Just time to observe this well-known and highly respected group again.

BTW... Whats Cycle 23? Sunspots. Of course.

Diane

Millennia Monitor

http://www.fas.org/2000/index.html

The advent of the new millennium represents the convergence of a diverse range of social, cultural, political and technological tendencies. In particular, apocalyptic expectations may provoke unanticipated and indeed unprecedented modes of political expression, including acts of violence. Traditional responses may prove inadequate to impending social disruptions, and apocalyptic expectations may prove not entirely unfounded, as the "Year 2000 Problem" faced by many computer systems -- compounded by Cycle 23 -- is likely to produce its own unique form of social disruption.

Growing dissatisfaction with and lack of trust in government and other major national institutions, along with perceptions of decreased opportunity for much of the population, has produced a growing alienation from the established order. With every tick of the millennial clock popular culture embraces apocalyptic scenarios, conspiracy theories and paranormal speculation. Millennia Monitor is a unique observer of these diverse tendencies.

[LOL... check out the counter at the bottom of the web-page].

The main FAS site...

Federation of American Scientists (FAS)

http://www.fas.org/

Search engine... new and improved... under construction... AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!

http://www.fas.org/search.html

*Sigh*

(Wanted to look up a Marine General here... General Charles C. Krulak, the Commandant of the Marine Corps)

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 26, 1999

Answers

Not to mention... The Rendon Group... PR firm for Koskinens Community Conversations.

See also...

What's In Wilmington Delaware? (4-Star Marine Corps General "Retires")

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 0010Kr

And...

Check out the Navy's Virtual Community Conversation on 6/15, and a look at who created the .gov Community Conversation series.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 00106v

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 26, 1999.

This page is worth a look...

A Present Danger??

http://www.fas.org/2000/ threat.htm

Takes us right back to... Y2K and terrorism. Sorta.

*Big Sigh*

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 26, 1999.

Special Large Report up now on MSNBC

July 1st is right around the corner; so is *JULY* the 7th (or September) month of 1999, which is fast slipping away toward 2000, yessirree

[ For Educational Purposes Only ]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/257143.asp

THREAT From Within: Terrorism

By David Neiwert

Four years have passed since the most devastating act of terrorism ever committed on American soil: the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, in which 168 people died and another 400 were injured. In that time, home-grown acts of terror, particularly those committed by factions of the radical right similar to those responsible for Oklahoma City, have not gone away  and have, if anything, grown dramatically in frequency.

[ These are hot-links: ]

Robert Windrem: How the U.S. fights domestic terror
Pete Williams: Fighting terrorism within the law
Domestic terrorism: The FBI view
Origins of domestic terrorism in the U.S.
Political crimes by alleged domestic radicals

A SURVEY of politically motivated crimes committed in the United States since April 1995 reveals a disturbing increase in the activity. During those four years, some 39 documented cases involving terroristic intent have arisen, largely the product of the same virulent anti-government ideology ascribed to by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the two men convicted of the Murrah bombing.

Most of these cases, however, have not involved acts so spectacular and horrifying as the massive destruction of an occupied building. Rather, they have been comprised of an array of pipe bombings, bank robberies, police shootings, armed standoffs, attacks on abortion providers, actual and planned attacks on federal officials and facilities, and hate crimes, all committed (like Oklahoma City) with the intent of fomenting a revolutionary overthrow of the current American government.

Prior to April 1995, most cases of U.S. domestic terrorism  that is, crimes of violence intended to force political or social change committed by Americans on their own soil  were relegated to a handful of causes representing a broad array of issues: animal-welfare activists, pro-environmental radicals, anti-abortion activists and extremists from racist hate groups. But after Oklahoma City, observers have seen a surge in incidents, arrests and investigations that have been related almost solely to activism on behalf of rightist anti-government beliefs  that is, from self-described Patriot movement and related rightist groups, comprised of a range of militias, anti-abortion groups, constitutionalists Freemen, common-law courts, secessionists and tax protesters.

According to experts in law enforcement and academia, domestic terror has occurred in the U.S. throughout its history, hitting peaks and valleys, and that the nation is currently going through one of those peaks. In recent history, an earlier peak occurred in the middle of the 1980s, followed by a dip later that decade, because of aggressive efforts by law-enforcement agencies.

However, according to Michael Barkun, a Syracuse University political scientist who is the author of several books on the extreme right, the early 1990s saw a significant increase in domestic terrorism. Part of this is clearly related to the rise of the militia movement, although certainly not all militia groups have been involved in acts of violence, he says. But there seems to be a rise in paramilitary activity in the early 90s. Then Oklahoma City comes along, and again, theres a very aggressive push by particularly federal but also state law-enforcement agencies to get both intelligence and control over this kind of activity  but the activity doesnt seem to stop. Other experts note particularly that there was an impressive surge in domestic terrorism beginning in early 1996  a trend that hasnt leveled off yet.

LEADERLESS RESISTANCE

The apparent upswing, according to these and other experts, is almost certainly a product of a change in tactics by the would-be revolutionaries of the far right. Beginning in the early 1990s, their leaders began moving away from their traditional hierarchies and advocating a system of organization they called leaderless resistance: forming small, five- to eight-man cells of like-minded Patriots who would then carry out a variety of acts of resistance.

First elucidated by former KKK Grand Dragon Louis Beam in a 1992 paper, it appears to have been itself inspired by the real-life example of The Order, as well as by the blueprint for fomenting a race war drawn up by William Pierce, leader of the virulently racist National Alliance, in his 1978 novel, The Turner Diaries (a book favored as well by both McVeigh and Robert Mathews, leader of The Order). It quickly spread through the Patriot movement as a strategic cornerstone.

This metamorphosis was epitomized by the episode, in spring through fall of 1996, involving the so-called Phineas Priests in the Spokane, Wash., area. A group of four men, all members of a racist Christian Identity church in Sandpoint, Idaho, engaged in a brief reign of terror by robbing a series of banks, using pipe bombings at nearby locations (a newspaper plant and a Planned Parenthood clinic) as diversions and setting off bombs within the banks themselves. Before they were arrested by the FBI in October 1996 while attempting another robbery in Portland, Ore., they left behind a series of notes making clear their mostly Identity-driven ideological motives, marked with the sign of the Phineas Priesthood.

This priesthood was first announced in a 1990 book, Vigilantes of Christendom, by a North Carolina white supremacist named Richard Kelly Hoskins. It outlined the formation of small cells of priests who would go about the work of enforcing Gods laws: that is, killing mixed-race couples, civil-rights leaders, race traitors and abortion providers, or anyone else who violated the arcane Identity interpretation of Old Testament laws. It also argued for robbing banks  since banks engage in the sin of usury  to finance the operations.

The whole concept of the Phineas Priesthood was essentially a fictional construct, says Barkun. I see no evidence that any such organization existed prior to the publication of Vigilantes of Christendom. I think it was simply Hoskins rather creative reading of European and American history.

However, what was not fictional was the way the book became, like Pierces, a blueprint for action. Then you get this kind of imitative behavior in which people begin to think of themselves as Phineas Priests and act out the scenario that Hoskins presented, Barkun says. And the same thing happens with the concept of leaderless resistance.

RISING AWARENESS

Law-enforcement officials have not let the trend go unnoticed. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors the activities of the radical right, the FBI before Oklahoma City had only 100 open domestic-terrorism cases; today, it has over 1,000. Specialists like Barkun and the Militia Watchdogs Mark Pitcavage, who provides training and background for the FBI and local law enforcement under a Justice Department program, have seen a steep increase in the demand for their services.

And the trend has induced law enforcement to apply more agents to the problem. Theres no question that theres more informants, there are more people working for the feds, there are more agencies interested in this, says Mark Potok, editor of the SPLCs monthly Intelligence Report. You know, virtually every major federal agency has a task force or a unit. Im talking about everybody, even the IRS  everybody has a domestic-terrorism unit.

[ the IRS *is* a domestic terrorism unit ]

However, this same phenomenon clouds the law-enforcement picture. Its like certain kinds of crime statistics: Are we seeing an actual change in incidents, or are we seeing a change in reporting? says Barkun. Indeed, many of the 39 identifiable cases of domestic terrorism since Oklahoma City have involved arrests in which law enforcement caught would-be conspirators before they carried out their plans. Its difficult to tell whether those arrests would have occurred at all in a less sensitive environment.

OPTIMISM AND CONCERN

Those same arrests, though, indicate the extent to which law enforcement  particularly after horrendous stumbles like the fiascoes at Ruby Ridge in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993, that provided fodder for many of the terrorists ideological fires  has learned to effectively counter domestic terrorists. They found ways to defuse hostile situations without bloodshed, as evidenced by the peaceful surrender of the Montana Freemen in 1996 after an 81-day armed standoff. And they have grown sophisticated enough not only to recognize potential problems, but to distinguish mere resistance from more radical actors and act accordingly.

That in turn reassures many of the people who monitor domestic terrorism. I tend to be fairly optimistic in terms of criminal extremism, says Pitcavage, in that even though there is what I think quite a high level of activity, I think the evidence also suggests that local, state and federal law enforcement has been pretty successful in dealing with it.

He points particularly to the case involving a group of seven constitutionalists in the Midwest led by a Kansas man named Bradley Glover, who organized to fight what they believed was the imminent invasion of the U.S. by New World Order forces. These guys were planning on attacking Fort Hood, Texas, on the Fourth of July, with 50,000 men, women and children present to celebrate the Fourth of July, Pitcavage says. They werent planning to use bombs, but anti-personnel devices and spraying machine-gun fire, because there were Red Chinese troops being trained there.

Well, who knows what would have happened on the Fourth of July if they had actually done that. I think a catastrophe was averted by really smart law enforcement. The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the FBI just did an excellent job.

Y2K AND TERRORISM

However, the approach of the millennium almost certainly means that it will not subside for some time. I think most people who look at Identity and millenarian issues agree that the danger level is creeping back up with Y2K, says Potok.

The millennium feeds the fires in two ways: first, it fuels apocalyptic fears latent in Identity beliefs, particularly their view of racial conflict in the context of Armageddon; and second, the claims of coming social chaos related to the so-called Y2K bug in computer systems actually amplify the survivalist mentality innate in most Patriot belief systems.

Barkun observes that on one level, survivalists would presumably be less likely to engage in crimes because all they want to do is be left alone. On the other hand, there certainly are cases of a survivalist lifestyle in which the separation from the larger society becomes so radical that law violations are inevitable, he says. This is what happened with the Freemen. These were people who not only wanted to be self-sufficient, they didnt feel that they should have drivers licenses or get building permits or pay taxes or do any of the large number of things that are required of people in this society.

And the problem, he says, will likely continue beyond New Years Day, particularly in light of millennialist literature making predictions of awesome events going well into the first decade or two of the next century.

I dont think this is going away, he says. I dont think that its about to go away.

=====================================================================

Velly interesting statements to ponder in there ...

xxxxxxxxx xxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 26, 1999.

Try this one...

Link off the FAS site...

An article discusses the Oklahoma City bombing, militias and.. martial law... among other things. And in a very odd way, loops us back to some things that took place on the c4i threads a couple weeks ago.

Curiouser, and curiouser... again.

Diane

The Militia Movement: Enemy or Pawn of the State? - article -- Oklahoma City: Forgotten Facts and Unanswered Questions.

http:// mediafilter.org/MFF/S36/S36.MILITIA.html

[This quote I can relate to. Its just like the Y2K polly-doomer wars]

[snip]

Lines are being drawn and the American political spectrum metamorphoses in paradoxical ways. Conservative Republicans play to populism, while liberal Democrats call for draconian police powers. Where does this strange new political atmosphere leave activists fighting for human rights, ecology, personal freedom and social justice? Are we between the Scylla and Charbdis of terrorism and martial law?

[snip]

THE MARTIAL LAW CONNECTION:
Federal Spooks in the Shadows

The Militias say that martial law is about to be declared in the USA, as a part of the UN conspiracy to take over the country.

[snip]

However, federal plans for martial law are quite real. In 1984, National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Oliver North drew up a plan with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to suspend the US Constitution and seize draconian powers in the event of a US invasion of Central America. Under the scenario, thousands of Central American refugees were expected to flood through the US_Mexico border, and anti_war protests would erupt throughout the country. FEMA would establish detainment camps on ten pre_designated military bases across the country to round up thousands of refugees and protestors.

[Huh???]

[snip]

Clinton is now the first and only president to have been jeered and booed by the cadets when he addressed the graduation ceremonies at West Point. This kind of open alienation of military troops from their commander_in_chief is the necessary prerequisite for a classical coup d'etat of the sort which conventional wisdom maintains "can't happen here."

[snip]

[Ya just gotta read the rest of the article. As she shakes head, and pours a stiff drink].

[snip--to end--just read it]

Question: For Y2K are we looking a puzzle pieces for a military coup d'etat in the United States?

Sheesh!

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 26, 1999.

Well, that cat's out of the bag, after innumerable hints and whispers in various articles and c(n)i posts. Enough to keep certain conspiracy-bent folks up all night!

coup d'itat [ Dictionary ]
: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group

xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 27, 1999.

looks closer after DC turns into military bunker

-- wakingup (smell@DC.coffin), June 28, 1999.