SPLC Lists Right-Wing Terrorist Plots and Actions Since 1995

There have been 75 right-wing extremist plots or actions since 1995 to slaughter people they viewed as targets, according to a list compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

On its Web site the SPLC, which tracks hate groups and promotes tolerance, says the list describes various terrorist plots and actions dreamed up to kill large swathes of Americans—minorities, immigrants, and government officials—detested by right-wing extremists since the 1995 terrorist attack against the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City .

These have included plans to bomb government buildings, banks, refineries, utilities, clinics, synagogues, mosques, memorials and bridges; to assassinate police officers, judges, politicians, civil rights figures and others; to rob banks, armored cars and other criminals; and to amass illegal machine guns, missiles, explosives and biological and chemical weapons. Each of these plots aimed to make changes in America through the use of political violence. Most contemplated the deaths of large numbers of people — in one case, as many as 30,000, or 10 times the number murdered on Sept. 11, 2001.

The list appears at a time when a fierce debate has been waging on the blogosphere, cable news, and talk radio whether the recent murder of late-term abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller, and the recent shooting of an African-American security guard at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum validates an internal Department of Homeland Security intelligence product that warned law enforcement to watch for a rise in right-wing extremism.

In the report, DHS's Office of Intelligence and Analysis worried a small minority of returning veterans from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, anti-abortion extremists, and white supremacist groups could use the economic downturn and the election of the country's first African-American president to fill their ranks.