There are terrorist groups in America.
They aren't Al Qaeda.
They claim that ridding the country of foreigners "by any means necessary" is their mission. They've planted bombs. These bombs have gone off. Some have been arrested, after extensive manhunts by our FBI. Others are still fugitives. Some have lived in caves. They're part of coordinated organizations and networks. They're part of international networks. And yet nobody in this country knows their names. They don't spend the week on the front pages of our newspapers like Faisal Shahzad.
So why does America ignore these bombers? I think it's clear. It's because a large segment of our culture sympathizes with their mission.
The Mahon Brothers: Identical twins, Dennis and Daniel Mahon are white supremacists. They've both held leadership positions in the KKK and the now defunct White Aryan Resistance (WAR).
Dennis Mahon reportedly told a German television crew in 1991 that “every means are justified, I mean every, to rescue your nation.” In his own account of the interview, Mahon wrote that “as long as governments do not listen to the yoemenry [sic] of their people, the working class can use whatever force necessary to insure [sic] the race survives financially and physically.”
This is the kind of thing you're hearing now, albeit veiled and softened, by the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. Its spirit lives on in the racist legislation passed in Arizona.
Expressing his admiration for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, Mahon wrote ... of his visit to the Reichstag building that “it was very inspiring to walk up the same steps that Adolf Hitler walked up…It is illegal to give a stiff arm salute in Germany…However, I gave hundreds of them all across Germany. To hell with the De Jure gov't [sic] in Bonn and their repressive Jew laws.”
Mahon has supported the “lone wolf” theory of activism, which favors individual or small-cell underground activity, as opposed to above-ground membership organizations. According to the lone wolf model, individuals and small cells leave behind the fewest clues for law enforcement authorities, decreasing the chances that activists will end up getting caught.
The lone wolf theory of activism is a terrorist technique. It's a technique used by terrorists to disguise the network of hate that has supported them, which has nurtured them, and which helped train them for their terrorist activities. Even many liberals have been fooled by this technique and still adamantly argue that rightwing terrorism is predominantly of the "lone wolf" variety.
More from Mahon:
“White people are very up tight right now. They know. They can't put their finger on it but every time they read the papers they read about more jobs going to Mexico, NAFTA got passed. They see more and more Orientals and more and more Mexicans… But most American people right now are very nervous-the working class people. Now the rich-and even some of the rich are starting to get scared…“
...
“I think we're going to have to separate, you know, and get a geographical area we can call our own-have our own banking system, with an honest banking system and basically our law will be whatever is good for our race… I mean, we all want to get the whole country back but that's not a viable thing
Paging Glenn Beck. And Fox News. And Rick Perry. And Arizona. More:
During conversations at Aryan Fest [a white power music festival in Phoenix, AZ], Mahon reportedly promoted violent, terrorist activity, specifically “nuk[ing] D.C.” According to a media account of the event, Mahon stated, “You nuke D.C., you're going to wipe out most of the politicians, plus a couple million crack-head niggers…It’s a win-win…And I think it’s the only way, I really do. Terrorism works. We did a lot of terrorism in Tulsa in the 1980s. We put heads in the road, and people paid attention.”
The Mahons also worked with Timothy McVeigh:
Mahon explained, “I knew Timothy McVeigh quite well. In fact, I knew him back when he was named Timothy Tuttle…and he and I were involved in quite a few bom…Let's just say he and I did some serious business together. And after Oklahoma City, the feds came after me big-time, boy, but they never proved a thing.”
So where did all of this lead? Here:
On February 26, 2004, a package containing a mail bomb was delivered to Donald Logan, the African-American director of the Office of Diversity and Dialogue in Scottsdale. The office handles complaints from city employees and citizens, including racial and sex discrimination grievances. The small, notebook-sized package exploded as Logan opened it, seriously injuring him.
Logan required extensive surgery on his hands and arms.
But it doesn't end there.
Robert Joos was also arrested in connection to the mailbombing attack. Joos was the pastor of the Sacerdotal Order of David Company.
A jury today convicted Robert Joos of illegally having weapons and explosives... Joos wasn't charged in the bombing. But the Mahons told investigators white supremacists used land where Joos lived as a "retreat" for training.
Religious fanatic. Check.
Terrorist training facility. Check.
Possession of illegal explosive devices. Check.
Successful Mailbomb. Check.
But it goes on. This from the SPLC:
The arrest on Thursday of Robert Joos in connection with a 2004 bomb incident in which three Scottsdale, Ariz., city employees were injured raises the question: Where is Timothy Thomas Coombs?
Coombs is a 15 year fugitive and a member of Joos' "church."
Coombs, also known as James Wilson and Cal Liberty, is accused of shooting and wounding a Missouri state trooper in September 1994 as he stood at his kitchen window...
In 1984, some of Joos’ followers shot at a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper. Joos was subsequently charged with serving a false restraining order on the trooper ordering him not to arrest one of the men charged with shooting at him. Joos then became a fugitive, hiding, he told undercover operatives, in caves on his 200-acre farm in rural Missouri.
Joos finally was arrested in 1994 and sentenced to two years. While Joos was in prison, Coombs allegedly shot, sniper-style, at Missouri State Trooper Bobbie J. Harper, one of Joos’ arresting officers, as he stood at his kitchen window.
...
Investigators searched the caves on Joos’ property this past weekend for signs of Coombs. They found nothing but “old soda bottles and trash,”
Hiding out in a cave system. Check.
Coombs is still a fugitive. There is a $100,000 reward. It doesn't seem like we're smoking him out of any caves. We haven't pledged to dismantle his terrorist network. He's not frontpage news. I guarantee 99.9% of America's never even heard of him.
The disturbing trend here in America to relegate conservative terrorists to the bin of "lone wolf" killers is a problem. Without the focus by our media and the pressure of our citizenry to uproot these terror networks, bombings and shootings by rightwingers will continue.
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Larry Eugene North
TYLER, Texas — A man accused of dropping more than 30 explosive devices into mailboxes and other locations across east Texas did so out of anger toward the government and was acting alone, federal authorities said Thursday.
Larry Eugene North was indicted Wednesday on charges of possessing an illegal firearm or destructive device. Authorities said they would evaluate whether to pursue more charges.
Authorities believe North is responsible for planting 36 devices between Feb. 5 and Wednesday, said Robert R. Champion, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Authorities previously said they had found at least 16 explosive devices, including five pipe bombs.
"These devices, over 30 in number, have caused fear in this community nothing short of domestic terrorism," prosecutor Brit Featherston said. "Today that fear stops."
...
Of the 36 devices planted, the final 10 were pipe bombs, Champion said.
30 mailbombs. 10 pipe bombs. All failed attempts, thank god. Just like Faisal Shahzad.
Now, I can't speak for the veracity of this last bit of info, but I guarantee you the authorities haven't gone to visit this blogger, or question him like they would have if Larry Eugene North's name was Faisal Shahzad.
Being in East Texas myself (North’s jail cell is just a mile away from where I am now) I have been on the phone talking with 2 Tea party followers and one Militia member. They all either know North or have seen him at rallies. Its no secret as to his politics.
30 bombs. And you've never heard of this guy. 99.9% of America's never heard of Larry Eugene North.
There's something sick going on in America and in our media and until we as a country face up to the terrorism and the networks that support it here in our own country, this will go on, and on, and on.
Any which way you look at it, there's no denying the fact then when it comes to domestic terrorism and the way it's reported in our mainstream media, rightwing terrorism is "all white"... and evidently "all right."
I personally welcome the day when our media starts addressing the terror that black, latino, and liberal Americans have been subjected to by the rightwing in this country in the same way it treats cases like Faisal Shahzad. But knowing what I know about the racial and cultural biases in our mainstream media and in our society in general, that day will probably never come.