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¹ “Jim Bell,” Wikipedia website, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bell.

Center (New York Times, 1998). The group also had aspirations to poison the water supplies of major cities.

CHARLES KILES AND KEVIN PATTERSON

In California, Charles Kiles and Kevin Patterson, from California—who were members of the San Joaquin militia—were arrested for plotting to use cyanide and explode propane tanks in 1999 (Chicago Tribune, 1999). Federal agents arrested two antigovernment militia members in connection with an alleged plan, after a nearly yearlong investigation by an FBI terrorism task force into a potential threat against the Suburban Propane facility in Elk Grove and other targets in the Sacramento area.

DEMETRIUS VAN CROCKER

In 2004, Demetrius Van Crocker, from Tennessee, wanted to acquire sarin and said he made mustard agent (though there is no evidence he did) as part of a plot targeting government facilities (FBI, 2006). Crocker attempted to acquire the nerve agent and C4 explosives from an undercover FBI agent. A concerned citizen took his “extremist rants” and plans “to build a dirty bomb to blow up a state or federal courthouse” (FBI, 2006) seriously enough to call the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which in turn called the FBI. “We thought there might be something to it,” said Special Agent Daryl Berry (FBI, 2006), who opened the case in September 2004 out of the FBI’s office in Jackson, Tennessee. That set in motion the undercover sting that resulted in the apprehension of Van Crocker.

MYRON TERESHCHUK

Also in 2004, the FBI apprehended Myron Tereshchuk, who was being investigated as part of a separate extortion case using the internet (Washington Post, 2004). When law enforcement searched his home as part of the investigation, materials for making hand grenades and “items necessary for making [extracting] ricin,” along with “literature about poisons” were seized (DOJ, 2004). Ricin is a naturally occurring highly toxic protein (i.e., a biomacromolecule), and hence lies at the convergence of biology and chemistry, which complicates the understanding of how to categorize the threat; however, identification of the threat would involve the same government organizations. It is not clear that it can be inferred that he had the knowledge needed to know how to extract ricin. Given the specifics noted in the Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment, it is reasonable to infer that he may have had castor beans, which are readily accessible, and some equipment. Because he was not charged with possession of ricin, LE may not have been able to detect any significant amounts of the protein. Again, motives are not readily available. This case may be illustrative of serendipity, which is problematic as a strategy: there is no publicly available information indicating Tereshchuk was being investigated on suspicion of terrorism in general or chemical terrorism specifically.

self-radicalized (DSCA, 2019). The group Smith joined linked him to the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), which is a leaderless, decentralized network that espouses white supremacist, neo-Nazi, pro-jihadist ideas with a shared neo-Satanist ideology, and actively promotes violent terrorism (Koch, 2022). This group has been in the news recently in conjunction with another former soldier sentenced to 45 years in prison for “attempting to murder U.S. service members, providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and illegally transmitting national defense information,” passing operational deployment information to other members of the O9A (DOJ, 2023). Jarrett Smith was charged with Distributing Information Relating to Explosives, Destructive Devices, and Weapons of Mass Destruction, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 842(p) (CourtListener, 2019a).

To interdict the chemical threat posed by Smith, the FBI initially received information on comments Smith had posted on social media about his intent “to travel to Ukraine to fight with a violent, far-right military group” (DOJ, 2020). How the FBI was made aware of those comments has not been made public; in previous instances, representatives of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, have indicated they shared information with federal LE when intent to commit politically motivated violence was suspected (GAO, 2022). Additionally, a confidential informant provided further information that eventually led the FBI to act. This information included Smith’s offer of what he claimed were methods for producing chemical agents intended to injure or kill domestic elected officials. The charging complaint, specifically, provides a transcript of Smith’s statements that included instructions to generate chlorine and what was subsequently identified as napalm:²

The FBI’s criminal complaint contains two additional instances of Smith suggesting the use of chemicals to commit violence. Smith repeatedly emphasized how accessible the starting materials were:

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² NB: Napalm is not a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Under international law it is considered an incendiary when used against military targets; under the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), use against civilian populations is prohibited. Similarly, under the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD treaty), use of napalm as an incendiary defoliant is also prohibited.