25 years after Oklahoma City bombing, right-wing extremism in midst of resurgence
It was — and still is — the deadliest act of domestic terrorism on U.S. soil.
On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb decimated the north face of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured hundreds.
The brazen attack shocked the nation and exposed a subculture that had been gaining momentum while operating under the radar. And now, a quarter century after the horrific images of that morning were forever etched in people’s minds, experts say the right-wing extremist movement — which includes everything from the Patriot and militia groups to white nationalists and neo-Nazis — is in the midst of a resurgence.
And they worry that the global coronavirus pandemic could be the catalyst that spurs someone to light the next fuse.
“The Oklahoma City bombing marked a new era in terrorism against the United States,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. “Timothy McVeigh basically wrote a template for terrorists that continues to this day.
“It turned out to be in many ways an instructors’ guide, not only for right-wing extremists but extremists of all stripes, to carry out the kind of mass attacks that previously we saw only from organized groups.”
But in another way, Levin said, the Oklahoma City bombing was the end of an era.
“Back then, we could categorize these extremists — anti-government, anti-abortion,” he said. “But now we have folks picking and choosing from a buffet of grievances on the internet. And the question is, will this coronavirus pandemic serve as a catalyst for another act of terrorism?”
Timothy McVeigh timed the bombing to coincide with the second anniversary of the deadly fire that ended the Branch Davidians’ 51-day standoff with federal authorities at the religious sect’s compound in Waco, Texas.
McVeigh was convicted and put to death by lethal injection in June 2001. His friend and former Army buddy, Terry Nichols — who helped buy the materials and assemble the bomb at a state fishing lake not far from his home in Herington, Kansas — was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the bombing after the jury spared him the death penalty. And Michael Fortier, another Army friend, was convicted of failing to tell authorities about the bombing plot. He served 10 years in prison, then was released in 2006 and placed in the witness protection program.
A remembrance ceremony planned for Sunday at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum was canceled because the state is under a stay-at-home order in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, an hour-long service will be broadcast live on television networks in Oklahoma City and Tulsa as well as the museum website and Facebook page starting at 9 a.m.
Escalation in violence
The deadly blast prompted a swift response from federal authorities, resulting in an aggressive crackdown on anti-government activity. But six years later, the law enforcement focus shifted to foreign terrorism in the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
In recent years, however, as violent incidents have been stacking up, the federal government has again turned its attention to domestic terrorism.
“In 2016, we had three homicides by far-right/white supremacists,” said Levin, whose center tracks hate crimes and other extremist violence. “Then we had 11 in 2017, and we had 17 in 2018 and at least 26 in 2019. That would be the worst year for far-right extremist homicides since Timothy McVeigh.”
In September, the Department of Homeland Security released its “Strategic Framework for Countering Terrorism and Targeted Violence,” saying domestic terrorists “have caused more deaths in the United States in recent years than have terrorists connected to FTOs (foreign terrorist organizations).”
The report said white supremacist violent extremism “is one of the most potent forces driving domestic terrorism.”
“White supremacist violent extremists’ outlook can generally be characterized by hatred for immigrants and ethnic minorities, often combining these prejudices with virulent anti-Semitism or anti-Muslim views,” the report said.
In the same manner that ISIS inspired and connected with potential radical Islamist terrorists, the report said, white supremacist extremists connect with like-minded individuals online.
“In addition to mainstream social media platforms, white supremacist violent extremists use lesser-known sites like Gab, 8chan, and EndChan, as well as encrypted channels,” the report said. “Celebration of violence and conspiracy theories about the ‘ethnic replacement’ of whites as the majority ethnicity in various Western countries are prominent in their online circles.”
The internet and social media have played an enormous role in the movement’s resurgence, experts say.
In the 1990s, right-wing extremists made contacts and disseminated information through gun shows, militia meetings, fax networks, magazines, and shortwave and satellite radio. Electronic newsgroups such as alt.conspiracy, misc.activism.militia and talk.politics.guns were popular communication tools as well.
“There was this whole underground, right-wing counterculture media and information dissemination ecosphere out there,” said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow for the ADL’s Center on Extremism. “The difference is it was all these different pieces of the puzzle, whereas now, the internet has taken the place of almost all of those.”
Right-wing extremists have always been quick to embrace technology, said Kathleen Blee, a sociology professor and dean at the University of Pittsburgh who for decades has researched racist and anti-Semitic violence.
“They always saw technology as a way to spread their message, not only to recruit but to spread hatred to terrorize their so-called enemies,” she said.
Social media has been a game-changer in getting their message out, Blee said.
“Before, when they were meeting in groups in person, there was a limit to how many people would ever have the possibility of being on that path, because their reach could never be that big,” she said. “But now, their reach is enormous.”
And because of that reach, the violent extremists have adopted an increasingly transnational outlook in recent years, the DHS and researchers say.
“We are witnessing the internationalization of the white supremacist movement,” said a report released in September by the ADL. “Over the past decade, we have seen surging violence in the United States, Europe and beyond motivated by elements of white supremacy… These killers influence and inspire one another.”
In the last two months alone, more than a dozen Americans have been arrested as a result of investigations into a growing domestic terrorism threat from individuals and groups with international ties, according to a joint report issued in April by the ADL and George Washington University.
And last week, authorities in Estonia revealed that they’d recently confronted the person believed to be heading an international neo-Nazi group linked to plots to attack a Las Vegas synagogue and set off a car bomb at a U.S. news network. The alleged leader, who called himself “Commander” online, was 13 years old. The teen reportedly ran operations for the Feuerkrieg Division, described by the ADL as “a small international neo-Nazi group that advocates for a race war and holds some of the white supremacist movement’s most extreme views.”
U.S. authorities are on heightened alert over the escalation in violence.
“Every counterterrorism professional I speak to in the federal government and overseas feels like we are at the doorstep of another 9-11,” Elizabeth Neumann, assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy at the Department of Homeland Security, told lawmakers at a Feb. 26 hearing of the House Intelligence and Counterterrorism Subcommittee. “Maybe not something that catastrophic in terms of the visual or the numbers, but that we can see it building and we don’t quite know how to stop it.”
Conspiracy theories still rampant
Among the common threads between the movement in the Oklahoma City bombing era and today are conspiracy theories.
A popular one in the ’90s was that the United Nations was going to usher in the New World Order, implement martial law, confiscate guns and throw offenders in concentration camps.
Now, those same issues are resurfacing in connection with the coronavirus. On social media in recent weeks, militia groups have been talking about seeing troop movement across the country, telling followers to prepare for martial law and vowing to fight back if someone tries to take their guns. They also are starting to challenge the stay-at-home orders issued by state leaders to stop the spread of the virus.
On Easter, Ammon Bundy — a rancher who in 2016 led an armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon that resulted in a 41-day standoff — organized a church service in Idaho in defiance of that state’s stay-at-home order. Protesters brought traffic to a standstill at the state capitol in Michigan on Wednesday, some carrying AR-15s, as part of their “Operation Gridlock” event, and similar protests are scheduled for the weekend in numerous cities across the country.
Many continue to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus.
“People need to wake up!” one person wrote in an April 13 post on the Montana Militia Facebook page. “Last flu season 61,200 people in the U.S. died from the flu, compared to the 20,601 who have died from covid19 in the U.S. Flu deaths 3 times more then covid 19? Think about that.”
Another said he was thankful “for there being so many other Montana residents that are prepared to bear arms together in the event the government tries to tread on the constitution more than they already have been the last few years.”
Some warned that they were prepared for a battle.
“Anyone who tries to take my family by force will get a bullet to the head.”
This month, CNN reported that national security officials warned in an intelligence bulletin that extremist groups were exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to incite violence and push racist and anti-government narratives. According to the report, the bulletin cited threats from hate groups targeting minorities and said conspiracy theories about the virus’ origins and government’s response could fuel potential violence.
That’s what authorities say happened in Missouri last month. Timothy Wilson, who investigators said was plotting to bomb a Kansas City-area hospital, was upset by the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and motivated by racial, religious and anti-government beliefs, according to court documents.
The 36-year-old Raymore man died March 24 in a gun battle with FBI agents who were serving an arrest warrant on him in Belton. Court documents indicated Wilson had for months discussed ideas for a terrorist attack, telling an undercover FBI agent that he was considering sites ranging from a nuclear plant and Islamic centers in Missouri to the Walmart headquarters or a synagogue in Arkansas.
Wilson’s plot to attack the hospital, according to the documents, involved making a bomb out of ammonium nitrate — the same fertilizer used in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Lone wolf accelerationists
Within five years of the Oklahoma City bombing, the militia movement appeared to be headed toward extinction.
“The Y2K conspiracy stuff took a lot of energy out of it when all that proved to be nothing,” Pitcavage said. “They’d bought all those dried beans, filled their bunkers, and nothing ever happened.”
The early- to mid-2000s were a low point for the movement, he said, and the number of groups dropped dramatically. But in 2008, the movement saw a resurgence.
“This happened as a result of several things,” Pitcavage said. “The election of Barack Obama, because now they had someone they could pin their conspiracy theories on. And the Great Recession and foreclosure crisis got a lot of people anxious and concerned, and some turned to extremist groups. And 2008-2009 is exactly the time that social media was taking over the internet.”
Hundreds of new militia and Three Percenter groups formed, he said.
In 2016, the movement strongly backed Donald Trump for president — the first mainstream political party nominee it had ever supported. Though militia supporters were jubilant when Trump won, Pitcavage said, it also posed a dilemma for them.
“The whole thrust of the movement has been anger at the government, typically focused on the president,” he said. “But they can’t do that with Trump. So it’s been hard for them to sustain the momentum they had under Obama.”
For the white supremacist movement, however, it’s been just the opposite, Pitcavage said, largely because of the rise of the so-called alt-right.
“The rise of the alt-right brought to the white supremacist movement the first big influx of young, newly radicalized white males since the rise of the Skinhead subculture in the late ’80s and early ’90s,” he said.
While the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, “deplatformed” some prominent leaders in the alt-right, Pitcavage said, it had little long-term effect on the momentum of the movement.
Now, he said, the biggest concern is white supremacist violence, especially from “lone wolf accelerationist types.”
“Some of them have been developing among the alt-right and among the young neo-Nazis this idea of acceleration,” he said. “The accelerationists are among the most dangerous among them, because they support any sort of violence — anything that will weaken the fabric of society. They think it’s unreformable and that they have to burn it to the ground so they can build from the ashes the society the way they want it.”
Wilson, the Missouri extremist, appeared to be an adherent of that concept.
According to an affidavit, he told an undercover FBI agent that he wanted “to create enough chaos to kick start a revolution.”
Preparing for the ‘boogaloo’
Though the current focus has turned toward white supremacists, longtime researcher Devin Burghart said it would be a mistake to lose sight of the militia movement.
The level of militia activity is “exponentially higher today than it was prior to Oklahoma City,” said Burghart, president of the Kansas City-based Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights.
“Back then, at its height, we tracked around 25,000 militia members and affiliate types,” he said. “Today, the numbers are closer to 250,000 who follow militia activity or belong to militia-related Facebook groups. That ten-fold increase is significant. And that’s a big thing that not many people are paying attention to.”
Burghart said his organization is tracking about 900 Facebook groups and other social media sites of those in what he calls the “militia-sphere,” which includes militias, Three Percenters, Oathkeepers, Patriots, Minutemen and sovereign citizens.
He said notable differences exist between the modern militia movement and that of 1995.
Now, he said, there are multiple “brands” of militia-style organizations, in part because of the hit the movement took after Oklahoma City.
“All of them wrap themselves in the kind of mythology of America’s founding to try and portray a certain kind of patriotism and nationalism,” he said. “But at the end of the day, what they are is private armies trying to enforce their political will at the barrel of a gun.”
Another difference is the current movement’s relationship to the government.
“They’ve shifted posture,” Burghart said. “They are ecstatic with the way that the Trump administration is running the government. Rather than attacking the current leadership of the country, they are in a defensive crouch, looking to defend this administration from threats, foreign and domestic.”
Back in the ’90s, Burghart said, there was at least a “semi-permeable membrane” between the white nationalist movement and the militia movement.
“There were certainly crossovers there, but you did not have lots of open alliances between organizations,” he said. “Today, you have that, with groups like the Three Percenters and Oathkeepers providing security for the white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville and the Proud Boys who marched in Portland and Seattle and other places.
“So that kind of distinction has been completely obliterated. The difference now is that the militias are the paramilitary wing of the far right.”
And some of them, he said, are preparing for the “boogaloo” — their term for a second Civil War.
“Because their world view has spread so far and wide about how there is this nefarious plot to take away all their rights, the notion that there is impending conflict coming soon is becoming far more commonplace in these circles,” Burghart said.
And while they say they’re not going to fire the first shot, he said, any potential conflict, such as a governor deciding to enforce a stay-at-home order, could be a tripwire.
“They’ve got their guns, they’ve got the Constitution on their side, and they’re ready to rock and roll.”
The next target?
Domestic terrorism existed in the country before the Oklahoma City bombing, Levin said, but the bombing “redefined what terrorism is.”
“This wasn’t a one-off with minimal casualties,” he said. “This really transformed things because of the scope and the scale, particularly by someone who was part of the movement but not affiliated with any particular group.”
McVeigh, he said, coalesced the loner, or “do-it-yourself” extremists.
“And we are unfortunately seeing the aftershocks,” he said. “But now we’re seeing people who instead of truck bombs are using assault weapons, because guns are easier to get.”
In 1995, Levin said, there was a limited selection of propaganda from which extremists could become radicalized.
“Now, there’s a constellation of conspiracy theories and boogeymen on the internet that create an increasing range of grievances and targets,” he said. “Today’s extremists are now dining from a diverse buffet. The entrée may be white supremacy, but they might throw in a scoop of ecological mashed potatoes or some string beans of anti-capitalism.”
In some ways, Levin said, Oklahoma City was a lens into the future. Back then, he said, Congress was divided, the militia movement was on the rise and many feared that government overreach was a serious threat.
“And what are we seeing today? We have a pandemic which will create a Jupiter-sized reservoir of extremist and conspiracy theories, not only with respect to far-right extremists, but everybody,” he said.
Not only could there be attacks by white supremacists related to the coronavirus scare, he said, but also by someone with a jumbled array of ideologies.
“The impact of this horrendous pandemic is so widespread and it’s affecting so many different people in different ways that we might see someone who shoots up a workplace because they lost their job,” he said, “or shoot up a hospital.”
Widespread fear makes people more vulnerable to radicalization, Levin said.
“And there hasn’t been a time when we have more widespread fear than we do now. The question is, which extremists are going to best exploit these fears in today’s world?”
This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 3:00 AM with the headline "25 years after Oklahoma City bombing, right-wing extremism in midst of resurgence."
