Anti-Abortion Terror

Robert Cook, a former private security guard, juvenile probation officer and US Navy sailor, was arrested recently after threatening violence against women's clinics. Cook was planning to use money he allegedly obtained from a daring and previously unsolved $260,000 robbery of an armored car company he had worked for, to finance what he told others would be a war against abortion doctors and clinics. The hold-up he is charged with took place in Kenosha, Wisc.

Cook allegedly shifted the money to an off-shore bank account in the Cayman Islands, amassed an arsenal of weapons and ammunition kept in an Illinois storage locker, and apparently tried unsuccessfully to recruit others to join him in targeting abortion providers as well as government offices. The FBI arrested Cook on Aug. 16 for the 1994 armored car robbery after he made a specific threat to begin his anti-abortion attacks on Tuesday, Aug. 22. Cook had been questioned by police in Pensacola, Florida last January, after he reportedly warned store owners near the clinic that they "had better get bulletproof glass" and, "It's going to look like the 4th of July around here."

Public anti-abortion leaders tried to deny any connection to Cook. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition and a former national spokesman for Operation Rescue, told the press, "There is a real concern and fear among some leaders that just talking to someone who might be involved in violence brings you into this [federal] conspiracy investigation." They called Cook a loner who traveled around the country to hot spots in the abortion battle and offered vague ideas on how to "end abortion within a year." They claim they were made uneasy by him, as a potential provocateur, and pointed him out to authorities.

Abortion-rights activists think Cook may have had more significant links to the movement's leaders. Cook attended a conference of an anti-abortion organization in St. Louis shortly before his bust, and wrote a letter to "justifiable homicide" advocate Father Trosch which appeared in a newsletter put out by the Alabama extremist this summer. Abortion-rights activists called on federal officials to investigate his ties to the public anti-abortion movement.

When Cook was arrested by federal agents in Ill. in the neighborhood where he kept a storage locker full of weapons and ammunition, he was found with $11,000 on him, several changes of clothes, food and water, and an AR-15 assault rifle in his vehicle. The St. Louis police intelligence division had followed Cook while he was in town for the conference staged by the American Coalition of Life Activists, and arrested him on minor traffic violations. At the time of his arrest, he stated his occupation as "revolutionary," and told police that he couldn't go to abortion clinics because he couldn't control his actions. Capt. Harry Hegger, commander of the intelligence division, confirmed that Cook did attend some meetings during the St. Louis conference.

"Whether this is a conspiracy or not, this guy was out there for a long time, making it clear he was going to kill providers and wasn't shy about it," added Nancy Koshin-Kintigh, field director of the national clinic access project for the Feminist Majority. "There are a lot of unanswered questions." An affidavit filed in the Eastern U.S. District Court revealed that Cook had planned to say goodby to his children, who lived with his ex-wife. Cook allegedly told friends in Portland, Ore., that he would kill an abortion doctor by Aug. 22 and vowed that he would rather die than be caught, the affidavit stated. The affidavit said Cook rarely paid child support until after the robbery, and when he did pay, it was all in cash.

Since the robbery, Cook also paid more than $8,000 in cash for two cars, spent $1,500 on copies of his writings and donated at least $160 to an anti-abortion group, according to the affidavit. FBI officials said he did not appear to be working at the time. Cook also set up a voice-mail service to help him recruit abortion opponents to join his cause, FBI officials said. And on several occasions, Cook allegedly told friends that he was waging a war against abortion.

Other Cases of Anti-Abortion Violence

Cook's is not the only case of renewed anti-abortion violence. According to BACORR, after a "lull" in acts of anti-abortion terror, there have been 3 separate arson attacks within a week. The media have maintained a wall of silence around these attacks. A St. Petersburg, Florida clinic that was hit by arson early in August was hit again later in the month. The first fire destroyed the clinic's waiting room and reception area and caused extensive smoke damage; although that fire has not been linked to any suspects, investigators have ruled out the possibility of it being an accident. The second fire started near an examination room, and was described as "ruining the building." The fire occurred on the first night since the previous incident on which a guard was not posted at the clinic overnight. The cause has not yet been determined, but a dog assigned to the fire and rescue squad detected an accelerant, and arson is suspected. In a third arson attack, the Grants Pass OR Planned Parenthood clinic remained open after two stacks of computer paper were set on fire at the front door. The clinic has been picketed by abortion opponents since it opened in 1983, but this is the first time it has been damaged, according to its director, Renee Kraft. The fire damaged a doormat and scorched the door. The fire was reported at 5:30 a.m. A fireman was able to stamp out the doormat that was smouldering from the burning paper.

On August 17, two men, one of whom allegedly pantomimed shooting employees of a women's health clinic in Jackson [Mississippi], were sued by the Justice Department under the federal clinic access law. The civil suit marks the 18th time the Justice Department has used the one year-old law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Jackson, the Justice Department accused Charles Roy McMillan of threatening and intimidating employees on two separate occasions at the Jackson Women's Health Organization (JWHO) in May 1995. It claims that McMillan allegedly told several employees entering JWHO that they looked like birds waiting to be shot, and then pantomimed shooting them. In another case, McMillan offered to pay someone to burn down the building housing the clinic.

The complaint, according to a Justice department statement, also alleged that McMillan and another unidentified man obstructed access to the New Women's Medical Center (NWMC) in Jackson in the fall of 1994. It claims that their efforts to block access caused the escort of one patient to drive her car into the clinic's entrance gate. Under FACE, the Justice Department can prosecute people who use force, threat of force or physical obstruction to block health clinics or harm health care providers or patients. The suit seeks a court order prohibiting McMillan from threatening JWHO employees and coming close enough to the clinic to carry out the threats. It also seeks to prohibit both men from obstructing access to the NWHC or coming within 15 feet of the entrance driveway. Finally, it asks McMillan to compensate the driver of the damaged vehicle, pay damages to JWHO employees, and pay civil penalties to the U.S. treasury.

McMillan is the director of the Pro-Life Action Group in Jackson, MS and a friend and associate of anti-abort assassin, Paul J. Hill. McMillan was a signer of the "Defensive Action" manifesto and believes that killing abortion providers is "justifiable homicide" and "doing the Lord's work." Less than a month after the Pensacola murders in July 1994, McMillan and the American Coalition of Life Activists (ACLA) descended on Jackson, MS. The ACLA's avowed purpose was to force Dr. Joseph Booker, a black ob-gyn and sole abortion provider in the entire state of Mississippi at the time) from his medical speciality. McMillan is an associate of Daniel Ware, a notorious Rescue America thug from Houston, TX. Ware was arrested in Pensacola in early 1994 with a car load of ammunition and several weapons. Ware vowed to "take out" as many "baby-killers" as he could in a "Beirut-style massacre." Busted and tried, he was found NOT GUILTY!

In another recent incident, Randall Terry of Operation Rescue sent a fax to the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine railing against a study which could enable women to have abortions without surgery. Body Politic reports Terry just received a "Champion of Liberty" award from the militia-associated US Taxpayers Party. Speakers at the dinner to award Terry included Orange County's arch-conservative, anti- gay Rep. Bob Dornan, Joe Sobran, a paleo-conservative considered guilty of anti-semitism even by his fellows at the National Review, and Larry Pratt, head of Gun Owners of America and English First.

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