April Long Celebrated as the Holy Week for Domestic American Terrorist Movement
Who was responsible for the carnage against innocents and children in Boston?
UPDATE April 17, 2013 4:00pm
By Nate Thayer
I have no idea who orchestrated the terror in Boston that blew the legs off of little children, but I do know among the facts are these:
This week in April is the American domestic terrorist movement’s Holy Week
And recent history shows this week in April is strewn with a bloody trail of deadly attacks by homegrown far right wing armed U.S religious and political groups blowing up babies and innocents to draw attention to their political agenda.
The back story only fortifies why there is no excuse to not take a close hard look at our own homegrown terrorists.
While it has been widely speculated that the Boston terrorist attack was related to Islamic or Arab terrorists, where is the evidence?
The U.S. federal and local Boston authorities say they had no prior intelligence that suggested a terrorist attack was going to happen.
Fox News and the New York Post reported on Monday that a 20-year-old Saudi man was a “person of interest” in the attacks, and Fox said “it was still unclear to authorities as to whether the man was a victim or perpetrator.” The man suffered severe burns and was hospitalized as law enforcement analyzed surveillance video of someone with two backpacks near the race finish line said to be him. The hunt for the terrorists focused Tuesday on a Boston suburb where police seized bags at the home of the Saudi and interrogated his Arab roommate.
But by Tuesday it was being reported that the Saudi man “questioned in (the) Boston Marathon bombing is a witness not a suspect” and that law enforcement had “scoured Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi’s apartment after the attack.” His “roommates and friends say he’s shy and quiet.”
While the focus on the Saudi bombing victim dominated the headlines, what remains curiously ignored is the obvious.
“There are a lot of things that are surrounding this that would give an indication it may have been a domestic terrorist,” Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss of the Senate Intelligence Committee said after meeting with the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Wednesday.
Why, since we are invoking Him here in His many incarnations, in God’s name aren’t we seeing these truths blaring from the headlines and our television sets in the wake of this despicable carnage?
Let’s have a sober look at the evidence staring us right in the face, here in our own backyard, at least equally, before fanning the already white hot embers of racial, foreign, and religious conflict, which is, regarding the Boston massacre, so far, void of corroborating evidence.
The Boston bombings occurred on both Tax Day and “Patriots Day”, both high profile events at the top of the agenda of armed right-wing American extremist groups.
But even more significant than Tax Day and Patriots Day, this week marks the most politically incendiary anniversary for domestic American terrorists–the federal governments slaughter of 76 anti-government Christian extremists in Waco, Texas 20 years ago which has remained a rallying cry for the adherents of the armed U.S. terror groups intent on using violence to overthrow the U.S. government.
Further, this week in April marks the anniversary of what remains the most deadly act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
On that same day as the Waco Texas events two years later, April 19, 1995, white American Christian Timothy McVeigh, an adherent to the “Patriot Movement”, bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. McVeigh later confirmed he chose the date in April to protest the Waco events
Whether these dates are meaningful to the vast majority of the population is irrelevant.
They are–like Christmas and the Fourth of July is to other Americans–the dates of martyrdom recognized by those in America’s heartland who have vowed, and demonstrated their ability and intent, to violently confront the existing political system.
A dominant belief of the patriot and Christian Identity movement is that Americans have a constitutional right not to pay a federal income tax.
Many adherents of these groups directly identify with the Revolutionary War Minutemen, whose “shot heard around the world” in 1775 sparked the war of independence.
That day was officially commemorated on April 15—the day of the Boston Marathon bombing—in the Massachusetts state holiday, Patriots Day.
“It will take time to follow every lead and determine what happened, but we will find out,” President Obama said the day after the bombing. “We will find whoever harmed our citizens, and we will bring them to justice. We also know this: The American people refuse to be terrorized.”
But an unspoken corollary to this is that the dominant evidence shows it is American citizens who are responsible for most of the terrorism committed in the United States.
A May 2012 Congressional Research Service report says that, while there is a widely distributed list of officially designated foreign terrorist organizations, there is no such public list of domestic American terror groups.
“There is no official open-source roster of domestic groups that the FBI or other federal agencies target as terrorist organizations. The lack of such a designation may spring partly from First Amendment concerns. Such a list might discourage speech and expression related to the ideologies underpinning the activities of named groups.”
But the 2012 Congressional Research Service report also states “the vast majority—but not all—of the deadly terrorist attacks occurring in the United States have been perpetrated by domestic extremists.”
Whether publicly designated as such or not, these American right wing religious and political armed extremists, followers of the broadly defined Patriots Movement, members of the loosely organized armed “Militia Movement”, and practitioners of the theology of Christian Identity, are all firmly at the top of the internal terrorism watch list of the Federal government.
After the Oklahoma City bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, the government first blamed Arab terrorists. A Jordanian-American man was arrested before it became apparent the bombing was domestic terrorism.
Similarly, In Boston this week, a Saudi national was first widely reported to be a suspect, later downgraded to a ‘person of interest’, and by Wednesday cleared of any connection to the attacks except that he was a badly injured victim.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday that the 20 year old Saudi student was innocent of the allegations.
“He was never categorized as a suspect; he was a person of interest. My understanding is that he totally cooperated and that he is no longer a person of interest,” Senator Saxby Chambliss said after the briefing, confirming the injured man remained hospitalized and had been exonerated.
Armed right wing American domestic terrorists are riddled with an array of splintered factions and loosely organized small cells that share anti-government, anti-tax, white supremacist, anti-Semitic, and Christian Identity philosophies under the umbrellas known as the Militia and Patriot Movements.
Here are a couple useful markers of historical relevance:
This week in April is the 238th anniversary of the “shot heard around the world” that sparked the American Revolutionary War of independence against Britain, a centerpiece date recognized by the political and religious extremist U.S. domestic armed terrorist movement. The Monday April 15 blast that killed three and injured 176 at the Boston marathon occurred on the Massachusetts holiday, “Patriots’ Day, commemorating that event.
April 15 is also the annual government Tax Day, another high octane issue among the far right political and extremist terrorist movement of white Americans.
And, perhaps most importantly, this week in April is the 20th anniversary of the U.S. federal government massacre of Christian cult extremists in Waco, Texas. That botched disaster, in which the U.S. government killed 76 religious extremists, including dozens of children, has been a rallying cry for U.S. based homegrown terrorists ever since.
The Waco massacre was the primary motivation for another terrorist attack, which occurred 18 years ago this week, on April 19, 1995.
Timothy McVeigh, a white American decorated army veteran placed a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people, including 19 children under 6, and injured more than 600.
This makes this week the anniversary of the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history.
These domestic terrorists believe that a religious and political doomsday is both imminent and necessary.
They believe in white supremacy, are virulently anti-Semitic, believe the United States Government, which they refer to as ZOG, Zionist Occupied Government, should be overthrown by armed force, and have a proven track record of violent domestic terrorism.
Why, since we are invoking Him here in His many incarnations, in God’s name aren’t we seeing these truths blaring from the headlines and our television sets in the wake of this despicable carnage?
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, convicted in the Oklahoma bombings, were both active supporters of the American far right, violent, anti-government, armed, Christian Identity, Patriot, and Militia terrorist movement. They testified they carried out the Oklahoma bombing in retaliation for the government organized carnage at Waco and the government murders of another poster child of the right wing militia supporters at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
McVeigh testified that he chose the date in April to commemorate the second anniversary of Waco.
McVeigh was photographed by the FBI at Waco during the siege and selling anti-U.S. government propaganda literature at the courthouse during the subsequent trial.
And what else happened in the annals of domestic bred U.S. terrorism this week in history?
Also on April 19, 1995, Richard Wayne Snell was executed by the U.S. federal government on the same day as both the Oklahoma bombing and the anniversary of the Waco Massacre.
The execution of Snell was intentionally designated to take place on the anniversary of Waco two years prior in 1993.
Earlier that same day, Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City.
In addition, this week in April is also the anniversary of the date of the start of the 1985 federal government siege on the Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSAL) in Arkansas in 1985.
The federal government assault on CSAL is another high profile date commemorated by the fringe far right Christian Identity movement in the United States.
Who was Richard Snell?
Snell had plotted a similar attack on the Oklahoma federal building in 1983 in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service. Also in 1983, Snell and several other CSAL members attempted to bomb a natural gas pipeline near Fulton, Arkansas. One CSAL member was later convicted of that crime. And in 1984, Snell murdered an Oklahoma pawn shop owner he mistakenly thought was Jewish. Later, he shot and killed a black Arkansas State Trooper.
The CSAL attracted the hard focus of federal law enforcement after Snell was arrested and CSAL took its confrontation with the federal government too far, plotting to assassinate the FBI lead agent investigating the group, special agent Jack Knox, Asa Hutchinson, the federal prosecutor assigned to the case, and the federal judge presiding over the trial.
Judge Kahl, like McVeigh, was a combat trained U.S. soldier, awarded the Silver Star during the Korean War. McVeigh was given a Bronze Star for his service during the 1991 Desert Storm Gulf War.
So, also this week in April in 1985, the federal government Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms sent 300 federal agents to Elijah, Arkansas dressed as fishermen on fishing expeditions and booked into various local motels. On April 19, 1985, the government agents surrounded the CSAL compound and arrested the movement’s leaders.
In 1987, Snell and six other leaders of the National White Supremacist, Christian Identity, and Patriot Movement domestic terrorist organizations were indicted and charged with plotting the armed overthrow of the United States government.
The six were acquitted. But Snell was sentenced to death for the killing of the non-Jewish store owner.
Snell was executed this week in April–on April 19, 1995–the same day that Timothy McVeigh carried out the Oklahoma City bombing.
The week before, Snell appeared before at an Arkansas clemency board and quoted Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, demanding to be either executed or set free.
Snell’s last words before execution, which he made to the governor of Arkansas, were: “Governor Tucker, look over your shoulder; justice is coming. I wouldn’t trade places with you or any of your cronies. Hail His Victory. I am at peace.”
Timothy McVeigh and Richard Snell knew each another.
On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., bombs blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil, killing168 people and injured hundreds.
About 90 minutes later, Timothy McVeigh was arrested on firearms charges. Snell was pronounced dead at 9:16 P.M. by the Lincoln County, Arkansas coroner.
After his execution, Snell’s body was taken by the Christian Identity movement to their headquarters in Elohim City and was honored with a three day open casket. His headstone reads: “Rev Richard Wayne Snell. Patriot.”
The events that day, along with the rest of the above trail of high octane dates in the U.S. nurtured and bred terrorist movement’s political calendar have percolated barely below the surface in America ever since. And they all had their anniversary‘s this week.
From this week in April 1775, when the “shot heard around the world” sparked the American Revolution and is a revered holiday for the U.S. terrorist movement, to this week in April 1985 when federal agents broke up a major terrorist organization in Arkansas, to this week in April 1993 when the federal government assault in Waco, Texas sparked the most high octane event which still fuels the U.S. domestic terrorist movement, to this week in April 1995 when Richard Snell was executed and is the anniversary of the deadliest domestic terror attack in U.S. history, to the April 15 Tax Day marked as a day of protest by the right wing armed militia movement, to the April terrorist bombing at the Boston Marathon this week, there is a fertile track record of events of pivotal symbolic importance to the U.S. domestic terrorism movement.
It isn’t necessary to look to the Arab world for the only clues to launch an investigation of who is responsible for the Boston Massacre, because this week in April has long been the American domestic terrorist movement’s holy week.
It is always easier to try to process an unacceptable, inexplicable tragedy through a prism of being the work of people who are different, who are others, who can be dehumanized, who can help us keep a comfortable distance between evil and our loved ones and our homes.
But, regardless of who blew up the children and innocents in Boston, evil equally lurks here at home as it does outside our political boundaries. The dirty little secret is evil lurks in the heart of man.
Ignoring the tumor of religious and racial and ethnic intolerance at home not only doesn’t make it go away, it gives the cancer comfort and nourishment to metastasize and ravage the body politic.
We need to take as hard an uncomfortable look at Waco and Oklahoma City as we do focusing solely our lazy, and ultimately, ineffectual harsh glare on Islamabad and Saudi Arabia.
We tried that bromide with Iraq after September 2011, and it didn’t go so well.
Let’s try to look inward after Boston April 2013 to see whether we can be serious about stopping this unspeakable strategy which pits one part of humanity against another to solve the problems common to all of God’s children.
Tags: Boston Terrorist attack, Journalism, Media Ethics, Nate Thayer, Nate Thayer blog, Religious Extremism, Terrorism, U.S. extremism, U.S. Politics, United States
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