Wise / Holding Terrorists Accountable? It Depends on the Color and the Cause... / Nov 04

[Mark Pavlick]

>
>ZNet Commentary
>Holding Terrorists Accountable? It Depends on the Color and the 
>Cause... November 04, 2001
>By Tim Wise
>
>Members of his terrorist organization and network have killed 
>Americans, on American soil. Those inspired by his message have 
>engaged in a mass atrocity: blowing innocent people out of their 
>offices as the building where they worked crumbled to the ground.
>
>He himself has called for total war against the enemy in an effort 
>to "cleanse" the United States. He has said that although innocent 
>people will die in such an effort, "it is necessary, and because it 
>is necessary, it is good." Seven years ago he warned of potential 
>pending attacks when he wrote: "New Yorkers who work in tall office 
>buildings--anything close to the size of the World Trade 
>Center--might consider wearing hardhats to work..."
>
>Osama bin Laden? Not even close. And unlike bin Laden, who is now a 
>marked man despite little concrete evidence linking him to the 
>attacks of September 11th, this individual has not been targeted for 
>elimination by the United States government. No one is speaking of 
>"bringing him to justice," or holding him accountable for the 
>actions attributable to his associates and devotees.
>
>And unlike bin Laden, whose whereabouts are unknown, the address of 
>the person about whom I speak is well known. He is not in hiding, 
>and doesnít move around. Heís so easy to find that 60 Minutesí Mike 
>Wallace simply sauntered up to his home a couple of years ago and 
>had a chat with him. His phone number is (304) 653-4600.
>
>His name is William Pierce, and he lives in Mill Point, West 
>Virginia, with a P.O. Box at the post office in nearby Hillsboro. He 
>is a longtime neo-Nazi who calls Hitler the "greatest man of our 
>era" and advocates the liquidation of all non-whites in the U.S.
>
>His novel, The Turner Diaries (written under a pseudonym) apparently 
>served as the inspiration for Timothy McVeighís attack on the Murrah 
>Building in Oklahoma City, much the way we are told Osama bin 
>Ladenís words have inspired Islamic terrorism, even if he is not 
>directly involved in the planning process.
>
>In Pierceís book, white "patriots" blow up a federal building using 
>the same materials as those used by McVeigh, packed in a truck like 
>the one McVeigh used, at the same time of day as the one exploded by 
>McVeigh. They then launch a race war, slaughtering non-whites, 
>race-"mixers," gays, lesbians and Jews, before dropping nuclear 
>weapons on Israel.
>
>McVeigh was, according to former soldiers who served with him in the 
>Persian Gulf, obsessed with the book, and inspired by its author. In 
>the days before the bombing he sent clippings of the book to his 
>sister, explaining that "something big" was going to happen, and 
>when arrested had copies of Turner Diariesí passages in his car.
>
>Over the years, other followers of Pierce and members of his group, 
>the National Alliance, have engaged in armed robberies, shootouts 
>with law enforcement, and murders in at least a half dozen states. 
>They have plotted to commit mass murder in multiple bombings, foiled 
>only by premature detonation of the devices in question.
>
>The Order--a neo-Nazi gang that committed a series of robberies and 
>killed Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg in 1984--was led by 
>Alliance members, including Robert Matthews who left Pierce $50,000 
>in life insurance benefits after his death during a shootout with 
>the FBI.
>
>Pierceís weekly radio broadcasts regularly call for the elimination 
>of anyone who isnít white, and his group encourages members to raid 
>military bases in search of weapons and ammunition. Yet no one is 
>calling for him to be brought in "dead or alive" as President Bush 
>recently did regarding bin Laden.
>
>While President Bush and media pundits warn of bin-Ladenís 
>associates "living among us," the National Alliance has at least 16 
>active cells nationwide, engaged in activity in at least 26 states, 
>a membership hovering around 1,000, and thousands more listening to 
>their shortwave radio broadcasts and reading the materials on their 
>website.
>
>On those broadcasts and the website, readers and listeners can see 
>and hear Pierce call for "a racially clean area of the earth for the 
>development of our people," with "no non-whites in our living 
>space." They can hear him speak of the mass slaughter that he terms 
>the "final cleansing," and the need to eliminate all Jews and race 
>"traitors." For these latter groups he says, "we must hunt them down 
>and get rid of them."
>
>On August 15th of this year, Pierce broadcast the following message: 
>"We really have become too civilized and have forgotten one of 
>Mother Nature's most basic rules: Two different types of animal 
>cannot permanently occupy exactly the same ecological niche. One 
>eventually must drive the other into extinction..."
>
>"We must have exclusive possession of those portions of this planet 
>which constitute suitable habitat for us...in order to obtain and 
>maintain that exclusive possession, we must be prepared to kill, to 
>annihilate, any and all competitors."
>
>But despite the open support for mass murder, and despite the actual 
>violence carried out by Alliance members and Pierce acolytes over 
>the past two decades, few people are aware of this neo-Nazi terror 
>network, nor does the President seem concerned about it.
>
>One gets the impression that in the eyes of American officialdom, 
>some terrorists pose a threat to the country and others donít. Some 
>terrorist actions result in calls for racial or ethnic profiling of 
>those "fitting the description" and others donít.
>
>After all, when have white guys ever been profiled just because some 
>white guys like McVeigh, or Pierce, or others of their ilk committed 
>atrocities, advocated murder, and engaged in criminal activity? The 
>answer is never, of course.
>
>Profiling and war are things we offer to those who look different 
>from us, speak differently than us, and are easy to identify without 
>inconveniencing the dominant majority. Arabs, Muslims, and people of 
>color generally, make easy targets. Not so white guys. Not so 
>William Pierce.
>
>And homegrown white terrorists canít be as effectively used to 
>justify huge military buildups, or new powers for the CIA, as a 
>perceived foreign threat can. For an Administration desperately in 
>need of an enemy to justify its desire for massive new military 
>expenditures, only the dark, dangerous image of the outsider will do.
>
>As for Pierce, like bin Laden, he has proclaimed his innocence. 
>Regarding the Oklahoma City bombing, he insists he had nothing to do 
>with it. But also like bin Laden, he has not only failed to condemn 
>the action others have sought to pin on him, but indeed he has all 
>but praised it outright. About McVeigh, Pierce says:
>
>"He did what he did for an impersonal reason, for an ideal...he has 
>acted as a man of principle should act...He wanted to send the 
>government a message that its behavior would not be tolerated. And 
>part of that message would be the killing of the government's secret 
>police agents--FBI and ATF--who worked in the building."
>
>"The fact that his bomb would kill not only secret police agents but 
>also civilians, including the 19 children in the day-care center, 
>was regrettable but unavoidable: collateral damage...however 
>regrettable the killing of innocent civilians in that bombing, 
>Timothy McVeigh is no monster. He is a soldier, and what he did was 
>based on principle."
>
>When Muslim fundamentalists say things like this about terrorism 
>carried out by their associates, we term it "giving aid and comfort" 
>to the enemy, or "supporting terrorism." With Pierce, the same 
>rhetoric is ignored, no matter what his loyal readers and listeners 
>might do.
>
>And while the media was quick to broadcast footage of select 
>Palestinians celebrating in the wake of the World Trade Center 
>attacks, they said nothing about the spirited discussions on 
>National Alliance message boards, where members of the group were 
>expressing elation at the dayís events.
>
>Within minutes of the World Trade Centerís collapse, Alliance 
>members were logging on to the groupís chat room boards to say 
>things like: "the World Trade Centers (and) the Pentagon have had 
>their noses removed from Jewish rectums and smothered in the heap of 
>shit they created! Iím sure like me you are all jumping out of your 
>skin with excitement right now!"
>
>Or this, from a member in New York at the time of the attacks:
>
>"...there is extreme chaos everywhere. Many people are helpless and 
>in a state of panic. I am happy to have a reservoir of deep 
>knowledge about this from all I have learned from the alliance...I 
>AM STRONG, PREPARED AND IN CONTROL!!!"
>
>Shortly after the attack, Billy Roper, the Deputy Membership 
>Coordinator for the Alliance wrote: "the enemy of our enemy is, for 
>now at least, our friends...we may not want them marrying our 
>daughters...but anyone who is willing to drive a plane into a 
>uilding to kill Jews is alright by me. I wish our members had half 
>as much testicular fortitude."
>
>Beyond merely pointing out that there are indeed white folks every 
>bit as fanatical and dangerous as the members of al-Qaeda, and that 
>indeed some of those were pleased with the most recent terrorist 
>attacks on America, another point should be made.
>
>If, as is likely, the renewed emphasis on "Arab terrorism" or 
>"Muslim extremism" results in heightened suspicion and profiling of 
>those who are Arab, Muslim, or appear to be, the result may be that 
>America will let down its guard to these other kinds of dangers. The 
>Tim McVeighs and followers of Bill Pierce will fly below the radar 
>of the nationís new security apparatus. No one will be looking for 
>them.
>
>This is not to say that such groups should literally be bombed, 
>their members arrested, and those who look like them profiled. Just 
>as such actions are ineffective and overbroad and authoritarian when 
>applied to presumed Arab terrorists, so too would they be when 
>applied to white supremacists.
>
>But the inconsistency is worth noting, as is the danger that could 
>logically flow from that inconsistency. If a member of the National 
>Alliance, or some other group seeking to foment a race war wanted to 
>commit a major terrorist attack, now would be the time to do it, as 
>they would likely evade suspicion and detection, so busy are folks 
>looking for danger with dark skin, long beards and a turban.
>
>It is in this sense that any kind of racial, ethnic, national or 
>religious profiling is an utter waste of time, and potentially 
>capable of increasing the risks to innocent people, not to mention 
>ethically unjust.
>
>Terrorism has many faces, more than a few of which are white, just 
>like those of most of the folks calling for war against Afghanistan. 
>And yet never have they called for war against West Virginia. Nor 
>did they call for war against Idaho when that state played host to 
>the Aryan Nationís compound: a place that had nurtured and inspired 
>Buford Furrow, the individual who shot up a Jewish Community Center 
>in Los Angeles and killed a Filipino postman two years ago.
>
>So when you hear the President speak of "bringing the terrorists to 
>justice or bringing justice to the terrorists," just remember that 
>although all terrorists are equal in the eyes of the law, some are 
>more equal than others.
>
>Tim Wise is an antiracist activist, writer and lecturer. He can be 
>reached at tjwise at mindspring.com

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