'Sovereign citizen' movement now on FBI's radar [View all]

[ellisonz]

The Homeland Security Department has ranked the movement as a major threat. Its members reject the law, and some kill police.
By Brian Bennett, Washington Bureau

February 23, 2012, 4:52 p.m.
Reporting from Washington—
With the FBI pounding on his door, and his wife and two children barely awake, Shawn Rice allegedly strapped on a bulletproof vest, grabbed a semiautomatic pistol and stepped out his back door on Dec. 22.

But dozens of FBI agents and local police had surrounded the ranch house in Seligman, Ariz., about 80 miles west of Flagstaff, and the only nearby cover was knee-high sagebrush. Rice ducked back inside, and warned the FBI to keep away.

After a tense 10-hour standoff, Rice, 49, was arrested. He now sits in a Las Vegas jail awaiting trial on federal money-laundering charges.

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Until recently, federal officials had steered clear of any extensive focus on right-wing extremist groups. In 2009, some members of Congress complained after a Homeland Security Department report warned that such groups might seek to recruit disaffected military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as others. The report highlighted several groups, including the sovereign citizen movement.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror-cop-killers-20120224,0,5474022.story

Why don't we make targeting right-wing extremists for prosecution a priority in this country? I think there is no debate that right-wing extremists are still a dangerous threat to both common citizens and our government. We are little more than a year removed from a right-wing attempt to bomb a Martin Luther King Jr. parade and from the attempted assassination of a member of Congress. Clearly, our justice officials should make this very real threat a priority. If we spent 1/20 of the effort we have spent on fighting terrorist threats from abroad on domestic terrorist threats, we would have a much safer country. This country has quite the history of domestic terrorism and we would be well served not to forget its danger.