FBI: Four militia members plotted to attack buildings, release poison

[brooklynite]

Source: MSNBC

WASHINGTON — Four Georgia men in their 60s and 70s were arrested Tuesday, accused of being members of a right-wing militia group that plotted to attack federal office buildings and to disperse a deadly biological poison in Atlanta.

Their alleged plot was revealed to the FBI by a confidential informant last spring, and members of the group have been meeting since May with someone they thought was a black-market weapons dealer but who turned out to be an undercover federal agent, according to court documents.

No attacks were ever attempted. Federal officials say the men were disrupted before they could act on the plot.

The documents say the men, Frederick Thomas, 73, of Cleveland, Ga.; Dan Roberts, 67, Ray Adams, 65, and Samuel Crump, 68, all of Toccoa, called themselves "the covert group" and began in March to talk about staging attacks against federal targets including the IRS.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45125741/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.TrCuG2Bd1sg

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Whenever an Islamist extremist is captured after working with undercover agents, there seems to be grumbling about "entrapment". Assuming you don't feel the same here, can we acknowledge that there are people on both sides of the political equation who want to cause harm?

[TheMadMonk]

1. That would depend on entirely what drum you're beating there.

Oh, BTW both groups are on the same side of the political equation RW, authoritarian extremist. The difference lies solely in who they think should be on top.

Assuming you are asking an honest question: FBI stings on home grown terrorists are very obvously not about going after low hanging fruit, which would suggest that their targets are actual credible threats. Stings on Islamic targets, and intercepts of individuals like the shoe, shampoo and knicker bombers net people so clearly incompetent, they could only possibly be a threath through sheer accident.

So you tell me?

[jaysunb]

2. Militia...or Terrorist ? n/t

[Downwinder]

3. Think FOX runs 24/7 in that nursing home?

[AnnieBW]

4. "Get Your Government Hands Off My Medicare!"

To the extreme.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. About time they added that profile to their list: Grumpy old men.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Appeals court upholds conviction of 5 Florida men accused of plot to attack Chicago skyscraper

Source: Associated Press

MIAMI — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the convictions of five men accused of plotting to join forces with al-Qaida to destroy a landmark Chicago skyscraper and bomb FBI offices in several cities.

A three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected numerous claims by ringleader Narseal Batiste and his followers, including questions about the sufficiency of the evidence, the FBI’s use of an informant posing as an al-Qaida operative and the dismissal of a juror by a federal judge during deliberations.

Batiste, 37, and the other four were convicted in May 2009 of conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida and wage war against the U.S. stemming from a plot to blow up the 110-story Sears Tower — now known as the Willis Tower — and bomb FBI offices in five cities, including Miami. The eventual goal, testimony showed, was to overthrow the U.S. government.

It took federal prosecutors three trials to obtain convictions; the first two ended in mistrials and two of the original “Liberty City Seven” were acquitted. One of those found not guilty, Lyglenson Lemorin, was nonetheless deported to his native Haiti.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/appeals-court-upholds-conviction-of-5-florida-men-accused-of-plot-to-attack-chicago-skyscraper/2011/11/01/gIQAs24FdM_story.html