Mountaineer Militia was a local anti-government paramilitary group, members of which plotted to blow up an FBI building

Clarksburg, West Virginia Clarksburg is a city in and the county seat of Harrison County, West Virginia, United States, in the north-central region of the state. The population of the city was 16,039 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Clarksburg micro ...

in 1996. The group also used the name West Virginia Mountaineer Militia, and had ties with another militias from other states.

Plot and arrest

On October 11, 1996, seven men having connections with the Mountaineer Militia, a local anti-government paramilitary group, were arrested on charges of plotting to blow up the Federal Bureau of Investigation's

Criminal Justice Information Services Division The Criminal Justice Information Services Division (or CJIS) is a division of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) located in Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia. The CJIS was established in February 1992 and is the lar ...

, after a 16-month investigation. The group had even considered the killing United States Senator

Jay Rockefeller John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virg ...

and Federal Reserve chairman

Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. He works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. ...

in a "holy war" against the "tiranous" U.S. government. While members of the group had been assembling large quantities of explosives and blasting caps, militia leader Floyd Raymond Looker obtained blueprints of the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

facility from a

firefighter.

Plastic explosives Plastic explosive is a soft and hand-moldable solid form of explosive material. Within the field of explosives engineering, plastic explosives are also known as putty explosives or blastics. Plastic explosives are especially suited for explos ...

were confiscated by law enforcement officials at five locations in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Looker was taken into custody after arranging to sell the blueprints for $50,000 to an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed to be a representative of an international

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

group. In 1998 Looker was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Two other defendants were sentenced on explosives charges, and the firefighter drew a year in prison for providing blueprints. The charges with those who were judge include conspiracy to manufacture explosives, transport explosives across state lines and place them near the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services center in Clarksburg. Two of the arrested, Edward Moore and Jack Phillips, were charged for the making and dealing in explosives, including homemade nitroglycerine and C-4. Before the arrests, Moore said to Mr. Looker and the Government informer that he had perfected a homemade rocket-propelled grenade. Also, the authorities said, the group held a training practices in which they detonated an improvised explosive that left a hole two feet wide and four feet deep. Other arrested were James R. Rogers, (40) a firefighter from Clarksburg. He is accused for the providing of 12 photographs of blueprints of the

complex, including plans for the underground computer center, with the objective to attack that part of the complex. The group also posted a video on the internet called "America Under Siege," alleging acts authorized by the federal government against its own people.

Convictions

On March 29, 1998, the leader Floyd "Ray" Looker was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in a federal prison. Looker (57), was among the first to be charged under a 1994 antiterrorism law that makes it a crime to provide material resources to terrorists activities. While Looker pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges, on several occasions he mentioned that the plans and materials he had couldn't have made the attack successful. James R. Rogers, was sentenced to 10 years.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 Terrorism in the United States Paramilitary organizations based in the United States Right-wing militia organizations in the United States 1996 in West Virginia 1995 establishments in West Virginia 1990s disestablishments in West Virginia Organizations based in West Virginia