Federal authorities touted the arrests of nine members of a Michigan militia as a pre-emptive strike against homegrown terrorists, declaring at an initial court hearing that the suspects with "dark hearts and evil intent" wanted to go to war against the government.
Five weeks later, prosecutors are scrambling to regroup after a judge questioned the strength of their evidence by ordering the so-called rebels released until trial and saying they had a right to "engage in hate-filled, venomous speech."
"The government is falling short," said David Griem, a former federal prosecutor who's not involved in the case. "The message that's been sent to the community is there are problems with this case."
During two days of hearings last week before U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts, prosecutors tried to show how dangerous they perceived the Hutaree militia to be by playing secretly recorded conversations. Those talks, however, revealed no specific plot. Under questioning by defense attorneys, the FBI's lead agent on the case seemed unprepared.
So, the FBI is pretty much fumbling the ball. Did they arrest this group too early? I mean, if these were such dangerous folk that they had to be arrested RIGHTNOW, giving Obama his chance to blame Republicans for every evil under the sun, they why the hell can't the FBI even convince a judge to keep them in jail?
And even if they were planning something, the way the FedGov has acted is giving whole new swathes of the country a reason to believe that the FedGov's jackbooted thugs have no problem stomping all over your rights as they kick your door down and stomp on your face. Which will cause more people to form militias like the one they arrested in Michigan. The militia movement was pretty much a joke until Ruby Ridge and Waco, and then people said "HOLY SHIT! I'd better be prepared in case they try to do that to me!"
Anyways - once again, the FedGov screwed up. I'd plan on seeing more screwups for the forseeable future.
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