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Fighting Terrorism:

Leading FBI Official Discusses Domestic Terrorism

Robert Blitzer is the FBIs point man on handling the threat posed by domestic extremist movements. As the chief of domestic terrorism and counterterrorism planning, he oversees FBI units dealing with analysis of the terrorist threat, criminal and intelligence investigations, weapons of mass destruction, domestic preparedness and other matters. In an interview with the Intelligence Report, Blitzer discussed extremist views of the year 2000 and the Y2K computer bug, weapons of mass destruction, and the state of the antigovernment and white supremacist movements.

INTELLIGENCE REPORT: Weve seen a great deal of talk in American extremist movements, parts of which are deeply affected by millennial beliefs, about the coming of the year 2000. Is the FBI noticing the same thing?

BLITZER: My analytical people are seeing snippets of this out there, both on the Net and to a lesser degree in our investigative activity. Many of these groups have apocalyptic visions. Sometimes thats connected to the millennium and sometimes its not. The millennium is certainly an event that a lot of extremists are focusing on. There probably is some sense that something will happen. Were not seeing anything in the cases that weve been working pointing to any particular planned violent action around that time. But a lot of the groups are very security- conscious and operate in a clandestine fashion, so we wont always know when something is about to happen.

IR: How would you assess the potential threat?

BLITZER: I think its going to continue the way it has over the last couple of years, with little eruptions happening here and there around the nation. Weve had cases, for instance, like the Klan case outside Fort Worth, Texas, where they were going to blow up a [gas] tank farm. There was the group in Illinois connected to the Aryan Nations that was planning some terrorist operations. We had the Phineas Priests up in the Pacific Northwest, robbing money from banks and blowing up facilities as diversions. Thats the kind of pattern that Ive seen over the last three years, and I dont see that changing.

IR: Theres also been a lot of talk in the movement about the so-called "Y2K" computer problem. How does that fit into the picture?

BLITZER: I think its just another manifestation of their paranoia. Its like everything else that weve seen in the past -- black helicopters, those kinds of things. Its another element of that paranoia about the government taking over and becoming totalitarian. This is just a newer thing for them to pound on.

IR: You recently discussed conducting a national assessment of dangers surrounding the year 2000. What are you planning?

BLITZER: I was speaking not so much of a formal assessment as an informal polling of all FBI field officers prior to the year 2000. We want to see what theyre hearing through their contacts just to get a sense, a national sense, of whats going on.

IR: You recently told Congress that the number of investigations into the use of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials had risen to 86 this year over 68 in 1997. How serious is that threat?

BLITZER: My sense is that the threat is low in the arena of weapons of mass destruction. Were seeing lone individuals engaging in either hoaxes or actual cases. These are the people Im most afraid of, the people capable of doing something like another Oklahoma City bomb. It doesnt take but one or two people to put a major bomb like that together. The ability of law enforcement to discover and prevent that kind of an act, absent help from someone who knows what theyre up to, is very slim.

Weve had guys playing with [the deadly toxin] ricin and weve had some anthrax threat cases. Theres also concern that some state sponsor who has the scientific know-how could decide to hurt a lot of people using some kind of biological or chemical device. I think everyone feels thats out in the future. Theres no indication that this is going to happen anytime soon, but that being said, the intelligence game is not perfect.

The biological and chemical know-how to make these things is out there, but the technical capability to execute an attack is a different thing. If youre handling that stuff you really have to have training. If youre doing biologicals, in particular, it can be very scary -- you better really know what youre doing. A chemical [attack], on the other hand, is not as hard. But it still is not that easy, technically, to disperse the stuff.

IR: Some politicians have complained that the country isnt preparing quickly enough for such a threat. How well prepared are we?

BLITZER: Were making progress, but I think theres still a long way to go. I think the attorney general and others at senior levels are committed to trying to improve things.

IR: There seems to have been a remarkable rise in the number of domestic terrorism conspiracies in the three-and-a-half years since the Oklahoma City bombing. How many such cases is the FBI working presently?

BLITZER: It seems to hover right around 1,000 [compared to fewer than 100 before the Oklahoma City attack]. There are a lot of bombing cases around the United States that come under the domestic terrorism mantle. Im always running a half a dozen to a dozen domestic terrorism intelligence cases -- a very small number. The vast majority of my cases are investigating crimes that have already occurred and that have been linked in one way or another to a domestic terrorism group.

There are really two things going on here. Because weve had additional resources [with the hiring of several hundred new agents], weve been able to do a better job in preventing or at least identifying criminal activity. When youve got people out there working it, youre developing additional investigations that may have gone unnoticed in past years.

IR: Almost all the major terrorist conspiracies have been stopped by law enforcement before people were killed or buildings blown up. To what do you attribute these successes?

BLITZER: Frankly, I think the reason is that weve had such good interaction in our task forces between state and local police, the bureau and other federal law enforcement agencies such as Secret Service and ATF. That synergy has been there. Weve done a lot of training with the states and locals through a couple of programs weve had.

Also, everyone in this nation, including the law enforcement family, was very deeply touched by Oklahoma City, and so police nowadays are much more vigilant when they see things happen. A lot of these cases have come to us through other law enforcement agencies and through people [inside the movement] who just dont want to be involved in something like that. In the Fort Worth case, one of the guys just couldnt do it -- he didnt want to kill a lot of people. In another Texas case, there were two guys who were going to go down to Fort Hood [a large Army base in Killeen] and do some assassinations. That came to us from an undercover operation being run by state police.

So Im knocking on wood here, but weve had a good run. Still, you just dont know what else is out there. You cant be everywhere. Its a big country with a lot of people.

IR: Weve noticed that the so-called "Patriot" movement seems to have shrunk in size but at the same time become more hard-line. Would you agree?

BLITZER: I think it has really flattened out. There was a big surge [in numbers] after the Persian Gulf conflict and even prior to the Oklahoma City bombing. After Oklahoma, a lot of people seemed to sit back and say, "Is this really what we want?" Its one thing to defend your country -- and a lot of these militia groups believe they are defending their country -- but its another to be tainted by the murder of your own citizens.

So there is a smaller number of groups. But I do think that what is left is more serious people, more serious than those who we saw in the early 90s out there training in the woods. They are much more concerned about security and being penetrated by law enforcement. Theyre just more careful.

IR: How would you categorize the kinds of threats the FBI is seeing now on the domestic terrorism front?

BLITZER: They really cut across a lot of different areas. You have people who have personal beefs with other people. Ive seen them go off on divorce matters. There are people who are mentally unstable. You have people who have a grudge against the government for many reasons -- and it doesnt have to be the federal government. We also get a lot of hoaxes. But you have to treat each one seriously. The one you dont focus on could be the one to get you.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), October 20, 1999

Answers

Here is what the Southern Poverty Leadership Council thinks about Y2k:

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Millenium Y2Kaos:

Fear of Computer Bug Fueling Far Right

Prepare for war. Its coming!" With those words, hard-line racist preacher James Wickstrom warned an August gathering of extremists in Pennsylvania of the end-times battle he expects in the year 2000 -- a battle he believes will be set off by the so-called "y2k" computer bug.

Across the extreme-right spectrum, such fears of a societal breakdown sparked by computer date-change problems have set activists afire. While Wickstroms prophecies may be the most explosive, similar millennial fears are dominating the headlines of the radical press. The airwaves are reverberating with warnings to head for the hills and hunker down for possible riots and race war. The Internet is replete with similarly dire scenarios.

When the crash comes, Wickstrom enjoined some 30 followers, "get out of the way for a while and then go hunting, O Israel!" Like the biblical figure of David, godly whites must "fill our shoes with the blood of our enemies and walk in them." Wickstrom lives, he said, "for the day I can walk down the road and see heads on the fence posts."

If the race war scenario such men envision is a fantasy, the computer problem they believe will set it off is not. Authorities ranging from President Clinton to leaders of industry around the world believe that y2k -- which is short for "Year 2000" -- could lead to major social and economic snarls, even a worldwide depression.

The problem originated with early computer programmers who abbreviated date references to two digits -- as in "98" for 1998 -- in order to save then-precious bytes of computer memory. At the turn of the century, experts say, many computers could crash or spew nonsensical data as they confuse "00" for 1900. While predictions vary hugely, many officials and experts believe there could be serious problems in banking, food supplies, air traffic control, nuclear and electrical power, defense and any number of other sectors.

Many fear a recession. And there are those who forecast even worse.

Something will happen

Regardless of the actual result -- and many experts see the headline-making y2k story as a tempest in a teacup -- there is no question that a large number of extremists have pegged the year 2000 as a critical date. For many, it will be the time when Christian patriots, the "children of light," must do battle with the satanic "forces of darkness." Others believe "one-world" conspirators will attack American patriots on that date.

This has not been lost on those who battle right-wing terror. Early next year, the FBI will launch a nationwide assessment of the threat of domestic terrorism on and around Jan. 1, 2000. "I worry that every day something could happen somewhere," Robert Blitzer, head of the FBIs domestic terrorism unit, told the Los Angeles Times recently (see interview also in this issue).

"The odds are that something will happen."

Hard-line revolutionaries like Wickstrom are not the only ones to tie apocalyptic visions to the y2k problem. Pat Robertsons relatively mainstream Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), for instance, offers news stories describing the computer bug and its possible ramifications such as "The Year 2000: A Date With Disaster" and "Countdown to Chaos: Prophecy for 2000." Robertson markets a CBN video, "Preparing for the Millennium: A CBN News Special Report," that includes a synopsis of "the y2k computer crisis" with his futuristic novel, The End of an Age, which describes a "possible scenario of a future biblical Armageddon" triggered by a meteors crash.

The audience for such ideas is not even limited to evangelical Christians. A large number of new religious books have crossed over strongly into the secular market.

Left Behind, a recent series of four apocalyptic novels co-authored by an evangelical Christian minister and a former journalist, has sold almost 3 million copies. The series made "publishing history in September when all four of the books ascended to the top four slots on Publishers Weekly magazines lists of bestsellers," according to a report in The New York Times. The books authors say every major prophecy of the biblical Book of Revelations has been fulfilled, and they expect the y2k bug could set off the crisis.

Y2K and the antichrist

"It could very well trigger a financial meltdown," co-author Tim LaHaye writes on his publishers Web site, which attracts 80,000 electronic visits a day, "leading to an international depression, which would make it possible for the antichrist or his emissaries to establish a one-world currency or a one-world economic system, which will dominate the world commercially until it is destroyed."

The series has spun off a companion childrens book series, a music CD, T-shirts and caps. More books and a movie also are in the works, the Times reported. And now, Tennessee trade magazine publisher Tim Wilson has launched a new periodical, Y2K News Magazine, that includes tips on defending property from would-be attackers.

Reaction to the y2k problem on the extreme fringes of the right has varied widely, usually depending on the religious or ideological bent of each group. Probably the most consistent theme has been a survivalist one, with ideologues warning that people must prepare for the worst. And entrepreneurs around the country have leaped to take advantage of these fears, offering for sale everything from dried foods to underground bunkers.

At the Preparedness Expo 98 held in Atlanta last June, for instance, at least a dozen speakers offered bleak assessments of the coming crisis. For those who took the bait, there was a plethora of products available: water purifiers, hundreds of types of storable foods from "enzyme-rich vegetable juice extracts" to "gourmet" dehydrated fruits, seeds, herbal medicines, "Cozy Cruiser" trailers and all manner of books on survival skills.

Such merchants arent the only ones pandering to millennial fear.

Land, gold and medical school

In Idaho, so-called "Patriot" James "Bo" Gritz hawks remote lots of land that he describes as "an ark in the time of Noah," along with a huge range of survivalist products and training. In Montana, Militia of Montana leader John Trochmann has a catalog of holocaust-survival items. In states around the country, far-right "investment counselors" sell strategies to protect ones money as civilization collapses. And on the Internet, two self-described "Christian Patriots" signing themselves Michael Johnson and Paul Byus offer "foolproof" gold certificates to a mining claim in Oregon.

"We [also] have set up schools to cover kindergarten, 1st thru 12th grades, adult school, community college, 4 yr college, university, and even the medical school I told you about 6 months ago," one of the Internet salesmen claims. "Bring your kids and entire family to participate in our secure decentralized Patriot community... ."

Other reactions on the extreme right run the gamut, from seeing the crisis as an opportunity for global conspirators to seize dictatorial powers, to viewing it as an opening for revolution or a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Recent examples:

 The New American, an organ of the ultraconservative John Birch Society, speculates that the y2k bug could be Americas Reichstag fire, a reference to the 1933 arson attack on Germanys Parliament building that was used by Hitler as an excuse to enact police state laws. "[C]ould the Millennium Bug provide an ambitious President with an opportunity to seize dictatorial powers?" the magazine asks. "Such a notion seems plausible... ."

 Norm Olson, a Michigan militia leader, is busy doing "wolfpack" training for the apocalypse, reports Media Bypass, a magazine popular among Patriots. "Survival is the key. As with most other people, we will rely on our self-supporting covenant community, " said Olson, who believes constitutional rights probably will be suspended before the real crisis hits. "It will be the worst time for humanity since the Noahic flood."

 In his AntiShyster magazine, Patriot editor Alfred Adask speaks of entire cities running out of food and of the possibility of "millions of American fatalities." "If the y2k information Ive seen is accurate, we are facing a problem of Biblical proportions," he says. "Potentially, y2k ... [is] a dagger pointed at the heart of Western Civilization."

 Bo Gritzs Center for Action newsletter, describing y2k as "a pandemic electronic virus more deadly than AIDS," predicts "worldwide chaos" and then goes on to offer lots for sale at Gritzs "Almost Heaven" community. "If Y-2-K has the predicted effect ... we can expect to see, out of the ashes of decimated fiat systems and economic chaos, the rise of a MONEY MESSIAH, who will offer a miraculous fix to a bleeding, begging world," Gritz adds. He also predicts imposition of a worldwide "electronic currency."

 Writing in The Jubilee, the leading periodical of the racist and anti-Semitic Christian Identity religion, correspondent Chris Temple says that "the net result of the Year 2000 problem as I have described it will be POSITIVE! Internationalism and capitalism will be dealt severe blows; efforts to recapture local control ... will spread."

 In his Patriot Report, Identity proselytizer George Eaton concludes: "We need to act as if our lives depend upon our decisions, because they do. What can we do? Continue to work and save up money for survival items. ... A person can never be over-prepared."

 In a July Internet posting on a Klan news page, a contributor described as a computer programmer demands that the federal government "surrender" in return for programmers assistance in fixing the y2k bug. The posting speaks of "the thousands (probably millions) joining us in our rural retreats. Weve got the bibles, the beans, the bandages, the bullets -- and the brains. ... You will reap what you have sewn [sic]. ... Some cities will indeed end in flames -- flames that will light a path to our posteritys freedom."

From fallout shelters to y2k

Interestingly, one of the most salient commentators on the y2k problem -- a man often quoted in the mainstream press -- has been Gary North. North is a hard-line opponent of abortion and a theocratic thinker who advocates imposing biblical law on the United States. In his books, he has written of the possibility of a "political and military" confrontation "in the philosophical war against political pluralism." Although he is widely described as a y2k "expert," he is also something of a professional doomsayer.

In 1986, long before the y2k problem came to public attention, North co-authored a book on how to survive nuclear Armageddon. Called Fighting Chance: Ten Feet to Survival, it features a shovel -- for digging fallout shelters -- on its cover.

Norths huge y2k Web site has made him into a guru to many extremists. The neo-Nazi Aryan Nations is one of many groups that link their Web sites to that of North.

"These are people who are super-sensitive to anything that suggests the collapse of social institutions," Michael Barkun, a Syracuse University expert on millennialism, said of y2k fearmongers. "Since nuclear war really is no longer out there as a terribly likely way for civilization to end, theyve got to find something else. y2k is convenient."

Many experts, including Barkun and the FBIs Blitzer, agree that extremists fears and hopes surrounding y2k have increased the danger of domestic terrorism. "It adds to apocalyptic fears," says Chip Berlet, who studies the far right for Cambridge-based Political Research Associates. "Therefore, it adds to the potential for violence."

James Wickstrom may best illustrate that potential.

At the meeting he co-hosted with Identity leader August Kreis in Ulysses, Pa., he warned his audience -- several clad in Aryan Nations uniforms -- that auth

The enemy, said Wickstrom, must be "exterminated." He must be "shot." He must be "hanged." "The battle is upon us," Wickstrom bellowed. "Battle!"

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), October 20, 1999.

On the one hand, I truly fear the nuts out there who are going to inflict their inner rage and bitterness on the rest of the world. There certainly seem to be a fair share.

On the other hand, my cyncial side can't help but entertain the perverted notion that these articles are little more than propaganda designed to create "straw men" and pull public opinion away from any kind of desire to question or engage in critical thinking.

-- coprolith (coprolith@rocketship.com), October 20, 1999.

Note how a statement simply telling people to prepare for Y2k, is thrown into the mix of INTENSE fear-mongering:

>...George Eaton concludes: "We need to act as if our lives depend upon our decisions, because they do. What can we do? Continue to work and save up money for survival items. ... A person can never be over-prepared."

Demonizing Y2k preparation is the point of this propaganda. Throw "Y2k Preparation" in with "Race Wars" and "Terrorism," and have the injunction to prepare come from the mouth of an avowed racist.

The FBI knows every move these organizations make; they are heavily infiltrated, and not only will the FBI be the first to know of any violent acts, they will probably instigate them, COINTELPRO-style to further discredit them and creat FEAR in the public mind (do a search on COINTELPRO, if you don't know what I'm talking about). Looks like they're trying to throw this "racist" crap against conservatives and Y2k-aware people, just to see if it sticks. Let's all take note of their ingenuity for future reference, shall we?

Yes, the FBI knows more than they want to about these groups. However the same cannot be said for YOU and your "extremist" Y2k preparations.

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), October 20, 1999.

What the hell is a left wing hate group?

-- weebe (watchingu@the.fed), October 20, 1999.

You folks would do well to pay attention to Liberty, He seems to have a pretty good handle on what's going on... Hey Liberty - are you aware as well of "ol Mo Dees, (read "sleeze"), and the oh-so-public record of his divorce proceedings that truly divulge jusy what sort of filth this bozo peddles? The worst part is, he peddles all of that propaganda to law enforcement, and they believe him! I wish they knew how to do their own homework in order to neutralize such garbage.

-- Patrick (pmcHenry@gradall.com), October 20, 1999.

You folks would do well to pay attention to Liberty, He seems to have a pretty good handle on what's going on... Hey Liberty - are you aware as well of "ol Mo Dees, (read "sleeze"), and the oh-so-public record of his divorce proceedings that truly divulge jusy what sort of filth this bozo peddles? The worst part is, he peddles all of that propaganda to law enforcement, and they believe him! I wish they knew how to do their own homework in order to neutralize such garbage. Homer, BTW - it's the Southern Poverty Law Center, or as we like to say in the hinterlands... Southern perversion of Law Center.

-- Patrick (pmchenry@gradall.com), October 20, 1999.

Patrick,

Where does the SPLC get the bulk of their money? Who is on their board? This will tell you what their real mission is.

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), October 20, 1999.

I know those answers, are you asking for them here? (and shock all of these nice people?!) Suffice it to say that 'ol Mo has a warchest of over 50 mil right now to accomodate his 1st class lifestyle that he has accumulated by sending out his lying propaganda about racism and how many racists are out there just waiting to pounce on "you and yours." Little do they know, that the main KKK camps in this country were established and operated by agents provocatuers, that, in the wake of the OKC bombing had to admit under oath that thay had been on the .gov payroll for years. Dennis Mahon was one name I remember, and the other was the old guy that ran "Elohim" city in Oklahoma. Don't recall his name at the moment, but I know I have it in my archives.

-- Patrick (pmchenry@gradall.com), October 20, 1999.

they get alot of money from the ADL & B'nai Brith... also they send out junk mail full of lies that come with address labels w/ a symbol they stole from another organization. It is of four multicoloured hands holding the others wrists.. they also peddle there garbage/hate & lies to public school systems & have videos & packet to go with it.. this was part of a deal in order to get alot of money a few years ago.. mostly this crack pot organization gets its kicks by filing bogus lawsuits against families & then bankrupts them & their businesses or churches.

-- trash it (junkmail@box.com), October 20, 1999.

weebe: Weathermen in the 60's are the first example that comes to mind. Also the Black Panthers back then.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 21, 1999.

Blitzer has been saying similar things since Sept 1998 - but then he was at least admitting that he feared "heavily-armed right-wing Christians huddling behind locked doors" --- so now, he didn't even admit that the Jan 1999 FBI domestic terrosim meeting didn't take place as planned?

Anyway - look at these quotes: look at HOW he has invented the supposed threat from y2k-induced terroism to increase funding, increase his won national repuation, and "who" in the government is sponsoring this 'media attetnion"...

<< The millennium is certainly an event that a lot of extremists are focusing on. There probably is some sense that something will happen. Were not seeing anything in the cases that weve been working pointing to any particular planned violent action around that time.

[So - he investigated, and found NOTHING so far......why continue the media blitz on y2k-terroriam? To get more attention? More budgets? Justify previous budgets? Or to re-assure the attorney general that her previous suspicions were right and that her agenda can be served?] IR: Theres also been a lot of talk in the movement about the so-called "Y2K" computer problem. How does that fit into the picture?

BLITZER: I think its just another manifestation of their paranoia. Its like everything else that weve seen in the past -- black helicopters, those kinds of things. Its another element of that paranoia about the government taking over and becoming totalitarian. This is just a newer thing for them to pound on.

[Distract the audience with nonsense about "black helicopters, ....]

IR: You recently discussed conducting a national assessment of dangers surrounding the year 2000. What are you planning?

BLITZER: I was speaking not so much of a formal assessment as an informal polling of all FBI field officers prior to the year 2000. We want to see what theyre hearing through their contacts just to get a sense, a national sense, of whats going on.

[But the threat hasn't been potrayed that way in the media, in the media, the FBI is leading an all-out attack on terrorism....different spin here?]

IR: Some politicians have complained that the country isnt preparing quickly enough for such a threat. How well prepared are we?

BLITZER: Were making progress, but I think theres still a long way to go. I think the attorney general and others at senior levels are committed to trying to improve things.

[Just who is higher than the attorney general? Hint: there ar eonly two people legally higher in most adminstrations, three in this adminstration.]

BLITZER: It seems to hover right around 1,000 [compared to fewer than 100 before the Oklahoma City attack]. There are a lot of bombing cases around the United States that come under the domestic terrorism mantle. Im always running a half a dozen to a dozen domestic terrorism intelligence cases -- a very small number. The vast majority of my cases are investigating crimes that have already occurred and that have been linked in one way or another to a domestic terrorism group.

[See - there are NO actual y2k-linkd terrorism cases he has found.....]

.... Because weve had additional resources [with the hiring of several hundred new agents], weve been able to do a better job in preventing or at least identifying criminal activity...that may have gone unnoticed in past years. >> [But y2k-terror lets me hire more people...get bigger budgets, more "fun" live field training exercises, more power in coordinateing other agencies.]

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 21, 1999.

Want to know what my milita (Not mine, really. Just the one I'm in.) is doing for the time period around roll over?

We are stockpiling supplies, like turkey, ham, cranberry sauce (the nasty canned kind that keeps the shape of the can when you dump it out), cider, potatoes, canned veggies, yams, and stuffing mix. We stash this over abundance of holiday fare (much more than we could possible eat. It must be high capacity ASSAULT FOOD!!) at serveral food banks around the city in the hopes that they will feed people with it. Then, when everyone is stuffed to the gills and too full to move, WE STRIKE!!

Why do we do this? Because we are EVIL. Just read USA Today if you don't beleive that.

Watch six and keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.not), October 21, 1999.