ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610140065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CLARKSBURG, W.VA.
Leaders of the West Virginia Mountaineer Militia were suspicious that federal authorities knew of their plans to blow up three federal buildings, according to court documents.
They even ordered one member to remove his shirt one day to prove that he wasn't wearing a wire.
They asked on the wrong day.
The member was an informant who had been secretly recording members conspiring to destroy the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division complex in Clarksburg, and two other government buildings in West Virginia, the documents say.
The information he provided led to the arrest Friday of seven men linked to the militia on conspiracy charges. They were being held Saturday pending detention hearings this week.
The informant had gone to the FBI 16 months ago after becoming disenchanted with the group's activities, which included making and testing home-made explosives, U.S. Attorney William Wilmoth said Saturday.
At least one militia member, according to the informant, believed the FBI complex contained a clandestine operation that might be a command center when the government turned against the people under the ``new world order,'' according to court documents.
Prosecutors do not believe the alleged conspiracy was linked to anti-government groups in other states.
``I don't want it to appear to be some nationwide conspiracy or anything more grave than the charging documents show. As far as we could tell, it was localized,'' Wilmoth said.
The Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which opened last year, houses fingerprint records the FBI has collected from police departments nationwide. The $200 million center eventually will use computer programs to convert fingerprints into electronic images, enabling the FBI to perform fingerprint checks in a matter of hours instead of weeks.
Wilmoth said the disenchanted militia member approached federal authorities last year and offered his assistance.
He then provided crucial information about Fred Moore, 52, who was familiar with producing bombs from ammonium nitrate, and chemical engineer Jack Arland Phillips, 57, who said he could produce plastic explosives, court documents said.
Moore boasted that he was working on a fuel-air bomb that could devastate an area the size of two football fields and also indicated he had successfully produced a grenade-like device, the documents said. He demonstrated how to make bombs during a militia training exercise on a 600-acre farm, where one mixture he concocted left a 2-foot-deep crater, according to an FBI affidavit.
Moore's closest neighbor said he had become accustomed to hearing explosions. ``The first time I was worried. But out here, if one man wants to shoot, that's his business. It was pretty regular on Saturdays. I didn't know what he was doing,'' Ronald Fry said.
Militia commanding general Floyd ``Ray'' Looker had agreed to sell for $50,000 blueprints of the FBI complex to an undercover agent posing as a broker for a fictitious Middle East terrorist group, authorities said.
About 100 federal agents moved in Friday after Looker tried to deliver the blueprints, which he had obtained from a Clarksburg firefighter, according to investigators.
On Aug. 25, the day President Clinton made a campaign appearance in Huntington, Moore expressed concerns at a militia meeting that federal authorities were aware of their activity. The informant was told to remove his shirt to prove he wasn't wearing a recording device, the affidavit said.
The informant was in protective custody Saturday.
Arrested along with Looker, Moore and Phillips were firefighter James Rogers; Terrell P. Coon, 46, of Waynesburg, Pa.; James M. Johnson, 48, of Maple Heights, Ohio; and Imam A. Lewis, 26, of Cleveland.
The charges include conspiring to make bombs, transporting explosives across state lines and conspiring to place explosives near the FBI complex. The conspiracy charges carry maximum penalties of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. The other counts each carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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