An American Terrorist on TV
The History Channel has a documentary this week -- June 15th and 16th -- about Army of God assassin, James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of the murder of abortion provider Barnett Slepian of Amherst, New York. While the U.S. has not designated Army of God as a domestic terrorist organization, The History Channel calls it one -- and rightfully so in my view. The film is titled "MANHUNT: The Hunt For James Kopp."
Army of God members have carried out a campaign of bombings, assasinations, kidnapping, arson threats and intimidation for a generation. An HBO documentary film a few years ago, titled Soldiers in the Army of God underscored the group's violent intentions. (For more on the Army of God and antiabortion violence, see Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.)
Kopp, who is also the primary suspect in a series of shootings of abortion providers in Canada in the 90s, was the editor of what has come to be known as the "Army of God Manual."
The manual is an instruction manual of how to blomb, blockade, and otherwise attack clinics. It describes itself as "a manual for those who have come to understand that the battle against abortion is a battle not against flesh and blood, but against the devil and all of the evil he can muster among flesh and blood to fight at his side."
It also calls the United States "a nation ruled by a godless civil authority that is dominated by humanism, moral nihilism and new age perversion of the high standards upon which a Godly society must be founded, if it is to endure."
And after offering detailed instructions on how to build ammonium nitrate bombs -- the same kind of 'fertilizer bomb" that Tim McVeigh used to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City -- and "homemade C-4 plastic explosive," it suggests maiming abortion doctors "by removing their hands, or at least their thumbs below the second digit."
I have no idea if this film is any good. But the fact that it was made and is airing serves as a reminder that we have a problem, albeit of a different nature and scale than elsewhere -- of home grown religiously motivated violence in the United States.
Army of God members have carried out a campaign of bombings, assasinations, kidnapping, arson threats and intimidation for a generation. An HBO documentary film a few years ago, titled Soldiers in the Army of God underscored the group's violent intentions. (For more on the Army of God and antiabortion violence, see Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.)
Kopp, who is also the primary suspect in a series of shootings of abortion providers in Canada in the 90s, was the editor of what has come to be known as the "Army of God Manual."
The manual is an instruction manual of how to blomb, blockade, and otherwise attack clinics. It describes itself as "a manual for those who have come to understand that the battle against abortion is a battle not against flesh and blood, but against the devil and all of the evil he can muster among flesh and blood to fight at his side."
It also calls the United States "a nation ruled by a godless civil authority that is dominated by humanism, moral nihilism and new age perversion of the high standards upon which a Godly society must be founded, if it is to endure."
And after offering detailed instructions on how to build ammonium nitrate bombs -- the same kind of 'fertilizer bomb" that Tim McVeigh used to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City -- and "homemade C-4 plastic explosive," it suggests maiming abortion doctors "by removing their hands, or at least their thumbs below the second digit."
I have no idea if this film is any good. But the fact that it was made and is airing serves as a reminder that we have a problem, albeit of a different nature and scale than elsewhere -- of home grown religiously motivated violence in the United States.
posted by Frederick Clarkson at 2:20 PM
1 Comments:
Too bad this is the *British* edition of the History Channel. The US schedule is different.
Post a Comment
<< Home