Rep. Young (R-AK) Signed Seditious Document Circulated by Man Just Indicted in Plot to Kill Judge(s), State Troopers

Cross-posted from Merge-Left

In January, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others were shot, six of whom were killed by a rightwing anti-government zealot, Jared Loughner. The right was not responsible, we were told, because Loughner wasn’t involved in the most current and popular manifestation of rightwing paranoia, and besides, “both sides do it”.

It was a ridiculous pair of arguments then, and it’s even more ridiculous now that a small group of Alaska-based rightwing activists, at the center of a much wider network, has been arrested for plotting to murder law enforcement officers and at least one judge–and their Congressman, Don Young, has publicly endorsed one of their seditious documents, thereby violating his oath of office, and starkly illustrating how mainstream Republican Party officials collaborate with and encourage violence-prone extremists in their base.

As reported by the Anchorage Daily News on March 12:

Militia members charged in ’241′ plot to kill judge, troopers

Court documents detail plans for revenge.

By CASEY GROVE…

Federal agents made extensive recordings of Fairbanks militia members plotting to kill or kidnap judges and Alaska State Troopers and burn their houses, according to documents filed in court Friday.

Four leaders of the Fairbanks-based Alaska Peacekeeper’s Militia — Francis “Schaeffer” Cox, 26, Lonnie Vernon, 55, his wife Karen Vernon, 64, and Coleman Barney, 36 — are charged with conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping and arson. They are also charged with hindering prosecution and possession of illegal weapons.

The four are in jail in Fairbanks. Bail for Cox was set at $3 million. Barney and Karen and Lonnie Vernon were each held on $2 million bail.

Lonnie Vernon called the 17-page criminal complaint “hearsay on paper,” according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Vernon is charged in a separate federal case for threatening the lives of a federal judge and one of his family members, according to the federal indictment.

The militia members amassed high-powered weaponry, including grenades and .30- and .50-caliber machine guns, with which to carry out retaliatory strikes against law enforcement officials, according to court documents.

The indictments for Cox, Vernon, Barney can be found here (pdf) and for Vernon here (also pdf). The first indictment includes the following text:

COX spent a considerable amount of time logically (in his mind) justifying his actions, stating that “at this point, without any further provocation” he would be “well within my rights to drill [Superior Court Judge] McConahy in his forehead”.

The ADN article contains a wealth of further details about the case, but this passage is arguably the most crucial:

“At that February 12th meeting COX specifically unveiled his “241″ (two for one) plan which called for his militia to respond to attempts to arrest or kill him by responding against state court or law enforcement targets with twice the force and consequences as happened to him or his family,” according to the criminal complaint. “If he was arrested, two state targets would be “arrested” (kidnapped). If he was killed, two state targets would be killed. If his house was taken, two state target houses would be burned.”

At that meeting, according to the charges, Cox admitted that the militia had too few members to carry out Plan 241 and they should avoid launching it until they were better prepared. He directed the members at the meeting to sign up for Twitter accounts so they could see the posts from his account, 00SchaefferCox. Cox planned to initiate Plan 241 on Twitter, the documents say.

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