Homegrown terror

Who's sending out anthrax? One possibility is becoming harder to ignore: The U.S.'s own far-right extremists.

By David Neiwert

Oct. 26, 2001 | For weeks, government officials have publicly speculated that the source for anthrax attacks against the United States is almost certainly foreign -- either Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, or a rogue state, most likely Iraq.

But suddenly that's changed, and some officials, privately, are speculating to reporters that the "evildoers" behind this scourge may really be closer to home.

Tuesday, the Washington Post cited a "government official with direct knowledge of the investigation" into the origin of the anthrax spores found in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office as stating that it is "unlikely that the spores were originally produced in the former Soviet Union or Iraq." There's only one other country considered able to produce the kind of high-grade, chemically treated bioweapon discovered in Daschle's mail: the United States.

Of course, even a homegrown weapon could be stolen by a foe, and it's quite possible these government experts, like others in recent weeks, are speaking prematurely and inaccurately. Still, their comments raise the specter of involvement by the United States' own internal agitators -- a bona fide fifth column pursuing its own agenda of destruction. And there are already those on the far right who have gone out of their way to become suspects -- thanks to their history of anthrax threats and their words since Sept. 11.

Less than a half-hour after two jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, the national leader of the white-supremacist Posse Comitatus posted a celebratory note on his Web site. "Hallelu-Yahweh!" wrote August Kreis, a 40-ish neo-Nazi from Pennsylvania. "May the WAR be started! DEATH to His enemies! May the World Trade Center BURN TO THE GROUND! Rev. 18 ... Keep Yahweh in your hearts folks for His wrath is upon His enemies! Praise His Holy name ... Hail Victory!"

When the towers collapsed shortly afterward, Kreis adapted his earlier remarks with a more detailed explanation. "This is why America is so hated, for whatever goodwill we the citizens of America have towards anyone, the policy of the American government is so hostile towards those opposed to Jewish domination that those justly opposed to Jewish domination most obviously feel that they have no choice but to respond through tragic and desperate actions like those we witnessed today."

"If, as a Christian Republic, we want to put an end to so-called terrorism on the soil of this nation we must expel ALL Jews and non-whites from OUR Promised Land, this New JerUSAlem, call all of our armed forces from around the world back home, END our support of the TERRORIST State of Israel, CLOSE our borders, all Praise to our Father and mind no one else's business other than that of our own nation."

Kreis' sentiments were echoed by a number of other leaders of the American radical right, though that response has hardly been uniform. Right-wing extremists are, after all, highly disparate, ranging in focus from racism to abortion to gun rights and even land use and education. These interests often overlap, but the tactics and levels of inherent violence range widely.

Among the more moderate militia-movement types, the response initially was to line up vocally behind President Bush -- and in fact, many such "Patriots" were among the most strident voices denouncing liberals and dissenters from the Bush agenda. In recent weeks, however, even that segment has shifted back to a more traditional government-fearing mode, as Bush's domestic anti-terrorism initiatives take on more of a black-helicopter "New World Order" appearance in their eyes.

Moreover, among factions that have been the source of much of the past two decades' worst domestic terrorism, the response has been uniformly celebratory. Antiabortion extremists have adopted a narrow version of the Jerry Falwell line: The attacks represent God's just punishment of America for allowing abortion to remain legal in America.

Among neo-Nazis and white supremacists, the response has been even more pronounced. Besides Posse Comitatus, Web sites such as the National Alliance (a vehicle for William Pierce, author of "The Turner Diaries"), Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance and the World Church of the Creator, as well as a number of other skinhead and white-supremacist sites, all hailed the Sept. 11 attacks as the beginning of the end for American democracy.

In a recent address to followers, Pierce seemed to relish the prospect of more chaos: "Things are a bit brittle now. A few dozen more anthrax cases, another truck bomb in a well chosen location, and substantial changes could take place in a hurry: a stock market panic, martial law measures by the Bush government, and a sharpening of the debate as to how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place."

Next page: The fringe that spawned Timothy McVeigh