New York, NY, ...The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said it was concerned but not surprised by the news that it was a target of an extremist bombing plot by a hate group calling itself the New Order. 

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

The Anti-Defamation League is concerned but not surprised by the announcement from Federal law enforcement authorities that we were a target of a bombing plot by an extremist hate group. For 85 years ADL has been in the forefront of monitoring and exposing extremists who threaten America's democratic values and institutions. Past threats did not intimidate us nor stop us from confronting extremists. Neither will this threat.

The American people need to be vigilant about those who, like the men charged in this plot, would act out their anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-government animus. The attacks on America and Americans at the World Trade Center and the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City have tragically shown us that we are not immune from terrorism.

We commend law enforcement for thwarting this plot. Their diligent work underscores the importance of legislation, such as the omnibus antiterrorism act, that provides law enforcement with the tools to better protect the American people.

The men charged in East St. Louis, Illinois, who call themselves the New Order, have modeled themselves after The Order, one of the most violent anti-Semitic and racist extremist groups in America, which is now defunct.  Following is background on The Order from ADL's publication, Danger Extremism: The Major Vehicles and Voices on the Far-Right Fringe (1996).

• The Order was the most violent and notorious domestic terrorist group in the 1980s. Founded in 1983 by Robert J. Mathews, its goal was to bring about a right-wing "revolution" in the United States. Mathews, a recruiter for the neo-Nazi National Alliance and an activist in the Nazi-like and "Identity"-affiliated group, Aryan Nations, drew members from those groups and various Klan splinter groups.
  
  
• As a blueprint for its "revolution," The Order relied upon William Pierce's novel, The Turner Diaries, which played a central role in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh. Many of the crimes for which Order members were convicted resembled terrorist acts described in the book.  Beginning in 1983 Order members engaged in counterfeiting, bank robberies, bombings, including a Boise, Idaho synagogue, and murder.
  
  
• In June 1984, The Order murdered Alan Berg, a controversial Jewish talk show host in Denver, after he repeatedly goaded right-wing and white-supremacist extremists on his call-in program.
  
  
• The robbery of a Brinks armored truck in Ukiah, California of $3.6 million led to an eventual confrontation and shoot-out with law enforcement in which Robert Mathews was killed and The Order was brought down. All members of the group were convicted and sentenced to terms of 40-100 years.
  
  
• Although The Order is now defunct, several incarcerated members, most notably David Lane, continue to propagandize from their prison cells and continue to wield influence in the hate movement.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.