On Tuesday of this week Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested four Georgia men in connection with a plot to unleash a terrorist attack on residents of Atlanta and several other US cities. The four men, all from Toccoa, Ga. and all over the age of 65, planned to unleash the biotoxin Ricin as part of a larger campaign to strike out at the federal government. The four men were fringe players in the right-wing militia movement.
The plot was well into the development stage by the time federal authorities stepped in after being tipped off by an informant in March. Lab equipment seized from one of the defendant’s homes tested positive for Ricin. The four men also had discussed assassinating government officials and blowing up government buildings. According to government affidavits defendant Frederick Thomas was recorded saying, “There’s no way for us, as militiamen, to save this country, to save Georgia, without doing something that’s highly illegal — murder. (…) When it comes to saving the Constitution, that means some people gotta die.”
Chilling stuff, but perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of the alleged plot is that the defendants’ claim to have been inspired by a novel they had read on the internet. Absolved is the story of how gun owners rebel against government regulation and declining social mores and start a civil war. It’s written by Mike Vanderboegh, a militia blogger and gun rights activist from Alabama. Vanderboegh’s website The Sipsey Street Irregulars (caution, link leads to militia website) claims to represent the “Three Percenters;” people who are “gun owners who will not disarm, will not compromise and will no longer back up at the passage of the next gun control act. Three Percenters say quite explicitly that we will not obey any futher (sic) circumscription of our traditional liberties and will defend ourselves if attacked.” Vanderboegh has received media attention before when he called on readers to break windows at Democratic official’s offices during the health care debate and several of them did. He has also been featured on Fox News as an expert on gun control issues.
So what exactly does this book say that motivated these four elderly men to plan terrorist attacks? I have read the chapters of Absolved that are available online, and it is a pretty stunning. Part technical manual and part childish fantasy, Absolved takes place in a extremist’s dystopia where out of control government agents victimize America’s gun owners. Gun owners are harassed, arrested, and killed by an out of control liberal society. It is a extremely violent work. Here is a taste from the opening scene:
Behind his sandbags and steel, Phil continued to launch the grenades. By the time he got to ten, all three vehicles were afire and the intersection was littered with bodies while sparks fell on them from a mortally wounded transformer high up a power pole. Eleven, twelve, thirteen. The roof was being eroded above him, around him, swept away by a leaden storm. Fourteen. Fifteen. From down the street, a thug fired the heaviest weapon that the gang owned, an M203 grenade launcher. He had not been trained to use it, so the first round passed over the house and detonated far down on the next street, killing a cop directing traffic. Because the house was not hit, Phil didn’t notice it. Sixteen. He noticed the second round though. In fact, it killed him. But Phil Gordon didn’t mind. He’d done his duty. He was home with Claire and he got to meet his Maker, his Savior. Absolving, he was absolved.
You can read the rest of the chapters here (caution, link leads to militia website). The story isn’t particularly well-written; it’s confusing and uneven, but that isn’t the point to Vanderboegh’s readers. The work has both the emotional appeal and the technical detail they seek. The story is packed with information about weapons and terrorism tactics. The author defends this inclusion in the introduction to the story:
In this, I am frankly writing as much a cautionary tale for the out-of-control gun cops of the ATF as anyone. For that warning to be credible, I must also present what amounts to a combination field manual, technical manual and call to arms for my beloved gunnies of the armed citizenry. They need to know how powerful they could truly be if they were pushed into a corner.
Vanderboegh has denied that his work was meant to inspire the kind of violence allegedly planned in Georgia, and asserts his work is intended as a warning to prevent violence. However his statement that, “It is what it is … it’s a terrible description of what might happen if people continue to be victimized in this country,” is hardly comforting. Here is an interview he did gave during the broken windows incident outlining his view on using violence.
Works like Absolved bring up tough questions for both civil libertarians and law enforcement. While his work is certainly constitutionally protected, it is a manual for those who wish to engage in political violence. This isn’t new in Patriot Movement circles, in 1978 Andrew McDonald published The Turner Diaries, a story of white revolution that ends with a civil war and the United States destroying Israel with nuclear weapons. A group of extremists inspired by the book formed a group called The Order, which robbed banks, killed police officers, and assasinated radio host Alan Berg. Another fan of the book was Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.
Vanderboegh seems to be enjoying the spotlight; gloating about the attention he received in this post to his blog (link leads to militia website) yesterday, while at the same time playing himself as a victim of media elites. Vanerboegh seems to want to have it both ways, calling for violent insurrection and then complaining about being seen as an instigator when people take his calls seriously is a dubious position. However, for law enforcement and those who may be targets of the extremists using Absolved as a manual, this issue goes beyond mere semantics and raises real issues about both civil liberties and about the mechanics of terrorism.
