by Scott Creighton

UPDATE at the end of the article…

As the liberal and “progressive” blogosphere breathlessly hypes the demonization of militia groups and Tea Party members as the real “homegrown terrorists” in America, I would ask you to pause for a second, take a breath, and just THINK for a minute.

You would think that after electing Barack Obama, most “progressives” and liberals would have learned a little something about jumping to conclusions based solely on emotion based rhetoric. You would think that they would be wary at this point of those who would mislead them with emotion based appeals which do nothing more than re-affirm their existing value structure. Let’s hope the lessons of the award-winning ”Product Obama” campaign aren’t lost on all the liberal intelligentsia.

Yesterday I had a conversation or two with a number of individuals who swore up and down that I was COINTELPRO or something because I dared to question not only the timing of the arrest of the Hutaree 9 but also the manner in which the apparent Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and the FBI conducted the investigation. To me it seemed altogether too similar to several of the cases that “popped up” during the old Bush/Cheney days, in which the JTTF would “infiltrate” a group or individual of hapless losers, motivate them towards committing some kind of act of terrorism, put them in contact with someone who would make fake bombs for them, then parade them around as successful investigations in the War on Terror. The motivation of course was always the continuation of the funding for the War on Terror and its many public/private institutions of profit generating “security” providers and the simultaneous degradation of our civil liberties.

“It makes sense in general —but when you’re pressing people to undertake conduct they would have never undertaken without an informant pushing them along, there is a real question if you’re creating crime, not preventing crime.” David Cole

One individual actually went so far as to imply I was a “troll” and that I had no proof that the case had been fabricated for political reasons. This is the exact same conversation I would have with members of right during the Bush years when I would attempt to explain how the JTTF fabricated cases against “terrorist cells” while Fox News was breathlessly “reporting” each and every plot uncovered was proof positive that the “terrorists” were around every corner of every street. Well, the proof is slowing leaking out, as is usually the case when these things unfold, but the damage is already done.

The basic story line under the Bush years goes like this… (from the Rolling Stone expose “The Fear Factory”)

In other cases, the use of informants has led the government to flirt with outright entrapment. In Brooklyn, a Guyanese immigrant and former cargo handler named Russell Defreitas was arrested last spring for plotting to blow up fuel tanks at JFK International Airport. In fact, before he encountered the might of the JTTF, Defreitas was a vagrant who sold incense on the streets of Queens and spent his spare time checking pay phones for quarters. He had no hope of instigating a terrorist plot of the magnitude of the alleged attack on JFK —until he received the help of a federal informant known only as “Source,” a convicted drug dealer who was cooperating with federal agents to get his sentence reduced. Backed by the JTTF, Defreitas suddenly obtained the means to travel to the Caribbean, conduct Google Earth searches of JFK’s grounds and build a complex, multifaceted, international terror conspiracy —albeit one that was impossible to actually pull off. After Defreitas was arrested, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf called it “one of the most chilling plots imaginable.” Rolling Stone

“one of the most chilling plots imaginable” was the propaganda from the Justice Department back in the old Bush years. Eric Holder just said of the Hutaree 9 case it was ”an insidious plan by anti-government extremists.” … and we have dealt “a severe blow to a dangerous organization that today stands accused of conspiring to levy war against the United States“

Aside from the breathless hyperbole of stating that 9 family members and assorted friends were about to “wage war on America” using their rundown doublewide as their base of operations, there are other ways the Hutaree 9 case is starting to look like the exact same model used under the Bush years.

Several national reports have been filed, one by Rachel Maddow and one by MSNBC’s Pete Williams, which mention the fact that the FBI (JTTF?) “infiltrated the group” several months ago. This is a very important aspect of the case for several obvious reasons.

“Brian, the FBI actually PENETRATED this group and had it under close surveillance for over a year and a half.” Pete Williams

“As I noted before, the FBI has had its eyes on this group for a long time. A local Detroit news station, Local 4, is reporting that the FBI had INFILTRATED the group for several months. Well, if the FBI had INFILTRATED them, that might explain why the FBI arrested them now.” Maddow

The actual criminal indictment filed against all 9 suspects supports this same conclusion, that the FBI “infiltrated” this group.

According to the first count of the criminal charges against them, on page 3…

(Image link, Hutaree 9 indictment, page 3)

All 9 defendants are listed as the militia group “Hutaree” and they are charged with conspiring “with each other and persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury“. Other persons would certainly be a way to legally describe the FBI or JTTF informant, now wouldn’t it?

Also according to the indictment, the group attempted to get a weapon of mass destruction by contacting “someone they believed to be capable of building it“. This is also strong evidence that the informant put them in touch with someone who he told them could make a bomb. Often in the Bush years cases, the JTTF would do the same thing, put the “terrorists” in touch with someone working for the FBI who would make a fake bomb or two for them.

In Rockford, “Jameel” repeatedly urged Shareef to dream up gory details of the havoc they would cause at the mall. Chrisman (the JTTF informant)had received a call, he told Shareef, from a man he called “Cap” —a contact willing to sell them weapons. They could buy “pineapples” —code for hand grenades —from Cap for fifty bucks each. Cap, of course, was an undercover agent…. But the resourceless Shareef couldn’t even raise that much money. So with the JTTF determined to push the “plot” forward, Chrisman announced that Cap had agreed to exchange the grenades for some used stereo speakers Shareef owned.

The next Wednesday, the two men met with Cap in a parking lot under the gaze of agents from the JTTF. As Shareef swapped the used speakers for four nonfunctioning grenades and a 9mm handgun with neutered ammunition, he was swarmed by law enforcement. News of the bust traveled the world over. “It had all the makings of a holiday bloodbath,” Fox News breathlessly reported. Shareef was charged with the ultimate crime in the so-called War on Terror: attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Rolling Stone

“Attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction“… that was the charge back in those days against a guy who couldn’t put a $100 bucks together at one time. One of the "most chilling plots imaginable", to be sure. Perhaps what was most "chilling" was the fact that it was completely concocted and arranged by a JTTF informant.

What is the primary and most chilling charge against the Hutaree 9? You guessed it, “Attempt to use weapons of mass destruction“

Now, this case is a little different, but you won’t read that in many of the breathless blogs dealing with the subject. In the Hutaree 9 case, unlike some of the earlier set-ups, the defends never set their plan in motion. Instead, according to the official charges, these guys attempted to put their fake bombs in the trunk of the car I guess and go show them off along with their guns at a “convention” as it were for militia groups. Apparently, according to the law, putting a bomb in a car and traveling on roads of “interstate commerce”, or e-mailing drawings of such bombs on the internets of “interstate commerce” counts as an ‘attempt to use a weapon of mass destruction”. But they never even made the trip because of the snow storm. The indictment is a little fuzzy on the actual statute of the crime they committed, but it is clear on one aspect… they hadn’t even decided on a target as of yet. So they didn’t make the trip and they didn’t even have a target picked out yet. So why did the JTTF and FBI decide to move on this group at this early stage in the investigation? Its starting to look "politically motivated" to me.

As this case drags on more information will surely become available, but I urge my liberal brethren that in mean time we ease off on the demonization of the “far righters” if we can for a minute or two. Let’s let the facts of the case pan out before we start labeling the militia groups and the Tea Party members as potential terrorists simply because they believe we are moving toward a fascist state in America.

Now I make this request based on what should be two very obvious facts.

1. Clearly the “facts” of this case show that it is at least moderately probable that it is exactly the same kind of contrived JTTF/FBI “homegrown terrorist” plot created under the previous administration purely serving a political end.

and

2. The Tea Partiers and Militia groups aren’t the originators of the “America is becoming a fascist state” public outcry… WE ARE

You guys don’t happen to remember Naomi Wolf do you? Remember her book from 2007, “End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot”? Remember all those lectures she gave? Remember how she was hailed as a hero on the liberal left for having the foresight and the courage to stand up to the Bush administration’s drive toward fascism?

In case you need a refresher course, here is a reminder… one of her lectures from 2007. Nearly 900,000 views and postings on various liberal websites all across America. This dates back to the good old days when liberals and progressives addressed such issues in terms that didn’t include the words “teabaggers” and “right-wing nut jobs”… ah, the good old days…

(Video link, Naomi Wolf, End of America Lecture, 2007)

Well, Naomi is at it again, this time she is featured in an interview on AlterNet in which she addresses this very same issue, folks. And I for one would seriously recommend you go over and read the whole thing. Here are a few choice samples for your consideration.

… JS: Why do you think the sides don’t understand each other?

NW: Frankly, liberals are out of the habit of communicating with anyone outside their own in cohort. We have a cultural problem with self-righteousness and elitism. Liberals roll their eyes about going on “Oprah” to reach a mass audience by using language that anyone can understand even if you majored in semiotics at Yale. We look down on people we don’t agree with. It doesn’t serve us well.

There is also a deliberate building up of two camps that benefits from whipping up home team spirit and demonizing the opposition. With the Internet there is even more fractioning since we are in echo chambers. With so much propaganda it is hard to calm down enough to listen.

…JS: What do you think is the biggest misconception about the Tea Parties?

NW: The Tea Party is not monolithic. There is a battle between people who care about liberty and the Constitution and the Republican Establishment who is trying to take ownership of it and redirect it for its own purposes.

…JS: In your essay, “Tea Time in America” you said that some of the Tea Party’s proposals are “ahead of their time.” What are some examples?

NW: I used to think “End the Fed people” were crackpots. The media paints them as deranged. But it turned out we had good reason to have more oversight. Or take their platform about states’ rights. Demographically, I’m a hippie from San Francisco and I’m not culturally inclined to be sympathetic to states’ rights. My cultural heritage is FDR and Medicare and federal government solutions. But if you think through the analysis, strengthening state rights is a good corrective of the aggregation of an over-reaching federal power. Take California’s challenge of the Patriot Act or states like Vermont leading the way with addressing the corruption of the voting system. It’s a good example of the Tea Party thinking out of the box on how to address a problem. AlterNet

Now, Naomi Wolf was certainly not the first American to bring this issue of a creeping fascism coming to America to the forefront of our debate back then. But she was certainly one of the most popular and well received in the liberal blog-o-sphere. With good reason; many found they could relate to her. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, I am hoping that it continues.

We are being driven apart from each other, one side versus the other. Cases like the Hutaree 9 are prime examples. On the right they demonize the “Muslims” and the “socialists” (like me) of the far left to sell their Homeland Security product and on the left they demonize the “Christian militia” groups and the far right for pretty much the same desired outcome.

Product Obama just railroaded a horrible bill through congress and his standing with the liberal left is certainly reeling as a result. So along comes an arrest of a group that had yet to even pick out a target, and immediately the “far left” blogs turn their focus to the “real terrorists” out there… the far right. It’s a scripted contrivance people, designed to rehabilitate the neoliberal Obama Product by comparison and to rejuvenate the far left in the phony “left verses right” paradigm.

We have to be smarter than that, people.

It’s not good enough to wait a year or so for the next Rolling Stone article to come out and then jump on the “yeah, see I told you it was bullshit” bandwagon. We have to see this crap as it happens and expose it for what it is; propaganda. If it was propaganda under the neoliberal Bush regime, it’s still propaganda under the neoliberal Obama extension.

****UPDATE****

It took less than 5 minutes of posting this article on my website for me to get my first comment. That was a little suspicious. Turns out that the comment is from a PR type firm like Burston-Marstellar who are apparently tasked to demonize the Tea Party movement. I read the comment, as I always do, and it didn’t sound like it really dealt with the subject at hand, but rather it focused on just one element of the article, the Tea Party movement. It uses emotion grabbing buzzwords in a way that a PR firm writer would.

So, I Googled the entire comment, and guess what? It’s been splattered up everywhere a hundred times. So it could be Burston-Marstellar and their Tru-Cast social networking shaping technology or it could be the NSA trying to sculpt the story, kind of a “human terrain” project. Who knows. But the fact is, the very first comment spammed up from an obvious propaganda agency lends credance to exactly what I am talking about here.

Funny huh?

(Image link, Google Search Page for Comment)

Turns out the IP address of the person who left the comment registers to a service provider in San Marcos, California and as it just happens… Burston-Marstellar has an office in San Diego, just a few miles south of the IP address… funny how that works out, ain’t it?