Militia member 'filled with rage,' plotted ambush

The Grand Rapids Press ^ | Friday, October 17, 2003 | Ed White

[FourPeas]

Militia member 'filled with rage,' plotted ambush

Friday, October 17, 2003

By Ed White
The Grand Rapids Press

It was a rural arsenal fit for war.

After the peaceful arrest of a Cadillac-area man, authorities who searched his 40-acre compound discovered a stunning collection of firepower, including an anti-aircraft gun capable of firing 550 rounds per minute up to four miles away.

A van and a Jeep Cherokee, described by the suspect as his "war wagons," had machine guns inside, with one "locked, loaded and ready to go," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lloyd Meyer said.

Agents found an underground bunker, thousands of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of pounds of gunpowder and manuals on guerrilla warfare, "booby traps" and explosives.

There were chilling pictures of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with the cross-hairs of a high-

see MILITIA, A4

powered rifle scope drawn over them, Meyer said.

Norman Somerville, 43, was arrested last week on federal gun and drug charges as he shopped at Home Depot in Cadillac. Authorities then spent the weekend combing his property in Wexford County's Antioch Township, about 20 miles northwest of Cadillac.

Details of the search were disclosed in a court document filed Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids, four days before a judge will decide whether Somerville should remain in jail while his case is pending.

Somerville was "filled with rage and intended to ambush people, mowing them down in a hail of machine-gun bullets," Meyer said, quoting informants. He belongs to a "self-styled radical militia unit" whose members are upset over the death of Scott Woodring, the prosecutor said.

Woodring was the Newaygo County man fatally shot by state police during the summer, days after a trooper died while trying to serve him with an arrest warrant.

State police were told in September that Somerville wanted to cause a car accident, then "ambush and kill" any responding officers with a machine gun mounted in his Jeep, Meyer wrote in the court document.

An unidentified source, described as one of Somerville's "trusted associates," feared he had become "mentally unbalanced and would kill an innocent person or be killed," Meyer said.

Somerville may face additional charges linked to the search of his property, although Meyer declined to elaborate.

Two years ago, Somerville moved to Wexford County from elsewhere in northern Michigan. He served in the Army from 1978 to 1984 and was trained as an intelligence analyst assigned to the elite Special Forces.

During a brief court appearance last week in Grand Rapids, Somerville said: "The people will have their day. ... There's a quiet civil war going on in the country."

In Antioch Township, five miles outside Mesick, neighbors said he is not the type to share a cup of sugar.

"We told our kids to stay off his property. There was gunfire a lot," said Lynda Sherburne, a former township clerk who lives nearby. "Who knows where the stray bullets are going.

"He got angry very easily. No contact with him was the best contact."

Sherburne said her nephew's house shook as state and federal authorities detonated explosives found on Somerville's property.

"I don't think anyone realized he was stockpiling back there," she said.

[Dead Corpse]

I had one of Clinton. I think I still have one of Janet Reno. Heck, we POSTED several of them here.

Now the the shoe is on the other foot it makes a difference?

Bush has done things I don't like either. The anti-PATRIOT Act for starters. Hiring Ashcroft for another. Better him than Gore, but the lesser of two evils is still pretty darn evil...

[af_vet_1981]

you have your facts wrong... it was Rumsfeld that was the other picture with crosshairs and other scribblings on the photo......I think Cheney has made himself a very rich man by using the american people.... check it out halaburton corp.....

Let's see if I have this right so far:
1. You think POTUS Bush is an idiot and deserved to be in the crosshairs of a target photo.
2. You think VPOTUS Cheney abused the American people.
3. You think SECDEF Rumsfeld is an idiot and deserved to be in the crosshairs of a target photo.
4. You think there is nothing incongruent about Bibles, marijuana, and cohabitation outside marriage.

Is that a fair summary ?

Would you classify your political leanings as Libertarian, Democrat, or ?

[Dead Corpse]

As for no-bid contracts, Haliburton had a "pre-existing" contract from Clintons Bosnia mess. There was no bid because they already had the contract.

Cheney is still drawing severance and bonus' from his time in Haliburton before he becamse VP. No apparent wrong doing. At least he wasn't still accepting campaign cash from his business cronies, unlike Gore.

[Poohbah]

Cheney is still drawing severance and bonus' from his time in Haliburton before he becamse VP.

If I understand it correctly, he is legally entitled to it even if Halliburton implodes.

You're right on the no-bid, but Halliburton IS the outfit for this sort of work, everyone else just wishes they were as good at it.

[Dead Corpse]

Agreed.

See Poohbah... we CAN get along. ;-)

[Poohbah]

60 minutes did a good peice on this subject...Cheney and his money machine.... i think it aired in september here in michigan.... you shoyuld get a copy and see some truth

Appeal to the alleged authority of "60 Minutes" does not fly well here on FR.

[FreedomCalls]

Watch the video:

http://www.thundermaster.com/dillongun.wmv

You too can own one of these. Legally. Constitutionally. Gotta love America.

[Poohbah]

Halliburton.....please guys bear with my spelling mistakes... also got the contracts without a bid ever being open for other companies......

Because Halliburton got the contract back during the Clinton administration--it expires next year, IIRC. They had already bid on the contract and won. Next year, they're up for a recompete.

many X halliburton employees are now working for the government as consultants and decision makers for who get new contracts..... makes me think... should make everyone think

If they're consultants, then they're not government employees.

If they're actually making decisions, then they are obligated to sell their Halliburton holdings, and if they are (as is likely) political appointees, they are required to put their assets into a blind trust, where they have no idea what their money's invested in.

[FreedomCalls]

[Nuclear weapons] OK: please detail how to use one in legitimate case of self-defense or the defense of others from imminent harm...
...that does NOT massively violate the right of others to the quiet enjoyment of their liberty and property.

I'll answer you question if you will answer the exact same question as to how a government would do the same thing. It would seem the United States' government might just violate someone else's "quiet enjoyment of liberty and property" if a Trident nuclear sub unleashed its fury on them. Does the national government not have the right to own nuclear weapons either? Are you a member of the "Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament" or "Greenpeace"?

[Poohbah]

well if you think these guys are not envolved in "insider" stuff than i have some swamp land you can buy too

So far, you've argued that (a) Bush is an idiot, (b) Cheney is an evil arch-conspirator, (c) Rumsfeld's an idiot, and (d) it's all about Halliburton.

Between that and your pot farming, I'd have to peg your politics as "Marxist-Rastafarian."

[tpaine]

Your position is untenable. I assume the vast majority of law-abiding and competent gun owners don't share it. It is a shame that liberals are able to find viewpoints like yours to further restrict the 2nd Amendment rights of responsible citizens whom we need to safeguard our liberty.
342 -vet?-

---

'Vet', you really should tell the owner of this forum about his untenable positions:


"Yes, I support the Second Amendment. And I make no bones about its purpose or to whom it applies. It was not put in place so Bill and Hillary Clinton could go duck hunting with a shotgun or so Barbara Steisand could carry a derringer in her purse to stave off overzealous fans. It's there because the founders wanted to ensure that we the people (ie, individuals) should remain armed to defend ourselves from a government gone bad.
As far as I'm concerned, we should be allowed to park fully operational Sherman tanks in our garages and commute via fighter planes (if we wish). Now, personal nukes capable of taking out large cities.... hmmmm.... I don't know if I want to trust some of the crazier antiwar libs with those.
1,219 posted on 04/17/2003 5:04 PM PDT by Jim Robinson

__________________________________________

BTW, -- It is prefectly legal to own a tank..

A fella few miles away in Woodside CA owns on of the largest private collections in the world, and drives them around on his ranch regularily.
346 -tpaine-

---

I think it is an untenable position to claim the 2nd Amendment gives citizens the right to own armaments of any category including modern tanks, aircraft, nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. It is a sure way to get yourself and/or this site labeled as extremist, fringe, and dangerous.
It would only serve to hurt the conservative cause and allow an open field for the liberals to further restrict the 2nd Amendment.
I can't see why you want to do that. It is foolishness of the first order. The fact that you are trying to tie Jim Robinson to the argument makes it more senseless.

---

We've had this argument on this site MANY times before.
-- JR made his position clear just above, during one of those exchanges, as of 4/17/03.

Obviously, he didn't think it was "a sure way to get yourself and/or this site labeled as extremist, fringe, and dangerous", or that "It would only serve to hurt the conservative cause and allow an open field for the liberals to further restrict the 2nd Amendment."

I suggest you rethink your own motives about 'extremism'..

[FreedomCalls]

Do you remember the 'border blasters' on the AM broadcast band back sometime in the late 70's and 80's? Stations that ran 500,000 watts (ten times the legal limit in the US)

XERF from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico (over the river from Del Rio).

[Poohbah]

I'll answer you question if you will answer the exact same question as to how a government would do the same thing.

They don't; but governments aren't bound in the same manner regarding the employment of military force against other nations (and subnational groupings not on American soil) as individual citizens are bound with respect to self-defense and the rights of one's fellow citizens.

It would seem the United States' government might just violate someone else's "quiet enjoyment of liberty and property" if a Trident nuclear sub unleashed its fury on them.

As long as that "somebody else" isn't an American citizen on American soil, it's frickin' irrelevant.

Does the national government not have the right to own nuclear weapons either?

They do. As I observed, the rules for defending yourself are a wee bit different than those for nation-states fighting wars.

Are you a member of the "Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament" or "Greenpeace"?

No.