VIEWSrnWitchfinderrnThe Strange Career of Morris Deesrnby Samuel FrancisrnWAxii!:i)rnThe trial, conviction, and death sentence of TimothyrnMcVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19,rn1995, passed quietly this year, far more quietly than most reportersrnand some political leaders wanted. The main reason forrnthe calmness of the McVeigh proceedings was probably the utterlyrnuninteresting mind, character, and personality of the defendant.rnUnlike Charles Manson, who carved swastikas in hisrnforehead and stared satanically at the public throughout his trial,rnMcVeigh simply stared, and no swastikas were in sight. Everrnsince his arrest 90 minutes after the bombing, McVeigh has saidrnvirtually nothing, and certainly nothing of any interest. Evenrnhis brief quotation, before he was sentenced to death, from arnfairly obscure Supreme Court dissenting opinion by LouisrnBrandeis, was too cryptic to excite much curiosity, and despiternthe heinousness of the crime for which he was convicted, it wasrnalmost impossible to sustain any public interest in the man whornperpetrated the crime.rnNevertheless, some people did find the McVeigh trial interesting,rnthough not because of the defendant, his deed, or thernlegal, moral, and political issues involved in it. Almost at thernbeginning of McVeigh’s trial last March, an organization knownrnas the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPEC), headquartered inrnMontgomery, Alabama, issued a publication that madernMcVeigh and his crime its centerpiece.rnEntitied “Two Years After: The Patriot Movement since Ok-rnSamuel Francis is a nationally syndicated columnist and editorrnof The Samuel Erancis Letter.rnlahoma City,” the publication is the latest contribution tornscholarship of the SPEC, which specializes in keeping track ofrnwhat it calls “hate groups.” Eounded by lawyer Morris Dees inrn1971, the SPEC has kept up a running account of the minutiaernof the far right, and its most recent delvings into the worldrnthat supposedly bred the bombing of the Murrah Building andrnthe deaths of 168 people within it are fairly typical of its products.rnThe thesis of “Two Years After” is that the extreme right—rnincluding white racialist groups, tax protesters. Christian Identityrnchurches, anti-gun-control activists. Confederate flag defenders,rnconspiracy theorists, and the “antigovernmentrninsurgency”—is deeply involved in further plotting to carry outrnacts of terrorism similar to the Oklahoma City operation. Thernpublication, like most of what is produced by the SPEC, makesrnno distinctions among the various groups, individuals, andrncauses that it “exposes,” and in at least some cases it has managedrnto loop in some perfectly ordinary and law-abiding conservativernorganizations.rn”Two Years After” enumerates no fewer than 858 distinct organizationsrnin the United States that are said to be part of thern”Patriot Movement,” a term that is never precisely defined orrndistinguished from Klan groups, white separatist groups like thernAryan Nations, neo-Nazi groups like the National Alliance, orrngroups like the various “citizens’ militias” that have sprouted inrnrecent years. It offers a listing of the 858 “Patriot” groups,rnthough without describing the size, nature, beliefs, or activitiesrnof any of them. In some cases, even the listing is meaningless.rn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn