U.S. Revives Domestic Terror Unit Amid Rise in Right-Wing Shootings{democracy now interview}

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/us-revives-domestic-terror-unit-amid-rise-right-wing-shootings

A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer stands in a parking lot at a Wal-Mart on June 8, 2014
AARON MATÉ: A candlelight vigil was held outside of a Las Vegas pizza restaurant last night where two city police officers were shot dead on Sunday. The shootings were carried out by a husband and wife who had long spouted right-wing antigovernment views online. According to police, Jerad and Amanda Miller shot the the officers at point blank range. They took their weapons and ammunition and covered the bodies with a flag reading "Don’t tread on me." The flag dates back to the revolutionary war, but more recently has been associated with the American Tea Party movement and patriot groups. The Millers also reportedly pinned a note on one of the officer’s body saying, "This is the beginning of the revolution." The couple then fled to a Walmart where they killed a third person. After a shootout with police, Amanda Miller reportedly shot dead her husband and then turned the gun on herself. Kevin McMahill is assistant Sheriff in Clark County, Las Vegas.

KEVIN MCMAHILL: We’re trying to make a determination what it is that could have been the motive, what was the motivation behind their targeting police officers and walking in with no warning and executing our officers. I can tell you that there is no doubt that the suspects have some apparent ideology that is along the lines of militia and white supremacists.

AMY GOODMAN: On June 7, one day before the shooting, Jerad Miller wrote on Facebook, "The dawn of a new day. May all of our coming sacrifices be worth it." Five days earlier, he wrote on Facebook, "We can hope for peace, we must, however, prepare for war... To stop this oppression, I fear, can only be accomplished with bloodshed." Both Jerad and Amanda had recently spent time at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch during a recent standoff there between armed militia members and federal agents. In April, Miller was interviewed by Reno NBC affiliate, KRNV, at the ranch.

JERAD MILLER: I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come in here and try to push us around or anything like that. I really don’t want violence toward them, but if they’re going to come bring violence to us, well, if that is the language they want to speak, we will learn it.

AMY GOODMAN: The shooting in Las Vegas came just two days after a man in Georgia attempted to attack the Forsyth County Courthouse. Dennis Marx, a former TSA employee with ties to the Sovereign Citizen movement, allegedly attacked the courthouse on Friday, throwing smoke bombs and shooting a Sheriff Deputy who returned fire and killed him. Authorities say Marx had homemade explosives and food and water, suggesting he planned to take hostages. To talk more about these cases, we’re joined by Mark Potok the Director of Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center. He’s joining us from Montgomery, Alabama. Mark, welcome back to Democracy Now! First talk about what happened in Las Vegas, the killing of the police officers, laying a swastika on them and the "Don’t tread on me" flag. Who are the Millers?

MARK POTOK: Well, looking at their postings, actually, I don’t think there’s much white supremacy there. I don’t see that at all, actually. The swastika I think clearly was saying the police are nazis. He posted, Jerad Miller, quite a lot about liberty, freedom, the need to rise up, his willingness to become a martyr and so on. But he very rarely got into the details of his ideology. He was clearly part of the Patriot movement. The one thing he really talked about a lot was guns. And that of course is central concern for the Patriot movement. At one point, he talked about, if you even disagree that the Second Amendment should be interpreted in such a way in a very liberal way in terms of an ownership, that you should be hung from a lamppost if you don’t leave the country. So that seemed to be really the central idea. I think that the Bundy standoff was incredibly important in terms of the patriot movement and very likely for the Millers as well. I think there are tens of thousands of people around the country associated generally with the Patriot movement who saw this as a huge victory. After all, the federal law enforcement officials backed off. They simply backed away when all those people at the Bundy ranch pointed their weapons at them, and that Cliven Bundy’s cattle go. So, this was seen as a great victory and very possibly, it seems to me, for the Millers, it was a victory that signaled the beginning of a war. And it seems to have encouraged them to go on and join the battle, essentially.