“the time had come . . . “
Color me cynical, but I suspect the time that had come was the launching of the PR campaign against the Tea Party by the administration.
That does seem likely. And yet why hasn't there been a peep about the islamic training camps in the US?
Not to be a pain, but would you say the same if they were a group of Muslims who Feds allege were plotting to kill innocents?
I read an essay yesterday which suggested that the recent “Window War” was what caused the action. It seems that a number of Dem congresscritters have ben complaining to the FBI about those dangerous radicals out there that resort to property damage to make a point. The FBI (which may very well keep a list of individuals and groups to “take down” at a moment’s notice) picked Hutaree off the list and went out to make a statement.
The danger in this sort of thing lies in how they make that “ststement.” The ATF wanted to make a statement at Waco and eventuall had to call in the FBI to pick up their marbles - we all know how well that worked out. The FBI also was making a statement at Ruby Ridge. Their later statements, made in court, weren’t believed by the jury and ended up costing them (the FBI) most of the public trust they had been trying to cultivate for years.
Admittedly, the FBI has some very smart people working for it but the collective IQ of the whole is somewhere around a frog’s ankles. Still, they have to know that there are a lot of unhappy souls around the country that simply will not permit another Waco-style event to occur without retaliation. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that all those agents had only one bullet each and they had to keep it in their shirt pocket!