Prosecutors: Secret ‘Militia’ in Army Planned to Blow Dam, Poison Apples
Remember the DHS report that wingnut bloggers wigged out about?
Four members of secret militia group, now facing murder charges in Georgia, operated inside the ranks of the U.S. Army and discussed blowing up a dam and poisoning fruit crops in Washington State, authorities said Monday. The motives of the alleged plotters remained murky.
The revelation came as Army Pfc. Michael Burnett, 26, struck a plea bargain with prosecutors in Long County, Ga., agreeing to testify against three other soldiers who called themselves the FEAR militia (Forever Enduring Always Ready).
Burnett pleaded guilty to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges as part of a plea deal, The Associated Press reported. Other members of the militia group include the group’s reported leader, Isaac Aguigui, of Cashmere, Wash., and Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon, whose ages and hometown weren’t available, The Associated Press reported.
The four soldiers, stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia, spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components, and now face charges in the execution-style murders last December of former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York. The pair was shot to death in the Georgia woods, near the U.S. Army base. The killers apparently believed the militia group had been betrayed by Roark, who left the military two days before he and York were shot “to be silenced,” The AP reported.
Aguigui, who was home-schooled before being accepted at West Point preparatory school, funded the militia using $500,000 in insurance and benefit payments from the death of his pregnant wife a year ago, The AP reported. Aguigui was not charged, but Long County Prosecutor Isabel Pauley said the young woman’s death “was highly suspicious.” It was not disclosed where she died.
“This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk,” the prosecutor said at Burnett’s court hearing. “Prior to the murders in this case, the group took action” and possessed the “knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans.”