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4 Underground 'Militia Group’ US Soldiers Murder, Plot Govt Overthrow

According to an article in the Guardian, four of Georgia’s Fort Stewart’s active soldiers killed a former comrade and his girlfriend last December 4th to “protect an anarchist militia group.”

The militia group calls itself F.E.A.R., short for “Forever Enduring Always Ready.” Three of the four soldiers charged with these killings and facing 13 counts including malice murder, felony murder and illegal gang activity are private Isaac Aguigui, sergeant Anthony Peden and private Christopher Salmon. The fourth defendant is army private first class Michael Burnett, 25, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges in exchange for offering testimony against the other three defendants. The four men and one of their victims all had served together at Fort Stewart.

The Guardian:

In a videotaped interview with military investigators, [Prosector Isabel] 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."

According to the Georgia prosecutors, the militia group had ambitious 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 slain Roark was 19 and had served with the four defendants in the fourth brigade combat team of the army's third infantry division. The group had concluded that Roark had betrayed it. He had only been out of the military two days when he and his 17 year old girlfriend, Tiffany York, were “silenced.”

According to the Guardian:

Burnett testified that on the night of December 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.

Also charged in the killings is Salmon's wife, Heather Salmon.

The militia was funded by its leader Aguigui using a $500,000 insurance and benefit payment from the death of his pregnant wife. He used $87,000 to purchase semiautomatic assault rifles, other kinds of guns and bomb components. These have been recovered from the homes and a storage locker of the accused soldiers. Aguigui also used part of the insurance payment to buy land for the militia group in Washington state.

This certainly is a troubling manifestation of dangerous gang-think cronyism and violence within our military.

[cross-posted on correntewire and open salon]