Sheriff: Keep An Eye On Paramilitary Groups Goldman And Regional Fbi Chief Detail Lessons Learned From Spokane Bombers And Bank Robbers

Washington should enact a law that targets paramilitary training, Spokane County Sheriff John Goldman urged the state’s sheriffs and police chiefs Tuesday.

Idaho and 22 other states have such laws, Goldman told the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs meeting in Spokane.

“I would urge us all to consider making that a priority for our legislative agenda,” Goldman told his fellow law enforcement officers.

Goldman didn’t elaborate, but such laws typically make it illegal to engage in paramilitary training if it’s directed at opposing the race, creed or color of others.

The sheriff’s comments came as he and regional FBI chief Burdena Pasenelli described the investigation of bombings and bank robberies in Spokane in 1996.

Six months after the first bombing, three North Idaho men who called themselves Phineas priests were arrested. The trio and a fourth man were convicted of the crimes last year and sentenced to lengthy federal prison terms.

“In my 30 years of law enforcement work, never have I feared for the safety of (law enforcement officers) as much as I did in this case,” Pasenelli told the state’s police chiefs and sheriffs.

Goldman, using a slide presentation, detailed the tactics and weapons used by the Spokane bombers.

“Clearly, their intention here was to kill humans,” Goldman said of the three bombings. “The whole community literally was being held hostage by this group.”

FBI and ATF agents, working with the sheriff and police departments, “responded beyond everyone’s expectations,” and solved the terrorism case, he said.

Before the arrests, FBI agents followed the suspects to a Portland bank and later to Union Gap, Wash.

Authorities, fearing the potential for a deadly siege, didn’t want to let the suspects return to their homes in North Idaho.

The suspects were traveling from Portland in three vehicles and were heavily armed with automatic weapons and hand grenades.

“We hadn’t trained for that kind of scenario,” Goldman told the audience.

“This is an example of what all of us need to be planning for,” he said. “This type of activity will occur again in our state.”

Goldman said there are many other anti-government movements, usually involving small groups of people.

“It’s hard to imagine how we legitimize violence against our own government,” the sheriff said.

“These groups can, have and do exist in our communities,” he said.

The anti-government philosophy may be cloaked in religious or political rhetoric, Goldman said, but “race is always the issue.”

Many people involved in such activities aren’t readily identifiable. For example, Goldman said, he played soccer in the early 1980s with a man from Cheney.

The man, Randy Duey, later was convicted of crimes carried out by an anti-government, neo-Nazi group known as The Order.

“Radical movements in the country - which we now are all too familiar with - are what the ‘90s are going to be remembered for,” Goldman said.