EXCLUSIVE -- MICHIGAN MILITIA CHIEF OUSTED

TIME correspondent Edward Barnes reports that General Norman Olson, co-founder and commander of the Michigan Militia Corps., has been relieved of command by the organization after independently releasing a series of charges accusing "the government of Japan, in retaliation for the U.S. gas attack of the subway there," of blowing up the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City. Barnes says the organization's command staff plans to meet later today to consider whether to expel Olson. This morning, Barnes says, Olson, a Baptist minister and gun shop owner, came to the door of his Michigan home disheveled and dressed in a blue bathrobe, and told a reporter: "Why are you bothering me? Can't you see I'm trying to stop World War III? I'm trying to stop a war." He then slammed the door. According to the group's communications director, Ken Adams, Olson sent a fax to news agencies Thursday detailing his allegations about Japanese involvement in the bombing "against the wishes of the command. We want everyone to know we are in control. There is nothing to worry about." The commander had claimed to possess information showing that the U.S. perpetrated the gas attack in the Japanese subways as retaliation for the dollar's slide against the yen.