CovertAction Quarterly

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CovertAction Quarterly has won numerous awards for investigative journalism. It is read around the world by investigative reporters, activists, scholars, intelligence buffs, news junkies, and anyone who wants to know the news and analysis behind the soundbites and headlines. Recommended by Noam Chomsky; targeted by the CIA. Each article in the 64-page magazine, which is in its 16th year of publication, is extensively footnoted and accompanied by photographs and graphics.

CovertAction Quarterly continues a 17-year tradition of covering the extreme right. In a ground breaking article "The Rise of Citizen Militias: Angry White Guys with Guns," investigator Daniel Junas explored the structure and significance of this growing phenomenon. Junas wrote that: "The militias represent misguided right-wing populism with real and imagined grievances stoked by a politics of resentment and scapegoating." Typically, members are angry men with military training who believe that their way of life is being threatened; that they have been backed against a wall. The article shows that militia phenomenon is made up of loosely affiliated groups united in their mistrust and hatred of federal government and their belief that a conpiracy of secret elites is controlling society, and is plotting to disarm citizens and then take away their freedoms and rights. Like many others on the extreme right, militia members see their enemies variously as Jews, African Americans, women, immigrants, bankers, federal authority, environmentalists... You pick it, and they feel threaten by them and blame them for the death of a fantasy "good old days."

In previous issues, CovertAction Quarterly has written about the forerunners of the militias: the Ku Klux Klan, Posse Comitatus, the Order, neo-Nazis. The membership in these fringe groups, too, included violent, racist misfits. These movements have contributed both men and ideas to what has become the nationwide militia phenomenon. The current crop of militias is growing and now includes an estimated 10,000 people in up to 40 states, mostly in rural areas in the Pacific northwest, the inter-mountain west, the south west, and to a lesser degree the mid-west. There are also pockets in the east including in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Obviously, militias do not pose a military threat to the federal government in the sense that they are poised to take over the country, but as Oklahoma has shown some associated with the phenomenon are armed and very dangerous. The militas also threaten democracy in two ways. First armed militias could undermine the democratic process by spreading an atmosphere of scapegoating, intimidation, and racism. They are supported in this dangerous xenophobia by the kind of government and media "experts," who instantly speculated, with no solid evidence, that Arab/Muslim terrorists were behind the bombing. But also ominously, militias give ammunition to opportunistic politicians who, even before the dust had settle, seized on this tragedy to push for new laws that will do nothing to protect Americans from terrorism, but serve only to violate constitutionally guaranteed rights.

Coming Up in CovertAction Quarterly: The first official response to the tragedy in Oklahoma was to blame foreigners; the second was to call for repressive legislation. In the Summer issue, CAQ will detail pending legislation including the Omnibus Anti-Terrorism Act, which seeks to codify guilt by association and give the government broad new powers. CAQ will also detail laws recently put on the books which allow a court--which meets in secret, with no published orders, opinions, or public record--to authorize the government to conduct black bag operations. The FBI is now able to legally and secretly eavesdrop and physically search homes and offices without notifying those spied that a search had taken place, what was seized, or giving them any opportunity to confront the evidence and explain their side of the story.

CAQ believes that by depriving people of legitimate, peaceful means of protest, by repealing constitutional rights, and by feeding an atmosphere of racism, secrecy and violence, this new wave of repressive legislation is counter-productive: It will pushes people into believing that they have no alternative to violence. We though you had a right to know. CovertAction Quarterly has won numerous awards for investigative journalism. It is read around the world by investigative reporters, activists, scholars, intelligence buffs, news junkies, and anyone who wants to know the news and analysis behind the soundbites and headlines. Recommended by Noam Chomsky; targeted by the CIA.

Each article in the 64-page magazine, which is in its 16th year of publication, is extensively footnoted and accompanied by photographs and graphics.

Table of Contents Spring 1995

COVERT BRIEFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Fugitive Union Carbide CEO Anderson found.

GENOCIDE IN RWANDA: U.S. COMPLICITY BY SILENCE by Rakiya Omaar and Alex de Waal . . . . . . . . . . 7

For the first time there could be no excuses, no doubts. The world knew that genocide was occurring. As 800,000 died, the U.S. stood by and declined to invoke international law.

CALIFORNIA BER ALLES by Mike Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Leading the way to a fright-ening future, California has adopted ethnic cleansing as its social policy; poverty and incarceration as its industrial policy. Students are mobilizing to fight back.

RISE OF CITIZEN MILITIAS: ANGRY WHITE GUYS WITH GUNS by Daniel Junas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Citizen militias, 10,000 members strong, threaten civil rights, environmentalists, and federal authority. Some fear that America is a demagogue away from a fascist movement.

NEO-NAZIS SALUTE ANTI-ABORTION ZEALOTS by Tom Burghardt . .. . . . . . . . . . . 26

Links between neo-Nazis and extremist Christian anti-abortion groups make a mix from hell. Self-righteous and fanatical, they spawn violence and hatred throughout North America.

GROOM LAKE: THE BASE THAT ISN'T THERE by Glenn Campbell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

What is the U.S. hiding at a secret base the size of Connecticut? UFOs? Black budget planes? Or wasted tax dollars and government immunity from civilian accountability?

NOT SO SECRET WEAPONS by Mark Farmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

A rundown of possible black budget and supersecret projects at Groom Lake.

NATIONAL SECURITY'S WASTING ILLNESS by Terry Allen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

A lawsuit pierces a veil of secrecy hiding environmental and public health crimes and reveals that one man is dead and others sick because the government used a base for illegal dumping

WALL STREET DECLARES WAR ON THE ZAPATISTAS by Ken Silverstein . . . . . . . . . . . 42

While Mexico dangled, financiers and politicians in the United States demanded concessions: Wipe out the Zapatistas, downgrade ties to Cuba, and open up the economy, including the prize oil reserves to the

U.S. DAMAGE CONTROL ON HUMAN RADIATION by Glenn Alcalay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

The Clinton adminstration's advisory committee appears to be a willing accomplice in covering up experiments, especially those conducted by the CIA and the Pentagon.

SCIENCE FOR SALE: TRUTH TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER by Ron Nixon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Need to tailor research results to fit your corporate needs? The scientific community is at your beck and call. When the world's largest garbage company needed to sanitize its image, it bought the scientific results it wanted.

NSA CHIPS AWAY AT PRIVACY IN CYBERSPACE by Peter Cassidy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

NSA joins federal law enforcement to dictate telecommunications policy. From digital telephony to the Clipper chip and beyond, the feds want to call the shots.

TRAWLING THE INTERNET by Wendell Minnick . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The Internet holds myriad resources for information junkies and researchers. Here's how to get started.

OFF THE SHELF: BOOKS OF INTEREST . . . . . . . 63