Joe Miller's pals at Drop Zone: About as hard-core as militias get

-- by Dave

Those thugs that Joe Miller used to rough up reporters, it seems, aren't just your ordinary street-corner hooligans.

It turns out, as Glenn Greenwald noted yesterday, that they're also active-duty soldiers. On top of that: the company, Drop Zone, is an unlicensed business, and the supplier for the Alaska Militia.

PalinGates has the details:

"Dropzone Security Services" is not just a company run by people who are not very clever, but the company is also right at the heart of the "Alaska Citizens Militia" - a group commanded by Norm Olson, who once rose to "fame" as the founder of the Michigan militia.

...

"Dropzone Bill" is the "nickname" of none other than William F. Fulton, the owner of "Dropzone Security Services", who came across as an unprofessional "goon" during the "arrest" of Tony Hopfinger.

He uses this nickname for his postings on the google-message board of the "Alaska Citizens Militia", which conveniently is public, for everyone to see.

From the postings, several facts can be established: Fulton's "Dropzone" military surplus shop in Anchorage which he owns together with his (currently unlicensed) security company, is a regular meeting point for the members of the militia and appears also to be their main supplier, according to the messages on the website. In addition, Fulton aka "Dropzone Bill" is a local commander of the militia.

According to Tony Hopfinger's site, the Alaska Department of Public Safety is now investigating.

And the more you look at Drop Zone, the uglier they get. For instance, check out this "Lone Wolf Resistance Newsletter". It's from the militia site Patriot Resistance, which is based in Arizona, and built out of its page dedicated to the Lone Wolf Survival Manual.

You all remember lone wolves, don't you? Does the name James Von Brunn ring a bell?

The "lone wolf" concept was popularized in the late 1980s by an Aryan Nations leader named Louis Beam as an extension of his strategy of "leaderless resistance." One white supremacist, a fellow named Alex Curtis, even went so far as to develop a "point system" for lone wolves.

A 2003 piece by Jessica Stern in Foreign Affairs described how even Al Qaeda was finding the concept useful. And she explains its origins:

The idea was popularized by Louis Beam, the self-described ambassador-at-large, staff propagandist, and "computer terrorist to the Chosen" for Aryan Nations, an American neo-Nazi group. Beam writes that hierarchical organization is extremely dangerous for insurgents, especially in "technologically advanced societies where electronic surveillance can often penetrate the structure, revealing its chain of command." In leaderless organizations, however, "individuals and groups operate independently of each other, and never report to a central headquarters or single leader for direction or instruction, as would those who belong to a typical pyramid organization." Leaders do not issue orders or pay operatives; instead, they inspire small cells or individuals to take action on their own initiative.

The strategy was also inspired by at least one "lone wolf" shooter: Joseph Paul Franklin, a racist sniper who in the late 1970s and early 1980s killed as many as 20 people -- mostly mixed-race couples -- on a serial-murder spree, and attempted to assassinate both Vernon Jordan and Larry Flynt. (Franklin was also the inspiration for William Pierce's Hunter, the follow-up novel to The Turner Diaries.)

There has been no dearth of lone wolves in the years since Beam set the strategy for the radical right: Eric Rudolph. Buford Furrow. Benjamin Smith. James Kopp. Jim David Adkisson. And now add Scott Roeder and James von Brunn to the list.

That's quite a trail of "isolated incidents," isn't it?

These are quite the folks that Joe Miller has surrounded himself with, isn't it?

Well, we already warned you that Joe Miller was lining up to become the Patriot movement's first elected Senator, and until this incident, he was doing it largely under the radar. Hopefully Alaskans will wise up before Election Day.


[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]