January 8, 2004
The Guardian (UK)

US Extremists To Be Sentenced Over Bomb Plot

Texas couple had arsenal capable of killing thousands

by Julian Borger

Three Americans are due to be sentenced next month for their involvement in a plot to explode a cyanide bomb capable of killing thousands of people, . . .

The conspirators - rightwing extremists who were caught with forged identity passes to the United Nations and the Pentagon, and a variety of racist and anti-government pamphlets . . .

The plot was uncovered by accident in early 2002 when Krar and his partner, Judith Bruey, posted a package to a third conspirator, Edward Feltus, a member of a rightwing group called the New Jersey militia. . . .

When investigators searched a storeroom rented by Krar and Bruey in Noonday, 100 miles east of Dallas, they found half a million rounds of ammunition, 65 pipebombs and briefcases that could be detonated by remote control, as well as 800g of almost pure sodium cyanide. . . .

"It was clearly one of the most lethal arsenals associated with the US paramilitary right in the past 20 years," said Daniel Levitas, the author of a book on rightwing extremism, The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right.

It is, however, far from an isolated incident. Mark Potok, who keeps tabs on hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Centre in Alabama, says up to 40 major conspiracies involving domestic terrorism have been uncovered since the 1995 Oklahoma attack by a rightwing war veteran, Timothy McVeigh, which killed 168 people.

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Realpolitik and Terrorism

Enver Masud, "OKC Blast: Media Coverage Biased," The Wisdom Fund, April 23, 1995

Enver Masud, "Double Standard Targets Muslim Countries," The Wisdom Fund, September 25, 1998

[Critics of the Bush administration say federal officials and the mainstream media are suffering from tunnel vision - that they are so focused on international threats that they have failed to give sufficient attention to threats at home.

At most, the critics say, increased attention to this case could have brought more answers. At the least, they say, if the defendants in this case had been people with foreign background, or Muslims, Attorney General John Ashcroft himself would have announced the arrests and the guilty pleas.

Instead, details of the case were revealed in a half-page press release sent to local media. Officials say the case at one point was included in President Bush's daily security briefings, but it remains virtually unknown outside East Texas - even though, critics note, it represents an instance when federal authorities actually discovered a weapon of mass destruction.--Scott Gold, "Possible domestic terror plot foiled; critics decry lack of official interest," Seattle Times, January 09, 2004]

[A raid in April found nearly two pounds of a cyanide compound and other chemicals that could create enough poisonous gas to kill everyone inside a space as large as a big-chain bookstore or a small-town civic center.

Authorities also discovered nearly half a million rounds of ammunition, more than 60 pipe bombs, machine guns, silencers and remote-controlled bombs disguised as briefcases, plus pamphlets on how to make chemical weapons, and anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-government books.--"Cyanide, arsenal stirs domestic terror fear," Associated Press, January 30, 2004]

[A man who stockpiled machine guns, bombs and enough cyanide to kill everyone inside a building the size of a small-town civic center was sentenced Tuesday to more than 11 years in prison.--"Man with huge weapons cache sentenced to 11 years," Associated Press, May 4, 2004]

Paul de Rooij, "Double Standards and Curious Silences," CounterPunch, October 13, 2004

[A FORMER British National Party member has been accused of possessing the largest amount of chemical explosives of its type ever found in the country.--Paul de Rooij, "Ex-BNP man faces EXPLOSIVES charge," mpacuk.org, October 5, 2006]

[Searches in Georgia on July 2 and in his Dodge Durango in Tennessee the next day turned up a dozen live pipe bombs, military C-4 explosive material, improvised grenade fuses, 58 guns - including handguns, rifles and machine guns - and four live grenades containing nails and BBs, according to search warrants and court documents filed in Collier County Circuit Court.-- Aisling Swift, "Naples man faces felony bomb-making charges," naplesnews.com, July 31, 2007]

Brian Ross and Vic Walter, "Bounty Hunter Disrupts Possible Terror Plot," naplesnews.com, July 31, 2007

"Domestic threats called a greater danger to US," Associated Press, February 18, 2008

[Bruce Ivins, the alleged anthrax terrorist, did his best to tie his deadly mailings to Al Qaeda.--Noah Shachtman, "Anthrax Plot Started Early, Will Drag On," wired.com, August 7, 2008]

[Investigators disrupted an improbable plan to assassinate Sen. Barack Obama and kill 102 other African Americans in a spree fueled by white supremacist ideology, officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said yesterday.--Carrie Johnson, "ATF Says Racists Plotted to Kill Obama," Washington Post, October 28, 2008]

[Right-wing extremists in the United States are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the first black president, the Department of Homeland Security has warned in a new report.--"Right-wing extremists 'pose new threat to US'," Telegraph, April 15, 2009]

[White terrorism is not a concept the US takes seriously.

When Clay Duke, a white male, threatened Florida school board members with a gun and shot at them before shooting himself, in December 2010, he was mentally imbalanced.

When Michael Enright, a white male, was arrested for slashing the throat of a Muslim NYC cab driver in August of 2010, his friends said he had a drinking problem

When Byron Williams, a white male, was arrested after opening fire on police officers and admitted he was on his way to kill people at offices of a liberal foundation and a civil liberties organization, in July 2010, he was an unemployed right wing felon with a drinking problem.

When Joe Stack, a white male, flew his private plane into a federal building in Austin, Texas, in February 2010, he was angry with the IRS.--Bill Quigley, "Serious Guns and White Terrorism: Two Unasked Questions in Tucson Mass Murder," counterpunch.org, January 10, 2011]

[The FBI has listed Sovereign Citizens as a domestic terrorist organization. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which also tracks the group, estimates the sect numbers more than 300,000 nationwide.--Tammy Joyner, "FBI: 'Sovereign citizen' cases on the rise," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 7, 2011]

Thom Hartmann, "The 10 DAY manhunt for a known terrorist ignored by MSM, thomhartmann.com, June 22, 2011

"14 dead, 50 wounded in shooting at Colorado theater, police chief says, cnn.com, July 20, 2012

Guy Adams, "Wisconsin temple killer was neo-Nazi who left army in disgrace, independent.co.uk, August 6, 2012

Jessica Mendoza and Henry Gass, "The two faces of mass shootings in America," csmonitor.com, December 10, 2015