AMERICA'S most extreme far-Right "patriot" organisations - those supported by Timothy McVeigh, the 1995 Oklahoma City bomber - have welcomed the September 11 terrorist attacks as a strike on their common enemy, the government.
While the vast majority of Americans have reacted with horror at what happened and been swept up by the national outpouring of grief and patriotism that followed, a number of underground groups have rushed to voice support for the terrorists.
Others have called for militia groups to exploit the chaos caused by the terrorist actions and launch their own assault on the state. Billy Roper, of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, posted a message on his website saying: "The enemy of our enemy is, for now at least, our friend.
"We may not want them marrying our daughter, just as they would not want us marrying theirs. We may not want them in our societies, just as they would not want us in theirs. But anyone willing to drive a plane into a building to kill Jews is all right by me. I wish our members had half us much testicular fortitude."
Other postings include August Kreis, leader of a Nazi group called the Sheriff's Posse Comitatus, based in Ulysses, Pennsylvania, praising the "Islamic freedom fighters" on his website, and Tom Metzger, of the White Aryan Resistance, who said of the September 11 attack: "If an Aryan wants an example of 'Victory or Valhalla' look no further."
The Southern Poverty Law Centre, which for 30 years has monitored extremist groups in the United States, said that these sentiments were common among white supremist organisations. The centre briefs the government on the activity of "patriot" and neo-Nazi groups.
Mark Potok, the centre's director of publications, said that the extremists considered themselves at war with the government, which they have named the Zionist Occupation Government, or ZOG. Regardless of their racial beliefs, many express solidarity with those who attack their enemy as long as they do not want to settle in America.
McVeigh's anger at government actions against such groups - particularly the FBI's siege of Waco in 1995, which ended when followers of David Koresh set their compound on fire, killing more than 80 people - caused him to leave a bomb outside the Alfred P Murrah Building.
Mr Potok said: "It has been primarily the white supremist, neo-Nazi groups, who are among the most extreme of the extreme Right organisations, who have supported the September 11 attack. It illustrates the sea change that has occurred in their thinking over the last 25 years.
"Then, they wrapped themselves in the flag and proclaimed themselves 100 per cent American. Now they are willing to join America's enemies if it will help create the state they want to establish."
Although the number of "patriot" groups has dwindled from 800 in the mid-1990s to fewer than 200, many are believed to have extensive arsenals. There are also believed to be around 600 neo-Nazi groups.