LONDON, England - August 19, 2010 - In heavy camouflage gear, Johnny Cochran squats down and shuffles noiselessly along the ground. His target is a large man who, like Cochran, is in military fatigues. Seconds later, Cochran leaps up and stabs the man once, hard, in the neck. The movement is swift, and would almost certainly be lethal, were it not for the fact that the weapon Cochran is wielding is a pen.

The scenario I have just witnessed may be simulated, but its protagonists are deadly serious. This is a “close combat training” session given by “Fireteam Diamondback” - an armed militia group, or civilian army, based in west Texas, in the United States. Cochran, a chain-smoking 39-year-old with a handlebar moustache and goatee, whose T-shirt reads, “Disgruntled Combat Vet - Right Wing Extremist”, is their leader. He’s not someone you would wish to encounter in combat.

“Straight into the base of his skull,” he says, after pretending to plunge the pen into the neck of Steven Page, a member of another militia group who has joined the training. “That’s the nerve center. Then you push forward. If you’re dealing with someone short, that works like a charm, but if you’re dealing with someone tall, grab his face, insert the knife and when you shove that knife forwards, pull him towards you.”

Cochran smiles. “You’re going to make a hell of a mess, but human flesh tears easily. Bone is a pain in the ass.” He knows what he’s talking about, having served four years as a combat medic with the U.S. Marines during Operation Desert Storm. His handle, or nickname, in the militia is “Doc”. Yet, as he freely admits, the hypothetical enemy - the target he’s teaching the people gathered here today to kill - is a U.S. soldier who is acting on unconstitutional and illegal orders to subvert the natural rights of the Amerikan People.