Mar 29, 2010

Christian militia members charged with plots to kill police officers

09:55 AM

FBI raids in three Midwestern states, including at the reported site of a Christian militia group, has netted at least four arrests.

Read the federal indictment below or click here.

The Detroit Free Press says defendants will appear in court today in Detroit in connection with arrests in Michigan. Raids were also conducted in Indiana and Ohio.


The Michigan defendants were seized in a raid on the Christian warrior group Hutaree, the newspaper says.

Hutaree's Web site contains messages from people talking about the raids, but none confirmed that the group had been hit.

The Web site also says the Christian warrior group is "preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive."

See training video from a Michigan-based Christian militia group above or click here.

The Detroit News quotes sources from the Michigan militia community as saying one of the raids occurred during a wake for a Hutaree member who had died of natural causes.

The FBI is providing little information until sealed indictments are made public.


The Free Press reports that a member of the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, which was not the target of the raids, said one of its leaders got a frantic phone call Saturday evening from members of Hutaree who said their property was being raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.


Update at 10:11 a.m. ET: CNN reports that the federal indictment, unsealed in Detroit this morning , accuses nine people of conspiracy to commit violence against local, state and federal law enforcement officers.

The document, CNN reports, calls Hutaree an "anti-government, extremist group" and says it has been planning its attacks since 2008.

CNN says the documents charge that the group advocated luring officers into an ambush through fake 911 calls, and also discussed killing officers or their families at home.

CNN says seven people were arrested in the raids.

Update at 10:30 a.m. ET: The indictment says Hutaree's "enemies include state and local law enforcement, who are deemed 'foot soldiers' of the federal government, federal law enforcment agencies and employees, participants in the 'New World Order,' and anyone who does not share in the Hutaree's beliefs."

The indictment charges that Hutaree leader David Brian Stone, also known as "Captain Hutaree" had announced plans for a covert reconnaissance exercise scheduled for April "during which exercise anyone who happened upon the exercise who did not acquiesce toHutaree demands could be killed."

Update at 10:37 a.m. ET: An excerpt from the indictment;

Possible such acts which were discussed included killing a member of law enforcment after a traffic stop, killing a member of law enforcement and his or her family at home, ambushing a member of law enforcement in rural communites, luring a member of law enforcement with a false 911 emergency call and then killing him or her, and killing a member of law enforcement and then attacking the funeral procession motorcade with weapons of mass destruction."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... rt-today/1