New York, NY, May 15...The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today revealed that two major extremist publications, which include a bomb-making manual and a guide to assassination techniques, represent part of the extreme right's "paper trail" of violence. The materials provide a behind-the-scenes look at the planning and ideology of far-right, violence-prone groups, including various state "militias," operating across the United States.

The materials, among many collected as part of ongoing ADL monitoring of extremist movements, provide evidence of "a troubling literature of violence," according to Abraham H. Foxman, ADL, National Director. "These materials amount to a recipe for murder and terrorism, representing a legitimate subject of interest and scrutiny for law enforcement."

The most notorious of these materials, promoted in the 1994 catalog of the Militia of Montana, is a book titled, The Road Back, written in 1973 by the pseudonymous "Macaba," which contains a listing of explosive materials and compounds that "may be obtained from military storages[sic] by means of 'midnight requisitions' and guerilla raids." The book offers a detailed explanation of how to make a bomb using ammonium nitrate, the common chemical fertilizer suspected as the main ingredient in the terrorist bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building on April 19. It also contains diagrams on assembling Molotov cocktails and detonating devices, as well as instructions in the use of "incendiaries," and percussion devices for mines. The Militia of Montana lists the book for sale at $20 and describes it as "a plan for the restoration of freedom when our country has been taken over by its enemies."

The Road Back -- which echoes in its form and content a similar bomb-making manual of the far-left of the 1960s called The Anarchist's Cookbook -- was originally published by Noontide Press, a publishing entity linked to Liberty Lobby, the most significant anti-Semitic propaganda organization in the U.S. Liberty Lobby's weekly publication, The Spotlight, is a central organ of communication for right wing extremists; ADL recently revealed that Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bombing suspect, had advertised military-style anti-tank launchers for sale through classified ads in The Spotlight in 1993, using the alias "T. Tuttle" and an address in Kingman, Arizona.

Another publication directed at militias is the U.S. Militiaman's Handbook, by Dan Shoemaker, which contains a chapter on assassination techniques. Chapter headings in the handbook include: "Who Is the Enemy," "Punitive Actions," "Vigilante Actions," "U.S. Militia Code of Conduct," "Government Secrets," "Ballistic and Marksmanship Information," "Battle Scenarios," and "Assassination."

Chapter 3, "Who Is The Enemy," states unequivocally that "the greatest threat to the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Militia comes from domestic government. Federal, state, and local governments are now attempting to circumvent or abrogate the U.S. Constitution and to eliminate the existence of the U.S. Militia."

Chapter 9 features "the assassination of proven enemies of the Constitution of the United States." Readers are informed that:

"Assassination by the U.S. Militia should be, but is not required to be, a military operation....

"There are a lot of ways to kill someone who is targeted for assassination....

"If members of the U.S. Militia find themselves standing over the subject's body or somehow initially capture the subject the situation should be handled like a battlefield execution. Read the execution order before or after the target subject is terminated....

"If the target subject looks like a hard case, perhaps he has bodyguards, for example, then a different plan would be called for....When the target subject appears the entire rifle team fires at him on signal. Don't forget to kill his little Nazi bodyguards too. The second and third volleys should be aimed at the bodyguards. Kill them all....

"Successful assassination requires some kind of plan. But, then too, there is always the random hunting method. What about solitary assassins? Well brother, if you are the last free man left alive in your area, hunt the enemy. Make it count. "

"These militia materials are no joke," said Foxman. "They are recipes for murder. When their authors discuss 'enemies' and 'targets,' they mean real and living human beings. One important way to deal with this kind of incitement to murderous activity is for Congress to support the anti-terrorist legislation now under consideration." Another important step, Foxman said, "is that elected officials should be urged to support anti-paramilitary training laws in the 26 states without such legislation and to firmly enforce those laws in the states that already have enacted them." Most of these laws are based on ADL model legislation formulated a decade ago.

Editors Note: Excerpts cited above are available from the ADL Public Relations Department.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.