Look out Idaho, A New Herd of Paranoid Survivalists Are Heading to Your State

Attention Idaho: You’re getting some new neighbors compliments of Citadel Land Development, already duly incorporated in your state.

Maybe as many as 7,000 incoming souls will be populating something called a developing community of Patriots. They’ll be guarding against those fed black choppers whirling overhead and that Kenyan gun control President of ours who clouds their every waking hour. Looming large in the distant Idaho Mountains is the figure of convicted felon, Christian Kerodin by way of the DC suburbs and 30 months in stir for a shopping mall shake-down protection racket.

But post-slammer, Kerodin is energized and convinced that he and a few lower-profile business colleagues have stumbled onto a potential bonanza to be headquartered in a yet to be determined mountainous section of Idaho.

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Kerodin is the nominal head of the ” lll Citadel Project.” He’s also throwing in a gun manufacturing facility titled lll Arms for good measure. Apparently 20 acres have already been set aside for the latter. The lll Arms company has received permission from AFT to start putting their kill sticks together but are having trouble getting parts.

The parent lll Citadel Project is already accepting applications and money from patriots who want to get in the queue to have their wallets lightened.

Before you U-haul it to Idaho, a Citadel Patriot Agreement must be signed and included with an application prior to having even the slightest chance to hole up in a walled fortress. The agreement is made up of a preamble and 13 conditions that you must pledge to obey.

Here are samplings from 9 of the 13 conditions that apply to firearms imperatives or militia activities. Agreement two: Every able-bodied patriot, 13 and up must demonstrate proficiency with a rifle annually. A later agreement spells out the same requirement for a handgun.

Agreement four seems to be the most self-serving for the Citadel leadership. It reads in part; “Every able-bodied Patriot of age within the Citadel will maintain one AR15 variant in 5.56mm NATO and at least 5 magazines of 1,000 rounds of ammunition.” Guess who’s going to be selling AR15’s in the near future? Why it’s the Citadel affiliated lll Arms; that’s who.

Agreement eight mandates that all qualified Patriots pack an on-person loaded sidearm whenever visiting the Citadel Town Center. Again, guess who makes a 1911 semi auto sidearm? Yep! And it’s priced at $1,550 and up. Sort of mid-range as these pieces go, but still not cheap. You’re not required to buy a lll Arms pistol, but if I were you, I would.

In what seems like a lot of mandates for an anti-government crowd, here’s another one. Once a month Militia training is required for every household. Trainees are to be 13 or older. An ATF agent may have a 13-year-old draw an AR15 bead on his noggin while visiting the Citadel Project.

Agreement Ten calls for a twice a year “Full-Scale” Town Defense Drill.

So it’s all guns, all the time for the estimated 7,000 families on the Citadel wish list. Residents will lease their residence on a yet to be purchased 2,000-3,000 acre tract. A total of 640-1280 of those acres will be walled in. Locations are being scouted in the mountainous regions of Idaho.

It’s now online application time. When the agreements and the application are completed and you PayPal or Visa a $208 fee to corporate, you’re on your way. If approved and if and when this Fortress is ever built, you’re officially on the waiting list. If you’re not wacky enough to get selected, all but a $33 administration fee will be returned to your current address at the home. The real money sacrifice comes later when you lease your house (trailer?) from lll Citadel. No word on how much such a lease will set you back.

Are your feathered quill pens at the ready? Is your tri-corner cocked at a jaunty angle? Here are a few family secrets you’ll have to expose on the application. You’ll have to do all the routine stuff; name, address, family members and the like. And you’ll have to have to agree with the agreements of course.

You also have to promise to live in accordance with Thomas Jefferson’s “Rightful Liberty.” As idealistically defined on Citadel’s Website, “Rightful liberty” according to Jefferson, is “unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.” This is the edited version with only the first sentence in the answer. Missing is Jefferson’s next sentence; “I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’, because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” Aha! The federal government as tyrant.

I suspect the full text of “Rightful Liberty” has been the extreme right-wing, survivalists and militia mantra all along. Google “Rightful Liberty” and you’ll get 3,190,000 hits. Interesting how it was coded into the Citadel application.

Immediately following the “Rightful Liberty” question, the application asks “Do you agree to abide Constitutional laws of the state of Idaho and the United States Government? Funny question for a project that I’m sure will claim virtual sovereignty.

You’re then asked if you’ve ever been associated with any racist or subversive organization. “Just a second; this Klan robe is getting in the way of my ‘no’ answer.” There’s no more welcoming state to Aryans than Idaho.

Some boilerplate questions follow. Do you want to farm, raise livestock, live inside or outside the walls of the compound? Those who are really attracted to this kind of oddball community are going to lie on virtually every question involving true intent. People who would pick up and relocate to Citadel nation hate blacks, despise the government and think guns are the answer to everything.

The only question the organizers are truly interested in isn’t even on the application; “Do you posses a bloated bank account?”

Pistol-packin’ Patriots should prepare for a long winter’s nap before hearing back from this crowd. At present Citadel doesn’t even pay staff who all work as volunteers. A number of contributors to a survivalist blog I recently read, questioned whether this project would ever get off the ground. They likened it to the Bo Gritz “Almost Heaven” developments, founded in 1994 in Central Idaho. He pitched Almost Heaven as escape mechanisms from a “predator government.” Almost Heaven attracted a similar clientele to that expected to respond to the Citadel Project. Armed to the teeth and spoiling for a confrontation with the feds, most of the residents were too far right for even Green Beret war hero Gritz, who ended up moving out of the planned community, fleeing to Nevada.

I’m inclined to agree with the blog doubters, though walling in nutbags in a distant wilderness is a dream come true. Citadel promoters liken their project to Disneyland. I agree except there are far more Goofy’s.

Dennis S

Raised rural & small town, then lived in N.Y., Chicago & LA. Widely traveled. Returned from world wandering to pursue media life of anchorman/reporter and major, medium and small market talk radio. Highly active in politics. Once worked as orderly & security in Mens Lock Ward for the Criminally Insane at a state institution. Much more rational population than current Teapublicans. Great concern for country run by and for the extreme wealthy. The inhumane current running through this country has no precedent in modern history.

Follow me on Twitter @demwriter