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SMH. Now this is really scary. These old heads were trying to get it poppin’ in our own backyard!

Four North Georgia men, alleged members of a fringe militia group, on Tuesday were charged with trying to buy explosives and make a deadly toxin to use in attacks against federal law enforcement agencies and unidentified officials.

Federal authorities said the men had held clandestine militia meetings, beginning in March, in which they discussed using toxic agents and assassinations to undermine federal and state government.

The four men taken into federal custody were: Frederick Thomas, 73, of Cleveland; and Toccoa residents Dan Roberts, 67; Ray H. Adams, 65; and Samuel J. Crump, 68.

U.S. Attorney Sally Yates said that as the U.S. government focuses on terrorist threats by violent international extremists, “This case demonstrates that we must also remain vigilant in protecting our country from citizens within our borders who threaten our safety and security.”

Thomas, Roberts, Adams and others who attended the meetings discussed targeting various government officials, federal authorities said. The meetings were monitored by the FBI and secretly tape recorded by a confidential informant helping the FBI, according to sworn affidavits unsealed Tuesday.

Thomas was described in affidavits as a leading speaker at the meetings. He discussed having a “bucket list” of government officials, business leaders and members of the media who needed to be “taken out” to “make the country right again,” the affidavit said.

Thomas also said he was a military veteran who had been to war and had taken a life, and said he could do it again, the affidavit said.

“There’s no way for us, as militiamen, to save this country, to save Georgia, without doing something that’s highly illegal: murder,” Thomas said during a meeting in March, according to the affidavit. “…When it comes to saving the Constitution, that means some people gotta die.”

Dan Roberts said he knew people in Habersham County who had a substance that could kill people, the affidavit said, and the discussion next turned to ways to obtain castor beans. Castor beans are used to make ricin, a deadly toxin that can be fatal if inhaled or ingested.

During a September meeting, also secretly recorded, Crump said he wanted to make 10 pounds of ricin and disperse it in various U.S. cities, including Atlanta, the affidavits said. Crump said ricin could be blown from a car traveling on the interstates, the affidavit said. Adams is accused of trying to help Crump obtain ricin for use as a weapon, authorities said.

As recently as last week, Crump allegedly said he was going to begin shelling the castor beans, and Adams said he had a formula to make ricin and identified ways to get the necessary ingredients for it, the affidavits said.

Adams also said he was a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture employee and had worked in the horticulture field, and Crump once worked for the Centers for Disease Control for a contractor doing maintenance work for the CDC, the affidavit said.

Militia members also discussed how to obtain firearms, ammunition and silencers, the FBI affidavit said.

At a meeting in April, Thomas said the “civilian government operatives” the militia members would be targeting included police officers and members of federal law enforcement groups, such as the IRS and FBI, the affidavit said.

“I could shoot ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] and IRS all day long,” Thomas said, according to the affidavit. “All the judges and the DOJ [Justice Department], and the attorneys and prosecutors.”

In May, Thomas drove with the confidential informant to Atlanta, unaware the other man was secretly recording their conversations. The men conducted surveillance on the local ATF and IRS buildings to plan and assess a possible attack, the FBI affidavit said. “There’s two schools of thought on this: go for the feds or go for the locals,” Thomas said during the trip, the affidavit said. “I’m inclined to consider both.”

The affidavit added that Thomas also said, “We’d have to blow the whole building, like Timothy McVeigh,” referring to the man behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. “We gotta have a lot of explosives.”

The FBI affidavit noted that the agency’s confidential informant, whose name was not disclosed, is out on bond for a pending state felony charge. The FBI gave the informant a polygraph test during the investigation of the militia group, and the informant gave “less than truthful responses” about the militia group’s activities, the affidavit said.

All four men are scheduled to appear before a U.S. magistrate in Gainesville on Wednesday.

For those who don’t know Georgia well — 285 is the MAIN highway that millions of people travel on everyday — And that’s where they wanted to release the Ricin!!!

We’re just glad they caught these guys, cuz how easy would it be to miss a bunch of 60 and 70 year old guys plotting on biological warfare???

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