Subject: "MILITIA VOLUNTEERS PATROL FEDERAL BUILDINGS"

Date: Mon, 22 Apr 96 3:33:25 GMT

From: mo10cav@aol.com (Mo10Cav)

Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

Newsgroups: misc.activism.militia



Birmingham News, Friday, April 19, 1996.

Page 2.



"MILITIA VOLUNTEERS TO PATROL STATE'S FEDERAL BUILDINGS"

By Carol Robinson, News Staff Writer.



As a nation holds its breath that April 19 will not bring another day of

death and devastation, some Alabama militia members and supporters will do

their part to ensure safety at several of the state's federal buildings.



About two dozen volunteers will patrol federal buildings in Birmingham,

Montgomery, and Mobile, said Mike Vanderboegh, a board member of

Tri-States Militia based in South Dakota.  The volunteers are members of

Tri-States affiliate militia units, and some will have descriptions and

photographs of people who could be a threat to the safety of federal

employees.



"We have some people we know are loose cannons and belong to fringe and

hate groups and we will be watching specifically for them," Vanderboegh

said.  "Obviously we want to try to prevent an incident from happening but

we also want to show our solidarity with federal employees... Terrorism

isn't what the militia is about."



Vanderboegh said his volunteers will keep watch over federal courthouses,

the 2121 Building, which houses the FBI and ATF, and also the

Burger-Phillips Centre, which houses several federal agencies including

U.S. Customs.  The ATF will move to the building this month.



Almost immediately after last year's Oklahoma City explosion, suspicion

turned to paramilitary groups bent on revenge for the fiery end of the

seige at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas,



In turn, some militia members claimed the federal government orchestrated

the bombing to cast blame and discredit militia groups nationwide.

Eventually Timothy McVeigh was charged in connection with the case, and

federal authorities discounted a direct militia link.



April 19, "Patriots Day," is the one day sacred to the militia movement.

On that day in 1775, Capt. John Parker of the Lexington Militia Company

said, "Stand your ground.  Don't fire unless fired upon.  But if they mean

to have a war, let it begin here."



It was also April 19, 1993, that the Waco seige ended when authorities

stormed the compound.  The resulting fire killed 76, including leader

David Koresh.



Vanderbeogh said there aren't any local individuals that they know pose a

threat, but he said there is some concern about several individuals from

Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.



"They concern us greatly because they have expressed threats against the

federal government, they have outstanding warrants and have even issued

'common law' warrants against federal agents," he said.



A truck with 11,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer was stolen last

wek in Missouri, and 45 miles south of that location, a stock of dynamite

detonators was also stolen, he said.



"There's a lot of paranoid predictions about what's going to happen," he

said.  "I think we'll likely get through the day without incident, but

there's no telling about the psychological pressures of copycats."



Congress' passage thursday of President Clinton's anti-terrorism bill,

dubbed by militia members the "Terror Bill," doesn't help the tension,

Vanderbeogh said.



"It encourages the fringe and those who want to see this apocalyptic

terms," he said.  "I pray to God nothing happens."



MV NOTE: There are a couple of errors here.  Tri-States is (or I should

say WAS) a national network whose information center run by the

now-discredited John Parsons was in SD, but it was truly a national

umbrella group of many units and states.  My board membership is up next

week, when my resignation takes effect.  Tri-States is for all practical

purposes dead, killed by John Parsons and the FBI.  My positions on both

Parsons and the terror Bill are a matter of public record.  My resignation

letter on Parson's, entitled "The King's Shilling," was widely posted, and

I am the principal author of the Open Letter to Dick Armey that caused so

much commotion behind the scenes in Washington.  (FBI guy's repeated

question to me: "What is 'Plan B?'"  Ya gotta laugh at our tax dollars at

work, buying such idiotic analysis.  I mean, isn't English their native

language too?")