Associated Press/Lewis Levine, File - FILE - 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 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, The Associated Press reports Monday, Aug. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine, File)
By RUSS BYNUM
Prosecutor: Ga. murder case uncovers terror plot
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.
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Today is
Military Breeds Home Grown Terrorists for "Decades as Officers Abide"
As far back as the 1920s, our U.S. Military have condoned, and have been complicit in the freedom or existence of racist, racism, and the development of home grown terrorist.
In the Tulsa Race Riot occurred on May 31, 1921, former military men were deputized, and military weapons and military ammunition were used in the massacre of the community of Tulsa Oklahoma, then knows as the "Black Wall Street", because all the blacks had a community that shared in the profits from the oil riches, allowing them to build and maintain their own business, own section of the city that equalled a upscale living environment.
Post WWI & WWII, provided many instances where whites within the military, were freely practicing racism and racist acts and actions.
Through the 60s, 70 & 80s, blatant racism were day to day practices, supported by and participating in racist acts, were the Officers that lead with "honor & prestige".
My Dad served 20 years in the Navy, as a A-4 Crew Chief, and I never heard him talk about the racist acts that he was subjected to, but, I dated a woman at one point, who informed me that her "X" husband's father was the Commanding Officer (CO) of Camp Lejuene Marine Corps Base, and she expressed that her father-in law would freely talk about blacks at the dinner table, using the "N" word just as freely as the average enlisted personnel.
In the past 5 years, a slew of former military personnel have been arrested for acts of "Terrorism" or the act of planning "Terroristic" acts or actions, example: Army Vet Kevin Harpham, 37, of Addy, Wash., Plants Bomb Along MLK Parade Route in 2011.
Military Officers are at fault for lack of meaningful actions
The Military and its members, all become a family, once you join, and when there are those who are fragmented from the main group for reasons of "racist" beliefs, everyone knows who they are, what they are, and no one does a damn thing about it.
The Military Officers know what the hell is going on with these special groups, who the majority of the personnel, are stand offish with, and even with this knowledge, officers in all branches, do the wrong thing, THE SEE NO EVIL & HEAR NO EVIL.
It is the Officers who set the temperament of a squadron or a company, by their example, by their personal discipline and by their dissemination of disciplinary actions, to those who deserve punishment.
The Lack of Action by Military Officers, provides the foundation of complicity for the racist and potential terrorist within the ranks, to act with impunity.
It is the lack of action by all officers that is talked about by the military personnel, who are appalled by the lack of leadership that officers display, and then the officers have the audacity to demand honor in the troops who the officers lead.
The Lack of Accountability and action by Officers in all branches of the Military, have displayed in the acts of those military personnel serving in Afghanistan, by their acts of urinating on the corps of dead afghans, as some took pictures. The Acts of these men weren't the first of it's kind, these men have had plenty of unprofessional conversation among the troops while eating or watching movies..., etc....
Until Officers start loosing rank, and are put in jail for dereliction of duty, this type of behavior will continue in the military, and their subsequent post military actions are a direct reflection of he lack of accountability by military officers.
I would even go as far as to say that the military personnel that are currently serving, if they are arrested for of base murders, and other acts, the military leadership ought to be prosecuted for their lack of overseeing of personnel.
Today, there are hundreds of potential terrorist and racist that live freely in the military, and as long as the Officers do nothing, these men will continue to act with impunity, and one day, one of the existing potential racist or terrorist, may blow something up, costing many innocent lives.
In My Opinion
ASKFMB
8/27/2012
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