'Recipe for disaster': 'Dangerous' far-right militia believes US government 'deliberately' caused Helene

19 November 2024

Climate change activists and scientists were horrified when Florida and other southeastern states — not long after being ravaged by Hurricane Helene — suffered an even more destructive threat when Hurricane Milton arrived in October.

The fact that they were horrified doesn't mean they were surprised. Suffering Helene and Milton back to back, they warned, underscores the enormous threat that climate change poses. Climate change, scientists warn, will mean destructive weather events occurring not only more frequently, but with greater intensity.

But Veterans on Patrol (VOP), a far-right militia group, isn't blaming climate change for the damage Helene inflict.

Rather, VOP, according to The Guardian's Jason Wilson, is pushing a conspiracy theory that Helene was "deliberately caused" by U.S. government officials using a "government energy weapon."

VOP, Wilson reports, has been making this claim in "private and public Telegram chats."

"Veterans on Patrol's (VOP's) conversations reveal that members believe the outlandish conspiracy theory that the U.S. government caused the hurricane with weather manipulation technology, that the U.S. military is spraying the American people with poisons, and that members should be willing to destroy government facilities in order to stop these activities," Wilson explains in an article published on November 19. "The chats, provided to the Guardian by the Global Project on Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), raise the prospect of the conspiracy-fueled militia group engaging in renewed violence under the incoming Trump Administration."

According to Wilson, VOP's founder, Michael "Lewis Arthur" Meyer, has described Helene as an "act of war perpetuated by the United States military."

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of GPAHE, warns that VOP are quite capable of violence.

Beirich told The Guardian, "VOP is one of the most dangerous militia groups out there now.…With their recent targeting of military efforts to help with hurricane relief efforts in North Carolina, and their insane conspiracy theories, this is a recipe for disaster."

Read The Guardian's full report at this link.

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