t sounds like a possible background study for the upcoming Schwartzenegger movie, "End of Days." A new report issued by the FBI entitled "Project Megiddo" warns of "the potential for extremist criminal activity in the United States by individuals or domestic groups who attach special significance to the year 2000."

   "The significance is based primarily upon apocalyptic religious beliefs or political beliefs concerning the New World Order conspiracy theory," adds a statement from the Bureau reported this afternoon by Associated Press.

   The project is named for the ancient battleground in Israel associated with Armageddon. And the New World Order refers to a cluster of conspiracy theories warning of a tyrannical global government, often depicted as a tool of the Anti Christ. It's the nightmarish stuff of fringe religious cults, doomsday sects and some hunkered-down militia groups waiting out the expected chaos which they believe is associated with the year 2000 and the onset of a new millennium.

   According to the current issue of USA TODAY, "Project Megiddo" is part of a campaign by the FBI to alert state and local authorities to the possible threats posed by a diverse range of groups. More disturbing perhaps than the warnings of apocalyptic violence and upheaval is the fact that the 40-page report is considered so sensitive and secret that it will not be made public, and instead will be presented to a select group later this month at the International Association of Chiefs of Police gathering in Charlotte, N.C. One workshop at the week-long law enforcement confab is appropriately titled "Millennium, Militias and Mayhem: What to expect in the coming year." USA TODAY reported that according to an unidentified source, the "Project Megiddo" report "was meant to heighten awareness among local police departments to the possibility that militias might use the new millennium as an opportunity to initiate acts of violence or general disruption."

   Associated Press suggested that a sanitized version of "Project Megiddo" may be released to the general public after copies have circulated throughout the law enforcement establishment.

   One FBI spokesman said, "There are no specific threats, but we often alert law enforcement agencies about impending dates with significance for potential terrorists." He noted a confluence of different doomsday scenarios: "Such ideologies motivate violent white supremacists who seek to initiate a race war; apocalyptic cults which anticipate a violent Armageddon; radical elements of private citizen militias who fear that the United Nations will initiate an armed takeover of the United States and subsequently establish a One World Government, and other groups or individuals which promote violent millennial agendas."

   Indeed, the FBI's first real introduction to apocalyptic belief was an event that has become an icon for many disenchanted religious and political groups -- the 1993 shootout between government agents and the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas. Other events such as the mass suicides of the Heaven's Gate and Order of the Solar Temple cults, or the 1995 Sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subway system, have added to the awareness that with a new millennium approaching, "end times" hysteria could manifest itself through mass violence.

   In February, FBI Director Louis Freeh issued a statement warning that "extremists, religious cults or apocalyptic groups" had to be considered in the same league as "traditional terrorists" like Osama Bin Laden, the Islamic militant linked to the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. He added that some groups see the year 2000 as the time for an "apocalyptic struggle" between the forces of good and evil.

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