Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY / NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES

An investigation following the recent discovery of seven pipe bombs near a federal building in Laguna Niguel has led authorities to an anti-tax splinter group of the Posse Comitatus, according to government sources.

The FBI is investigating possible links between the bombs, found March 2 near the Chet Hollifield Building, and William P. Gale, the leader of the tax protesters group. Gale and six associates were arrested last October on charges that they made death threats against Internal Revenue Service agents in Nevada.

Only two of the seven bombs contained live explosives. No one was hurt, and no group claimed responsibility for placing the bombs.

FBI officials in Las Vegas confirmed that their office is involved in the investigation of the incident.

“We basically have information from our offices there in Los Angeles, but beyond that I really can’t comment as to what we’re doing,” said Patrick Foran, Las Vegas FBI assistant special agent in charge. “We are aware of the bombs that were allegedly placed in (Orange County) at a federal building.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last week that unnamed government sources in Las Vegas theorized that the Ku Klux Klan placed the bombs in retaliation for the jailing of Gale and other tax protesters.

Gale, who likes to be called “Reverend,” won notoriety in 1983 when a series of his sermons were broadcast by a small radio station in Kansas. The sermons were part of what Gale called the “National Identity Broadcast” and consisted largely of racial attacks on Jews and other minority groups.