A member of the Hutaree militia charged with federal crimes was upset because she thought that President Barack Obama had signed into law this month a bill that would spend $20 billion to help the terrorist group Hamas settle in the U.S.
There was never any such legislation, but Tina Stone believed it was the truth, according to her Facebook account.
"H.B. 1388 Passed.... It's bad news for us all," Tina Kelley, her maiden name, said on her Facebook page on March 19.
She then said in an update:
"I'm peeved, when people in this country is getting kicked out of there homes everyday and our government passes a bill to spend more then 20 billion dollars to bring Hamas here and supplies them with food and homes that just wrong."
On March 26, the day before the federal raid of Hutaree, she wrote at 12:21 p.m., "I'm so stressed I could KILL someone!!!!!!!"
Stone, part of a Christian militia busted by federal agents this week, apparently got the false idea from fake e-mails and Internet chatter that claimed Obama and Congress had passed H.B. 1388 to help Hamas.
According to the site factcheck.org'which tries to debunk lies on the Internet' the false rumors were generated in part from one e-mail that stated:
"Something happened... H.R. 1388 was passed yesterday, behind our backs. You may want to read about it. It wasn't mentioned on the news...Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA. This is the news that didn't make the headlines."
Stone was charged with being part of a plot to murder multiple police officers that would create a revolt against the U.S. government. Hutaree is a Christian militia that she was a part of.
Experts and the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group, said the weak economy coupled with an African-American president has led to a dramatic increase in militia activity over the past year. The number of extremist anti-government groups and militias grew from 149 in 2008 to 512 in 2009, the center said.
