Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
In 1978, William Pierce, the founder of the neo-Nazi group named National Alliance published “The Turner Diaries” under the pen name of Andrew Macdonald. The novel sold over half a million copies worldwide and is still very popular among white supremacists.
Right-wing extremists invade the U.S. Capitol to topple the U.S. government in the novel. Earl Turner is the narrator of the novel and he gloats that “not one of them is beyond our reach.” The FBI called the novel the “bible of the racist right.” The novel described eighteen nuclear explosions in Manhattan and the nuclear destruction of Baltimore, Miami, the California coast and Detroit. The novel also contains plans to deliberately contaminate a nuclear power plant in Evanston, Illinois with radioactive materials. At the end of the novel, Turner detonates a nuclear bomb over the Pentagon. He justifies the use of nuclear weapons and sabotage against non-White populations and “race criminals” (liberal Whites) in the name of establishing white supremacy in the U.S. and across the globe.
“The Turner Diaries” has been held responsible for inspiring racially motivated armed robberies and more than two hundred murders in the U.S. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, who carried out the deadliest domestic terrorist attack on U.S. soil that took the lives of one hundred and sixty-eight U.S. citizens, was greatly influenced by the novel.
The novel is receiving a new wave of attention following the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Amazon refuses to sell it. Major new outlets have reported on the great influence that it has over far right and white supremacist groups. The violent white supremacists’ ideology that calls for nuclear and radiological attacks against non-white populations has spread across the world far beyond the borders of the U.S.
Anders Behring Breivik is a Norwegian far right terrorist. He killed seventy-seven people in July of 2011. He had called for the use of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents against “cultural Marxists,” “multiculturalists” and those responsible for the Islamic “colonization” of Europe in his fifteen-hundred page manifesto. In the manifesto he discussed plans for the theft or purchase of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials through international smuggling networks. Breivik suggested the use of radiological agents and nuclear weapons after January 1, 2020 which was his deadline for the Muslim immigrants to Europe to “assimilate.” The transnational networks of white supremacists, the Turner Diaries, and the call for nuclear and radiological attacks in Breivik’s manifesto are cause for grave concern.
Policy experts reassure the public that if we take nuclear terrorist seriously, it is preventable and solvable. White supremacists can and have easily infiltrated the police, the military and nuclear facilities. This makes them a very serious and hard-to-detect threat to national security. The Oath Keepers is a far right anti-government group which recruits former U.S. military and law enforcement personnel. They were deeply involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol this year. This involvement demonstrates the extent of this threat. The Biden administration has to make the screening of far right extremists within government institutions at local, state and federal levels.
In order to prevent a catastrophic nuclear terrorist attack by domestic terrorists in the U.S., the federal government much move beyond a narrow focus on terrorism as a threat from radical Islam. The U.S. government must develop a better understanding of the different ways in which far right domestic terrorism has grown in the U.S. and the specific threats that are developing. In spite of sufficient evidence that supports the concern that insider threats pose high security risks in nuclear and radiological environments, very little has been done at the policy level.
The threat of nuclear terrorism is so great that the U.S. federal government must act preemptively and not waiting for a devastating nuclear attack to motivate action. Past lessons tell us that action will have to involve breaking down the artificial and deleterious barrier between foreign and domestic policies. National security does not just mean that attacks from foreign actors are prevented. The siege of the Capitol came very close to being far worse. But, the fact that it was not does not mean that now is not the time for action. We must be proactive to prevent far right domestic terrorism from bringing nuclear attacks to the U.S.