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Armed and Dangerous
Chip Berlet
    Many people assume that John C. Salvi 3d must be unbalanced - after
all, what other explanation can there be for a person who allegedly sprays
health clinics with bullets leaving death and destruction?  Salvi's other
reported actions add to this public assumption.  he quotes the biblical book
of Revelations; he meets with a Catholic priest and demands to distribute
lurid photographs of aborted fetuses, charging that the Catholic Church is
not doing enough to stop abortion; he confronts his parish on Christmas Eve
for failing to live up to his interpretation of the Catholic faith and its
obligations; he embraces violence while participating in a movement that
calls itself prolife.
    The courts will decide if Salvi is competent to stand trial, but each
of his actions and statements can be traced to specific theological and
political arguments promoted by organizations in the Boston area and
nationwide.
    The photographs of fetuses distributed by Salvi come from Human Life
International, a right-wing Catholic antiabortion group with a chapter in
Massachusetts.  HLI promotes a highly dogmatic vision of Catholicism that is
critical of liberal Catholics around the issues of abortion, sex education,
homosexuality and feminism.  HLI distributes books with titles such as "The
Feminist Takeover,""Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism," and
"New World Order: The Ancient Plan of Secret Societies."
    The last book promotes the longstanding conspiracy theories of
ultraconservative and far right groups.  Under the umbrella of the
little-known "Patriots" movement, groups that fear a "New World Order
conspiracy" held a meeting in November at Burlington High School.  Speakers
included John Birch Society stalwart Samuel L. Blumenfeld, Sandra Martinez of
Concerned Women for America and leading antiabortion organizer Dr. Mildred
Jefferson. Both the Birch Society and DWA are active in the antiabortion
movement.  Jefferson is in leadership roles in both the National Right to
Life Committee and Massachusetts Citizens for Life.  Salvi attended at least
one meeting of Massachusetts Citizens for Life and met with several of its
leaders.
    While Jefferson spoke, attendees browsed three tables fof literature
brought by Den's Gun Shop in Lakeville.  One book offered instruction in the
use of the Ruger .22 rifle, the weapon allegedly used by Salvi.  Other books
contain diagrams on how to build bombs and incendiary devices.  One title was
"Improved Weapons of the American Underground."  You could even purchase the
book "Hunter" by neo-Nazi William Pierce of the National Alliance.  "Hunter"
is a book about parasitic Jews destroying America and the need for armed
civilians to carry out political assassinations to preserve the white race.
Leaflets from the National Alliance attacking the New World Order and
"minority parasites" have been appearing in Cambridge, Somerville and other
Boston-area communities.
    One speaker, Ed Brown, runs the Constitutional Defense Militia of New
Hampshire.  Brown passed out brochures offering "Firearms Training, Combat
Leadership, Close Combat and Intelligence Measures." Brown is a part of the
growing armed militia movement, which is the militant wing of the Patriots
movement.  Several months ago Planned Parenthood held a press conference in
New York, where it released information about a Patriots meeting in
Wisconsin, where antiabortion activists and armed militia proponents shared
the podium.
    A key figure in training armed civilian militias was the featured
afternoon speaker at the Burlington meeting.  Robert K. Spear is the author
of "Living Under the New World Order" and "Surviving Global Slavery."
According to Spear, we are living in the "end times" predicted in the book of
Revelations.  True Christians will be asked to make sacrifices to defend
their faith and prepare the way for the return of Christ.  Spear's plan is
the formation of armed Christian communities.
    The idea that we are in the end times is growing in right-wing
Christian evangelical circles.  While predominantly a Protestant phenomenon,
there are small groups of dogmatic and charismatic Catholics that also are
embracing end times theology.  Like Salvi, they point to the book of
Revelations.  Spear cited Revelations 13, the prophesy that in the end times,
Christians will be asked to accept the Satanic "Mark of the Beast" and reject
Christ.  These views are hardly marginal on the Christian Right, Pat
Robertson, a leading figure in the religious right whose Christian Coalition
is credited with helping elect many Republican congressmen, has been
emphasizing end times themes on the TV program "700 Club."
    On the fringes of the antiabortion movement are groups that argue
that it is morally justifiable to kill abortion providers.  In recent years
the most militant antiabortion groups have been influenced by the theology of
Christian Reconstructionism or dominion theology, which argue that true
Christians must physically confront secular and sinful society and return it
to God.  Through predominantly composed of right-wing Protestants, a similar
movement among doctrinaire Catholics has emerged.  The trajectory of Philip
Lawler from the editorship of the Catholic publication The Pilot to the
Catholic League for Religiouis and Civil Rights to Operation Rescue is one
example of this drift toward militancy.  Last spring Salvi joined 300
antiabortion demonstrators outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in
Brookline, where pamphlets were circulated citing Operation Rescue estimates
that 18,000 abortions were performed annuallly at the facility.
    There is no evidence that Salvi attended the Patriots meeting in
Burlington or that the rhetoric or ideaas of any of the groups or individuals
mentioned directly influenced his acitons.  The fact remains, however, that
there is a growing right-wing social movement that uses theological arguments
to encourage direct confrontation of its targets and tolerates discussions of
armed resistance.  Its adherents scapegoat abortion providers, gays and
lesbians, feminists, even environmental activists.  Some have called
feminists who support abortion right "femi-Nazis" and argued that abortion is
a genocide worse than that of Hitler.  One slogan is "If you really think
abortion is murder, then act like it."
    For some who hear this message, all that's left is to pull the
trigger.
    Chip Berlet is an analyst at Political Research Associates.

White Mountain Militia returns fire:
    The "Armed and Dangerous"  editorial appeared in the Boston Globe
Friday, January 6, 1995.  This is the first serious effort that I have seen
by an east-coast establishment newspaper at linking the Patriot community
with violence at abortion clinics.  I offer the following analysis:
    1. The title, "Armed and Dangerous" is also the title of a recent ADL
report on the unorganized militia and the Patriot movement.  This report was
characterized by a reckless series of half-truths and lies.  It was clearly
an attempt to defame the Patriot community and link patriot activities to
racist and anti-semite groups.
    2. Chip Burlet, an analyst at Political Research Associates, is
obviously a hired hatchet-man employed by this ADL front organization.
Another tentacle of the ADL's propaganda leviathan, the Cult Awareness
Network, was responsible for the systematic disinformation and defamation
campaign against David Koresh.  These efforts led to the publics' accepting
the slaughter of innocent civilians at the Waco massacre.  As the heat is
turned up on the Patriot movement, we expect a similar campaign of
disinformation against loyal Americans.
    3. The first section of the editorial is an untenable effort to link
unrelated causes and events, couched under the rhetorical question of John
Salvi's sanity.  The notions that fetuses are alive, that abortion is wrong,
and that the "New World Order Conspiracy" exists are used collectively to
support the idea that Salvi's action arises from the teachings of the "little
known Patriots movement" and other named organizations.  Fortunately, this
juvenile disinformation strategy is easily discerned by those even slightly
more alert than the brain-dead.
    4. Next, Burlet attempts to link respected speakers such as Mildred
Jefferson with Salvi, suggesting that he attended a meeting of Massachusetts
Citizens for Life, an organization in which Jefferson holds a leadership
position.  The first sentence of the fifth paragraph offers Jefferson as a
primary subject, and in the second clause introduces literature brought by
Den's gunshop.  The fact that a Ruger 10-22 rifle was allegedly used by
Salvi, and a book on the Ruger .22 was available at the meeting is coupled
with statements regarding literature on weaponry and a racist volume,
"Hunter".  Finally, the book "Hunter", an anti-semitic novel, is linked to
other attacks on the New World Order by a racist group; all this seeming to
suggest that Mildred Johnson supports a racist program.  What is not revealed
in the editorial is that Mildred Johnson holds degrees in medicine, is black,
is a Patriot, and shared the podium with Bruce Chesley, a local
representative of Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), a
fine pro-civil rights Patriot organization.  These lies of omission are
typical of the cheap strategies employed by establishment media pundits.
Like most of the aging artillery of the ADL propaganda arsenal, this tactic
is easily identified even by those of us educated in the public schools.
    5. No assault on the Patriot movement would be complete without an
effort to slander the unorganized militia.  Training measures offered by all
regional militia are provided by licensed, qualified individuals.  These days
anyone seeking knowledge on self-defense can be labeled as a fanatic by the
hate-mongers at the ADL.  Again, with the tactic of omission, Burlet ignores
the legitimacy of the unorganized militia and its activities under ALL United
States laws, state codes and statutes; also left out: The Constitution for
the United States of America.  Most mature individuals take the protection of
themselves, their family, and their property seriously, and no amount of
deception will change that fact of human nature.  For this, all but
propagandists and other criminals can be grateful.
    6. Christians and Patriots are again taken to task for their
discussion of the "Mark of the Beast".  It is suggested that Salvi, in his
lunacy, believes the application of such a mark to be possible, and that
anyone holding similar beliefs is equally as lunatic.  Even those of us who
watch only mainstream media television news broadcasts have been acquainted
with the use of tiny computer chips injected under the skin of animals for
the purpose of tracking.  Perhaps the scientific research wing of the ADL
could use help from my children's high school Earth Science teacher.  He
suggests that computer chips implanted in infants would be a plausible
deterrent to kidnapping, and allow for the easy recovery of the baby...
Wouldn't that be great??
    7. The disclaimer.  "There is no evidence that Salvi attended the
Patriots meeting...or that the rhetoric or ideas of any of the groups or
individuals mentioned directly influenced his actions".  The ADL's legal
research staff gets high marks here.  And they had better be careful.  ANY
MINOR SLIP-UPS CAN LEAD TO A CLASS ACTION SUIT JOINED BY ALL OF THE MENTIONED
GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS.
    8. The conclusion.  "For some who hear this message, all that's left
is to pull the trigger."  This ridiculous notion is only retained in the
flaccid gray matter of the semi-conscious sheeple.  The propagandist
postulates that most Americans will timidly accept this notion and cower at
the mere mention of the Patriot movement.  He earns his money by encouraging
fear disseminating disinformation, and undermining ideals.  The geometric
expansion of the Patriot community is demonstrable evidence of his certain
failure.
    In summary, every attempt to defame the Patriot community brings
legions to our ranks.  Every effort to the undermine the continuing Patriot
campaign aimed at exposing the systematic subversion of this Republic's
Constitutional system awakens more concerned Americans.  The sleeping giant
is finally regaining consciousness from a long, enduced slumber.  Once fully
alert, he will smash the individuals responsible for the destruction of this
nation and dismember the organizations they support.
   DEAR GIANT,
    ADD MR. BURLET AND THE POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES TO THE LIST.
White Mountain Militia Information Service
POBox 1358
Lebanon, New Hampshire 03766


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