Hutaree Christian Militia, Not an Isolated Phenomena - updated 2/7/2012

Sheila Musaji

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Hutaree Christian Militia, Not an Isolated Phenomena

by Sheila Musaji

It is more than obvious that there is a double standard about what is defined as terrorism and what is not defined as terrorism.  It is also more than obvious that there is a double standard on linking extremism or terrorism with the name of any religion other than Islam.

After the recent Hutaree arrests, there was a flurry of articles noting that the Hutaree didn’t represent true Christianity - a point well taken about any violent group and any religion.

There were also a number of attempts to say that this represented an aberration, an isolated incident, that Christians and Jews weren’t usually involved in such actions, and that we should maintain our focus on the “real” enemy - Islam and Muslims.

Pamela Geller may have written the most insane of these posts.  Her article had the title Despite Record Levels of Islamic Terror in U.S., FBI raids Christian Groups, and she referred to the arrests as “In a word, nuts”.

Robert Spencer also outdid himself writing  “For years now we have heard, in the indelible formulation of Rosie O’Donnell, that “radical Christianity is just as dangerous as radical Islam,” and yet proponents of this exercise in wishful thinking and ignorance have had precious little evidence to adduce in support of it. But now it is certain that for years to come this Hutaree group will be thrown in the face of anyone who takes note of jihad activity in the United States and around the world, as if this group in itself balances and equals the innumerable Islamic groups that are waging armed jihad all around the world today.  ...  The Islamic jihad is global, well-financed (courtesy our friend and ally Saudi Arabia) and relentless. One self-proclaimed Christian group should not divert us from the ongoing need to defend ourselves against that jihad. But for many, it will.”

Chris Baker, a guest host on Glenn Beck’s radio show said that the Hutaree arrests were “nothing more than attack on faith and free speech”. 

A NY Post editorial said that the Hutaree Christian militia was only “a few guys in the woods with guns” and not “the same threat as Islamist terrorists” who are “dedicated agents of a ruthless, religion-driven ideology.” 

A number of right wing defenses of the Hutaree were gathered on the Firedog Lake site including a post on the American Power site that said “Hey, is the administration taking after Christian militias to get in good with CAIR and the neo-communist left?”

Let’s summarize what these folks are saying:  Arresting the Hutaree is nuts, and an attack on free speech and the Christian faith.  To think that non-Muslims could be dangerous is an excercise in wishful thinking, and there has been little evidence of such non-Muslim terrorist activity.  The Hutaree are an isolated case, just a few guys in the woods with guns.  We should only go after Muslim terrorists who are the real danger.

Let’s look at the reality which contradicts this strange worldview.

Last month MPAC released its latest policy memo entitled “Data on Post-9/11 Terrorism in the United States,” which compares the incidents of Muslim and non-Muslim terrorism cases in the U.S. since 9/11, both in terms of the number of actual and attempted attacks within the U.S. as well as the process and outcome of the terrorism trials.  Among the key findings are:

There were 51 total plots by domestic non-Muslim perpetrators against the United States, and 29 total plots by domestic and international Muslim perpetrators since 9/11.
Only 42% of individuals publicly associated with terrorism by the Department of Justice were actually charged with violating an anti-terrorism or national security statute.
There have been at least 4 cases of non-Muslim domestic terrorists possessing or attempting to possess Chemical or Radiological weapons, including one case since Obama’s election. No such cases involving Muslim extremists have been reported.
Since Obama’s election on November 4, 2008 there have been 25 terror plots by non-Muslim domestic extremists and 9 plots by Muslim domestic and international extremists.


According to the European Police Office (Europol) in 2006 “There were 498 incidents in eleven EU countries in 2005 labelled as “terrorist attacks.” The Basque separatist group ETA committed the most (136 terrorist attacks) and was responsible for the only deadly attack, killing two in Madrid. The remaining 497 fortunately cost no human lives.”  Muslims only carried out one out of the 498 terrorist attacks in the European Union in 2006.  Full report    The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam a Hindu separatist group in Sri Lanka “had carried out more suicide bombings than any other organization on the face of the earth.  According to the experts at Janes securities, between 1980 to 2000, LTTE had carried out a total of 168 suicide attacks on civilians and military targets. The number of suicide attacks easily exceeded the combined total of Hizbullah and Hamas suicide attacks carried out during the same period” 

In Europe the number of arrests connected to terrorism doubled in the European Union in 2007, while the overwhelming majority of attacks carried out in its territory were linked to separatism, the EU’s police office, Europol, said in a report released on Monday (7 April). 

Another EUROPOL report published in 2009 shows that contrary to media representation, more than 99% of terrorist attacks in Europe from 2006 to 2009 were, in fact, carried out by non-Muslims.

The U.S. Department of Justice Report on Terrorism 2002 to 2005 also lists incidents from 1980 to 2005 and clearly shows that most terrorist incidents were not carried out by Muslims.

Another report from the FBI  makes a lot of interesting points.  Here are a few highlights:

APPROXIMATELY 641 terrorist incidents occurred in the United States between 1971 and June 1975.  Among these attacks were 166 bombings, 120 fire bombings, and 118 shootings. (During the first six months of 1975 alone, 24 attacks occurred in California, 12 took place in New York, and 11 were directed at targets on the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.) Some of these attacks were carried out by extremist ethnic groups and international terrorists.  But the vast majority were attributed to leftwing/antiwar extremists, many operating within such organizations as the Weather Underground, Armed Forces of Puerto Rican Liberation (FALN), the Black Liberation Army, and the Symbionese Liberation Army. p35

WAVES in domestic terrorist activity are not absolute or all encompassing. During the 1970s and early 1980s, at the height of violent antiwar/left-wing activism, there were dozens of terrorist attacks carried out by Jewish extremist groups (such as the Jewish Defense League and the United Jewish Underground) and other extremist ethnic groups (such as the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide). There were also sporadic incidents involving special interest groups supporting nuclear disarmament and other causes. During the 1990s, when antigovernment right-wing groups became a primary counterterrorism focus, left-wing extremist Puerto Rican separatists continued to conduct the majority of successful terrorist attacks in the United States–primarily on the island of Puerto Rico. (The majority of terrorist acts prevented by law enforcement during the decade, however, were being planned by antigovernment right-wing terrorists–underscoring the potential threat posed by this element.) p 37 to 38

But a study of the past reveals some potentially helpful patterns. Violent domestic extremism in the United States has been closely linked to contemporary political/social concerns. In each of the three identifiable waves, violent extremism has represented a small, radicalized component of broad-based, largely
peaceful movements sharing similar concerns. With regard to left- and right-wing terrorism, aggressive prosecution of group leaders, violent offenders, and those plotting attacks contributed significantly to limiting the overall threat posed by groups with these orientations. p 38

The abilities to spread propaganda and recruit new members are important to the long-term viability of extremist movements. Leftist radical movements of the 1970 and early 1980s conducted much of their propaganda and recruiting through lectures and the distribution of handbills. While right-wing groups in
the 1980s and 1990s began to exploit the Internet and cable access programming to spread their views, they largely depended on videotapes and books to attract new adherents to their antigovernment, race-supremacist ideologies. By contrast, animal rights and environmental extremists rely on sophisticated computer capabilities to exploit the communications potential of the Internet to disseminate propaganda, provide information updates to adherents, recruit new members, and make claims of responsibility for terrorist activities and acts of vandalism. The communications opportunities afforded by the World Wide Web can be expected to have a far-reaching impact on the ability of contemporary extremist groups to perpetuate propaganda and attract new members. p 38

CONCLUSION - BROAD TRENDS in domestic terrorism can be identified throughout the past four decades. These trends demonstrate the fluidity of causes that can inspire acts of terrorism within a culture. A society as large, diverse, and complex as the United States can be expected to continue to yield divergent concerns and beliefs among groups and individuals who view extreme actions as the most effective means to convey their sentiments. An appreciation of the largescale shifts in terrorist trends may assist law enforcement in understanding general patterns in the threat posed by domestic extremists over several decades. The emerging challenges confronting the law enforcement community underscore more than ever the importance of interagency cooperation, effective analysis, and aggressive investigation to counter these threats. p 40

A recent Homeland Security Report warns of rising right-wing extremism

Loonwatch has published a must read article All Terrorists are Muslims…Except the 94% that Aren’t which takes information from the FBI report mentioned above and analyzes the list of incidents and creates an interesting pie chart that makes all the information come clearly into focus.  Loonwatch states: “According to this data, there were more Jewish acts of terrorism within the United States than Islamic (7% vs 6%).  These radical Jews committed acts of terrorism in the name of their religion.  These were not terrorists who happened to be Jews; rather, they were extremist Jews who committed acts of terrorism based on their religious passions, just like Al-Qaeda and company.”

Researchers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say that while homegrown Islamic terrorism is a serious issue, it remains a limited problem.”  According to Time  Read the full report Anti-Terror Lessons of Muslim-Americans here.

FBI Director, Robert Mueller has warned that homegrown extremists are as threatening as Al Qaeda.

The Guardian UK reports that former President Bill Clinton issued a warning on the extremist mood in US.  Clinton was quoted as saying in part “We are again dealing with difficulties in a contentious, partisan time … As we exercise the right to advocate our views, and as we animate our supporters, we must all assume responsibility for our words and actions before they enter a vast echo chamber and reach those both serious and delirious, connected and unhinged.”

According to news reports Obama has ordered a revision of America’s National Security Strategy with the aim to remove terms that link Islam to terrorism.  ABC News reports that the final report on the new strategy won’t be issued for at least another month.  It seems as if this new initiative depends heavily on the original 2008 recommendations.  It remains to be seen whether or not it will be implemented.  TAM’s collection of alarming statements shows that a lot of people have not taken this seriously since the original 2008 recommendations.  And, since this new report came out, Senator Lieberman (chairman of the Homeland Security Committee) has called dropping ‘Islamic extremism’ term ‘Orwellian and counterproductive’

The American Muslim (TAM) has a list of terrorist incidents that proves that the claim that all terrorists are Muslims ignores history.    Do a “control F” search on this article for the word militia and see how many times it comes up.  TAM also has a collection of extremist Christian statements, and of extremist Jewish statements.  The Hutaree are not an aberration or a unique instance in relation to militias specifically, and terror is not unique to Islam in the guise of many other sorts of groups.


A few examples of previous militia violence:  Birmingham, Alabama area anti-immigration militia were arrested for planning a machine gun attack on Mexicans - Idaho Mountain Militia Boys plot to kill a judge an a police officer and break a friend out of jail - Texas Militia plot to attack the Federal Building in Houston - Richard McLaren, former president of the Republic of Texas militia, kidnapped his neighbors leading to a week-long standoff between the police and “antigovernment separatists. - Minutemen American Defense militia, anti-immigrant group, murder of a Hispanic family in Arivaca AZ - Mountaineer Militia members are arrested in plot to blow up the FBI fingerprint records center in West Virginia. - North American Militia members are arrested in plot to bomb Federal Buildings in Michigan, a television station and an interstate highway intersection. - Oklahoma Constitutional Militia members arrested while in the planning stages for bombings of Southern Poverty Law Center, gay bars and abortion clinics. - The Republic of Texas militia plotted to assassinate President Clinton using biological weapons. - Scott Roeder, a member of the Army of God militia murders Dr. George Tiller - San Joaquin Militia members arrested on charges of plotting to bomb critical infrastructure locations in hopes of sparking an insurrection. - Eric Rudolph, anti-abortionist, member of Army of God militia, the Atlanta Olympic Park bomber - Southeastern States Alliance militia group, leader is arrested in plot to bomb energy faculties with the goal of causing power outages in Florida and Georgia. - Third Continental Congress militia members are arrested while planning attacks on military bases which they believed were being used to train United Nations troops to attack U.S. citizens. - Viper Team militia members arrested on suspicion of plotting violence against Federal buildings.

An article was written by Jeffrey Weiss in which he made the claim“And we’re still left with a terrible problem for a free and multicultural society: Even though 99.999 percent of Muslims abhor attacks on innocent civilians on moral and theological grounds, 100 percent of attempted terrorist attacks on the U.S. (and, with the exception of the Basques in Spain, terrorists attacks on all Western nations) since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing have been committed by people claiming to act in the name of Islam.” 

Glenn Greenwald responded to this article and listed a number of terrorist incidents that were not committed by Muslims.  Greenwald closed his article with “I could spend all day listing more of the same.  And that’s using the narrowest definition possible of “terrorism”—i.e., excluding any state-sponsored terrorist acts.  We’re currently at various forms of war in five different Muslim countries, so it’s not surprising that some of the violence directed at us is from Muslims.  But to claim that “100 percent of attempted terrorist attacks on the U.S. (and [other than Spain], terrorists attacks on all Western nations)” since 1995 are by “people claiming to act in the name of Islam” is so blatantly, demonstrably, obviously false that you really have to wonder about a person who would utter such a thing.  And while most don’t veer quite as deep into the falsehood department as Weiss did, one would get the sense from listening to our standard political discourse that “Terrorism” and “Islamic-inspired Terrorism” are synonymous.  It’s the kind of myth-based demonization that is as familiar as it is false, dangerous and repugnant.”  Weiss issued an apology[MEA CULPA:I stupidly broke one of my own writing rules there: Do not use an absolute unless you are absolutely, positively certain beyond any and all doubt. As sure as you use the words “never” or “always,” or “100 percent” someone will provide an exception. Glenn Greenwald on Salon.com provides several. I could quibble with some of his list or engage in some rhetorical dance about the definition of terrorism or try a numbers game about whether I was almost right or not. But the truth is, mine was a needless and incorrect reach that was not necessary to make my point. Which is that there are many more Muslims who oppose terror compared to the relatively few, very dangerous people who would use that faith to justify the murder of innocents. And it behooves us to do what we can to appreciate when those in the larger group do what they can to shut down the violence in spite of the potential consequences to themselves. I will surely make other mistakes down the road, but I will probably not repeat this one any time soon.]

Depending on how you define terrorism, there were four successful terrorist attacks on American soil during 2009 — the Tiller assassination, the Holocaust museum shooting, the Knoxville church shooting, and Fort Hood. 

Muqtedar Khan has just published an article Media only dissects the religion of terrorists when they’re Muslims which makes many excellent points.  Regarding Joseph Stacks suicide flight into an IRS building he says: ” I did not see any “in-depth exposes” on his values and religion or the culture of America or Texas to provide both meaning and context to this horrible act of terrorism. Wait—it was not even described as terrorism. He was never described as a suicide bomber.” 

Regarding the Hutaree militia arrests he says:  “But I am disappointed that even this latest episode has not triggered a discussion on the relationship between values and violence. Is American culture deeply violent? Does that explain the imperial wars we wage overseas?    I am especially disappointed that we have not discussed the Bible and its relationship to gun violence in America, at home and abroad. Does Matthew 10:34 explain American violence, according to which Jesus (peace be upon him) allegedly said: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”    We have had so much discussion on the sword verse in the Quran (9:05), which unlike the Bible does not really have a sword in it. Why are we not talking about radical Christianity or political Christianity?”

It is obvious that the Hutaree are not an isolated case of specifically militia terrorism and violence.  It is also obvious that terrorism generally is not a Muslim only phenomenon.  Extremists of any stripe are dangerous and should be arrested if they break the law.  If the criminals arrested are Christian, that is not an attack on the Christian faith.  Plotting to kill policemen is not an issue of free speech.  There is a lot of evidence of non-Muslim terrorism.

Yes, there are terrorists who are Muslim, and they are dangerous, and so are all other terrorists or extremists who justify violence on the basis of any religious interpretation or political ideology.  I am just as concerned about all extremists and terrorists no matter what their ideology. 

Those whose hatred for Muslims is so great that it blinds them to reality and to justice, are actually enabling the terrorists and making us all less safe. 


UPDATE 4/19/2010

Robert Spencer has sent me an email objecting to my summarizing of the various comments made about the Hutaree:

Ms Musaji:
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/hutaree_christian_militia_not_an_isolated_phenomena/0018035

In that article you quote from my article here.  Then you purport to summarize what I am saying, and what Pamela Geller, Chris Baker and the New York Post are saying: “Let’s summarize what these folks are saying: Arresting the Hutaree is nuts, and an attack on free speech and the Christian faith.”

In reality, in the same article from which you quoted, I wrote: “If the allegations against this group are true, they richly deserve to be raided and arrested and shut down.”

Ms. Musaji, you have lied about me many times in the past, and I have let it go by. This time I am requesting a full retraction and apology from you, published in The American Muslim, for suggesting that I support the Hutaree and oppose their arrest.  In any case, the disclosure at Jihad Watch of this obvious libel by you will expose yet again the naked dishonesty of The American Muslim and the open contempt it obviously has for its readers.

Although my summary of the points made by the various authors quoted was quite short, I did first quote each of these folks separately as to what each had said, and then I gave my summary of the various points made.  Here again is my summary:

Let’s summarize what these folks are saying:  Arresting the Hutaree is nuts, and an attack on free speech and the Christian faith.  To think that non-Muslims could be [as] dangerous [as Muslims] is an excercise in wishful thinking, and there has been little evidence of such non-Muslim terrorist activity.  The Hutaree are an isolated case, just a few guys in the woods with guns.  We should only go after Muslim terrorists who are the real danger.

The section of the summary that I have put in bold type here is the section that applies to the comment that I quoted from Robert Spencer’s article.  The other statements in the summary are from the other folks mentioned.  The [as] and [as Muslims] in brackets perhaps clarifies this a little more.  It is clear that I am summarizing the various points made by these folks, not summarizing what Robert Spencer said.  Spencer’s partner, Pamela Geller said that arresting the Hutaree was “nuts”, others made the other comments.  Spencer made the false claim that “there has been little evidence of such non-Muslim terrorist activity”. 

I use the terms Muslims and Christians rather than Islam and Christianity because I am well aware that violent deviants do not represent their claimed religions.  Actually, although the Hutaree might call themselves a Christian militia, in fact they do not represent Christianity. 

My point in this entire article is that (as the title says) the Hutaree are not an isolated phenomena.  There is no reason to throw the Hutaree in the face of anyone as they are only the tip of the iceberg, and the most recent manifestation of this violent segment of the population, and there are innumerable such groups around the world.  Radical Christians are as dangerous as radical Muslims, (or radical members of any religious group for that matter) and there has been a great deal of evidence of non-Muslim terrorist activity of all sorts, including militias.

I did not mean to suggest that Spencer was approving terrorism carried out by Christians who justified their terrorism on a religious basis, just in case this was unclear to anyone besides Robert Spencer.  You can read some of Spencer’s other statements about Islam and Muslims here.  You can read about Spencer’s big lie about Islamic terrorism here.  You can read about Spencer’s tenuous grasp of the concept of truth-telling here  You can read about Spencer and friends attempts to conceal evidence of being caught in lies here.

I can’t see that I have anything to retract, or to apologize for. 

Here is an example of the type of response that can be expected from those reading Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch site.  Spencer posted his request for a retraction on his site yesterday, and I received the following in my email

BRAVO ROBERT SPENCER! A TRUTH-TELLER ABOUT BARBARIC, SAVAGE, MASS-MURDERING, ISLAM.  DOWN WITH SHEILA MUSAJI! YOU LIAR, YOU SLANDERER, YOU BARBARIAN MUSLIM.  GET OUT OF OUR JUDEO-CHRISTIAN COUNTRY, YOU BARBARIAN. GO LIVE IN YEMEN WITH JUST YOUR EYE-HOLES SHOWING, YOU IDIOT.  ISLAM IS THE SAME AS FASCISM AND NAZISM. STOP ISLAM FROM MASS-MURDERING NON-MUSLIMS:  “Kill non-Muslims wherever you find them. Lie in wait and ambush them, seize and capture them using every stratagem of war.” - Qur’an 9:5 You primitive, savage, mass-murdering Barbarians. Neanderthals. GET OUT OF OUR COUNTRY. GO LIVE IN YEMEN, PRIMITIVE MOHAMMEDANS. GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH!  USA, JUDEO-CHRISTIAN. GET OUT OF OUR COUNTRY YOU ISLAMIC BARBARIANS.

The caps were in the original.  A lot of these Islamophobes seem to have a caps key that is stuck.  The comments section on this article on Spencer’s site are also very enlightening.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has just published Rage on the Right: The Year in Hate and Extremism which details the rise in membership in these movements.


UPDATE 12/2011

Robert Spencer just wrote yet another attack piece objecting to an article Let’s Face it: It’s the Radical Right, not Islam, that is the Greatest Threat to the American Way by Ahmed Rehab.

In Spencer’s article, he includes a list of Muslims who have plotted or committed terrorist acts in the U.S. 

In an attempt to be sarcastic he opens this list with And obviously Rehab is right. Just look at the Radical Right-wingers who have perpetrated or attempted to perpetrate violent attacks against innocent Americans: ...

Actually, let’s look at an honest list of some of the radical right-wingers and extremists who have perpetrated or attempted to perpetrate violent attacks against innocent Americans between 2000 and 2011 right here in the U.S.:

Ray H. Adams, Jim Adkisson, Alabama Free Militia, Chad Altman, Animal Liberation Front, Army of God, Samuel Arrington, Jonathan Avery, Sergio Baca, Daniel Barefoot, Philip Bay, John Patrick Bedell, Kody Brittingham, Seung-Hui Cho, Demetrius Van Crocker, Daniel Cowart, Samuel J. Crump, James Cummings, Matthew Derosia, Jeremy Donahoe, John Earl,  Earth Liberation Front, Paul Ross Evans, David Anthony Fuselier, Matt Hale, Jeffrey Harbin, Kevin William Hardham, Lucas John Helder, Patricia Hughes, David Hull, Hutaree Christian militia, Idaho Mountain Boys Militia, Vadim Ignatov, Bruce Ivins, JDL, Jerry and Joe Kane, KKK, Joseph Konopka, William Krar, John F. Lechner, James Lee, Ryan Daniel Lewis, Thomas Hayward Lewis, Jared Lee Loughner, Davvie Love, Keith Luke, Dennies & Daniel Mahon, Alberto Martinez, David McMenemy, Jonathan Maynard, Justin Carl Moose, Donny Eugene Mower, Patriot Movement, Robert Pickett, Richard Andrew Poplawski, Project 7, Charles Carl Roberts, Daniel & Timothy Robinson, Dan Roberts, Scott Roeder, Daniel James Schertz, Paul Schlesselman,  Kyle Shaw, Joseph Stack, Rossie L. Strickland, Roger Stockham, Texas Militia, Frederick Thomas, Bruce & Joshua Turnidge, omar Falu Vives, James von Brunn, Lonnie Vernon, Clayton Waagner, Jeffrey Weise, Byron Williams, Alexander Robert Youshock.

Contrary to all of the evidence, which we detail in the TAM article collection Claim that all terrorists are Muslims ignores history, Spencer and his Partner Geller, and their fellow Islamophobes insist on ignoring reality.  Actually, not only are all Muslims not terrorists, but MOST terrorists are not Muslims, either in the U.S. or in Europe. 

However, Geller & Spencer & company, know more than Europol, or the FBI, or any reputable source of information.  They make up numbers, like the ridiculous 17,000 “Islamic terrorist” attacks which exist only in their fevered Islamophobic brains.  Even after a claim they make is disproven with facts, they continue to repeat it over and over.

And, when that still doesn’t satisfy their need to demonize the entire Muslim population of the world they just make things up, and when caught out attempt to conceal the evidence.  They tell outright lies and call it “truth-telling”.  This Spence/Geller “dynamic duo” is responsible for most of the totally false, What everyone “knows” lies about Islam and Muslims.

This sort of disreputable behavior has been their pattern for years, but in the last couple of months the number of baseless claims seems to be increasing.  It’s almost as if they are having some sort of a mental breakdown under the pressure of realizing that a lot of people are now on to their game. 


UPDATE 2/7/2012

A number of publications reported yesterday that the FBI had issued a warning that anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States.  Reuters, the Washington Post and numerous others reported on this development. 

Sovereign citizens reject the authority of the Federal government, and often refuse to obey laws or pay taxes.  They deny that they are U.S. citizens and reject government authority to regulate their lives.  They are often connected with militia groups like posse comitatus.  The movement has been growing in prisons and spread by the internet. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center has written about a resurgence of this movement here which includes information about violent incidents, intimidation, harrasment of law enforcement officers and judges, threats, vandalism, stockpiling weapons, and murder. 

The ADL has an entry about the sovereign citizens movement under the category of extremism in America here.  The ADL also has a list of sovereign citizens incidents by state here

Pamela Geller is upset once again that the government is wasting their time being concerned about any threat that doesn’t come from Muslims.  She just posted an article Nuts! FBI warns of threat from “sovereign citizens” in which she says These poor bastards must stay awake nights trying conjure up these imaginary hobgoblins. Look at the extraordinary lengths these tools go through to avoid jihad.  The last line is a laugh. Yes, let’s get the IRS their own army. I am sure O is working on it. 

The “last line” Geller is referring to is from a Reuters article, and that line says nothing of the sort.  It actually reads Sovereign members often express particular outrage at tax collection, putting Internal Revenue Service employees at risk.  Nothing about getting the IRS their own army. 

SEE ALSO:

A terrorist by any other name,  Jon Pahl http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=27612&lan=en&sid=1&sp=0&isNew=1
Hutaree Militia Arrests Point to Tripling of Militias since 2008 http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0329/Hutaree-militia-arrests-point-to-tripling-of-militias-since-2008
Militia Movement: Extremism in America, ADL http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/militia_m.asp?xpicked=4&item=19
Militias Seen as Gaining Strength http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-04-16-militia-movement-on-the-rise_N.htm
Officials See Rise In Militia Groups Across US, Eileen Sullivan http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/12/officials-see-rise-in-mil_n_257128.html 
Oklahoma City bombing: Is 1995 repeating itself today?, Peter Grier http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0419/Oklahoma-City-bombing-Is-1995-repeating-itself-today
The Return of Christian Terrorism, Mark Juergensmeyer http://religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/2432/the_return_of_christian_terrorism________/ 
SPLC Urges DHS to Reassess Resources After Key Analyst Reveals Unit on Domestic Terror was Scaled Back in Wake of Right-Wing Criticism http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-urges-dhs-to-reassess-resources-after-key-analyst-reveals-unit-on-domestic-terror-was-scaled-back
SPLC Report: “Patriot” Groups, Militias Surge in Number in Past Year http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-report-number-of-patriot-groups-militias-surges-by-244-in-past-year
Todays Eerie Similarities to Oklahoma City, Aitan Goelman http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35993.html
What Americans Can Do to Discourage Future McVeighs, Kathleen Parker http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/16/AR2010041603842.html 


Originally posted April 2010

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