The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.
-- the FBI's definition of terrorism, per the Federal Code of Regulations (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)
From McClatchy, emphasis mine:
The suspect in custody for the slaying of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller was a member of an anti-government group in the 1990s and a staunch opponent of abortion.
Scott P. Roeder, 51, of Merriam, Kan., a Kansas City suburb, was arrested on Interstate 35 near Gardner in suburban Johnson County, Kan., about three hours after the shooting. Tiller was shot to death around 10 a.m. inside Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita. [...]
Roeder also was a subscriber to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocated the justifiable homicide position, said publisher Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa.[...]
Roeder, who in the 1990s was a manufacturing assemblyman, also was involved in the "Freemen" movement.
"Freemen" was a term adopted by those who claimed sovereignty from government jurisdiction and operated under their own legal system, which they called common-law courts. Adherents declared themselves exempt from laws, regulations and taxes and often filed liens against judges, prosecutors and others, claiming that money was owed to them as compensation.
In April 1996, Roeder was arrested in Topeka after Shawnee County sheriff's deputies stopped him for not having a proper license plate. In his car, officers said they found ammunition, a blasting cap, a fuse cord, a one-pound can of gunpowder and two 9-volt batteries, with one connected to a switch that could have been used to trigger a bomb.
Jim Jimerson, supervisor of the Kansas City ATF's bomb and arson unit, worked on the case.
"There wasn't enough there to blow up a building,'' Jimerson said at the time, "but it could make several powerful pipe bombs...There was definitely enough there to kill somebody.'' [...]
In recent years, someone using the name Scott Roeder has posted anti-Tiller comments on various Internet sites. One post, dated Sept. 3, 2007 and placed on a site sponsored by Operation Rescue called chargetiller.com, said that Tiller needed to be "stopped."
"It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the 'lawlessness' which is spoken of in the Bible," it said. "Tiller is the concentration camp 'Mengele' of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgment upon our nation."
On May 19, 2007, a Scott Roeder commented on an invitation by Operation Rescue to join an event being held May 17-20 in Wichita, "the 'Nation's Abortion Capital,' to pray for an end to George R. Tiller's late-term abortion business and for all pre-born babies everywhere to once again come under the protection of law."
Let us review: an armed and dangerous man kills a doctor in broad
daylight as he sat with his wife in church. Said armed and dangerous
man has a record of committing acts designed to intimidate via fear:
trespassing as well as verbal threats to doctors that he had "seen you
now". Said armed and dangerous man is a known member of an
anti-government group. Said armed and dangerous man has a police
record that includes convictions for the criminal use of explosives.
Someone posting under the name of said armed and dangerous man has
repeatedly, on sites owned and/or sponsored by Operation Rescue, called
for Dr. Tiller to be "stopped".
Like Andrew Sullivan, who posts the ghastly piece of Operation Rescue "Tiller the Killer" agitprop here (warning: it's as awful as you'd expect) in order to spotlight the deranged violence-inciting lengths to which OR goes, I abhor torture and do not support it.
But...as I understand it, I live in a country where enhanced interrogation techniques are believed to be extremely useful when it comes to finding out what terrorists are plotting next. Whom are they targeting? What are their plans? Here we have an actual, real-live terrorist in captivity--not just an alleged enemy combatant or whatever it is they're calling teenagers who got swept up in the Great Guantánamo Grabs these days. No, this guy wasn't on his way to a family wedding in rural Afghanistan--he'd already been caught, tried, and convicted on explosives charges, and now, in front of witnesses, he's shot dead a law-abiding American citizen while he was in church.
So. What does he know? Whom else are OR targeting? What are their plans? Ticking time bomb, ladies and gentlemen. Domestic terrorism is with us today, operating and "rescuing" right here on our own soil. Consistency, consistency, consistency.
I agree with Lisa: let's Waterboard Operation Rescue.
[Updated to include the FBI definition of terrorism at the top.]
