Oh, look at this. Without much explanation, media reports all asserted that an "anarchist militia" had been discovered within the military, that was plotting to assassinate Obama and overthrow the government. (CNN [4], Fox News [5], Aug. 28; Reuters [6], AP [7], Aug. 27) Based out of Fort Stewart, Ga., the "militia" was apparently called FEAR—Forever Enduring Always Ready—although it is unclear if it really had enough members or weaponry to qualify as a "militia." The supposed plot came to light when Pfc. Michael Burnett pleaded guilty to killing a fellow soldier and his girlfriend because they were suspected of planning to rat out the "militia." Three others are charged in the murders, but note that nobody is yet charged with plotting to kill Obama, overthrow the government or poison the Washington state apple harvest (another of their wet-dreams, it seems). Now Gawker [8] brings to light that the alleged ringleader in the plot, Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, had served a a page at the 2008 GOP convention!
The account displays a Reuters photo that ran at the time captioned "Republican National Convention page Isaac Aguigui watches from the edge of the floor at the start of the first session of the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota September 1, 2008." Gawker acknowledges that it could be another guy of the same name who is of the same approximate age as the current defendant, and bears an amazing likeness to him. But that seems a long shot.
So it looks like Aguigui and his fellow wingnuts followed the slippery slope from GOP "small government" rhetoric to radical-right "anti-government" extremism—a trajectory we have noted before [9]. We do wish prosecutors and reporters would make clear where they got the word "anarchist" from, especially in light of the current "anarchist scare." (See, e.g., the apparently FBI infiltrator-generated "terrorist" plot involving figures on the fringe of the Occupy movement in Cleveland [10].) We are told "militia" members "wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an anarchy symbol," but we weren't able to find a photo of this symbol. Could these guys really be mixed-up right-wing anarchists who sport a symbol that "resembles" the circle-A? That would certainly make it all the more difficult to save the legitimate, left-wing anarchist tradition [11] from the Memory Hole...
