McVeigh/Constitution/Jan. 6 –– Part 2

Review by Bill Doughty––

Author Jeffrey Toobin has written the best biography so far of the Oklahoma City bomber in “Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism” (Simon & Schuster, 2023). He ties together both the beliefs and actions of McVeigh with the motivations of other extremists and insurrectionists.

This is an important book for anyone committed to preventing white supremacists, anarchists, and other violent extremists from serving in the military. Throughout the book, Toobin also ties McVeigh to those who believe it’s OK to overturn an election and attack the nation’s Capitol.

McVeigh was convicted after an Army buddy, Tim Fortier (and wife Lori), flipped and testified for the prosecution. McVeigh’s direct partner in crime, another Army veteran named Terry Nichols, helped prepare the fertilizer-fuel bombs and plan the bombing. Nichols was also convicted for his role in the crime.

McVeigh began basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, May 24, 1988 –– just over 35 years ago. On his first day he met Nichols, a 33-year-old recruit.

“Their friendship, which curdled into a conspiracy, was born in the military. The two men were among the earliest, and certainly the most prominent, examples of the link between modern right-wing extremism and the armed forces. This connection carried forward to the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. About 7 percent of the adult population are either veterans or active-duty service members, but approximately 15 percent of those arrested belonged to those groups. Those charged with more serious crimes, like sedition, consisted overwhelmingly of veterans. The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two extremist groups whose members were leaders of the insurrection, were dominated by veterans. The prevalence of veterans among the extremists raised the question of whether the military attracted those predisposed to violent political action or whether service in the armed forces radicalized those who might not otherwise turn to terror.

“As for McVeigh, he was included toward extremism when he enlisted. He joined the military principally because it would allow him to indulge his passion for weaponry –– not an unusual reason –– but he already had a distinct right-wing political profile as well. He was angry at Blacks, whom he regarded as parasites, and a government which he thought was going to take away his guns.”

Toobin writes, “McVeigh had the anger and the energy, but he didn’t have any real justification for how he felt.” That’s where Terry Nichols, a man who failed at everything he did, came in. Nichols blamed his failures on international conspiracies and an evil U.S. government that wanted to confiscate all guns. Like McVeigh, Nichols believed the intent of the Second Amendment was to arm all Americans in order to “fight tyranny.”

In actuality, it was McVeigh, Nichols, and the Fortiers who formed an actual conspiracy –– to try to bring down a democratic government and bring about their own tyranny of terrorism.

They acted out of a twisted justification: Angry because of the passage of the gun control Brady Bill in 1993 and the assault weapons ban of 1994, signed by President Bill Clinton.

McVeigh at Waco

They also wanted to avenge the deaths at Ruby Ridge in 1992 and Waco in 1993 at the hands of Federal officers. They were enraged at the FBI. McVeigh had visited Waco during the siege, attempting to sell anti-government and pro-guns stickers from his car. McVeigh’s goal was to start a civil war to prevent the government from confiscating weapons, even though such a confiscation wasn’t planned.

Toobin shows how McVeigh tried to find success selling guns, accessories, and his bumper stickers at gun shows. At the shows he was further influenced to hate and have grievance toward the government. “The causes promoted at gun shows only began with the Second Amendment, and they included closing the borders, avoiding taxes, and defending the rights of Christians. Confederate flags and memorabilia abounded. So did right-wing literature.”

At one gun show McVeigh traded some clothing items with the head of security of a Christian Identity white separatist group at Elohim City. McVeigh traded for a Navy combat knife and sheath, according to Toobin.

Despite his penchant for pistols, long-guns, and knives, McVeigh chose to murder from afar. His ultimate choice of weapon was a massive bomb in a Ryder truck parked outside the Murrah Federal Building.

There’s an ironic “postscript” to McVeigh’s arrest after an Oklahoma trooper pulled McVeigh’s car over for a missing license plate but then discovered he was carrying a handgun without a permit, which at the time was illegal. But “In 2019, the state changed its laws to allow individuals twenty-one and older to carry guns without permits.” If the trooper had stopped McVeigh under the new law, he would not have arrested him –– just issued him a ticket.

Toobin’s book explores the influential role of the book The Turner Diaries, radio talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy, politician Pat Buchanan, the National Rifle Association, and shortwave radio ideologue William Cooper in shaping McVeigh’s hatred of the federal government. Toobin presents a graphic description of the bombing, as well as McVeigh’s trial, incarceration, and twisted relationship with his defense counsel, Stephen Jones, who strictly controlled reporters’ communication with his client. 

McVeigh under arrest

Jones, however, arranged for an interview with one journalist who was permitted to report on his meeting with McVeigh, according to Toobin. “David Hackworth, who wrote for Newsweek, was a decorated soldier who had turned into a prominent and opinionated writer about war.”

Toobin writes, “McVeigh told Hackworth the Army ‘teaches you to discover yourself. It teaches you who you are. Hackworth explained, ‘To warriors, the military is like a religious order. It’s not a job. It’s a calling. Not too many people understand that calling or have what it takes.”

Hackworth reported, “Looking into McVeigh’s eyes in the El Reno prison, I realized that my gut feeling was right. He has what a lot of soldiers, good and bad, have: fire in the belly.”

“Homegrown” opens like this: “The spirit of rebellion was in the air on January 6, 2021.” The first seditionist mentioned by Toobin is head of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, Army veteran (who would eventually be sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role on J6). The next named insurrectionist is “Chris Hill, a Marine veteran who led an extremist group from Georgia” and “called the attack on the Capitol a ‘shot heard round the world,’ echoing the world used to describe the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.”

On June 29, a January 6 rioter named Taylor Taranto, a Navy veteran, was arrested near former President Barack Obama’s home. Taranto had worked for the Republican Party in Washington state and volunteered for the GOP, according to the Associated Press. Taranto was armed with explosive materials and weapons. He was wanted for his role in the violent insurrection at the Capitol.

Last April, FBI agents arrested Air Force active duty Airman Jack Teixeira for unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act of 1917 as well as unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. Texeira, a proclaimed white supremacist, was indicted June 15.

Beth Wilkinson

In stark contrast to McVeigh, Nichols, and Fortier, were a host of former soldiers who sought justice and accountability: United States District Judge (and retired Brigadier General) Wayne Alley, Judge Richard Matsch (who kept a portrait of General George S. Patton on his desk), private investigator (and World War II veteran) Marty Reed, and prosecutor Beth Wilkinson (a former Army captain). Wilkinson argued for the death penalty for McVeigh.

During McVeigh’s trial, the Murrah victims’ family members in the courtroom "seethed at McVeigh’s deadpan expression in response to even the most heartrending testimony; but McVeigh told his lawyers that he wanted to maintain military discipline. He refused to show any emotion at all.” To the end, “McVeigh continued to see the bombing as a soldier’s duty…”

McVeigh was put to death by lethal injection after a rather interesting last meal. What happened to his cremated remains, as described by Toobin, is a chilling metaphor and a power-punch at the end of the book.

Thankfully, good military veterans far outweigh the bad. Regarding extremism in the ranks, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testified to Congress that “99.9% of our troops are focused on the right things each and every day.”

Thousands of military service members and federal workers were involved in rescue, recovery, counseling, and clean-up after the bombing of the Murrah Building. Today, the U.S. military tries to enforce regulations against violent extremists in its ranks (though efforts are hampered by some politicians in Congress).

Toobin presents compelling revelations in this timely account of senseless violence, helping readers understand how such extremism can develop and metastasize.

In part 3 of this review, we explore what happened to McVeigh’s partner, Terry Nichols. We examine McVeigh’s and Nichols’s crime as it relates to the U.S. Constitution. And we see how McVeigh may have actually succeeded in recruiting others to support his radical right-wing extremism.

U.S. Air Force personnel from Tinker Air Force Base work alongside civilian firefighters to remove rubble from the explosion site of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The U.S. Air Force provided around-the-clock support of personnel, equipment, and supplies during rescue and relief efforts. (SSgt Mark A. More)

McVeigh/Constitution/Jan. 6 –– Part 1

Review by Bill Doughty––

“Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism” by Jeffrey Toobin (Simon & Schuster, 2023) is a relevant and necessary account of the bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 during President Bill Clinton's administration. 

The bombing was sparked by anger and hatred in the wake of “woke,” even before that term became popular. Timothy McVeigh, the Army-veteran-turned-right-wing-extremist was an avid supporter of states’ rights, white separatism, and unobstructed Second Amendment access to military-style assault weapons.

He wanted to spawn a militia army to start a civil war against the federal government. He hoped his bomb –– which killed or maimed hundreds of men, women, and children –– would inspire others.

And McVeigh may have been right about his expectation about gaining support for the causes he espoused.

White supremacist Dylann Roof left a McVeigh-like manifesto trying to justify his murder of nine parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina. Brandon Russell, the leader of a neo-Nazi group was arrested in Tampa, Florida, in possession of explosives; “there was a framed photo of McVeigh on his nightstand.” Richard Tobin, of Brooklawn, New Jersey, wanted to see bombings of synagogues around the country quoting the method used by McVeigh. Timothy Wilson planned to blow up non-Christian worship centers and an elementary school in the Kansas City area; he quoted Timothy McVeigh in a text to an associate.

Toobin presents dozens of other examples of homegrown terrorism by white supremacists, vigilante militia members, Christian nationalists and anti-abortionists. He says the “Unite the Right” rally in Charleston, Virginia, in August 2017 showed that “the ‘army’ that McVeigh told his lawyers he was seeking had finally assembled.” Neo-Nazis, militia members, and other extremists gathered there and violently clashed with left-wing protesters who were demanding the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Toobin also notes how “terrorism associated with radical Islam and left-wing extremists never disappeared from the United States.” He cites the 2009 shooting of 13 unarmed soldiers by a psychiatrist at Fort Hood, Texas; the 2015 mass shooting by an Islamist couple in San Bernardino, California; the 2017 shooting by a leftist political activist at a congressional baseball game; and the stalking and threatening by a mentally ill protester of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“Still, the record is clear that there were far fewer of these attacks than those by right-wing extremists,” Toobin writes. Indeed, according to one study, right-wing extremism was responsible for 76 percent of all extremist murders in the United States from 2009 to 2019.”

Toobin shows how white nationalism increased after the election of President Barack Obama. “Days after the 2008 election, a Marine corporal at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina was arrested and charged with planning to kill Obama as a ‘domestic enemy’ in ‘Operation Patriot.’”

The question of patriotism and issues such as the First and Second Amendment were addressed head-on in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing when then-President Bill Clinton gave a memorable commencement address at Michigan State University, May 5, 1995, in East Lansing. (McVeigh’s accomplice, Terry Nichols, was associated with the Michigan Militia.) Toobin excerpts a big chunk of Clinton's speech, and it’s worth reading in its entirety for its thoughtful and nuanced message.

Here is the part of that speech that Toobin included in “Homegrown.” Clinton offers comments not only to the graduates, but also to right-wing militia members:

“I want to say this to the militias … I am well aware that most of you have never violated the law of the land. I welcome the comments that some of you have made recently condemning the bombing in Oklahoma City. I believe you have every right, indeed you have the responsibility, to question our government when you disagree with its policies. And I will do everything in my power to protect your right to do so. But I also know there have been lawbreakers among those who espouse your philosophy. I know from painful personal experience as a governor of a state who lived through the coldblooded killing of a young sheriff and a young African American state trooper who were friends of mine by people who espoused the view that the government was the biggest problem in America and that people had a right to take violence into their own hands.

“So I say this to the militias and all others who believe that the greatest threat to freedom comes from the government instead of from those who would take away our freedom: If you say violence is an acceptable way to make change, you are wrong. If you say that government is in a conspiracy to take your freedom away, you are just plain wrong. If you treat law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line for your safety every day like some kind of enemy army to be suspected, derided, and if they should enforce the law against you, to be shot, you are wrong. If you appropriate our sacred symbols for paranoid purposes and compare yourselves to colonial militias who fought for the democracy you now rail against, you are wrong. How dare you suggest that we in the freest nation on Earth live in tyranny! How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes! I say to you, all of you, the members of the Class of 1995, there is nothing patriotic about hating your country or pretending that you can love your country but despise your government.”

Victims' families attend a memorial service as President Clinton gives remarks, April 23, 1995. 

Clinton, who also spoke at the memorial service in Oklahoma City in April 1995, took the opportunity in at Michigan State University to condemn violence by both the Left and Right. He noted, “Freedom of political speech will never justify violence--never. Our Founding Fathers created a system of laws in which reason could prevail over fear. Without respect for this law, there is no freedom.”

Prosecutors in the McVeigh trial used the bomber’s own words against him: how he wanted to start a new revolution in order to protect the Second Amendment, states’ rights, and a white male hierarchy. He hoped to provoke another civil war.

“The McVeigh prosecutors put the ‘civil war’ issue in front of the jury to show how extreme and exotic the defendant’s views were," Toobin writes. "But a quarter century later, McVeigh’s view was close to the conservative movement norm. This view –– about the possibility of civil war –– became mainstream as the passions underlying the January 6 insurrection roiled conservatives during the Biden presidency.”

According to Toobin, “The events of January 6, 2021, saw the full flowering of McVeigh’s legacy in contemporary politics. McVeigh was obsessed with gun rights; he saw the bombing as akin to the revolutionary struggle of the Founding Fathers; and he believed that violence was justified to achieve his goals. So did the rioters on January 6.”

(In Part 2, we examine the Oklahoma City bombing and rise of right-wing extremism through the lens of the U.S. military.)

Navy Good, Future Unraveling

Review by Bill Doughty––

Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan expresses high regard for the United States Navy as a global force for good. He says the U.S. is “primarily a naval power,” and it is America’s Navy that has protected sea lanes and global commons, allowing what could be the greatest period of peace and prosperity in the history of the world.

That peace was guaranteed after the Second World War and the defeat of Japanese and German imperialism and fascism, when the Americans “offered their wartime allies a deal.”

“The Americans would use their navy –– the only navy of size to survive the war –– to patrol the global ocean and protect the commerce of all. The Americans would open their market –– the only market of size to survive the war –– to allied experts so that all could export their way back to wealth. The Americans would extend a strategic blanket over all, so that no friend of America need ever fear invasion again.”

But in Zeihan’s now-dystopian view of the future, that era of peace and prosperity is over.

In “The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization” (HarperCollins, 2022) Zeihan presents extensive data, charts, and demographic analysis showing evidence of de-globalization, less world trade, and aging populations in many countries:

• This is the “best it will ever be in our lifetime.”
• “The world –– our world –– is breaking apart.”
• China is aging “into demographic obsolescence.”
• “We are entering a period of extreme transformation, with our strategic, political, economic, technological, demographic, and critical norms all in flux at the same time.”
• “Everything is going to change” and “the process will be the definition of traumatic.”
• “Living through history is messy.”

“De-globalization,” Zeihan writes, “doesn’t simply mean a darker, poorer world; it means something far worse. An unraveling.”

If he’s right, the United States will be able to weather the storm that will overcome other nations and territories, especially in Asia and Europe. Unlike those countries, America has the resources, relatively younger population, protective geography (including rivers and protected deep-water ports), and friendly next-door neighbors.

Justin Taschek, the Senior Maritime Projects Administrator for the Port of Oakland, California, gives a tour of the port to Chief of Navy Air Training Rear Adm. Daniel Dwyer, Feb. 12, 2020. Dwyer visited Oakland as part of a Navy Executive Engagement Visit designed to help educate the American public about the capability, importance and value of today's Navy to national security, global communication and trade. Oakland is a deep-water port. (MC1 Aaron Chase)

In “The End of the World…” Zeihan predicts countries are “likely to brawl over the shattered remnants of a collapsed economic system.” Just months after he wrote those lines and after the final manuscript of his book went to the publisher, Putin’s Russia launched a full invasion of  Ukraine. Zeihan and HarperCollins added a one-page note at the end of a chapter about the invasion. Perhaps his predictions –– although imperfect –– are already coming true.

He examines transportation, finance and currencies, energy, industrial materials, manufacturing, and agriculture, showing how each pillar of civilization has evolved over time and predicting the future based on current trends.

For example, he shows how Admiral (Commodore) Matthew C. Perry ignited the start of a global capital financial system when he opened Japan to trade, redefining the role of debt and unleashing “the Asian Financial Model.” In a section called “A Credit Compendium,” Zeihan gives diverse examples of “extravagances and exaggerations” and “excesses and eruptions” comparing Greece, Germany, UK, Hungary, Australia, Colombia, Indonesia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, Russia, and China.

In the final, and one of the longest sections in the book, he examines agriculture and “the geopolitics of vulnerability,” including the challenges of feeding the world amid climate change, water shortages, and his prediction of reduced global trade. The thing that keeps him up at night the most, he says, is the threat of coming famine in the world.

Service members hold the national flags of participating nations during the opening ceremony for Exercise Saber Strike at the Pabrade Training Area, Lithuania, June 8, 2015. The exercise provides an opportunity for a multilateral force to conduct operations side by side. (USMC Sgt. Paul Peterson)

As the world changes and globalization ends, what is the role of the military, especially the Navy, with its power projection capabilities?

“Expect the Navy and Marines both to be assigned a set of secondary tasks that include aggressive sanctions enforcement. Perhaps the most jarring issue all countries and companies must adapt to is the Americans not simply giving up their role as the global guarantor of order, but transforming into active agents of disorder.”

Zeihen predicts more future disorder on the seas, including the return of piracy and militarized merchant marines.

Will the nations of the world be forced to become inward looking turtles? Head-in-the-sand ostriches? Will self-interest, self-aggrandizement, greed and authoritarianism win the day? Whether he is completely correct or not, Zeihan deserves to be read and heard in what could be an unraveling world. Perhaps the U.S. Navy, “forged by the sea,” will be even more relevant and necessary as a global force for good.

Above: Quartermaster 2nd Class Brandon Sassone, from Plainview, N.Y., plots ship position in the pilot house aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage (LPD 23) during a scheduled deployment of the Essex Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), Sept. 2, 2018. They were deployed to the 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and the Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. (MC3 Ryan M. Breeden)

Top photo: The Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) participated in Australia’s Kakadu exercise in August 2018 in Darwin to enhance maritime security skills with participating nations, which highlighted information sharing and multilateral coordination. (MC3 Morgan K. Nall)

Growing Rift or Arc of Justice: The Indictment

By Bill Doughty––

This summer’s “must-read” is not a book. It’s a legal document. It’s brief. It has a compelling plot. It’s freely available. It’s illustrated. And it evokes strong emotions.

It is the indictment of former President Donald J. Trump and his Navy culinary specialist veteran valet, former Senior Chief Petty Officer Waltine Nauta.

Among the emotions likely to be brought forth are alarm, anger and profound sadness. Anyone interested in having an informed opinion about the issue as well as anyone interested in the Constitution and rule of law will want to read the allegations.

The indictment alleges that Trump and Nauta conspired to take, conceal, and lie about classified documents, including military and intelligence secrets. According to the indictment:

“The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”

Sources of evidence in the indictment are Trump and Nauta, themselves, often in their own words. Nauta unintentionally provided the photos, text messages, and other information which contradicted his sworn statements to investigators. Among Nauta's photos are images of dozens of boxes stacked in a store room, on an open stage, and in a bathroom. Trump’s own words, caught on tape or by his attorney, are also part of the evidence.

Of the 37 counts of crimes, 31 pertain to the willful retention of national defense information; the remaining six relate to alleged conspiracy, obstruction and false statements by Trump and Nauta.

The indictment was unsealed and published by the Department of Justice.

In announcing the indictment, DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith said:

“The men and women of the United States intelligence community and our Armed Forces dedicate their lives to protecting our nation and its people.

"Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced.

"Violations of those laws put our country at risk.

"Adherence to the rule of law is a bedrock principle of the Department of Justice, and our nation's commitment to the rule of law sets an example for the world.

"We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone. Applying those laws, collecting facts, that's what determines the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Smith noted, "It's very important for me to note that the defendants in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

This year’s top summer read is not a book, though there are many great books out there. This summer’s must-read is this historic and Constitutionally important indictment that, depending on the reader’s perspective, will either widen a growing rift or bring us back to justice, principled ethos, and accountability.