BART McINTYRE: If you look at the potential of violence and the history of violence, the potential is tremendous.
RICK ROWLEY: Special Agent Bart McIntyre retired from the federal weapons control agency, the ATF, this January. As an undercover officer, he infiltrated a ring of white supremacist groups responsible for multiple murders.
BART McINTYRE: I mean, that was a belt buckle I would wear while we were undercover that we bought from one of the Klan rally sites.
RICK ROWLEY: He sees a perfect storm of economic and political conditions driving a rise in white supremacist violence.
BART McINTYRE: The economics, Obama being the black president, the Democratic-controlled Congress is all fueling the fires. The numbers may be small in the US, but you know there is an event sitting out there that could spark the movement, and all of a sudden you could see those numbers increase exponentially.
RICK ROWLEY: Special Agent McIntyre is not alone in his concern. Last spring, a US Department of Homeland Security report warned that right-wing extremists are now, quote, “the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States.” **The report’s most disturbing findings concern the movement’s attempt to recruit members inside the US military, something that McIntyre witnessed firsthand while working undercover.
BART McINTYRE: I mean, we were dealing with soldiers there out of Columbus, Georgia, and they were stealing military guns and explosives off the military base there. They were supplying it to white supremacist organizations. **
RICK ROWLEY: Special Agent McIntyre fears that the country could return to the violence of the ’90s, when decorated Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma Federal Building, killing 168 people.
BART McINTYRE: Someone’s always looking to be the next martyr. A Timothy McVeigh could happen any day of any week.
RICK ROWLEY: In December of 2008, Kody Brittingham, a lance corporal in the US Marine Corps, was arrested for involvement in a string of armed robberies. In his barracks room, investigators found white supremacist material, a declaration that Barack Obama was a domestic enemy of America, and plans for Obama’s assassination. At one point, death threats against President Obama were running at record levels, averaging thirty a day. These numbers have dropped off since their peak around the time of the election and inauguration. But law enforcement around the US remains on its guard for violence from many corners of the white supremacist world.