Introduction

Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to be executed May 16, 2001. His death sentence has given rise to questions about the current profile of the militia and anti-government groups in the United States to which McVeigh and his co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, identified with at one time. As a final chapter in the Oklahoma City bombing case draws to a close, ADL has assembled the most current available information on militia groups. Also listed are links to various reports on militias, terrorism, hate on the Internet and the Oklahoma City bombing case itself that ADL has produced in the years since the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil.

This special report includes the most recent e-mail messages that militia groups, white supremacists and extremist groups have sent on the Internet to e-mail groups and bulletin boards discussing the McVeigh execution.

The Militia Movement and Timothy McVeigh

Timothy McVeigh has been associated with the militia movement because of his anti-government sentiments, although he was never a formal militia member. The militia movement peaked in strength in late 1996 and the number of members and overall strength of the movement has declined since then. The Oklahoma City bombing and its aftereffects did cause some people to drop out, especially the most "moderate" members. A number of hardcore members became disenchanted in 1996-97 when militia groups generally failed to come to the "rescue" of the Montana Freemen and the Republic of Texas in their highly visible standoffs with law enforcement. But probably the biggest factor was a series of high-profile arrests of militia members on weapons, explosives, and conspiracy charges in 1996 - the Arizona Viper Militia, the Washington State Militia, the Georgia Republic Militia and the West Virginia Mountaineer Militia, especially. At present the Midwest shows very strong militia activity: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

Militias: McVeigh is a "Government Pawn"

The militias, tax resisters and sovereign citizens don’t regard Timothy McVeigh as a poster boy for their cause. In fact they don’t talk about him very much at all, but, insofar as they do speak of him, they describe him as a brainwashed government pawn. It is their belief that because he is "controlled by the government," this explains the reason he has abandoned the appeal process, i.e., the government is afraid that the brainwashing and conditioning won’t last. And if the brainwashing effects are going to fade; well then, he must be executed immediately. So McVeigh’s heinous act is neatly wrapped in a government conspiracy in order to explain it.

To the extent that there is any support for McVeigh, it comes from the white supremacists and neo-nazis who regard what he did as heroic - the act of a "lone wolf."

Kentucky State Militia

The Kentucky State Militia led by Commander Charlie Puckett is extremely active and is currently the strongest active militia in the U.S. The Kentucky State Militia employs a Web site, short-wave radio, personal appearances and militia networking. The KSM also runs militia-training sessions.

Recently, the group sponsored a multi-state militia meeting in Grayson County, Kentucky that featured combat training and a "communications seminar" by a short-wave radio broadcaster who has identified himself as a follower of the Christian Identity movement. He has said "those who worship ‘idols and Gods’ other than Jesus should leave the United States.

Puckett has said that the KSM opposes terrorism and that he would have "ripped Timothy McVeigh’s head off" to stop the Oklahoma City bombing." However, he and his group are preparing members for nuclear war and for potential attacks by the government. This militia’s numbers have been estimated from 100 to 200 members all the way up to a wildly exaggerated 9,500 from someone who claims to have gotten that number from Puckett, personally.

Some extremists and white supremacists are using the Internet to discuss the May 16 execution of Timothy McVeigh. ADL's Internet Monitoring Unit, which works to expose and counteract online hate, has culled the following examples of chats from Internet e-mail lists and bulletin boards.

From an extremist e-mail list:

• You should be condemning the government murderers in Waco ten times as harshly as you condemn Timothy McVeigh. Had you and people like you done that in the first place, the OK City bombing would never have occurred. From that perspective, your failure to condemn it, and your failure now to condemn it, makes you just as guilty as McVeigh. That is, IF McVeigh did this alone, which the preponderance of evidence proves that he didn't….If McVeigh deserves to be executed, Reno deserves to be blasted apart by a nuclear bomb. If heinous, evil public servants are permitted to get away with such acts in such a public way, there will be thousands of more McVeigh's the instant he's executed. The day Reno is brought to justice is the day this country can *finally* get on the road to recovery. (April17, 2001)

• Tim McVeigh is scheduled to die soon. I would like for all White Nationalists to pray that Yahweh take his soul from ZOG before then. As white warriors we deserve the same accord as given in the Geneva Convention! Something that the Kikes wrote and never honored! (April 14, 2001)

• The system is pretty sore with Tim. You see, they are having a hard time dealing with the fact that on May16'th, another Volk's Hero is born! Try as they might to prevent it, his place in tommorow's [sic] post-revolution history books is assured. The last two months have stood witness to plaintive zogite moaning, to the effect of "we wuz robbed". They wanted Tim to beg the crud cabal for a mercy that no intelligent Aryan would expect from a system currently carrying out the most arrogant, open campaign of genocide, that the world has ever seen. Mr. McVeigh is from the old school, where in war, no quarter is asked for or given….I am currently looking at the photo of the OKC "National Memorial", that graces the back of the dust jacket of "American Terrorist…" There are 168 "chairs" set up for those who died in one of the first shots of the Second American Revolution, are there "chairs" set up for the children of Waco? Is there a "chair" out on the mountain in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, where Vickie Weaver was executed by sharpshooting gook, Lon (W)Horiuchi? (April 12, 2001)

• Timothy McVeigh will soon become a martyr for future generations to immolate [sic]. Someday there will be monuments built to this man! He is a true role model for the cause and the Folk. In this age of George Burdi sellouts, it's truly refreshing to have a patriot that refuses to give in to ZOG pressure. Recently the Jews media have wailed that McVeigh has shown no remorse for 'the children'. How much remorse has the system shown for the children of Waco, Dresden, Serbia and Palestine? McVeigh took down a hated symbol of anti white oppression. Let him be a shinning [sic] example for freedom fighters everywhere! (April 2, 2001)

• The other bright spot is Timothy Mcveigh. His star has not yet begun to shine. Once our struggle has completely broken free of the negative influence of the Trojan horse right wing men like [Bob Mathews from The Order] and Mcveigh will be the examples to be respected and revered. (April 3, 2001)

• As you all know by now, Timothy Mcveigh has asked for his death sentence to be carried out as soon as possible. According to the Federal Prison authorities it may be in May. Whenever it comes it will mark another escalation in the ever evolving resistance struggle. The media is plying [sic] it's [sic] lapdog part well. They oversimplify the entire event as just some desire to murder 168 people. Much of the dumbed down public go along with that, but a growing number also realize it was a political target in which those inside the building were not the issue at all. It was a glaring symbol of a Central Government that many people from all walks of life and for many reasons hate, pure and simple. Governments murder lots of people all the time. They don't take a vote as to your wishes anymore than Mcveigh did. The difference is that they have a license to kill and Mcveigh and you don’t. Timothy Mcveigh is more honorable than all the politicians and Presidents put together. He has chosen death on his terms as is a tradition among our ancient ancestors. The enemy’s victory will be a hollow one indeed. (January 14, 2001)

• Tim Mcveigh has chosen a Warriors end not leaving it to his tormentors to poke sticks into his cage for decades. (December 31, 2000)

• What if we got together will [sic] all of our groups and put on a PRO-WHITE festival and made May 16th a WHITE HOLIDAY in memory of Timothy McVeigh? (April 17, 2001)

• That, unfortunately, is the state of public and private morale in America today. That's why our civilization is going down the tubes. That's why Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma City. It was the only way he knew to get people to look up from their ball games for a minute and pay attention to what's happening to their world. So, why do I bother? I bother because between the ball-game fans at one end and the corrupt politicians and corrupt Christian preachers and corrupt newspaper editors at the other end there is an intelligent and responsible two percent or so of the population -- a moral two percent-- capable of understanding and caring about what the Jews are doing to our world and to our people…. There are Americans who care about these things as much as I do. And by God, we intend to do something about these things, even if we have to do it Timothy McVeigh's way. I hope it doesn't come to that, but we will break the grip of these Jews and their collaborators on our society. (July 1, 2000)

• [Timothy McVeigh] has never really given the specific reason he hates ZOG so much. I submit that it is not that the Army screwed him or that he is libertarian and doesn’t like big government. Or even WACO. I submit that it must be something that tears at him in the same feroicty [sic] it does in us- and that can oinly [sic] be the systematic extermination of young White people. That is the only outrage that could make him want to kill and destroy as he has. It is a perfectly understandable reaction to the rule of the Jewish Occupation Government. I believe the Oklahoma Building blew up on April 19th not because of WACO, or at least not only for that reason, but because ZOG executed our great Aryan soldier William Snell on that day. I think ZOG is stifling McVeigh from proclaiming that the bombing was to protest the U.S. genocide of White people. (June 2000)