Mark Pitcavage is a historian and analyst of

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

wing groups. He works with the

Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...

and was the creator of the now-archived Militia Watchdog website. The site has been an archive since 2000 when Pitcavage took the position of Director of Fact Finding for the Anti-Defamation League.

Biography

Mark Pitcavage earned a PhD in American military and social history from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

in 1995. His PhD dissertation was entitled "An Equitable Burden: The Decline of State Militias 1783-1858".

Activism

Militia Watchdog

The Militia Watchdog website was founded by Pitcavage in 1995 following the

Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-government extremists, Timothy McVeigh and T ...

and operated until 2000. The site's subscription list, which mainly included law enforcement officers and other "watchdog" groups, is still being used by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The site also worked in cooperation with other "watchdog" groups such as The Center for New Community, The Center for Democratic Renewal, the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

and the

Simon Wiesenthal Center The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating anti-Semitism, tolerance educat ...

.^(p34) Pitcavage's Militia Watchdog profiles have been used as a source for writers on militias and their activities. With the success of the Militia Watchdog project, Pitcavage was made the Director of Investigative Research for the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training Program (SLATT).^(p34) SLATT is an FBI domestic intelligence gathering apparatus that uses both paid and unpaid informants, primarily from organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and The Center for New Community. The SLATT program is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Anti-Defamation League

The ADL absorbed Pitcavage's Militia Watchdog group and now maintains the site as an archive of his work between 1995 and 2000.

Commentator on terrorism, gangs, and extremism

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Pitcavage was cited as a terrorism and extremism expert by mainstream media. In 2002, he was interviewed and quoted at length about prison gangs by the

. Pitcavage has given interviews for radio stations such as

KCBS (AM) KCBS (740 kHz) is an all-news AM radio station located in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. (formerly Entercom), which took over after its merger with CBS Radio. KCBS is the Bay Area's only 24/7, live and local radio sta ...

. In 2006, a student radio station at St. Petersburg College interviewed Pitcavage for an episode titled "Militia Movement".

Bibliography

Academic journal articles

*''Ropes of Sand: Territorial Militias, 1801-1812'', ''Journal of the Early Republic,'' Vol. 13, No. 4, University of Pennsylvania Press (1993) (pp. 481–500) *''Camouflage and Conspiracy: The Militia Movement From Ruby Ridge to Y2K'', ''American Behavioral Scientist,'' 44, no. 6 (2001): 957-981

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitcavage, Mark Anti-Defamation League Ohio State University Graduate School alumni Political science writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)