Nine alleged members of a right-wing Christian militia group that was girding for battle with the Antichrist were charged with plotting to kill a police officer and slaughter scores more by bombing the funeral — all in hopes of touching off an uprising against the US government.
Seven men and one woman believed to be part of the Michigan-based Hutaree militia were arrested over the weekend in raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The ninth suspect was arrested on Monday night after a search in rural southern Michigan.
FBI agents moved quickly against Hutaree because its members were planning an attack sometime next month, prosecutors said. Authorities seized guns in the raids but would not say whether they found explosives.
The arrests have dealt “a severe blow to a dangerous organization that today stands accused of conspiring to levy war against the United States,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said on Monday.
Authorities said the arrests underscored the dangers of homegrown right-wing extremism of the sort seen in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
In an indictment, prosecutors said the group began military-style training in the Michigan woods in 2008, learning how to shoot guns and make and set off bombs.
David Brian Stone, 44, of Clayton, Michigan, and one of his sons were identified as ringleaders of the group. Stone, who was known as “Captain Hutaree,” organized the group in paramilitary fashion and members were assigned secret names, prosecutors said. Ranks ranged from “radoks” to “gunners,” according to the group’s Web site.
“It started out as a Christian thing,” Stone’s ex-wife, Donna Stone, said. “You go to church. You pray. You take care of your family. I think David started to take it a little too far.”
She said her ex-husband pulled her son into the movement.
Another of David Stone’s sons was arrested on Monday night about 50km from the site of the weekend raid at a home where he was found with five other adults and a child.
Joshua Matthew Stone surrendered about 8pm, said Andrew Arena, head of the FBI’s field office in Detroit.
Arena said the other adults at the home were taken into custody and will be interviewed. A determination will be made later about whether they might face charges, he said. The child was one or two years old, Arena said.
Prosecutors said David Stone had identified certain law enforcement officers near his home as potential targets. He and other members discussed setting off bombs at a police funeral, using a fake emergency call to lure an officer to his death, killing an officer after a traffic stop, or attacking the family of an officer, the indictment said.
After such attacks, the group allegedly planned to retreat to “rally points” protected by trip-wired explosives for a violent standoff with the law.
“It is believed by the Hutaree that this engagement would then serve as a catalyst for a more widespread uprising against the government,” the indictment said.
The charges against the eight include seditious conspiracy — plotting to levy war against the US — possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, teaching the use of explosives and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction — homemade bombs.
Hutaree says on its Web site its name means “Christian warrior” and describes the word as part of a secret language few are privileged to know. The group quotes several Bible passages and declares: “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.”
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