USA TODAY . WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1998 . 3A
FBI battles terrorism in Northwest

By Patrick McMahon
USA TODAY

SEATTLE- The FBI is launching a task force on domestic terrorism in the Pacific Northwest, long considered a hotbed for white supremacist and anit-federal government activities. The action comes as anti-supremacist activists in the Northwest fear an increase in terrorism coinciding with the year 2000. "We anticipate that 1999 is going to be a pretty tough tear," says Bill Wassmuth, executive director of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment based here. Already, there is talk about "Doomsday" and "Armageddon," among these groups, Wassmuth says, and paranoia about the possible computer collapse at the beginning of 2000, commonly called the Y2K problem. He says these groups fear the federal government secretly favors collapse of the financial system and other social institutions, "so that it can abolish personal freedoms and establish world government." "That is the No. 1 topic at preparedness expos" organized by the anti-government groups, Wassmuth says. "There are people buying two years of food and supplies and heading for the hills, "Wassmuth says. His group is a coalition of organizations in six Northwest states countering white supremacist and extremist groups. The FBI task force is still being assembled. It will include agents from Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana, says Burdena Pasenelli, special agent in charge of FBI division headquarters in Seattle. "Our goal is to find out ahead of time what is planned and to prevent incidents of domestic terrorism," she says. Historically, this area has had number of domestic terrorism incidents." The task force is a joint effort of the FBI division headquartered in Seattle and Salt Lake City. It is an outgrowth of domestic terrorism legislation and the addition of 500 FBI agents authorized after the 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City. Formed at a meeting this fall in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, this is the first FBI task force to cross state lines and FBI field offices, Pasenelli says. "We call it the Inland Empire," she says, referring to the three-state region being covered. Richard Butler, 80, is leader of a group called Aryan Nations, based in Hayden Lake, Idaho, since 1973. He says the task force may be watching his organization but his members are not involved in any terrorist activity. "The FBI is just an arm of the money system," and is being directed by President Clinton, "who has appointed nothing but non-Christians and nonwhites," Butler says. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., and editor of its quarterly Intelligence Report, says "The Pacific Northwest has produced some of this nation's leading domestic terrorists." The only comparable areas are certain parts of the Ozarks and rural North Carolina, he says. The center has compiled a list of 26 domestic terrorist incidents between September 1995 and March 1998. Eight of those incidents occurred in the Northwest of were linked to organizations based there. The report notes that at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing, FBI had about 100 domestic terrorism investigations under way, compared with about 900 now.

Note from the IKA Editor:

My Brothers and Sisters,

We must look around us and what has been said and use our own minds. Do you think that this is why they are putting all these FBI agents in the Northwest? Do you think that this is why the FBI has gotten so many more agents? My Brothers and Sisters, there is more to this than meets the eye. This is what has been taking place, not just in this country, but around the world: the NEW WORLD ORDER! Just set down and think about what is going on.

1) Y2K?
2) Fighting in other Counties?
3) More FBI Agents in the US?
4) Foreign Troops training in the United States?
5) The National Parks that belong to the UN?

I could go on and on. What I am saying is keep your eyes open to what is happening around you and around the WORLD! If we are to stay free, we must let OUR GOVERNMENT know that we are free people and that we put them in office, and we can take them out of office.