TERROR FROM THE EXTREME RIGHT
CASS SERIES ON POLITICAL VIOLENCE
| Series Editors - | DAVID C. RAPOPORT, University of California, Los Angeles
PAUL WILKINSON, University of St Andrews, Scotland |
1. Terror from the Extreme Right, edited by Tore Bjrgo
2. Millennialism and Violence, edited by Michael Barkun
3. Violence in Southern Africa, edited by J.E. Spence
4. April 19 and Right-Wing Violence in America, edited by David. C. Rapoport
TERROR FROM THE EXTREME RIGHT
Edited by
TORE BJRGO
First published in 1995
by FRANK CASS & CO. LTD.
Published 2013 by Routledge
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Copyright 1995 Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
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ISBN 13: 978-0-714-64663-3 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-714-64196-6 (pbk)
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CONTENTS
Tore Bjrgo
Ehud Sprinzak
Jeffrey Kaplan
Peter H. Merkl
Helne Lw
Helmut Willems
Tore Bjrgo
Leonard Weinberg
David Welsh
Kenneth Szymkowiak Patricia G. Steinhoff
Terror from the Extreme Right is the first volume in the new series POLITICAL VIOLENCE published by Frank Cass. The decision to begin with this volume, originally planned as a special issue of the Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence (Spring 1995), was made before the Oklahoma City Bombing (19 April 1995). The Journals interest in violent right-wing groups had been strong, publishing eight articles on the subject in the last three years. So when Tore Bjrgo suggested a conference to bring people interested in the Extreme Right together, the Editors were delighted to help promote the project, one largely subsidized by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The result is a fascinating volume which is at the same time the first comparative international analysis of right-wing violence.
DAVID C. RAPOPORT
PAUL WILKINSON
Editors, CASS SERIES ON POLITICAL VIOLENCE
May 1995
As this volume was about to go to press, a large car bomb devastated a US federal office building in Oklahoma City on 19 April 1995, killing 169 people and wounding more than 400 at the heart of continental America. It was the single most lethal terrorist attack in the countrys domestic history, and possible also the most lethal act of right-wing terrorism world-wide (with the exception of wartime atrocities). Immediately after the blast, some politicians and commentators blamed Islamic terrorists as the most likely culprits inflaming anti-Muslim sentiment in the process. However, at this point it seem clear that the bombing was linked to one or more persons known for their extreme right-wing views and hatred of the federal government, fueled in part by the disastrous fire at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, on the same day two years earlier. Clearly, the authorities had no sense that there could be a serious incident by members of the extreme right directly connected to Waco even though the public literature from that part of the spectrum had made Waco a critically important matter. A central element in the extreme rights belief system is that the US federal government is in the hands of hostile and alien forces bent on depriving the American people of their constitutional rights particularly the right to bear arms.
Although the contributions to this volume on Terror from the Extreme Right were completed several months before the Oklahoma City bombing, many of the issues raised and discussed are highly relevant to an understanding of how it could happen. Two themes recurring throughout this volume may be mentioned in particular: Changes in enemy images and targets for hostility and violence; and the radicalization process.
Traditionally, most forms of right-wing extremist movements have directed their hatred and violence against non-governmental targets, such as ethnic minorities, immigrants, homosexuals or communists groups considered inferior and alien. However, an increasing tendency among violent-prone groups on the extreme right in the US and elsewhere is to focus their hostility and terrorism against the state and the Establishment whether that be called the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) or the Federal Governments conspiracy with the United Nations to subjugate Americans under a New World Order. The bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City appears to be an extreme expression of this trend.
A second theme where this volume may provide insights about the dynamics behind the Oklahoma City bombing concerns the process of delegitimization and radicalization through which radical groups may turn violent rhetoric into actual violence and terrorism. Most of these holding extreme views and ideologies stop short of going all the way into fullblown terrorism. However, certain events and developments may provide circumstances for radicalizing some groups and individuals to cross this threshold. The disproportionate use of force by US state agencies during the sieges of Waco and the Weaver family were two key events which have provided a basis for a radicalization of the American extreme right. This accelerated the strong growth of the anti-federal militia movement. The contributors to the volume discuss thoroughly factors facilitating as well as inhibiting such radicalization.
The studies in this volume were originally presented and discussed at a workshop in Berlin 1920 August 1994, made possible through economic support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I will also use the opportunity to thank professor David Rapoport, co-editor of the journal Terrorism and Political Violence, for his help and advice during the planning and editing of this volume. Thanks as well to our copy editor, Joan Witte, and the editor at Frank Cass Publishers, Randal Gray, for their generous assistance. And finally, thanks to the participants at the workshop for their contributions to the volume and constructive discussion.
TORE BJRGO May 1995
Introduction
TORE BJRGO
In Mlln, Germany, one Turkish woman and two girls died and several others were wounded when two local skinheads firebombed their house during the night of 23 November 1992. This was one of more than 700 cases of arson with a presumed right-wing extremist motivation occurring in Germany that year.1
In Vienna, Austria, ten sophisticated letter bombs were mailed in December 1993 to politicians, journalists, human rights activists and other prominent personalities who had actively supported the rights of refugees. Four persons were badly injured, including a TV news editor, a priest, a lawyers secretary, and the mayor of Vienna, whose hand was torn off when he opened the letter. Two leading activists of the neo-Nazi organization VAPO (
