Right Wing Terrorism from Reagan to Obama
* What: Bombings, assassinations, and other attacks by right wing terrorists, militias, and white supremacists from 1980 to today.
* The Body Count: At least 288 murders and 588 wounded from 60 plots from 1995 to 2012. 33 of the 60 plots were successful, 27 unsuccessful.
* Additional terrorism by Christian extremists against abortion clinics and their workers included 8 murders, 41 bombings, 173 arsons, 91 attempted bombings or arsons, 619 bomb threats, and 1264 vandalisms of clinics.
* Plots included the attempted assassinations of Presidents Clinton, GW Bush (while still governor of Texas), Obama, and other federal officials. Right wing terrorism has more often been foiled by right wing, militia, and white supremacist incompetence rather than successfully prevented by US government or public vigilance.
* Who Also Gets the Blame:
* Fox News, talk radio, and various conservative commentators like Bill O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin worked consistently to deny there is any right wing terrorism. They successfully pressured the government to end monitoring and investigating these terrorists. Many have also created an atmosphere of intimidation promoting violence. In 1994, talk show host and Watergate felon Gordon Liddy urged the murder of federal agents. O'Reilly himself publicly threatened violence against abortion doctor George Tiller on two occasions. Sarah Palin often encouraged or explicitly refused to discourage violent threats by her followers against opponents.
* The National Rifle Association and the firearms manufacturers they represent. Originally an apolitical gun safety organization, by the late 1970s the NRA turned to hysterical conspiracy theories of a coming gun confiscation by the government that has never happened, or even been planned or proposed by any major figure or organization.
* The Tea Party Movement has sometimes been blamed for promoting violence. At its rallies, some members carried loaded guns or threatened violence, calling for Obama's murder or that of federal judges or congressmen, or the government's overthrow. A few spit on Black congressmen or vandalized Democratic offices.
* However, to call the Tea Party a movement is not accurate. They were initiated and funded by fairly standard Republican organizations as Freedom Works and leaders such as Dick Armey and the Koch brothers. Most observers accurately describe it as an astroturf movement rather than grassroots. While a few members promote violence, many are fairly easily manipulated and not very bright retirees living on government aid even while they protest against government aid.
* The general turn to the right politically of the country has sometimes been blamed. This is too broad a claim, since most conservatives do not favor terrorism and condemn violence such as abortion clinic bombings. Every large anti-abortion organization has condemned abortion clinic bombings and violence against clinic workers. At the same time, some observers blame the country's turn to the left under Obama. Clearly both cannot be true. Clearly also, it is not right or accurate to blame masses of ordinary people for the actions of those on the fringe.
* Certain individual politicians have sought the political support of right wing terrorist groups. Governor Rick Perry of Texas sought the support of the Republic Texas militia group, even after it carried out kidnappings, murders of law enforcement officers, attempted to obtain biological weapons, and attempted the assassination of then-Governor GW Bush and President Clinton, sending his chief of staff to seek the militia's support. Perry also spoke in favor of the militia's cause, Texas's secession from the United States. Perry repeatedly denied he spoke in favor of secession, but he is documented doing so, twice.
* Another official who sought the support of terrorist groups was Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth of Montana. After the Oklahoma City bombing she defended the militia movement, agreeing with their beliefs but disapproving of violence. She held hearings on black helicopters, a conspiracy theory claiming the UN is planning to take over the US. What Chenoweth thought were UN helicopters were owned by the Park Service.
* The list of right wing terrorists is long, their plots and actions even longer. In the late 1960s and 70s, the US faced relatively minor but widely reported attempts at left wing or counter culture terrorism. The Weather Underground, Black Liberation Army, Symbionese Liberation Army, and five Puerto Rican nationalist groups were willing to use violence, mostly bombings to destroy property or draw attention to their causes. (See Section Eleven.)
* Between them they caused a little under two dozen deaths. All except the BLA and SLA had policies to avoid deaths when possible. Some deaths were unintentional, but these groups should have realized that deaths were likely. In some cases the deaths were from poor planning, as when several Weathermen accidentally blew themselves up making bombs. Of all leftist or counter culture terrorists, only the BLA deliberately planned to kill people. The SLA was one of the stranger groups, a supposed Black liberation movement with only a single Black member, essentially a gang of bank robbers made up of sheltered white kids posing as revolutionaries.
* Compare the efforts to end their at times ludicrous attempts at terrorism to that of right wing terrorists, and it is clear much of the media has an ideological bias that is right wing, not leftist. The best examples are O'Reilly and Malkin leading their campaign to stop investigation of right wing terrorism. It is also clear law enforcement often has an enormous ideological bias. For example, anarchist Chris Plummer received a fifteen year prison sentence for breaking into a home and burning neo-Nazi recruiting materials, while Don Black, a white supremacist who tried to overthrow the government of Dominica, received only a three year US prison term. Libertarian Party candidate Ron Paul by some accounts knew of the plot in advance, but was never charged.
* Right wing terrorists can be broadly divided into:
* Anti-abortion fanatics and other Christian extremists. There is a small segment within the pro-life movement that is willing to use or threaten violence, that sees deaths of abortion clinic doctors, nurses, clinic staff, and even receptionists as a necessary sacrifice to stop abortion. Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly campaigned for years against abortion provider Dr. Tiller, even publicly threatening violence against him twice with, “If I could get my hands on him...” and “If there is a judgment day...” The Nuremberg Files was a websites with personal information to make it easier to track workers at abortion clinics. Many doctors and other clinic workers live under siege, often having to use survival tactics not so different from politicians fearing assassination such as wearing bullet proof vests, checking for bombs in their mail, and constantly altering their travel routes. In a few cases, Christian extremism overlaps with white supremacy, such as the Phineas Priesthood.
* White supremacists, white nationalists, and white separatists. These include not only the many older KKK groups but others such as Aryan Nations, Confederate Hammerskins, Council of Conservative Citizens (formerly the White Citizens Council), Creativity Movement, National Alliance, the Minutemen, National Vanguard, Phineas Priesthood, Stormfront, Volksfront, and White Aryan Resistance. There are also white supremacists who avoid violence to seek wider acceptance, such as American Renaissance with its pseudo science eugenics, and VDARE using the immigration issue to push white nationalism.
* Militia movement, secessionists, and sovereign citizen groups. The militia movement was founded by white supremacists with the intention of infiltrating and recruiting gun rights activists, especially conspiracy theorists who imagined Clinton was going to take away privately owned guns. It began right after Clinton's election, and its biggest loss of membership was right after the Oklahoma City bombing.
* Secessionists are made up mostly of Neo-Confederates, white supremacists hoping to bring back the Confederacy. The largest Neo-Confederate groups are the League of the South and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Other secessionists include the Republic of Texas militia, the Texas Nationalist Movement, and two of the strangest groups, the Washitaw Empire and the Pembina Little Shells. The Washitaws are Black supremacists allied with the Republic of Texas militia, many of whom are white supremacists. The Pembina Little Shells claim to be a Native tribe but are essentially the Delorme family and anyone they let join, including an East Indian involved in a coup in the nation of Fiji.
* There are legitimate secession groups with a legal basis to their claims, but they generally call themselves independence movements. These were actual nations seeking to become independent of the US again, in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. (See Section Seven.) There are also protest movements by either anti-environmentalist or anti-corporate groups who call for secession but are not violent, independence groups in Alaska and Vermont.
* The sovereign citizen movement was an offshoot of the militias, essentially an attempt at paper terrorism trying to use arcane legal arguments to claim to be free of government control. Typically they sell these bad legal arguments to the naïve and the desperate facing debt or foreclosures. Some also use false liens to cheat or defraud others, while some issue their own driver's licenses, plates, money, and even ministerial credentials. The courts always dismiss these faux-legal arguments as frivolous. While most sovereign citizens prefer paper terrorism, there are also dozens of incidents of violence committed by them. While many are white racists, an increasing number are from Moorish Science groups, Black supremacists who call themselves “Asiatics.”
* The early 1980s is when right wing terrorism surged. In part this was backlash against a counter culture and perceived changes in society. Bluntly, some white racists did not like seeing much of the country no longer was white like them. Just as hateful to racists, many whites no longer agreed with racism. There was also much anti-government sentiment brought by the Watergate and CIA scandals and disillusionment over the US-Vietnam War. In the US, racism and anti-government beliefs had been tied together since before the Civil War. For the abortion issue, much like anti-government sentiment, obviously the great majority of both groups never turned to violence, only an irrational fringe.
* Four presidents, from Reagan to GW Bush, could have cracked down on right wing terrorism, but did not. One of Reagan's earliest acts was allowing the CIA to spy inside the US again and giving the FBI a large anti-terrorism unit and resources. But Reagan prominently supported right wing terrorism overseas, the Contras in Nicaragua, dictatorships throughout Latin America, and he blocked boycotts of the apartheid regime in South Africa. In fact, Reagan had Nelson Mandela and the ANC labeled “terrorists.” They were not taken off the terrorist watch list until 2008.
* Neither Bush Sr. nor Clinton can claim much success against right wing terrorists either. Bush Sr. pardoned the most notorious Cuban-American terrorist. (See previous entry.) Clinton worsened right wing terrorism by his incompetence. His failure to stop his Attorney General's disastrous raid on the Branch Davidians led to a wave of paranoia and recruitment by right extremists. (See Section Four.) His administration went on to bungle several other standoffs, first with survivalist Randy Weaver and then with the Republic of Texas militia. The Weaver case turned him into yet another martyr for conspiracy theorists. The Republic of Texas militia committed terrorist acts long before and after the standoff, with government action usually only after the fact.
* GW Bush pulled many FBI agents off investigating anything not related to Al Qaeda. This not only made right wing terrorism easier. It also led to the Great Recession, since FBI agents usually investigating Wall Street fraud were diverted. (See Section Four.) The most notorious failure of the GW Bush administration on right wing terrorism was the anthrax threats. Congressmen and major media figures received letters with anthrax, or powder designed to mimic it.
* Bush falsely claimed Al Qaeda carried out the anthrax attacks and used them to argue for war with Iraq. Yet there was never any evidence tying either Al Qaeda or Iraq to any of these attacks. The two main suspects, Stephen Hatfill and Bruce Ivins, were both white American scientists. Hatfill was completely cleared. Ivins committed suicide, and the FBI declared him the one guilty of all the actual anthrax attacks. Many scientists and investigators doubted the FBI's conclusions.
* But what is certain is that there were thousands of cases of anthrax hoaxes, powder sent as threats. Many of them were sent by right wing terrorists. The Army of God, anti-abortion fanatics, claimed credit for mailing hundreds of them to abortion clinics. There had even been similar threats, anthrax hoaxes, in 1998 and 2000. The intended victims of anthrax hoaxes were all hated by the right wing, liberal congressmen, major media, and abortion clinics. Had Al Qaeda done these attacks, the obvious objectives would be strategic political targets as done on September 11, namely the White House, the Pentagon, and economic targets like the World Trade Center.
* Why did these presidents ignore the threat of right wing terrorism? None of the presidents from Reagan to the present even remotely supported any of these groups. Some far right leaders did endorse these presidents, or even began their careers working for them. Several of these presidents openly pandered to racist voters. Reagan was endorsed by the KKK, though he quickly renounced it. He announced his election bid in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the murder of three civil rights volunteers by the KKK, in a transparent attempt to court racist voters. Reagan also created one of the most vicious stereotypes, the myth of the “welfare queen,” that Blacks on welfare cheated and lived well at government expense. Most on welfare are white, mostly recently divorced single mothers. The “queen” that Reagan referred to stole a total of $8,000 over several years. *
* Though neither of the Bush presidents were remotely racist, Bush Sr. did pander to racists with his notorious Willie Horton campaign ads, promoting stereotypes of Blacks as dangerous criminals. Clinton also was not a racist, but did pander to the same stereotypes that Reagan used when discussing welfare. Bush Sr. was one of the few major Republican figures to stand up to the hard right, but after leaving office. The NRA publicly attacked federal agents as “jack booted thugs” in political ads. Bush publicly denounced them and quit his NRA membership.
* No, the reason for ignoring these terrorist threats was either being busy with other matters, in the case of both Bushes, being incompetent in Clinton's case, or ideological blindness in Reagan's case.