New Intelligence Report Released Today
The Southern Poverty Law Center today released the latest issue of its quarterly investigative magazine on the radical right, Intelligence Report. Overall, the issue covers the extreme right’s increasingly heated rhetoric, laced with talk of war and weaponry, as it faces the possibility of four more years under a black president.
The issue’s cover story focuses on Montana, where white supremacists and antigovernment “Patriots” are gathering for a last stand against the greater society that one leader likens to the Battle of the Alamo. Another story, also focusing on increasingly belligerent rhetoric and actions, examines the continuing radicalization of the neo-secessionist League of the South. A third examines the unbelievable vicious rhetoric and background of Bryan Fischer, who has become the main spokesman for the gay-bashing American Family Association. My own editorial discusses all three stories as part of a trend toward radicalization.
Other stories in the new Intelligence Report include:
- A report on the response of authorities to the burgeoning movement of “sovereign citizens,” people who believe that they do not have to pay taxes and are immune to most criminal laws.
- A story about a pugnacious Alabama ministry that is being compared to Kansas’ Westboro Baptist Church, which has a reputation as the most viciously anti-gay organization in America.
- An interview with a Miami attorney who has defended several alleged homegrown Muslim terrorists about ways to combat jihadism.
- An interview with Bryon and Julie Widner, two former racist activists who met, fell in love, and changed course.
- A look at the racial divisions once again splitting Jasper, Texas, where a black man was dragged to death in an infamous 1998 slaying.
- An account of the Patriot organization Oath Keepers’ attempts to exploit a local dispute in Quartzsite, Ariz.
