Militia activity on the rise in the US, says report

Washington, Aug.15 (ANI): The Southern Poverty Law Center has warned that American right wing and anti-government militias are on the rise after nearly a decade of obscurity.

In a new report, quoted extensively by the Christian Science Monitor (CSM), the SPLC, which monitors hate groups and extremist activity, warns of "unmistakable signs of a revival of what in the 1990s was commonly called the militia movement."

"Paper terrorism" - the use of property liens, bogus legal documents and "citizens' grand juries" to attack enemies and, sometimes, reap illegal fortunes - is again proliferating, to the point where the government has set up special efforts to rein in so-called "tax defiers" and to track threats against judges....," it warns.

It further goes on to say that militia training events, huge numbers of which are now viewable on YouTube videos, are spreading.

According to the SPLC, one federal agency estimates that 50 new militia training groups have sprung up in less than two years.

Sales of guns and ammunition have skyrocketed amid fears of new gun control laws, much as they did in the 1990s.

The report also cites a range of events and reports as evidence for the purported upswing in militia activities, including the murders of six law enforcement officials over the last several months by those espousing anti-government, racist, or pro-militia beliefs.

It also singles out the June shooting of a National Holocaust Museum guard by James Von Brunn, who had ties to white supremacist groups, as The Christian Science Monitor reported.

The SPLC report also claims that with the election of Barack Obama to the head of the US government, which militias typically perceive as their enemy, the messages of militias, not traditionally focused on racial hatred, have taken on racial undertones. (ANI)