FBI INVESTIGATIONS OF EXTREMIST GROUPS
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
During the late 1980s, the Texas Reserve Militia was formed by some members of the Texas State Guard, a volunteer state military force intended for use when the National Guard is unavailable. The TRM broke away from the state organization when Texas officials determined they were forming an unconstitutional "private army."
The group was also known as the Texas Light Infantry, the Second Order and The Order. The latter names were inspired by a 1980s neo-Nazi gang that robbed banks and counterfeited money to fund attacks on the government and target ethnicities (external link).
The FBI believed TRM leadership was linked to the original Order and also closely tied to the Aryan Nations white supremacist network based in Idaho (external link). One TRM member reportedly received at least $250,000 in funds from armored car robberies by the original Order, according to the documents.
According to the FBI's case files -- including an FBI letterhead memorandum dated December 21, 1990 -- the TRM conducted monthly paramilitary training courses at a camp in the Austin, Texas, area. The camp provided training in firearms, explosive and guerilla warfare for volunteers from Texas and out-of-state, including skinheads from Las Vegas and Memphis. By the end of 1991, the TRM had about 50 members and a much larger number of informal associates, the documents said.
In or around July 1990, a member of the Texas Reserve Militia threatened to murder two FBI agents with the Austin field office, according to documents obtained by INTELWIRE. The person who threatened the FBI agents "is a major figure in the Aryan Nations," an FBI teletype stated. In response to the threat, the FBI initiated a domestic terrorism investigation against the TRM. Undercover agents were deployed to infiltrate the group, an operation that would later expand into PATCON.
A PATCON agent met with the leader of the Order of St. John, John L. Grady, at the group's Benton compound in September 1992 and on at least one other occasion, according to an October 1992 teletype and June 1993 memorandum.
Grady told the PATCON agent that some members of the OSJ-linked American Pistol and Rifle Association had been members of the original Order, describing them as "hardcore types and having committed a number of indiscretions for which they were now serving prison terms," according to the documents.
The September 1992 meeting coincided with the APRA's annual conference. Security was tight at the conference, including patrols armed with semi-automatic pistols. The PATCON was told that a large stockpile of weapons was stored at the compound. One attendee identified in the October 1992 teletype, was Tom Posey, a leader of the CMA who had been deeply implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal.
"Grady talked about the aftermath of the Waco incident and stated that the Davidians shot in the compound had been killed by a Special Forces unit," the memo said. It was later revealed in mainstream media reports that Special Forces officers had been involved in planning the raid, but that was not public knowledge at the time of the visit. The leak of that story was linked to another underground group (external link).
PATCON initially targeted the TRM, but in January 1993, the undercover agents were also deployed to penetrate the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem according to a follow-up memo from Coulson to Potts.
Despite the operation's success in gathering intelligence on the militia movement, the PATCON undercover operation was officially terminated on July 15, 1993. WHY?
Additional documents can be viewed by clicking here. The documents name several figures in connection with the investigation. It is important to note that in almost every case, the individuals named in the documents have never been prosecuted for the acts alleged in these documents. No claim is made as to the accuracy of these FBI documents.
Members of the Texas Reserve Militia identified in the FBI's extensive case files included:
Louis Beam, a prominent neo-Nazi with ties to the Aryan Nations and the original Order, who ran an early white supremacist computer bulletin board network and published a newsletter called The Seditionist. (External link)
Someone who claimed to be a former Special Forces member; the person's name was redacted from documents by the FBI. Watt (first name not given), a former member of the Texas State Guard (a legitimate government reserve group) who was described as one of the founders. During 1978 and 1979, Louis Beam spearheaded the Klan's efforts to recruit members among United States Army personnel at Fort Hood in Texas. When Beam and Duke addressed a summer 1979 Klan rally in Euless, Texas, they were escorted by several newly recruited Klansmen from Fort Hood who were wearing military fatigues and were armed with rifles, pistols and bayonets.
Associates of the Texas Reserve Militia who are named in the documents include:
John L. Grady, leader of another militia organization known as the Order of St. John. Grady was later linked to Eric Rudolph by prosecutors who tried Rudolph for a 1998 Birmingham abortion clinic bombing (New York Times).
Thomas Posey, leader of a paramilitary group known as Civilian Material Assistance. According to a January 22, 1992 teletype, CMA "started out as an anti-communist group supporting the Contras in Nicaragua, but has recently turned into a racist right-wing white supremacist group."
Another member of the group, described but not named in the redacted documents released by the FBI, was Andreas Strassmeier, a German national who would later be linked to the Oklahoma City bombing. The son of a prominent German politician and a veteran of that country's army, he moved to the United States from Hamburg in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and established relationships with various racist and anti-government movements around the country. (US v Nichols, 96-CR-68, 12/10/97; In Bad Company, Hamm, pp. 116-117)
Members of the TRM suspected Strassmeier was a government informant, according to published reports. (McCurtain Gazette, FBI document links former Green Beret to McVeigh, bombing, Cash and Charles, Aug 31, 2005)
Shortly before the Oklahoma City bombing, an informant told the ATF Strassmeier was plotting to blow up U.S. federal buildings. The informant also said Strassmeier had traveled to Oklahoma City prior to the bombing.
Right after renting the Ryder truck used in the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh called the Elohim City compound and asked to speak with Strassmeier (US v Nichols). Another informant described at least one additional call (story and documents). After the bombing, Strassmeier fled the country and returned to Germany.
The FBI interrogated Strassmeier by phone in May 1996, but agents did not ask him about his association with the TRM (document).
The documents also name the official responsible for overseeing PATCON from FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. -- Larry Potts, then an assistant FBI director. During his tenure with the FBI, Potts was involved in the 1991 Ruby Ridge standoff and the 1993 Waco siege -- two events that created deep suspicion and hostility among members of the militia movement.
The "Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta was a far right pseudo-chivalric order headquartered in the small town of Shickshinny, Pennsylvania. The Military Affairs Committee of the Knights at one point included an astonishing list of former generals and admirals, including:
del Valle, Gen. Lemuel Shepherd, Lt. Gen. George Stratemeyer, Maj. Gen. Charles Willoughby, Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers, Admiral Charles M. Cooke and Rear Admiral Francis T. Spellman among others.
The “Shickshinny Knights” were led by Charles Pichel, a Nazi sympathizer in the 1930s who maintained murky ties to the White Russian community. Pichel claimed that his Knights represented a branch of the Order that had survived in Russia under the Emperor Paul I after Napoleon had suppressed the main group. He further said he derived his order’s legitimacy from “Czar” Cyril himself.
U.S. TERRORISM BY RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS
Olymic Park Bombing
Eric Robert Rudolph
Obortion Clinic Bombings
Obortion Doctor Murders
With regard to the brutal murder on October 23, 1998, of Dr. Barnett Slepian of upstate New York, likely targeted because he performed abortions, Kreis and Wickstrom comment, "Not much needs to be said. The justice in the 'putting to DEATH' of this jewish [sic] abortionist says it all!...Pray that other True Israelite Warriors across this land continue to rid our country of these murdering bastards!"
Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing
U.S. TERRORISM BY FOREIGN RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS LIVING IN AMERICA
Fort Dix Attack
Six people have been arrested in a plot to fire grenades and kill scores of soldiers at a New Jersey Army installation, the United States attorney’s office in New Jersey said at a news conference today. Four of them were born in the former Yugoslavia, one was born in Turkey and one in Jordan, said a spokesman for the office, Greg Reinert.
“Allegedly they wanted to kill as many of the soldiers at Fort Dix as they could,” Mr. Reinert said.
The six men planned to purchase rocket-propelled grenade launchers then use them to fire at Humvees at Fort Dix and “light the whole place up,” Chris Christie, the United States attorney in New Jersey, said today. The men had apparently looked at a number of military installations in the Northeast but decided on Fort Dix because they thought it would allow them to kill the greatest number of soldiers and to make a clean escape, officials said.
The complaint included an affidavit from John J. Ryan, a special agent with the F.B.I., which said that a cooperating witness infiltrated the group and last year recorded some of their conversations. During one of those meetings, the witness recorded Mr. Shnewer as saying that he, Mr. Tatar, Mr. Duka, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka were part of a group that was planning to attack a United States military base, and specifically mentioned Fort Dix. At other meetings they watched videos of American soldiers being attacked overseas and footage of Osama bin Laden, officials said.
The Fort Dix terrorist case and profiling
World Trade Center Bombing
911 Terrorist Attacks