By Alan Sverdlik | Reuters
TOCCOA, Ga – The Waffle House booth often used by three local men arrested in a domestic terror plot was empty on a recent morning but the case that has unnerved this former textile town was on the minds of the breakfast crowd.
Linda Evert peered into her cup of coffee and shook her head in dismay over news that the men, according to federal authorities, were part of a militia group that planned to buy explosives and make a deadly toxin to carry out their attacks.
“Where is all this anger coming from?” said Evert, who noted that one of the accused men once spent an afternoon in her basement repairing electrical sockets. “It’s really kind of creepy, knowing what I know now, that there are people in this town that belong to militias.”
A man sitting at the nearby counter, who wouldn’t give his name, offered a different view.
“I don’t condone violence,” he said without turning his head, “but the militias are not such a bad idea. The founders of our country didn’t trust the government either. And our government now is taking away our rights, one by one.”
A federal indictment returned last week described a murderous plot sounding more like the work of a villain in a James Bond novel than four weather-beaten, aging mountain men.
Toccoa residents Samuel Crump, 68, and Ray Adams, 65, were charged with conspiring to manufacture ricin, a toxin extracted from beans that is fatal if swallowed or inhaled.
Emory Dan Roberts, 67, also of Toccoa, and Frederick Thomas, 73, of nearby Cleveland, were charged with conspiring to possess an unregistered explosive and possession of an unregistered silencer.
While there is widespread revulsion over the accusations made against the four, the seeds of anti-government fervor can still sprout rage and paranoia in this isolated swath of Appalachia 95 miles from Atlanta.
Some people here say they can understand why their fellow residents, however misguided, join extremist movements out of a patriotic reaction to perceived tyranny.
“We’re living in a very negative and angry time,” said David Harris, a technical writer. “Maybe it’s that the great American dream isn’t happening for a lot of people.”
Related articles
- FBI: Four Georgia militia members plotted to attacks (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
- Documents: Men with castor beans, guns worried about getting caught (ajc.com)
- Another incident of domestic terrorism thwarted; another Fox News connection (alternet.org)
- Accused militia members outside the profile (ajc.com)
- Militia Members Plotted To Kill Federal Officials (t2ctwn.wordpress.com)
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