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] After the compound burns to the ground, FBI agent Bob Ricks tells reporters, "David Koresh, we believe, gave the order to commit suicide and they all willingly followed." [New York Times, 4/20/1993] Some of the Davidians who survive the conflagration later claim that the Davidians did not start the fires, but arson investigators with the Justice Department and the Texas Rangers, as well as an independent investigator, will conclude that Davidians did indeed start the fires in at least three different areas of the main building. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] A 1993 Treasury Department report (see Late September - October 1993) will produce audiotapes of Davidians inside the compound and transcripts of conversations, secured via electronic surveillance, discussing the means of setting the fires. Voices on the tapes and in the transcripts say such things as: "The fuel has to go all around to get started." "Got to put enough fuel in there." "So, we only light 'em as they come in," or as a slightly different version has it, "So, we only light 'em as soon as they tell me." Once the fires begin, high winds and the breaches in the walls cause the flames to almost immediately begin consuming the compound. [Dean M. Kelley, 5/1995] In 1999, Colonel Rodney Rawlings, the senior military liaison to the HRT, will tell reporters that he heard Koresh give the orders to start the fires over FBI surveillance "bugs" (see October 8, 1999). Sage later describes the horror that goes through him and his fellow agents when they realize that the Davidians have torched the compound. He will recall "pleading" with the Davidians to leave the compound, and say: "I can't express the emotions that goes through you. I had to physically turn around away from the monitor to keep my mind focused on what I was trying to broadcast to those people." He will recall being horrified by the failure of people to flee the compound. "I fully anticipated those people would come pouring out of there," he says. "I'd been through CS teargas on numerous occasions [in training exercises]. And I would move heaven and earth to get my kids out of that kind of an environment. And that's frankly what we were banking on. That at least the parents would remove their children from that kind of situation." Of Koresh, he will say: "By him intentionally lighting that place afire and consuming the lives of 78 people, including over 20 young children, was just inconceivable to me. In 25 years of law enforcement I've never been faced with someone that was capable of doing that." [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Six years later, the FBI will admit to releasing two pyrotechnic grenades into the compound, but insists the grenades did not start the fires (see August 25, 1999 and After). Plea for Release - At 12:12 p.m., Sage calls on Koresh to lead the Davidians to safety. Nine Davidians flee the compound and are arrested [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] , including one woman who leaves, attempts to return to the burning building, and tries unsuccessfully to fight off a federal agent who comes to her aid. [New York Times, 4/20/1993] One of the nine runs out of the building at around 12:28 p.m., indicating that even 21 minutes after the fire, it is possible for some of the inhabitants to make their escape. However, most of the Davidians retreat to areas in the center of the building and do not attempt to get out. [House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] 'Systematic Gunfire' - At 12:25 p.m., FBI agents hear "systematic gunfire" coming from inside of the building; some agents believe that the Davidians are either killing themselves or each other. The House committee investigation later finds that FBI agents hear rapid-fire gunshots coming from the compound; while many of the gunshots are probably caused by exploding ammunition, "other sounds were methodical and evenly-spaced, indicating the deliberate firing of weapons." Fire Department Responds; Search for Survivors - At 12:41 p.m., fire trucks and firefighters begin attempting to put out the flames. HRT agents enter tunnels to search for survivors, particularly children. [Dean M. Kelley, 5/1995; PBS Frontline, 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] No fire trucks are at the scene when the assault begins, and it takes around 25 minutes for the first fire department vehicles to respond to emergency calls from their stations in Waco. Bob Sheehy, mayor of Waco, later says the city fire department "first got a call after the fire had already started." Ricks explains that fire engines were not brought to the compound earlier for fear that firefighters might have been exposed to gunfire from the compound, and because FBI officials did not expect a fire. "We did not introduce fire to this compound, and it was not our intention that this compound be burned down. I can't tell you the shock and the horror that all of us felt when we saw those flames coming out of there. It was, 'Oh, my God, they're killing themselves.'" [New York Times, 4/20/1993] Death Toll - In all, 78 Branch Davidians, including over 20 children, two pregnant women, and Koresh himself, die in the fire. Nineteen of the dead are killed by close-range gunshot wounds. Almost all of the others either die from smoke inhalation, burns, or both. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] The number is improperly reported in a number of media sources, and varies from 75 to 81. Even the House committee report does not cite a definitive total. [House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 8/2/1996] Some of the FBI negotiators involved in the siege later say that they feel continued negotiations might have saved many, perhaps all, of the lives of those inside the compound. In an interview later in the year, one negotiator tells a reporter, "I'll always, in my own mind, feel like maybe we could have gotten some more people out." [New Yorker, 5/15/1995] But HRT member Barry Higginbotham, one of the snipers who observes the Davidians throughout the siege, will later state that neither he nor anyone on his team believed the Davidians would ever willingly surrender. Higginbotham will say: "We just felt that if you make them suffer a little more, deny them perhaps a little more food, lighting, power, things like that inside, that would cause more pressure on their leadership inside. And perhaps their leadership would go to Koresh and pressure him to start negotiating in good faith. It was hard to believe that Koresh was ever negotiating in good faith." [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] In the hours after the conflagration, Ricks tells reporters: "We had hoped the women would grab their children and flee. That did not occur and they bunkered down the children and allowed them to go up in flames with them.… It was truly an inferno of flames." Ricks says that authorities receive reports, perhaps from some of the survivors, that the children had been injected with some kind of poison to ease their pain. This claim is never confirmed. [New York Times, 4/20/1993] In the Bunker - FBI investigators combing the building after the conflagration find an enormous amount of guns and other weaponry inside. Dr. Rodney Crow, the FBI's chief of identification services and one of the officials who examine the bodies of the Davidians, spends much of his time in the compound's underground bunker, where many of the bodies are found. Crow later says: "There were weapons everywhere. I don't remember moving a body that didn't have a gun melted to it, intertwined with it, between the legs, under the arm, or in close proximity. And I'd say 18 inches to 20 inches would be close proximity.… The women were probably more immersed in the weapons than anyone else, because there was so much weaponry inside the bunker. It was like sea shells on a beach, but they were spent casings and spent bullets. If you had rubber gloves and tried to smooth it away, you'd tear your gloves away from the bullet points that are unexploded, or unspent ammunition. Then as you went through layer after layer, you came upon weapons that were totally burned. Until we got down to the floor, and it was mint condition ammunition there. Ammunition boxes not even singed." The most powerful weapon Crow finds is a .50-caliber machine gun. Some of the bodies have gunshot wounds. Crow will say: "My theory is there was a lot of euthanasia and mercy killing. That group probably were just about as active as anywhere in the compound, mercifully putting each other out of misery in the last moments." In total, 33 bodies are found inside the bunker; almost all the women and children found inside the compound are in the bunker. Many are found to have died from suffocation or smoke inhalation (two died from falling debris), but some died from gunshot wounds, and one woman was stabbed to death. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995; PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Local medical examiner Nizam Peerwani later says he does not believe the people in the bunker committed suicide, saying: "There has been a lot of speculation if this is a mass suicide or not. And—did they all go there to die? Ah, we don't really think so. What I feel personally is that they tried to escape. A bunker was perhaps the safest area in the compound." [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Sage will say that he knew the children were dead sometime around 12:30 p.m. He recalls terminating the negotiations at that time, "because I didn't want the loudspeaker bank to interfere with instructions being given on the ground. At that point in time, I walked over to the site in shock, basically. And, uh, the first thing I asked is, 'Where are the kids?'" He is told, "Nowhere." Sage will say: "They had not come out. They had been consumed." [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Koresh's Fate - Koresh and Schneider are found in a small room the authorities call "the communication room." Koresh is dead of a single gunshot wound to the forehead. Schneider is dead from a gunshot wound in the mouth. Peerwani later says: "Did David Koresh shoot himself and Schneider shoot himself? Or did Schneider shoot David Koresh and then turn around and shoot himself? Certainly both are possible. We cannot be certain as to what really transpired." [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] No Ill Effects from Gas - Peerwani and his colleagues examine the bodies for damage caused by the CS gas used in the assault, and find none. While many of the Davidians were exposed to the gas, according to tissue and blood studies, none inhaled enough of it to cause anything more than short-term discomfort. Concurrently, Peerwani and his colleagues find no damage from the propellant used in the ferret rounds. A fire report later written by Texas-based investigators will call the tear gas operation a failure at dispersing the Davidians. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995; PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Medical examinations show that some of the children may well have been overcome by the gas, and rendered unable to escape, but the compound had not been gassed for an hour before the fires began, and CS has a persistence factor of only 10 minutes—in other words, the effects should have worn off by the time the fires broke out. The gas proves ineffective against the adults, because the adult Davidians are equipped with gas masks. [PBS Frontline, 10/1995] Wrongly Executed Plan - The plan as signed by Reno called on law enforcement forces to deploy tear gas into the compound at stated intervals, then have agents retreat to await evacuees before approaching again. This "passive," "restrained" approach was to have been followed for up to 72 hours before using assault vehicles to force entry. Instead, the agents wait only 12 minutes before beginning a motorized vehicle assault. [New Yorker, 5/15/1995] Taking Responsibility - One of the unlikely "heroes" of the debacle is Reno. She signed off on the attack (see April 17-18, 1993), and within hours of the attacks, she holds a televised press conference where she says: "I made the decision. I am accountable . The buck stops here" (see April 19, 1993). She repeats this statement over and over again on national television. [New Yorker, 5/15/1995]
Entity Tags: Bob Ricks, Bob Sheehy, Branch Davidians, David Koresh, FBI Hostage Rescue Team, Barry Higginbotham, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Janet Reno, Jeffrey Jamar, Byron Sage, US Department of Justice, Nizam Peerwani, William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton, Richard Rogers, Rodney Rawlings, Rodney Crow, Ruth Riddle, Texas Rangers, Steve Schneider
Timeline Tags: 1993 Branch Davidian Crisis
Michael Fortier. [Source: Indianapolis Star]Future Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995) travels to Kingman, Arizona, to move in with his old Army friend Michael Fortier (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990, November 1991 - Summer 1992, and March 1993) in Fortier's trailer home, where he tells Fortier he intends to carry out some unnamed violent action against the government in response to the Branch Davidian tragedy (see April 19, 1993 and After). McVeigh briefly works as a security guard for State Security. Fortier will later recall, "I thought he was still in the Army when he showed up at my door," noting McVeigh's tight blond crewcut and his camouflage clothing. "When you saw him, it was like he never left. Actually, I never thought he would leave the service. It was just him.… I have to say McVeigh was a good soldier, a much better soldier than I ever was. His shoes were always spit shined and his clothes always pressed. I would put them on straight out of the dryer." When they first met in the Army, Fortier will recall, he did not like McVeigh, who is from upstate New York (see 1987-1988). "He had this real New York attitude, real rude and blunt," Fortier will recall. "He just had no tact." But, he will continue, "you just got used to his attitude." Staff Sergeant Albert Warnement, another member of the same company who also sometimes went shooting with McVeigh on the weekends, will later recall, "Fortier was probably his best friend." Fortier's mother Irene Fortier has a different recollection of McVeigh, remembering him as "polite and courteous." McVeigh and Fortier share a dislike of the US government—in the front yard of his trailer, Fortier flies both an American flag and a "Don't Tread on Me" flag often connected with right-wing militia groups—and a fascination with weaponry. Fortier keeps a half-dozen or more guns in his home, as is commonplace in many northern Arizona homes. McVeigh tells him it is time to take violent action against the US government (see August 21-31, 1992). McVeigh stays in Kingman for around five months, though he soon moves into a rented trailer in the Canyon West Mobile and RV trailer park, and gives Fortier's address as his residence on an application to rent a private mail box, #206, at the Mail Room (see February - July 1994) under the alias "Tim Tuttle" (see October 12, 1993 - January 1994). He and Fortier discuss forming a militia to fight the "New World Order" (see September 11, 1990), which, they believe, is represented by the government's fatal assault against the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas (see April 19, 1993 and April 19, 1993 and After). [New York Times, 5/6/1995; New York Times, 5/21/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 151; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 79; Douglas O. Linder, 2001] During the first weeks of his stay at the Fortiers' home, McVeigh visits his friend Roger Moore, an Arkansas gun dealer (see March 1993). At some time during his stay, he uses methamphetamines, probably obtained from Fortier and in the company of Fortier. He writes his father Bill during this time and asks him not to divulge his address. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] In October 1993, McVeigh leaves Arizona to move in with another Army friend, Terry Nichols (see October 12, 1993 - January 1994).
Entity Tags: Michael Joseph Fortier, Irene Fortier, Terry Lynn Nichols, Timothy James McVeigh, Roger E. ("Bob") Moore
Radio personality Rush Limbaugh hosts his own late-night television show; Roger Ailes, the Republican campaign consultant (see 1968, January 25, 1988, and September 21 - October 4, 1988), is Limbaugh's executive producer. On this show, Limbaugh notes a recent comment of Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who told a gay solder that his lifestyle was "not normal" and advised the soldier to get psychiatric help. Thurmond, who ran for president in 1948 on an explicitly racist, segregationist third-party platform and who led the "Dixiecrat" exodus of Southern racists out of the Democratic Party (see March 12, 1956 and After), is praised by Limbaugh. The commentator says of Thurmond: "He is not encumbered by trying to be politically correct. He's not encumbered by all of the—the so-called new niceties and proprieties. He just says it, and if you want to know what America used to be—and a lot of people wish it still were—then you listen to Strom Thurmond.… He got a standing ovation. Now people—people applauded that. People applaud—because—you know, Strom Thurmond can say it because he's 90 years old and people say: 'Ah, he's just an old coot. He's from the old days,' and so forth. But that's what most people think. They just don't have the guts to say it. That's why they applaud when somebody does say it that directly and that simply." [Media Matters, 10/27/2009] Ailes will go on to found Fox News (see October 7, 1996).
Entity Tags: Roger Ailes, Fox News, Strom Thurmond, Rush Limbaugh
'Soldier of Fortune' magazine logo. [Source: Military (.com)]Future Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), staying in Kingman, Arizona (see May-September 1993), attends a convention at Las Vegas's Sands Motel, sponsored by the militia/mercenary magazine Soldier of Fortune. During the convention, he shares a gun-dealing table with his friend Roger Moore, who calls himself Bob Miller at gun shows (see March 1993), and Moore's sister Carol. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996]
Entity Tags: Timothy James McVeigh, Roger E. ("Bob") Moore, Soldier of Fortune
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