Study: Anti-government Groups Thrive After Oklahoma City Bombing

Membership in many anti-government militias has grown despite and possibly even because of the April 19 Oklahoma City bombing, according to a new study by the Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL report also confirms that some militia propaganda continues to exhibit an anti-Semitic strain that could become more pervasive among these groups as a result of their conspiracy theories.

“Militia gains plainly appear to outweigh losses — contrary to the widespread expectation that public shock and revulsion at the bombing might prompt the militia to disband,” the study says.

Titled “Beyond the Bombing: The Militia Menace Grows,” the report is a follow- up to ADL’s October 1994 study on militias.

Militia groups now exist in 40 states, and 15,000 Americans now have ties to anti-government organizations, the study shows. Six of the 10 states that do not host militia organizations are in the heavily populated Northeast, the study says, a finding that backs up the contention that the groups are more prevalent in small, rural communities.

In the October 1994 report, “Armed and Dangerous: Militias Take aim at the Federal Government,” ADL discovered that only 13 states displayed evidence of militia activities and that about 10,000 people were affiliated with these groups.

“While we tracked a disturbing growth of militia groups between October and April, we were especially distressed to discover the movement continued to grow even after the devastation in Oklahoma City,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director.

“As long as there are people willing to actively buy into the incendiary, paranoid propaganda of extremist militia leaders, we must take them seriously and remain alert to the threat they pose.”

The study points out that newer communications technology, such as fax machines and the Internet, has partly led to the increase in membership.

These tools “are being utilized to promote their conspiratorial, anti- government, anti-gun control and sometimes anti-Semitic message,” Foxman said.

A group known as Citizens for a Constitutional Georgia has held meetings at which anti-Semitic literature, such as “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” is for sale, according to the ADL report.

The report also noted that the notorious anti-Semitic screed is also sold at meetings in Nebraska of a militia group that uses the names Constitutional Reinstatement Group and the Nebraska Militia.

In New Mexico, the ADL found, a Farmington militia is known to promote neo-Nazi and white supremacist sentiments.

The report also cites ADL’s finding that Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, who reputedly has connections with anti-government groups, advertised a rocket launcher for sale in The Spotlight, a weekly publication of the anti- Semitic Liberty Lobby.

Militia members may be spreading anti-Semitic unwittingly.

“Whether they know it or not, they are espousing anti-Semitic views,” said Arthur Berger, director of public relations for the American Jewish Committee. “Some of these militia take their foundations from the White Aryans and other Aryan groups.”

Jewish groups are not taking the militia threat lightly.

Last month, AJCommittee President Robert Rifkind testified at the Senate’s omnibus counterterrorism bill hearings.

Although he applauded the federal government’s efforts to eliminate terrorism, he urged politicians to continue waging their war against this “compelling national concern.”

“The threat of terrorism, we all know now all too well, cannot be minimized,” he said.

In a telephone interview, Foxman called for the outlawing of paramilitary groups.

“In our society there’s no need for it,” he said. “We’re permitting a blending of ideologies and arms, and that’s a catalyst for disaster.”