Page 320 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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300———Puerto Rican Nationalist Terrorism

the founders of the country intended a Christian and another marshal and two police officers wounded.
Republic, and desegregation laws wrongly encourage Five other people, including Kahl’s wife and son,
race mixing. Group members establish churches to were arrested in connection with the murders but
which they deed their properties and claim religious Kahl became a fugitive, eventually making his way to
tax exemptions. Fearing the government’s takeover another member’s house in Arkansas. After a four-
by a Jewish-led, communist conspiracy, many stock- month manhunt, he shot and killed a sheriff. Authorities
pile weapons and food supplies, and train in weapons responded by firing back with guns and teargas, ignit-
use and military tactics. Some, like Gordon Kahl, ing stockpiled ammunition. Kahl was killed and his
who shot two federal marshals at a roadblock, have charred body was later identified through dental
resorted to violence. records.
The group first attracted the FBI’s attention in 1975 Kahl’s death made him a martyr for the extreme
when plans to assassinate “money czar” Nelson right. It also alerted officials to the Posse’s true poten-
Rockefeller were unearthed. The resulting investi- tial, influencing law enforcement and legislation in
gation uncovered chapters of the organization in 23 several states. Officials believe that the Posse, like
states and an estimated 12,000 to 50,000 members. other militia groups, lost its impetus after the 1995
The group accumulated its largest membership gains bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in
during the farm crisis of the 1980s. When, after years Oklahoma City. However, the group and its rhetoric
of struggling, farmers were forced to sell some or all of have inspired successors. In 1996, members of the
their farms on the auction block, the Posse convinced Posse-inspired Family Farm Preservation group were
many of them to blame their troubles on the federal charged with passing approximately $80 million in
government and the banking system, both allegedly counterfeit money orders in an effort to disrupt the
controlled by Jews. federal monetary system. They were found guilty of
Throughout the 1980s, Posse members engaged conspiracy and mail fraud.
in a wide range of subversive activities aimed at the
See also OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING; PATRIOT MOVEMENT
state and federal governments. Several state officials
received letters of “asseveration” from members claim- Further Reading
ing they were no longer U.S. citizens. Many others filed
pro se lawsuits against the Federal Reserve and other Bennett, David H. The Party of Fear: From Nativist
banks in efforts to reclaim taxes and interest they Movements to the New Right in American History.
New York: Vintage, 1990.
already paid and to clog up the courts with cases. Still
Corcoran, James. Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kahl and the
others, like James Wickstrom, the leader of a Wisconsin
Posse Comitatus—Murder in the Heartland. New York:
branch, formed their own municipalities. Wickstrom
Viking, 1990.
was later imprisoned for conspiring to distribute
$100,000 in counterfeit money that he planned to use to
set up a militia training camp.
Some incidents turned violent. In one case, a mem- PUERTO RICAN
ber shot three undercover federal agents who were NATIONALIST TERRORISM
buying guns from him. In Oregon, the FBI thwarted a
plot to firebomb the homes of four judges who had pre-
sided over members’trials. In another case, a California Puerto Rican nationalist terrorism was one of the
branch leader, William Potter Gale—credited with four major domestic terrorist threats that faced the
bringing Christian Identity tenets into the Posse move- United States in the latter part of the 20th century,
ment—and several associates, were arrested for making along with right-wing groups, militia groups, and
death threats to a judge and Internal Revenue Service single-subject special interest groups (e.g., antiabor-
agents. tion militants, radical environmentalists).
The Posse gained widespread notoriety in the 1983 Militant Puerto Rican nationalism dates to the
case involving Gordon Kahl. In North Dakota, U.S. 1930s, when Pedro Albizu Campos became president
marshals set up a roadblock to arrest Kahl for a proba- of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party (NPPR), a poli-
tion violation having to do with an earlier tax evasion tical group advocating that Puerto Rico become a
case. A gunfight resulted that left two marshals dead, free and independent republic. The charismatic and