Christian Militia

[anointedteacher]

David Stone, Christian Militia Leader, Told Members Be Ready To Kill: Feds

www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/17/david-stone-christian-mil_n_541574.html


DETROIT — The leader of a Christian militia planned an elaborate, two-part training session for this month and told members it was OK to kill "anyone who might stumble upon the operation," federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing Friday.

Details about the Hutaree's planned training session – to be held during the second and fourth Saturdays in April – were revealed in a 17-page document prosecutors filed in response to a defense motion to free Hutaree leader David Stone while he awaits trial.

It, along with several other government filings over the past week, help paint a fuller picture of the southern Michigan-based group's make-up and activities.

Stone and eight other suspected Hutaree members were arrested after a series of raids across the Midwest late last month and charged with seditious conspiracy, or plotting to levy war against the U.S. The self-proclaimed "Christian warriors" trained in paramilitary techniques in preparation for a battle against the Antichrist.

Friday's filing included a transcript of remarks Stone allegedly made during a January briefing on the planned operation.

According to the filing, Stone told other Hutaree members that "we are going locked and loaded."

"If you're made, somebody comes tripping along, they just happen to see you, we're gonna handle it as a hostile situation," Stone said. "That means you put them on the ground."

Andrew Arena, the head of the FBI in Detroit, has said his office felt compelled to arrest the nine suspects before the April training session because of the potential for violence.

Stone's lawyer, William Swor, said he hadn't seen the latest filing but doesn't see any reason why his client should be jailed.

"The government hasn't proved that he shouldn't be free," Swor said.

Prosecutors claim Stone and the others plotted mass killings of police as a prelude to a larger war against the government. In Friday's filing and others that trickled out over the past week, they described several ways in which Hutaree members considered killing law enforcement personnel.

According to one scenario, they would place a phony 911 call, kill responding police officers, then set off a bomb at the ensuing funeral to kill many more.

In another, Friday's filing said, Hutaree members talked about "torching the homes of police officers and then shooting them and their families as they fled their burning homes."

Swor and other defense attorneys in the case have argued their clients are protected by a right to free speech.

A federal magistrate judge in Detroit has ordered eight of the suspects to remain locked up until trial.

A ninth suspect, Thomas Piatek, of Whiting, Ind., was ordered held by a judge in Indiana but recently transported to Michigan.

Piatek appeared in court Thursday and a not-guilty plea was entered.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts has set an April 27 hearing to consider appeals of the detention orders, but the date could change because of a scheduling conflict with one of the prosecutors.

[krazeeboi]

"Christian" militia....I don't think so.

[anointedteacher]

Newt Gingrich said that he expects the Tea Party movement to evolve into "the militant wing of the Republican Party" at a speaking engagement in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, the York Dispatch reports.

Gingrich described the Tea Party's sentiment towards Washington as "natural" and argued that people are entitled to the "pursuit of happiness."

The York Dispatch reports on Gingrich's remarks regarding the future of the conservative movement:

Gingrich said the movement is a "natural expression of frustration with Republicans and anger at Democrats," which is "more likely to end up as the militant wing of the Republican Party" than as an independent or third party.

The Dispatch also reports that while many of those attending the event held by the Manufacturers' Association of South Central Pennsylvania seemed to support Gingrich's conclusions, some members of the audience did not agree with his characterization of the Tea Party movement as potentially "militant."

Gingrich addressed a wide range of political and policy issues in his Wednesday night speech -- from unemployment to whether he'll run for president in 2012. Via the York Dispatch, here are some of the former House Speaker's other notable remarks:

"High schools are an expensive "baby sitting service" and that students who want to leave school should be allowed to enter the work force."
"Last year's extension of unemployment benefits was like a bribe to people to tolerate legislators' incompetence, he said."
"Newt Gingrich said he hasn't yet decided whether he'll run for president in 2012."