Nothing To See
The lawyer for one of the men arrested in Alabama on weapons charges last week says that the arrests of his client was a big deal about nothing. Ok, he's a defense lawyer, that's his job. It's rather unlikely that he is going to give an interview to the media and say something along the lines of, "Heck, this is nothing, you should have seen what else they were hiding out in the rental unit on route 45." But, face it, 2,500 rounds of ammunition is small potatoes, the hand grenades are not.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Raids that resulted in the arrests of six alleged militia members and the seizure of hundreds of hand grenades and bullets were "much ado about nothing," a defense lawyer said Friday.
A cache of ammunition that was confiscated _ 2,500 rounds _ wasn't that large, and the scores of homemade hand grenades that agents seized could be made with powder from fireworks and components readily available in military surplus stores, attorney Scott Boudreaux said.
Even prosecutors say the ragtag group called the Alabama Free Militia had no intended target and was simply stockpiling munitions, said Boudreaux, who plans to meet this weekend with his client, Raymond Kirk Dillard, 46, of Collinsville, a supposed major in the paramilitary group…..
…..A court document indicates Dillard, unknowingly met with an ATF informant at a flea market in Collinsville about four months ago, told him he was organizing a militia and later accepted him into the group as a sergeant major.
The informant was at the home of Cole, an alleged militia lieutenant, about two months ago when he saw grenades, according to the document, a sworn statement by ATF agent Adam Nesmith. Investigators found more weapons as they monitored the group through the informant and with video and audio surveillance, Nesmith said.
During the raid, agents recovered 130 hand grenades, a grenade launcher, about 70 hand grenades rigged to be fired from a rifle, a machine gun, a short-barrel shotgun, 2,500 rounds of ammunition, explosives components, stolen fireworks and other items.
Sifting through all that based on media reporting isn't a precise science. If they are declaring one of the weapons to be a real machine gun - that is an automatic go to jail offense unless you have the proper Federal license. If the weapon is not capable of full-automatic, then it isn't a machine gun. But there's no way to tell which it is given the description. If the "short-barrel" shotgun was sawed off, that's usually a go to jail. (If it just had a plain old short barrel, you can buy those quite legally). The grenades will really get them sent to jail, though. There is no reason to have grenades and that should get these guys serious jail time. These guys sound more like idiots than a serious threat, but it's much better that they are off the streets before they did get dangerous.
By jpe, Sunday, 29 April , 2007 @ 11:24 am
I note that the defendants are described above as “men,” “idiots,” and not “a serious threat,” but never as what they are: terrorists.
Why the pulled punches?
By Gaius, Sunday, 29 April , 2007 @ 11:45 am
What political agenda did they attempt to advance through the use of terror tactics? Who did they threaten or actually attack?
Why the demand to call them terrorists? The media won’t call real terrorists by that name the majority of the time. You have a really weak meme to try to sell.