On Comparing White Nationalists to Anarchists

On Thursday, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation published Who Matters Online: Measuring Influence, Evaluating Content and Countering Violent Extremism in Online Social Networks, a research paper by myself and Bill Strathearn, which examined a substantial amount of data on the nature of Twitter networks used by extremists.

The paper was originally intended to focus primarily on metrics, and it originally set out to examine followers of prominent white nationalist Twitter accounts. However things got complicated when we saw what the data said about hashtags and links used by members of the dataset. The short version of this, as I explained for Foreign Policy:

The number 1 hashtag used by people following white nationalists online was #tcot -- "top conservatives on Twitter." Number 3 was #teaparty, and number 5 was #gop. The content of links tweeted by the users also skewed sharply toward mainstream conservative and Republican content. ... [A]s of last week, the most influential users from the group we studied were still heavily engaged with partisan Republican politics, based on an examination of the 50 most recent tweets from each of the 100 most influential users still active on Twitter. The top hashtag remained #tcot. Coming in at number 3 was #cpac2013, and #gop was number 4. The tag #nra vaulted from 102nd place in last year's data to number 6, no doubt due to recent discussions on gun control, while #teaparty dropped to number 10.

One of the joys of research is discovering things you didn't know before, and this project was full of such moments. It's not that I was particularly surprised that there would be Republican-related content -- there are legitimate reasons why we call some kinds of extremism right-wing and others left-wing -- but I hadn't expected that content to be so prominent. Like many others who study extremism, I was focused on the ways extremists are disenfranchised from the mainstream, rather than how they might seek to engage it.

When we saw the findings from the first round of data collection, we could have just left the statistics in there without further comment or context, but that felt like a cop-out and it probably wouldn't have lessened what we expected would be some controversy. So the question then became how to offer more context without straying too far from the point of the paper, which was to develop and evaluate metrics for processing large amounts of social media data.

To that end, we performed a secondary analysis that looked at the followers of anarchist Twitter accounts. This has prompted some objections that a comparison between white nationalists and anarchists is fundamentally flawed or unfair, and that a comparison to black nationalists would have been more appropriate both for a one-to-one comparison as well as for the purpose of offending everyone's politics equally.

These objections are not unreasonable, especially from the perspective of the people making the complaints on both the right and the left who are primarily concerned with the politics of the paper rather than the metrics. But I think we made the right decision given the paper's actual focus, and I want to explain why we did what we did in a little more detail. The most important reason is one that should be obvious if you read the paper but may be less obvious if you read the executive summary then skipped to the part that offended you, or just read news coverage of the paper and not the paper itself.

The paper is not primarily about politics. 

The sections concerning hashtag and link content comprise about one quarter of the total paper. The goal of the paper was always to evaluate metrics and develop techniques for sifting large datasets. Of the 25 percent that concerns politics, probably a third of that consists of disclaimers. The political nature of the findings was unexpected; if the content data had been uncontroversial, the hashtag and link content would have been even less than 25 percent.

We had the resources to analyze one additional group of accounts. So when we thought about a comparison, it had to primarily serve the paper's primary goal -- testing the metrics. In this respect, anarchism is one of the toughest challenges we could devise, for the reasons outlined in the paper. We felt that if the metrics performed well on anarchism, they would perform well on almost any kind of ideology.

While white nationalism has many different facets, it has a strong center of gravity around the relatively simple concept of excluding non-whites. Anarchism, in contrast, is by definition diffuse and unorganized, encompassing a wide variety of views and attitudes and clustering much more loosely in terms of charismatic leaders who attract "followers" in the non-Twitter sense. The metrics had performed extraordinarily well at surfacing people who were ideologically engaged with white nationalism. If they performed well on anarchists, it was a much stronger proof of concept.

To be clear, this wasn't just about the metrics. We did also want to provide some balance to the political content from the left (and I honestly expected to see more engagement with mainstream Democratic politics despite the definitional bias of anarchism against political parties).  But the metrics had proved to be unexpectedly powerful, which also has a lot of complicated implications.

If we had chosen black nationalism as the comparison group, I am virtually certain we would have succeeded at a tit-for-tat outcome of offending all mainstream political groups equally, but I am also reasonably certain it would skewed the metrics in a way that exposed us to criticism of inflating our success rate, because white nationalism and black nationalism both have the same strong center of gravity -- race.

Anarchism is an ideology that was both politically and structurally different from white nationalism. And the results were illuminating; they showed that the metrics performed less effectively on anarchism but were still effective enough to suggest that the metrics were doing exactly what we thought they were -- surfacing people engaged with the seeded ideology from a large dataset.

If our goal was only to provide a political tit-for-tat, mentioning Democrats as often as it mentioned Republicans, then black nationalism would have been the right choice. But the goal was to provide a more robust and informative overall view of how our techniques worked, and anarchism was the right choice for that purpose.

There were two other significant considerations:

• Extremism is an extremely diverse topic, and there are limits to my ability to deeply familiarize myself with every type. I know somewhat more about anarchism than black nationalism, partly because it seems to me the former movement is more robust at the moment. So I could more realistically identify seed accounts and evaluate the accounts identified by the metrics. 
• Anarchists are much more effective online than black nationalists, within the scope of what I have been able to examine, and the paper is about online activism. 

Buy J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Labels: anarchists, CVE, Internet, Social-Media, Twitter, white-nationalists, white-supremacists

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J.M. Berger on Geraldo At Large

I discussed the security threat posed by white supremacy, as well as the history of the movement in the U.S. and extremism in the military on Fox News' Geraldo At Large. I appear beginning at the 12-minute mark, but I recommend watching the whole thing, which features interviews with prominent white supremacist movement figures.

For more about American jihadists, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Labels: J-M-Berger, white-supremacists

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New Revelations in Wisconsin Killings; Shooter Showed Up in Fla. Terror Probe

I was on CNN Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss new developments in the Wade Page investigation.












Page was a member of the Hammerskins skinhead group. He traveled around the country playing white power music as founder of the band End Apathy and a member of Definite Hate. In March 2011, those bands played to a crowd in central Florida that included a law enforcement source working for the Orange County sheriff's department. The informant recorded the band's presence in a heavily redacted document.

Two FBI undercover agents and an Orange County Sheriff undercover agent were also involved in the investigation and may have been present at the event.

The source had been investigating a skinhead group called the American Front, which culminated in 13 arrests in May 2012 on charges mostly related to paramilitary operations in support of the group's dream of a race war. The informant was attempting to penetrate the Hammerskins as well, and frequented an Internet forum also used by Page, according to redacted court documents.

The Hammerskins and American Front had a close relationship, and Page posted on an in memoriam page to American Front's founder, David Lynch, who was murdered in March 2011, just days before Page's band played in central Florida. Lynch's slaying was a topic of conversation at the event, according to the informant's report.

Click here for story and full documents on American Front

Check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Labels: FBI, Hammerskins, Infiltration, Informants, Wade-Page, white-supremacists

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'Anonymous' Hits White Supremacist Sites

A number of organized racism Web sites have been defaced by hackers over the last few days.

The most extensive hacking took place yesterday at the Web site of the white nationalist American Third Position (A3P). In addition to defacing the front page, someone identifying themselves with "Anonymous" posted extensive information about the organization's members, including social security numbers, phone numbers and home addresses.

The front page of the A3P site was tagged with #OpBlitzkrieg, the name designation used for a series of cyber-attacks on German Neo-Nazi sites in January. Private user information was posted on a Web site called Nazi-Leaks, which currently appears to be defunct.

The front page also featured a series of e-mails from senior A3P member Jamie Kelso, in which Kelso claims to have met or to have scheduled meetings with members of the Ron Paul campaign, including Ron and Rand Paul.

British newspaper The Guardian reported on A3P connections to the British National Party disclosed in the e-mails.

The A3P Web site "White News Now" was also targeted. Both sites were at least partially restored to functionality as of this morning.

Two sites affiliated with the American Nazi Party were also reportedly attacked earlier, according to forum and blog posts on other organized racism sites. Both are currently operational. It was not clear that the same person or group targeted the ANP and A3P sites.

This story was updated at 3 p.m.

Labels: American-3rd-Position, American-Nazi-Party, Neo-Nazis, white-supremacists

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Kevin Harpham Sentencing Exhibits

New exhibits were released in support of sentencing for Kevin Harpham, the white supremacist who pled guilty to planting a bomb at a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Wash., in January.

The new documents reveal details of Harpham's preparations as well as some of his ideological inspirations. According to prosecutors:

[Harpham] is an admitted white supremacist and has been for some time. He is a member of the National Alliance, a white supremacy organization. His twisted views are memorialized in numerous posts on the Vanguard News Network forum, a know white supremacist website. ... His views are known to his family members as well other professed racist organizers.

Moreover, even since being held pre-trial he has continued to communicate with Glenn Miller, a known white supremacist. ... The FBI seized numerous racist books and periodicals from his belongings at his father’s premises. They also seized numerous domestic terrorism related books.

In addition, at the time of his arrest he was in possession of an AK47, a handgun, and a modified digital clock as a timing device.

The exhibits offer extensive details about Harpham's influences and communications.

Read the Kevin Harpham exhibits

Labels: Kevin-Harpham, National-Alliance, white-supremacists

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White Nationalist David Duke Reportedly Arrested at Event in Germany

Updated Nov. 28

American white supremacist David Duke was reportedly arrested in Cologne, Germany, according to his official Web site.

Duke -- a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Louisiana state legislator, and chronic presidential candidate -- has been released but is still in Germany and will face unspecified charges, according to a post on his Web site.

In a statement, Duke said the arrest was "a gross twisting of travel laws in a blatant attempt by the government to prevent a private and peaceful gathering of about a 100 German citizens eager to hear my message of heritage and freedom."

Duke said he would remain in Germany to fight the charges against him, but it was not clear from the statement whether that was his choice or a requirement of the authorities there. He also complained about the costs of fighting the case.

The arrest came on Nov. 25, shortly before Duke was schedule to speak to a group of people described as "German nationalists," according to Duke's site. According to the site, he was detained as an "undesirable foreigner."

According to a German nationalist blog cited by Duke's Web site, the audience for the event consisted of about 60 people. In his statement, Duke claimed 100 people were in attendance.

The arrest comes in the wake of a significant public scandal in Germany over the authorities' failure to arrest a group of Neo-Nazis who murdered at least 10 foreigners over the course of more than a decade. The group is also suspected of carrying out a 2004 bombing in Cologne.

Labels: David-Duke, Germany, Ku-Klux-Klan, National-Socialist-Underground, Neo-Nazis, white-supremacists

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The Jihadist Who Wasn't

When the FBI arrested Joseph Brice of Clarkston, Wash., on explosives charges last month, it seemed like a familiar story. An American citizen drawn into jihadist talk online, a reader of Al Qaeda's English language magazine "Inspire," seeking to carry out acts of terrorism on U.S. soil.

But it wasn't quite so simple. Investigators now believe that Brice was not inspired by Inspire. In fact, it appears he isn't a Muslim at all.

When the FBI interviewed Brice after his arrest, "he denied being a Muslim and said that he didn't go to a mosque," said David Gomez, Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge for Counterterrorism at the Seattle Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Although Brice represented himself as a Muslim with extremist beliefs online, the approach was designed to find an audience for his explosives expertise.

Brice, 20, first came to the attention of authorities in April 2010, when a homemade bomb he had designed exploded prematurely, resulting in severe injuries to his legs. The device was sophisticated in design, but a flaw in the detonator caused it to go off before Brice could reach a safe distance.

Brice wasn't charged at the time. For most people, such an experience might lead to second thoughts about bombmaking as a hobby. Brice got back on the horse and allegedly began discussing bombs online.

Investigators rate his bomb-making skills as extremely high, despite the accident. (Even legendary explosives genious Ramzi Yousef nearly blinded himself during a misfire.)

At one point, Brice frequented white supremacist Web sites, according to Gomerz. But by late 2010, he was posting videos on YouTube under the name StrengthofAllah, along with comments that appeared to show an orientation toward anti-Semitism and a radical interpretation of Islam.

Brice progressed to exploring jihadist forums, where he began to reach out to other users. In some of those conversations, Brice claimed he had converted to Islam after his injury.

Eventually, he offered his explosives expertise to someone he believed was associated with an Islamic terrorist movement. In reality, he was talking to an undercover FBI agent.

After the death of Osama bin Laden, Brice's overtures were deemed too dangerous to continue, and he was arrested May 9 on charges related to the IED that nearly cost him his legs. This week, federal prosecutors added a charge of material support for terrorism, based on his offer of assistance to the undercover agent. The charge does not require contact with a named terrorist organization.

From a law enforcement perspective, Brice's actual religion was not an issue, "because it's immaterial to the filing of the charges," Gomez said. "The facts are the facts, he did what he did. Motivation doesn't really come into play. It's not a crime in which we have to show motive."

Gomez, who worked for five years as an FBI profiler, believes Brice fits the mold of a serial bomber.

"He's not thinking about committing a crime. He's thinking this is what really gets me excited, this is what really stimulates me," Gomez said.

Nevertheless, the case agent who interviewed Brice said he did show signs of anti-Semitic and anti-government beliefs, although no evidence has emerged that would link him to a domestic terrorist network.

Brice's online foray into the world of Muslim extremism likely came in pursuit of an audience for his work, Gomez said, as well as the possibility of financial gain (at one point he discussed using explosives in a bank robbery with an online associate).

"The Internet now is unique," Gomez said. "It allows people to assume multiple identities, to get up on board and to do any number of criminal activities, from child sexual exploitation to presenting yourself as a bomb-making expert and wanting to sell your expertise. ... You can be anything you want to be sitting in front of a computer screen."

Overlap among diverse extremist movements is nothing new, but such links have historically been weak and infrequent, and based on common goals rather than the pretense of common interests.

With the advent of online forums, extremists have an unprecedented ability to find like-minded people and cluster in exclusive communities. But a counterweight to such community exclusivity is the universality of information, particularly expertise in explosives and other violent tactics.

Al Qaeda and its affiliated movements are especially aggressive about pushing out non-ideological tactical information, including English-language texts on improvised explosive techniques and detailed how-to videos. Brice also used AQAP's Inspire magazine to hone his impersonation of a jihadist terrorist.

Such forum shopping may be particularly relevant to the Pacific Northwest. Gomez and his fellow counterterrorism agents in Washington have been busy breaking a diverse assortment of domestic terrorism cases in recent months.

In January, a backpack bomb was found in Spokane on the route of a Martin Luther King Day parade. The FBI arrested Kevin Harpham, of Colville, Wash., a former member of the white supremacist National Alliance, although Gomez said Harpham is belived to have acted alone.

Earlier this month, Briana Waters pleaded guilty in Tacoma to arson and explosives charges in a 10-year-old case of eco-terrorism at the University of Washington, cutting a plea deal to cooperate in ongoing investigations of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.

And on Thursday, FBI agents arrested two Muslim men in Seattle who are accused of planning a gun attack on a military enlistees' processing office.

Gomez said the Seattle area is also home to a significant anarchist movement, as well as both historical and modern white supremacist movements, such as the Northwest Migration, which envisions the Pacific Northwest as the site for a future white separatist homeland.

People in Washington and Seattle are "extremely tolerant of a number of divergent views," Gomez said. "People feel comfortable up here talking about all their radical politics," resulting in greater visibility and possibly creating an environment more conducive to action. While the terrorist networks observed in Seattle have branches all over the country, he said, they tend to operate more covertly in places like Baltimore or Washington.

For much more about the history of American jihadism and its current incarnation, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Jihad Joe was reviewed in the Sunday New York Times Book Review.

Journalists interested in discussing American jihadists and terrorists can contact Berger here.

For reviews and additional information about the book, click here.

Labels: American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Jihadist-Forums, Joseph-Brice, white-supremacists

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Texas Deputies Shooter Linked To Republic Of Texas Militia; Documents Show History Of Tension

A Texas man with alleged links to an anti-government militia was arrested Saturday after shooting two sheriff's deputies and provoking a 22-hour standoff was arrested.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (via the Associated Press), Victor White is connected to the Republic of Texas organization, which the AP describes as a group that "asserts Texas is an independent nation whose government was reactivated in 2005 after 163 years of dormancy." DPS also described the group as a white supremacist organization.

The Republic of Texas pre-dates 2005, however. The group appears to have originated during the term of then-Gov. George W. Bush. The following documents from the Texas state archives shed some light on the group's origins. I have redacted phone numbers which were listed on the documents, but I will make the originals available to major news outlets on request.

June 1995 letter to country sheriffs

This letter claims to be from a group called "Texas Volunteers" which appears to be a precursor to the Republic of Texas. The letter shows the movement's rocky relationship with law enforcement long predates the violence of this week.

The letter warns sheriffs that their duty is to protect the people, not just from criminals but from the federal government (all typos are continued from the original):

The "FED's" have invaded the Counties, and perpertrated acts against the people without taking the steps to make their actions lawful. Since the people elected you to protect them, it is YOUR reponsibility to protect them in all case., even against the illegal acts of the I.R.S. A thief with the I.R.S. or the A.T.F.,or any other FED agency is no less a thief than a drug addict with a smoking gun. [...]

It is our program to support you as you protect the Constitution of the
Republic of Texas against all enemies, foreign and domestic, as per your
oath of office, filed as required by law.

Obviously, supporting the Constitution is protecting the people.

As to those Sheriffs who do not support the Law of the Constitution or
their oaths of office, we will proceed to have them removed from office,
and have them replaced by a Sheriff who will enforce the Constitution,
and act from the power therof.

January 1996 open letter to militia groups

This letter, addressed to known Texas militia and white supremacy groups, appears to announce the formation of the Republic of Texas movement and invites the "commanders and executive officers" of Texas militias to attend a dinner on January 13, 1996 in Austin, Texas.

"We apologize for the short notice," wrote Archie H. Lowe, who described himself as "Secretary of Defense" for the Republic of Texas, "but events have been moving very rapidly and the press of business of the provisional government has been great."

Labels: Militia-Movement, Republic-Of-Texas, Victor-White, white-supremacists

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White Supremacist 'Plot' To Kill Obama

Daniel Cowart pleaded guilty yesterday to plotting to kill then-candidate Barak Obama in October of 2008.

Cowart, a white supremacist, met a like-minded individual, Paul Schlesselman, on the Internet, according to Cowart's guilty plea. They discussed going on a killing spree during which they would kill 88 people. The number 88 is used by white supremacists as code for "Heil Hitler" (H being the eight letter of the alphabet, so HH=88). They also discussed beheading 14 African-Americans (14 is another indirect reference to white supremacist ideology, link).

According to a criminal complaint, they also discussed killing black schoolchildren and eventually decided that the coda to their spree of violence would be to assassinate Obama while wearing white tuxedos and top hats.

After discussing plans for armed robberies to financing weapons purchases, the two men and a female friend cased the home of an elderly they had picked out for a home invasion, but backed out at the last minute, opting instead to go on a vandalism spree.

Instead, they loaded up their car with weapons and decorated it with white supremacist and neo-Nazi symbols including a large swastika and the words "Honk if you love Hitler" written on the bumper. The brilliant idea here was to drive around until they provoked a confrontation with a random person, whom they would then shoot. This plan brought them to the attention of the local sheriff, resulting in their arrest.

Criminal complaint, Daniel Cowart

Indictment, Daniel Cowart

Guilty plea, Daniel Cowart

Labels: Daniel-Cowart, INTELFILES, Paul-Schlesselman, white-supremacists

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Full Text of Indictment, Connecticut White Supremacists

Five members of a white supremacist group were indicted by a grand jury for planning an armed assault on a firearms company stockpile, illegally gun sales and attempting to manufacture grenades.

The group was known as the Connecticut White Wolves and later as Battalion 14. Members of the group named in the indictment include: Kenneth Zrallack, Alexander Defelice, Edwin T. Westmoreland, William R. Bolton and David Sutton.

Full text of indictment

Labels: Alexander-Defelice, Battalion-14, Connecticut-White-Wolves, David-Sutton, Edwin-Westmoreland, INTELFILES, Kenneth-Zrallack, white-supremacists, William-Bolton

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Hal Turner Court Records

A mistrial has been declared in the case of Hal Turner, the white supremacist radio host accused of inciting violence against law enforcement figures and judges. The mistrial due to deadlocked jury does not appear to hinge on the accusation that Turner was an FBI informant, but much digital ink has been spilled on this subject during the course of the trial. Here are some of the key documents.

Hal Turner criminal complaint

Hal Turner indictment

The following transcripts are related to Turner's claim of being an FBI informant, including the government's concession that the radio host had "intermittent" contact with the FBI.

Transcript of July 28, 2009

Transcript of August 10, 2009

Affidavit of Phyllis Turner (claiming her husband worked for the FBI)

Labels: Hal-Turner, INTELFILES, white-supremacists

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Indictment of Robert Joos, Linked to Mahon Arrests

The Mahon arrests (document, story) were not an isolated incident, it appears. It's part of a sting by the ATF using informants and at least one undercover agent. The sting is described in great detail in the document below.

Affidavit pertaining to the indictment of Robert Neil Joos

Labels: Dennis-Mahon, INTELFILES, white-supremacists

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Bombing Investigation: ATF Raids White Supremacists;Three States In One Day

By J.M. Berger
INTELWIRE.com

An undercover ATF sting raided white supremacists in at least three states on Thursday in an investigation connected to the 2004 letter bombing of Don Logan, an African-American who worked for a diversity program in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms infiltrated "several" undercover agents into white supremacist circles as part of the investigation, according to court records.

In Arizona, Dennis and Daniel Mahon were arrested this week by the ATF on a sealed indictment issued June 16.

In Missouri, Robert Neil Joos was arrested by the ATF on a firearms charge. An ATF affidavit said the arrest resulted from a multi-year investigation into the Logan bombing.

According to the affidavit, Dennis Mahon called Joos on the morning of the bombing.

"The subsequent investigation has focused on several persons involved in the white
supremacist movements throughout the United States," according to the affidavit. The probe included "several ATF undercover agents" and at least one informant.

The informant and one undercover agent made close contact with the Mahon brothers, who described Joos as the owner of a "retreat" used as a training camp by the white supremacist movement.

Undercover operatives subsequently made contact with Joos and toured his facility, according to the affidavit. The retreat included a system of caves which Joos claimed were ideal for evading law enforcement.

"The ATF's investigation of Robert JOOS utilized covert tactics, to include undercover meetings with JOOS while on JOOS' Missouri property," the affidavit states.

ATF conducted a third raid yesterday at the home of Thomas Metzger, one of the chief advocates of "leaderless resistance," in Warsaw, Indiana. Metzger was not arrested.

Metzger told the Warsaw, Indiana-based Times-Union that the raid was linked to the Mahon arrests. Metzger is considered a leader of the White Aryan Resistance, an organization to which the Mahons also reportedly belong.

"I've known them [the Mahon brothers] for years," Metzger told the newspaper. "I've talked to them on the phone, but it was usually about the weather or their invalid mother.

David Paul Hammer, an inmate who spent about two years on death row with convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, said McVeigh told him that German national Andreas Strassmeir and convicted bank robber Michael Brescia planned the Oklahoma City bombing at a white separatist compound known as Elohim City.

An ATF informant named Carol Howe also allegedly heard Mahon and Strassmeir discussing plans to bomb federal buildings, including one in Oklahoma City, prior to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (document). According to court testimony by Howe in 1997, she heard Strassmeir discussing these plans prior to the actual bombing.

Labels: Dennis-Mahon, INTELWIRE-Exclusive, white-supremacists

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Obama's Assassination Threat

Below are indictments of the three men arrested after allegedly threatening to kill presidential candidate Barack Obama. Media reports have tied the men to white supremacist organizations.

Indictment of Tharin Gartrell (Obama threat)

Indictment of Nathan Johnson (Obama threat)

Indictment of Shawn Robert Adolf (Obama threat)

Commentary on INTELWIRE.com

Labels: Aryan-Nations, Assassinations, INTELFILES, Obama, The-Order, white-supremacists

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PATCON Revealed: An Exclusive Look Inside The FBI's Secret War With The Militia Movement

By J.M. Berger
INTELWIRE.com


Editor's note: This story has been substantially updated and revised. The new version can be seen at Foreign Policy.

---

Archived version of previous story is here.

Undercover FBI agents posing as white supremacists gathered alarming intelligence about the militia movement during the early 1990s, according to documents obtained by INTELWIRE.

But FBI headquarters abruptly terminated the undercover operation -- code-named PATCON -- just three months after the disastrous siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

The timing could hardly have been worse; the networks targeted by the investigation were inflamed to violence by Waco. At least one individual targeted in the investigation -- Andreas Strassmeier -- was later linked to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Another target of the investigation was later linked to Eric Rudolph, perpetrator of the 1996 Olympic Park bombing.

PATCON was the centerpiece of an extensive investigation of militia and white supremacist groups in Arizona, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas.

From 1991 to 1993, at least three undercover agents working under the auspices of the FBI posed as members of a fictional white supremacist group seeking closer ties with established organizations.

The targeted groups "advocate violent overthrow of the U.S. government and the establishment of an Aryan nation," according to the documents.

Origins of the investigation

Texas Reserve Milita: Aims and practices

Informants in the Ranks

The PATCON Undercover Operation

Interlocking

Paranoia at the CMA Convention

The Order of Saint John

Names in the documents

The FBI documents linked below describe the PATCON operation as well as the Bureau's efforts to penetrate two secretive extremist groups, the Texas Reserve Militia (TRM), based in the Austin, Texas, area, and the Order of Saint John (OSJ), based in Benton, Tennessee.

Despite the operation's success in gathering intelligence on the militia movement, the PATCON undercover operation was officially terminated on July 15, 1993, six months after the disastrous siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

FBI field offices in Baltimore, Knoxville and San Antonio were ordered to shut down the PATCON operation in an FBI teletype, in which FBI headquarters deemed there was "insufficient justification" to continue the investigation. It is not clear from the documents that even one significant arrest resulted from the two-year investigation.

But the very same militia groups targeted by PATCON had been inflamed to violent action after Waco, in a wave of anger that led directly to the Oklahoma City bombing. At least one member of the Texas Reserve Militia -- Andreas Strassmeier -- has been linked to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

In 2005, INTELWIRE filed a request with the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act for all documents pertaining to a militia organization called the Texas Light Infantry, one of the names used by the Texas Reserve Militia. After reviewing the records, INTELWIRE filed follow-up requests for records concerning the a group known as the Order of Saint John.

The two FOIA responses contained documents that revealed the PATCON operation. Believing more documents exist, INTELWIRE filed a request specifically for records related to PATCON. Last month, the FBI claimed it was unable to located any such documents -- despite the fact that all the documents cited in this story were provided in response to previous FOIA requests. INTELWIRE is appealing the refusal.

ORIGINS

During the late 1980s, the Texas Reserve Militia was formed by some members of the Texas State Guard, a volunteer state military force intended for use when the National Guard is unavailable. The TRM broke away from the state organization when Texas officials determined they were forming an unconstitutional "private army."

The group was also known as the Texas Light Infantry, the Second Order and The Order. The latter names were inspired by a 1980s neo-Nazi gang that robbed banks and counterfeited money to fund attacks on the government and target ethnicities (external link).

The FBI believed TRM leadership was linked to the original Order and also closely tied to the Aryan Nations white supremacist network based in Idaho (external link). One TRM member reportedly received at least $250,000 in funds from armored car robberies by the original Order, according to the documents.

According to the FBI's case files -- including an FBI letterhead memorandum dated December 21, 1990 -- the TRM conducted monthly paramilitary training courses at a camp in the Austin, Texas, area. The camp provided training in firearms, explosive and guerilla warfare for volunteers from Texas and out-of-state, including skinheads from Las Vegas and Memphis. By the end of 1991, the TRM had about 50 members and a much larger number of informal associates, the documents said.

In or around July 1990, a member of the Texas Reserve Militia threatened to murder two FBI agents with the Austin field office, according to documents obtained by INTELWIRE. The person who threatened the FBI agents "is a major figure in the Aryan Nations," an FBI teletype stated. In response to the threat, the FBI initiated a domestic terrorism investigation against the TRM. Undercover agents were deployed to infiltrate the group, an operation that would later expand into PATCON.


AIMS AND PRACTICES

"Members of the group advocate violent overthrow of the U.S. government and the establishment of an Aryan nation," according to the FBI letterhead memorandum. At TRM training camps, military discipline was enforced and officers were saluted with the Nazi "Heil Hitler" gesture, the memo said.

At one point, the FBI searched the training camp and found one exploded and one partially assembled pipe bomb, the memo said. According to an FBI lab report, the pipe bomb found on the premises was created by a "skilled craftsman" with a high degree of sophistication.

TRM members also trained with firearms, including fully automatic weapons, the documents state.

Undercover agents were dispatched to investigate the group after the threat to murder two Austin-based FBI agents, the documents said. The threat was sparked by the FBI's arrest of an unnamed TRM member on an unspecified charge.

The undercover agents posed as "white supremacists who were willing to commit violence in order to further the white supremacy movement."

Informants were also actively recruited to penetrate the TRM's ranks. During the course of the investigation, mulitple informants provided information about the organization to the FBI.

In one instance, the FBI documented a meeting between TRM members and an Austin-area police officer, during which they discussed keeping the group's activity secret and paying bribes to the police officer to suppress complaints by the training camp's neighbors concerning the group's activities.

A confidential source of the Los Angeles FBI field office revealed that a prominent TRM member had set up a bulletin board network "in which persons with the right code numbers can dial [redacted] phone and enter his computer system and enter the names and addresses of homosexuals who live in the U.S. and Canada. The purpose of the list, according to the source, is to allow action to be taken against those homosexual individuals in the event of a takeover of the United States by the Aryan Nations."

In 1991, authorities authorities discovered a cache of explosives and paramilitary supplies in Alabama. The FBI believed the explosives were linked to the TRM, according to a February 1992 letter from FBI Assistant Director Larry Potts to the criminal investigative division of the U.S. Army.

The explosives were found next to a highway north of Birmingham and included ammonium nitrate, the primary explosive component later used in the Oklahoma City bombing. According to the letter, the material and other items found at the site were intended for a raid on a National Guard convoy.

INFORMANTS IN THE RANKS

Starting some time in 1990, a parade of informants from within the militia movement began talking to the FBI about planned activities by the TRM and other groups. Over the course of several months, the intelligence became alarming and expanded to include other militia groups around the country.

On November 21, an informant told the FBI in Phoenix about a shipment of various explosives, improvised military-style ordinance, detonators and assault rifles (illegally modified to be fully automatic).

The informant told FBI agents that the TRM was joining forces with an organization called the Texas Reenactment Group and that the combined organization would train using "old East German police uniforms which are being obtained by [redacted]." The merger was expected to increase membership of the TRM by at least 200 members. Members would be armed with fully automatic M-1 carbines.

The source said all members of the group "hate the current President, George Bush" and subcribed to conspiracy theories about a "New World Order" (external link).

On January 22, 1992, an informant revealed to the FBI that the TRM leadership had scheduled a meeting with a member of Civilian Material Assistance (CMA), "which started out as an anti-communist group supporting the Contras in Nicaragua, but has recently turned into a racist right-wing white supremacist group."

That meeting had its origins at the November 16-18, 1991, CMA convention in Decatur, Alabama, where a trend toward cooperation by diverse extremist groups began to emerge as a significant potential threat to U.S. domestic security. By the time of the convention, the FBI had infiltrated a number of sources into the mix.

PATCON

In March 1991, the FBI extended its investigation of the TRM into a undercover sting code-named "PATCON."

Details of the PATCON operation were included in a routine request for re-authorization of the TRM investigation. The January 1992 memo from San Antonio-based FBI Agent Daniel Coulson is addressed to Assistant FBI Director Larry Potts.

"During March 1991, a Group 1 Undercover Operation titled PATCON was approved, utilizing three undercover agents, in order to prevent the murder of (two FBI) agents," Coulson wrote, referring to the threat cited above.

PATCON initially targeted the TRM, but in January 1993, the undercover agents were also deployed to penetrate the Order of St. John, according to a follow-up memo from Coulson to Potts.

PATCON undercover agents posed as extremists who financed their activities through armored car robberies, according to an October 1992 teletype.

PATCON was a Group I Undercover Operation. According to Justice Department guidelines, Group I operations must be approved by FBI Headquarters and are used for investigation involving "sensitive circumstances" or significant financial investment.

"Sensititive circumstances" include investigating possible criminal misconduct or corruption by government employees, political and/or religious organizations. They may also describe optations "having a significant effect on or constituting a significant intrusion into the legitimate operation of a federal, state, or local governmental entity."

Group I undercover operations may involve "activity by an undercover employee that is proscribed by federal, state, or local law as a felony or that is otherwise a serious crime" and "activities that present a significant risk of violence, risk of financial loss, or a realistic potential for significant claims against the United States."

One possible factor in the Group I designation involves an investigation of military equipment stolen from Fort Hood, Texas. According to several documents, an active duty soldier at Fort Hood was an associate and possible member of the TRM. PATCON undercover agents tracked and in at least one case purchased some of the stolen equipment.

Another factor is only referenced in short asides among the documents currently released. A October 1992 teletype notes that part of the PATCON budget was reserved "for the purchase of Stinger missiles." Several documents refer to the possible theft and resale of Stingers by militia groups, but details are sparse. It's not clear whether the Stingers actually existed and whether PATCON recovered them.

INTERLOCKING

PATCON was fully operational by the time the CMA convention was held in November 1991.

The convention featured extremist speakers from around the country, most of whom were pursuing some sort of racial agenda. An FD-302 interrogation report dated November 21, 1991, provided an extremely detailed report on the event.

One speaker, described in the documents as a U.S. Marine, addressed the convention on the new cooperative strategy. Before beginning his speech, he requested that all cameras and recorders be turned off.

According to an informant, the Marine discussed a new strategy for the assembled extremists -- "interlocking anti-government groups so that the movement could be ready to fight the government when the government attempts to take over the rights of the citizens." The speaker believed this battle would take place within two years.

According to the informant, "interlocking" would connect extremist groups by "making members of one group members of another group" in order to "increase communication and cooperation among these groups" so that they could unite to violently oppose the government.

"This interlocking procedure ... allows groups with different viewpoints but with the same common antigovernment beliefs to join together," according to the informant.

After the Marine, a member of CMA also spoke about interlocking. One attendee objected to CMA interlocking with "hate groups such as the KKK" and was told that "come compromises had to be made" in order to fight the New World Order, according to the informant.

Another document reveals that CMA and the Aryan Nations were planning to interlock "for the purpose of fighting the U.S. government."

Under the interlocking scheme, "the CMA and the TRM are so closely related that officers in one have equal and dual rank in the other group," according to an informant cited in a December 26, 1991 letterhead memorandum.

PARANOIA AT THE CONVENTION

One member attending the convention attempted to interest people in a modified cannon launcher he had designed for long-range attacks (see story).

Another informant said the cannon's inventor wanted to use the cannon to "lob shells" into the FBI and IRS buildings in Phoenix, Arizona. The inventor was later arrested in relation to this threat, the documents said -- one of the only arrests documented in the case files in relation to any aspect of the investigation.

An informant who attended the convention said the inventor grilled attendees for names and addresses, leading many to suspect he was a government agent.

The informant and another who attended the conference said the attendees were paranoid about government surveillance. Although convention attendees aimed most of their mistrust at each other, they did come close to discovering one member of the FBI's actual surveillance team, according to one informant.

THE ORDER OF SAINT JOHN

A map of the Benton, Tenn., compound used by the Order of St. John, which the FBI penetrated in 1993.

One speaker at the convention, representing a group known as the American Pistol and Rifle Association, coached attendees on tactics for shooting police officers. PATCON agents would follow connections between CMA and the APRA to an armed compound in rural Tennessee.

The Order of St. John, based in Benton, Tennessee, was closely linked to APRA -- to the extent that they appeared to be the same group with adjacent mailing addresses. Both groups were tied to the TRM, according to several FBI documents.

Like the TRM, the Order of St. John also went by "The Order." FBI sources penetrated the group so effectively that they were able to draw maps of the Benton compound.

A PATCON agent met with the leader of the Order of St. John, John L. Grady, at the group's Benton compound in September 1992 and on at least one other occasion, according to an October 1992 teletype and June 1993 memorandum. (Please see notes below regarding allegations against named individuals in these documents.)

Grady told the PATCON agent that some members of the OSJ-linked American Pistol and Rifle Association had been members of the original Order, describing them as "hardcore types and having committed a number of indiscretions for which they were now serving prison terms," according to the documents.

The September 1992 meeting coincided with the APRA's annual conference. Security was tight at the conference, including patrols armed with semi-automatic pistols. The PATCON was told that a large stockpile of weapons was stored at the compound. Speeches were given at the event.

One attendee identified in the October 1992 teletype, was Tom Posey, a leader of the CMA who had been deeply implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal. The PATCON agent was shown five sets of night-vision goggles in the back of Posey's vehicle, according to the document. The agent bought the goggles for $7,500, the document states, and they "appeared to be part of the Fort Hood theft." Curiously, the FBI field office in San Antonio was instructed to check the serial numbers of the goggles "without revealing to Army authorities" that they had been recovered.

A document states that Grady told the undercover agent he was "aware of various law enforcement agency efforts to infiltrate his organization as well as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and that a group called 'Klan Watch' put out a publication which expressed views contrary to Grady." (KlanWatch was a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

On a second visit, the PATCON agent and was "warmly welcomed," according to the memo. He received a tour of the compound, including a library "which contained over 30,000 books on topics ranging from religion to conspiracy."

"Grady talked about the aftermath of the Waco incident and stated that the Davidians shot in the compound had been killed by a Special Forces unit," the memo said. It was later revealed in mainstream media reports that Special Forces officers had been involved in planning the raid, but that was not public knowledge at the time of the visit. The leak of that story was linked to another underground group (external link).

NAMES IN THE DOCUMENTS

INTELWIRE is publishing a representative sampling of more than 2,000 pages of documents relevant to this story, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Additional documents will be published in the future, and additional related FOIA requests are in process.

The first batch of documents can be viewed by clicking here.

The documents name several figures in connection with the investigation. It is important to note that in almost every case, the individuals named in the documents have never been prosecuted for the acts alleged in these documents. INTELWIRE does not assert any claim as to the truth of the allegations contained in the documents.

Some individuals whose names are redacted or incomplete in the documents have been identified by INTELWIRE. Additional reports are planned to address this issue and the veracity of the claims made in the documents.

Members of the Texas Reserve Militia identified in the FBI's extensive case files included:

Watt (first name not given), a former member of the Texas State Guard (a legitimate government reserve group) who was described as one of the founders.

Louis Beam, a prominent neo-Nazi with ties to the Aryan Nations and the original Order, who ran an early white supremacist computer bulletin board network and published a newsletter called The Seditionist. (External link)

Someone who claimed to be a former Special Forces member; the person's name was redacted from documents by the FBI.

Associates of the Texas Reserve Militia who are named in the documents include:

John L. Grady, leader of another militia organization known as the Order of St. John. Grady was later linked to Eric Rudolph by prosecutors who tried Rudolph for a 1998 Birmingham abortion clinic bombing (New York Times).

Thomas Posey, leader of a paramilitary group known as Civilian Material Assistance. According to a January 22, 1992 teletype, CMA "started out as an anti-communist group supporting the Contras in Nicaragua, but has recently turned into a racist right-wing white supremacist group."

Another member of the group, described but not named in the redacted documents released by the FBI, was Andreas Strassmeier, a German national who would later be linked to the Oklahoma City bombing.

The son of a prominent German politician and a veteran of that country's army, he moved to the United States from Hamburg in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and established relationships with various racist and anti-government movements around the country. (US v Nichols, 96-CR-68, 12/10/97; In Bad Company, Hamm, pp. 116-117)

Members of the TRM suspected Strassmeier was a government informant, according to published reports. (McCurtain Gazette, FBI document links former Green Beret to McVeigh, bombing, Cash and Charles, Aug 31, 2005)

Shortly before the Oklahoma City bombing, an informant told the ATF Strassmeier was plotting to blow up U.S. federal buildings. The informant also said Strassmeier had traveled to Oklahoma City prior to the bombing.

Right after renting the Ryder truck used in the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh called the Elohim City compound and asked to speak with Strassmeier (US v Nichols). Another informant described at least one additional call (story and documents). After the bombing, Strassmeier fled the country and returned to Germany.

The FBI interrogated Strassmeier by phone in May 1996, but agents did not ask him about his association with the TRM (document).

The documents also name the official responsible for overseeing PATCON from FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. -- Larry Potts, then an assistant FBI director. During his tenure with the FBI, Potts was involved in the 1991 Ruby Ridge standoff and the 1993 Waco siege -- two events that created deep suspicion and hostility among members of the militia movement.

In addition to Strassmeier, several key events and figures encountered in the PATCON investigation overlap with the activities of the Aryan Republican Army, a white supremacist bank robbery gang that has been linked to the Oklahoma City Bombing. Like the Order, the ARA robbed banks with the stated purposes of financing an armed revolution against the U.S. government.

In a 2007 affidavit (story, document), one member of the gang said he suspected Richard Guthrie and other gang members of taking part in the Oklahoma City bombing. In July 1996, Guthrie appeared to commit suicide in prison, shortly before he was scheduled to testify about the ARA's activities (documents).

Shawn Kenney, a member of the gang and an FBI informant, had his criminal record "actively erased," according to an affidavit by former Cincinatti police officer Matthew J. Moning, who investigated the ARA, also known as the Midwest Bank Robbers.

Another FBI informant close to the ARA was Scott McCarthy, according to a 2006 Congressional probe of the bombing (story and full text). The report, written by U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, claimed the Justice Department was "unwilling to permit" investigators to speak with McCarthy.

Prior to their arrest, ARA members made a videotape outlining a proposed campaign of racial and antigovernment violence. According to a 2002 story in the McCurtain Gazette, two copies of the tape were seized by the FBI in mailing envelopes addressed to Richard Butler of the Aryan Nations and to Louis Beam, who is named in the Texas Reserve Militia documents.

The ARA videotape also threatened terrorist violence against the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, a threat that was later carried out by Eric Rudolph.

This story was updated on October 10, 2007.

Labels: American-Terrorists, INTELWIRE-Exclusive, OKBOMB, Richard-Lee-Guthrie, Secrets-Scandals, white-supremacists

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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