FBI Cites Rise in Paramilitary Groups

Federal law enforcement agents, hoping to crack down on domestic terrorism and other acts of violence by paramilitary organizations, told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that about 23 such groups, mostly right wing, operate across the nation.

The clandestine organizations--which often hide sophisticated weapons in wildnerness locations and engage in racist, anti-Semitic rhetoric--are headquartered in Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Washington, FBI agents said.

But federal officials said they do not have a precise count of such groups, mainly because the FBI depends on local police to provide much of the information about them, and conceded that they may have overlooked some extremist groups. Officials also said that none of the U.S. mercenary groups that train foreign citizens in combat skills have come forward to register with the government, as required by law.

‘Definitely a Resurgence’

“There has definitely been a resurgence in the last year in the number of right-wing (paramilitary) groups,” FBI investigator Wayne Gilbert told the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on security and terrorism. “It’s a problem we’re trying to keep abreast of.”

Gilbert, under questioning by subcommittee Chairman Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.), admitted that he had not heard of “Private Delta Force,” a Pennsylvania paramilitary group that has circulated pamphlets to members of Congress announcing plans to train participants to rescue American prisoners of war from foreign countries.

“We’ll look into that,” Gilbert said.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) cautioned that the government is not concerned about the proliferation of so-called “war games” organizations, whose members do not use weapons and stage harmless “capture the flag” drills during weekend retreats.

‘Walter Mitty Warriors’

Leahy said such groups, many of which advertise, are designed for “Walter Mitty warriors,” whom he described as “somewhat overweight, middle-aged people running through the fields.”

FBI officials said they are chiefly concerned about right-wing groups that have stockpiled large numbers of weapons and, on occasion, have had violent clashes with law enforcement officials. These groups “pose the threat that domestic terrorism could come to the United States itself,” Leahy said.

Since 1983, for example, officials of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said they have arrested and prosecuted 53 members of such paramilitary groups as The Order, the Aryan Nation, the Posse Comitatus and the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Law.