A former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who founded his own militant racist group was arrested for shooting and killing three people at two Kansas City-area Jewish community centers on April 13. When he founded the White Patriot Party in 1980, Frazier Glenn Miller said its goal was “the creation of an all-white nation within the 1 million square miles of mother Dixie” (“White Patriot Party,” Terrorism Knowledge Base).
In 1986, Miller declared “total war” on Jews, blacks and the federal government (Intelligence Report, Winter/04). He served three years in prison on weapons charges and for running a paramilitary organization in violation of a court order (Hatewatch, 4/13/14) . He shouted “Heil Hitler” after being taken into custody after the Kansas City attacks (New York Times, 4/14/14).
But media are reluctant to label the shootings Miller is charged with as acts of terrorism, or even to raise the issue.
According to a search of the Nexis database, the word “terrorism” does not appear to have been used in connection with the Kansas shootings in the New York Times or the Washington Post. On much of the network news coverage, the killings were mostly discussed as hate crimes. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams (4/14/14) called it “a terrible outburst of violence.”
It would be difficult to see how the crimes Miller is accused of committing would not meet the conventional legal standard (FBI,gov, “Definitions of Terrorism in the U.S. Code”). But calling something an act of terrorism is not just a legal or law enforcement matter; it is also a political determination.
A year ago, the bombings at the Boston Marathon were immediately discussed as an act of terror, before any suspects were announced and any motives were understood (FAIR Blog, 4/16/13). The fact that early assumptions linked the act to Muslims might explain that media decision.
And there is a media pattern of downplaying acts of right-wing domestic terrorism. In 2011, Extra! (5/11) compared the effusive coverage afforded an amateur bomb set by a Muslim perpetrator in New York City’s Times Square to the sparse coverage of a much more sophisticated explosive device planted by a white supremacist at a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Wash. (Miller offered to set up a legal defense fund for Kevin Harpham, the far-right activist convicted in that bombing attempt–Talking Points Memo, 1/27/12.) There is also a long history of anti-abortion terrorism not being labeled as such (FAIR Blog, 2/1/10).
There were some exceptions in the media coverage. Interviewing Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, CNN host Jake Tapper (4/14/14) asked: ” I just wonder, if he had shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ instead of ‘Heil Hitler,’ would be now facing terrorism charges instead of just hate crime charges?”
And the issue came up on the PBS NewsHour (4/14/14) when host Gwen Ifill interviewed Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, asking him, “At what point do we begin to treat these kinds of attacks as domestic terrorism, not just as hate crimes or individual acts?” Potok replied:
They are domestic terrorism. Let’s be plain.
There is nothing to distinguish this from other forms of terrorism. It is a way in this case of terrorizing the Jewish community around Kansas City in particular, but around the country in general. And that’s what terrorism is. It’s a criminal act that is aimed at far more people than the immediate victims.
You know, the law enforcement has been off and on about being candid about the terrorist nature of these attacks. But I think, today, by and large, American law enforcement is perfectly well aware that there is a very serious domestic radical right and some people within that milieu are, in fact, terrorists.
Media can argue that they are simply following the lead of law enforcement officials, who are evidently calling the act a hate crime. But for journalists, the decision to avoid discussing this kind of violence in the context of terrorism is a political one.
Fwiw, the Boston Marathon bombers are/were white people, literally Caucasians. The question is whether white Americans, white rightwingers and/or white Christians can be terrorists.
A different kind of color coded terrorist alert
Interesting…did anyone in the media make the comparison with the second worst terrorist attack on American soil- the Oklahoma City bombing the 19th of April 1995? both apparently motivated by individuals who share anti-government antipathy. Any media that engages in anti-government hysteria is indirectly responsible for motivating these villains.
It is the old ‘black/white’ that was pointed out in the book 1984. We tend think that Orwell was making up this society, but in fact, he was merely pointing out that most of it was in place, and was make a ‘logical conclusion’ as to where we were headed.
War is Peace
…It is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference This is not to say that either the conduct of war, or the prevailing attitude towards it, has become less bloodthirsty or more chivalrous. On the contrary, war hysteria is continuous and universal in all countries, and such acts as raping, looting, the slaughter of children, the reduction of whole populations to slavery, and reprisals against prisoners which extend even to boiling and burying alive, are looked upon as normal, and, when they are committed by one’s own side and not by the enemy, meritorious.
When you do it, it is ok, when your enemy does it, it is bad, even if you are doing the very think that you condemn the enemy for. Our Terrorists are Freedom Fighters, and their Freedom Fighters are Terrorists. It is the intellectual dishonesty that allows them to accept the otherwise horrific and morally bankrupt actions they take. i.e. condemning those who practice what you preach.
True, in large measure the conflicts we witness are manufactured to benefit the warriors and profiteers. The fight we should care about more is the violent bastards vs. the rest of us.
@verde, And which ones would you recommend we ‘duck’ when they say ‘friend’?
I feel there are a number of “Families” that are not so Violent, but they are actual more lethal, because they continue to kill entire families over time, not just on per person basis. They kill whole communities. And they are silent like the grave.
The truly violent ones we can often avoid simply because they are so few by comparison and very noise. And those are the ones that media make sure are not ‘silent at all’, and will be calculated to cause a spike in raw emotions.
I dare anyone to show me that the sports coverage in this country, is anything more than a digital version of the Colosseum of the Ceaser’s time. This guy is just an blip on the news, to allow the public to go to the restroom, and get another beer.
I don’t know that ducking is always the best response, but I don’t trust any of the ones whose tactics includes coercion through violence.
I’m not sure what you mean by “Families” but I’m not limiting “violent bastards” to fringe neonazis like this loser. I mean the self-justifying militaries of the world, including our own, the paramilitaries, the religious extremists, the terror networks, the polluters, the oligarchs, the prison-industrial complex, the violence of capitalism, communism and our own corporatism, and all the cheerleaders for one or more of these.
Without each other they would have little reason to exist and the rest of us could try and move forward.
Ah, I see covering all the bases. I hear you, and agree; all those whose reliance on “violence” to further an oppressive agenda are always a detriment to the rest of humanity, the majority of whom really wish we could move on.
When I say “Families” I meant to refer to those line of people who are busy working to remove any and all rights from the working class, so they can remain in power and steal, plunder or otherwise work to death those who make them the money. Too many time those who made it big, spawn the evil prodigy that believes they are entitled to do what they want, when they want, to whomever they want, and should never held accountable for either their actions or the results that their actions engender.
Two good example are Bush and Cheney. Both of whom committed crimes against humanity in their persecution, and subsequent acts of war that were unnecessary. Further in recent times, Cheney has been very explicit about his actions, thinking that he has the absolute right to order the murder of hundreds of thousands of people, just so he can make another billion dollars and live like a king.
Others include the Kock Brothers who worked relentless, using shadow government agencies that are not accountable to anyone to remove more rights, including our right to assembly and redress. They make sure that they wipe out any working persons pensions or retirements so they can shovel another humdred billion into their pockets, while the workers die from lack of medical, proper safety equipment and just plain over working. In with that we can toss the Wal-tons who seem to think they are The New Gods on earth.
At this point, they have become another Oligarchic Aristocracy for the pure purpose of fulfilling every miniscule wish and desire, regardless of the cost to humanity and people.
The former of course used the military’s of the earth to commit their crimes against humanity, while the Latter are working under the rader (with their Hundreds of Millions being give to secret organizations so they can’t be easily tracked) to remove any all freedoms or rights).
Those are the ones I find more worrisome, the military may come in and blow the hell out of the place, but at least you can ‘point’ to the damage and the excess’s they commit. The latter will work behind the scenes until suddenly, you, your family and all of your neighbor hood are suddenly dying of mysterious causes, or find out that medicine and food are no longer available because your not considered part of their future, and your expected to just “Die and get out of their way of making more and more, faster and faster.
In other words, in summation as the old song used to say:
Beware, beware of the handshake that hides the snake
I’m tellin’ you beware, beware of the pat on the back
It just might hold you back, jealousy, misery, envy
I tell you, you can’t see behind smiling faces
Smiling faces, sometimes they, they don’t tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof
No disagreement here, though I see the military as an equal partner in crime – enforcing death and repression abroad while killing at home by stealing resources that could be put to far more productive and enriching use.
I like to compare the Military to the Junk Yard Dog; under someones control, has a really ugly attitude, but lacks the intelligence to operate independently. It is the “Big F’ing Club” that the corporate Lords and Masters have the Political Toadies wield when countries don’t kow-tow and kiss ass (e.g., they dare put the lives of their miserable population above the masters ability to steal the gold).
As said by Micheal Parenti – The Military is nothing more than a tool for the corporations to use to subjugate the populations of other countries who don’t fall in line with the Imperialistic outlook of the U.S. The whole blame really falls squarely on the shoulders of the Corporate-Military industrial complex, which use Fascism to to protect themselves from the rabble.