It’s official.
Right-wing extremists have declared war on America.
Rather than attend the Nazi rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia with his fellow “Three Percenters” over the weekend,
Jerry Drake Varnell decided to attempt
a second Oklahoma City Bombing instead.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Richmond state Representative Justin Price publicly praised the Three Percenter movement. When will Price and his radical right colleagues Rep. Blake “Flip” Filippi (R-Charlestown) and Sen. Elaine Morgan (R-Hopkinton) speak out against radical right violence, racism and hate? - Will Collette
Emulating right-wing terrorist Timothy McVeigh, Varnell wanted to detonate a car bomb near the memorial honoring the 168 people who were murdered in 1995 when McVeigh detonated a similar bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a blast that even killed many children.
Emulating right-wing terrorist Timothy McVeigh, Varnell wanted to detonate a car bomb near the memorial honoring the 168 people who were murdered in 1995 when McVeigh detonated a similar bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a blast that even killed many children.
Luckily, Varnell was
being monitored by the FBI at the time and even had an undercover agent with
Varnell to guarantee that the bombing plot would fail.
“There was never a
concern that our community’s safety or security was at risk during this
investigation,” FBI Special Agent Kathryn Peterson said in a statement. “I can
assure the public, without hesitation, that we had Varnell’s actions monitored
every step of the way.”
Varnell was arrested
while trying to detonate the unarmed bomb next to the
BancFirst in Oklahoma City. He intended to post an anti-government manifesto on
social media afterward if he had succeeded.
And it appears that
Varnell is connected to a group of right-wing extremists who participated in the Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that resulted in
acts of violence and the murder of a woman in an act of domestic terrorism.
According to the complaint, over the course of a months-long undercover investigation by the FBI, Varnell made repeated statements about the extent of his hatred of the federal government.
In one conversation he said he believed in the “Three Percenter” ideology — a form of anti-government activism that pledges resistance against the United States government on the belief it has infringed on the Constitution, according to court papers.
Those who subscribe to the ideology incorrectly believe that only 3 percent of the colonial population participated in the American Revolution, and they see themselves as their heirs.
Donald Trump’s refusal to
condemn Nazis and the rest of the right-wing extremists in Charlottesville has
emboldened them. If the FBI had not already been monitoring Varnell, his bomb
would have exploded and killed Americans. One wonders how many more domestic
terrorism plots are underway because white nationalists think Trump is on their
side.