It has been almost ten months since Whiting, Indiana, resident Thomas Piatek was arrested. Federal investigators say that for Piatek and other members of the Hutaree militia "war was very close." Those are the words from one of Piatek's co-defendants, quoted in a new court filing.
The Hutaree, which members claim means Christian warriors, was training to ambush law enforcement according to federal prosecutors, who last spring arrested nine Hutaree members.
Among them: Thomas "Pony Tail Tom" Piatek whose Indiana home was an arsenal of weapons and 13,000 rounds of ammo. Court records obtained Wednesday provide the greatest detail yet on what Hutaree was plotting.
According to federal attorneys in Detroit where the case is being prosecuted, Hutaree "believes that all law enforcement" are "puppets of the one world government." And that is the basis of militia members "hatred toward law enforcement" and their plan to go "hunting cops."
Federal agents say after Hutaree members were arrested last march, they admitted that the plot was to begin with a prank phone call to police; that heavily armed militiamen would then "kill responding law enforcement officers by ambush"; that they all want to "kill cops" and "go to war against the government" - a war that would begin "within the year."
As Hutaree's training video suggests, the group would plant "trip wire devices" and they discussed making bombs with "shrapnel to hurt more people."
