GEORGIA

     Frank Smith. an Air Force veteran and retired tool-and-
die maker, claims to lead the Georgia Militia. Days after
the April 19 bombing of Oklahoma City's Federal Building,
Smith echoed the sentiments of militia leaders across the
country by blaming the U.S. Government for the blast.
Speaking on the CNN television program "Talkback Live,"
Smith said the government was wtrying to get the militia
movement to come out and fight. We expected them to do
something drastic. We didn't expect it to be that drastic."

     In March 1995, the Voice of Liberty Patriots, a group
led by Rick Tyler of Epworth, held a conference in Atlanta
featuring state and county rights advocates -- including
Colorado State Senator Charles Duke and California State
Senator Don Rogers -- as well as conspiracy theorists.
Several in attendance sported "Georgia Militia" T-shirts
reading "Don't Tread On Me." Literature offered for sale at
the rally included the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby's
Spotlight tabloid.

     Tyler also directs a so-called constitutionalist, anti-
tax group known as the Georgia Taxpayers Association, and co-
hosts "Voice of Liberty," a daily shortwave radio program.
Soon after the Oklahoma City bombing, "Voice of Liberty"
listeners were told that the disaster was being used by the
government as an excuse ~to put across their agenda of
establishing a police state.... They are ruthless, they are
cunning, they are cutthroat, and furthermore, we are their
target."

     Another organization, known as Citizens for a
Constitutional Georgia. meets weekly at an Atlanta hotel.
Materials available for sale at the meetings have included
pro-gun literature. but also The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion and The Spotlight. The group has sponsored local
appearances by well-known militia activists Mark Koernke
(see Michigan) and Marietta native Linda Thompson (see
Indiana). The latter gave a speech at the Cobb Counts Civic
Center that was attended by some 800 people.

     A militia group in north Georgia conducts paramilitary
maneuvers on a 38-acre tract
in Hall County. northeast of Atlanta.


~      
ADL Fact Finding Report, "Beyond the Bombing: The Militia
Menace Grows," Anti-Defamation League, 1995.

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