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OVERSHADOWED BY the Unabomer and the Freemen standoff, the bombings in Spokane, Wash., didn't get much attention. On April 2 a crude pipe bomb ripped through an office of the local newspaper; 11 minutes later, two men in ski masks robbed a nearby bank of $50,000, setting off another bomb as they left. No one was seriously hurt, but the marauders left a familiar signature: a letter proclaiming "the end of the Babylon."
Among far-right white supremacists, "Babylon" is the evil government. The FBI -- newly sensitive to any sign of extremist violence -- suspects the attacks may have been the work of the Aryan Republican Army, whose members like to use the names of federal agents when they rent getaway cars. For the Feds, it was another reminder that domestic terrorism is rising to levels not seen since the rash of bombings by student radicals and militants in the late '60s and early '70s. This week brings the "Date of Doom" -- April 19, anniversary of Waco and Oklahoma City -- and worries that right-wingers could strike again.
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There are plenty of possible perps. The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified 440 self-proclaimed antigovernment militias active in every state in the country. Although the Feds caution that many militiamen are little more than "Internet commandos," they take the extremists seriously, no matter how improbable. After all, if prosecutors are right, Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols seemed Mickey Mouse until they blew up the Murrah building.
At the Justice Department, NEWSWEEK has learned, a secret task force called the Executive Working Group on Domestic Terrorism meets every two weeks, culls intelligence and plans strategy. Since the group was set up late last year, FBI militia investigations -- including electronic eavesdropping and the use of undercover agents -- have increased fourfold. The Feds are trying to stop the bombs before they go off: in 1995 they busted one would-be Texas terrorist who was planning to blow up the IRS office in Austin.
At the same time, the FBI is skittish about pushing too hard. The bureau is still haunted by the COINTELPRO domestic spying scandals of the 1970s, which disgraced the FBI after J. Edgar Hoover's gumshoes were caught using black-bag jobs and illegal wiretaps to suppress domestic dissent. A week after the Oklahoma bombing, Director Louis Freeh did something remarkable for an FBI chief: he rejected calls to give the bureau more power to fight militia groups. Freeh worried about feeding right-wing paranoia. But the fringe's fears could intensify anyway: this week Congress is expected to pass a sweeping new antiterrorism bill. Still, FBI agents say it is often hard to distinguish between a harmless shooting club and paramilitary terrorists. Asks one: "Are these guys who like to shoot paint balls at each other in the woods on Saturday mornings -- or are they planning to blow up another federal building?" To find out, FBI agents stay in touch with outspoken leaders like the Montana Militia's John Trochmann and have even been instructed to "take out members of these militias for beers and talk things over." Hoover would never have allowed that -- but it's a new world.
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