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Nov. 30, 1994 - Bill Cooper
52:00
ADL Fact Finding Report (Militias)
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The End
The End
Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up.
Get up.
Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up.
Get up. Get up. Get up.
Get up.
We're going to read this on the air, since you put it out.
And since you sent it to us, and since it is an attack upon the patriots and the militia of the United States of America, we're going to read it, whether you like it or not.
Sounds like a good title for a television series, doesn't it?
Introduction.
Bands of armed right-wing militants, most calling themselves militias, are cropping up across America.
They have no centralized structures.
But there are linkages among some of them consisting largely of the sharing of propaganda material and speakers.
A survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League has found evidence of their activity in no fewer than thirteen states.
The aims of these militias, often bellicosely stated, involve laying the groundwork for massive resistance to the federal government and its law enforcement agencies, as well as opposition to gun control laws.
In the view of many such extremists, numbering in the thousands, America's government is the enemy, now widening its authoritarian control and planning warfare against the citizenry.
To the militia ideologues, gun control legislation, the Brady Law, restrictions on assault weapons, etc., are major stratagems in a secret government conspiracy to disarm and control the American people and abolish their constitutional right to bear arms.
They are also obsessed with the role of government in two recent events, the Branch Davidian confrontation in Waco and the Randy Weaver siege in Idaho, which they interpret as signs of impending tyranny.
The answer, say these extremists, is ultimately, necessarily paramilitary resistance, and armed and aroused citizenry must be mobilized and ready for a call to war.
For most, if not all, of the militias, the fear of government confiscation of their weapons is a paramount concern.
Samuel Sherwood, head of the U.S.
Militia Association in Idaho, states, When they come around to collect weapons, we'll have the legal and lawful structure to say no to that.
Randy Trotman of the Militia of Montana gets tougher.
If and when the federal government decides to confiscate weapons, people will band together to stop them.
They're not going to give up their guns.
And the enemy easily becomes nightmarish.
Robert Pummer, a leader of the Florida State Militia, says that his group is capable of defending ourselves against chemical and biological agents.
Although thwarting gun control is the chief aim of the militias, they seek to turn the clock back on federal government in a host of other issues as well.
Education, abortion, the environment.
Case in point, Norman Olson, a regional militia commander in northern Michigan, has envisioned violence erupting if present government policies continue.
Olsen, a Baptist minister who owns a gun shop, declared, We're talking about a situation where armed conflict may be inevitable if the country doesn't turn around.
Most often the central issue of the militants has been the legality of guns themselves.
Clearly their deeper suspicions and terrors should be of concern.
Is their militant cause merely the alleged gun-toting right of citizens?
Or is it the turning around of the United States itself from what the militants see as the treasonous direction of the federal government's present policies?
The question which no one can answer just yet is what exactly the militias intend to do with their guns.
Sorry, folks, I couldn't help it.
Might they still, as many observers hope, limit themselves to the time-honored means provided by the Constitution, freedom of expression, the ballot, the courts, the right of petition, or do they intend to resort to lawlessness?
it A recent episode in Virginia offers some partial but troubling evidence.
Members of a militia group calling itself the Blue Ridge Hunt Club were arrested for possession of illegal weapons.
The leader of the group, James Roy Mullins and three others who were taken into custody, were found to be stockpiling weapons in their homes and storage facilities.
Found on a computer disk in Mullins' home was a draft of the group's newsletter stating that it planned a series of terrorist actions in furtherance of its aims.
According to an ATF official, the group intended to further arm itself by raiding the National Guard armory in Pulaski, Virginia.
A further investing problem uncovered by investigation of the growing militias is the presence in some of them, even in leadership roles, of persons with histories of racial and religious bigotry and of political extremism.
In the Northwest, for example, we find militia leaders with backgrounds in the Aryan Nations movement and elsewhere other erstwhile neo-Nazis and Ku Kluxers.
The militias are of concern and doubtless will remain so in the coming months.
They are driven by a combustible issue in American life which remains unresolved, that of gun control.
An issue of urgency and passion in a society beset by violent crime.
Coming head-to-head, a cry for weapons restrictions and a perceived constitutional right.
Most of those siding with the latter are law-abiding citizens who feel that guns are desirable for personal defense or for sport.
Many of them feel that the National Rifle Association, NRA, Adequately represents their concerns.
Others who see the NRA as too moderate have sought out more extreme advocates, such as the American Pistol and Rifle Association, a PRA.
Of late, however, still others are resorting to the mustering of a far more desperate and dangerous resistance, the militia movement that is the focus of this report.
There follows a state-by-state synopsis of militia activity.
Efforts have recently begun in Arizona to create a militia movement.
David Espy, who portrays himself a latter-day American Revolutionary Captain, has attempted to organize militia meetings over the last several weeks.
An advertisement he placed in the September 11th and 25th 1994 issues of the Prescott Courier announced a meeting in Pauldon, Arizona of the Association of the Sons of Liberty and the Volunteer Militia.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss plans for action against the federal government, which he asserts continues to pass legislation that weaken our unalienable private property and Bill of Rights.
The formation of a militia is an integral part of Espy's plan.
Quote, So everyone out there who thinks that taking pride in owing firearms and being fanatical are nuts should remember where you are living and how we all got here to begin with.
It wasn't by just sitting back and letting the government run our lives and usurping our fundamental rights as free people.
So forgive me if I see a clear and present danger with what is happening in our country today, and that I feel a genuine and rational need to form a volunteer militia force, if for no other reason than to let Washington know that there is still a large group of us out here that have inherited revolutionary DNA and are willing to fight for it until our dying breath." Another aspect of his plan is a demand for the legal cessation of Arizona from these federal United States.
Now, I have to break in here, folks, and let you know that you must remember I am reading a propaganda piece issued by the Anti-Defamation League of the Neighborhood.
I do not say that all of this that they're telling you is true.
In fact, I know that much of it is a lie.
Some of it I know to be true.
Some of it remains to be seen.
But you need to know what it is, and I want to caution anybody who just tuned in that I am reading verbatim from a report issued by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, who, by the way, was one of the cohorts in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan.
I now continue, ladies and gentlemen.
Also active in Arizona is Gary D. Hunt, a man obsessed with the Waco Branch Davidian incident.
Hunt himself was present during the siege in Waco and wrote about the event at the time, comparing the Branch Davidians to the original revolutionary Minutemen.
I understand why the Minutemen were willing to stand and face portions of the greatest military force in the world, and I understand why David Koresh and the other brave defenders of Mount Carmel stand fearlessly defending their homes and mine.
More recently, Hunt has distributed a flyer dated July 2, 1994, and labeled, Sons of Liberty No.
3.
The flyer described the effectiveness of militias in the Revolutionary War, and suggests that militias are again needed now.
At the bottom of the flyer, written in by hand, Hunt announced, quote, March on Phoenix, FBI, 825-94, 5 to 6 p.m., to release the Branch Davidians.
Bring legal signs and guns.
Tell a friend.
The FBI and Phoenix police paid close attention, but the planned march never materialized.
Colorado.
Militias in Colorado have benefited from the support of a number of right-wing groups.
Most active in the movement are so-called Patriot groups that proliferate throughout the state.
Others showing support for militias in Colorado are the Constitutionists, the Guardians of American Liberties, and State Representative Charles Duke.
Militias calling themselves patriots are being formed across the state and are currently operating in Lakewood, Longmont, Boulder, Greeley, and Fort Collins.
The Fort Collins group is led by Duncan Phillips, who has been a member of Pete Peters Laporte Church of Christ, a racist and anti-Semitic church that embraces the ideology of the Christian identity movement.
The Patriots propaganda promotes the view that the federal government has betrayed the people and the Constitution through laws regarding homeschooling, abortion, taxation, freedom of speech and religion, and most importantly, gun control.
While calling on citizens to take political action—in effect, write their congressmen, attend meetings, etc.—they also urge that people prepare to resist the government by forming militias and stockpiling weapons, groceries, and other necessities of survival.
The Patriots publish a newsletter and sell tapes and videos through the Patriot Library.
Among the titles for sale are, quote, The New World Order, communist groups supported by Hillary Clinton, end quote, as well as tapes describing black helicopters said to be scrutinizing the actions of citizens in the western states, a June 22, 1994, Patriot fact sheet encouraging members to read, by computer access, The Spotlight, the organ of the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby.
Guardians of American Liberties, a multi-state organization centered in Boulder, is attempting to take a leadership role in the militia movement.
It describes itself as a national grassroots network of American citizens formed to ensure our government is free of corruption, that it is actively aligned with the will of the people, and to safeguard the Constitution of the United States of America from all forms of corruption.
Goal has some 40 to 50 members in Colorado, as well as claimed chapters in Texas, Arizona, California, and Nevada.
It has established a Militia Committee, although it is not clear what degree of success it has achieved in organizing militias in Colorado or elsewhere.
Goal literature lists these additional committees, a Federal Reserve and IRS Committee, a Political Prisoner Committee, and a Sovereignty and Freedom Committee, beneath which is printed the slogan Kick the feds out of the counties.
Goal's leader, Stuart Webb, has appeared frequently on right-wing radio shows to discuss his various conspiracy theories regarding, among other issues, the savings and loan and DCCI scandals.
Webb has a history of anti-Semitism.
From the mid-1980s and into the 90s, he made a series of threatening anti-Semitic phone calls and continued to do so even after receiving a cease-and-desist order.
The Constitutionists, a Kansas-based extremist group whose leadership includes Evan Mecham, the impeached former governor of Arizona, has received support in its promotion of militias from Colorado State Representative Charles Duke.
Duke spoke at the group's June conference in Indianapolis and promised the formation of militias as an effective way for citizens to protect themselves from the government.
At a Patriots meeting last July, Duke said, We need some ability to get some firepower to protect the citizens.
I would like to see a militia, the type that functions as a sheriff's posse and has sufficient training.
Radio station KHNC in Johnstown has offered its facilities to the Patriots and other groups active in the militia movement.
KHNC broadcasts continuous patriot programs and talk on conservative issues.
Among regulars on the station are Beau Gritz, see Idaho's section of this report, and Dr. Norm Resnick, an outspoken opponent of gun control.
In addition to using the radio to air their views, Colorado militias also disseminate information on computer bulletin boards that reach readers across the country.
The Colorado Free Militia and Boulder Patriots, for example, are promoted on the New Age Electronics Information Service, a Colorado bulletin board.
I might add, ladies and gentlemen, that they neglect to say, while calling the militia anti-Semitic, that Dr. Norm Resnick is a Jew.
Florida, several groups using the name Militia have appeared in Florida.
Among them are groups whose handbooks and leaflets variously engage in anti-Semitic innuendo, serve up alarmist warnings of a government conspiracy to abolish individual rights, especially gun ownership rights, and specify the amount of ammunition and other materials each Militia member is expected to carry.
One such outfit is the Florida State Militia, whose prime mover is Robert Pummer of Stewart in Markham County.
Pummer, a Kansas native who was a drug dealer in Michigan in the early 1970s and served time for second-degree murder, has been agitating on some of the same issues exploited by militia-style groups around the country—gun control, the Branch Davidian Confrontation in Waco,
The Randy Weaver siege at Ruby Ridge in Idaho, allegations of Russian and other foreign troops operating on United States soil, and other conspiracy-minded themes he claims members in every Florida county.
Now, as an aside, ladies and gentlemen, if this is true, if Robert Palmer was a drug dealer in Michigan in the early seventies, and if he served time for second-degree murder, you must put him out of your militia.
On the other hand, if this is a lie, you must make it known in the loudest voice, for it is character assassination if it is indeed not true.
That is something that must be dealt with with the Florida Militia.
Remember my warnings.
I continue.
The Florida State Militia Handbook Published by Pummer declares, we have had enough.
Enough drugs and crime.
Enough violence and bloodshed.
Enough Waco and Ruby Ridge style government attacks on Christian Americans.
The handbook explains how to organize militia regiments.
It prescribes the recommended survival gear and weaponry.
Buy ammo now.
You will not be able to buy it later.
While expressing worry over the possibility of infiltration, the handbook offers the following reassurance.
You still have your inner circle, and this, the FBI, ATF, or any other federal scumbags cannot penetrate it if you keep up your guard." Publications contained in a Patriot List in the Florida State Militias Handbook include several anti-Semitic periodicals.
The Spotlight, organ of the Washington, D.C.-based Liberty Lobby, the wealthiest and most active anti-Semitic propaganda organization in the country.
The Truth at Last, an obsessively anti-black and anti-Jewish hate sheet produced by long-time extremist Ed Fields of Marietta, Georgia.
Criminal Politics, a conspiracy-oriented anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-establishment monthly, and the National Educator whose pages have honored the leaders of the far-right terrorist gang called the Order and the neo-Nazi paramilitary group Aryan Nations.
The handbook says a shortwave radio is an essential piece of communications equipment.
It particularly endorses the Liberty Lobby-controlled program, Radio Free America, as one source that transmits what the mainstream media will not tell you.
Plumer's Militia sponsored an information fair and campout in St.
Lucie County on the weekend of September 17, 1994.
The event attracted approximately 100 attendees, including some parents who came with their children.
Most attendees carried firearms, including some semi-automatic weapons.
Many wore knives.
A workshop on radio communications was conducted by a man who identified himself as a retired police chief and Air Force officer.
All attendees were encouraged to attend the United States Constitution Restoration Rally in Lakeland, Florida, on October 1st.
A Key Largo-based group calls itself alternately the United States Militia and the 1st Regiment Florida State Militia.
Making a specious claim to legitimacy from such documents as the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Florida Constitution, and Florida Statutes, this group has been attempting to recruit members at patriotic and anti-gun control gatherings in Florida.
Mimicking the style of the Declaration of Independence, its literature speaks of a train of abuses perpetrated on state and local governments and the citizenry by the federal government.
Just as our founding fathers of this country shook off their shackles of bondage, the group declares, so must we.
The militia's regulations state that county units will be organized in each county of the state.
Militia members are told to expect to spend one weekend a month engaging in unit activities, including rallies, shooting events, and fundraisers.
A list of suitable equipment is provided, which includes 1,000 rounds of ammunition per weapon and six 30-round magazines for each militia member.
While the group's regulations state that, quote, the unit may not be used against the police or governmental authority within the state of Florida.
An exception may be made when such an entity commits crimes of violations of their oath of office and of sections or articles of the Constitution of the United States of America and of this state.
The United States militia's material was distributed at a United States Constitution restoration rally in Lakeland, Florida, on October 1st, 1994.
Attended by 1,000 to 1,500 people, the event was sponsored by Operation Freedom, an outfit created by Charles and Ruth Ann Spross of Maitland, Florida.
The Sprosses described their effort as a for-profit partnership, and indeed they offer for sale scores of video and book titles such as, quote, The Planned Destruction of America, end quote, and Linda Thompson's, quote, Waco the Big Lie, end quote, Featured on the schedule at the October 1st gathering was a speech by M.J.
Red Beckman of Montana, who has been influential in the militia movement in his home state.
Distributed along with the speaker's program in the rally was a sheet bearing the heading, Paul Revere Rides Again.
It proclaimed, a strong and growing underground patriotic movement with statewide militia groups exists against the sinister ones that is unreported by the monopolistic and controlled establishment media.
Identifying such enemies as the House of Rothschild, international bankers, the Federal Reserve System, and the Trilateral Commission, the flyer asks, What is the range of British and Israeli influence in the upper tiers?
It urged readers to stockpile food, water, guns, and ammo.
Good advice, ladies and gentlemen.
Never surrender your weapons.
Also, even better advice, subscribe to the weekly populist newspaper, The Spotlight.
Form or attend meetings with other spirited patriots.
Consider yourself warned." Also distributed in large numbers at the rally was a flyer urging that, quote, all gun owners should fire a warning shot as a signal to the new Congress, end quote, on November the 11th at 11 p.m.
Congress has failed to safeguard the Bill of Rights.
It reads, especially the Second Amendment, end quote, and it further declares, and I quote, a warship will fire a warning shot across the bow.
A rattlesnake will sound off these warnings are never ignored.
It is time to warn politicians that if they do not respect the Bill of Rights, they should at least fear the wrath of the people.
Congress is forcing the country into a civil war." And again, ladies and gentlemen, I must remind you that I'm reading directly, in case you just started listening, from a report issued by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, attacking patriots and militia members across this country, calling them racist, anti-Semitic, Terrorists who are planning to overthrow the United States government.
We know that many militia members and leaders are black.
Many are Jewish patriots themselves.
And that none of us, nobody, has ever made any statement, has ever claimed, or wants to in their wildest dreams overthrow the United States government.
We will, if necessary, reinstate it and place the Constitution back where it belongs as the supreme law of the land.
That is the truth.
These quotes that I read you in here, purported to be quotes from militia leaders or militia members, may not be at all.
We don't know if these people really said these things, and the ADL has a long history of lying.
We know that some things in here are true.
We know that most is a lie.
It is designed, ladies and gentlemen, to turn the sheeple of America against the patriots of America, so that these scumbags can have their one-world government, socialist and totalitarian in nature.
We know these things are true because we have proven it, not because we say so, not because we have made allegations, not because somebody else told me.
We have documented it in the law, in the treaties, in the Congressional Register, and in the State Department documents over the years.
Nothing is hidden.
It is not a conspiracy.
It is all in the open for anyone who has eyes to see.
Don't go away.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
I'm going to open my hand, I, I, I'm going to leave it alone.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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A group in Tampa... I'm reading again from the report.
A group in Tampa that claims alignment with the National Patriot Movement has ordered four judges and several Hillsborough County officials, including the tax collector, to give themselves up for arrest to the group's so-called constitutional court.
Founder of the group, Emilio Ippolito, and his daughter, Susan Mokdad, reportedly said they have an unarmed militia composed of volunteers to execute the constitutional court's orders.
Subsequently, Ed Brown, an activist with an armed militia group in New Hampshire, contacted Florida law enforcement authorities, prosecutors' offices, and the Florida Bar Association to express support for Ippolito's court.
Idaho.
As in other parts of the country, the recent rise of militias in Idaho can be linked to four events.
The Randy Weaver siege, the Waco disaster, the passage of the Brady law, and the federal anti-crime law.
Idaho militias identify particularly closely with the Weaver incident because it took place inside the state and because some key militia figures in the region were allied with Weaver and indeed participated in the events surrounding the siege.
Samuel Sherwood, an Idaho militia leader, has recruited hundreds of Idahoans into his United States Militia Association.
At a July meeting in Blackfoot, Idaho, Sherwood reportedly told potential recruits that President Clinton's crime bill authorized the government to hire 100,000 former Royal Hong Kong police to come to America to enforce gun control laws.
As of August 1994, Sherwood's association has organized militias in at least a dozen of Idaho's 44 counties.
Sherwood's recruitment campaign is met with opposition from law enforcement officials.
The Tri-County Sheriff's Association, representing 16 eastern Idaho counties, has passed a resolution against the formation of militias.
I gotta break in here, folks.
Sorry, Tri-County Sheriff's Association, you can't do that because the law says that if you're between a certain age and another certain age, you are automatically a member of the militia, including the members of the Tri-County Sheriff's Association.
And I am just absolutely amazed that nobody in the Militia of Idaho has pointed this little discrepancy out to these people, who claim to be Americans, but obviously are not.
And I continue.
Greg Moffitt, Madison County Sheriff and the leader of the Association, has asserted that they would give absolutely no support to the idea of a militia.
My, my!
I wonder what would have happened if everybody would have said that to George Washington.
I continue.
Beau Gritz, although his current project is not, strictly speaking, the formation of militias, Beau Gritz's activity closely parallels the militia movement.
Gritz, the 1992 Populist Party candidate for president, is a former Green Beret, well known for conducting spike, or specially prepared individuals for key events training throughout the region, preparing participants in weapons and survival techniques.
That, folks, is a laugh, if you've ever had any of those real training.
And you've been to his, you know that that's a laugh.
Grites is currently creating an armed community on a 200-acre piece of land in central Idaho known as Almost Heaven.
He purchased the land and is now selling it in lots.
A second community called Shenandoah is also planned nearby.
Grites plans to live at Almost Heaven with 30 other families in a self-sufficient community.
Which he has said will obey all laws, unless they go against the laws of God and common sense.
Well, maybe he can figure that out, if he can figure out what religion he belongs to.
I continue.
Through rigorous military training, Grips plans to prepare his followers to prevent the government from making any attempts to intrude.
I want a community where, if the FBI looks at us, they'll end up saying it's more trouble than it's worth.
Gritz derives much of his support from his opposition to the federal government's actions in the Weaver and Waco cases.
He himself was present at the Weaver standoff and assisted Weaver in surrendering to the authorities.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have to break in here because that's a bare-faced lie.
As early as July of 1990, at Freedom Call 90 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Gritz was talking about Randy Weaver.
He also read a letter written by Randy Weaver to Grites himself, where Weaver was asking Grites for help because he thought that the federal government was going to come and kill him and his family.
When this actually happened, Grites claimed that he never heard of Randy Weaver before until the FBI called him and said that they needed him to come up there and get Weaver out.
Bobo Griffs was working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and he was wearing a wire.
He went to save the FBI from further embarrassment after they had murdered Randy Weaver's son, Randy Weaver's wife, Shot Weaver, and his friend.
And the whole world was watching.
That's the truth.
of the matter.
I continue.
Grice recently wrote in his newsletter, the tyrants who ordered the assault on the Weavers and Waco should be tried and executed as traitors.
But Grice's extremist views go beyond opposition to certain government policies.
For example, in his book, Called to Serve, he peddles the anti-Semitic myth that Jewish families control the Federal Reserve System.
It might be the only thing you said that's true in a long time and has nothing to do with being anti-Semitic.
It is a fact.
Indiana.
Indianapolis is the home base of Linda Thompson, an influential figure in the militia movement nationally.
Thompson is a lawyer and chairman of the American Justice Federation, which describes itself as, quote, a group dedicated to stopping the New World Order and getting the truth out to the American public, end quote.
Thompson claims to have contact with militias in all fifty states.
She appears frequently at militia gatherings and gun shows to lecture and sell her videos, Waco the Big Lie and Waco 2, The Lie Continues.
The latter, she claims, proves conclusively the government murdered 100 men, women and children at Mount Carmel in April 1993.
She also sells other propaganda materials, such as the Traitor Files, which purport to link Bill and Hillary Clinton to a Marxist terrorist network.
On July 13, 1994, Thompson was arrested in Indianapolis for using her vehicle to block a bus carrying supporters of President Clinton's health care plan.
She was charged with obstructing traffic.
At the time of her arrest, police officers seized from her person a .45 caliber pistol and a .22 caliber Derringer pistol.
They also found in her vehicle an assault rifle with 295 rounds of ammunition.
Her case is pending.
Thompson's most ambitious undertaking to date was a planned militia march on Washington, D.C., on September 19, 1994, where an ultimatum was to be delivered to the government.
The ultimatum commanded members of Congress to initiate legislation that would, among other things, repeal the Fourteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Amendments to the Constitution and the Brady Law in NAFTA.
Designating herself Acting Adjutant General of the Unorganized Militia of the United States, Thompson ordered all participants to come armed and in uniform.
She announced that besides delivering the ultimatum, the militia will arrest congressmen who have failed to uphold their oaths of office, who will then be tried for treason by citizens' courts.
Realizing after several months that support of her march was lacking, Thompson called it off, yet her standing in the militia movement apparently remains undiminished.
Calling it off, ladies and gentlemen, and nothing to do with support or lack of support for her march.
I continue.
The John Birch Society, troubled about Thompson's influence on its members and staff, found it necessary to warn them against her.
On May 12, 1994, the Society issued an official admonition to all members and a directive to all employees to stay clear of her schemes.
They said, Linda Thompson's call for the arrest in September of members of Congress and the President of the United States by an armed militia is not just insane, it is contrary to all understanding of the nature and identity of the enemy.
It appears that even by the standards of the John Birch Society, Thompson is too radical.
Again, I must break in, folks.
The John Birch Society has never done anything in its history but sit on its butt and talk.
And that's the truth of that matter.
I continue.
Meanwhile, Thompson continues to appear at rallies and conferences around the country and on radio, promoting the militia cause and calling down thunder upon the American government and its law enforcement agencies, and I say three cheers for Linda Thompson.
A rally to form a militia in Indianapolis took place in September 1994 at a Union Hall in the south-central part of the city.
In attendance were some 200 persons filling the hall to capacity while an overflow crowd was turned away.
A smaller militia is believed to be functioning in Switzerland County in eastern Indiana.
The county, long plagued by extremist activity, has been the home base of the Northwest Territory Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a Klan splinter group.
Michigan.
The militia movement has gained a following in Michigan.
The most visible such group in the state has sprung up in northern Michigan.
Spokesmen there make the probably exaggerated claim that militias have 10,000 members and that brigades are operating or are currently forming in 66 of the state's 83 counties.
Meetings reportedly draw 50 to 100 attendees.
The issues animating Michigan's militias are the same as those fueling the movement nationally.
Chief among them is the belief that gun control legislation is but a prelude to a complete ban on firearms ownership in this country.
An essential additional ingredient, though, is their conviction that the government intends to wage war on citizens who refuse to give up their weapons.
They cite as evidence for this view the tragic assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the 1992 raid on the cabin of Randy Weaver in Idaho, in which Weaver's wife and son and a federal marshal were killed.
They also contend that this same federal government is acquiescing in the surrender of the United States' sovereignty to the United Nations and other international bodies.
The militia's aims are to stand against tyranny, globalism, moral relativism, humanism and the New World Order, threatening to undermine these United States of America.
Norman E. Olson, 47, a Baptist minister and gun shop owner in Allenson, is the commander of the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Northern Michigan Regional Militia.
After a few months of discussion and recruitment, the group was established in April 1994.
It conducts training exercises twice a month.
At a recent session, weapons reportedly included Chinese SKS semi-automatic assault rifles, shotguns, and deer rifles.
When residents complained about militia members clad in camouflage uniforms and painted faces gathering with their rifles at a village park and a public campground in Pelston, the village council banned firearms from those and other village sites.
Militia Commander Olson threatened to sue the village for allegedly violating his rights.
He also announced that his group would no longer convene in the park or the campground, saying, quote, the people of Pelston have got to want the light of liberty, end quote.
And I say, ladies and gentlemen, there will come a day when the people of Tulsa will beg the militia for protection.
Olsen strenuously denies that the northern Michigan regional militia is racist or anti-Semitic.
He claims some Jewish ancestry and professes admiration for Israel.
But his militia's rhetoric on occasion has been extreme and alarmist.
In reference to the aborted march on Washington promoted by Indianapolis militia leader Linda Thompson, Olsen has written, Many thousands are prepared to go to Washington in uniform, carry their guns, prepared to present the ultimatum to the President and to Congress.
This may be the beginning of a Concord-like confrontation." A militia pamper distributed at a May meeting in Petoskey, attended by some 55 people, reportedly asked, "...what force exists to prevent a state or federally orchestrated massacre like the one in Waco from occurring in Michigan?"
Ray Southwell, a recent estate agent who is the group's information officer, has said, and I quote, I've guessed that within the next two years you will see the Constitution suspended, end quote.
His further prediction, quote, Christian fundamentalists will be the first to go under fascism this time, just like the Jews were the first last time, end quote.
Now, I wonder just what the Anti-Defamation League finds wrong with that statement.
I continue.
Southwell speaks as though he regards confrontation—maybe they're jealous that the Jews aren't going to go first again this time.
Is that it?
Boy, I'm really sick of this stuff, I'll tell you folks.
Makes me sick to read this crap.
Dribbling of innuendo.
Outright lies.
Who knows whether these quotes are accurate or not?
Southwell speaks as though he regards confrontation with law enforcement as inevitable.
His militia is preparing for the day when martial law is declared.
We are taking a stand, he says, and we are prepared to lose everything, as all Americans should be.
Other militia activists in Michigan have had their own encounter with the law.
Police in Fowlerville, Livingston County, arrested three militia members on September 8, 1994.
Loaded rifles and handguns, as well as gas masks, night vision binoculars, and two-way radios were found in their car.
At the men's scheduled September 14th hearing, at least two dozen uniformed supporters staged a protest in front of the courthouse and stomped on the United Nations flag.
The suspects failed to appear and are considered fugitives.
They were described by their supporters as security aides to Mark Kornke, also known as Mark from Michigan, a former Army intelligence officer whose America in Pearl video and speeches have helped to recruit members to militias around the country, and again I must break in, Mark Kornke was never a United States Army intelligence officer.
I continue.
All the confrontational talk has caught the attention of law enforcement authorities.
Some of their material is disquieting because it defines the United States government as the enemy, said a Michigan State police commander.
It is disquieting if people think redress is an armed conflict with the United States government.
The head of the Detroit office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms expressed the hope that the militia groups would use the power of the vote rather than the threat of armed violent confrontation to accomplish their goals.
Missouri.
Militias are active in Missouri, but do not appear to be as well organized as in other states.
They operate in at least five southern Missouri counties—Crawford, Green, Barton, Dade, and Cedar—and number collectively approximately 130 members.
The militias hold irregular meetings to view training videos, discuss paramilitary techniques, and exchange literature reflecting right-wing views.
Missouri's militias are attempting to organize themselves for political action by, among other things, running candidates for local office in keeping with their political aspirations.
They have attempted to avoid any public identification with more extreme groups, although some members also belong to the John Birch Society and the Populist Party." My God, folks.
If they're worried about the John Birch Society, they don't have anything at all to worry about.
Montana.
Militias have been forming in Montana since February 1994.
While the rhetoric of those groups focuses on gun control and other familiar militia causes, examination reveals that some of the leading figures in the Montana militia movement have also participated in the activities of racist and anti-Semite groups.
Meetings have been held across the state, drawing as many as 800 at a March 10th meeting in Kalispell.
Two other meetings there also drew over 150 participants.
Similar gatherings held in Hamilton, Eureka, Big Timber, and Great Falls drew over 200 participants each.
Smaller numbers attended meetings in Sanders County, Billings, and Croix.
While the crowds at initial meetings have been large, they have tended to fall off somewhat at subsequent gatherings.
Montana militias often dwell on the state's history as an independent outpost of freedom.
A recent militia newsletter quoted with approval Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, an anti-gun control group, in a call for rejection of all federal control over the state.
Montanans are fed up with the federal government dictating to Montana and the people of Montana, and we are through with Congress's increasing encroachments on the Bill of Rights.
We have a thirst for freedom in Montana, and we simply will not subsist under the boot heel of federal tyranny.
There may be some debate about what the Second Amendment means to the United States Supreme Court or the people of Peoria, but there is no question about what the Second Amendment means to the people of Montana.
The great purpose, as Patrick Henry said, is that every man be armed.
We will continue this tomorrow night, folks.
We are not all the way through.
Good night.
Say good night, Pete.
Good night.
And God bless you all.
We're good to go.
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