MICHIGAN MILITIA | Driver for local trucking company one of nine people feds say were planning to kill cop, then bomb funeral
The U.S. attorney leading the prosecution against nine suspected members of a Christian militia, including a driver for a Chicago trucking company says authorities “needed to arrest them and take them down.”
Barbara McQuade said today that federal investigators had been watching the group called Hutaree for some time and felt compelled to act based on an imminent threat against police.
McQuade says the “most troubling” finding was that “Hutaree” members plotted to make a false 911 call, kill responding officers and then use a bomb to kill many more at the funeral.
Thomas Piatek, 46, of Hammond, Ind., and eight other Midwestern members of the Michigan-based Hutaree group allegedly hoped their terrorist acts would trigger a nationwide uprising.
Piatek was arrested near Clarendon Hills early Sunday, after a series of FBI raids on the militia in Michigan, Ohio, and at Piatek’s Hammond home.
The militiamen — led by David “Captain Hutaree” Stone, 44, of Clayton, Mich. — were just days away from a violent reconnaissance mission against Michigan law enforcement, whom members considered “foot soldiers” of the “New World Order,” a federal indictment alleges.
Members had attempted to purchase bomb-making equipment and had a series of plans to kill cops, including making a fake 911 call to lure an officer to his or her death, or attacking the family of a police officer, prosecutors said.
But Stone, whose sons, Joshua, and David Jr., were also allegedly part of the plot, settled on the plan to murder a cop, then attack the funeral, the indictment alleges.
The group allegedly planned to use homemade bombs, then retreat to “rally points” protected by trip-wired bombs for a violent standoff with police.
Charged in addition to Piatek, Stone, and Stone’s sons, were Stone’s wife, Tina Mae, 44; Jacob Ward, 33, of Huron, Ohio; Joshua Clough, 28, of Blissfield, Mich.; Kristopher Sickles, 27, of Sandusky, Ohio; and Michael Meeks, 40, of Manchester, Mich. They were all charged with seditious conspiracy, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, teaching the use of explosives, and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Joshua Stone surrendered Monday night at a home in Hillsdale County, Mich., the FBI said. He was arraigned today before a U.S. District Court magistrate and was ordered held without bond until a hearing Wednesday.
The indictment alleges all nine conspired “to levy war against the United States,” and “to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States.”
Appearing at Hammond Federal Courthouse Monday, Piatek denied involvement in the plot, claiming prosecutors had the wrong Thomas Piatek, U.S. Attorney’s spokeswoman Mary Hatton said.
Piatek told Judge Paul Cherry he was broke, and said he’d been “raped” by property taxes.
He’ll be transferred to a federal court in Detroit if he can’t convince Cherry he’s the victim of mistaken identity on Wednesday. If convicted, he could be jailed for life.
On its Web site, the militia says Hutaree means “Christian warrior” and quotes several Bible passages. It writes: “We believe that one day, as prophecy says, there will be an Anti-Christ. . . . Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment.”
A video on the Web site shows militia members training in the woods with weapons. The Web site also links to other militia groups and weapons suppliers, and has violent and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Hutaree’s emergence last year is part of a national surge from 149 “patriot” groups that “engage in conspiracy mongering and see the government as the enemy” in 2008, to 512 groups in 2009, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups and has linked the surge to President Obama’s election.
“Hutaree are unusual in the way that they mix religious, apocalyptic imagery with the anti-government stance,” said director of research Heidi Beirich.
As federal agents removed boxes of evidence from Piatek’s Hammond home Monday, shocked neighbors described him a “loner and quiet,” but said they’d seen nothing to suggest he was a militiaman bent on killing cops.
Teresa Auch Schultz is a Gary Post-Tribune reporter.
Contributing: AP
Read the original article from stateline.org.
“…according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups and has linked the surge to President Obama’s election.”
In 2008, the SPLC claimed there were 926 alleged “hate groups” in the US. In 2009, the first full year of the Obama Administration, the number “surged” to 932, a gain of six tenths of a percent, the lowest increase in SPLC reporting history.
So which is it? Did the number of alleged “hate groups” soar, as the SPLC claims, or was it the most peaceful year on record, as the SPLC claims?
You can’t have it both ways unless your only intent is scaring your mostly elderly donor base out of a few more donor-dollars. These are their bogus numbers, not mine.
Those truly interested in “White supremacists” should ask the SPLC why NOT ONE of their top ten, highest paid officers is a minority? (http://wp.me/pclyz-3r)
The last remaining “Whites Only” sign hangs in the boardroom of the SPLC.
Some “experts”