Fifteen years after the Oklahoma City bombing, the United States is experiencing an antigovernment climate remarkably similar to the atmosphere that preceded the attack, a Southern Poverty Law Center expert told an audience gathered in Washington, D.C., for a panel discussion and a keynote address by former President Bill Clinton.
April 19 marks the 15th anniversary of the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City - the worst single act of domestic terrorism in our nation's history and a grim reminder of the fruits of right-wing radicalism. The anniversary comes as the antigovernment militia movement is experiencing a resurgence.
Since the SPLC warned the U.S. military about extremist activity among active-duty personnel in 2006, the Pentagon brass has steadfastly denied that a problem existed. Recently, however, the military quietly strengthened its rules to prohibit a range of supremacist activities.
Members of the Hutaree militia in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana were indicted in what authorities described as a plot to murder a police officer, then use explosives to attack other officers at the funeral.
The SPLC’s Mark Potok appeared on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” to discuss the recent wave of vandalism and threats aimed at members of Congress who voted for health care reform legislation.
Mark Potok discusses the recent explosion of right-wing extremism in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air this week, citing the SPLC’s new report.
Antigovernment "Patriot" groups - militias and other extremist organizations that see the federal government as their enemy - came roaring back to life over the past year after more than a decade out of the limelight.
Since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented 75 domestic terrorist plots, most of which involved individuals with extreme antigovernment views. One of the plots, if carried out, would have resulted in the deaths of some 30,000 people.
The Ku Klux Klan is a native-born American racist terrorist organization that helped overthrow Republican Reconstruction governments in the South after the Civil War and drive black people out of politics. It revived in the 20th Century as a social lodge and briefly became a nationwide political power.
The term neo-Confederacy is used to describe twentieth and twenty-first century revivals of pro-Confederate sentiment in the United States.
