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- A Federal jury convicted Timothy J. McVeigh, 29, of all 11 counts of murder,
conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred
P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people and injured 850
others. The U.S. Government proved that McVeigh sought to retaliate against the FBI's
April 1993 raid on the Branch Davidians religious headquarters near Waco, Texas, that left
80 followers of cult leader David Koresh dead. Shortly afterwards, the jury meted out the
death sentence for Mr. McVeigh. At this writing, the trial of co-defendant Terry L.
Nichols was beginning in Denver. (Reuters, 6/2/97 and 6/13/97)
- Viper Militia member Dean Pleasant, 28, was sentenced to 71 months in prison for
conspiring to use explosives. Pleasant allegedly narrated a videotape on how to destroy
Federal buildings. (AP, 4/3/97)
- The Pentagon has begun a training program designed to help 120 cities deal with
the potential terrorist use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
Local officials will learn to identify such deadly weapons, deal with victims and carry
out decontamination that may be required. (The Washington Post, 4/17/97)
- Law enforcement officials arrested four people in a plot to blow up a natural gas
plant in North Texas. According to the FBI, the four plotted to bomb the plant and
kill police to divert attention while they robbed an armored car of $2 million to finance
other terrorist incidents. One suspect, Edward Taylor Jr., 34, has ties to a branch of the
Ku Klux Klan. (The Washington Post, The New York Times, 4/25/97)
- The U.S. Department of State released its annual report on international
terrorism citing 296 international terrorist incidents that killed 311 people
worldwide in 1996, including 24 American citizens. The State Department said that Iran
remained the chief sponsor of international terrorism in 1996 and once again, Iran, Iraq,
Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Cuba are on the State Department's list of nations
that sponsor terrorism. Citing domestic terrorism in Sri Lanka, Algeria, India, Pakistan
and the United States, the report labeled domestic terrorism as "probably a more
widespread phenomenon than international terrorism today."(The New York Times,
5/1/97)
- Federal authorities found two caches of a powerful explosive in Yuba City,
California, and arrested four men, Kevin Quinn, 37, Vernon Weckner, 66, Jason Fox, 22, and
Edward Whitlow 3d, 20. Quinn and Weckner are described by authorities as associates of
William Goehler, a sympathizer of the Freemen paramilitary group, who was arrested
for using a destructive device. (The New York Times, The Washington Post, 5/2/97)
- Federal investigators discovered 60 pipe bombs, tripwires and other explosives ringing
the headquarters of the Republic of Texas separatist group near Fort Davis, Texas,
in the wake of the May 1997 surrender of group leader Richard McLaren, 43, and five
followers. McLaren and four followers were indicted in a kidnapping that led to the
standoff between the armed separatists and 300 troopers that ended on May 3. A sixth
separatist, Richard F. Keyes, 22, was later arrested. (The Washington Post, 5/5/97,
The New York Times, 6/10/97, 9/20/97)
- In response to increasing domestic terrorism, the FBI in San Francisco, CA, is
organizing the Bay Area's first counterterrorism task force. (The Oakland Tribune,
5/10/97)
- The United States has imposed sanctions against two Chinese companies and several
Chinese executives accused of "knowingly and materially" aiding Iran in
making chemical weapons by shipping certain glass-lined vessels and chemicals. (The
New York Times, 5/23/97)
- Mohammad Abouhalima, 33, was found guilty of helping his brother Mahmud
Abouhalima flee to Saudi Arabia following the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade
Center. (UPI, 5/28/97)
- A West Virginia militia group member, Edward F. Moore, 52, and Jack A. Phillips pleaded
guilty in connection with the alleged plot to bomb the FBI's fingerprint complex in
Clarksburg, West Virginia. The self-proclaimed general of West Virginia's Mountaineer
Militia, Floyd "Ray" Looker, 56, was later found guilty of conspiracy to
engage in manufacturing of and dealing in explosives without a license. (The Washington
Post, 5/30/97, Newsday, 6/13/97, UPI, 8/8/97)
- One of two brothers sought in a shootout with Wilmington, Ohio, law
enforcement officers, Cheyne Kehoe, 21, surrendered to authorities and linked his
actions to white separatist Randy Weaver, militant tax protester Gordon Kahl and neo-Nazi
Bob Mathews. (The Columbus Dispatch, 6/17/97)
- Harry Shapiro, 31, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for planting a bomb at a
Jacksonville, Florida, synagogue where Shimon Peres was scheduled to speak in
February 1997. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 6/26/97)
- The C.I.A. submitted a report to Congress listing China and Russia
as the two biggest exporters of technology used by third-world nations building ballistic
missiles, chemical weapons or nuclear bombs. India, Iran, Pakistan and
Syria were named as the most eager customers. (The New York Times, 7/3/97)
- The House of Representatives voted to close a loophole in the U.S. anti-terrorism
law that allowed American firms to trade with Syria and Sudan despite the
State Department's classification of those countries as state sponsors of terrorism. A
similar provision passed the Senate and the measure will now be taken up by a House-Senate
conference that will have to reconcile differences in the scope of the two versions. (USA
Today, 7/9/97)
- Seven men and women were arrested in connection with a terrorist plot to use anti-personnel
bombs and other weapons at Fort Hood army base in Texas. One of the suspects,
Bradley Glover, 57, is a self-described commander of the Southern Kansas Regional
Militia. (The New York Times, 7/23/97)
- U.S. Customs officials cracked an alleged plot in which Robert Samuel Fairchild,
53, of Little Rock, and Donald Proven, 56, of Chicago, were planning to sell 34 helicopters
to Iraq, where they would have been converted for chemical warfare. (Journal
of Commerce, 7/23/97)
- Four Idaho men, Verne Jay Merrell, 51, Charles Barbee, 45, Robert S. Berry, 43,
and Brian Ratigan, 38, were convicted on Federal charges stemming from three pipe
bombings and two bank robberies. Accused of bombing the offices of The
Spokesman-Review newspaper, Planned Parenthood and a branch of U.S. Bank, they
testified that they were part of an anti-government paramilitary cell. (The New York
Times, 7/24/97, Reuters, 9/30/97)
- The Justice Department has drafted model legislation to combat "paper
terrorism" by anti-government activists. The legislation would outlaw the filing
of bogus liens and criminal indictments against public officials and employees and would
also outlaw frivolous lawsuits filed in Federal courts to harass public employees. (The
Columbus Dispatch, 7/29/97)
- The trial of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, alleged mastermind of the February 1993 bombing
of the World Trade Center, opened in Federal court in Manhattan. (The New York
Times, 8/4/97)
- Sadd'o Mohammed Ibrahim Intissar, 28, who used scissors and a phony bomb to hijack to
Miami an Iberia Airlines jet en route from Madrid to Havana in July 1996, was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. (USA Today, 8/12/97)
- The State Department is offering a reward of up to $2 million for information
leading to the arrest of individuals involved in the January 1997 letter-bombing campaign
at the offices of the Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper in the United States and
England. (UPI, 8/14/97)
- Seven members of the Constitutional Common Law Court anti-government group were
found guilty of threatening U.S. and state judges and jurors. The founder of the
Tampa-based group, Emilio Ippolito, 71, and six others interfered with trials in Florida
and California and sent letters threatening to arrest or kidnap judges and jurors. (The
Washington Post, 8/14/97)
- Firefighter James Rogers, 41, became the first person to be convicted under the 1995
Federal antiterrorism law, when a jury found him guilty of giving photographs of
blueprints of the FBI complex in Clarksburg, West Virginia, to a self-described
paramilitary leader. (The New York Times, 8/26/97)
- A Federal grand jury in Brooklyn, NY, filed a four-count indictment against Gazi
Ibrahim Abu Maizar and Lafi Khalil, accused of plotting suicide bombings
in the New York City subway system. Acting on a tip, police uncovered the alleged
plot on July 31, just hours before its execution. A hate-filled letter found in the
apartment threatened a series of attacks against American and Jewish interests and
demanded the release of jailed Islamic militants. Federal immigration authorities had
permitted Abu Maizar to cross the Canadian- American border earlier this year. (The New
York Times, 8/30/97)
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