Chapter 2:
The Governor Pals Around With Terrorists
Perry at the time was running for reelection, and his opponent was US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a solidly conservative Republican serving nearly twenty years in the US Senate and almost another twenty in public offices before that. Perry decided to use the secession issue to paint himself as more Texan and Hutchinson as a product of Washington. (Hutchinson, to her credit, never uttered similar treason. As a conservative her record is accomplished, no matter whether one shares her opinions.)
Perry turned to promoting a state congressman, Brandon Creighton, author of a nonbinding resolution supporting the so called Tenther Movement, based on claims about the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution. "I'm talking about states' rights," Perry said at a press conference on the resolution, pandering to an issue that is a favorite of not only some conservatives and Libertarians, but also hardcore racists.
Perry at first did not draw much attention when he endorsed Creighton's “sovereignty” resolution. But the Drudge Report, an online tabloid specializing in scandal from a hard line conservative point of view, then posted a Perry news release. Rightwing talk radio then picked up the story, including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham. Perry’s website received more than 300,000 hits a day, compared to its usual 5,000. Perry's appearance with Creighton supporting the “sovereignty” resolution made the top 100 watched videos on the YouTube site.
Perry’s speech used rhetoric strikingly like that of segregationists in the 1950s and 60s:
"I agree with Texas’s seventh governor, and I happen to think its greatest governor, Sam Houston who once said, ‘Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may. We didn't like oppression then, we don't like oppression now. I believe the federal government has become oppressive. I believe it's become oppressive in its size, its intrusion in the lives of its citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state. Texans need to ask themselves a question: do they side with those in Washington who are pursuing this unprecedented expansion of power, or do they believe in individual rights and responsibilities laid down in our foundational documents? Where you gonna stand? With an ever-growing Washington bureaucracy or are you gonna stand with the people of this state who understand the importance of states' rights?"
The conference was sponsored by and included members of the Texas Nationalist Movement and the Tenther Movement. But even more unsavory characters attended. Dan Miller is the leader of a far right militia group calling itself the so called “Republic of Texas” or ROT.
The ROT militia began in 1995, claiming they had begun again the provisional government of the original “Republic of Texas.” Like many other so called freemen or sovereign citizen groups, they set up their own “banks,” printed their own “currency,” and began harassing state officials with a blizzard of phony liens, affidavits, orders, summonses, and arrest warrants. Federal judges and prosecutors had to step up security and were guarded by US Marshalls to prevent possible kidnappings. Then-Governor George W. Bush and the Internal Revenue Service offices in Texas were both ordered by the ROT militia to vacate their offices. The ROT demanded more than $92 trillion in “war reparations” from the federal government. ROT militia leader Richard McLaren publicly depicted Texas as a “captive nation” he would free.
In less than two years, the ROT militia filed more than two billion dollars in phony claims and liens. Militia members also passed more than two million dollars in phony checks. At one point, over 300 angry militia members stood on the Texas Capital Building steps, trying to deliver papers demanding that Bush leave office. The ROT militia also worked with another militia, the Washitaws, issuing fraudulent cashier’s checks, money orders, passports, driver’s licenses, and birth certificates. In the most audacious single one of these schemes, members of both militias tried to issue $1.5 billion in deposit warrants to a Spanish bank in Puerto Rico, and tried to buy Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, and Lexuses, along with pieces of real estate.
The ROT militia split into three groups in 1996, one led by Richard McLaren operating out of an “embassy” (actually a trailer) in the remote small town of Fort Davis in west Texas. That part of the state wasn’t even part of the original “Republic of Texas.” Another ROT militia faction was led by by David Johnson and Jesse Enloe. Yet a third ROT faction was headed by Archie Lowe and Daniel Miller.
In 1997, McLaren and other members of his faction kidnapped their neighbors Joe and Margaret Ann Rowe and held them hostage at the “embassy.” The ROT militia, so convinced they were leaders of a reborn Texas nation, for a time destroyed much of the sympathy that all but the most delusional Texans had for secession by getting into a standoff with over 200 Texas state police lasting over a week. Police even brought in armored vehicles.
The ROT militia kidnappings made headlines worldwide. McLaren’s bizarre and delusional behavior only made things worse. McLaren claimed to be an ambassador and counsel general. He claimed diplomatic immunity, and that state officials seemed willing to negotiate. In fact, Governor Bush had a hands-off approach, leaving everything to state police on the scene. As much of a loose cannon as Bush was as president, determined to expand government power in ways that can only be called oppressive, as the Governor of Texas, Bush was remarkably restrained.
McLaren publicly insisted, “We’re not going to surrender. We’re going to press for our international rights.” His bluster worsened day by day, darkly suggesting a civil war was coming. “Most of the [militia] people feel that if there’s a battleground, it might as well be Texas….We consider we’re still engaged in a war.” In another interview, he declared, “We are at war with the United Nations and all foreign entities….we are at war with the federal agencies which have no jurisdiction here.”
At the end of the week, though, McLaren’s wife talked him into giving up and releasing the kidnap victims. As the state police closed in, McLaren suffered one final outburst of delusion and self-importance, issuing an SOS by radio and calling for other militias to come defend his faction. But other militias, including those in Texas, publicly refused to consider coming to his aid, arguing McLaren had done enormous damage to their image and causes.
On trial, the full extent of the ROT militia’s lunacy came out. McLaren had tried to buy stockpiles of American military weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. The ROT planned to shoot down Governor Bush’s airplane. A jury from conservative west Texas took only ninety minutes to find McLaren guilty. All told, seven ROT members were convicted because of the standoff, one not being captured until later and another killed in a shootout with police. Later evidence also showed the ROT militia monitored the US Army Base at Fort Hood, Texas, intending to attack it because they falsely believed it housed foreign or United Nations troops.
The leadership of one faction of the ROT had dissolved, with its leaders being jailed. A second faction, led by David Johnson and Jesse Enloe, was no less dangerous. Jack Abbot Grebe Jr. and Johnie Wise, two members of the Johnson-Enloe faction, were arrested and convicted in 1998 of planning and threatening to assassinate a number of government officials, including President Bill Clinton.(A third man, Oliver Dean Emigh, was arrested but acquitted, and died in 2003 of natural causes. For all the militia tough talk about independence and self sufficiency, Emigh was buried in a grave at public expense.)
In June of 1998, the men sent an email with a “Declaration of War” to President Clinton, the FBI director, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, the US Attorney General, and their families:
“Your [government] employees and their families have been targeted for destruction by revenge....Non-traceable, personal delivery systems have been developed to inject bacteria and/or viruses for the purpose of killing, maiming, and causing great suffering.”
The planned method of attack used biological weapons, cactus thorns coated with deadly toxins. They were arrested in Olmito, Texas, near the Mexi
can border. The men told an FBI informant they planned to modify cigarette lighters so they could expel air, shooting cactus needles dipped in anthrax, botulism, or the AIDS virus. On trial, both men made rambling speeches, saying they refused to accept the government’s authority and that their names were invalid because the court documents spelled them in all capital letters.
In the same year, another ROT militia leader, Jacque Jaikaran, tried to purchase a four story building in Houston with machine gun turrets, a bomb shelter, and an operating room. Jaikaran was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion. He claimed not to be part of the ROT militia, but instead to be associated with the Constitution Party and the Christian Party of Texas. But there is no sign either party has any history of violence, promotes secession, or breaks the law.
In 2000, members of the ROT militia planned to attack the Houston Federal building. Federal agents arrested Mark McCool, leader of the ROT’s “Militia and Combined Action Program.” McCool was arrested buying C-4 plastic explosives and automatic weapons. McCool pled guilty and served time on the federal charges.
Yet in spite of all these factions’ losses, the ROT militia continued and the three factions actually merged together again. In 2003, members of these militias recognized first an "interim" government, replacing a "provisional" government headed by “President” Daniel Miller, the same man who shared the press conference with Governor Perry. The ROT militia set up a “government” in the town of Overton, Texas, a remote town in the northeast part of the state, with a population slightly under 2400. Later the militia leaders described an attack by what they called a “white supremacist faction” within their “republic.” The ROT headquarters in Overton burned down on August 31, 2005, injuring one of its members.
The ROT militia continued to sell items like a “Republic of Texas passport.” Their earlier schemes issuing dubious documents took a serious hit. The state of Texas passed strict laws to block the filing of false court documents, especially false liens on property that the ROT militia had used to finance their group. Then-Governor Bush considered the matter serious enough to give it emergency status before the legislature.
The militia movement had made serious enough inroads that Republican Congressman Steve Stockman had sought out and received their support. Stockman claimed the standoff with the Branch Davidian cult at Waco was a government conspiracy to “prove the need for a ban on so called assault weapons.” Some in the militia movement thought so highly of Stockman they sent him an anonymous fax within fifty minutes of the Oklahoma City bombing, celebrating the attack. The FBI found Stockman had no ties whatsoever to the bombing. But Stockman’s support of the militia movement proved his undoing, and he was defeated for reelection in 1998.
There are two smaller splinters from the ROT militia, the Texas Convention Pro-Continuation 1861 (TCPC), and the so called 10th Congress, which meets at the small town of Washington-on-the-Brazos. The 10th Congress website claims “Any outfit that is not part of the 10th Congress…claiming to be any of the Republic of Texas is bogus and aside from treason is probably involved in serial frauds.” Other portions of the clumsy website describe their “evidenice of recognition.”
In 1998, ROT militia member Carolyn Carney was sentenced to ten years in prison for threatening a highway patrolman with a gun. The officer was one of several serving an arrest warrant on her for failing to appear in court on other charges.
In 1999 in Trinidad, Texas, ROT militia member John Joe Gray was in a car pulled over for speeding. He was carrying a gun without a permit and resisted arrest. Gray tried to take one officer’s gun and actually bit the other officer’s hand during the struggle. He went to jail. Though he was known to be a militia member, alleged to be part of a plan to bomb a highway, and alleged to have had others make threats to carry out violence unless he was released, Gray was allowed out on bond.
Two months later, Gray sent a letter telling the authorities, in essence, if you come on my property, bring body bags. For twelve years, the authorities have refused to try to arrest him. Gray has remained hiding out on his small country property. Gray’s extended family living with him includes up to sixteen people, some heavily armed, some children. Gray has also avoided prosecution for unpaid taxes and has sheltered his daughter defying a court order giving up custody of her children to an ex-husband. Gray was also once part of the Embassy of Heaven, a cult that issues its own licenses and passports since they believe the US to be a “pervert nation.” Gray began stockpiling for what he believed would be the end times in Y2K. When the end of society did not come, Gray continued to stay in hiding. Conservative film star Chuck Norris even offered to pay for legal representation if Gray would surrender. Gray continues his standoff, for over twelve years now and counting.
In 2010, ROT militia member Victor Dewayne White shot two deputies and an employee of an oil company in Odessa, Texas in a dispute over property rights. From behind homemade barricades, White challenged officers to come get him in a siege lasting twenty-two hours. White finally surrendered and was indicted on three counts of attempted murder.
By my count, the ROT militia is guilty of:
Treason, seeking to overthrow the US and Texas governments by force
Plots to assassinate one American President and one Texas Governor
Plotting to murder soldiers at an American Army base
Plotting to murder federal employees
Over $2 billion in various forms of fraud
Three kidnappings
Three other attempted murders, including of two law enforcement officers
Three assaults on law enforcement officers
Numerous threats against law enforcement officers
Numerous threats against public officials
Attempts to stockpile missiles, plastic explosives, other military weapons
Paper terrorism using phony liens, court orders, summons, warrants
Numerous counts of forging passports, driver’s licenses, other documents
The ROT militia claims to have 40,000 members statewide.
Recall the phony charges against President Obama in 2008: Charges Obama was “palling around with terrorists” for briefly serving on a committee that met a few times a week with a man who, a quarter of a century earlier, had blown up property but taken care not to injure anyone, who had never been convicted, and who renounced even that limited violence and become a respected education reformer.
But the Texas governor shared the stage with real terrorists, and sought out their support. The ROT militia tried to assassinate a Democratic president and a Republican governor, murder police and innocent civilians, force elected officials from office using threats, steal on a scale most organized crime can only dream about, and intimidate any who disagree with them. This militia was guilty of terrorism while Perry shared the stage with them. Victor Dewayne White tried to murder cops within a year of Perry’s conference. John Joe Gray remained in his armed standoff with law enforcement at the same time as the conference, and still is as this is being typed.
It is just a matter of time until we see another violent spree from more members of the ROT. It would be extremely unlikely if the ROT militia leadership is not plotting terrorism at this very moment, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Their leaders are utterly unrepentant or dismissive of that violence, and continue to promote treason and secession. The ROT militia is guilty of no less than crimes against America when Perry shared the stage with this militia and endorsed them.
The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) is another group whose support Perry sought out, and that appeared with Perry at his press conference. Unlike the ROT militia, the TNM does not resort to violence or advocate it. The group does openly advocate treason, the overthrow or secession of Texas from the United States. They openly associate with the ROT militia, work with them on issues, and share the same goals of secession and treason.
The TNM proudly po
sted on their website Perry appearing with their leaders at the press conference. Members were urged to send this message to their congressmen:
“ ….I agree with everything that Congressman Creighton and Governor Perry said last Thursday at the Capitol press conference. I agree that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of Texans, and its interference with the affairs of our great state.
I am also wanting to express my diligent and unwavering belief that the State Legislature should ultimately seek the full independence of Texas so that we never have to revisit this issue.
Texans are keeping this under close watch. We will not forget this when the time comes to cast our votes at the ballot box.
Thank you for your time and attention in this matter.
Texans for Liberty, Sovereignty, and Independence from Washington,”
The Texas Nationalist Movement claims to have 250,000 members, both in Texas and nationwide. Their website makes it clear their leadership includes conspiracy theorist crackpots making wild claims about one world government, the Bilderbergs (a popular bogeyman among anti-Semitic bigots), and the United Nations.
The TNM website also proudly insists that a future Texas Republic Constitution will have the “immediate repudiation and eviction” of any progressives (whom they argue are communists), and will ban public education, public assistance for the poor, the regulation of business, public debt, paper money, national or federal courts, taxes, and will bar any treaties with other nations. Seemingly they want to transform Texas into Somalia, a nation run by militias and not a government. The only difference is the people would be white Christian conservatives, and run by local county government, which is often notoriously corrupt and brutal in Texas. But the end result would be the same, an ungovernable mess and as much of a failed state as the original “Republic of Texas.” Failed states attract terrorists, who use them as a base because the government is too weak to stop them. A “Republic of Texas” would be sought out as refuge by everyone from the Aryan Nation to apocalyptic cults, who would launch terrorist attacks from its soil.
Such were the people Governor Perry was pandering to in order to defeat a fairly mainstream but solid conservative of several decades, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, in his re-election bid. But this was not the last of the fringe groups he appealed to.
Also at the conference were members of the so-called Tenther Movement. The Tenther Movement touts the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution as supposedly supporting state sovereignty. They are not violent nor do they commit many crimes as the ROT militia does. They do not advocate treason and secession as the TNM does. But the Tenther Movement is every bit as misguided and ignorant of law and history as militias and secessionists.
The main thrust of the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution is simple. “...All is retained which has not been surrendered.” You may recall this from high school government classes being referred to as the “elastic” amendment to the Constitution, designed to supplement other parts of the Constitution such as the “elastic clause.” Basically the Founding Fathers wanted to make sure the federal government was not limited in its power. Supreme Court decisions like United States v. Sprague have consistently upheld this interpretation.
The Founders and the ratifiers of both the Constitution and the Tenth Amendment rejected strict limits on federal authority that had been in the original Articles of Confederation. The Articles limited Congress to those powers "expressly delegated" to it. The Tenth Amendment drops "expressly."
The Tenth Amendment goes even further, stating the federal government has all power "nor prohibited by it to the states," Fact is, the Tenth Amendment limits powers of the state governments and explicitly protects and expands federal power. Yet the Tenther Movement completely misreads the Tenth Amendment, imagining that it expands the powers of the states to even give them “sovereignty.”
This was the same argument used by secessionist traitors who tried to destroy America in the Civil War, just to hold onto their barbaric system of slavery. (As one US senator recently put it, the Tenth Amendment should really be called the Slavery Amendment since that is what its misguided defenders rally around.) Tenthers imagine that the Tenth Amendment allows state governments to pick and choose which federal laws they will follow. As with all states rights arguments and groups, supporters include a mix of types. Sometimes the movement tries to appeal to the fringes of fiscal conservatism and believers in a small or limited federal government. But the movement also appeals to much of the most extreme and violent anti-government militias, so called “patriot movement” people, so called “constitutionalists,” neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, conspiracy theorists, and other assorted racists.
“States’ rights” movements have always been immensely hypocritical. Always they have sought “states’ rights” solely for their own causes, and conveniently ignore supposed states’ rights when it does not suit their purposes. Slavery defenders wanted states’ rights to keep the federal government from freeing slaves, but opposed states’ rights when it came to the rights of fugitive slaves and of states that wanted to ban slavery. Slavery’s defenders hypocritically demanded the federal government be used to return escaped slaves to their former masters even while they hollered about “states’ rights.” Current states’ rights supporters demand that states have the supposed right to block healthcare reform. But they also want to block states from the public option or starting their own government run healthcare programs. There are even hypocrites on the left who used the states right argument to push for their state to ignore antidrug laws or keep soldiers from their state out of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, but would never ever push for states’ rights on issues they oppose. A supposed states’ rights believer who will push for that principle, no matter how their own pet beliefs are affected, is a rare person indeed.
The “sovereignty resolution” read, in part:
The 81st Legislature of the State of Texas hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
That this serves as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.
But this resolution was purely symbolic, a bit of empty pandering to constituents with no force or law behind. Basically the resolution was passed in May 2009, sent on to the federal government, which ignored it, filed it away, and forgot about it.
So the three main secessionist groups, the ROT militia, the TNM, and the Tenthers, followed up one symbolic win by pushing for another. Their next proposed resolution asked the state legislature to bring independence up for a state referendum. In the hopes of simply using the referendum to build support, it was to be, like the previous resolution, purely symbolic, nonbinding, and without the force of law:
Be it further Resolved that:
The vote of the citizens on the issue of independence be non-binding and advisory only.
That the results of the voting of the citizens of Texas be reported to the Governor and the sitting members of the Legislature of the State of Texas for further consideration in accordance with the wishes of the citizens of the State of Texas.
That the results of the voting also be reported to the both houses of the United States Congress and the President of the United States.
That the wording of the issue to be placed on the ballot shall be as follows:
That the State of Texas should declare its independence from the United States of America and return to a Republican form of government as the Republic of Texas.
At that point, Rick Perry went no further. His flirtation with the would-be independence movement was over. He wrote his screed against the federal government, Fed Up!, and turned away from any further association with militias, secessionists, and other traitors. The sole remaining sign of this dance with treasonous ideas and people is his continuing belief, against all evidenc
e, in the urban legend that Texas has a supposed legal right to secede, unique among the states.
His breaking away from them did not go well. Some of the groups’ leadership clearly despises him. Following his announcement of the run for president, there have been wild claims about him being “a Bilderberger.” Some of his former supporters in secessionist traitors denounced him in the harshest terms. It is not above the realm of possibility that some might even turn to violence against Perry. That same violent streak could easily be turned against any group or other individual the militias single out, anyone who is perceived to stand in the way of their goals.
The list of militias in the state of Texas is long and disturbing:
AMARA Temple of Moorish Science-Arlington
American Open Currency Standard- Frisco
American Patriots for Freedom Foundation-Spring
Central Texas Militia-Central
Church of God Evangelistic Association- Waxahachie
Concho Valley Volunteer Militia-San Angelo
Confederate States Home Guard-Port Lavaca
Constitution Party-Cleburne
Constitution Society-Austin
Dallas City Troop- Carrollton
Freedom School-Austin
Freemen Project-Houston
John Birch Society-Corpus Christi
Liberty Regulators-Houston
North Central Texas Patriots-Dallas
Oath Keepers-Statewide
Order of Constitution Defenders- Houston
Patriotic Space-Waco
Southeast Texas Patriots-Sugar Land
Southwest Desert Militia-West Texas
Texas Central District 14 Patriots- Lockhart
Texas Militia-Huntington
The “Republic of Texas” militia has a long list of chapters all by itself:
Bastrop County, Bexar County, Bowie County, Brazos County, Colorado County, Fayette County, Galveston County, Goliad County, Harris County, Harrison County, Houston County, Jackson County, Jasper County, Jefferson County, Lamar County, Liberty County, Matagorda County, Milam County, Montgomery County, Nacogdoches County, Red River County, Refugio County, Robertson County, Rusk County, Sabine County, Shelby County, Travis County, Victoria County, Washington County
Another group called the Texas Militia has chapters in: Austin, College Station, Conroe, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Katy, Killeen, Laredo, New Braunfels, San Antonio, Waco, Wichita Falls, and Winnsboro.
We Are Change has chapters in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Pasadena, San Antonio, San Marcos, and Tyler.
Not all of these groups advocate violence. Most are heavily armed though, and uniformly hostile to the federal government. Most believe in or advocate conspiracy theories. Most have roots that go back, ultimately, to extremist groups, white supremacists, or other terrorists.
In hindsight, it is amazing that none of them carried out violence in the wake of Perry’s seeking favor with them. Under Perry, they got as close as they ever have to full secession from the US.
Now imagine things had gone just a little bit farther. With so many crazed terrorists itching for secession, it’s not hard to see how things could have gotten very bloody….