FBI Warns of Possible Attacks by Right-Wing Extremists

The FBI said Friday it has issued a nationwide alert for law enforcement agencies to watch for violence by militia extremists if authorities attack the anti-government “freemen” facing them down in Montana.

FBI officials confirmed a report in the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the agency had warned on April 23 of a threatening message, called “Project Worst Nightmare,” sent from militia groups to several FBI offices.

The plan urged followers of the right-wing extremist movement to begin drawing plans to “shut federal operations down” by targeting military fuel depots, federal satellite centers, senior federal law enforcement officials and others.

It also calls for members to “secure or destroy media installations that are not providing the people with what is really going on.”

The militia text contends that the government plans to use the 40-day-old freemen standoff to force an all-out confrontation with the militias.

The FBI bulletin included a verbatim copy of the militia warning, which also lists Internal Revenue Service offices as possible targets.

“In the event that the military is used or militia leaders are assaulted, all commands must be prepared to act,” the newspaper quoted the warning.

The warning was issued March 28, three days after FBI agents arrested two leaders of the freemen, beginning a tense standoff at the group’s eastern Montana compound that now in its sixth week.

Members of the anti-government group are wanted on state and federal charges ranging from writing bad checks to threatening to kidnap and kill a federal judge. The FBI believes 18 freemen are in the compound.

Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern called the alert “a routine circulation of a document of unknown authenticity in order to alert people to its existence and generate leads as to who might be responsible.”

While the plan does not name individual groups, “it is an indicator that certain militia groups may be taking the following information seriously,” the FBI alert told law agencies.

No FBI action or negotiations occurred during the 40th day of the standoff.