Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security Were Right


Rightwingers howled when Janet Napolitano warned that rightwing extremist groups' threats would increase over the next years.

She was absolutely correct. 

The rightwing's continued characterizations of Mr. Obama as the illegitimate leader of this country by way of the GOP's encouraging its followers to be suspicious of the president's citizenship, as well as widespread scurrilous slurs and slanders in their blast emails have produced this:

Active and former military members plotted treason against the United States and to murder the president of the United States:




Military Terror Plot: Murder Case Uncovers Terror Plot By 'Militia' Within U.S. Military

Prosecutors in rural Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group composed of active duty and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components and was serious enough to kill two people – former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York – by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.

"This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk," prosecutor Isabel Pauley told a Superior Court judge. "Prior to the murders in this case, the group took action. Evidence shows the group possessed the knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans."

One of the Fort Stewart soldiers charged in the case, Army Pfc. Michael Burnett, also gave testimony that backed up many of the assertions made by prosecutors. The 26-year-old soldier pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges. He made a deal to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against the three other soldiers.

Prosecutors said the group called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring Always Ready. Pauley said authorities don't know how many members the militia had.

Burnett, 26, said he knew the group's leaders from serving with them at Fort Stewart. He agreed to testify against fellow soldiers Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, identified by prosecutors as the militia's founder and leader, Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon.

All are charged by state authorities with malice murder, felony murder, criminal gang activity, aggravated assault and using a firearm while committing a felony. A hearing for the three soldiers was scheduled Thursday.

[skip]

$87,000 worth of semiautomatic assault rifles, other guns and bomb components that were recovered from the accused soldiers' homes and from a storage locker. He also used the insurance payments to buy land for his militia group in Washington state, Pauley said.

In a videotaped interview with military investigators, Pauley said, Aguigui called himself "the nicest cold-blooded murderer you will ever meet." He used the Army to recruit militia members, who wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an anarchy symbol, she said. Prosecutors say they have no idea how many members belong to the group.

"All members of the group were on active-duty or were former members of the military," Pauley said. "He targeted soldiers who were in trouble or disillusioned."

The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.--HuffPost


Prosecutors: U.S. Soldiers Plotted to Kill President Obama

"More details are surfacing about the four soldiers accused of stockpiling assault weapons and bomb components and plotting to assassinate the president. According to the AP's Russ Bynum, the group calls itself F.E.A.R., which stands for Forever Enduring Always Ready. While authorities don't know how many members are in the group, they did accuse it of plotting some ambitious domestic terrorist plots:
The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state’s apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia’s goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president."
 
 And this:

"As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Jay Bookman notes, "Sometimes these things get blown out of proportion, but $87,000 in weaponry suggests otherwise. And when you’re willing to murder two people to keep the plot secret, you’re pretty serious about it." The news follows a controversial report published by Reuters' Daniel Trotta last week that the U.S. Army is battling soldiers within its ranks who enlist in the Army and Marine Corps "to acquire the skills to overthrow what some call the ZOG - the Zionist Occupation Government. Get in, get trained and get out to brace for the coming race war." At the time, Business Insider's Geoffrey Ingersoll pushed back against the report in a piece titled "Don't Believe the Report Going Around About Veterans Flocking to Right Wing Extremist Groups." The AP report doesn't say if the motivations to overthrow the government were racial or anti-semitic in nature in this case but much more details are likely to come."





22 comments:

Infidel753 said...

The trolls will be along shortly to explain that:

a) These guys are actually liberals

b) A Democrat once did something bad, so let's talk about that instead

c) You're just trying to distract people from Obama's record

"Forever Enduring Always Ready" -- Yep, right-wingers. Leftists or even jihadists would never come up with such an unimaginative name.

Silverfiddle said...

One incident hardly vindicates Napoleonitano's absurd and hysterical pronouncements.

Keep digging Shaw, and you will find that urban gangs and other groups have infiltrated the military as well, seeing it as a great training ground for its members.

As Thomas Sowell observed, Improbable events are commonplace in a country with more than a quarter billion people

Look hard enough (for whatever you are looking for) and you will find it.

More importantly, what do you propose to do about this menace of rogue veterans, Shaw?

Shaw Kenawe said...

One incident?

"...right-wing extremists have committed at least eight lethal terrorist attacks in the United States that have resulted in the deaths of nine people since 9/11, according to data compiled by the New America Foundation.

And if, after investigation, Sunday's attack on the Sikh temple in Wisconsin is included in this count, the death toll from right-wing terrorism in the U.S. over the past decade rises to 15.

The shooting suspect, Wade Michael Page, posed with a Nazi flag on his Facebook page and has played a prominent role in "white power" music groups. The FBI is investigating the case as a "domestic terrorist-type incident."

A particular concern for law enforcement is the Sovereign Citizens movement, whose adherents reject all U.S. laws as well as taxation and American currency. An FBI report published in 2011 said "lone-offender sovereign-citizen extremists have killed six law enforcement officers" since 2000.

The numbers in the New America Foundation database may well understate the toll of violence from right-wing extremists.

[skip]

In the past year, the FBI has concluded investigations into a number of right-wing extremists, in some cases securing lengthy sentences for violent plots. In December, Kevin Harpham of Spokane, Washington, was sentenced to 32 years for planting a bomb at the site of a Martin Luther King Jr. parade. City workers found the bag containing the bomb an hour before the streets filled with parade-goers." --CNN

Shaw Kenawe said...

Infidel753, you know these people very well. See the second comment.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"More importantly, what do you propose to do about this menace of rogue veterans, Shaw?"

Try them for treason against the United States of America.

Kevin Robbins said...

"More importantly, what do you propose to do about this menace of rogue veterans, Shaw?"

Could I also suggest that we de-militarize to the extent where we have enough military to defend the US. Pretty sure the rest of the world can get by without our troops occupying their soil.

Paul said...

I wonder just what kind of people volunteer to kill?
I'll put my faith in a reluctant killer, not a disturbed person who loves/likes to kill.
It's like recruiting Charles Manson to be a solider. An efficient killing machine to be sure, but not the type of killer we need to do our killing for us.
It's part of the love affair between Republiscums, fake patriots, the military, and the "honor" of killing.
There were news reports during the Iraq war, that the need for more killers in the service drove recruitment to take gang members and other criminals.
I guess because normal people were not singing up to want to kill, even for their country.
The military comes from 1% of the population, that alone should have us question the character of those who want to enlist, to kill.

Silverfiddle said...

So you know how to cut and paste. Congratulations!

Now, do you know how to investigate what you are saying, find corroboration and opposing opinions, or do you just act like a dutiful propaganda vector and regurgitate what comes off the propaganda fax machine?

This is from New America. Looks like environmental terrorists still outnumber angry veterans.

http://homegrown.newamerica.net/overview_nonjihadists

And you answer was facile. Of course you prosecute criminals. If you see rightwing extremists veterans as a threat, how would you counter it?

Drag us all into government mental hospitals to be mentally evaluated, and not released until the government greenlights us?

Les Carpenter said...

Whatever the solution lets be sure to apply equally to leftwing radical groups. Remember the terrorist Weather Underground?

This kind of activity most certainly must be appropriately and swiftly dealt with, irrespective from whence it comes.

Paul said...

"Drag us all into government mental hospitals to be mentally evaluated, and not released until the government greenlights us?"

Yes, if there is evidence that their instability is dangerous, and there is that evidence.

And they are not all veterans, these were active duty.

Shaw Kenawe said...

SF: "Now, do you know how to investigate what you are saying, find corroboration and opposing opinions, or do you just act like a dutiful propaganda vector and regurgitate what comes off the propaganda fax machine?"


Uh, get a hold of yourself, dude. This was a NEWS report, not an opinion piece.

You obviously don't know the difference between reporting a news item and writing an op-ed piece, which is an opinion.

This is reportage of an actual event: an arrest was made and charges issued. That's not opinion, that's FACT.

But in an extremist conservative world, reporting actual facts that disturb their ideas about themselves and what they represent and support, THAT is considered "opinion" and "propaganda."



SF: "This is from New America. Looks like environmental terrorists still outnumber angry veterans.

Nice way to change the subject.

Another commenter predicted [see Infidel753] how quickly you or others would do this, and, because he knows how you guys operate, you didn't disappoint.


SF: "And your answer was facile.
Of course you prosecute criminals. If you see rightwing extremists veterans as a threat, how would you counter it?"


Well your question was dumb. It is not up to me to figure out how to deal with traitors. The law is pretty clear on what to do with treasonous military personnel.

How would I stop it? I can't because I can't shut down the libelous slurs and slanders about the president that passes as "truths" in conservatives' fevered emails and propaganda outlets like Limbaugh, Newsmax, and FAUX NOOZ--slurs, slanders, and lies that infect weak-minded idiots like the ones arrested in this treasonous plot.




SF: "Drag us all into government mental hospitals to be mentally evaluated, and not released until the government greenlights us?"

No. That came out of your imagination. And why not.

Your favorite intellectually vapid pundit, Michael Savage, believes liberalism is a "mental disease," so of course your thinking would lead you to mental facilities to solve problems.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skudrunner,

Your comment is ludicrous. And another attempt to change the subject and show parity.

There is none.

The people involved in the subject of this post swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend all the laws of this country and the Constitution of the United States.

What they plotted is treason.

What the criminals in Chicago are involved in is street crime. Bad enough, but not the same.

If you don't understand the difference, I suggest you educate yourself.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skudrunner: "You only addressed the Chicago issue but neglected to address
"I didn't read where Nidal Hasan was a right wing extremest, nor Bill Ayers nor Charles Roberts."



skudrunner, you're comments have NOTHING to do with my post.

This post is about what the DHS predicted, and that Janet Napolitan was correct. Bill Ayers happened 40+ years ago and I don't know who Charles Roberts is.

But at least you named Nidal Hassan, a military guy, which has a tenuous connection to this subject.




skudrunner: "There are plenty of sick minds to go around and to blame it on right or left wing extremists goes to your total biased."

You don't like what was reported, so you're trying to pass it off as blame and "biased." The fact is that active military personnel and veterans were planning to overthrow the US government and to assassinate the president of the United States.

From CNN: "...Aguigui introduced me to 'the manuscript,' that's what he called it, a book about true patriots," the soldier said.

The four men became part of a group that aimed "to give the government back to the people," according to Burnett, who said that revolution was its goal. They called it FEAR -- Forever Enduring Always Ready -- and spent thousands of dollars buying guns and bomb parts.

The government needed a change, Burnett told the court. "I thought we were the people who would be able to change it."

It is not clear how capable the group was of carrying out the goals Burnett laid out.

Assistant District Attorney Isabel Pauley said it was "unknown" how many others belonged to the group. She identified Aguigui as the leader of what she described as "an anarchist group and militia" that included active and former troops.

"Defendant Aguigui actively recruited new members at Fort Stewart (in southeast Georgia) and targeted soldiers who were in trouble or disillusioned," she said.

At the time of their arrest, group members had plotted a number of "acts of domestic terror," the prosecutor said.

These included "forcibly taking over the ammo control point of Fort Stewart to take the post, bombing vehicles of local and state judicial and political figureheads and federal representatives to include the local department of homeland security, (and plotting) to bomb the fountain at Forsyth Park in Savannah."


Paul said...

Lets spend our resources on those who are a danger TODAY, not some fantasy threat like the 50 year old Weather Underground.
You fail to understand the threat is coming from the right and its fringe wackos. The threat is not equal from both sides, why have our security treat the problem, like it is?
I don't here a lot in the news about pot smocking, liberal, hippie types doing mass shootings and killings, and it would be a waste to spend money investigating those we know are not responsible.
That's left for the real sicko's of the world, right wing nut jobs.
The kind that pose with swastikas and Nazi symbols and spew hate.
Hate for Jews. Hate for Arabs. Hate for blacks. Hate for the first black president of the United States.
They love their hate. They love their guns.
From women who can't get pregnant from rape, to those who claim Jews went willingly to gas chambers; hate, ignorance, bigotry is alive and well and it's not the left leaning spewing the hate, or killing citizens.
Brainwash them to kill and then let them loose on society with their new killing instructions and talent, but no mental health help, or even curiosity about those that might have a problem.
The kid who plays killing games with toy guns because they have been told to "honor" those who kill for America; grow up to be real killers, with real guns, and twisted thinking about both guns and killing.
The suicide rate among soldiers is outrageous, but apparently gave no concern for the military leaders. Again, no help for the soldier.
The military refuses to acknowledge mental problems among its ranks, much less bigotry that leads to killing.
I guess it's not manly to even infer a soldier might have a problem, so in typical style, there is no problem.

KP said...

<< The four men became part of a group that aimed "to give the government back to the people," according to Burnett >>

I can't tell if giving the government "back to the people" is a crank goal of criminals belonging to crackpot right or crackpot left groups.

Safe to say none of the criminal crackpot groups represent Reublicans or Democrats; they are just crackpots. And when the are active duty miltary they should be tried and executed if found guilty.

Anonymous said...

Isaac Aguigui, the Army private and alleged ringleader of a plot to assassinate Barack Obama and "take over" Ft. Stewart in Georgia, apparently served as a page at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota.

Anonymous said...

TAMPA, Fla. — Republicans emphatically approved a toughly worded party platform at their national convention Tuesday that would ban all abortions and gay marriages, reshape Medicare into a voucher-like program and cut taxes to energize the economy and create jobs.

Silverfiddle said...

Shaw: This post is a confusing conflation of various issues. As a veteran, I am especially watchful of leftwing smears.

I was too young for the Vietnam generation, but I have friends who are Vietnam vets, and the left carried out one of the most successful smears of a group of people this nation has ever seen.

The #2 smear involved what we did in Central America in the 80's, which I do know something about.

Vietnam vets were not baby killers and dope addicts, but examine Hollywood's body of work on Vietnam and that is the impression one gets. It's disgraceful.

No conservative would defend the actions of the soldiers in the news article you cite, indeed, I challenge you to find an example anywhere where this has happened.

"Rightwing" terrorism is increasing? Prove it. Give us statistics, not a jumbled up mess.

Shaw Kenawe said...

I disagree.

The post is about a news report.

"...the left carried out one of the most successful smears of a group of people this nation has ever seen."

Really? Worse than smearing by the KKK? Worse than smearing of the gay community?

I don't think so.

"No conservative would defend the actions of the soldiers in the news article you cite, indeed, I challenge you to find an example anywhere where this has happened."

That claim is nowhere in my post.

SF: " 'Rightwing' terrorism is increasing? Prove it. Give us statistics, not a jumbled up mess."

HERE

HERE

HERE


And this from the Council on Foreign Relations:

RIGHT-WING GROUPS: The most recent swell of extremist violence began to emerge from right-wing militants in the late-1980s and 1990s. According to a 2005 FBI report on terrorism, these groups, which are "primarily in the form of domestic militias and conservative special interest causes, began to overtake left-wing extremism as the most dangerous, if not the most prolific, domestic terrorist threat to the country."

Right-wing extremists champion a wide variety of causes, including racial supremacy, hatred and suspicion of the federal government, and fundamentalist Christianity.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the activities of hate groups, suggests militia groups declined every year since 1996 but have seen a dramatic resurgence since 2008.


Silverfiddle said...

Give us a link to the data and statistics, not news articles written by lefties.

But more importantly, do you presume to make a connection between conservatives and neonazis?

Shaw Kenawe said...

I gave you a link in the Council on Foreign Relations that linked to the FBI report.

A few posts back you informed me that the military was overwhelmingly conservative--this from you the expert.

The active and veteran military folks involved in the treasonous plot to kill President Obama would then be what you--the expert on things military--say the majority of military personnel are--conservative.

Silverfiddle said...

You've committed a logical fallacy, Shaw. If the military were exclusively made of of conservatives, your assertion would hold, but it is not, so it does not.

The people they nabbed are criminals and they deserve whatever they get, but they are an obvious aberration, and there is no demonstrated nexus between conservatism and extremist hate.