I was looking at some old-emails today and came across an interesting 1999 communication from a staff member of the John Birch Society that is kind of interesting, so I thought I would share it. The context of his e-mail is that in 1998 I had published a report on a certain type
of scam both aimed at & propagated by anti-gov't extremists. In that report, I discussed the problem of warnings by the gov't of a scam marketed to people distrustful of the gov't, and suggested that some fringe pubs, like the JBS's New American, might be approachable to warn. 
In 1999, the then-research director for the JBS saw my comment and wrote me an e-mail about it, essentially gently pushing back at my suggestion--for interesting reasons. This e-mail I reproduce here. I have not included the name of the research director, who is still alive and
active, though apparently now with the Libertarian Party rather than the JBS, since it was a private e-mail. I don't think he said anything in it he'd regret now, though. Anyway, here's the letter.
You'll notice in it several references to the rule of law. One difference between the JBS and many other extremist groups is that the JBS has fairly consistently condemned lawbreaking (which is one reason why some people leave JBS at some point after joining).
P.S. That scam I wrote about in 1998, the "pure trust" scam (also known under other names), still exists today, 24 years later. So I suppose my expose was a failure in the sense of doing anything to stop it. Researching it and writing it, though, did teach me a lot.
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