U.S. attorney: Hutaree member shot (his own) cat to prepare for attack

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit News

Last Updated: March 31. 2010 5:57PM
U.S. attorney: Hutaree member shot cat to prepare for attack
Paul Egan and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News


Detroit -- A member of a radical militia group told others he killed his cat with a handgun as part of his training for a pending war against law enforcement, a federal prosecutor said today in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet said Hutaree defendant Kristopher Sickles made the claim in January to defendant Joshua Stone in the presence of a federal undercover agent who was posing as someone who could provide the group with explosives.

Sickles, 27, of Sandusky, Ohio, "said he did it to 'see if I could do it, to see if I could kill something I had a feeling for,' " Waterstreet said at a detention hearing for seven of the nine Hutaree defendants.

A grand jury indictment unsealed Monday alleges the group planned to kill a police officer and then use bombs to attack the scores of officers drawn to the slain officer's funeral. The defendants are charged with seditious conspiracy, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, and other weapons offenses.

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100331/METRO/3310392/U.S.-attorney--Hutaree-member-shot-cat-to-prepare-for-attack

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Take note, America: There are lots more where he came from!

[rpannier]

17. That's the worst part of it

He's one of many

[Bozita]

26. Click on "comments" below the article. You'll find some of them there.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[aquart]

8. Not even close to funny.

[katandmoon]

11. Disgusting, You fucking asshole.

[Sanity Claws]

3. "I wanted to see if I could kill something I had a feeling for"

How awful. :cry:

[rpannier]

20. Agreed

And he's one of the lesser roaches.
The nest is still filled with more. Many, many more

[Ian David]

4. Was that before or after the thing with the dog on Caprica? n/t

[aquart]

5. Throw away the key.

[Ian David]

6. Play him off, Keyboard Cat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ

[rpannier]

18. Most famous cat in the world

[Faygo Kid]

7. No wonder the FReepers and the radio wingnuts defend those nuts.

Killing small animals, too: Just the ticket for that crowd.

[my2sense]

9. A twisted piece of work indeed n/t

[nankerphelge]

10. Have fun in jail, douchebag.

n/t

[Mz Pip]

12. If he were Muslim

the RWers would be clamoring for the death penalty. But he's not. So they're not.

But a big long jail term is just fine by me. Like f*cking forever.

[Pavulon]

13. SHould have just shot himself. Saved the cat and our tax dollars

seriously what a poon. I could go in,but there is no need.

[BunkerHill24]

14. hate-filled disgusting bunch...

may they rot in prison, Jebus willing. Amen!

[Posteritatis]

15. These guys get classier by the day, don't they? (nt)

[Jennicut]

16. Many serial killer types and violent people start out killing animals.

My kitty is not amused and I am disgusted.

[WileEcoyote]

19. Now this story should grow finally some legs!

Forget about his plot to murder police officers in serial killings. Or his racism, xenophobia.

Killing his own cat? Not killing the poor kitty!!!

This will develop the outrage.

[Jamastiene]

28. In my case, to some degree, you are right.

I'll admit, I have been avoiding other parts of this story all day when I see links to threads about it. I lived through all that Waco and Ruby Ridge and Oklahoma City bombing stuff back in the 90s and was horrified. I didn't want to wake any of those horrible memories back up and add new horrible memories to those.

Yes, I'm horrified by other parts of this story as I learn them, but seeing that the bastard killed his cat finally made me click the link and let the outrage flow. So, in my case, to some degree, you are right.

Whatever works, though, right? After all, when I heard about some of the ones in Waco doing things to the kids, way back when, I was more outraged because of the innocence involved. Sure, it's bad that adults would get hurt too, but when innocents are hurt, it does piss people off more.

I did not know they planned to kill police officers before your post though, because, like I said, I had been avoiding clicking on other links to the Hutaree domestic terrorists all day long.

[SusanaMontana41]

29. +1

Senseless violence against innocents enrages and saddens at the same time.

And they call themselves Christians.

[kestrel91316]

36. One asks oneself, "Whose beloved kitty would Jesus kill?"

[MineralMan]

21. Sickles is the one who calls himself "Pale Horse."

He has posted many videos on YouTube under that name. Very weird person.

[SusanaMontana41]

30. I'd like to see HIM turned into soap.

eom

[chrisa]

22. They're insane.

[Demonaut]

23. heard that the SS had a similar ritual , raised a German Shepard

and would stab it to death with a their special ss dagger to be a member of the "death heads"

[Mike K]

24. The more I hear about this group -

- the more convinced I am they are a coven of paranoid schizophrenics who need to be committed to a mental institution and treated rather than made the subjects of a "terrorist" grandstanding operation. They are more pathetic than sinister.

[Paladin]

32. No, They're Sinister. And They're Terrorists. (n/t)

[kestrel91316]

37. You don't know anything about covens OR paranoid schizophrenics,

that much is clear.

These are textbook domestic terrorists.

[LibertyLover]

39. As a Wiccan and member of a coven,

I would ask that you please not use that word to describe this group of individuals. Thank you.

[Pavulon]

25. Never heard that. But my contact with the real deal guys

who have been part of military units that engage in close combat involving knives and pistols never mentioned killing house pets as part of training. Never researched the SS but am fairly sure the elite units of western countries dont shoot "kitty" to make hard men.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

35. Hitler killed his dog

and I think she had pups. :(

[ck4829]

27. Sociopath, just more evidence that Hutaree is a dangerous group

[Turborama]

31. Meanwhile, CNN are playing this down as just a "free speech" thing

No video yet but here's the transcript from last night's AC360:

COOPER: In "Crime & Punishment" tonight: new information, some of it quite surprising, about those members of a militia group accused of plotting to wage war against the U.S. government and murder federal police officers.

Now, eight of the suspects shown here were in a Detroit courtroom today. They all pleaded not guilty to charges alleging they were attempting to launch a violent revolution against the U.S. Now, their group, which they call themselves the Hutaree, authorities say its members view law enforcement as the enemy and believe armed conflict is the only way to destroy them.

Now, this is the leader of the Hutaree. His name is David Stone. Now, according to court documents, Mr. Stone certainly voiced very bad intentions and he certainly had a big enough collection of weapons to do some damage.

But some of the details in the indictment make this group out to be, well, not exactly brain surgeons. Stone and his followers, including his wife, Tina and son Josh, wanted to create a country carved from four Michigan counties and then defend it as the one world order.

They allegedly had gotten information about making bombs off the Internet. Only, they made theirs with cardboard tubes. And though they did have some explosive material, they did not have any filled with shrapnel. And prosecutors also reveal they had audiotapes of the suspects that made clear their plot.

In apparent conversation between Josh Stone and Tina Stone, his mom, when Tina told her son he needed to find work, Josh Stone allegedly says to her, "I can't get a job; I'm preparing for war," to which his mother allegedly replies, "Well, I'm preparing for war, too, but I still have a job."

Special investigations correspondent Drew Griffin is at the -- correspondent -- joins us now.

Drew, was this group a real threat?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, I don't want to minimize what the prosecutors say these guys said.

The undercover agent infiltrated this group, trained with them. They certainly looked really scary. But as the details, the onion began to get peeled back, there was a lot of just unbelievable stuff said today about how dangerous this group might have been had they had the capability to begin their own country and fight a war with the new world order that would come racing to try to get them.

But -- but, deep down, I really -- after being on this story for like three days, I don't think these people had the capability to do much at all. You know, several details in this case talk about how, you know, they couldn't get the bomb-making material, they couldn't get the bombs to work.

The undercover agent actually had to assist them in trying to help them to show them how to make these things. All their information and their planning basically came from the Internet. And they put it all on the Internet. So, it was all there for anyone who wanted to take a look to see.

COOPER: Because it does seem like, a lot of times, there are these stories, they make a lot of headlines. You know, they certainly cause a lot of attention. And then, as it -- as the details emerge, it seems like there's an undercover person in there, and, as you say, oftentimes, we have seen that undercover officer has had to kind of help them along in their plans to get them to a place where they may be operational.

I mean, I'm not -- I don't know that that's the case in this one. Other than, you know, voices on a tape and what sound like sort of half-baked plans, is the feeling that prosecutors have enough to convict these people?

GRIFFIN: It sounded to me like there was a lot of hateful and dangerous talk, killing a police officer, burning down a police officer's house and then shooting the police officer and his family when they came out the door, right?

But there was no specific plot, no specific police officer they were going after. It sounded just like a bunch of crazy talk. After the court hearing, I asked the prosecutor when he came out the door, "Look, the attorneys say this is nothing but just a bunch of bad talk."

Here's -- here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: I mean, the attorneys are arguing you really don't have anything other than people expressing their free speech.

RONALD WATERSTREET, ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, we have a public information officer who would be probably the best person to discuss the matter.

GRIFFIN: Can I ask you just one factual matter? The 37 guns confiscated, were any of them illegally obtained or illegal?

WATERSTREET: As I said, I don't want to try the case out here on the courtyard -- I mean, the courthouse steps. The best place is in the courtroom. So, I don't want to go into any facts that haven't been presented. And the best way, if you need information, is to go see our public information officer.

GRIFFIN: Is this going to be a...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Well, the facts are, Anderson, that they did confiscate 37 guns, but they aren't charged with having any illegal possession of guns. They did confiscate some bomb-making materials, or material that could be used to make bombs. But, again, there are no bomb charges here.

It's a conspiracy case. The attorneys, the court-appointed attorneys, all say, look, this is a free speech case, and that's what it's going to come down to when this gets into the courtroom -- Anderson.

COOPER: Well, we will continue to follow it. Drew Griffin, appreciate it. Drew, thanks a lot.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1003/31/acd.01.html

[kestrel91316]

33. This boy better pray to his Jeebus that I never get within striking distance of him.

[Merchant Marine]

34. It's telling that the rest of the michigan militia wanted nothing to do with these guys.

Total fringe nutters...

[UndecidedGuy]

38. I don't know a whole lot...

But I DO know this is just cruel and twisted. NOT something to take pride in.

[elehhhhna]

40. Jesus wept.

[bullwinkle428]

41. Yeah, you're a real fucking man, brutally killing an innocent, defenseless

little 8-pound creature!! You'd better pray her spirit is willing to forgive.

[fascisthunter]

42. psychopath