/ High-voltage electrical energy towers and power lines at a substation in Central California. Getty Images | Sundry Photography
Three guys yesterday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply material assistance to terrorists for their roles in a white supremacist plot to attack US power grids.
“These 3 defendants admitted to engaging in a disturbing plot, in furtherance of white supremacist ideology, to attack power facilities in order to harm the economy and stoke division in our nation,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen mentioned in a Department of Justice announcement.
The defendants are Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of West Lafayette, Indiana, and of Katy, Texas and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. They had been charged in US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and face maximum prison sentences of 15 years. The plea agreements suggest post-prison supervised release of 30 years with computer system monitoring and a ban on the use of “on the internet encrypted communication platforms.”
Hope for a “race war”
A statement of facts the defendants admitted to in their plea agreements described their hope to ignite a “race war”:
In addition, the defendants believed that time connected with replacing the substations would trigger confusion and unrest for Americans in the area. There had been also conversations about how the possibility of the power becoming out for several months could trigger some critical modify or straight out war, even a race war in addition, that with out power across the nation, it could trigger the subsequent Great Depression, folks would not show up to operate, the economy could crash and there would be a ripe chance for possible (white) leaders to rise up. One theme of the group discussions centered about the will need to produce disorder to bring the method down, which would trigger folks to doubt the method and produce a correct revolutionary force against the method.
The guys proceeded, with Frost focusing on logistics and Cook handling recruitment:
As aspect of the recruitment course of action, Cook usually asked a lot of literary concerns Cook even circulated a book list of recommended, if not necessary, reading that promoted the ideology of white supremacy and Neo-Nazism, like such titles as “A Squire’s Trial” and “Siege.” Siege areas an emphasis on gaining power by way of violence as opposed to political implies. Cook also sought out recruits that had been younger, believing it was much less probably the folks had been members of law enforcement.
Cook’s recruitment efforts focused mostly on juveniles, the document mentioned.
Keyword: DOJ: White supremacists hoped to ignite “race war” by attacking power grids