Feds foil plot to attack U.S. forces in Jade Helm

The men had a deadly plot to lure government forces into a trap, federal officials say, and were amassing a stockpile fit for war.

There were Kevlar helmets and body armor, pipe bombs and handmade grenades, large amounts of gunpowder and dozens of rounds of ammunition for a military-grade sniper rifle.

Federal officials say three North Carolina men — Walter Eugene Litteral, 50; Christopher James Barker, 41; and Christopher Todd Campbell, 30 — spent months compiling their cache, much of it bought through the owner of a military surplus store who grew concerned and became the FBI’s informant.

The men were arrested Saturday and accused of conspiracy and amassing weaponry allegedly to combat what they believe is the government’s plan to impose martial law through (among other things) the multistate military exercise known as Jade Helm.

In January, the informant moved the military surplus store to Gaston County, N.C., a few doors down from where Campbell operated a tattoo parlor. Almost immediately, Campbell told the informant of his “anti-government” views, according to federal court documents.

A month later, Campbell introduced the informant to Litteral. The two men told the informant that “the federal government intended to use the armed forces to impose martial law in the United States, which they and others would resist with violent force,” the court documents said.

Specifically, they told the informant that the Jade Helm exercises planned in five states — including Texas — were a cover for a plot to impose martial law. The exercises were scheduled for July 15 to Sept. 15, and Litteral made it clear that he needed the military-grade items no later than July 15.

By April, the purchases from the military surplus store began — all of them in cash, according to court documents. The documents say the plan was to make pipe bombs, explosive tennis balls covered in nails and coffee cans filled with ball bearings that would be detonated with a shot from a sniper rifle.

By mid-June, that plan was beginning to crystallize.

According to the documents, Litteral was heavily armed with both legally and illegally obtained weapons. If government agents came looking for him at his home, Litteral allegedly told the informant in a phone conversation, he would be ready.

South Carolina targeted

The plan involved testing the explosives on land in Shelby, N.C. But the ambush against U.S. forces would take place on Litteral and Campbell’s 99-acre camp in Clover, S.C., authorities said.

“According to [Campbell], he and Litteral intend to booby-trap the camp and draw government’s forces into the camp and kill them,” the arrest warrant says.

On June 30, according to documents, Campbell told the informant that he feared the government would soon declare martial law.

In mid-July, Litteral tried to buy a rifle for Barker, the third arrestee named in the conspiracy. Barker had been convicted of a felony and would not have been permitted to buy a weapon.

But the purchase at the gun store was held up, first by a required three-day background check. Unbeknownst to Litteral, it was then held up even longer at the FBI’s request.

This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Feds foil plot to attack U.S. forces in Jade Helm."