News accounts citing law enforcement sources report that at least seven militia units are operating in Utah. One group, the Box Elder County-based Unorganized State Militia of Utah, was disbanded this spring by leader Doug Christiansen, who said he disapproved of the growing militancy of the movement.

Johnny Bangerter, the leader of a St. George-based neo- Nazi Skinhead group called the Army of Israel, claims his organization has ties to militias in Montana, Texas and Utah. He and other Skinheads traveled to northern Idaho in 1992 to express support for white supremacist Randy Weaver during his standoff with federal law enforcement agents -- an event that later contributed to the genesis of the militia movement. Bangerter has asserted that he wrote a note delivered to Weaver during the episode by influential far-right figure Bo Gritz (see Idaho), who assisted in Weaver's surrender to authorities.

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

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