Throwing the Book at Them
I just read an article this morning in the Times, about a group of "Christian militia" folks in Michigan who were planning to kill a law enforcement officer and then bomb his funeral procession. They were caught prior to actually carrying out their plan, and have been charged with sedition and intent to use a weapon of mass destruction (is this really a legal term now?). Good guys win, bad guys in jail, right? Except these guys don't seem like run of the mill traitors. Beyond their intention to kill a law enforcement officer - who they view as a "foot soldier for the Federal government" - they wanted to bomb that officer's funeral procession. That sounds like an attempt to spread terror to me, beside the fact that it's a tactic that the IRA used to great effect in Northern Ireland in the 70's and 80's.
Then there's the manifesto on their website which reads like a paraphrasing of an AlQaeda recruiting pamphlet/video:
The Hutaree Web site features the motto “Preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive” and a video showing rifle-toting men in camouflage running through woods and firing weapons.“Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment,” the Web site says, adding, “The Hutaree will one day see its enemy and meet him on the battlefield if so God wills it.”
These folks differ from an AlQaeda sleeper cell in two ways: the details of their religious belief, and their ethnicity. Based on how Pakistani-American AlQaeda recruits in California, or upstate New York have been charged, I think the government needs to ask itself whether these two groups with similar aims and tactics can really be treated differently.
Comments
Mo, you're spot on. Did you get any indication that these Hutaree are going to be treated any differently (in terms of prosecution) than American AlQaeda sleepers? Sedition is about as serious a charge as can be levied (short of treason).
Posted by: Dr. Mike | April 1, 2010 10:44 AM
Honestly, Mike, the only real difference is the charges they'll be prosecuted under. I'm not sure what the penalties are for sedition vs terrorism, but the fact that they are being charged under different statutes is slightly worrisome to me. For example if you are caught with an ounce of cocaine powder or an ounce of crack, shouldn't you be exposed to the same penalty? But in practice you're not, and the end result is that people who can afford cocaine get a lighter sentence than people who can't and so buy crack. I think Congress recently acted to reduce the difference in Federal sentencing for those two but still, there's a gap.
Posted by: Lo Fat Mo | April 1, 2010 11:42 AM