US A SAFE HAVEN PARAMILITARY GROUPS THAT PROVIDE LEGAL MERCENARY TRAINING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480028-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 1, 2012
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: October 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480028-2
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
8 October 1985
US a safe haven for paramilitary groups
that provide legal mercenary training
By Warren Richey
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Washington
Training terrorists has long been asso-
ciated with small third-world nations with
leftist tendencies. But the swamps of the
American Southeast and the forests of the
Midwest are increasingly the settings for
schools in the black arts of mayhem.
Only a limited number of paramilitary
training camps are known to be operating
within the United States. They are orga-
nized principally by extremist groups (for
their own members), by those who have a'
doomsday vision of the future in which
people will fight among themselves for,
limited resources, and by former soldiers
who share their military knowledge for a
fee. Some of these groups operate in com-
pliance with existing state and federal
laws.
A Senate subcommittee is investigat-
ing the degree to which the US is a haven
for paramilitary groups; and a training
ground for future terrorists..
Jeremiah Denton (R) of Alabama,
chairman of the subcommittee on security
and terrorism of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, says he is concerned that US-
law enforcement officials don't have the
necessary legal clout to preempt' terrorist
and paramilitary crimes in America. .
"We haven't felt terrorism in this coun-
try as have Turkey, Italy, and West Ger-
many. We must develop a national terror-
ism strategy and policy, acid determine
how to implement that policy."
Senator Denton's comments come at a
time of heightened concern about ties be-
tween white supremacist and neo-Nazi
groups in the US. In addition, there have;.
been reports of meetings between former
members of the Ku Klux Klan and Louis
Farrakhan, leader - of a Black Muslim
group: called the Nation of Islam.. Mr.
Farrakhan has repeatedly made state-
ments of an anti-Semitic nature.
Lawmakers are also concerned about
the impact of nonideological training
camps for would-be soldiers of fortune.
Denton and other members of Congress
are looking for ways to ensure that Ameri-
ca's apparent love affair with violent
movie heroes such as "Rambo" does not
translate into vigilantism.
At issue is whether the US has gone
too far in reforms that restrict tecteral
agencies from investigating' subversive
groups in America. Under current laws,
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FB )
agents are prohibited from conducting
surveillance ancollecting detailed intelli-
gence about US- a groups or mldivi -
u s, unTess ere. is reason to believe a
crime is about to committed.
Some officials feethat restrictions on
domestic intelligence gathering leave e
USTvvu vulnerable to armed subversivion.
Other observers maintain, that the
threat to constitutional liberty posed by a
government that regularly spies on its
own citizens is much larger than any
threat posgd by a small number of -radical
ideologicqlgpoups,
Recent indications are that, despite the
restrictions, the federal government has
experienced more successes in domestic
security cases than failures.
While there have been- four terrorist-re-
lated incidents in the US this year, federal
officials have. noted that 17 potential ter-
rorist plots have been thwarted by the
FBI during the year. Officials add that the
number of terrorist actions is declining,
from 100 in 1977, to 31 in 1983, to 13 in
'84.
Last spring, federal agents foiled a
Sikh plot to assassinate Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi. during a planned
trip to the US. Several Sikh students are
reported to have attended a .commando
training camp in Alabama to acquire
skills needed to carry out the
assassination.
Senator Denton's concern is that US-
based training. camps, may be helping to
produce a new generation of domestic
terrorists.
According to Wayne R. Gilbert, a dep-
uty assistant director at the FBI, para-
military, survivalist, or mercenary train-
ing camps are now operating in 11 states
across the country.
Groups mentioned as running such
camps include the Ku Klux Klan; Posse
Comitatus; The Covenant, Sword and the
Arm of the Lord; and the Aryan Nations
Church.
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In the past three years, 56 individuals
from these groups have been arrested on
weapons charges by the Bureau of Alco-
hol, Tobacco, and Firearms. According to
Daniel M. Hartnett of the ATF, the four
groups share common objectives.
"Most of these groups - are
antigovernment, racist, and anti-Se-
mitic," he says. "They stockpile arsenals
of weapons ... and train their supporters
to use those weapons."
Mr. Hartnett. adds that the groups
"have shown a willingness to commit vio-
lent crimes to further their cause."
Ten members of The Order, a violent
offshoot of the. white-supremacist Aryan
Nations Church, are facing a 21-count fed-
eral indictment. in Seattle charging that
they were plotting a right-wing revolution
that would have specifically included the
assassination of Jews, blacks, and
Hispanics. The revolution was reportedly
aimed at overthrowing what the group.
called the US's "Zionist occupational
government." .
The rebellion was to be funded through
bank robberies and attacks on armored
cars.
Members of the The Order have. also
been linked to the violent Arkansas-based
Covenant,' Sword, and Arm of the Lord.
CSA is said by federal officials to have fi-
nanced its. extensive arsenal with loot-
from an armored-car robbery carried out
by members of The Order. Two members
of The Order were in CSA's heavily
armed Arkansas compound last April
when state and federal officials arrested
CSA leader James Ellison.
Two weeks ago, Ellison was sentenced
to 20 years in prison on federal racketeer-
ing and weapons charges. Some 50
pounds of dynamite, 146 rifles, 30 ma-
chine guns, 9 silencers, 3 mines, 2 antiair-
craft rockets, and other weapons and
equipment were confiscated at the CSA
compound, according to federal officials.
Federal officials say that racist groups
are not the only organizations they are
concerned about. Federal prosecutors re-
cently announced the arrest of 18 alleged
members of Los Macheteros and the
Armed Forces of National Liberation,
Puerto Rican terrorist groups active in
New York and elsewhere. .
The FBI is conducting domestic secu-
rity investigations of 18 organizations in
the US, according to an agency spokes-
man. He declined to name the groups un-
der investigation.
. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480028-2