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from the political wing, but, once active, having each hierarchical terrorist organization and the anarchy of
member sever all connection with the political wing. leaderless resistance.
These “Wotans” would act independently and secretly Kaplan calls leaderless resistance a strategy
“to hasten the demise of the system.” adopted in despair, when victory is seen as impossible.
Timothy McVeigh appears to have been an example It may also be attractive to those for whom the imme-
of leaderless resistance. McVeigh acted without direct diate disruption of normal activities is the desired out-
orders from any organization in blowing up the federal come, antiabortion militants, for example. In addition,
office building in Oklahoma City in 1995. However, it may be particularly appealing to U.S. militants in
McVeigh was not a member of any right-wing militia its focus on the autonomous, independent individual,
group when he carried out the bombing; also, his rather than the group. The concept of leaderless resis-
knowledge of leaderless resistance is unknown. tance is particularly dangerous because it may provide
Literature found in his car advocated the creation of unstable individuals already stimulated by hate propa-
a mass revolutionary movement rather than individ- ganda with added motivation to commit violent acts.
ual acts of violence. He does seem to have acted in
See also EARTH LIBERATION FRONT; FREELANCE TERRORISM;
response to the vitriolic propaganda of the radical right
TIMOTHY MCVEIGH; PATRIOT MOVEMENT
on his own initiative, independently developing and
carrying out his own strategy. His actions were thus Further Reading
consistent with the concept of leaderless resistance.
The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) uses an extreme Arquilla, J., and D. Ronfeldt, eds. Networks and Netwars:
The Future of Terror, Crime and Militancy. Santa Monica,
form of leaderless resistance. No formal membership
CA: RAND, 2001.
exists: anyone believing in the aims of ELF can carry
Barcott, Bruce. “From Tree-Hugger to Terrorist: How
out a terrorist act on his or her own initiative. A Web
Critter Became Part of a Shadowy, Increasingly Violent
site offers advice on acts of economic sabotage and
Radical Environmental Movement.” New York Times
lists actions already taken. The site does not actually Magazine, April 7, 2002, 56-59, 81.
advocate criminal activity, and so operates within Beam, Louis. “Leaderless Resistance.” Seditionist, No. 12,
the letter of the law. Members-followers can use the February 1992, final edition. www.louisbeam.com/
Internet to communicate with each other anonymously. leaderless.htm, March 20, 2002.
A major feature of leaderless resistance is the iso- Chalk, Peter. “U.S. Environmental Groups and ‘Leaderless
lation of the individual actor from the organization. Resistance.’” Jane’s Intelligence Review, July 1, 2001.
The individual is not controlled by the organization www.rand.org/hot/op-eds/070101JIR.html, March 20,
and may be out of touch with the group’s ideology, 2002.
Joyce-Hasham, Mariyam. “Emerging Threats on the
particularly as it evolves. Following the Oklahoma
Internet.” Royal Institute of International Affairs brief-
City bombing, many members left the militias in dis-
ing paper new series, July 15, 2000. www.riia.org/pdf/
gust; some approached law enforcement agencies and
briefing_papers/emerging_threats_on_the_internet.pdf,
even testified in court.
March 20, 2002.
Kaplan, Jeffrey. “‘Leaderless Resistance.’” Terrorism and
NETWORKS Political Violence, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1997, 80-95.
Stern, Kenneth. A Force Upon the Plain: The American
Terrorism experts see a revolution taking place in Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate. Norman:
terrorist groups: a movement away from the hierar- University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
chical structure common in the 1960s and 1970s, to a
flatter, networked structure like that of more recently
founded groups, for example, Hamas and Al Qaeda. LIBERATION TIGERS
Characteristics of these networked terrorist groups OF TAMIL EELAM
include decentralization and delegation of decision-
making authority, and loose lateral ties between aka World Tamil Association
dispersed groups and individuals. Networked organi-
zations share some of the characteristics of leaderless The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a
resistance and can be thought of as an intermediate Marxist Tamil separatist group that has been fighting
form on the continuum between the traditional the government of Sri Lanka since 1978.