Midwestern Militia Members Arrested
[Guest post by DRJ]
The FBI says 9 members of a self-described Michigan Christian militia who were planning to “levy war” on the United States have been arrested on terrorism-related charges:
“Nine members of a Lenawee County-based militia group were planning to “levy war” against the United States and “oppose by force” the nation’s government, according to an indictment unsealed this morning in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Seven of the defendants of the “Hutaree” militia appeared briefly this morning in U.S. District Court in Detroit and were ordered held without bond until Wednesday, when bond hearings will be held. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet said he wants all the defendants held pending trial.
The five-count indictment alleges that between August 2008 and the present, the defendants were trying to use bombs and other weapons to oppose the U.S. government.
They had plans to kill a local law enforcement official and, once officers from across the country came to the funeral, to attack the funeral procession, the indictment alleges.”
Eight men and one woman were arrested. They may have planned to fight a holy war:
“The Adrian-based group has said it is training in modern combat techniques for a prophesized battle with the anti-Christ.”
Ann Althouse notes the indictment accuses them of planning to use IEDs considered to be “weapons of mass destruction.” Althouse says that “blows a big hole in the notion that there weren’t weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
One of the men is Thomas Piatek, a Chicago-area resident and truck driver who claims he was falsely accused:
“At a hearing Monday at the Hammond federal courthouse, Piatek denied wrongdoing and insisted he was not the same Thomas Piatek named in the indictment. “I’m not that guy,” he said, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana. U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Cherry ordered a special hearing Wednesday to establish Piatek’s identity.
Piatek told the court that he had been “raped” by property taxes on his residence, leaving him with only a few thousand dollars in savings. Tax records in Lake County, Ind., show Piatek paid $3,400 last year on time.
Piatek still lives in his childhood home, neighbors said. His mother once ran a flower shop from the Calumet Avenue house, while his father worked at one of the local steel mills. And his grandfather was once mayor of south suburban Calumet City, acquaintances said.
With both his parents dead, Piatek looked after his brother, Steve, and their two German shepherds. Neighbors said they occasionally saw him heading to a nearby pizza place or walking to the grocery a block away, but he rarely socialized.”
According to the last link, the militia’s activities were “hardly a secret” because it maintained a website with “videos of its men slogging through the woods and playing war games in their military attire.”
— DRJ
shouldn’t that be “Chirstianist” militia?
%-)
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/29/2010 @ 8:51 pmI am interested to see what the evidence is against them.
I’m sure David Shuster hasn’t learned from his O’Keefe New Orleans debacle and is writing a screed combining Sarah Palin, the Tea Partiers and these guys. Something along the line they were Quakers until they saw Palin’s Facebook page.
He can smell a Peabody, an Oscar, an Emmy, the Nobel Peace Prize and Pulitzer coming his way.
MU789 (bfc2e9) — 3/29/2010 @ 9:09 pmWow, what are the chances that a bust like this could come down just when the Democrats and MSM were busy trying to paint anyone to the right of Marx as a violent extremist.
gahrie (9d1bb3) — 3/29/2010 @ 10:38 pmIf they are guilty, they certainly deserved to be arrested, whether the timing is convenient or not. I recall that the left always said various victories or losses in the GWOT were times to accomplish something, too.
Sure, Napolitano is a jerk, hates veterans, and probably is delighted this meshes with the narrative. But it’s not like the TEA parties are the far-right. A lot of them are in the center, and the democrats keep calling them terrorists and racists. Many people know someone affiliated with the TEA party and know that’s really unfair.
Ostracizing and isolated a group of people only works if that group is small enough. That there are a few new Bill Ayers running around mad about government oppression doesn’t change the Tea party into something scary.
dustin (b54cdc) — 3/29/2010 @ 10:48 pmMU789 – I think the only thing Shuster can smell is a Cleveland Steamer.
daleyrocks (718861) — 3/29/2010 @ 10:52 pmPreparation to levy war is not a crime. The precedent goes back to Aaron Burr. And, generally, preparation is not a crime either. A substantial step or agreement and an overt act are required.
nk (db4a41) — 3/30/2010 @ 8:00 amThe judge who will hear this case is prepared to levy war against the United States if he owns a kitchen knife, matches, and a tankful of gas in his car which if ignited would cause mass destruction.
nk (db4a41) — 3/30/2010 @ 8:04 amWe’re rediscovering with Napolitano what we should have learned from J. Edgar Hoover. The closeted, celibate homosexuals are the most dangerous ones to America.
nk (db4a41) — 3/30/2010 @ 8:08 am[…] attack, was in the works. If indeed true, and it’s already being reported that this was a “Christian militia” effort, then I denounce these people with every fiber in my […]
FBI, DHS, Police Raids: Rounding Up Militia Groups in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, Reportedly a Police-Killing Plot (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 3/30/2010 @ 8:43 am#8, nk, celibate? John Edgar had his pal Clyde. The mob took pictures and used them to keep the FBI on the sidelines for years. To keep his peculuar habits private, Hoover was blackmailed into denying that organized crime even existed.
And, Jelly-belly Janet may not seem so attractive to the casual observer, but you can’t dismiss the possibility a passing manatee might take a second look.
ropelight (2c107c) — 3/30/2010 @ 9:26 amrope…your disrespect for manatees will be reported to the appropriate FL agency.
AD - RtR/OS! (a2cec7) — 3/30/2010 @ 9:51 amTMI, ropelight, Anita Hill’s fmr. attorney still isn’t very observant on what the real problem is,
ian cormac (349188) — 3/30/2010 @ 9:59 amI was so glad when Janet accepted this federal job so we could share her with the country. It wasn’t fair that we had all of her goodness. //sarc\\
PatAZ (9d1bb3) — 3/30/2010 @ 10:05 amGee, thanks Pat!
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 3/30/2010 @ 10:13 amThese Christofascist racist teabaggers are obviously guilty. ABC provides the undeniable proof of their violent right-wing extremism:
Members of Hutaree Were Home Schooled
The Stone family attended the Thornhill Baptist Church “about once every three months,” according to Spurgeon, but were always polite and well behaved when they did show up. Spurgeon said that her church did not condone anything the Stone’s are said to believe in. “That’s not the teaching that they got at our church,” Spurgeon said.
Josh Stone and David Stone Jr. were both home schooled and seemed to lack friends their own age, according to Spurgeon.
Bradley J. Fikes, C. O.R. (a18ddc) — 3/30/2010 @ 2:39 pmSounds like my speculation that an undercover agent was involved was on target.
I believe these are the first indictments for sedition in a half-century or more, since the McCarthy era. Then the left spoke out loudly against the Smith Act. I’m willing to give odds they’re all in favor of it now.
Tully (4dce1a) — 3/30/2010 @ 4:03 pm