Nine people federal prosecutors say belong to a "Christian warrior" militia were accused Monday of plotting to kill a Michigan law enforcement officer and then attack other police at the funeral.
A federal grand jury in Detroit, Michigan, indicted six Michigan residents, two Ohioans and an Indiana resident on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade and Andrew Arena, FBI special agent in charge, announced.
According to the indictment, the killings “would intimidate and demoralize law enforcement diminishing their ranks and rendering them ineffective.”
Neither the CNN article, nor the NYT story, nor the Fox News piece even once mentions the words "terror", or "terrorist", or "terrorism".
And yet the indictment specifically alleges that the plot was intended to "intimidate and demoralize" through violence. If what these people are alleged to have planned does not rise to the level of terrorism, then is there any meaningful definition of the word at all?
If these nine people were of Middle Eastern origin, or were Islamic, every single headline would have the word "terror" in it. Can there be any doubt of that? Does this mean that "terrorism" is now defined as any act of violence committed by Muslims? If this is going to be the new definition, than the national press corps should state that as fact, and the laws which are written regarding terrorism should be amended to include definitions that say that they only apply to Muslims.
And after that, we should just drop the pretenses and admit that the United States considers itself to be at war with the religion of Islam.
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