Date: Tue May 15, 2001 1:52 am
Subject: Militia groups say McVeigh case is proof of US plot
Source:
The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/
Militia groups say McVeigh case is proof of US plot
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/134/nation/Militia_groups_say_McVeigh_case_is_\
proof_of_US_plot+.shtml
By Tatsha Robertson, Globe Staff, 5/14/2001
(Globe Photo / Valica Boudry)
http://a1636.g.akamai.net/7/1636/797/1c846e339cb22f/graphics.boston.com/images/d\
aily/14/milita.jpg
Militia leader Anthony Liuzzo's distrust of the government grew after his
mother's death.
HARRISON, Mich. - While he sits in his trailer in the backwoods of central
Michigan, in an area so quiet you can hear the mosquitoes buzzing, Anthony
Liuzzo, a state militia leader, says he hasn't been so disconnected from
the outside world after all.
''I knew they were going to do something, didn't know what they would
do. Then they come out with this,'' he said of the federal government.
In the deeply suspicious culture of the antigovernment, or ''Patriot,''
movement, where a plot by the government to control the masses seems to
lurk around every corner, last week's turn of events that led to the
postponing of Timothy McVeigh's Wednesday execution has spawned one
conspiracy theory after another.
Some say the Justice Department's acknowledgment that the FBI did not turn
over several thousand pages of documents to McVeigh's defense lawyers has
only confirmed their fears of an omnipotent government, vindicated them in
their convictions, and breathed new life into what specialists have been
calling a dying right-wing movement.
''On Friday, our telephone lit up like a Christmas tree,'' said John
Trochmann, cofounder of the Militia of Montana.
''Would `I told you so?' be too harsh to say?'' he asked.
Trochmann said he received nearly 100 phone calls from people who say they
are now even more wary of the government and want to join the Militia of
Montana. Web site chatrooms have been swamped with new theories: Some say
the stayed execution only proves that the government really didn't want to
kill McVeigh, who is seen by some in the antigovernment movement as an
''Oswald,'' or government agent.
Others say that McVeigh, who was loosely connected to militias in Michigan,
was probably brainwashed into thinking he caused the bombing of the Alfred
P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168
people. Some wonder whether the government secretly helped bomb the
building to make it easier to pass antigun legislation and eventually
create a ''one world'' government.
''They will find a way to read something into it,'' said James Corcoran, an
associate professor of communications at Simmons College and author of two
books on militias and the Patriot movement. ''It's now coming out [among
these groups] that McVeigh is an agent for the FBI and they don't want to
kill him. And then you have the other side who feel it [the FBI's
withholding of documents] is one more example of how the government
railroads people, slam-dunks you, and there is nothing you can do about
it.'' In recent weeks, Amnesty International and other rights groups warned
that the execution will send a negative message to Americans and possibly
turn one of the nation's most hated criminals into a martyr among
right-wing groups. But even before Friday's stay of execution, leaders in
the movement said they perceived McVeigh as a fool used by the government,
rather than a hero.
''Come on,'' said Liuzzo, 45, as he took a drag from a cigarette last week.
''McVeigh is just a patsy. He might in his own mind think he blew up that
building, probably had something to do with it. But there are just too
many things that don't add up.'' People point to McVeigh's capture as proof
that he was not the bomber.
''Here is the clincher,'' said Trochmann. ''If it was really McVeigh
zipping down the highway in his truck with no plates, then stopped by a
trooper ...he would have known he killed a number of people. Tell me, what
would it have meant to kill one more?'' he said. ''It makes no sense.'' As
the date for the execution neared, some predicted the government would find
an excuse to stop it. While Friday's developments cemented the image some
people had of McVeigh, it also lent a little credence to the conspiracy
theories to which McVeigh and others subscribe, Corcoran said.
''People are looking and saying, `Hey, these people are not so wacko,'''
said Liuzzo, who is the leader of the Michigan Militia Corps of
Wolverines. ''This incident, I hope it sparks a brush fire in people's
minds. I hope it makes them say `wait a minute.''' At the height of the
militia movement in the mid-1990s, right-wing activism thrived. The
hardscrabble farmlands of Michigan, where proud families were losing their
farms during bad economic times in the 1970s and 1980s, became a hotbed of
activity for antigovernment activism.
For a while, McVeigh lived in rural Decker, Mich., with his convicted
co-conspirator, Terry Nichols. Nichols's brother, James Nichols, who was
contacted by telephone, said the three were not part of the militia
movement, but never trusted the government. Others say the Nichols
brothers and McVeigh were too radical for the local militia.
According to a new book, ''American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the
Oklahoma City Bombing,'' by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, McVeigh found
militias to be too extreme despite his antigovernment sentiments.
During his time in Michigan, though, McVeigh traveled to at least 80 gun
shows around the country, where he handed out antigovernment leaflets and
met with people who shared his suspicion of the government and his
preoccupation with gun rights.
One year after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, there
were 850 antigovernment groups with a membership of 50,000 or more,
according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. But the center says the
Patriot movement dwindled as members became scared off in part by an FBI
crackdown on terrorism after the Oklahoma City bombing.
And yet, the movement is not dead here. Liuzzo said there are thousands of
militia members of all races and from all walks of life in Michigan's 80
counties. Meetings are held every week; hundreds of militia members trek
to the cornfields for regular training sessions; and pro-gun rallies and
marches by militia members are common.
Liuzzo's deep distrust of the government grew after a family tragedy in 1965.
That's when his mother, Viola Liuzzo, a 39-year-old housewife, left the
family's Detroit home for Selma, Ala., to help transport black civil rights
marchers to Montgomery. While in Alabama, Liuzzo said, his mother was shot
and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Liuzzo said that years later he
discovered that one of the four men charged with the crime, but never
convicted, was a paid FBI informant. He and his four siblings sued the
government, but in the end, he said, they lost the case and were ordered to
pay the government $80,000 in court costs.
Several years ago, Liuzzo bought a shortwave radio at a flea market and
began listening to intense militia groups, said his wife, Suzanne. Soon,
they packed up and settled on 12 acres of woods in Harrison, where only a
few other homes are in sight. They can fish here, hunt, and shoot while
their dog, Sweet Honey, chases rabbits in the swamp. Aside from the CIA
agent who waved once as he drove past their home, they say, they are left
alone.
''Our [adult] children first thought we were right-wing wackos, but I think
they are starting to come around,'' said Suzanne Liuzzo.
After 5 p.m. every day, Liuzzo, a disabled trucker, disappears into a
curtained-off section of their trailer, where family photos of
grandchildren and a picture of Jesus fill the wall, and he prepares to
listen to his shortwave radio show.
Outside, the vegetables sprouting in the garden will be stockpiled for the
revolution they say is imminent. Despite what others may think, Anthony
Liuzzo says the more than 3,000 mysterious FBI documents that popped up
last week, and the sudden stay of McVeigh's execution, confirm to him and
others like him that he is on the right track after all.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 5/14/2001.
The Intelligence Report M-Thur. 9-10 pm ET, With Your Host's: Tony Liuzzo,
and Yankee D
http://www.pbn.4mg.com/intelreport.htm
The Intelligence Report Sunday Edition, 5-6 pm ET, With Your Host: Tony Liuzzo
http://www.pbn.4mg.com/intelreport.htm
Click below to listen, (RealPlayer or (WinAmp Player required)
http://sce.m2ktalk.com:8000/listen.pls
East Coast Stream (RealPlayer or (WinAmp Player required)
http://www.shoutcast.com/sbin/shoutcast-playlist.pls?rn=9418&addr=207.126.64.52:\
8000&file=filename.pls
