Shawn Wiley
CRJ 419 American Terrorism
Charles Loftus
Assignment 4 Part Two
June 16, 2013

More Domestic Terrorist Than the Public Realizes With only a few mentioned in part one of this two part essay, there are actually many more domestic terrorist groups that are coming to light. Domestic terrorism has been around for many years and probably for many more. There are going to be groups or even individuals that will have their own beliefs and may even try to push those beliefs onto others. So because of this domestic terrorism is going to be around for a long time. Looking through history I have found a few domestic groups that weren’t mentioned in part ones essay but I feel should be addressed. Ku Klux Klan can never be ignored as one of the most prominent of all domestic terrorist groups in the United States. Another one is Phineas Priesthood, and lastly a group Americans must focus on is Black Liberation Army. These are the three that I think should really be focused on, for they seem to be mentioned by the F.B.I. in a lot of Domestic Terrorism articles. Ku Klux Klan (KKK), just the name sounds of something bad is about to happen. The Klan has been causing havoc since 1865. Is definitely one of the oldest and most infamous for violence than any other domestic group on American. Most believe that blacks are the main subject of the Klan, but that isn’t necessary true anymore. They tend to focus on attacking Jews, immigrants, gays, and lesbians. Immigrants is their main issue now (Klu klux klan, 2013). The Klan is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Deamination League. The first Klu Klux Klan was established in the Southern States and many members would weir robes , mask, and conical hats. Hats shaped like cones. Most Klans are recognized by burning crosses and associated with opposing against the Civil Rights Movement. The Klan was made up of 6 confederate Army veterans (Extremism in America. 2011). It didn’t take very long for the group to grow into thousands. By 1870 KKK became the catalyst for the resistance of white southerners against the Republican Party Reconstruction-era (KKK, 2013). With blacks gaining more political positions in the south, the KKK dedicated itself to eradicate all blacks from being in any part of higher position than a white person. Violence became prevalent and even had cases such as on January 1871 when nearly 500 masked riders rode in Union County jail and lynched 8 black prisoners (KKK, 2013). The Klan’s activities had become so prevalent that Congress would pass three different enforcement acts, one being the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was to enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and also made some of the KKK’s tactics federal offenses which would put them in jail longer or even the death penalty (2013). It would also help prohibit conspiracies of jury tampering in activities produced by the Klan. The Act also authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus if violence rendered efforts to suppress the Klan ineffective. By the time it hit the 1920’s the Klan membership was well over 4 million members nationwide. Once the Great Depression hit the Klan’s membership had depleted until the 1960’s where activity had surged again across the South (KKK, 2013). The KKK have been involved many acts of violence throughout its history. As of 2008 one of its latest instances A woman from Oklahoma was lured over the internet to participate in a Ku Klux Klan initiation and was shot and killed by local Louisiana Klan leader Raymond “Chuck” Foster. Seven other Klan members were charged with accessory to the crime when they helped Foster cover up the murder ("KKK Acts of," ). The KKK has definitely a domestic terrorist because of its ties to the government back in the 1860’s-1890’s. They used intimidation and even murder to get their way and to try to eliminate the black race in the south. They will go to no bounds to get their views across as there are many neo-Nazi’s groups that agree with the basic views of the KKK. One of them is the Phineas Priesthood. The Phineas Priesthood is a group that opposes the mixing of races, homosexuality, abortion and interracial intercourse. It is also marked by its anti-Semitism, anti-multiculturalism, and opposition to taxation ("Phineas Priests,"). Unlike the KKK Phineas Priesthood does not have meetings or any type of social gathering. There is no membership process, all a person has to do is adopt the beliefs of the Hood and act upon those beliefs. According to the F.B.I. members of the Priesthood are considered terrorist because they plan to blow up federal buildings, abortion clinics, and they tend to rob banks to fund their activities ("Phineas Priesthood,"). No true attacks have been linked to the Priesthood, but many individual acts that are considered to be of terrorist nature ("Phineas Priests,"). Members such as Charles Harrison Barbee, Verne Jay Merrell, Robert Sherman Berry, and Brian Edward Ratigan have been convicted for bank robberies and bombings. April 1, 1996 these gentlemen set off pipe bombs at a local newspaper in Spokane, WA and then later they robbed a bank on the same avenue. The reason it was said that members of the Phineas Priesthood had did this is because they left a piece of paper that had been typed “Phineas Priesthood” on it (Hensinger, 2009).. Targets usually consist of Jews, racially-mixed individuals, non-white ethnicities, abortion clinics and their personnel, banks, and the government, whom they view as being run by Jews and other 'undesirables ("Phineas Priests,"). So even though I haven’t been able to find many sources on attacks by the Phineas Priesthood it is a group that represents or promotes hateful messages. Even though it is of Christian roots, the Priesthood teaches all members to hate everyone. But since this group is so underground it is hard to track its attacks. Lastly, I would like to talk about is the Black Liberation Army. BLA was founded in 1970 with the hopes of promoting equal rights for African Americans. BLA was mainly composed of members of the Black Panthers after it had dissolved itself so a lot of the views were the same. They did this through violence. Black Liberation Army is a Left-Wing Group. Its main goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States ("Black Liberation Army,").” According to the Department of Justice, the BLA is suspected of being involved in nearly 60 different incidences of violence between 1970-1976. Mostly famous for hijacking a commercial air liner in 1972 and demanded 1 million dollars. Once they received the money they flew to Algeria where they were then arrested and turned over to the U.S with the money. The BLA seemed to deal with a lot of robberies and shooting of police officers. They also are known for planting bombs in a church that was having a funeral for a fallen police officer that died in the line of duty while responding to a bank robbery ("Black Liberation Army,"). I believe the BLA had something to do with his death. I cannot confirm that but what I have read on this group this seems to be something that fits in their wheel house. The majority of attacks by the BLA were on police officers; the Fraternal Order of Police believes that they had murdered 13 police officers (Black Liberation Army). The last known attack was in 1981 when a few members robbed a Brinks truck robbery. In this robbery a guard and two officers were killed. As you can see the Black Liberation Army is considered a terrorist group because of its acts and beliefs to help liberate blacks from the oppression brought down by white people. With many to choose from I chose these three groups because they really have defined a lot of our history as a nation when it comes to discrimination. The Ku Klux Klan wanted more power to the whites of the south and the blacks to even have less than what they did. The Phineas Priesthood is just like the KKK, except they just hate everyone. Now with the Black Liberation Army they descended from another terrorist group The Black Panthers. The Liberation Army clearly did not like white people and was for liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States (Black Liberation Army). They clearly wanted to kill people that got in their way of their beliefs. These are just a few of many domestic terrorist groups in the United States and as each day goes by another group or cell to an existing group rises up and tries to claim fame for terrorist activities to show America that the way we live is controlled by the government and that we need to be our own people. The world need some type of control if not we will all live in chaos.

References
"Black Liberation Army." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Liberation_Army (accessed June 16, 2013).
Hensinger, Shane. "Extremist Event Analysis- Phineas Priesthood Attacks." Daily KOS. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/27/797855/-Extremist-Event-Analysis-Phineas-Priesthood-Attacks (accessed June 16, 2013).
The KKK. (2013). The History Channel website. Retrieved 9:00, June 16, 2013, from http://www.history.comhttp://www.history.com/videos/the-kkk.
Klu klux klan. In (2013). Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan
Ku Klux Klan – Extremism in America". Adl.org. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
"KKK Acts of Terror." K Klux Klan. http://kukluxklan.net/terrorism/ku-klux-klan-acts-of-terror (accessed June 16, 2013).
"Phineas Priesthood." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Priesthood (accessed June 16, 2013).
"Phineas Priests." National Consortium for The Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. http://www.start.umd.edu/start/data_collections/tops/terrorist_organization_profile.asp?id=3244 (accessed June 16, 2013).