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_____________________________________
The
‘Hutaree
Militia’
Case
Starts
To
Unravel
On First
Amendment
Grounds
Big
Journalism
By
Archy
Cary
May 4th
2010
When the
nine
members
of the
Hutaree
militians
group
were
arrested
in late
March
near
Adrian,
Michigan,
the
MSM ran
hard
with the
story.
Within
48
hours,
the
template
was set:
A
“right-wing
extremist
Christian”
militia
group
had been
planning
to wreak
havoc by
killing
law
enforcement
officers
as a way
to
engage a
wider
war
against
the
government.
Soon the
MSM had
the
Hutarees
tried,
convicted
and
jailed.
Throughout most of April, the story faded from the news and left behind the public assumption that the Hutarees’ diabolical plot had been thwarted by the FBI in the nick of time.
Then, at an April 27 court hearing concerning the group’s disposition as they awaited trial, the lead FBI agent in the case against the Hutarees was called to testify before U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts. That’s when, according to the Detroit News, the government’s case started showing some serious
cracks;
A federal judge had harsh words for prosecutors Tuesday after an FBI agent called to testify in the Hutaree militia case told the court she learned she would take the stand only shortly before the hearing began.
Special Agent Leslie Larsen, the agent in charge of the case in which nine people are accused of plotting to kill police officers and wage war against the U.S. government, did not know the answers to many of the questions she was asked and did not have her notes with her.
“I share the frustration of the defense … with all of the responses that are coming from this witness that she doesn’t know anything,” said U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts.
A few days later, the
fissures in the government’s case against the Hutarees widened when, on May 3, Judge Roberts ordered the release on bond of the nine members of the Hutarees, over the objections of federal prosecutors. In her
36-page ruling, Roberts wrote:
The Government relies on the seriousness of the charges as well, to argue that Defendants must be held without bond, because they present a danger to the community. While the Government argues that the Defendants are also a flight risk, its reasons are not persuasive. Importantly, the Court’s Pretrial Services Agency concludes that the Defendants do not present such a risk. Dangerousness then, is the Court’s major concern in assessing whether Defendants should be released on bond.
While the Government contends that the crimes charged against Defendants go well beyond speech, there is no doubt that controversial, offensive and hate-filled speech is implicated. In their defense, the Defendants disagree that this case implicates anything other than speech, and, that whatever they said, did not amount to a conspiracy to commit illegal acts…
The United States is correct that it need not wait until people are killed before it arrests conspirators. But, the Defendants are also correct: their right to engage in hate-filled, venomous speech is a right that deserves First Amendment protection...
The Court reviewed all exhibits, testimony, and proffers, and finds that each Defendant produced sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption in favor of detention. The Government fails to persuade the Court, by a preponderance of the evidence, that there are no conditions that will reasonably assure the Defendants’ appearance in Court as required. The Government also fails to persuade the Court by clear and convincing evidence, that there are no conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of the community, if Defendants are released.
The release has been delayed until 5 p.m. tomorrow
pending a possible government motion whether to appeal the ruling.
So, the nine members of group profiled by the Department of Justice and the MSM as representing an imminent right-wing extremist danger have been released on bond by a judge who surveyed the evidence and concluded that the government hadn’t made the case that the Hutarees represented a clear and present danger to “the safety of the community.” Instead, they appear to be most guilty of shooting off their mouths – a practice still protected, in most cases, by the First Amendment.
Here’s the question the MSM needs to ask, but won’t: Was this flamboyant raid primarily driven by political rather than law enforcement motives?
Was the arrest of the Hutaree militia Attorney General Eric Holder’s effort to manufacture an imminent right-wing extremist threat for political purposes?
Just asking..............
____________________________________________________________-
Christian
Militia
Raided
by FBI
were
"Preparing
for the
Anti-Christ"
By Carlin DeGuerin Miller
ADRIAN, Michigan (CBS/AP) A Michigan Christian militia group called Hutaree was raided over the weekend as part of a three state, multiple raid action by the FBI, including raids in Ohio and Indiana.
PICTURES: Hutaree Militia Raided by FBI
According to a website purportedly run by the group, Hutaree.com, Hutaree are Christian "soldiers" who are arming themselves and training in anticipation of the coming of the Anti-Christ, which they believe is imminent.
A quote from the website reads: "Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment."
Law enforcement swarmed a rural, wooded property Saturday evening near Adrian, Mich., about 70 miles southwest of Detroit. Two ramshackle trailers sat side-by-side on the property. The door to one was slightly ajar late Sunday as if it had been forced open. Michael Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, which is not connected to Hutaree, said one of his team leaders got a frantic phone call Saturday evening from members of Hutaree.
"They said they were under attack by the ATF and wanted a place to hide," Lackomar said. "My team leader said, 'No thanks."'
The raid in Michigan was reportedly connected to three other raids in Ohio and Indiana. FBI spokesman Scott Wilson in Cleveland said agents arrested two people Saturday after raids in two Ohio towns.
One of the raids took place at Bayshore Estates, a well-kept trailer park in Sandusky, Ohio, a small city between Toledo and Cleveland, where neighbors said the man taken into custody lived with his wife and two young children.
"They took over the block like it was the Army. I thought we were being invaded," said Michael Morin, who lives two lots away.
18-year-old George Ponce, who works at a pizzeria next door to a home in Hammond, Ind., about 30 miles southeast of Chicago, that was raided, said he and a few co-workers stepped outside for a break Saturday night and saw a swarm of law enforcement, according to CBS affiliate WBBM.
"I heard a yell, 'Get back inside!' and saw a squad member pointing a rifle at us," Ponce said.
_______________________________________________
The Hutaree militia and the rising risk of far-right violence
Washington Post
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The arrests of members of a Michigan-based "Christian" militia group should convince doubters that there is good reason to worry about right-wing, anti-government extremism -- and potential violence -- in the Age of Obama.
I put the word Christian in quotes because anyone who plots to assassinate law enforcement officers, as a federal indictment alleges members of the Hutaree militia did, is no follower of Christ. According to federal prosecutors, the Hutaree -- the word's not in my dictionary, but its Web site claims it means "Christian warrior" -- are convinced that their enemies include "state and local law enforcement, who are deemed 'foot soldiers' of the federal government, federal law enforcement agencies and employees, participants in the 'New World Order,' and anyone who does not share in the Hutaree's beliefs."
According to the indictment, the group had been plotting for two years to assassinate federal, state or local police officers. "Possible such acts which were discussed," the indictment says, "included killing a member of law enforcement 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 communities, 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 homemade bombs.
Nine members of the Hutaree were named in the indictment. Eight were arrested during weekend FBI raids in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana; one suspect remains at large. The group's Web site shows members in camouflage outfits traipsing through woods in "training" exercises. They could be out for an afternoon of paintball, except for the loony rhetoric about "sword and flame" and the page, labeled "Gear," that links to several gun dealers. Along with numerous weapons offenses, the Hutaree are charged with sedition.
The episode highlights the obvious: For decades now, the most serious threat of domestic terrorism has come from the growing ranks of paranoid, anti-government hate groups that draw their inspiration, vocabulary and anger from the far right.
It is disingenuous for mainstream purveyors of incendiary far-right rhetoric to dismiss groups such as the Hutaree by saying that there are "crazies on both sides." This simply is not true.
There was a time when the far left was a spawning ground for political violence. The first big story I covered was the San Francisco trial of heiress Patricia Hearst, who had been kidnapped and eventually co-opted by the Symbionese Liberation Army -- a far-left group whose philosophy was as apocalyptic and incoherent as that of the Hutaree. There are aging radicals in Cuba today who got to Havana by hijacking airplanes in the 1970s. Left-wing radicals caused mayhem and took innocent lives.
But for the most part, far-left violence in this country has gone the way of the leisure suit and the AMC Gremlin. An anti-globalization movement, including a few window-smashing anarchists, was gaining traction at one point, but it quickly diminished after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. An environmental group and an animal-rights group have been linked with incidents of arson. Beyond those particulars, it is hard to identify any kind of leftist threat.
By contrast, there has been explosive growth among far-right, militia-type groups that identify themselves as white supremacists, "constitutionalists," tax protesters and religious soldiers determined to kill people to uphold "Christian" values. Most of the groups that posed a real danger, as the Hutaree allegedly did, have been infiltrated and dismantled by authorities before they could do any damage. But we should never forget that the worst act of domestic terrorism ever committed in this country was authored by a member of the government-hating right wing: Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
It is dishonest for right-wing commentators to insist on an equivalence that does not exist. The danger of political violence in this country comes overwhelmingly from one direction -- the right, not the left. The vitriolic, anti-government hate speech that is spewed on talk radio every day -- and, quite regularly, at Tea Party rallies -- is calibrated not to inform but to incite.
Demagogues scream at people that their government is illegitimate, that their country has been "taken away," that their elected officials are "traitors" and that their freedom is at risk. They have a right to free speech, which I will always defend. But they shouldn't be surprised if some listeners take them literally.
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