The SUN
May 7, 1995
p 1A
         Militias say notoriety swells their numbers
             Oklahoma blast spotlights movement
By Ann LoLordo
S Staff Writer
  Far from running and hiding, several citizen militia
groups across the country are capitalizing on their new-
found notoriety, responding to a deluge of calls and letters
they claim to have received and encouraging sympathetic
Americans to join up.
  For every few members the militia movement may have lost
because of publicity surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing,
it has gained twice as many more supporters, militia
spokesman from Montana to Florida contend.
  People are responding to the movement's message of a
tyrannical U.S. government intent on disarming its people,
spokesmen say.
  "People are seeing the militia is a place where they can
get their thoughts across. We are a voice that they don't
have," said Ken Adams, a spokesman for the Michigan Militia
Corps, one of the largest and most public citizen militias
in the country.
  "But it is a voice they would like to have. That's what
the militia is supposed to be."
  While their claims of increased interest from the American
public cannot be independently verified ÄÄ any more than
their claims of 100,000-plus members nationwide ÄÄ militia
observers don't dispute the contentions, just the effects of
the increased attention.
  "I don't doubt there are new recruits walking in the front
door of the militia movement, but I suspect there are far
more horrified members running out the back door," said Chip
Berlet, a consultant with Political Research Associates in
Cambridge, Mass.
  "If you look at the militia movement as the armed wing of
this great big Patriot Movement, what you have is people
moving back and forth from militia to Patriot because they
lose their ardor and from Patriot to militia because they
are increasing their militancy."
  The bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City
"merely sped up that process," Mr. Berlet said in a
telephone interview. "I think there are big group [sic] of
people that are leaving the movement, but there are also
folks who have decided to commit."
  Ken Toole, a militia watcher for the Montana Human Rights
Network, said the increased media attention has also exposed
the militia to its more mainstream neighbors.
  "The American public is seeing how bizarre these militia
groups really are, right up close," said Mr. Toole. "The
biggest barrier we've had in working to counter these guys
in local communities is people haven't taken them seriously.
  "They just roll their eyes and say, `Harmless kooks.'
Nobody doubts now that this is a serious issue and these
people are not harmless."
  When law enforcement officials linked the key suspect in
the Oklahoma City bombing to the armed, camouflage-garbed
Michigan militia, militia groups and their followers
suddenly found themselves in great demand.
  Network anchormen, prime-time television shows, radio
broadcasters and newspaper reporters flocked to the towns
and cities where the more vocal groups operate.
  While militia leaders decried the bombing as acts of
terrorism, they also took the opportunity to publicize their
beliefs and concerns.
  They railed about the government disarming of the people.
They protested what they perceive to vbe an assault on their
constitutional rights. They spun out conspiracy theories of
a United Nations plot to create a one-world government,
foreign troops on American soil, spying black helicopters.
  The talk and the telecasts featured a segment of the
American populace heretofore rarely glimpsed. They also
provided a forum for like-minded Americans to vent their
frustrations.
  "I have come to the conclusion that we are on the brink of
a very serious decision," a 35-year-old New Yorker wrote to
Ross Hullett, commander of the Oklahoma Citizens Militia.
"Do we let things stay as they are so our lives stay status
quo, or do we make a stand and let ourselves be heard?
Personally I think we have been quiet long enough."
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