Alleged Plotters Face Trial
Three militiamen from Michigan face federal trial for a wide-ranging antigovernment conspiracy.
Three militia men face a federal trial in Michigan after being indicted for allegedly plotting to murder federal officials and judges; blow up federal buildings, power facilities, fuel depots, gas stations and a bridge; raid National Guard armories; and take over radio and television stations to broadcast revolutionary propaganda.
Prosecutors said Ken Carter, a 47-year-old self-described member of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations, Bradford Metcalf, 46, and Randy Graham, 41, carried beepers so that they could be alerted by secret codes when and where to strike. Prosecutors say Metcalf had a videotape detailing how to made ricin, a deadly protein.
Carter, the leader, allegedly told an undercover agent that the group planned to create three or four days of chaos, "at which time the entire country would rise up against the government."
The men belonged to the North American Militia, a splinter group formed after leaders of the state's largest militia, the Michigan Militia Corps, booted them out for allegedly advocating violence. Graham and Carter also face drug charges.
Prosecutors say the group, like an increasing number of American terrorist cells, planned to sell narcotics and rob drug dealers to finance the white supremacist revolution they planned.
