Yesterday I posted Republican Bigot Caught Lying about the hypocrisy of Peter King (R-NY) and his witch hunt singling out Muslim Americans to target for his investigation of terrorism. While King was damning Muslims, events continued to demonstrate that the greater threat to American security is terrorism from the extreme right.

Militia activist Schaeffer Cox and four associates who reportedly stockpiled weapons were arrested on Thursday for allegedly conspiring to kill multiple Alaska State Troopers and a federal judge. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the group — Cox, Lonnie. G. Vernon and his wife Karen Vernon, as well as Coleman Barney of North Pole and Michael Anderson — were taken into custody by state police. All five face several state charges, including "conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit arson, misconduct involving weapons in the third degree, hindering prosecution in the first degree and tampering with evidence," according to a press release by the Alaska State Troopers. Only one of the individuals, Lonnie G. Vernon, has been charged on the federal level so far. He’s alleged to have threatened to murder U.S. District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline from on or about Feb. 4, continuing through Feb. 16. U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler, the top federal prosecutor in Alaska, confirmed to TPM on Thursday that Vernon was the only individual facing federal charges. "I can’t really comment beyond anything else of what is publicly charged — Mr. Vernon is charged with threatening to kill the judge and his family, and he was arrested on that. Everything else, all the other arrests, are state."… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <TPM>

These defendants are part of the Sovereign Citizens movement, a right wing terrorist group. They are only loosely linked to the Republican party, because they and a significant part of the InsaniTEA wing of the party believe they are subject only to English Common Law, and any Federal, State or Local law that is not supported in Common law does not apply to them. Tim McVeigh had deep ties to these groups, and Republicans celebrated the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, by scheduling open carry events in and near Washington on that date. Governor Perry (R-TX) has advocated several of their ideas,as they are often secessionist, like Todd Palin’s Alaska Independence Party.

Rachel Maddow connects the dots between this and other right wing terrorism.

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