Robert Doggart is awaiting sentencing having pleaded guilty to charges of plotting against Islamberg, a small and somewhat controversial community near Hancock, N.Y. The FBI had discovered his plans which apparently involved members of a local militia:
Earlier, during a St. Patrick’s Day call, the former candidate for Congress “explicitly (said) the plan included burning down a school, a mosque and a cafeteria,” the complaint noted.
“In a call intercepted on March 17 pursuant to the wiretap, Doggart told a female, ‘When we meet in this state, the people we seek will know who we are. We will be cruel to them. And we will burn down their buildings (and) if anyone attempts to, uh, harm us in any way, our stand gunner will take them down from 350 yards away.”
“The standoff gunner would be me,” Doggart continued, according to the agent’s complaint.
As the conversation continued, the complaint went on, “We’re gonna be carrying an M4 with 500 rounds of ammunition, light armor piercing. A pistol with three extra magazines, and a machete. And if it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds.
Doggart, an ordained minister, specifically targeted the Muslim residents of Islamberg as well as its buildings:
“those guys [have] to be killed. Their buildings need to be burnt down. If we can get in there and do that not losing a man, even the better.”
It seems surprising, as this article notes, that he has been let out on bail. CAIR believes he should have faced terrorism charges – and his crimes do seem to fit the definition of (attempted) domestic terrorism.
