Nazis, Christian Fanatics, Supremacists: Fundamentalists Made in the US
Published in La Repubblica
(Italy) on 17 April 2013
by Vittorio Zucconi (link to original)
(Italy) on 17 April 2013
by Vittorio Zucconi (link to original)
Translated from
by Nicholas Schaefer.
Edited by Gillian Palmer.
Taxes, gays, blacks — every group chooses a target to hate. The peak of their activism occurs during presidential election years, during which they express their madness and rage. There are at least three organizations today in the U.S. that resemble the Ku Klux Klan, which lynched African-Americans.
Within America “the other terrorism,” made in the U.S., lies hidden like a snake in the grass. Domestic terrorists — militant neo-Nazis, violent environmental and animal rights activists, anti-government “patriots,” rebels without a cause, anti-abortionists, splinter KKK groups and the survivors of guerilla warfare — have committed many more attacks on American soil in the past few decades than al-Qaida or any al-Qaida affiliate.
Ever since September 2001 the word “terrorism” immediately brings to mind images of fanatics in turbans carrying AK-47s; however, the prudence of the American authorities —from Obama to the 700 FBI agents detailed to terrorism investigations — shows that they are well-aware of the existence and dangerousness of the snake in the grass. Thirty-six hours after the explosions [in Boston] — which killed and mutilated children and spectators along the home stretch of the marathon, injuring them with balls of steel, nails and splinters hurled from an explosion within a pressure cooker — the labeling of the attackers seemed to depend more upon the ideological prejudices of those doing the labeling than on the facts. Evidence of this can be found in the squabble between Murdoch’s Fox News — the flagship of the right — and the more moderate CNN. Fox is ready to start the hunt for a radical jihadist, while CNN is more aware of the danger of homemade terrorists. The pressure cooker has been used in massacres in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also by Croatian fascists, thus proving very little.
The figures and facts recorded in the past several decades show that no attack has ever caused more damage than the attack on the twin towers; however, this is not for a lack of trying. Of the 95 attacks classified as “terrorism” by the National Security Agency, six are attributable to al-Qaida, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the Pakistani Taliban. The other 89 attacks are attributable to organizations like the “Department of Justice” (not the governmental department, but a group that seeks justice from the oppression of Washington’s government), the KKK and various violent animal and ecological rights organizations such as the ELF (Earth Liberation Front), and the ALF (Animal Liberation Front).
Both foreign and domestic terrorism have a common target: the American government, which in their eyes is the root of all evil. But the violent domestic groups that have thrown bombs, killed, wounded and intimidated have many ideologies and hate for a variety of reasons. The assassins of the doctors and nurses that were practicing legal abortions, those who killed to “protect life,” obviously do not have anything in common with the man that hit Atlanta’s Olympic Park in 1996 with a bomb of nails and steel balls — the same type of explosive device used in Boston to injure 133 people, kill a child and two adults and force the surgeons to perform several amputations.
Every one of these numerous militant groups (located largely in the Midwest and West, from Illinois to Montana) has a totem they want to knock down and one that they want to raise. There are the lone wolves, like the Unabomber who struck the academic-industrial-financial complex by mailing explosive packages from his hideout — it took 20 years to catch him. There are the radical Christians in the South that hate the cruelty of a capital that wants to impose atrocities like gay marriage upon the people of God — whom they believe they are. If these groups share something, it is their common hatred of taxes, which they believe exist to deny the “patriots” liberty. They feel that every April 15, the government is asking them to make a terrible sacrifice.
A study conducted last year by West Point Military Academy found that there has been a massive, yet largely unobserved, increase in domestic terrorism. Between 1990 and 2011, domestic terrorist attacks — including both successful and failed — from groups and individuals of the extreme right wing increased from 35 to 350 per year. The researchers found that the peak is even higher and occurs during presidential election years, when the electoral campaign unleashes the madness and hatred that we saw around Barack Obama’s debut. According to the report, domestic terrorism reached a record high in 2008 with 550 attacks.
In recent months, many events have converged to reach a critical mass that surprised investigators are now studying in addition to the traditional enemy of Islamic terrorism. Obama is fighting against true “patriots” to regulate the gun market, individuals who view their gun as a direct descendent of the musket that their ancestors used to liberate themselves from the British in the 1700s. There is proposed legislation that would grant amnesty to immigrants without documents, another sore topic for the violent right. There are proposed tax increases, which Obama has asked for to support a welfare state. There is the relentless advance toward the legalization of homosexual marriages. There is also the undiluted hatred for the “negro” and “alien” in the White House. All of these things have created a witches’ brew, a concoction capable of provoking the snake into leaving the grass and biting Americans because he loves America.
Within America “the other terrorism,” made in the U.S., lies hidden like a snake in the grass. Domestic terrorists — militant neo-Nazis, violent environmental and animal rights activists, anti-government “patriots,” rebels without a cause, anti-abortionists, splinter KKK groups and the survivors of guerilla warfare — have committed many more attacks on American soil in the past few decades than al-Qaida or any al-Qaida affiliate.
Ever since September 2001 the word “terrorism” immediately brings to mind images of fanatics in turbans carrying AK-47s; however, the prudence of the American authorities —from Obama to the 700 FBI agents detailed to terrorism investigations — shows that they are well-aware of the existence and dangerousness of the snake in the grass. Thirty-six hours after the explosions [in Boston] — which killed and mutilated children and spectators along the home stretch of the marathon, injuring them with balls of steel, nails and splinters hurled from an explosion within a pressure cooker — the labeling of the attackers seemed to depend more upon the ideological prejudices of those doing the labeling than on the facts. Evidence of this can be found in the squabble between Murdoch’s Fox News — the flagship of the right — and the more moderate CNN. Fox is ready to start the hunt for a radical jihadist, while CNN is more aware of the danger of homemade terrorists. The pressure cooker has been used in massacres in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also by Croatian fascists, thus proving very little.
The figures and facts recorded in the past several decades show that no attack has ever caused more damage than the attack on the twin towers; however, this is not for a lack of trying. Of the 95 attacks classified as “terrorism” by the National Security Agency, six are attributable to al-Qaida, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the Pakistani Taliban. The other 89 attacks are attributable to organizations like the “Department of Justice” (not the governmental department, but a group that seeks justice from the oppression of Washington’s government), the KKK and various violent animal and ecological rights organizations such as the ELF (Earth Liberation Front), and the ALF (Animal Liberation Front).
Both foreign and domestic terrorism have a common target: the American government, which in their eyes is the root of all evil. But the violent domestic groups that have thrown bombs, killed, wounded and intimidated have many ideologies and hate for a variety of reasons. The assassins of the doctors and nurses that were practicing legal abortions, those who killed to “protect life,” obviously do not have anything in common with the man that hit Atlanta’s Olympic Park in 1996 with a bomb of nails and steel balls — the same type of explosive device used in Boston to injure 133 people, kill a child and two adults and force the surgeons to perform several amputations.
Every one of these numerous militant groups (located largely in the Midwest and West, from Illinois to Montana) has a totem they want to knock down and one that they want to raise. There are the lone wolves, like the Unabomber who struck the academic-industrial-financial complex by mailing explosive packages from his hideout — it took 20 years to catch him. There are the radical Christians in the South that hate the cruelty of a capital that wants to impose atrocities like gay marriage upon the people of God — whom they believe they are. If these groups share something, it is their common hatred of taxes, which they believe exist to deny the “patriots” liberty. They feel that every April 15, the government is asking them to make a terrible sacrifice.
A study conducted last year by West Point Military Academy found that there has been a massive, yet largely unobserved, increase in domestic terrorism. Between 1990 and 2011, domestic terrorist attacks — including both successful and failed — from groups and individuals of the extreme right wing increased from 35 to 350 per year. The researchers found that the peak is even higher and occurs during presidential election years, when the electoral campaign unleashes the madness and hatred that we saw around Barack Obama’s debut. According to the report, domestic terrorism reached a record high in 2008 with 550 attacks.
In recent months, many events have converged to reach a critical mass that surprised investigators are now studying in addition to the traditional enemy of Islamic terrorism. Obama is fighting against true “patriots” to regulate the gun market, individuals who view their gun as a direct descendent of the musket that their ancestors used to liberate themselves from the British in the 1700s. There is proposed legislation that would grant amnesty to immigrants without documents, another sore topic for the violent right. There are proposed tax increases, which Obama has asked for to support a welfare state. There is the relentless advance toward the legalization of homosexual marriages. There is also the undiluted hatred for the “negro” and “alien” in the White House. All of these things have created a witches’ brew, a concoction capable of provoking the snake into leaving the grass and biting Americans because he loves America.
It sure would be helpful if more Europeans wrote articles of this nature. The people being referenced in the US need to be shamed at every turn.