Chapter Fourteen: Terrorism in the United States

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Chapter FourteenTerrorism in the United
States
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Nationalistic Separatism The Case of
Puerto Rico
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Nationalistic Separatism The Case of Puerto Rico

• 1898- The United States captured Puerto Rico in
  the Spanish-American war
• The United States granted Puerto Rico
  commonwealth status
• Three opinions of the Puerto Rican population
• Some desire Puerto Rican statehood
• Some want to create an independent country
• Some want to maintain a commonwealth status

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Nationalistic Separatism The Case of Puerto Rico

• Revolutionary organizations that embraced the
  nationalist terrorist campaign
• Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN)
• Volunteers for the Puerto Rican Revolution (OVRP)
• The Armed Forces of Liberation (FARP)
• The Guerilla Forces of Liberation (GEL)
• The Pedro Albizu Compos Revolutionary Forces
  (PACRF)

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The Development of Right-Wing Violence
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The Development of Right-Wing Violence

• History of right-wing extremism
• The first incident of antifederal behavior came
  shortly after the American Revolutionary War
• 1791- The Whiskey Rebellion
• Antifederal attitudes were common in some circles
  in the early 1800s
• The Know-Nothings (a.k.a., the Order of the Sons
  of America and the Sons of the Star Spangled
  Banner) were anti-Catholic, anti-Irish, and
  anti-immigration
• The Civil War
• Southerners were fighting to keep the power of
  local government

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The Development of Right-Wing Violence

• The Ku Klux Klan
• Founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest, the KKK was
  created as an antiunionist organization that
  would preserve southern culture and traditions
• Shortly after the Civil War, hooded Knight Riders
  terrorized African Americans to frighten them
  into political and social submission
• In the 1920s, the Klan sought political
  legitimacy
• The modern KKK grew after WWII, becoming up to
  the present day, fragmented, decentralized, and
  dominated by hate-filled rhetoric

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The Development of Right-Wing Violence

• Right-wing extremism from the 1930s to the
  present
• Michael Barkun says that a new religion,
  Christian Identity, grew from the extremist
  perspective
• Anglo-Israelism saw white Americans as the lost
  tribes of Israel. William Swift preached this
  message beginning in the late 1940s
• Two of Swifts disciples, William Potter Gale and
  Richard Butler, went on to form right-wing
  associations
• Gale formed the Posse Comitatus
• Butler formed the Aryan Nation
• Christian Identity is based on the premise that
  God was white

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The Development of Right-Wing Violence

• Identity theology
• Identity theology is based on a story of conflict
  and hate. According to this theology, Jews have
  gained control of the United States by conspiring
  to create the Federal Reserve System. The
  struggle between whites and Jews will continue
  until whites ultimately achieve victory with
  Gods help
• Before the Christian Identity movement
• Before the Christian Identity movement, American
  extremism was characterized by ethnocentrism and
  localized violence

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Contemporary Right-Wing Behavior, Beliefs,
and Tactics
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Contemporary Right-Wing Behavior, Beliefs, and
Tactics

• Issues that hold the right-wing movement together
• The right-wing tends to follow one of the forms
  of extremist religions
• The movement is dominated by a belief in
  conspiracy and conspiracy theories
• Right-wing extremists continue to embrace
  patriotism and gun

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Contemporary Right-Wing Behavior, Beliefs, and
Tactics

• Limit of right-wing terrorism
• Groups are rural and tend to emerge from
  farm-based compounds

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Contemporary Right-Wing Behavior, Beliefs, and
Tactics

• Trends of the right-wing movement in 1984
• The White supremacy movement
• Ku Klux Klan
• Neo-Nazis
• Other White European or Aryan-based organizations
• Survivalism
• Survivalists withdraw from society, forming
  compounds in rural areas
• Religion
• Many right wing extremists follow Christian
  Identity

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Contemporary Right-Wing Behavior, Beliefs, and
Tactics

• Rejuvenation of the extremist right
• The Brady Bill
• The Brady Bill caused many conservatives to fear
  federal gun-control legislation Extremists felt
  they had an issue that appealed to mainstream
  conservatives
• Ruby Ridge
• The Ruby Ridge incident had a strong symbolic
  impact on the extremist right
• The Waco siege
• Although David Koresh had nothing to do with
  right-wing extremists per se, he had the formula
  guns, a survivalist compound, and a belief in a
  Warrior God

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Contemporary Right-Wing Behavior, Beliefs, and
Tactics

• Current situation of the extremist right
• After September 11, 2001, violent members of the
  right-wing movement melted away from large
  organizations and began to congregate in small
  groups
• The existence of the smaller groups engaged in
  more individualistic violence

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Conspiracies, Militias, and the Call to Arms
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Conspiracies, Militias, and the Call to Arms

• Nordic Christianity
• Using ancient Norse rites, they claimed to
  worship the Triune Christian Deity, but they
  added Odin (Wotan) and Thor. Odin, the chief of
  the Norse gods, called Nordic warriors to racial
  purification from Valhalla, or the Viking heaven.
  Thor, the god of thunder, sounded the call with a
  hammer that shook the heavens

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Conspiracies, Militias, and the Call to Arms

• Creatorism
• Creatorists call for a holy war or RAHOWA
• Creatorism is a religion with more violent
  tendencies than Christian Identity

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Conspiracies, Militias, and the Call to Arms

• Free-Wheeling Fundamentalists
• The majority of right-wing extremists retreated
  to more conservative churches and relied on
  individual interpretations of scripture from lay
  preachers along the American frontier to justify
  antigovernment actions. This group can be
  described as Free-Wheeling Fundamentalists
• They believe that the federal government and
  local governments are their enemies and the God
  will assist them in their confrontation with evil

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Conspiracies, Militias, and the Call to Arms

• Militias
• Militias thrive on conspiracy theories.
• They believe the U.S. government is leading the
  country into a single world government controlled
  by the United Nations and that the New World
  Order is a continuation of a conspiracy outlined
  in the Protocols of Zion, a document written
  after World War I, claiming that Jews are out to
  control the world
• Militias are almost always religious, but few
  embrace Christian Identity, Nordic Christianity,
  or Creatorism. For justification, they rely on
  Free-Wheeling Fundamentalism and violent passages
  of Christian scripture quoted out of context.
• Simply joining a militia group does not make a
  person a terrorist

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Conspiracies, Militias, and the Call to Arms

• Paramilitary groups
• Paramilitary groups, or armed civilian militias
  that organize themselves in a military manner,
  operate on different levels
• Paramilitary groups come in a variety of shapes
  and sizes, and most of their action is rhetorical

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Conspiracies, Militias, and the Call to Arms

• Third position
• The Third Position tried to unite both left- and
  right-wing extremists
• Both extremes found that they had some things in
  common They hate the government, they have no
  use for large corporations, and they distrust the
  media

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Conspiracies, Militias, and the Call to Arms

• Small violent groups after September 11, 2001
• These small groups embrace the ideas of
  Marighella and felt that any act of violence
  would help to create the mayhem necessary to
  topple the government

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Pierces Blueprint for Revolution
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Pierces Blueprint for Revolution

• William Pierce
• William Pierce was a White supremacist with
  headquarters in rural West Virginia. He led an
  organization called the National Alliance,
  purchased Resistance Records, a recording label
  for Skinhead hate music

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Pierces Blueprint for Revolution

• The Turner Diaries
• The Turner Diaries is a diatribe against
  minorities and Jews
• From a technical standpoint, it is a how-to
  manual for low-level terrorism

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Pierces Blueprint for Revolution

• Dangers of The Turner Diaries
• It could inspire copycat crimes
• Some who have read this book have taken action
• Robert Matthews founded The Order
• Timothy McVeigh was arrested with a worn copy of
  The Turner Diaries

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Pierces Blueprint for Revolution

• Hunter
• Hunter tells the story of a lone wolf named
  Hunter who decides to launch a one-person
  revolution
• It could and has inspired copycat crimes

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The Decline of the Left
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The Decline of the Left

• Contributions to the demise of left-wing
  terrorism
• Intellectual elites controlled the movement, yet
  the movement lost its base when student activism
  began to disappear from American academic life
• Left-wing groups had engaged in symbolic violence
• Guilt may have been a factor in the demise
• Left-wing movements became more specific,
  focusing not only on certain political behavior,
  but on particular causes

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Ecoterrorism, Animal Rights, and Genetic
Engineering
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Ecoterrorism, Animal Rights, and Genetic
Engineering

• Earth Liberation Front (ELF)
• ELF migrated from Europe to the United States
• The alliance has been responsible for more than
  six hundred criminal acts since 1996
• Its tactics include sabotage, tree spiking,
  property damage, intimidation, and arson

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Ecoterrorism, Animal Rights, and Genetic
Engineering

• The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey
• In The Monkey Wrench Gang, the heroes drive
  through the western states sabotaging bulldozers,
  burning billboards, and damaging the property of
  people they deem to be destroying the environment
• Abbey, however, is an environmental activist
  rather than a hate-filled ideologue

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Ecoterrorism, Animal Rights, and Genetic
Engineering

• Ecoterrorism today
• Most violence associated with ecoterrorism has
  taken place in the American West
• From 1995-1999, damages total 28.8 million
• ELF activities have increased each year since
  1999
• Ecoterrorists are uncompromising, illogical
  extremists just like their right-wing
  counterparts They use ecology as a surrogate
  religion

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Antiabortion Violence
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Antiabortion Violence

• Tactics of antiabortionists
• Antiabortionists began with bombing and arson
  attacks
• Today assault and gunmen along with bombing and
  arson are antiabortionist tactics

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Antiabortion Violence

• Justification for antiabortion acts
• Violent antiabortionist advocates justify their
  actions in the same manner as other political
  extremists
• Accepting the status quo is worse than using
  violence to change behavior. It is the standard
  justification for terrorism

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Antiabortion Violence

• Explanations for violent political behavior
• Social control breaks down under stress and
  urbanization
• Violence increases when people are not satisfied
  with political outcomes
• Violence can be reinforced by social and cultural
  values
• Violence can stem from a groups strength or
  weakness, its lack of faith in the political
  system, or its frustration with economic
  conditions

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Antiabortion Violence

• David Nice and abortion clinic bombings
• Bombings tend to be regionalized
• Most of the bombings occurred in areas of rapidly
  expanding population and declining social
  controls. This means bombings tended to occur in
  urban areas
• Bombings also reflected a method a communicating
  frustration with political processes and outcomes
• States that experience bombings also exhibit a
  greater toleration for crimes against women
• Bombings are a sign of weakness
• Killing was a means of communication

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Black Hebrew Israelism An Apocalyptic Single
Issue
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Black Hebrew Israelism An Apocalyptic Single
Issue

• Black Hebrew Israelism
• Black Hebrew Israelism is a Christian Identity
  with an African twist
• Black Hebrew Israelites believe that the original
  Israelites were dark-skinned Africans
• The mythology of Black Hebrew Israelites and
  their beliefs dates back to the Civil War. In the
  latter part of the twentieth century, again like
  Christian Identity, the group developed an
  elaborate theology to explain the status of
  African Americans
• The African Heritage Study Bible is used to
  demonstrate that the Jews who Moses led out of
  Egypt were black

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Black Hebrew Israelism An Apocalyptic Single
Issue

• Hulon Mitchell Jr.
• Mitchell and Linda Gaines moved to Miami,
  Florida, in 1979 and laid the foundation for a
  Black Hebrew Israelite group known as the Nation
  of Yahweh
• By 1985, the Nation of Yahweh developed into a
  group of worshippers who focused their attention
  on Mitchell
• Mitchell began expanding his theology, teaching
  that whites were devils and his followers were to
  kill them in the name of God. He created an
  internal group called the Brotherhood, and one
  could obtain membership only by killing a white
  person
• Over the next few years, Mitchell dispatched
  Death Angels to kill whites in the Miami area

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Black Hebrew Israelism An Apocalyptic Single
Issue

• The tension between believing and acting
• Black Hebrew Israelism is indicative of the
  tension between believing and acting, and it
  presents a dilemma for those charged with
  security
• The problem for those charged with preventing
  violence is that when a belief system degrades or
  demonizes another group, violence often follows