Al Qaeda: noun, from Arabic, translation: The Base.
Al Qaeda is not a single organization but rather a network of militant groups with similar interests. Osama bin Laden, using what he learned from the CIA, founded The Base to organize, train and martial the many disparate militant groups into a single federation capable of world wide attacks against Western Interests. Without the organization provided by The Base each group was a small inefficient bunch of disgruntled uneducated angry fanatics.
According to the FBI, there were 24 acts of terrorism inside the United States between 2002 and 2005 all carried out by domestic homegrown fanatics. The most famous act of domestic terror was the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City by Tim McVeigh in 1995.
In the first six months of 2009 there were eight violent acts by right wing nuts:
January 21 — Keith Luke goes on a killing spree in Boston. Police intercept him on his way to a local synagogue, where he told them he intended to “kill as many Jews as possible during bingo night.” He said that he was fighting the extinction of the white race.
February 10 — In Belfast, Maine, radioactive “dirty bomb” materials are found in home of James Cummings, an admirer of Adolf Hitler with a large collection of Nazi memorabilia and a filled-out application for the National Socialist Movement. Cummings had been killed by his wife after years of physical abuse.
February 26 — In Miramar Beach, FL, 60-year-old Dannie Baker walks into a townhouse where 14 Chilean students were gathered. He kills two and wounds five. Those who know Baker describe him as a man obsessed with the fear that immigrants are taking over the country.
April [4] — Recently discharged veteran Richard Popalowski shoots and kills three police officers following a standoff in Pittsburgh. He believed they had been sent by the Obama Administration to take away his guns.
[April 5 — Jiverly Voong, an American citizen, shot 13 people and fantasized about the assassination of the president. His two guns were licensed by NY state.]
April 28 — US Army Reservist Joshua Cartwright shoots and kills two sheriff’s deputies in Fort Walton Beach, FL. In the incident report his wife said her husband believed the U.S. Government was conspiring against him and was disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected President.
May 6 — Stephen P. Morgan of Middletown, CT kills former NYU classmate Johanna Justin-Jinich. A diary found in his belongings included an entry: “I think it’s ok to kill Jews”. Justin-Jinich was Jewish and the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor.
May 31 — Dr. George Tiller is shot to death in Wichita, KS. His killer, Scott Roeder, is found to have ties to several violent right-wing groups, including the Montana Freemen and the Sovereign Citizen movement.
June 10 — Anti-Semitic blogger James Wenneker von Brunn walks into the national Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC and opens fire, killing a security guard. Von Brunn had been prominent in Holocaust denier circles for several decades, and considered Holocaust museums to be a crime against white history.
More recently:
August 11 — William Kostric wears a gun to President Obama’s town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire carrying a sign reading “It is time to water the tree of liberty†provided by RestoreTheRepublic.com, a libertarian website.
August 11 — Richard Terry Young was arrested and charged with carrying a loaded gun without a license (in his car) at the same Obama Town hall meeting.
The Secret Service reports that there are 30 death threats against President Obama every day, four times the number made against President Bush.
There are literally hundreds of small, poorly organized militia hate groups in the United States. They hate for a wide range of fears; abortion, religious fanaticism, fear of government, racism and a host of conspiracy theories. In addition to those organized groups there are thousands of frustrated individuals moved to violence by the echo chamber of right wing talk radio and TV.
My greatest fear? That a charismatic leader with a little training and sufficient funding will organize them all under The Base.
Andy Hailey