The U.S. has a deep history of right-wing violence, so much so that many shocking incidents are largely forgotten. One such incident, which occurred in Woodburn, Oregon, in 2008, involved a father and son pair of anti-government extremists, Bruce and Joshua Turnidge.
The elder Turnidge, Bruce, once tried to start a militia and later told people the OKC bombing had been a good thing. Financial difficulties and fear that Obama would institute gun control caused them to decide to build a bomb with which to rob a bank, theoretically solving their
cash problems and allowing them to buy guns as well. Their harebrained scheme involved planting a bomb outside a bank, then phoning in a warning to clear people out. Apparently they thought they would then be able to rob it. Police were called in, but could find no bomb in the
bank. However, a bank employee then noticed the device outside the bank. A bomb expert with the state police, William Hakim, decided to take it into the bank to dismantle it. However, the bomb exploded inside the bank, probably unintentionally set off by a passing CB radio
signal. The bomb blast killed Trooper Hakim and Woodburn Police Captain Tom Tennant. It also blew the leg off of Scott Russell, Woodburn's police chief. The subsequent intense investigation led straight to the Turnidges, who turned on each other during their trials. Both were
convicted and are currently on death row in Oregon. However, there is a moratorium on executions in that state, so they are unlikely to see their sentence carried out.

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More from @egavactip

27 Dec 20
This is a short, anecdotal thread about UFO-related "terrorism" in the United States. We tend to think of terrorism as being related to the far right, or the far left, or extremist religious movements, but fanatic belief in any cause can potentially result in violent acts.
By way of explanation, I was thinking about the Nashville bombing last night, which got me to thinking about other unusual bombings involving vehicles (as target or delivery vessel), one of which was related to a fringe religious group focused on UFOs.
The group in question is the Outer Dimensional Forces, which still exists and has been based in Weslaco in far south Texas since 1966. Its founder, Orville Gordon (who called himself Nodrog), built a UFO landing pad for ships that would land and save himself and his followers
Read 25 tweets
2 Nov 20
Please stop conflating different American contexts for the word "militia;" it just creates confusion for people.

"Stanford’s Greg Ablavsky on Law and the History of American Militias"
law.stanford.edu/2020/10/12/sta…
There are three main contexts involving armed groups in which the word "militia" is used.

1. The historical/legal/statutory militia, which is referred to as "the militia," not as "militias." I simplify, but today it is basically the National Guard.

2. "Militias" as a *generic*
term for any non-actual-military armed group, particularly ones with a paramilitary bent to them (such as foreign examples like Shi'ite militias or Druse militias).

3. Paramilitary groups within the militia movement, a specific right-wing anti-government extremist movement.
Read 4 tweets
24 Oct 20
The federal and state charges in the Michigan militia kidnapping plot are interesting; this is a thread about them. I should note I've tracked over 200 right-wing terrorist incidents in the U.S. (and many other r-w criminal incidents), which has given me some insight into how
common or rare certain charges or prosecutorial approaches are. I should note my background is in extremism, though--not the law.

The case is unusual in that it has "split" charges. Six of the defendants were charged federally, while the rest were charged by the state of
Michigan. In most cases, either the feds prosecute or the state prosecutes (often because the feds may not be interested in the case), but not both. There are also cases--typically involving high-profile extremist murders--where the feds and the state both prosecute the same
Read 16 tweets
10 Oct 20
Interested in a terminology thread? I knew you were!

Let's talk about (extremist or terrorist) cells vs. groups vs. movements!

These are all just words and whenever you try to apply one word to real human beings and situations that don't always fit into neat boxes, you can come
up with problems & need to have exceptions, but leaving that aside, these terms usefully describe certain concepts related to extremism and/or terrorism.

First, let's talk about a "cell," a term which is a little grandiose and may convey more sophistication than it usually has.
Essentially a cell is just a small informal group or grouping of two or more individuals working together for a specific purpose, such as a terrorist act. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols (and, arguably, the Fortiers) constituted a cell. Cells can emerge organically, as several
Read 15 tweets
9 Oct 20
Here's an interesting tidbit. I am pretty sure that the day *before* the Michigan militia plot arrests I was actually looking for evidence of the Michigan militia plot. I just didn't know it.
What do I mean by that? I track domestic terrorism incidents in the US (for a number of purposes, including updating our great HEAT Map resource).
adl.org/education-and-…
Well, last month Yahoo News did a story based on a leaked FBI bulletin and this bulletin referred vaguely to a recent case involving a militia group that allegedly planned to attack elected officials or storm the state capitol building.

news.yahoo.com/fbi-warns-of-i…
Read 4 tweets
7 Oct 20
When I was in the fifth grade, I was walking to school and saw a windstrewn El Paso mayoral election campaign sign (for Don Henderson). On a whim I picked it up, took it with me to school and propped it up next to my seat.

This gave my homeroom 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Priscilla
Davis (www3.legacy.com/obituaries/elp…), who was a great teacher, an idea. She decided to hold a mayoral race in the classroom. She decided I could be incumbent Don Henderson and she chose Paula (mumble mumble) to be the challenger, Ray Salazar. We each were allowed to produce a campaign
"commercial" and we would also have a debate. This is where things sadly start to reflect real life. My "commercial" (acted out in front of the class) was slick and entertaining and during the debate Paula was earnest and had obviously prepared more than me, my comebacks were
Read 4 tweets

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