Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

POSSE COMITATUS • 549banking systems to be part of an anti-Christian conspiracy to defraudand enslave ordinary white Christians. Although the Posse Comitatusis not an Identity Christian or neo-Nazi movement, its views arecongruent with the anti-Semitic and white supremacist beliefs heldby the Identity Christian and other right-wing extremist groups withwhich Posse Comitatus cooperated.Posse Comitatus was formed by former neo-Nazi Henry LamontBeach in 1969 from remnants of the Minutemen organization, whichhad fallen apart following the conviction of its founder, Robert de-Pugh, on federal firearms violations. During the 1970s Posse chaptersspread throughout every state, instructing members in stratagems toavoid paying taxes legally as well as more questionable methods suchas resorting to unrecorded barter transactions. Posse members alsoused to file harassment suits against Internal Revenue Service (IRS)officials and law enforcement officers to obstruct these officials fromperforming their duties. Posse also tried to create unchartered barterandbullion-based “banks” for its members as an alternative to theexisting banking system.Following the crackdown initiated under the IRS Illegal Tax ProtestorProgram begun in 1980, Posse tactics grew more violent. In May1983 Gordon Kahl, a North Dakota farmer and Posse member alreadyonce jailed on conviction for tax resistance, killed two federal marshalswho sought to serve him subpoenas. On 3 June 1983 Kahl died in ashoot-out with state and federal agents in an Arkansas cabin. On 20August 1986 a pipe bomb intended for U.S. Federal District CourtJudge Paul Benson, who had sentenced Kahl and other Posse memberspreviously for tax resistance, was intercepted in Fargo, North Dakota.The Posse has produced at least one major splinter group, namely,the Arizona Patriots. Members of this group were indicted in December1986 of plotting to bomb the western regional office of the IRSin Ogden, Utah, using a vehicle packed with explosives; to bombseveral targets in Los Angeles including the FBI office and the SimonWiesenthal Center; and to bomb two offices of the Jewish DefenseLeague and a synagogue in Phoenix.Due to their distrust of the federal government, Posse members havetaken pains to avoid creating “paper trails” and have kept outsidersignorant of the structure and leadership of their organization. Membersavoid the use of standard identification cards, such as driver’slicenses and Social Security cards. By the mid-1980s, membership