The View From The Far Right

April 19 now holds huge symbolic significance for movement true believers. in March, a newsletter published by the Militia of Montana ran a little list to stress the importance of that day. April 19, 1775, was the date of the Battle of Lexington, the newsletter said. April 19,1943, was the day that "Warsaw burned." April 19,1992, was the date of an aborted ATF raid on Randy Weaver, a white supremacist whose wife was later shot dead by an FBI sniper during a tense standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. April 19, 1995, was the scheduled date for the execution of Richard Wayne Snell, a white supremacist who, like Weaver, is regarded as a movement "martyr." Snell, convicted of killing a pawnshop operator in Arkansas, was indeed executed some 12 hours after the Oklahoma City bombing-and after cryptically telling his executioners they had picked a bad day."

We will never know if Snell had some foreknowledge of the Oklahoma City bombing-but it is a fact that many militia members were on high alert in the weeks before the event. In March, numerous Internet messages warned that the ATF and selected U.S. Army units were training at Fort Bliss, Texas, for a massive raid against militia members on March 25. ATF spokesman Jack Killorin said, "The whole thing was ridiculous. There was absolutely no basis for any of that-no such activity was or is being planned."

Nevertheless, a Texas Republican congressman, Rep. Steve Stockman, took the rumors seriously enough to write Janet Reno, warning that a "paramilitary-style attack against Americans" could lead to a "bloody fiasco like Waco." The National Rifle Association, meanwhile, alerted its members to the rumored raid on its own bulletin board, called GUN-Talk. On March 23, the NRA said it got "no response from either the Justice Department or the Treasury Department" to its inquiries about the rumors, but added that it would monitor the possible "use of excessive force on the part of certain federal agencies." "This appears to be part of a deliberate attempt to promote fear among people who are heavily armed and have already demonstrated paranoia and distrust of government," the ATF's Killorin said.

The chat got worse. On March 23, someone used the Internet to post the full text of "The Terrorist's Handbook," which includes the recipe for making an ammonium-nitrate bomb as well as detailed information on detonators. On March 26, one Internet user posted this message: "Let's assume that there ARE raids this weekend, and that some people are forced to kill federal agents. They need places to hide and get medical care. They need our support. If something DOES happen, be ready to do what you need to do,travel where you need to travel and help your fellow Americans fight the greatest threat to our liberty yet." Similar messages- some rambling, some fiery-continued to appear during April; by April 19, at least three more "patriots" had posted explicit instructions for making bombs.

Paranoid talk-and even passing out bomb recipes -is not a crime in the United States. But to the extent that it reflects the collective state of mind within the militia movement, the Internet traffic shows the paramilitary right's fundamental estrangement from the national dialogue. Movement members inhabit a world where few members of the establishment are trusted or even heard-a world in which conspiracy theories multiply and never die. A sample from a 1994 militia publication: "House to house searches and seizures are being conducted without warrants across the land. Troop movement markers (bright colored reflective stickers on the backs of road signs) and U.N. troops are already in place in this country, prepared to engage in "peace-keeping' against us. Surveillance cameras are in place atop tall light posts along highways... cars are equipped with bar codes and tracking devices ... Detention camps are already built... the country has already been divided into ten regions... under martial law."

This sort of nonsense, endlessly repeated on the Internet and on hard-right talk-radio shows, creates a climate of opinion that can defeat reality testing. Take, for example, the reaction to the Oklahoma City blast itself. to many in the movement, the bombing was staged by the government as a pretext for the long awaited crackdown against them, Norm Resnick, a talk-show host on KHNC in Jamestown, Colo., said "the vast majority" of callers to his show believe the bombing was "a government set-up" and that he himself believes "Clinton will use it" to pass pending counterterrorism legislation and "cancel the Second Amendment," which protects the right to bear arms. Bo Gritz, the flamboyant Vietnam veteran who also has a show on KHNC, called the bombing "a masterpiece of science and art" during a speech in Dallas on Friday. But on KHNC, Gritz speculated that the CIA was responsible.