Pursuit of Viper Militia May Backfire on U.S.

The dinner table talk at the home of Arizona militia leader Steve Porak was about a man believed to be a paid informant in the case against Viper Militia members arrested recently on weapon and explosives charges.

There was talk about trying to make the informant’s life miserable. But Porak’s wife said her husband’s group should track down the man and circle him so that a possible assassination by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would not be blamed “on you guys.”

The notion that the ATF would assassinate its own informant just to stir up more anti-militia sentiment may seem far-fetched. But in the wake of revelations about the government’s case against the Vipers, militia members and their sympathizers here challenge others to say that their paranoia is not justified.

Moreover, the Viper case now threatens to backfire on federal agencies that heralded it as a breakthrough in the war against domestic terrorists.

Earlier this month, federal authorities said the arrests of 10 men and two women here--the largest apprehension of militia members in U.S. history--thwarted a plot to launch a terrorist campaign to attack government buildings with ammonium nitrate bombs.

But last week, U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll sent home six of the dozen suspects, declaring they were not a threat to their communities.

None of the Viper Militia members was charged with conspiring to destroy government buildings. And during detention hearings in federal court last week, ATF supervisor Steven Ott conceded that he never notified officials at the allegedly targeted buildings because he did not believe they were in danger.

Ott also testified that “there was talk” of a state Fish and Game Department officer who infiltrated the Vipers six months ago becoming the group’s leader.

“We told him, ‘Absolutely no,’ ” Ott said. But the same undercover officer, Ott said, urged the Vipers to rob banks to further their cause. The Viper Militia members turned him down.

Another troubling aspect of the case was that neither the Fish and Game officer assigned to the ATF nor a paid informant who also penetrated the Vipers had experience in working with federal agencies in serious criminal cases.

To be sure, six of the suspects remain behind bars, facing serious charges involving the possession of illegal guns and hundreds of pounds of explosive materials. Trial has been tentatively scheduled for Aug. 20.

But the government has not shown an intent on the part of the Vipers to commit terrorism.

Some experts wonder if a pattern is emerging.

“The ATF is fighting for its existence . . . so it has to make cases and find constant threats, like people making bombs and selling sawed-off shotguns,” said Tony Cooper, an expert on domestic terrorism and a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Dallas.

“But it is becoming increasingly obvious that many of these cases are exaggerated by the agency compared to the threat posed by these groups.”

Cooper pointed to the Randy Weaver case, in which federal agents portrayed Weaver as a fearsome former Green Beret with knowledge of explosives.

“In the face of what we know now, those were extraordinary fantasies disseminated throughout the law enforcement community,” Cooper said. In a siege of Weaver’s Idaho cabin in 1992, Weaver’s wife and son were killed by federal agents.

Others counter that in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing and other threats, law enforcement cannot be passive.

“Laws that proscribe paramilitary training and bomb-making are there for a reason. These activities are the last clear step before horrendous steps take place,” said Bryan Levin, assistant professor of criminal justice at Stockton College in Pomono, N.J.

“The fact that we enforce laws that go against the things [militias] want makes us an entity they have suspicion and distrust in,” said one ATF official. “We are here to enforce federal firearms and explosives laws. We’re not dealing with groups themselves, we are dealing with individuals with violations. It’s just that our leads take us more and more to groups” where the violations exist.

A week ago, federal authorities supported their claims that the Vipers were violent anarchists by showing a 2-year-old videotape in which narrators discussed ways to capture or collapse buildings.

Defense lawyers, however, argued that the explosives mixtures that turned up at some of the suspects’ homes were used by “weekend warriors” to blow up dirt in the desert.

“Going to the movies and watching ‘The Godfather’ doesn’t make you a Mafia member,” said public defender Deborah Williams, who is representing an alleged Viper “captain” who remains in custody. “The question is this: At what time does talking trash become advocacy or action?”

Beyond that, she said, “I’m angry that the government did such an effective smear at their press conferences--and that bell can’t be unrung. They [the suspects] will always be remembered as the guys who wanted to blow up half of Phoenix.”

That is a possibility that rankles other militia members and sympathizers.

Every Tuesday night, self-proclaimed “pro-American activists” gather around Porak’s long oak dining room table in a west Phoenix middle-class neighborhood to discuss militia-involved legal cases, prospective members and proposed field-training exercises. They also pore over right-wing periodicals and law books for answers to questions about the motivation of government authorities.

“The government is trying to discredit the militias, simple as that,” said Porak, a building contractor. “But more and more Americans sense that the federal government has overstepped its bounds and is coming after their freedoms.”

Setting a foot-thick stack of legal tomes on the table, he said: “The only known terrorist organizations in the United States today are the ATF, the FBI and the IRS.”

Porak said his group has already been infiltrated by at least two operatives.

“It’s easy to tell who they are,” he said. “They want to cause problems.”