White Supremacist Terrorist Cells On The Horizon?
An article I picked up from Stratfor.com (from Strategic Forecasting, Inc):
U.S.: The White Supremacist Movement's MetamorphosisSince Dec. 22, 2006, three white supremacist leaders have been arrested on sex-related charges. Two of them -- Matthew Downing, National Vanguard's Boston unit leader, and Gordon Young, former leader of the World Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and current member of the National Socialist Movement -- have been charged with sexually assaulting minors. The third, Kevin Alfred Strom, founder of the National Vanguard organization, has been charged with possession of child pornography and witness tampering.
It has clearly been a hard month for the self-appointed defenders of white virtue...
Since the 9/11 attacks, the white supremacist movement in the United States has undergone a huge change. One of the factors driving this change has been the generational transition that resulted from the deaths of older white supremacist leaders respected within the movement, such as William Pierce and Richard Butler. Their deaths left a leadership vacuum, and with no clear emerging leader to replace them, the movement has seen much infighting and splintering, as seemingly everyone in the movement seeks to be "the fuhrer."...
The articles continues to recount the history of the National Alliance and the fledgling National Socialist Movement, billed "America's Nazi Party" (as American as, say, Zyklon-B-laced apple pie perhaps?), and the National Vanguard, a spin-off from National Alliance formed out of discontentment with leadership.
The leadership vacuum within the white nationalist movement has created a need, an to fill this need, the movement has had to reinvent itself. And the new monster is much more insidious, and I fail to see the inherent distinction between them and al-Qaeda.
As Stratfor.com continues to elucidate:
Law enforcement's success in infiltrating white supremacist groups has led many white supremacists to embrace the "leaderless resistance" organizational model. The bickering within and among organized groups and the obvious shortcomings of leaders like Strom, Young, Gliebe, Downing and Herrington are further strengthening this sentiment in the minds of many activists.This shift toward leaderless resistance conducted by lone wolves and small cells has long been advocated by white supremacists such as former Ku Klux Klan leader Louis Beam because it makes it far more difficult for law enforcement and watchdog groups to identify radical individuals and monitor their plans and activities. The leaderless resistance model has been adopted by the radical environmental rights movement Earth Liberation Front, which has a Web site but no real membership. The Web site serves to inform and unite, but individuals and small units plan and conduct actions on their own.
The Earth Liberation Front has since been named a terrorist organization. Not that I totally agree with that nomenclature, but the classification exists nonetheless.
"Leaderless resistance" conducted by small cells. If this is referring to armed resistance or other form of physical direct action, precisely how is this intrinsically different from a Moqtada al-Sadr-led offensive? The distinction of "leaderless" makes me think we are not talking about letter-writing campaigns. The word "resistance" makes me think we are not talking about rallies or sit-ins.
As the article concludes, "law enforcement and watchdog groups are going to have to change the way they do business" with white supremacist organizations.
Perhaps that change should involve Gitmo.
How else should we treat domestic terrorists?
