United States

Nine Arrested in “Christian Militia” Plot Against US Gov’t

Garrett Snyder

On Monday March 29th, federal authorities raided the compound of a Michigan-based militia group that claim Christian affiliation, known as the Hutaree and arrested nine suspects. The group allegedly described themselves on their website as “Christian Warriors” preparing to fight the “Antichrist.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation had been monitoring the group’s members for some time but were forced take physical action against them over the weekend after learning of an imminent threat against police. The U.S. attorney’s investigation revealed that Hutaree members plotted to make a false 911 emergency call, kill the responding officers and then use a bomb to kill many more at the resulting funeral. The charges against the nine suspects include seditious conspiracy, illegal firearm possession, and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction such as homemade bombs.

• Seditious conspiracy: Plotting to levy war against the US

• Christian right-wing political organizations have roundly condemned the organization and its actions. However, the populist anger and anti-government backlash propagated recently by far-leaning Republicans seems to only have added fuel to the fire for extremist groups such as Hutaree making them a very real threat to the security of the US.
• Many government officials fear that recent political tensions in Washington have led to not only the greater presence of anti-government militia groups, but increased the threat of violence they pose.

Additional Reading:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/29/michigan.arrests/index.html