!!New Militia Bust-- Brookville Tiger Militia!!
Joseph Pothier
Good Evening Newsgroup Readers,
Late yesterday news services began caring articles on a new militia bust
in western Pennsylvania. By this morning and afternoon, the news
articles were more substantive about unfolding events.
At least five militia men from two or three militias in western
Pennsylvania were arrested last weekend on a variety of charges
including illegal weapons and explosives. According to the two articles
below, at least two militias, the Brookville Tiger Militia and the 91st
Warrior Militia, were involved. These two militias have not been known
before. Later this afternoon, a few articles (not reproduced here) were
mentioning a possible third militia group called the PA Citizens Militia.
The articles below from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Wilkes Barre
Times-Leader give a general idea of the situation as of this evening.
The 'exploding golf balls' (sic) at least add a comic element to another
sordid militia bust. I note that former MAM newsgroup participant Mark
Pitcavage was interviewed for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.
I will, naturally, be posting further on the events as developments require.
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Sadie Gurman, `Militia Activity Probe Puts 2 In Jail,` Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette [PA], 080612.
Two of three men who boasted to undercover federal agents that they
could transform golf balls, pill bottles and bean cans into miniature
grenades were ordered held in jail yesterday, the result of a three-year
investigation by the U.S. attorney's office into possible militia activity.
The men are associated with groups not on the radar of most militia
experts, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Amy Reynolds Hay deemed two of them
-- Marvin E. Hall, 49, of Rimersburg, and Perry Landis, 62, of Du Bois
-- too dangerous to be released from the Allegheny County Jail.
The third, Bradley Kahle, 60, of Troutville, who was arrested Tuesday in
a separate but related investigation, was released after a hearing
yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto in Johnstown, but
is on home detention with electronic monitoring.
Federal agents seized a laundry list of explosives, firearms and
ammunition during a Sunday raid that led to the arrests of Mr. Hall and
Mr. Landis.
Undercover agents first met Mr. Hall at a 2005 "flamethrower party," a
gathering for gun owners, neighbors and aspiring militia members at the
Clarion County home of Morgan Jones, FBI Special Agent Daniel Yocca told
the judge. There, Agent Yocca said, Mr. Hall gave an agent a CD
detailing how to turn an AK-47 into a fully automatic weapon.
In conversations over the next three years, Mr. Hall told agents he
would continue to craft grenade launchers in his hidden-away machine
shed, despite being sentenced in 1999 to 27 months in federal prison for
possessing such unregistered firearms. In fact, Agent Yocca said, Mr.
Hall pledged to manufacture two more grenade launchers for each year he
spent in federal prison.
Mr. Hall also is accused of selling an agent two homemade golf balls he
filled with explosive powder for use as grenades. Agent Yocca said Mr.
Hall stored them in an ottoman along with instructions for improvised
explosives, other items and weapons. Mr. Hall is charged with unlawful
transfer of firearms for selling the golf balls, in addition to a charge
of possession of firearms by a felon.
Mr. Landis had a recipe for what he called "one hell of a mean grenade,"
which involved putting explosive powder and CO2 cartridges -- to provide
propulsion -- into pill bottles, Agent Yocca said. Among other firearms
and weapons, agents seized an ammunition belt Mr. Landis had apparently
fashioned to store several medicine bottle grenades at a time.
"This man was making belts to be used by suicide bombers," prosecutor
Linda Kelly told Judge Hay. Mr. Landis expressed a desire to shoot
police officers and politicians, including Gov. Ed Rendell, and told
agents last year that local district judges should "be the first to get
whacked." His attorney, William Schmalzried, dismissed the speech as
"drunken rambling."
Mr. Landis is charged with selling blasting caps to undercover agents on
Sept. 29, 2007, and March 27.
Mr. Hall told undercover agents that he wasn't involved in a militia,
but if need be, he would associate with a group called the 91st Warrior,
the agent testified.
Mr. Landis is sergeant at arms of a group called the Brookville Tiger
Militia, a group of about 200 that held meetings at its headquarters, a
wood cabin on Mr. Landis' property, Agent Yocca said.
Both Mr. Landis and Mr. Hall are self-proclaimed "survivalists," the
agent said, people who believe they can live off the land, hiding in
mine shafts and underground tunnels with the help of fellow militia
members. One such tunnel extended about 20 feet from Mr. Landis' cabin
to a hillside, Agent Yocca said, and could be used to hide members if
they were ever under siege by police.
The relative obscurity of the two groups matches a pattern as militias
re-emerge after a period of near dormancy, said Mark Pitcavage, director
of investigative research for the Anti-Defamation League and a leading
scholar of the movement.
"What we have seen is that first of all there aren't nearly as many
groups as there were in their heyday," Mr. Pitcavage said. "A lot of
them are actively training but they're not operating in the same ways
they were before. You have fewer sort of large, public groups, like the
equivalent of the Michigan Militia."
Some of the groups loosely affiliate -- a few even have MySpace pages on
the Internet.
"You have other groups who are small cells who don't really link up with
other guys," Mr. Pitcavage said.
The recent arrests, he said, would seem to fit that pattern. He also
said he found no record or Internet footprint for the groups identified
as the 91st and the Brookville Tigers.
Mr. Jones, who was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on weapons
charges in the investigation, faces his detention hearing this afternoon
in Pittsburgh.
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Joe Mandak, `Militia Officer Jailed; Details Emerge About Network,`
Wilkes Barre Times-Leader [PA], 080612.
An alleged officer for a militia claiming 200 members once talked about
shooting Pennsylvania's governor and how a Hillary Clinton presidency
could spark a revolution, an FBI agent testified Wednesday.
Perry Landis, 61, of Clearfield County in western Pennsylvania, was one
of five people arrested in a sweep by a terrorism task force over the
weekend that turned up weapons, ammunition and several homemade bombs.
Details of Landis' group emerged Wednesday in a federal detention
hearing in which Landis was held until he could stand trial on weapons
charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Kelly argued that recordings and testimony
established that Landis had the means to fashion a "suicide bomb" belt
out of pill bottles, BBs, black powder and carbon dioxide canisters.
In September, Landis talked about shooting Gov. Ed Rendell because he
was upset about a state plan to put toll booths on Interstate 80.
"He talks the talk and he walks the walk and he's deeply involved in the
militia movement here in western Pennsylvania," Kelly said.
Landis is accused of giving an undercover agent blasting caps twice in
the last year.
Landis told an undercover officer last fall that if Clinton won the
election, "that would be a good thing, that would be the best thing,"
FBI Agent Daniel Yocco testified.
Landis wanted Clinton elected because he believes she'd try to disarm
gun owners and that "would start the revolution and we would all come
out of the woodwork," Yocco said.
Yocco testified the Pittsburgh Joint Terrorism Task Force, which
includes state police, federal agents and others, began investigating
militia activity in western Pennsylvania in 2005. The investigation
targeted two groups with a "propensity for violence", the 91st Warrior
Militia and the Brookville Tiger Militia, which is allegedly
headquartered in a cabin on Landis' property.
Landis' attorney William Schmalzried noted his client's criminal record
consists of a citation for driving without an inspection sticker and a
dog law violation. He argued the recorded threats were bragging.
"We don't even have an attempt at anything," Schmalzried said, "except
talking foolishly, and stupidly, I might add. No harm can be attributed
to Mr. Landis in his life."
The terrorism task force investigation resulted in five people being
charged and their property raided and weapons seized.
Authorities took 25 guns from Landis' property, including several
Chinese assault rifles, some Romanian weapons and a .44 Magnum.
Schmalzried said all the weapons were legal. They also seized
bomb-making materials.
Another defendant, Bradley T. Kahle, 60, of Troutville, was released
after a detention hearing Wednesday in Johnstown. Kahle is confined to
home detention and prohibited from obtaining a passport.
According to an affidavit, Kahle told undercover agents he hoped Clinton
or Sen. Barack Obama would be killed if they were elected, and that he
would shoot judicial and law enforcement officials if he became
terminally ill.
Marvin E. Hall, 49, of Rimersburg, was ordered jailed after a similar
hearing earlier in the day. He's not a militia member but claims to be
an associate. He is charged with illegally possessing a shotgun and an
assault rifle and with giving someone exploding golf ball bombs he
allegedly made in his machine shop.
Hall's live-in girlfriend, Melissa Huet, 34, is accused of helping Hall
illegally possess the weapons. She will appear before a federal
magistrate on June 26,
A fifth man, Morgan A. Jones, 64, of Lucinda, faces a detention hearing
Thursday.
Authorities haven't said if they believe Jones and Kahle are militia
members.
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