Word: militia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Militia watchers were stunned that a group with so much weaponry and such big plans could have maintained so low a profile. Says Jack McLamb, a former police officer who publishes Aid & Abet, a Phoenix-based newsletter sympathetic to the militias: "We weren't aware of the Vipers, and that's what's surprising to us. We thought we were on top of things." What the Vipers may be is part of the shifting fringe of the disparate militia movement. These groups, says Richard Romley, chief prosecutor for Phoenix and Maricopa County, "pop up and go away sometimes overnight. They...
...alleged Viper leader, is a house painter; Dean Carl Pleasant, 27, another suspect, is a former doughnut maker; Henry Alfred Overturf, 37, is a bouncer for a local strip club; Ellen Adella Belliveau, 27, worked for AT&T. It was Belliveau who allegedly suggested during one meeting that the militia retaliate against the families of federal agents in case Vipers were arrested. None of the others apparently agreed with...
...Arizona Anti-Defamation League points out that, "it's not unusual in Arizona to see people walking around in Army camouflage or walking to and from their car with a gun...What's so scary is that the [Vipers] were so successful at hiding their plan that other militia groups didn't even know this group had been plotting. That showed true dedication to their cause...
...undercover operative's riskiest encounter with the militia was one of his first. When he asked to join, he was told his phone records had been checked (apparently by Belliveau, the AT&T worker) and the militia leaders had some concerns about the operative's phone traffic. The militia insisted on checking out his apartment. Fortunately, the feds had decorated it to fit the operative's cover story...
Soon the operative was accepted as a Viper member, taking a "militiaman's oath" in which he promised to kill anyone attempting to infiltrate the militia and seek retribution if any member was arrested. Even as he took the oath, he was wearing a body wire. Over the next few months he reported that Viper Gary Bauer allegedly boasted about a rocket he built that could "take out a police car." Finis Walker, a Viper "captain," said the group's heavy weapons were needed to deal with swat teams, and the explosives were necessary to destroy heavy armor. Soon after...