"Law enforcement officials should be particularly aware that the new millennium may increase the odds that extremists may engage in proactive violence specifically targeting law enforcement officers. Religiously motivated extremists may initiate violent conflicts with law enforcement officials in an attempt to facilitate the onset of Armageddon, or to help fulfill a "prophesy." For many on the extreme right-wing, the battle of Armageddon is interpreted as a race war to be fought between Aryans and the "satanic" Jews and their allies. Likewise, extremists who are convinced that the millennium will lead to a One World Government may choose to engage in violence to prevent such a situation from occurring. In either case, extremists motivated by the millennium could choose martyrdom when approached or confronted by law enforcement officers. Thus, law enforcement officials should be alert for the following: 1) plans to initiate conflict with law enforcement; 2) the potential increase in the number of extremists willing to become martyrs; and 3) the potential for a quicker escalation of conflict during routine law enforcement activities (e.g. traffic stops, issuance of warrants, etc.)."
Project Megiddo, final paragraph.The United States Federal Bureau of Investigations distributed a document to law enforcement officials in late 1999 called Project Megiddo. The FBI also made the document available to the general public. Concerned about New Year's celebrations, the FBI profiled various groups that it felt could have posed a threat.
The groups targeted by the FBI fell into three general categories: Militia, Racial Supremacists (White and Black) and Religious Zealots (violent cults). Project Megiddo has since become a notorious government document A viral text that is the logical outcome of escalating law enforcement fears since Ruby Ridge (1992), Waco (1994) and the Oklahoma City bombing (1995). No wonder that it rapidly became focal point of widespread debate within Christian Identity and Militia communities.
For Christian Identity and Black Hebrew Israelites groups, who believe that an imminent race war looms on the horizon, The Turner Diaries (1978) is their bible, a guidebook of the 21st century 'wars of national liberation' and holocuasts to come. Written by Dr. William Pierce, who was an officer of the American Nazi Party and is currently head of the National Alliance, The Turner Diaries was given its own section in Project Megiddo, due to the widespread influence it has had on White Supremacists. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh apparently had a copy on him when he was arrested. The FBI report contained further bombshells, alleging that The Turner Diaries "provided inspiration to John William King, the man convicted for dragging a black man to his death in Jasper, Texas. As King shackled James Byrd's legs to the back of his truck he was reported to say, 'We're going to start the Turner Diaries early.'"
Marketing savvy conspiriologists were data-mining the Y2K confusion by November 1999. CrowdedTheater.com released a supposedly unauthorized military training video, which depicted an operation intended to start a race riot in New York City’s Times Square. The FBI threatened the Internet Service Provider to try and get the video removed. The offending site continued to show clips from the video, which is now being sold along with three other fabricated films.
However, Project Megiddo discussed some very real threats of violence. Millennial fervour, religious zealots, and large stockpiles of weapons were a dangerous combination. When members of a group called Concerned Christianity were deported from Israel by Israeli officials, their prophecy-inspired belief of assassination in the streets of Jerusalem in December 1999 came to light. The officials feared that they were "preparing to hasten the fulfilment of [their leader's] prophecies by instigating violence."
Project Megiddo focused on Militia groups, which had risen to prominence during the mid-1990s, before the Internet was turned into another online shopping mall. These groups, some White Supremacist and others just good old-fashioned revolutionaries, were defined by the FBI using the following criteria: "(1) a militia is a domestic organization with two or more members; (2) the organization must possess and use firearms; and (3) the organization must conduct or encourage paramilitary training."
The majority of Militia groups are reactions to Globalism, and the power of trans-national corporations and institutions such as the United Nations. Militia groups often hold paranoid views, not necessarily unfounded, about how this power will affect domestic, and in particular, law enforcement responsibilities. The standard New World Order conspiracy theories and 'fake' documents such as the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion become just more grist for the conspiriology industry mill.
Project Megiddo did get some things right. Its caution about Jerusalem was prescient, considering how endangered the Palestinian-Israeli peace process became during the 'Intifada' wave that swept the Middle East throughout 2000. It contains some sobering thoughts about possible terrorists from America's own backyard. Most of all, it was a 'values reading' in not only how entire subcultures can change, but how these very same subcultures are intertwined with the law enforcement that keeps surveillance on them.