From: [j--o--k] at [space.mit.edu] (Jim Cook) Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns Subject: Army Joins Milita's Date: 14 Dec 1994 16:03:54 GMT ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: British Press Warns USGOV & ADL to Stop Planning Waco's ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Partiot games turn deadly [The Sunday Telegraph 4 Dec. 1994] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The commanders of the Texas Constitutional Militia ( northern region ) were gathered for a strategy session in a cold workshop outside Dallas. [...] The Texas Constiutional Militia are not an underground guerrilla force. But they want to keep a low profile during the crucial organizing phase. Most of them dissapprove of the now celebrated Michigan Militia which has gone public in a spectacular way by releasing a videotape of itself training with assault rifles in the woods. Like other militia's around the country, the TCM is growing at phenominal speed. It began earlier this year, holding it's first "muster" at the Alamo on April 19. Seven months later it already has 32 counties under arms. New counties are joining at the rate of 2 a week. There are no formal rosters of membership, but the leaders claim that several thousand Texans are actively participa- ting in one way or another. The Militia is not to be confused with the Texas National Guard which is a Reserve Organization of the US Armed Forces. It is a spontaneous army of citizens, invoking a constituional right to bear arms and to join together in the defence of liberty. [...] The last straw was the Waco assault, the gassing and incineration of 17 children and 64 adults at the Branch Davidian commmunity last year. Nobody has been brought to account for that abuse of power. "We were sleep-walking through life. It was the massacre that woke us all up", said John Turner, a small businessman who commands the northern region of Texas. " When the history of this age is written, that'll be the shot that rang out around the world and changed everything". [...] Training is done by a team of former Green Berets and Navy Seals. It includes survival techniques and urban and rural guerrilla warfare. Turner insisted that there was no plan to take offensive action. "We're 90 per-cent real Christians . We don't want to start blowing up bridges or sniping at Judges." [...] "We have penetrated the governments electronic intelligence system and we've turned it against them." says John Roland, a former Civil Rights and Enviromental Activist who helped set up the TCM. "There are lots of Little Brothers watching the Big Brothers". The main purpose of the movement, its members claim, is deterence. Every time the government oversteps its authority it will have to consider the possibility of armed opposition. And if it tries another Waco, it will have a minor war on its hands. The National Guard will not be of much help, at least in Texas. A large number of police officers, sherriffs and reserve guardsmen are secret members of the militia. The army cannot be counted on either. Behind the Texas Constitutional Militia there are layers of para- military groups that tap into the US Military Complex. For example, there are three battalions of the Texas Light Infantry. They are disgruntled former members of the Texas State Guard, a military police auxiliary under state control. "We do airborne parachuting, night ambush operations, and we simulate explosives" said Gert Ording, commander of the Third Battalion in Bryan. Secretly, ther is much else besides. The most serious force appears to be Big Star One, a Division sized network in northern Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico that includes serving officers of the U.S. military. If found out they could face a court martial. It is made up of three military Brigades, according to a member of one outfit: The Delta, Culpepper and Orange brigades. "We're primarily training in guerrilla warfare. We learned a lot from the Viet-Cong." Among thier senior commanders are officers from the US artillery base at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and Shepard Air Force Base in Texas. The clandestine division has been excercing in west Texas using mortars and grenade launchers. " There will be no Waco in this area," said the source. "If the shit hits the fan they'll find the regular army and the militia are in cahoots". A captain in the official Texas State Guard admitted the state was "extremely concerned" about the unauthorized militias, and said that he could forsee a rapid and dangerous escalation. [...] The Anti-Defamation League, an influential Jewish organization in New York has published a Report on the Militias around the US entitled "Armed and Dangerous". It argues that most of them are fringe malcontents from the Aryan Nation and other white supremicist or neo-nazi organizations with an anti-semitic bias. " I'm Jewish and I take offence to that," says Mark Bowers, a former artillery officer, who commands the Montgomery County militia near Houston. "There's nobody of that ilk in our unit. We're trying to recruit Blacks, Latinos, Jews, women, anybody who wants to join." Jim Cook /\ MIT Center for Space Research \/ Cambridge, Ma || [j--o--k] at [space.mit.edu] || || <||> /\ (()) \/