Anonymous
Backwoods militias suspected of being behind biowar threat
Tue Oct 16 13:15:34 2001


http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/16-10-19101-1-7-46.html

Backwoods militias suspected of being behind biowar threat

IAN BRUCE

THE FBI's domestic terrorism unit is investigating the possible role of
illegal militia groups in the spate of anthrax outbreaks in Florida and New
York.
Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber who killed 168 people when he blew up a
federal building in 1995, was a supporter of one such group, the National
Alliance.
Others have threatened to use biological weapons, including anthrax,
botulism, and ricin, in their struggle against what they see as a global
conspiracy between the US administration and the United Nations to disarm
and enslave them. Every state has its own "patriot" group of disaffected
right-wing Christian radicals opposed to central government and federal
regulations. Most are organised along paramilitary lines.
The FBI estimates their numbers at up to 40,000, with the larger militias in
backwoods country areas. They claim they are mobilising to fight the "New
World Order".
In places like Idaho, Texas, Montana and West Virginia, they wear army
surplus camouflage uniforms and train with assault rifles and explosives
against the day when they might have to defend themselves against direct
interference from the federal authorities.
They range in outlook from Pat Robertson, a failed 1988 presidential
candidate, with his vision of a "Christian America" to the sinister Posse
Comitatus, Aryan Nations and Minnesota Patriots' Council, who favour armed
insurrection.
All have links with the National Rifle Association, the influential lobby
group which represents weapons' manufacturers, hunters and gun clubs and
campaigns for the right of all Americans "to own and bear arms".
There is some doubt as to whether this right is enshrined legally in the
American constitution but the NRA has powerful supporters in both senate and
congress and no-one has yet managed successfully to challenge the
all-pervasive nationwide gun culture.
Most of the militias' philosophy is based on white-supremacist principles,
looking down on blacks as "mud people" and Jews as instigators of the global
plot against them and manipulators of the world economy for their own
benefit.
Despite their redneck reputation, they have developed a sophisticated
communications network using computer e-mail, shortwave radio, and fax. The
North American Patriots, a group with members from California to Kansas,
publish a newsletter entitled Firearms and Freedom.
After the disastrous FBI storming of the Branch Davidian headquarters in
Waco, Texas, and the Ruby Ridge stand-off fiasco, where an FBI sniper killed
an unarmed woman in a mountain cabin, the militias have turned to the threat
of biological weapons to up the ante.
In January 1999, police and security forces responded to 30 anthrax hoaxes
in southern California alone. Since then, there have been thousands of false
alarms across the country.
Many aimed at government buildings, including deliveries of envelopes
containing suspicious white powder, were militia inspired. Others targeting
schools, hospitals or newspapers were sent by disgruntled former employees
or jilted lovers.
However, the FBI has never discounted the possibility someone might lay
hands on lethal biological agents. In 1992, two members of the Minnesota
Patriots' Council were arrested carrying vials of ricin, an extremely
dangerous toxin. They intended to use the substance to kill police officers
over a local feud.
Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nations managed to buy samples of bubonic
plague over the internet. Fortunately, the plague bacteria were inert.
Three members of the Republic of Texas bought what they thought was anthrax
in 1998. It turned out to be anthrax serum, the liquid used to inoculate
people against the infection.
An FBI source said yesterday that up to 80% of the weapons of mass
destruction inquiries carried out in the last few years involved the threat
of anthrax.
Before the death of a British-born newspaperman in Florida last week, only
28 people in the US had died from effects of the bacterium in the last 100
years.
Before biowar became a potentially popular hobby, anthrax was known as
"wool-shearer's disease" because it had been contracted only by farmworkers
in close contact with sheep, a prime carrier of the infection.
An FBI source said: "We can never rule out al Qaeda's possible role in the
current deliberate spread of anthrax. It is causing more panic than anything
else and has not, thankfully, been disseminated in a very efficient way if
the object was to inflict casualties.
"But our own militias may also have a hand in some or all of the incidents.
Copycats and hoaxers could also be having a field day. The problem is, we
just can't afford to drop our guard."
-Oct 16th


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