Introduction: "Expect More Bombs"

One of the most energetic promoters of the growing anti-government movement in 1995 was Militia of Montana spokesman Bob Fletcher. Shortly after a two-ton bomb destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 169 people, Fletcher made an announcement to the press: "Expect more bombs."

Seven months later, anti-government extremists were caught building a bomb intended to blow up the Southern Poverty Law Center, the headquarters of the Militia Task Force which monitors Patriot terrorism. Plots to bomb federal buildings in Austin and Spokane were narrowly averted, as was a conspiracy to use lethal biological poisons to kill federal employees.

Fifteen years ago, the most serious domestic terrorists in the U.S. were violent white supremacists. The Southern Poverty Law Center began ir 1981 to bring hate groups to justice through innovative lawsuits that found group leaders responsible for the violence they encouraged. Over the next decade, a series of court rulings and jury verdicts resulted in the dismantling, one by one, of the nation's most violent racist groups.

Today, white supremacists have joined with other armed vigilantes in the anti-government Patriot movement. They have a new strategy for terror: underground "cells" that will wage war against the government with the support of a broad coalition of the extreme right.

Fletcher was right: there will be more bombs.

It is critical that media, law enforcement and other public servants have a clear understanding of the danger these Patriots present, the myths they promote, and the most effective ways of combating them. We hope this report serves that purpose.

In this report, we refer to anti-government extremists in general as Patriots because that is the single label claimed by all the varied elements of the movement. But as you read, remember what this "patriotism" is about. These dedicated Patriots advocate nothing less than the dismantling -- by force if necessary -- of the entire U.S. government, and the repudiation of many Constitutional rights. (The original Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the only laws many Patriots recognize.) They rage against the "New World Order," but the old world order they seek to revive is the one in which women could not vote and blacks were not citizens.

Our aim here is not to defend big government or to condemn legitimate dissent. Our nation's founders created a Constitution that encourages us to keep a watchful eye on those in power, and we improve our government when we view it with a healthy dose of skepticism. To demand reform is patriotic. To abandon the path of democracy is not.

Joe Roy

Militia Task Force Director