The Electronic Telegraph                                  28 April 1995



   [World News]



40% of Americans 'see Washington as threat'



  BY STEPHEN ROBINSON IN WASHINGTON



   FOUR out of 10 Americans believe the federal government has become so

   powerful that it "poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms

   of ordinary citizens", according to an opinion poll taken after the

   Oklahoma bombing.



   The poll confirms how unpopular government has become in the American

   mind after six decades of inexorable expansion beginning with

   President Roosevelt's New Deal of the Thirties. The target of last

   week's bombing was the federal office building in Oklahoma City, but

   that did not encourage Americans to rally round their government.



   Experts at Gallup, which conducted the poll early this week, were

   astonished to find that 39 per cent of respondents regarded the

   government as a threat to their personal liberty.



   "This hostility to government is not ideological. People on the Left

   and the Right share the same view," David Moore of Gallup said.



   He added that he was even more surprised that one fifth of respondents

   agreed with the suggestion that "ordinary citizens should be allowed

   to arm and organise themselves in order to resist the powers of the

   federal government". That finding contradicts the view that a passion

   for militias is confined to a tiny minority of fanatics.



   President Clinton may encounter difficulties with his proposed

   anti-terrorism package, which would give the FBI new powers to use

   telephone surveillance and allow the military a role in domestic law

   enforcement.



   Right-wingers and libertarians are united with Left-wing civil rights

   activists in opposition to Mr Clinton's proposed legislative response

   to the Oklahoma outrage. Republicans in Congress, who initially

   supported the president, now express reservations about granting new

   powers to deal with the terrorism threat.



   Senator Robert Dole, the leading Republican contender for the

   presidency in 1996, said: "We should tread very carefully when

   considering proposals to expand the FBI's authority to investigate

   domestic organisations."