The arrests of nine people last week in the upper Midwest no doubt sent shivers through many Oklahomans. If any state is sensitive to the threat of domestic terrorism, it should be this one. The bombing of Oklahoma City's Murrah Building on April 19, 1995, killed 168 people. It remains the country's deadliest home-grown attack. Whether the Apocalyptic Hutarees' alleged plan to attack police in April was meant to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing may never be known, the possibility is inescapable. "It's certainly suggestive," said David Cid, the executive director of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, formed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing to train law enforcement officers in counterterrorism measures.
Cid, a former FBI counterterrorism specialist, said signs of potential violence had been evident for some time. "In March 2009 we felt something would happen within a year," he said. "We missed it by about a month." Cid noted a slight increase in milita-type activity around Oklahoma in recent months, but he said it is important to draw a distinction between "those who enthusiastically oppose something and those willing to kill people. We haven't seen anything that constitutes a threat," he said. Some of Oklahoma's better-known extremists and paramilitary organizations have left the state or faded from the public consciousness.
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