• Judge says feds lied, manufactured evidence against Hutaree members
By The Staff at AFP
United States District Judge Victoria Roberts dismissed almost all charges against seven members of the so-called Hutaree militia March 27, stating that angry “diatribes” and “hatred of law enforcement” did not add up to a seditious conspiracy to incite armed rebellion against the U.S. government.
Hutaree was formed in 2008 by a small band of Michigan Christian citizens to prepare for what they felt would be a day when society would break down. But the group had no formal existence until it encountered the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who planted multiple informants amongst the members and turned the informal discussion group into an armed organization. The informants, according to court testimony, then secretly recorded the members talking about how much they disliked government officials.
In March 2010, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives attacked members of the group at their homes, utilizing helicopters and armored personnel carriers against innocent civilians. The innocent men were then imprisoned—some in solitary confinement, in brutal conditions—for months until a judge finally ruled that they could be released on bail until their trial in late 2011.
Then, acting at the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder, the FBI used the mainstream media to smear Hutaree members, claiming that they were extremists bent on overthrowing the government.
Judge Roberts did not agree. In reference to David Stone, one member of the supposed militia, the court wrote, “His diatribes evince nothing more than his own hatred for—perhaps even desire to fight or kill—law enforcement; this is not the same as seditious conspiracy. . .statements and exercises do not evince a concrete agreement to forcibly resist the authority of the United States government.”
The case is the latest blow against a Department of Justice that has been widely accused of corruption for its efforts to manufacture a non-existent terrorist threat against the American people. These phony terror cases are given maximum media attention, reinforcing in the minds of average Americans that they are constantly under threat. By keeping Americans constantly in fear, the massive federal law enforcement machine justifies its own existence and distracts from the social and economic problems inherent in the international system.
Two gun possession charges against two members of the Hutaree organization were set for retrial.
