Mountaineer Militia

Mountaineer Militia was a local anti-government paramilitary group, members of which plotted to blow up an FBI building Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1996. The group also used the name West Virginia Mountaineer Militia, and had ties with another militias from other states.[1]

West Virginia Mountaineer Militia
LeaderFloyd "Ray" Looker
Dates of operation1995– October 1996
Active regionsClarksburg, West Virginia, United States
IdeologyAmerican nationalism
National conservatism
Libertarianism
Sovereign citizen movement

Plot and arrest

On October 11, 1996, seven men having connections with the Mountaineer Militia, a local anti-government paramilitary group, were arrested on charges of plotting to blow up the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia, after a 16-month investigation.[2] The group had even considered the killing United States Senator Jay Rockefeller and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan in a "holy war" against the "tiranous" U.S. government.[3]

While members of the group had been assembling large quantities of explosives and blasting caps, militia leader Floyd Raymond Looker obtained blueprints of the FBI facility from a Clarksburg, West Virginia firefighter. Plastic explosives were confiscated by law enforcement officials at five locations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.[4][5] Looker was taken into custody after arranging to sell the blueprints for $50,000 to an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed to be a representative of an international terrorist group. In 1998 Looker was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Two other defendants were sentenced on explosives charges, and the firefighter drew a year in prison for providing blueprints.[6][7] The charges with those who were judge include conspiracy to manufacture explosives, transport explosives across state lines and place them near the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services center in Clarksburg.[8] Two of the arrested, Edward Moore and Jack Phillips, were charged for the making and dealing in explosives, including homemade nitroglycerine and C-4. Before the arrests, Moore said to Mr. Looker and the Government informer that he had perfected a homemade rocket-propelled grenade. Also, the authorities said, the group held a training practices in which they detonated an improvised explosive that left a hole two feet wide and four feet deep.[9][10]

Other arrested were James R. Rogers, (40) a firefighter from Clarksburg. He is accused for the providing of 12 photographs of blueprints of the FBI complex, including plans for the underground computer center, with the objective to attack that part of the complex.[11] The group also posted a video on the internet called "America Under Siege," alleging acts authorized by the federal government against its own people.[12]

Convictions

On March 29, 1998, the leader Floyd "Ray" Looker was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in a federal prison. Looker (57), was among the first to be charged under a 1994 antiterrorism law that makes it a crime to provide material resources to terrorists activities. While Looker pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges, on several occasions he mentioned that the plans and materials he had couldn't have made the attack successful.[13][14][15] James R. Rogers, was sentenced to 10 years.[16][17]

Notes
  1. "West Virginia Mountaineer Militia". Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  2. "SEVEN INDICTED IN FBI CENTER TERROR PLOT". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  3. "Domestic Sources of Terrorism". War on Terrorism and Racism. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  4. "FBI arrests militia members". The Irish Times. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  5. "W.VA. Militia men held in alleged plot". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  6. "Militia watch: How far should government's anti-terrorism efforts go?". South Coast Today. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  7. "Special Report #1: The Mountaineer Militia's Long, Slippery Slope". adl.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011.
  8. Johnston, David (October 12, 1996). "7 in Paramilitary Group Arrested in West Virginia". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  9. "Anti-Government Movements and the Revitalization Process: An Examination of Anthony F.C. Wallace's Theory of Revitalization As Applied to Domestic Terrorist and Extremist Groups". Bradley C. Whitsel-Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  10. Smith, Brent L. (2011). Pre-Incident Indicators of Terrorist Incidents: The Identification of behavioral, geographic and Temporal Patterns of preparatory conduct. ISBN 9781437930610. Retrieved January 16, 2020. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  11. "FBI seizes 7 in W.Va. militia Far-rightists alleged to plan to blow up FBI fingerprint center; Plastic explosives found; Firefighter accused of stealing blueprints of new agency facility". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  12. "Undercover video shows militia recruitment methodswork=CNN Interactive". Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  13. "MILITIA CHIEF PLEADS GUILTY IN PLOT TO BOMB FBI CENTER". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  14. "MILITIA LEADER GETS 18-YEAR SENTENCE, DENIES BOMB PLOT". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  15. "Militiaman sentenced to 18 years". Southern Poverty Law Centre. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  16. "Firefighter Sentenced As Terrorist He Gave Militia Blueprints Of Complex Housing Fbi". The Spokesman Review. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  17. "Militia leader guilty in bomb plot". UPI News. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
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