Yesterday, the FBI led a Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) raid on Christian Militias in several states, reports the Detroit news:
“Federal prosecutors plan to unseal charges today against members of a self-described Christian militia arrested Saturday and Sunday in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
At least seven people were taken into custody in raids by an FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force as part of an investigation into an Adrian-based unit of the Hutaree, a group that professes it is training in modern armed combat techniques for a prophesied coming battle with the Antichrist.
The suspects are expected to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Detroit today, according to federal authorities, who declined to discuss the charges behind the multistate arrests.
My Comment
The arrests were part of an investigation into the nation-wide Christian militia Hutaree. Other militias in the Detroit region targeted, like the Michigan militia, cooperated and testified against the Hutaree Mike Lakomar of Michigan militia states that five arrests were made on Saturday and five early on Sunday morning Lakomar states that the FBI became interested in the Hutaree after it made physical threats against Islamic organizations The Hutaree may have been targeted for linking to conservative Christian sites, practicing survivalism, and professing a belief in the imminent coming of Christ and an apocalyptic show-down Jim Gulliksen of the Michigan militia claims that the FBI targeted the Christian group because of widespread anger against the Obama health care overhaul and because of the threats. Gulliksen claimed that some months ago other Hutaree members had been arrested on weapons charges. The Michigan militia member allegedly threatened was Muslim. Gulliksen differentiated the Michigan outfit from the Hutaree by saying the Michigan members were concerned “with the nation,” whereas the Hutaree were more concerned with their religion.
It would be interesting to find out if the FBI, which isn’t talking right now, is really focusing on Christian survivalist groups solely because of the religious nature of their beliefs. If they’re actually basing their investigations on whether a group professes Christian beliefs or not, instead of focusing on actual physical aggression or credible and documented threats (beyond hearsay), that is alarming, as it could indicate discrimination against conservative Christian beliefs (which, of course, can always be defined very flexibly).
Just to state, this group is NOT a Militia! When a Cult calls themselves a
“Church” the media still labels them a cult and so on. This group calls
themselves a Militia when they are only domestic terrorists AND SHOULD SO BE
LABELED BY THE MEDIA! This gives Proper Militia’s a bad rap & it’s bullshit
govt. propaganda.
Yes, there’s some controversy about it, apparently’
Cult? Church? Militia? Domestic Terrarwrists? Labeled by the Media?
Such leaps based upon FBI/U.S. Attorney press statements and media reports.
As far as I know, some people have been charged with some alleged criminal acts. No confessions, no guilty verdicts, only media reports (for what that is even worth).
Have you guys looked at the website of the Hutaree?
It just looks odd to me.
It’s kind of hard to pin your thumb on what’s odd about that website, but it is odd.
Looks like it was put up in about 90 minutes using 1990’s website creation skills, no money spent on that.
Kind of simple, too simple, emotionless, where are the pictures and the links? The links they do have are fairly generic general one-size-fits-all where a more specialized set might be expected? I have no experience with these types of websites, but having only one image, one picture, nothing else, no other iconography or symbolism, kind of hard to see that group as involved in any type of a war or battle.
The colors of the fonts are really hard to read – as if no thought were given to how others reading it would react? Not quite what a person might expect given what it seems that group is supposedly all about, attracting others and convincing the reader to their position.
Where’s the “urgent news” and “Hot Topics” section? Their forum only has two posts for the Emergency Alerts thread and the Weapons post seems like it should have quite a few more posts than it does in relation to the number of other topics, especially the Public Forum with 6,000 plus post vs. only 37 posts in the Weapons thread,… with a homepage like they have, especially with the group photo, and only 37 posts??? Hmmm, unless the 6000 plus quotes are due to comments from the public about the raids (their forum is closed?) guys with guns like they have (AR’s) that require more care than other guns, they usually talk it up… not so with these guys? Odd? Yup.
Very good…you got a lot of stuff I wasn’t able to put my finger on.
Looks like someone whipped it up in a hurry..tried to fake a slightly uneducated style..
The whole thing feels really odd to me..