On Tuesday evening, reporter and author Daniel Levitas delivered a lecture at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in downtown Grand Rapids on domestic terrorism. Building off his book The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right, Levitas focused his lecture on rightwing domestic terrorism and the groups in which they are involved.
Levitas began his talk by recounting the Oklahoma City bombing 12 years ago that killed 160 people and wounded 500. Levitas reminded the audience that at the time of the attack, many commentators in the media declared that it was an act of "Mideast terrorism" despite the fact that it would later turn out to be an attack staged by domestic terrorists of the radical right. Levitas explained that the radical right movement had been building for several years without any attention from law enforcement officials and that the attack was a surprise to law enforcement officials.
Despite the fact that law enforcement officials were taken by surprise, a radical rightwing movement had been organizing for several years and had been building a movement around the idea that the government was waging war against them. The militia movement had thousands of members around the country, including some 10,000 members in Michigan, the majority of whom were stockpiling weapons and supplies for what they thought would be a future invasion of the United States by the "New World Order." At the same time, these groups saw the actions of the United States government, including the siege at Waco, the shooting of a white supremacist's wife at Ruby Ridge, and the passage of the Brady Bill--which they saw as an attempt to disarm America and make it vulnerable to an attack by the "New World Order"--as evidence of a war against them.
Despite some success in prosecuting militia and radical right groups in the wake of Oklahoma City by the government, these groups have continued to organize, even as many of them have given up on broad-based movements. According to Levitas, many white supremacist groups have given up on the government, essentially viewing it as "lost" to "non-whites," Jews, and immigrants. This was clear immediately after 9/11, when many white supremacists applauded the attack on the "Zionist Occupying Government"--commonly referred to as "ZOG"--and cheered the killing of 10,000 "ZOGites." White supremacists such as Hardy Lloyd of the World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist group, cheered the attack and talked about the need to get guns ready for the revolution. A leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance applauded the attacks as well, stating "we may not want them marrying our daughters...but anyone who is willing to drive a plane into a building to kill Jews is alright by me."
Levitas explained to the audience that while receiving much less attention in the media, arrests of white supremacist and radical right individuals have increased since 9/11 and have made up a significant number of those arrested on terrorism charges. He cited two examples, Eric Rudolph and William Krar, both of whom identified with the radical right. Eric Rudolph, who set off a pipe bomb at the Olympics in Atlanta and who attacked people at a family planning clinic, attacked because he believe the government had lost its authority because of abortion and tolerance of homosexuality. William Krar, a militia member from Texas, had built a chemical weapon--a sodium-cyanide bomb--like the ones the government fears may be built by Al Qaida. Yet, despite the destructive power of the bomb, the 5,000 rounds of ammunition, 100 pipe bombs, and the neo-Nazi literature that he was arrested with, the government never made Krar's arrest a serious issue.
While it is easy to focus on a particularly violent fringe of the radical right, Levitas argued that the real problem lies where the ideologies of the radical right tap into widely held sentiments and stereotypes. To illustrate this point, Levitas explained that 14% of Americans hold anti-Semitic stereotypes, including the idea that Jews care only for themselves, that Jews control Wall Street, and that Jews killed Christ. In regards to immigration, Levitas explained that a significant portion of Americans responded to a survey stating that it "bothers" them to see immigrants succeed while native-born United States citizens are struggling. Levitas also cited two recent votes that showed widespread voter support for racist policies--a vote in 2000 in Alabama to remove an amendment from the constitution banning whites and African-Americans from marrying and a 2002 vote in Oregon to remove language in the state constitution saying that "negroes" could not enter into contracts or hold property. In both cases, a significant portion of the voters--40% and 31% respectively--voted to keep the racist language in the constitution. To seriously address the threat of radical rightwing movements, Levitas argued that people need to address the underlying ideologies rather than focusing purely on a law enforcement strategy.
