Serious about what? Forming a weird, elitist, hierarchical armed group? Who gives a shit? Wanting to overthrow the government isn't the defining point of anarchist politics. regardless, the only evidence they may identify as "anarchists" (at least the only evidence mentioned in this article) is that they "wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an anarchy symbol".
2012-08-27 "4 soldiers planned to take over U.S. government and assassinate the president" by "THE ASSOCIATED PRESS", posted at "New York Daily News"
[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/prosecutor-ga-murder-case-uncovers-terror-plot-4-soldiers-planned-u-s-government-assassinate-president-article-1.1145553]:
4 Fort Stewart soldiers, Michael Burnett, Isaac Aguigui, Anthony Peden and Christopher Salmon, formed F.E.A.R., an anarchist group plotting to overthrow the federal government. They spent $87,000 stockpiling weapons and killed Michael Roark and his girlfriend, Tiffany York, to protect their dark secret.
U.S. Army Sgt. Anthony Peden, 25, left, and Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, 19, are led away in handcuffs after appearing before a magistrate judge at the Long County Sheriffs Office in Ludowici, Ga. Prosecutors say a murder case against the four soldiers in Georgia has revealed they formed an anarchist militia within the U.S. military with plans to overthrow the federal government.
LUDOWICI, Ga. (AP) — Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a former comrade and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks, prosecutors told a judge Monday.
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.
Prosecutors say Roark, 19, served with the four defendants in the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and became involved with the militia. Pauley said the group believed it had been betrayed by Roark, who left the Army two days before he was killed, and decided the ex-soldier and his girlfriend needed to be silenced.
Burnett testified that on the night of Dec. 4, he and the three other soldiers lured Roark and York to some woods a short distance from the Army post under the guise that they were going target shooting. He said Peden shot Roark’s girlfriend in the head while she was trying to get out of her car. Salmon, he said, made Roark get on his knees and shot him twice in the head. Burnett said Aguigui ordered the killings.
“A loose end is the way Isaac put it,” Burnett said.
Aguigui’s attorney, Daveniya Fisher, did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press. Attorneys for Peden and Salmon both declined to comment Monday.
Also charged in the killings is Salmon’s wife, Heather Salmon. Her attorney, Charles Nester, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Pauley said Aguigui funded the militia using $500,000 in insurance and benefit payments from the death of his pregnant wife a year ago. Aguigui was not charged in his wife’s death, but Pauley told the judge her death was “highly suspicious.”
She said Aguigui used the money to buy $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.
The Army brought charges against the four accused soldiers in connection with the slayings of Roark and York in March, but has yet to act on them. Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson said he could not comment immediately on the militia accusations that emerged in civilian court Monday.
District Attorney Tom Durden said his office has been sharing information with federal authorities, but no charges have been filed in federal court. Jim Durham, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, would not comment on whether a case is pending.
2012-08-28 "Soldier allegedly led militia group that plotted to kill President Obama" by Mike Carter from "The Seattle Times", re-posted at "Detroit Free Press"
[http://www.freep.com/article/20120828/NEWS07/120828049/soldiers-militia-stockpile-assassinate-government?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs]:
In this Dec. 12, 2011, file photo, U.S. Army Sgt. Anthony Peden, 25, left, and Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, 19, are led away in handcuffs after appearing before a judge at the Long County Sheriffs Office in Ludowici, Ga. / Lewis Levine, Associated Press
SEATTLE — A soldier from Chelan County, Wash., suspected of murder in Georgia and accused of being the founder of a militia group that was plotting to kill President Barack Obama and overthrow the U.S. government, purchased 15 firearms, including several semiautomatic assault-style rifles, at a Wenatchee, Wash., gun store in September 2011.
It was that purchase, along with a suspicious relative, that first brought Army Pvt. Isaac Aguigui of Cashmere, Wash., to the attention of local law enforcement, Wenatchee Police Sgt. John Kruse said Tuesday.
The relative, who has asked not to be named, told police that Aguigui’s wife, who was a fellow soldier, and their unborn child had died under suspicious circumstances in July 2011 at Fort Stewart, Ga., where they were stationed. The relative also was concerned that Aguigui had purchased more than a dozen firearms from High Mountain Hunting Supply in Wenatchee.
After checking the report and talking to the gun store, Kruse said police decided they should contact the Army Criminal Investigation Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and the FBI in Spokane. Kruse said he spoke with FBI Resident Agent in Charge Frank Harrill about the incident.
“We didn’t do much with this. There had been no crime that we knew of, and it didn’t really involve Wenatchee at all,” he said. Moreover, “people buy multiple guns all the time,” Kruse said.
The department did issue an “officer safety” bulletin alerting police to Aguigui’s whereabouts, the fact that he was under investigation by the Army, and that he had recently purchased numerous firearms.
Kruse said Aguigui returned to Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia shortly thereafter.
Aguigui is among four soldiers based in Georgia who are charged with killing a former comrade, a Washington state native, and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed, plotted a range of anti-government attacks, including bombing a dam in Washington and poisoning the state’s apple crop, prosecutors told a judge Monday.
Isabel Pauley, the prosecutor in Long County, near Fort Stewart, said the militia group of active and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components. They allege the group 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.
The group allegedly called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring Always Ready. Pauley said authorities don’t know how many members it had.
One of the Fort Stewart soldiers charged in the case, Pfc. Michael Burnett, pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges in a deal to testify against the three other soldiers — Aguigui, identified by prosecutors as the militia’s founder and leader, and Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon.
All are charged by Georgia 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.
Aguigui was home-schooled in the Chelan County town of Cashmere, joining the Army after graduation. He married fellow soldier Dierdre Wetzker at Fort Stewart, according to news reports and interviews with family.
Wetzker, 24, died last year at Fort Stewart while pregnant with the couple’s son. According to Orlin Wetzker, her uncle in Ogden, Utah, the family was told by law enforcement officials that she may have been poisoned. A call to Aguigui’s parents’ home in Cashmere was not returned.
The prosecutors in the Georgia homicide case have called Wetzker’s death “highly suspicious,” but no charges have been filed.
According to court testimony, the group used some of the nearly $500,000 in insurance and death benefits to buy more than $87,000 worth of military-grade firearms and land in Washington state.
Orlin Wetzker said he knew nothing of Aguigui’s politics.
Ayn Dietrich, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Seattle, said the bureau was aware of the case but declined to comment further.
Roark, who was born in Kirkland, Wash., and spent part of high school in Marysville, according to The (Everett) Herald, served with the four defendants in the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and became involved with the militia. Pauley said the group believed it had been betrayed by Roark, who left the Army two days before he was killed, and decided the ex-soldier and his girlfriend needed to be silenced.
Burnett testified that on the night of Dec. 4, he and the three other soldiers lured Roark and York to some woods a short distance from the Army post under the guise that they were going target shooting. He said Peden shot Roark’s girlfriend in the head while she was trying to get out of her car. Salmon, he said, made Roark get on his knees and shot him twice in the head. Burnett said Aguigui ordered the killings.
“A ’loose end’ is the way Isaac put it,” Burnett said.
Roark’s mother, Tracy Jahr, told KOMO-TV her son died “for standing up for what he knew was right.”
She said her son told her last fall he had met someone with a lot of money.
“My mom’s radar went up just a little bit and I said, ’Well, who is this person? Where is he from? Where does he live? Tell me more about him,’” Jahr told KOMO.
She said the situation eventually prompted him to leave the Army in December. He was killed two days later.
“It’s not real because it can’t possibly be your child that’s been killed. It was devastating. It was devastating,” Jahr said.
Also charged in the killings is Salmon’s wife, Heather Salmon. Her attorney, Charles Nester, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
In a videotaped interview with military investigators, Pauley said, Aguigui called himself “the nicest coldblooded 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 members 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.
Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson said the Army has dropped its own charges against the four soldiers in the slayings of Roark and York. Military authorities filed charges in March but never acted on them. Fort Stewart officials Monday refused to identify the units the accused soldiers served in and their jobs within those units.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based organization that tracks hate groups in the U.S., said Aguigui’s father, Ed Aguigui, had “no clue” as to the location of the land in Washington state that reportedly was purchased by his son and members of his militia group. “I served my country for 20 years and I honor that, take pride in that,” said Ed Aguigui, a veteran.
According to The Wenatchee World, Isaac Aguigui represented Washington state in the American Legion Boys Nation held in July 2008 in Washington, D.C. The American Legion Boys Nation is a weeklong citizenship and government program in the nation’s capital that is designed to instill in each participant a deep loyalty to America while providing practical insight into the operation of the federal government, officials say.
The newspaper also reports he was among 21 Republicans who gathered in Wenatchee in October 2008 for the third and final presidential debate.
“When Obama outlined his health care plan,” the newspaper reported, “17-year-old Isaac Aguigui of Cashmere said, ’That makes absolutely no sense.’”
2012-08-28 "'Anarchists' accused of murder; broader plot against government" from "CNN"
[http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/28/justice/georgia-soldiers-plot/index.html]:
(CNN) -- This much is clear: Four U.S. Army soldiers based in Georgia are accused of killing two people.
Beyond that, a Georgia prosecutor and federal authorities are offering differing responses to a possible plot by the group to overthrow the government and assassinate President Barack Obama.
"As far as the evidence has shown, the motive for the murders was the overthrow of the government," District Attorney Tom Durden said.
"This wasn't barroom talk," Durden said, describing the men as part of an anarchist militia. "They amassed a good bit of weapons and explosive materials."
A law enforcement official said the men had legally purchased at least 18 rifles and handguns in Washington and Georgia. The official said uncompleted pipe bombs were also found, and were comprised of store-bought materials. No sophisticated military grade-explosives were involved in their construction.
However, several agencies called into the investigation because of the accumulation of weapons -- including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- made scant mention of any alleged assassination plot or government overthrow attempt.
One official described it as a murder case and said no federal charges had been filed.
On Monday, Pfc. Michael Burnett laid out the elaborate plot, telling a southeast Georgia court that he was part of what prosecutors called "an anarchist group and militia."
Dressed in his Army uniform, he spoke in a Long County court about the group of Army soldiers and its role in the December deaths of former soldier Michael Roark and his teenage girlfriend, Tiffany York. Roark, he said, was killed because he took money from the group and planned to leave.
"I don't know how it got to the point where two people got murdered," Burnett said in court.
He talked about how he and three others accused -- Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon -- had begun getting together, "just going out shooting guns, just guy stuff."
"And then 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."
Days before he died, Roark had been discharged from the army, according to Pauley.
Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend were killed because Aguigui felt the couple was "a loose end," Burnett said.
"Sir, if I could have stopped this from happening, I would have," the soldier told the judge about the couple's killings.
Burnett admitted being at the scene of the crime, including watching as a soldier "checked (York's) pulse and then shot her again."
York's sister, Tiffany, told CNN affiliate WTOC that she hoped York "didn't have to beg, or suffer."
As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Burnett pleaded guilty to manslaughter -- instead of murder, thus avoiding a possible death sentence -- and other charges. He also agreed to testify against the three other soldiers accused in the case.
All four soldiers had also been charged by the military in connection with the two killings. But as their case proceeded through civilian courts, the Army dismissed its charges, according to Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson.
The military's Criminal Investigative Division (CID) probe is ongoing, though it is not believed there are any "unknown subjects" -- or people besides those four men -- tied to these crimes, Larson said.
In a statement Monday, Larson insisted that Fort Stewart and its affiliated Hunter Army Airfield do not have "a gang or militia problem."
"Any suspicions of gang activity are actively investigated by CID, (which) recognizes the obvious concerns with the combination of gangs and military-type training," he said. "That is why CID monitors and investigates gang and extremist group association with criminal acts in the Army so closely. We believe the reason we are able to maintain a low gang criminal threat status is because of the awareness of and focus on the threat."
Fort Stewart, about 40 miles southwest of Savannah, is home to the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
Tens of thousands of troops, their dependents, civilian personnel and contractors live and work on the base, which encompasses 280,000 acres and includes parts of five counties, including Long County, which has about 14,500 residents. Hunter Army Airfield is in Savannah but is officially part of the larger Fort Stewart complex.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks what it characterizes as "hate groups" nationwide, spoke to Aguigui's father Monday night.
"I served my country for 20 years and I honor that, take pride in that," Ed Aguigui told the center, according to the center's Hatewatch blog. "I don't know what my son's views are, and where they came from."
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