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Show Al0 The Salt Lake Tribune NATION Sunday, August 9, 1998 Despite CrackdownAfter OklahomaandRise of Opposition . Militia GroupsStill on the Fringes BY PATRICK MAY SAN SAN JC MERCURY NEWS i. Calif. — Three years after Oklahoma somethe of 700 visitors a day. Andhe st enough anti-government books. tapes and videos throughhis Pre. paredness Catalog to support the three families that feed the pub: licity pipeline from a pole-barn shadows of dis still spread over the land. From tmilitiamen to neo-Nazis, a dark ‘counterculture cranks out a Istream of bigotry and rebellion. | And astringof killings, robberies and manhunts racking the calm, like fir rs droppedat | America’sfeet | Although ranks have thinned |among traditional militia groups ) since extremist Timothy McVeigh blew apart the Alfred P. Murrah iFederal Building in Oklahoma |City, human-rights observers spy change in the way discontent Show simmers. Law enforcement and new state laws have driven the hard core underground, antiRovernment conspiracies flourish and extremist rhetoricis bleeding over lines that once separated soealled patriot groups, like mili- tias, from the ultraconservative religious fringe. “The patriot movement is losing thesofties who once waited in the woods for a revolution that hever came,” said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group recog- homein Noxon. As he finishes off his dinner. Trochmann grows pensi' He seems as determined as ever to prepare the masses for the com ing fall of big government. He quotes a University of Montana study that shows 35 percent of western Montanans support the militia’s goals Then he pulls out a dogeared copy of what he calls “our second Bible’ — The Art of War, by Sun Tzu. He flips to his favoriteline Knowothers while being un knowntoothers.” reputation be1983, Randy up his ideas on and came here to hide. Instead, he stewed. He eventually got so angry he ran for sheriff, but lost. He traveled to the nearby Aryan Nations compound and swapped conspiracy theories with confederates. Then, as a weapons charge brought the worldclosing in on his lonely out- us are just hard-working country people.” it’s obviousthe photos on his mantel were truly loved ones. But then Weaver the separatist pops out and the madness of Ruby Ridge comes alive again. “This country’s rotten to the core,” he will say. Or, “Jews and non-Jews shouldn't intermarry, you don’t When it exploded in a firefight between federal agents and the hopes to claimthe Pacific Northwest as a whites-only homeland, the Rev. Richard Butler may want to reconsider. The 80-year-old leader of the white-supremacist Aryan Nations, based the past two decades on a 20-acre compound midway between these two pan- pulsion for the lawsofthe land hilltop clan, one government man acquittedofkilling the agent. And “Back in these woods, there's a Weaverthe widower can break yourheart. Follow theeyesof the chain-smoking 50-year-old and see mule deer breeding with whitetail, do you?” ters of metal mailboxes along Highway 2 arethe only hints of lot of fear of big government,’ ment gets too much power.” post, Weaver walkedoutof hiding andinto a bloodbath. In the summerof 1992, this was where all rebels focused their re- RUBYRIDGE,Idaho — Clus- says carpenter Jerry Davis, 49, at the Naples General Store. “We got a bad reputation, but most of Nephrology, is seeking volunteers for a study of @) They got that cause back in Weaver gathered white separatism and two members of Weaver's family were dead. Six years later, the silence of thesehillsstill screams, Eventual- thelives tucked awaybehindthis curtain of fir and pine DO YOU HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE? The University of Utah, Department of ly, Weaverand an associate were the FBI agent who killed Weaver's wife and son was exon- erated. Weaver nowlives 100 miles a’ in Kalispell, Mont., pushing his new book on talk shows. “The book is a memorial to my wife and son,” he says. “It shows what can happen when a govern- SANDPOINT-COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — If hereally handle towns,has run into a wall of opposition from locals with their own agenda: to claim Idaho Please Call Dr. Munger at 585-5318 L UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER HEARTBURN 'f you or someone you know suffers man-rights rally in Sandpoint to rise up against Butler's anti-Semi- See Next Page Vy from heartburn symptoms, you may beeligible to participate in this i investigational research drug study. To qualify, you mustbe at least 18, have heartburn symptomsatleast three days per week, and receive somerelief by taking antacids. Qualified participantswill receive up to $100. 532-4526 as a “hate-free zone.” The line was drawn in 1994, when 500 people attended a hu- high blood pressure. The study medication will be free of charge throughout the 5 year study. If you are over 55 and have high blood pressure, 7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Mondaythrough Friday Intermountain Clinical Research 150 S. 1000 E., SLC, UT 84102 nizedas the authorityon far-right organizations. “At the same time, we're seeing a definite hardening of the underground — people willing to kill and maim. And intreasingly, there’s an overlap between themilitia and the old-line hate groupslike the Klan.” Shared veins run through this mother lode of scorn: ‘common law court” tactics designed to gum uplocal government with fake property liens and bogus thecks; propagation of Jewish- conspiracy myths and banking plots; increasing signs of millenni- um anoia among extremist grou Fouatine down the days to fn impending race war. ‘The rabid community-based militia groups are greatly curtailed,” said Ken Toole, a hu- man-rights organizer in Montana. “Unfortunately, that's now replaced with these fringe ideas creeping into the political mainstream.” The militia groupsinsist their intentions are honorable “We're just regular people up here in Noxon. id John Troch- mann, who runs the Militia of Montana. “We gather intelligence, dissect it and put it into a picture to show people what's wrong with America. We'resolu- tion-oriented and nonviolent.” The post-OklahomaCity proliferation of so-called identity politics and the cross-pollination of groups that embrace it has spawned a numberof trends: Law enforcement has become more proactive in sniffing out plots of violence; 19 states havestiffened laws to discourage common-law antics; hate groups and their human-rights nemeses have become enamored with the Internet as a tool to spread their messages; and peti Casual Sportswear communities across the nation have beguntofight back Hate groups are thriving na Selected fashions for the family! tionwide. At last count, the law center said there were 478 race based groups and patriot or Women’s Career Sportswear Women’s Dresses, Suits & Pantsets ations, which include mili s and common-law-court activists such as the Freemen. Andbyno meansarethey limited fo rural or moreisolated states: one studyshowedthere are42 militia or common-law groups now operating in California, Yet one Women’s Denim Collections area —along scenic stretch from eastern Washington state to the middle of Montana — remains a microcosm of anti-government Wome n’s Intimate Apparel fervor. Here areafew stops along that route booth at the Hereford, a roadside & Accessories town, America’s most enduring militia major-domo settles into his housesalad. John Trochmann Women’s Shoes NOXON,Mont. — In a corner log-cabin diner a mile outside — preacher's son, former snow mobile manufacturer and 54 year-old head of the Militia of en’s Activewear Montana — is both hungry and fed up Men’s Spring Suits, Sportcoats & Dress Slacks I'mtired of the alphabet soup — DEA, FBI, BLM — telling us what to do,” says the man behind the gray beard made famous by the network news. “This is a non. representative government, start Thore is anominal fee for alterations. 50%off sults & dress slacks not available at South Towne Center ing with [President] Clinton help. ing bail out the Mexican peso to helphis bosses Those “bosses” would be the ‘ones Trochmanncalls “the global grabbers” — an international clique of corporate conspirators plundering the poor and hiding behind the U.N. peacekeeping Dillard's forces, which Trochmann sees as ja gang of dirty cops. “America is a business,” he says, moving knife and fork into his T-bonesteak. “All we'retry ing to do is show people what's weally going on in America. 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