Leaderless resistance

Leaderless resistance, as emphasized in American right-wing extremism by Louis Beam, is the idea of violence against government or other targets (e.g., ethnic or religious groups) by individuals or very small groups, such that there is little structure for law enforcement or intelligence organizations to detect. The basic principle exists in other extremist philosophies; self-radicalization is a growing term for radical Islamism, and al-Qaeda's "franchise" method of encouraging but not controlling operational groups also has a similarity.

Within U.S. right-wing extremism, the term "lone wolf" is also used. It applied especially well to Eric Rudolph, who apparently acted alone in bombing abortion clinics and the Atlanta Olympics, although he was personally but not operationally known to groups of similar ideology. It can reasonably apply to very small groups such as Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing.

One of the challenges to law enforcement is that to detect such operations, more and more intrusive surveillance is necessary, as it is fairly unlikely there will be informers.

While Beam is most associated with it in the U.S. right, variants have been described by Tom Metzger of White Aryan Resistance and Alex Curtis.

Theory

Beam actually credits Col. Ulius Louis Amoss, who wrote of Leaderless Resistance on April 17, 1962, focused on the threat of eventual Communist take-over in the United States. Amoss, according to Beam, described "a Phantom Cell mode of organization. Which he described as Leaderless Resistance. A system of organization that is based upon the cell organization, but does not have any central control or direction, that is in fact almost identical to the methods used by the Committees of Correspondence during the American Revolution." Al-Qaeda uses a somewhat related model, where they may simply motivate, or perhaps provide training or funding, but have no operational control and few links to trace.

To some extent, it was U.S. Cold War policy to encourage behind-the-lines resistance, but, realistically, the only groups given any chance of survival would be led by United States Army Special Forces or other Allied professional guerrilla leaders.

Metzger described told captured resisters to speak only the words "I have nothing to say", and gave the guidelines:

• "Act alone and leave no evidence
• Do not commit robbery to obtain operating funds
• Act silently and anonymously
• Do not deface your body with identifiable tattoos
• Understand that you are expendable
• Whatever happens, do not grovel."

Writing in Public Eye Magazine, publication of Political Research Associates, Chip Berlet questioned some of this history, as well as similar functions from other than the right. Berlet wrote that a good deal of George W. Bush Administration strategy for counterterrorism is based on the "sloppy scholarship" of Bruce Hoffman and Marc Sageman, who fail, in his opinion, to distinguish between radical ideology and actual intent for violence. He does agree that Amoss did develop the idea, when working on WWII resistance for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Later, the methods were used by the Cuban resistance to Fidel Castro, by exiles with Central Intelligence Agency (i.e., the successor to OSS) ties but no apparent link to Amoss. He says that Hoffman and Sageman credit the concept to Beam, who himself does not claim to have originated it.

Berlet denies that lone wolves, such as McVeigh or Randolph, who previously had ties to radical organizations, are truly leaderless. He does quote Simson Garfinkel as suggesting that the purest examples are in "the ecological group Earth First! and several Animal Liberation movements—movements that generally avoid harming people with their acts of vandalism. Small splinter groups have recently engaged in intimidation against people, but while this is evidence of criminal acts, it does not fit traditional definitions of terrorism." Berlet also questions Hoffman's emphasis on dominionism.

Requirements

Leaderless resistance does require some basic skills with clandestine operations and weapons. In what became a public relations disaster, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security While the report threw undue suspicion on law-abiding citizens and especially returning veterans, it did identify some of the skills needed. Nevertheless, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano had to make a public apology for what had become an embarrassment to the Obama Administration.