Terrorism, Domestic (United States)

█ JUDSON KNIGHT

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines domestic terrorism as terrorism involving groups based in, and operating entirely within, the United States and its territories, without foreign direction. The FBI further divides domestic terrorism into three basic categories: right-wing, left-wing, and special-interest terrorism. Terrorist organizations in the United States had their beginnings with the foundation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1866. White racist movements remain major contributors to terrorism, but the toll of terrorist activities has also included socialist, anarchist, and minority nationalist groups, as well as terrorism associated with the environment and animal rights. Of the 205 lives claimed in terrorist incidents within the United States between 1980 and 1999, more than 80% died in a single attack: the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

Domestic Terrorist Groups

At the center of domestic counterterrorism efforts is the FBI, whose Counterterrorism Division defines domestic terrorism thus in a 1999 report titled Terrorism in the United States:

"Domestic terrorism involves groups or individuals who are based and operate entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction, and whose acts are directed at elements of the U.S. government or population. Domestic terrorist groups can represent right-wing, left-wing, or special interest orientations. Their causes generally spring from issues relating to American political and social concerns."

Right-wing terrorism. Right-wing terrorist groups, as defined by the FBI, are motivated by notions of white racial supremacy, as well as anti-government and anti-regulatory beliefs. They may also include extremist Christian groups such as those that bomb abortion clinics, although these groups are sometimes lumped in with special-interest terrorists. Moreover, many acts of right-wing terrorism, such as racially motivated attacks by "skinhead" gangs, are legally classified as hate crimes rather than domestic terrorism. They thus fall within the realm of the FBI Criminal Division, rather than the Counterterrorism Division.

Not all anti-government groups are necessarily racist: for example, some members of the militia movement in the 1990s attempted to distance themselves from anti-black and anti-Semitic hate groups. On the other hand, all these groups are united by a suspicion of, or hatred for, the federal government, often coupled with a conspiratorial view of history and politics. These putative conspiracies may have their origins in Washington—which, in the view of many right-wing terrorist groups, seeks to take away Americans' guns and impose ruinous taxes and regulations on them—or they may be international in origin. Many of these groups in the 1990s, for instance, spoke of black helicopters supposedly operated by United Nations forces on U.S. soil.

The Ku Klux Klan. Strictly speaking, the Ku Klux Klan is not a terrorist organization, as its acts of violence have tended to be retaliatory rather than symbolic. Still, given its influence on events in the United States, no discussion of right-wing terrorism would be complete without its mention

Formed by ex-Confederate soldiers after the Civil War, the Klan was an attempt to strike back at the federal government for its imposition of martial law and military occupation in the South. However, the victims of Klan violence—recently freed slaves—were far more vulnerable than the Southern whites, no matter how disenfranchised and dispossessed as they might have seen themselves to be. The Klan, which terrorized and killed African Americans throughout the South, was outlawed by the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. In 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Klan Act unconstitutional, but by then Reconstruction was over, and the Klan had faded into the background.

D. W. Griffith's 1915 film Birth of a Nation helped influence the formation of a new Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Over the next decade, the Klan grew in strength nationwide, and prominent persons—including future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black—belonged to the organization. Ironically, it was the Klan in 1925, before Martin Luther King, Jr., was born, who undertook the first major "March on Washington" of the twentieth century.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Klansmen conducted terrorist attacks and acts of murder against African Americans and civil rights workers, but the triumph of the civil rights movement spelled the end of the Klan as a force. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other anti-racist organizations successfully gutted the Klan with a series of lawsuits. With its assets stripped, the organization split into numerous splinter groups.

Other racist groups. Alongside Klan movements have been other racist groups, most notably the American Nazi Party (whose founder, George Lincoln Rockwell, was assassinated in 1967 by a member of his own party) and various "Aryan" organizations such as the White Aryan Brotherhood and the Aryan Nations. These groups have often found themselves confronted with a contradiction. Persons on the right, even the extreme right, tend to be patriotic, if sometimes ambivalent about the government in power, whereas Nazi and Aryan groups ultimately pay homage to one of America's most hated historical enemies, Adolf Hitler.

On the other hand, many racist groups, such as the White Patriot Party, have built the "patriot" theme into their name. Others, such as the so-called "Christian Identity Movement" (whose members reject that name) identify white America with the 10 lost tribes of Israel. The Christian Identity Movement and other such groups are profoundly anti-Semitic. None of these groups is, in strict terms, a terrorist group (though they are certainly classifiable as hate groups), but as with the Klan, discussions of right-wing terrorism require reference to such groups.

The bible for adherents of white racist and anti-government belief systems is not Hitler's Mein Kampf, but a distinctly American version, more dime novel than political manifesto. This is The Turner Diaries by Andrew MacDonald, a.k.a. William Pierce. Published in 1978, the novel pictures a race war that results in the triumph of whites over blacks, Jews, and other "mongrels." It identifies April 20, 1999, as the 110th birthday of "The Great One" (Hitler was born April 20, 1889), and depicts a terrorist bombing of a government building that seems to have provided Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh with a model for his attack.

Anti-government groups. The remainder of right-wing terrorist groups are united by an anti-government stance that may or may not also embrace racism. Such groups emerged on the national scene with a February 13, 1983, attack on law enforcement officers in Medina, North Dakota, by a group named the Sheriff's Posse Comitatus.

The years since have seen a proliferation of groups such as the various "militias" (anti-government paramilitary groups organized at a state level) or the Freemen. Some of these engage in terrorism by other means, such as the filing of bogus liens and other groundless legal claims that tie up government resources. Sometimes referred to as "paper terrorism," these acts clogged up courts in some western states during the 1990s.

Just as the Klan had a natural base in the South, and some racist groups have found a home in the Midwest (for instance, the American Nazis, which operate primarily in Chicago), the wide-open spaces of the West have provided a natural venue for anti-government groups and individuals. Many of these reacted strongly to the 1992 FBI raid against the Ruby Ridge, Idaho, residence of white separatist Randy Weaver, which resulted in the death of Weaver's wife and son.

The presidency of William J. Clinton proved particularly odious to anti-government groups and individuals, who perceived the Clinton administration as leftist. Anti-government groups claimed that Attorney General Janet Reno was to blame for the April 19, 1993, attack on the Waco, Texas compound of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect reportedly hoarding a cache of illegal weapons.

After a 51-day siege by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, a combined FBI and Delta Force team assaulted the compound, whereupon the Branch Davidians set the buildings on fire. Seventy-six people, including cult leader David Koresh, died in the conflagration. Outside the compound, a group of anti-government protesters, which had been keeping vigil for weeks, watched as the blaze erupted. Among those present was a 25-year-old Persian Gulf War veteran named Timothy McVeigh.

Oklahoma City. Exactly two years after the Waco incident, at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a Ryder rental truck parked in front of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City exploded. Inside the truck was a 4,800-pound bomb of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, a combination similar to that used in the 1993 World Trade Center blast. The blast tore a hole along the side of the nine-story building, injuring some 500 persons and killing 168—including 19 infants in a day-care center.

Within minutes, word began to spread throughout the nation that—in a variation on language that would often be used by members of the media in the next few days—"terror had struck the heartland." Authorities already had two suspects, who they had named "John Doe No. 1" and "John Doe No. 2," and initially many reporters speculated that Muslim extremists had caused this blast, as they had the World Trade Center bombing. The men ultimately charged for the Oklahoma City bombing, however, would turn out to be from much closer to home.

About 90 minutes after the blast, police in Perry, Oklahoma, stopped McVeigh for driving without a license plate. When they searched his trunk, they discovered anti-government literature, along with significant traces of PETN, a compound used in the making of the bomb. Soon afterward, having recovered the vehicle identification number of the Ryder truck from its axle, authorities traced it to a rental outlet in Junction City, Kansas, where the owner identified McVeigh as the man who had rented the truck under the name "Robert Kling." McVeigh also matched the composite sketch of "John Doe No. 1."

On April 21, federal authorities arrested McVeigh, along with brothers Terry and James Nichols. James was later released, but McVeigh and Terry Nichols stood trial. Although McVeigh had been involved with the militia movement for a time, he had long since separated himself from any group. His philosophy was strongly anti-government, and it appears that he chose the Murrah Building because he thought (incorrectly) that the personnel involved at Waco worked in that building.

Both McVeigh and Nichols were found guilty, and McVeigh was given the death penalty, while Nichols received a life sentence without parole. McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001. Exactly three months later, the foreign-sponsored terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, and Pennsylvania, would eclipse the Oklahoma City death toll by a factor of nearly 20.

Left-Wing and Special Interest Terrorists

So great has been the impact of right-wing terrorism, due to the Oklahoma City bombing (as well as the visibility of hate groups such as the Klan and neo-Nazis), that the significance of left-wing and special interest terrorism has tended to be obscured. In these cases, the death toll is much smaller, but a number of incidents have claimed lives and property.

Left-wing terrorists, according to the FBI, have a revolutionary socialist agenda, and present themselves as protectors of the populace against the alienating effects of capitalism and U.S. imperialism. Notable early participants in left-wing terrorism were various socialist and anarchist groups from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Leon Czolgocz, who shot President William McKinley in 1901, embraced anarchist beliefs, though no anarchist group would accept him for membership.

Puerto Rican nationalists. From the 1950s, Puerto Rican nationalists have been among the most prominent left-wing terrorists. These might seem at first glance to have a special-interest agenda, but due to their socialist rhetoric and goals, the FBI has categorized them as left-wing terrorists. On November 1, 1950, members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party attempted to assassinate President Harry S Truman, and during the 1950s, members of the group stormed the U.S. House of Representatives.

On May 1, 1961, Puerto Rican-born Antuilo Ramierez Ortiz hijacked a National Airlines flight and diverted it to Havana. This was the first successful hijacking of a U.S. plane, and Ortiz, who returned to the United States in 1975, was sentenced to 25 years for his crime. On January 27, 1975, members of the Armed Forces for Puerto Rican Liberation (known by its initials in Spanish, FALN), bombed a bar on Wall Street in New York City, killing four and wounding 60.

The late 1960s and early 1970s. Two days after the FALN attack, members of the Weather Underground claimed responsibility for a bombing at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. The "Weathermen," as they were commonly known (after a line from the song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan), were formed from the radical Students for a Democratic Society group in 1969. Their leaders received training in Havana, and over the next few years, they conducted a wave of bombings and robberies. Their death toll was small, however, and consisted primarily of three group members killed when a bomb they were building accidentally exploded at a Greenwich Village townhouse in March 1970.

The late 1960s and early 1970s was also the heyday of the Black Panther Party and other African American nationalist groups that used terrorist tactics. Among the most notorious events associated with the Black Panthers was an August 7, 1970, raid on a California courthouse by University of California professor Angela Davis and Jonathan Jackson on behalf of Jackson's imprisoned brother George. Davis and Jackson kidnapped several people, critically wounded a district attorney, and killed a judge. Jackson died in the struggle, and on August 21, 1971, George Jackson died in a prison riot he incited after his lawyer reportedly smuggled a pistol to him.

Also notable among left-wing groups of the era was the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), which on February 5, 1974, kidnapped heiress Patricia Hearst. Formed in 1973, the group declared war on "fascism," which it equated with America, and it waged its war primarily through bank robberies. Hearst, allegedly brainwashed by the group, adopted the name "Tania" and participated in the robberies. Most of its members, including leader Donald DeFreeze, were killed in a May, 1974, shootout with authorities. Hearst was captured by the FBI in September, 1975. In January, 2001, outgoing president Clinton pardoned her, along with several Puerto Rican revolutionaries held in federal prisons.

Rudolph and Kaczynski. Special-interest terrorism, as its name indicates, is focused on specific issues. Such terrorism tends to be predominantly left-wing, but there are exceptions, most notably the acts attributed to Eric Robert Rudolph. These might be classified as right-wing attacks, as the bombing targets included abortion clinics and a nightclub frequented by homosexuals. On the other hand, the bombing at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, during the 1996 Olympics, an attack that killed two people and injured 112, is not currently tied to an obvious political agenda. As of mid-2003, Rudolph had evaded capture, and remained on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list.

Also difficult to classify are the crimes of Theodore Kaczynski, the accused Unabomber. Beginning in 1978, when a bomb disguised as a package went off at Northwestern University, a mysterious bomber terrorized universities and airlines (hence the name una in the nickname given to him by the FBI). After a total of 10 attacks on universities and airlines, the Unabomber struck a computer store in Sacramento, California, on December 11, 1985, causing his first fatality.

The Unabomber was spotted on February 20, 1987, placing a bomb at another computer store, this one in Salt Lake City, Utah. This sole sighting provided authorities with a sketch of the Unabomber, who then ceased activities for six years. In June 1993, after two more bombings that month, the Unabomber sent the New York Times a letter outlining an agenda based in environmental and anarchist themes. His last two attacks, in 1994 and 1995 (the latter just five days after Oklahoma City) struck an advertising executive and a timber industry lobbyist respectively, again suggesting an anti-capitalist, environmentalist agenda.

After reading the Unabomber's manifesto, David Kaczynski noted similarities between the writer and his brother Ted, and alerted authorities. Ted Kaczynski, once a promising mathematics graduate student, had abandoned society for the isolation of a cabin in Montana, where he was arrested on April 3, 1996. In January 1998, on the eve of his trial, a judge rejected Kaczynski's request to represent himself in court. Kaczynski filed a guilty plea, and was sentenced to life in prison. Though Kaczynski's acts seem terroristic, inasmuch as they are arguably directed at human beings as symbols rather than purely as humans, the FBI did not officially classify his bombings as domestic terrorism, noting a "lack of information regarding the subject's motivation."

Special-interest terrorism in the 1990s. In the 1990s, special-interest terrorism of the political right included attacks and threats against abortion clinics. Special-interest terrorism on the political left involved motivations that included the environment, animal rights, and opposition to globalization. The FBI paid special note to the left-wing groups in this instance, not because of political bias, but because attacks on abortion clinics are classified as hate crimes, giving them an entirely different legal definition and involving other arms of the national justice system.

On the other hand, the acts of groups such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) or the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) fit within the FBI's definition of terrorism. The ALF, affiliated with similar groups worldwide, conducts raids on research laboratories and other facilities where, in the view of group members, animals are mistreated. Radical environmentalists have been charged with "tree spiking," or putting metal spikes in trees to harm loggers who cut them, and of mailing packages rigged with razor blades. In October 1998, the ELF was charged with setting fire to a ski resort in Vail, Colorado.

The FBI also noted the rise of anti-globalization demonstrations, which are founded in an opposition to the growth and international influence of Western corporations and financial entities. Though officially grouped with left-wing terrorism because of its strongly anarchist undertones, anti-globalization activities might also be considered special-interest in nature. During the World Trade Organization ministerial meetings in Seattle from November 30 to December 3, 1999, anti-globalization demonstrators conducted extensive acts of vandalism.

CONPLAN

On June 21, 1995, just two months after the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton issued Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 39, "U.S. Policy on Counterterrorism." Its purpose was to provide guidelines for deterring terrorism on America's shores, as well as terrorism against Americans and allies abroad. In accordance with PDD 39 and PDD 62, issued the same day, U.S. government agencies developed the United States Government Interagency Domestic Terrorism Concept of Operations Plan, or CONPLAN for short.

Presented in January 2001, CONPLAN outlines the response to a domestic terrorist attack, or a foreign-sponsored terrorist attack on U.S. soil, such as those that occurred eight months later, on September 11. CONPLAN identifies the FBI as the lead agency for domestic counterterrorism, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as the lead consequence management agency. It also outlines responsibilities for the Attorney General and Department of Justice, FEMA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the departments of Defense, Energy, and Health and Human Services.

█ FURTHER READING:

BOOKS:

Abanes, Richard. American Militias: Rebellion, Racism, and Religion. Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 1996.

Ellis, Richard J. The Dark Side of the Left: Illiberal Egalitarianism in America. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1998.

George, John, and Laird Wilcox. American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists, and Others. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996.

Terrorism in the United States 1999. Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1999.

SEE ALSO

Architecture and Structural Security
ATF (United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms)
Coordinator for Counterterrorism, United States Office
Domestic Emergency Support Team, United States
Domestic Intelligence
Domestic Preparedness Office (NDPO), United States National
FBI (United States Federal Bureau of Investigation)
GAO (General Accounting Office, United States)
General Services Administration, United States
Terrorism, Intelligence Based Threat and Risk Assessments
Terrorism, Philosophical and Ideological Origins
Terrorism Risk Insurance
Terrorist and Para-State Organizations
Terrorist Organizations, Freezing of Assets
Terrorist Threat Integration Center
United States, Counter-Terrorism Policy

Domestic Terrorism

Growing Hate Movement

During the 1990s a proliferation of extremist and militant activities emerged, ranging from Ku Klux Klan marches to murders and bombings. Tens of thousands of Americans joined various antigovernment and hate groups. Early in the decade right-wing domestic terrorism rose to a level not seen since the activities of left-wing student radicals and militants of the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were about five hundred active militia groups across the country, some with only a few members and others with thousands. Many of these groups were antigovernment, racist, and anti-Semitic; they were often well-organized, heavily armed, and held national meetings and local training sessions on a regular basis. While most groups did not use violence, there were some tragic examples of how far extremist individuals and organizations were willing to go in waging war against the government and other traditional targets of hate, namely racial and ethnic minorities. There were scores of arson attacks against black churches in the South. Homosexuals and Jews were also targeted. With the growth of the radical right, state and federal law enforcement agencies were assigned to monitor and control these groups. In some cases they failed in this task.

The Unabomber

One of the longest violent-crime cases of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), active for seventeen years, involved a series of fatal bombings. It was called the Unabomb case, a code name selected because some of the bombs were set off on university campuses and another was placed aboard an airliner. Beginning in 1978 the serial bomber, later identified as Theodore John Kaczynski, mailed or placed sixteen homemade explosive devices, killing three persons and injuring twenty-three others. A crucial development in the case occurred in early 1996 when the bomber sent a manuscript to The New York Times and Washington Post. With FBI approval, both papers published the 35,000-word treatise. The Unabomber argued that the purpose of the bombings was to call attention to the destabilizing effects of technology and "leftism" on modern society and traditional values. Publication of the manifesto led David Kaczynski to link it with earlier writings of his estranged brother Ted, who was living as a recluse near a small town in Montana.

Arrest

On 3 April 1996 Kaczynski, a former mathematics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was arrested by FBI agents at his cabin. On 18 June he was formally indicted on ten counts relating to the transportation and mailing of explosive devices that killed or injured victims in California, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Supporting the government case was evidence found in the Montana cabin and DNA evidence from saliva taken from letters linked to the Unabomber.

Guilty Plea

A variety of difficulties faced both the defense and prosecution in pretrial proceedings in United States v. Kaczynski. For instance, the defendant refused to cooperate with mental-health professionals during psychiatric exams; Kaczynski also objected to undergoing neurological tests requested by his own lawyers. This refusal made it difficult for his defense team to pursue a diminished-capacity strategy. During these hearings Kaczynski was frequently observed muttering to himself and on one occasion he threw a pen across the courtroom. In a surprising move, the judge ruled that Kaczynski could represent himself if he was proven competent by a court-appointed mental-health expert. Kaczynski then agreed to the mental health exam. In January 1998, prior to opening statements, Kaczynski attempted suicide in jail and was placed under a twenty-four-hour watch. In spite of the serious nature of his crimes, the prosecution was reluctant to seek the death penalty. Had Attorney General Janet Reno decided to seek the death penalty, the defense would have had solid ground for a constitutional challenge. On 22 January 1998 Kaczynski accepted a plea bargain, entered an unconditional plea of guilty to all counts, and confessed to bombings for which he was not yet formally charged. He was sentenced on 4 May 1998 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

DAVID KORESH

Born Vernon Wayne Howell in Houston, Texas, in 1959 to a fifteen-year-old single mother, David Korcsh never knew his father and was raised by his grandparents. From a young age, the high school dropout was interested in the Bible and music. In 1981 Koresh joined the Branch Davidians, a religious sect which in 1935 had settled ten miles outside of Waco. The Branch Davidians were a renegade sect of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which had formally denounced the separatist group. In 1987 Korcsh and the group's leader, George Roden, engaged in an armed power struggle in which Roden was shot. Koresh was tried tor attempted murder. However, the trial judge declared a mistrial when the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Later the same year, Koresh assumed control over Mt. Carmel, and in 1990 he legally changed his name to Korcsh. Reflecting his messianic mission, Koresh is a Hebrew word that refers to Cyrus, the name of the Persian king who allowed the Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Israel. The Davidians saw themselves as prophets, and Koresh claimed that he had been chosen by God to interpret the apocalyptic message in Revelation's seventh seal, which prophesied the last days of human history. Koresh regarded the siege by federal authorities, which began on 28 February 1993, as part of the prophecy of the seven seals. Koresh died on 19 April 1993 of a presumably self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Ruby Ridge

While antigovernment militia groups were active prior to the events at Ruby Ridge, Randy Weaver's standoff with federal authorities sparked increased interest in neo-Nazi, white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and Christian Identity. Hatred of the federal government, as well as racist and anti-Semitic sentiments, ran deep within these well-armed fringe organizations. Their objective was to reclaim the United States from an intrusive government, ethnic minorities, and Jews. In February 1991 Weaver, a U.S. Army veteran and survivalist, failed to appear for a trial on felony charges of selling sawed-off shotguns to an informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). Instead, Weaver, his wife, their son Samuel and two daughters, and Kevin Harris withdrew to the family home on Ruby Ridge, near Naples, Idaho. They remained there tor eighteen months. Recognizing the potential for an armed confrontation, federal agents attempted to negotiate Weaver's surrender. On 21 August 1992 six U.S. Marshals were inspecting the woods around Weaver's cabin when they heard a dog barking. An agent shot the dog. They then heard shouting and gunfire. A marshal returned fire, shooting Weaver's fourteen-year-old son in the back and killing him. Harris then shot one of the agents, who also died. The following day, Weaver's wife, Vicki, was shot and killed as she held her infant in a doorway. The siege at Ruby Ridge continued for eleven days with hundreds of FBI agents involved. On 30 August 1992 Harris, who was wounded, surrendered to federal agents. Weaver, with his remaining children, gave up the next day.

United States v. Randy Weaver.

Along with Harris, Weaver was charged with capital murder. On 8 July 1993, however, a jury found both men innocent, believing that the government had provoked the entire incident by killing Weaver's dog, his son, and then his wife. The jury also found Weaver innocent of the original charge of trafficking in illegal weapons. His attorney, Gerry Spence, argued that his client had been entrapped. This defense required convincing jurors that Weaver was not predisposed to commit the crime. Despite Weaver's acquittal on the weapons charge, he was convicted of failing to appear for his original court date and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. With credit for time served while awaiting the trial, he was incarcerated tor a few additional months.

Federal Responsibility

The federal government did not emerge from the incident unscathed, as the deaths of a young boy and of a woman holding an infant in her arms appeared to the public as abhorrent and criminal. The U.S. Attorneys Office, which was responsible for prosecuting the case, was widely criticized for pursuing the death penalty against Weaver. Assessment of the involvement of the FBI in the case was made more difficult because a senior agent destroyed documents relating to the case. The officer later pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and, like Weaver, was sentenced to eighteen months in prison. After an extensive investigation the U.S. Department of Justice found that federal agents, particularly from the FBI, had overreacted to the threat presented by Weaver and questioned the "shoot-on-sight" policy. The investigation also criticized the federal agencies involved for failing to utilize proper investigative and enforcement procedures. These findings, in part, led to the Justice Department agreeing to pay Weaver and his surviving children $3.1 million.

Waco

Federal law-enforcement agencies apparently failed to learn from their mistakes at Ruby Ridge. On 19 April 1993, in full view of millions of television viewers, a fifty-one-day standoff between federal agents and a well-armed religious fringe group known as the Branch Davidians ended in a massive conflagration. Events leading up to this fiery conclusion began on 28 February 1993 when ninety heavily armed ATF agents attempted to serve a search-and-arrest warrant at the compound known as Mt. Carmel outside of Waco, Texas. Gunfire erupted and four federal agents were killed. The warrant, which was the result of almost a year of investigation and surveillance, was based on allegations that the residents possessed illegal fire-arms and were possibly converting semiautomatic rifles into machine guns. Later investigations found that the Davidians had stockpiled almost four hundred firearms, including forty-eight machine guns. During the standoff the activities at Waco dominated national news, and Davidian leader David Koresh became a household name.

Death at Mt. Carmel

After months of negotiations the standoff was finally brought to a close when federal tanks and armored vehicles punched holes in the walls of the compound and dozens of gas canisters were fired into the building in an attempt to force the Davidians out. Following the assault, smoke poured out of the structure and within minutes the entire compound was engulfed in flames. Seventy-six group members died, including twenty-five children under the age of fifteen. At least two dozen victims were later discovered to have died from gunshot wounds, either self-inflicted or caused by someone else in the compound. Nine Davidians escaped by fleeing the building.

Trial

Surviving Davidians were tried in federal court in 1994, charged with the murder of federal agents and various other crimes, including illegal weapons possession, manslaughter, and immigration violations. The Davidians argued that they had acted in self-defense against an unlawful assault conducted by the federal government. Koresh became a scapegoat for the defendants, who blamed their leader, along with the government, for the incident. Defense attorneys portrayed Koresh as delusional and paranoid. On 26 February 1994, almost one year to the day after the standoff began, the seven-week trial ended and all the Davidians were acquitted of the murder and conspiracy charges. Two were acquitted of all charges and freed. Seven others were convicted of lesser charges and fined or sentenced to prison terms.

Investigation

Over the next six years federal investigations attempted to resolve the questions of who fired first on 28 February and how the fire started. Did the Davidians commit mass suicide or were they killed by the fire? Did federal agents, as well as Attorney General Janet Reno, act within legal bounds? As late as 1999, Congress investigated the conduct of government agencies involved in the standoff. Allegations that the Justice Department had suppressed evidence that might have incriminated federal law-enforcement agencies surfaced in the late 1990s. In the midst of court orders for government attorneys to turn over all evidence from the siege or face contempt-of-court charges, as well as constant refusals and delays in submitting documents, Congress appointed a special investigative team, led by former senator John Claggett Danforth (R-Missouri), to continue the probe into the standoff at Waco. While some agencies submitted subpoenaed documents, the White House refused to turn over classified documents, citing executive privilege.

Wrongful Death Suits

In addition to the ongoing federal investigation into the conduct of law enforcement agencies, some survivors and family members of the Davidians filed a wrongful death suit against the government in civil court. The case claimed that federal agents fired on sect members first and that the government was responsible for setting the fire that engulfed the compound and resulted in scores of deaths. On 14 July 2000 a jury exonerated the government in the wrongful death suit; a week later Danforths report declared that the agents were not responsible for the deaths at Waco.

Bombing in Oklahoma

Exactly two years after the final assault on the Mt. Carmel compound, a homemade bomb, hidden in a rented truck, exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The explosion killed 168 people and injured more than 500. It was the most deadly domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history. The Murrah Building housed a variety of federal agencies, as well as a daycare center for the children of federal employees. Nineteen children under the age of five were killed in the blast. According to federal prosecutors, the alleged motive for the bombing was antigovernment sentiments that had been inflamed by the raid on the Branch Davidians. An hour and a half after the blast Timothy James McVeigh was arrested on an unrelated weapons violation during a routine traffic stop. On 21 April, McVeigh, a U.S. Army veteran of the Persian Gulf War and a Bronze Star recipient, was charged by federal authorities in connection with the bombing. Terry Lynn Nichols, also a former soldier, was charged as an accomplice on 10 May 1995. On 11 August 1995 both McVeigh and Nichols were indicted by a grand jury for murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, and use of a weapon of mass destruction. The murder charges pertained to eight federal agents who were killed in the explosion. In October, Attorney General Reno authorized federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in both cases.

Cameras in the Courtroom

Because of the intense media coverage and the large number of individuals killed or injured in the attack, U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch moved the trial to Denver. Two pretrial issues involved in the case centered around whether television cameras would be allowed in the courtroom and whether the trial could be broadcast live. Matsch ruled in July 1996 that a closed-circuit telecast was constitutional and would be allowed. He refused, however, to permit bombing survivors and family members to watch the trial in person if they planned to testify. In March 1997 President Bill Clinton signed a bill allowing victims who were possible witnesses to attend the proceedings.

McVeigh's Trial

On 31 March 1997 jury selection began in the McVeigh trial and jurors were seated on 22 April. Opening statements began on 24 April. The federal prosecution team, led by assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Hartzler, centered the case against McVeigh on evidence that the defendant rented the Ryder truck that carried the ammonium-nitrate bomb. Prosecutors also proved that McVeigh's fingerprints were found on a receipt for the purchase of forty fifty-pound bags of ammonium-nitrate fertilizer. Government prosecutors showed that clothing McVeigh wore when he was arrested was covered with bomb residue. Michael J. Fortier, a friend of the defendant, testified that he told law enforcement officials that McVeigh was angry about the federal assault on the Branch Davidians. McVeigh's defense, led by Oklahoma attorney Stephen Jones, attempted to sow reasonable doubt in the jurors's minds by emphasizing the circumstantial nature of the evidence. In particular, Jones criticized the competency of FBI crime lab procedures and analysis regarding the explosive residue on McVeighs clothes. Jones contended that McVeigh was not the actual bomber. Rather, there was another person at the Murrah Building, "John Doe 2," who had accompanied McVeigh to rent the Ryder truck and who subsequently carried out the bombing. McVeigh did not testify. On 2 June 1997 he was convicted on all charges and on 14 August 1997 was sentenced to death by lethal injection. He is one of fewer than two dozen federal prisoners facing death sentences.

Nichols's Trial

Judge Matsch ordered that Nichols be tried separately from McVeigh, ruling that their rights could be compromised by a joint trial since Nichols had reportedly implicated McVeigh in the bombing. The judge concluded that to avoid self-incrimination Nichols could not be compelled to testify against McVeigh. On 23 December 1997 Nichols, who was never placed at the bomb scene, was convicted of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and of eight counts of involuntary man-slaughter for the deaths of the federal agents. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Both Nichols and McVeigh had appeals pending in federal courts at the end of the decade.

Foreign Terrorists

Not all terrorist attacks in the United States originated domestically. On 26 February 1993 the World Trade Center in New York City was the target of a bomb that killed six and injured more than a thousand people. Evidence gathered by federal investigators indicated that the terrorist act was carried out by members of several different Muslim fundamentalist groups pursuing a jihad, or holy war, against America. The investigation also revealed the wide extent to which foreign terrorists lived and operated in the United States. At the time of the explosion about fifty thousand people were in the 110-story complex. The bomb, which was placed in a parking garage beneath the structure, was comprised of approximately twelve hundred pounds of explosives, including sodium cyanide. The attack caused S500 million in damage. It was the largest act of foreign terrorism on American soil; state and federal government buildings, as well as U.S. military installations around the world, were placed on alert.

Bombing Trials

Within a week and a half after the explosion, FBI agents tracked the vehicle suspected of carrying the bomb to Mohammed Salameh, a twenty-six-year-old Jordanian national. Salameh, along with Nidal Ayyad, a thirty-two-year-old chemist, Mahud Abouhalima, thirty-nine, and Ahmad Ajaj, thirty-four, were arrested. The four men were found guilty in March 1994 and sentenced to 240 years in prison. Another suspect, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the twenty-seven-year-old who was thought to have masterminded the attack, was arrested in February 1995 in Pakistan. Along with Eyad Ismoil, Yousef was tried on charges of murder and conspiracy. Federal prosecutors argued that Yousef and Ismoil had parked the bomb-laden vehicle in the garage. They were convicted in November 1997 and sentenced to 240-year prison terms. Other suspects are thought by federal agents to be at large. In February 1999 the first four militants convicted in the terrorist attack appealed their sentences, challenging the forensic evidence presented by federal prosecutors. In October 1999 a federal appeals court reduced their sentences by more than half. In another case involving foreign terrorists, cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine other Muslims were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in a plot to bomb the United Nations (UN), FBI headquarters in Manhattan, two tunnels in New York, and a bridge connecting New Jersey with Manhattan—all in one day. Federal investigators also contend that they were co-conspirators in the World Trade Center bombing.

Sources:

FC, The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and its Future (Berkeley, Cal.: Jolly Roger Press, 1995).

Louis J. Freeh, Ensuring Public Safety and National Security under the Rule of Law: A Report to the American People on The Work of the FBI 1993-1998 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1999).

David Hoffman, The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror (Venice, Cal.: Feral House, 1998).

Harvey W. Kushner, Terrorism in America: A Structured Approach to standing the Terrorist Threat (Springfield, I11.: Charles C. Thomas, 1998).

Michael Mello, The United States of America versus Theodore John Kaczynski: Ethics, Power and the Invention of the Unabomber (New York: Context Books, 1999).

Robert L. Snow, The Militia Threat: Terrorists Among Us (New York: Plenum Trade, 1999).

James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher, Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

Gordon Witkin, "Making the Case," U.S. News and World Report, 122 (31 March 1997): 22-24.