Mountaineer Militia

Last updated

West Virginia Mountaineer Militia
LeaderFloyd "Ray" Looker
Dates of operation1995– October 1996
Active regions Clarksburg, West Virginia, United States
Ideology American nationalism
National conservatism
Libertarianism
Sovereign citizen movement

Mountaineer Militia was a local anti-government paramilitary group, members of which plotted to blow up an FBI building Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1996. The group also used the name West Virginia Mountaineer Militia, and had ties with another militias from other states. [1]

Contents

Plot and arrest

On October 11, 1996, seven men having connections with the Mountaineer Militia, a local anti-government paramilitary group, were arrested on charges of plotting to blow up the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia, after a 16-month investigation. [2] The group had even considered the killing United States Senator Jay Rockefeller and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan in a "holy war" against the "tiranous" U.S. government. [3]

While members of the group had been assembling large quantities of explosives and blasting caps, militia leader Floyd Raymond Looker obtained blueprints of the FBI facility from a Clarksburg, West Virginia firefighter. Plastic explosives were confiscated by law enforcement officials at five locations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. [4] [5] Looker was taken into custody after arranging to sell the blueprints for $50,000 to an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed to be a representative of an international terrorist group. In 1998 Looker was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Two other defendants were sentenced on explosives charges, and the firefighter drew a year in prison for providing blueprints. [6] [7] The charges with those who were judge include conspiracy to manufacture explosives, transport explosives across state lines and place them near the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services center in Clarksburg. [8] Two of the arrested, Edward Moore and Jack Phillips, were charged for the making and dealing in explosives, including homemade nitroglycerine and C-4. Before the arrests, Moore said to Mr. Looker and the Government informer that he had perfected a homemade rocket-propelled grenade. Also, the authorities said, the group held a training practices in which they detonated an improvised explosive that left a hole two feet wide and four feet deep. [9] [10]

Other arrested were James R. Rogers, (40) a firefighter from Clarksburg. He is accused for the providing of 12 photographs of blueprints of the FBI complex, including plans for the underground computer center, with the objective to attack that part of the complex. [11] The group also posted a video on the internet called "America Under Siege," alleging acts authorized by the federal government against its own people. [12]

Convictions

On March 29, 1998, the leader Floyd "Ray" Looker was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in a federal prison. Looker (57), was among the first to be charged under a 1994 antiterrorism law that makes it a crime to provide material resources to terrorists activities. While Looker pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges, on several occasions he mentioned that the plans and materials he had couldn't have made the attack successful. [13] [14] [15] James R. Rogers, was sentenced to 10 years. [16] [17]

Notes

  1. "West Virginia Mountaineer Militia". Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  2. "SEVEN INDICTED IN FBI CENTER TERROR PLOT". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  3. "Domestic Sources of Terrorism". War on Terrorism and Racism. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  4. "FBI arrests militia members". The Irish Times. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  5. "W.VA. Militia men held in alleged plot". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  6. "Militia watch: How far should government's anti-terrorism efforts go?". South Coast Today. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  7. "Special Report #1: The Mountaineer Militia's Long, Slippery Slope". adl.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011.
  8. Johnston, David (October 12, 1996). "7 in Paramilitary Group Arrested in West Virginia". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  9. "Anti-Government Movements and the Revitalization Process: An Examination of Anthony F.C. Wallace's Theory of Revitalization As Applied to Domestic Terrorist and Extremist Groups". Bradley C. Whitsel-Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  10. Smith, Brent L. (2011). Pre-Incident Indicators of Terrorist Incidents: The Identification of behavioral, geographic and Temporal Patterns of preparatory conduct. DIANE. ISBN   9781437930610 . Retrieved January 16, 2020.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  11. "FBI seizes 7 in W.Va. militia Far-rightists alleged to plan to blow up FBI fingerprint center; Plastic explosives found; Firefighter accused of stealing blueprints of new agency facility". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  12. "Undercover video shows militia recruitment methodswork=CNN Interactive" . Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  13. "MILITIA CHIEF PLEADS GUILTY IN PLOT TO BOMB FBI CENTER". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  14. "MILITIA LEADER GETS 18-YEAR SENTENCE, DENIES BOMB PLOT". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  15. "Militiaman sentenced to 18 years". Southern Poverty Law Centre. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  16. "Firefighter Sentenced As Terrorist He Gave Militia Blueprints Of Complex Housing Fbi". The Spokesman Review. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  17. "Militia leader guilty in bomb plot". UPI News. Retrieved January 16, 2020.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarksburg, West Virginia</span> City in West Virginia, United States

Clarksburg is a city in and the county seat of Harrison County, West Virginia, United States, in the north-central region of the state. The population of the city was 16,039 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth-largest city in West Virginia. It is the principal city of the Clarksburg micropolitan area, which had a population of 90,434 in 2020. Clarksburg was named National Small City of the Year in 2011 by the National League of Cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambodian Freedom Fighters</span> Anti-communist political and paramilitary organization

The Cambodian Freedom Fighters is an anti-communist political and paramilitary organization that was established on 21 October 1998, by its founder, Chhun Yasith, at Poipet near the Cambodian-Thai border. Their headquarters are in Long Beach, California, United States. It was incorporated and registered at the Californian Secretary of State's office as a political organization in June 1999, and aims "to fight against communists to protect the interests of Cambodian people." The CFF claim to have 500 members in the United States and up to 20,000 supporters in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Iyman Faris is a Pakistani citizen who served for months as a double agent for the FBI before pleading guilty in May 2003 of providing material support to Al Qaeda. A United States citizen since 1999, he had worked as a truck driver and lived in Columbus, Ohio. As of September 2003, Faris was the "only confessed al Qaeda sleeper caught on U.S. soil." In 2003 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda. In February 2020 an American federal court revoked Faris' US citizenship. In August 2020, he was released from a federal prison in Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Right-wing terrorism</span> Terrorism motivated by right-wing and far-right ideologies

Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies. It can be motivated by Ultranationalism, neo-Nazism, anti-communism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, ethnonationalism, religious nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-semitism, anti-government sentiment, patriot movements, sovereign citizen beliefs, and occasionally, it can be motivated by opposition to abortion, tax resistance, and homophobia. Modern right-wing terrorism largely emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s, and after the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it emerged in Eastern Europe and Russia.

The Tyler poison gas plot was an American domestic terrorism plan in Tyler, Texas, thwarted in April 2003 with the arrest of three individuals and the seizure of a cyanide gas bomb along with a large arsenal. Authorities had been investigating the white supremacist conspirators for several years and the case received little media coverage and limited attention in public from the government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism in the United States</span> Systematic or threatened use of violence to create a general climate of fear

In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.

The 2009 New York City Subway and United Kingdom plot was a plan to bomb the New York City Subway as well as a target in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Najibullah Zazi</span> Afghan member of Al-Qaeda

Najibullah Zazi is an Afghan-American who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 U.S. al Qaeda group accused of planning suicide bombings on the New York City Subway system, and who pleaded guilty as have two other defendants. U.S. prosecutors said Saleh al-Somali, al-Qaeda's head of external operations, and Rashid Rauf, an al-Qaeda operative, ordered the attack. Both were later killed in drone attacks.

Failed terrorism plots are terrorist plots that have either been foiled, uncovered by authorities or failed through mistakes.

Rezwan Ferdaus is a United States citizen of Bangladeshi descent who is serving a federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to terrorism charges in 2012.

Sami Osmakac is an American convicted by a jury on June 10, 2014, following a criminal trial in U.S. District Court, of plotting terrorist attacks in and near Tampa, Florida.

Amine El Khalifi is a Moroccan man who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for plotting to carry out a suicide bombing on the United States Capitol. He was charged with "attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against federal property" and now convicted, faces 30 years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atomwaffen Division</span> International Neo-Nazi terrorist network

The Atomwaffen Division, also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front, is an international far-right extremist and neo-Nazi terrorist network. Formed in 2013 and based in the Southern United States, it has since expanded across the United States and it has also expanded into the United Kingdom, Argentina, Canada, Germany, the Baltic states, and other European countries. The group is described as a part of the alt-right by some journalists, but it rejects the label and it is considered extreme even within that movement. It is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and it is also designated as a terrorist group by multiple governments, including the United Kingdom and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Base (hate group)</span> American neo-Nazi white terrorist group

The Base is a neo-Nazi accelerationist paramilitary group and training network, formed in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro. It is active in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Europe, and designated as a terrorist organization in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boogaloo movement</span> American far-right extremist movement

The boogaloo movement, whose adherents are often referred to as boogaloo boys or boogaloo bois, is a loosely organized far-right anti-government extremist movement in the United States. It has also been described as a militia. Adherents say they are preparing for, or seek to incite, a second American Civil War or second American Revolution which they call "the boogaloo" or "the boog".

The 1st Kansas Mechanical Militia was a militia-movement organization based in Kansas, United States. The group became known for openly campaigning for war against the federal government of the United States and claiming that Chinese communist troops were training on American soil. It is unknown if the group is still active.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot</span> Kidnapping plot in 2020

On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrests of 13 men suspected of orchestrating a domestic terror plot to kidnap American politician Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan, and otherwise using violence to overthrow the state government. Some have labeled the attempt as an example of stochastic terrorism, where violent rhetoric by prominent figures inspired the plot.

The Viper Militia was an anti-government militia group created in 1995. The militants planned for more than two years to bomb government buildings in the state, in addition to carrying out training with firearms.