A Right-Wing Militia's Own Private Idaho [View all]

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A Right-Wing Militia's Own Private Idaho
BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT


While still basically a fantasy, in early September, organizers of The Citadel, an intentional community for Patriots located in Benewah County, Idaho, "gathered at a twenty-acre plot they have already purchased as a starter base-camp, according to county records," The Nation recently reported. "Whether or not the Citadel is built, the gathering itself is important: it could become the most significant turning point in the militia and survivalist world since Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma federal building in 1995 and the FBI crackdown on armed paramilitaries that followed."

In January, in a piece titled The Citadel: A Gunner's Paradise in Northern Idaho, BuzzFlash reported that The Citadel was "An ambitious project ... aiming to build housing for between 3,500 and 7,000 'patriotic American families who agree that being prepared for the emergencies of life and being proficient with the American icon of Liberty — the Rifle — are prudent measures. ... There will be no recycling police and no local ordinance enforcers from City Hall.'"

The artist's concept has The Citadel including a perimeter fenced road with numerous castle-style fortified walls towers, interior defensive walls and towers, an on-site gun factory ("III Arms Factory&quot , schools, an Amphitheatre, a firearms museum and reflecting pool, and a farmer's market.

The Citadels' Miller and Kerodin

The key organizers of the project appear to be Christian Kerodin and James L. Miller.

Writing for The Nation, in a piece titled Is America's Militia Movement on the Rise?, Leonard Zeskind and Devin Burghart, the president and vice president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, reported that: Christian Kerodin "was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, as Christian Allen Hyman. He spent his youth training at a traditional Akijutsudojo in Washington, DC, and with people he called "groundfighters" in Torrance, California, according to Kerodin's blog. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18190-a-right-wing-militia-s-own-private-idaho