Militia Member Says He Wasn't Aware Of Any Plot

DETROIT — An Ohio man charged in what federal prosecutors say was a Christian militia's plot to wage war against the government said Saturday that he wasn't aware of any such specific plans and regrets not severing ties with the group.

Kristopher Sickles, 27, of Sandusky, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from jail in Sanilac County, Mich., about 75 miles north of Detroit, that he has "never hurt anyone or taken steps to do so."

"As far as any specific plan to overthrow the government, I never heard such things," Sickles said. "There was off-color talk, but there was no set plan to overthrow this or take over that."

Federal prosecutors said in court documents Friday that David Stone, the militia's leader, planned an elaborate, two-part training session for this month and told members it was OK to kill "anyone who might stumble upon the operation."

Sickles said he didn't know details, but what he knew of the "operation" made him wary and he didn't plan to attend.

"Basically, the idea of the opp was to remain stealthy, to not be discovered," Sickles said. "And that if they did run across someone — and that basically if they weren't willing to work with them, as they put it — they would basically put them down."

Sickles said he would have contacted authorities if he found out April training had become violent.

He said he joined the Michigan-based Hutaree to learn how to protect his family, not target the government. He said he had trained with another militia in Michigan before meeting a Hutaree member, and made four or five trips there to train with the Hutaree over a period of a year or so.

"I just went to train with this group periodically, every other month," Sickles said. "They're all a tight-knit family and I was out of the loop. I kind of got dragged into something that I really wasn't aware of."

The FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Detroit declined to comment Saturday on his remarks about the case.

At Sickles' small, yellow-and-white mobile home, investigators said they found 13 guns, more than 8,000 rounds of ammunition, a Hutaree uniform and a "ghillie suit" used by snipers to hide in the woods.

Sickles said he bought all of the items legally, but said he didn't believe he had as much ammunition on hand. He said he believes his remarks at Hutaree training sessions were taken out of context when reported by an informant.

"I'm not this sadistic person that they're presenting me to be," Sickles said. "I wouldn't just blindly follow someone or hurt another person."

A prosecutor has said in court that Sickles bragged that he killed his cat to see if he could shoot something he had feelings for. On Saturday, he explained that it was an old, sick cat that he didn't have money to euthanize, so he shot it.

"I loved that cat and I cried," Sickles said.

Prosecutors also said in a court document that Sickles said he wanted to set off a homemade bomb outside the Huron, Ohio, police department. Sickles said Saturday he remarked that it would be funny to "freak out" police with fireworks, not a bomb.

"I was quoted making several stupid and immoral statements at a training last year about law enforcement," Sickles said. "I apologize for that."...

Ex-Members Of U.S. Military Were Members Of Hutaree Militia Extremist Group

Federal investigators have discovered that two members of the extremist Michigan-based Hutaree militia group charged with plotting to assassinate law-enforcement officers are former U.S. military servicemen, including a Marine Corps corporal who was a Persian Gulf War veteran and decorated expert rifleman.

Among those charged in the Hutaree case and accused of "seditious" conspiracy to wage war is Michael David Meeks. An FBI official told NEWSWEEK that Meeks is a former Marine. Marine Corps records reviewed by NEWSWEEK show Meeks served in the Marines between 1988 and 1992 and was a rifle expert based at Camp Pendleton. The records show he received, among other decorations, a Kuwait Liberation Medal that was awarded to veterans of the Persian Gulf War.

His lawyer did not return a request for comment.

Another Hutaree member charged in the case was Kristopher Tyler Sickles, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in August 2007 and was discharged in October of that year after being absent without leave, according to Army records. His lawyer also did not return a call seeking comment. Sickles was identified as the creator of a violent video mimicking jihadist beheadings that was on YouTube but has been removed.

The particular concern raised by military members among extremist groups is that former service members, including disgruntled veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, may be helping to train extremists in firearms and military tactics, according to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. In the Hutaree case, the federal indictment charges that, as part of their plans to spark an "uprising" against the U.S. government, group members engaged "in military-style training" that included "firearms and explosives training, weapons proficiency drills, patrolling and reconnaissance exercises, close quarter battle drills" as well as "preparing defensive fighting positions" and "ambush kill zones."...

End Times Militia Hearing: Feds Say Ward Is Mentally Unstable

Eight suspected members of a Midwest Christian militia charged with conspiring to overthrow the government will have to wait until Friday to learn whether they'll be released before their trial.

Two local men, Kristopher Sickles, 27, of Sandusky and Jacob Ward, 33, of Huron, are among those facing charges.

While a U.S. attorney portrayed Sickles as a militia leader who expressed a desire to blow up the Huron Police Department, local police records involving Ward paint a picture of an increasingly paranoid man preoccupied with weapons...

Ohioan Who Was Arrested In FBI Raid Denies Charges

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio man accused of conspiring with a militia group to kill police officers and overthrow the government said in a statement Thursday night that he is "not an extremist, racist or a cop killer."

Kristopher Sickles of Sandusky renounced his role as a militia member in the statement released by his brother, Alec Romick of nearby Huron, who said he received it from Sickles during a telephone call.

"My intentions were good and I am simply guilty by association and personally had no intentions of harming any person, member of law enforcement or the United States government," Sickles, 27, said in the statement...

Militia Suspects Neighbors' Shocked By Arrests

ERIE COUNTY -- Neighbors of two men arrested as part of an alleged militia plot to start a revolt by killing police officers say they are shocked something so evil was so close.

"You see it in the movies but you never think you'd see it here, in your own yard, and it was very scary. It was scary," says Annie Monk, who lives a couple of doors down from Kristopher Sickles in Sandusky's Bayshore Estates trailer park.

She was talking about the Saturday raid on Sickles' trailer by what seemed to her an army of federal agents.

"There was FBI, the SWAT team down there," she said, gesturing from one side to another, "armored bomb squad here, and they were just plastered all the way from that little street, all the way down to here."...