Emergency Response Team [SWAT], Winter Haven, Florida
The SWAT team in Winter Haven, Florida has some interesting folks. Like Jose Sanchez a Marine who served in Iraq until seriously wounded by an IED last year. He is still recovering from his wounds that include burns to his hands and head and a frag in the face. Fellow officers expect him to return to full duty on the police force and the Marines will soon award him a Bronze Star with a “V” (valor). Clearly, Jose is a serious man.
Richard Ganey is the SWAT team training leader. I’ve known Richard for many years, and I know some things about him that few people know. For instance, he was involved in a stunningly successful fight against domestic terrorism that involved the FBI, US Marshals, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). It’s a fascinating story and I became aware of many of the details because I helped Rich infiltrate the terrorists back in 1994, two years before Timothy McVeigh bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City and brought the issue of US domestic terrorism to light.
Richard Ganey (far right) leading ERT training
Once upon a time, in Winter Haven, Florida, there formed a militia. Richard and I both grew up in Winter Haven and we knew some of the militia members. When he called one day to say the local militia was plotting a war against the US government that including attacking infrastructure and people, I knew they were serious and needed to be stopped.
Richard was not yet in law enforcement. Back then, he made his living installing alarms. He called me with the alarming news, and after many calls and many hours talking with Rich, I asked if he would consider infiltrating the organization and feeding the information to the FBI. And that’s exactly what he did. Special Agent Kerry Myers, an expert on weapons of mass destruction and veteran terror fighter, became Richard’s “handler.” According to Myers, “Richard performed with intelligence as an undercover informant for six years. His willingness to work made my job easier.”
Throughout those six years he spent undercover, I was concerned that my encouragement might be leading my friend to his death. But there comes a time when men and women must defend their own communities even if they do risk death, and Rich knew that too, so he stayed in there. At one point, three militia members suspected he was a spy, and they emphasized their displeasure by pointing pistols at him. With a kind of sang froid that bode well for a career in law enforcement, Richard not only managed to persuade them he was not a spy, but he did it so smoothly they didn’t search him. Lucky for Richard; he was wearing a tape recorder.
During those six years, I often supported Rich by providing information or a place to stay, all the while watching this audacious and amazing infiltration unfold. Richard somehow wormed his way into being the “Security Officer” for a fast spreading militia organization called the Southeastern States Alliance which operated all over the southeast. According to Agent Myers, the group had a presence “in every state east of the Mississippi and every state south of Virginia.” With Richard’s help, Myers said, “we dismantled them.”
Richard’s capacity as Security Officer led him to militia meetings in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, and he was providing a flood of information to the FBI and others. The militias were better armed than some police forces, conducting live fire military exercises and other trainings in preparation for a revolution. They were definitely willing to kill people.
The militia was always up to something. One member who said he was an “ex Green Beret” (he was not) and an explosives expert proved he was lying on both counts when he blew off part of his hand with a pipe bomb in Florida. Richard had alerted Agent Myers, but the FBI did not want to tip off the terrorists, so they did not intervene when the man reported that his injury was due to fireworks.
A part of the group was operating in Western North Carolina, the heart of the Appalachians, where the infamous bomber-murderer Eric Rudolph lived and later hid out. In fact, for a time Rudolph lived just down the road from me. Richard infiltrated that group too, and would sometimes stay with me when he was busy worming his way through dangerous circles.
Somewhere along the road, the FBI and others thought that it would be a good idea if Richard became a member of law enforcement, and so Richard eventually was hired onto the police department in Haines City, Florida. His audacity and resourcefulness never seemed to abate over the six years. When the US Marshall’s office also christened Richard (so that he could carry a firearm in the various States), Richard sold this potentially problematic development to the militia by saying he was infiltrating US law enforcement, giving him access to state secrets.
ERT practices “shooting dogs” in the form of a plastic jug dragged by a rope. Lesson One: Close Quarters Combat with a dog usually results in missing the dog with the pistol shots. Officers are trained to keep the pistol in the holster, feed the dog an arm, and try to break his neck. Lesson two: This is serious business. Expect to get hurt.
During those years, the militia movement was growing fast and local groups were forming alliances with other militias around the country, calling these mutual aid agreements “treaties.” If one militia was attacked by the government, the others promised military assistance. As security chief for the Southeastern States Alliance, Richard’s audacity came into play when he suggested that if other militias were to offer assistance, how was anyone to know who were true militia members? Just raising the question played into the paranoia that plagued the characters that were drawn to this movement. So Richard launched the idea of making identification cards.
Although they claimed to rebel against the authority of the federal government, they seemed to mimic it at every turn, and soon enough, there was a long line of militia members waiting to have their I.D. photos taken, filling out official militia questionnaires with their names, addresses and birthdates. Some refused, but most gave up the information willingly, which Richard immediately turned over to the FBI. Although my concern for his well being never diminished, he had me bouncing off the trees when he explained this latest exploit, especially when I pictured how all these I.D. cards were actually being printed up in Quantico by the FBI.
Most of his operations were without the slightest backup. Despite having already had three guns pointed at him, Richard just kept on siphoning the files, vacuuming the hard drives, and wearing the hidden microphones to the secret meetings. There were hidden cameras at times. I watched a surveillance tape that fed live video to an FBI van parked on the road by the target house. Richard was inside, talking with the top militia leaders as they plotted the overthrow of the American government when suddenly, one of the men spotted the van outside, and became suspicious. He and another militia member, both armed, went to check out the van, inside of which were FBI agents who were also armed. The scene unfolding might have easily become a shoot-out, but the FBI had done a good job with their cover: they were pulling a fishing boat and had remembered to stock fresh bait in the boat. That one detail dulled the alarm, and the plotting continued.
Dry runs without weapons are essential before live fires with real bullets
After a string of bombings in Georgia and Alabama had been tied to a suspect, law enforcement launched a massive search of the area for Eric Rudolph, setting up a headquarters in Andrews. The local hotels were full of agents from all over the country. Richard discovered that the militia was casing the FBI field headquarters. In fact, someone did attack the headquarters with a rifle but got away.
Around that time, another close friend passed information to the FBI through Richard about how they could catch Rudolph, but authorities were being flooded with tips. The information proved precise, and timely, but the FBI apparently did not believe the information and Rudolph slipped through their grasp. In December of 2004, just before I went to Iraq, more information came in that Rudolph was in Murphy, North Carolina. The same friend fed the tip to the FBI in North Carolina, but once again, the clue was not heeded, although shortly thereafter Rudolph was arrested when a local officer spotted him dumpster diving in Murphy. Rudolph had been the number one most wanted man in American until September 11, 2001.
There are many tales to tell about those six years. There was the infamous “secret map” that supposedly proved the existence of a UN plot to take over the United States, discovered, of all places, on the inside of a box of Trix cereal. Less absurd, and ever more alarming, was the casing of a nuclear facility in Florida that the militia was plotting to attack. They also plotted to bomb the FBI office in Lakeland, Florida and circulated plans to kidnap federal officials in retaliation for the ongoing siege of the Montana Freeman militia.
When the leaders of the Southeastern States Alliance began the final stages of their plans to murder another undercover informant –this one planted by a private watchdog group– the FBI and others pulled the plug on the operations, made arrests, and the Southeastern States Alliance, with their “General” in jail, was “dismantled.” Not surprisingly, Myers reports that the FBI “was very pleased with the outcome of the case.”
It may be one of the most important success stories in the war on terrorism but few people have heard much about this operation. From my front row seat, it was clear that the FBI, FDLE, and US Marshall’s office, won this key battle. They won due to audacity, resourcefulness, smart moves and courage of my friend, Officer Richard Ganey, who never wavered walking point for six years.
