Planned Survivalist Community

[tropaka]

http://www.iiicitadel.com/index.html

The Citadel is evolving as a planned community where residents are bound together by:

Patriotism

Pride in American Exceptionalism

Our proud history of Liberty as defined by our Founding Fathers, and

Physical preparedness to survive and prevail in the face of natural catastrophes — such as Hurricanes Sandy or Katrina — or man-made catastrophes such as a power grid failure or economic collapse.

The Citadel is not your typical planned community where the developer's objective is selling cookie-cutter homes at the highest possible profit-margin.

The Citadel is not profit-driven. The Citadel is Liberty-driven: specifically Thomas Jefferson's Rightful Liberty.

Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles.

DESCRIPTION: The Citadel Community will house between 3,500 and 7,000 patriotic American families who agree that being prepared for the emergencies of life and being proficient with the American icon of Liberty — the Rifle — are prudent measures. There will be no HOA. There will be no recycling police and no local ordinance enforcers from City Hall.

LOCATION: We are in the process of selecting the ideal location among the beautiful mountains of Idaho in the American Redoubt.

PROJECT LAUNCH: We plan to purchase land for the Citadel in 2013 and break ground soon after. Even before unveiling our national advertising campaign, more than 200 families reserved space within our community!

WHY APPLY FOR RESIDENCE: If living in an affordable, safe, well-prepared, patriotic community where your children will be educated in school rather than indoctrinated, consider the Citadel. Approved applicants receive a Lifetime Lease (paid off in only 30 years). No credit check. No background check. Zero down payment. Zero interest. Zero property taxes.

HOW TO APPLY: Simply read through the information here on our website. If you believe the Citadel is ideal for you and your family, complete our application. More of your questions may be answered at our FAQ page.

HOUSING DETAILS: All homes will be built of poured concrete for exceptional strength and durability. Your home will be built to your specs (details available at this website) with utilities stubbed to the interior. You select the facade for the exterior of your home. You are responsible for completing the interior of your home as you wish. You may choose to do the work yourself, or hire contractors. But every single detail, from paint to tiles to counters, is your choice.

If Liberty has been missing from the life of your family, consider the Citadel for your new home.

By clicking around it seems this is to be funded/built around an arms company (what else?)

[JMarie]

How will they fund local schools without property taxes?

[hoipolloi]

I saw this the other day. Hard to believe that the "community" won't implode or explode, if indeed it's ever finished.

[Wandering]

I would be scared shit-less to live anywhere near there. A collection of rednecks, hyped up about survival, surrounded by weapons, and egged on by each other's stupidity? Yeah I'll pass. I wonder what the communities surrounding that area think of this.

[GeoBQn]

What About Religion?

Rightful Liberty knows no religious barriers.

Space will be limited within the walls of the Citadel for building houses of worship. There will be plenty of space outside the walls.

The list of features of the Citadel includes churches, so I can take a wild guess as to which groups would have to build their houses of worship outside city walls.

[hoipolloi]

Also, is it just me or do these things seem, oh, mutually exclusive:

Approved applicants receive a Lifetime Lease (paid off in only 30 years)

No credit check. No background check. Zero down payment. Zero interest. Zero property taxes.

By extension, I'd also guess that they won't have any building codes or design requirements so people will be at the mercy of wacko DIY homebuilders who may or may not be able to construct a residence that actually stays standing.

Maybe they'd allow a camera crew or time-lapse camera set-up to record all that goes on so that the rest of us can watch the implosion from a safe distance.

[Mama Mia]

Clicking around the site they seem very delusional regarding costs - to the point where I wonder if they are just trying to scam a bunch of money in application fees. You can pick from a drop down menu for each size of home and the monthly costs are ridiculously cheap, and all home come stocked with a safe room, generator, rifles, a year of food and on and on.

The houses are all going to be poured concrete and "uniform" - but then they go on about no HOA to tell you what to do blah blah blah.

[EyeQueue]

By extension, I'd also guess that they won't have any building codes or design requirements so people will be at the By extension, I'd also guess that they won't have any building codes or design requirements so people will be at the mercy of wacko DIY homebuilders who may or may not be able to construct a residence that actually stays mercy of wacko DIY homebuilders who may or may not be able to construct a residence that actually stays standing. standing.

Maybe they'd allow a camera crew or time-lapse camera set-up to record all that goes on so that the rest of us can Maybe they'd allow a camera crew or time-lapse camera set-up to record all that goes on so that the rest of us can watch the implosion from a safe distance.

Well, their Patriot Agreement requires that all "Patriots" 13 and older agree to pack heat whenever they visit the Super Speshul Citadel Patriot Towne Centre, so what's a few houses falling down compared to the ability to protect yourself when government jack-booted thugs come to take your guns (oh noes!). Glad to see they have their priorities in order. :roll:

As for the video, leave the children out and I'd love to watch it as a craptacularly snarkworthy reality show.

[GeoBQn]

They also claim that they are going to bring in revenue by making the community a tourist destination, complete with a historical fire-arms museum. Real survivalists would never want that many people traipsing through their community--too many people would see the secrets of how the town is fortified and where they stockpile supplies, which can be used against them in a real emergency.

[EyeQueue]

Take a look at the Blog associated with this site. I wonder if a lot of the comments aren't from dummied up accounts ("OMG...I'll tell my husband we need to send in our application tonight!!11eleventy" and "I'm sending you my seed money today!")

There's a lot of anxiety about teh ebil libruls horning their way in (as if), and I also found this gem of a comment from one aspiring Patriot:

Questions: Why do we need a hotel? How do we "control" who stays there? Seems unnecessary. We can save the expense of a Post Office. Im assuming we are no longer bowing to a central government, hence, no zip code for our community. We wont receive or send mail. Why an airport or helipad? When we come under attack, we will be undone by our own hand. We should not facilitate our enemies attacking us while using our own airport and heliport. As for the medical center, will we be bound by federal, state and local laws/regulations of the healthcare industry? Hoping for some positive responses to my query. Thanks fellow freedon fighter!

Notice the "when we come under attack..." (not "if"). To be fair, the site admin did point out they are not a separatist group, but it really does seem like they're gonna bring the batshit.

And the first town business is an ammo company, since each Patriot Household agrees to own an AR-15 or similar assault rifle and no less than 1,000 round of ammo.

These guys are preppin' for some serious shit, y'all!

[hoipolloi]

They also claim that they are going to bring in revenue by making the community a tourist destination, complete with a historical fire-arms museum. Real survivalists would never want that many people traipsing through their community--too many people would see the secrets of how the town is fortified and where they stockpile supplies, which can be used against them in a real emergency.

ITA.

And I also agree with leaving kids out of all of it - seems like a great set-up for major child abuse, whether Pearl-style or something else. No government oversight of minors' well-being, no supervision even by your peers. Too bad this madness isn't adults-only

[tanksmom]

Maybe it's just me but "no local ordinance enforcers" would be enough to scare me out of living there. So there is no one around to make sure that you're relatively sure your home won't fall down around you? How do you know that the second floor will even stand up over time if there are no regulations? I'm sure that cheap material will stand up for a point in time but I want to make sure that if my kids decide to run on the second floor it won't come crashing down.

And what's with "patriotic community where your children will be educated in school rather than indoctrinated" Ummm...my children do get a full education in school without someone trying to brainwash them into thinking a certain way. I don't think indoctrination means what you think it means

[ILoveJellybeans]

I would not like to live there. I give it a year before its destroyed because they know nothing about how towns work. A load of paranoid gun nuts makes for an unhealthy environment.

[EyeQueue]

No government oversight of minors' well-being, no supervision even by your peers. Too bad this madness isn't adults-only

QFT. Plus, children 13 and up toting around firearms.

[darareaksmey]

Damn, I had to read all the way down to where it says this is going to be in Idaho to realize that this DOESN'T refer to The Citadel, as in state-run military college in SC, the campus of which is about 20 miles from me. Until I got to the Idaho part I could have sworn that many of the descriptive phrases could also have applied to the college. What a relief that it's going to be couple of time zones away.

[GiggleOfGirls]

:shock: This isn't going to end up being a whacko-filled cult (assuming it even makes it out of the planning stage), at all. Nope. Never. :roll:

[EyeQueue]

I would not like to live there. I give it a year before its destroyed because they know nothing about how towns work. A load of paranoid gun nuts makes for an unhealthy environment.

It seems straight out of a post-apocalyptic fiction book, Robert McCammon's Swan Song. A group sounding vert much like this builds a compound that works like a survivalist time-share. I think it might even have been called The Citadel, too, and may have been set in Idaho. It basically ends up falling down after the first nuke hits, because of the shoddy building standards and substandard, cut-rate plumbing. :lol:

[GeoBQn]

And what's with "patriotic community where your children will be educated in school rather than indoctrinated" Ummm...my children do get a full education in school without someone trying to brainwash them into thinking a certain way. I don't think indoctrination means what you think it means.

They are also planning on building a boarding school to teach the "Patriots of tomorrow." No indoctrination going on there . . .

[manekineko]

They also claim that they are going to bring in revenue by making the community a tourist destination, complete with a historical fire-arms museum. Real survivalists would never want that many people traipsing through their community--too many people would see the secrets of how the town is fortified and where they stockpile supplies, which can be used against them in a real emergency.

Sheesh, that is not something I would want to visit :shock:

[mpheels]

Don't know how they are planning to go about the "no property tax" promise. There are a few states that don't do property tax, or don't do income tax, but those decisions aren't up to developers or individual homeowners. As far as I can tell from the internets, counties in Idaho collect property taxes. You can't just waive and wand and make those go away.

Edit - I keep waiting for the ghost of Thomas Jefferson to appear and tell the folks who keep (mis)using his name to STFU already. Jefferson was creative and worldly, saw the value of public education (hello, UVA!), and was incredibly skeptical of organized religion/Christianity.

[bbfreethinker]

And what's with "patriotic community where your children will be educated in school rather than indoctrinated" Ummm...my children do get a full education in school without someone trying to brainwash them into thinking a certain way. I don't think indoctrination means what you think it means

Fundie translation

Education: teaching only my worldview

Indoctrination: teaching other worldviews

Up: down

Down: up

[J'ean Skirt]

I would not like to live there. I give it a year before its destroyed because they know nothing about how towns work. A load of paranoid gun nuts makes for an unhealthy environment.

I don't want to live there. But I SO want it to happen. It's going to be a never ending source of drama and amusement. And that's before the trash starts piling up or the sewage treatment fails or the houses fall down. I suspect they can get a good 10 or so years out of it before things come crashing down.

[Wolfie]

Well, we can just let them all kill each other in this community.

I really don't think that full libertarians understand what a world without laws or taxes really means.

[BoomerLynn]

So every household will have an AR-15? And 13-year-olds will be armed? That's not going to end badly at all. :roll:

[tropaka]

Gets juicier - apparently one of the players in all this is a convicted extotrionist (surprise!) and other survivalists/sovereign citizens are attacking him/the plan:

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/19/convict ... l_project/

This article was originally published by The Southern Poverty Law Center.

If you’re a band of antigovernment “Patriots†pitching a plan to build a walled city in North Idaho and manufacture handguns and assault rifles there, you might expect raised eyebrows, a little criticism. But potshots from other Patriots?

Potshots, indeed, are flying at III Arms Co. and its sister land development company, Citadel Land Development, the firms behind a proposed 2,000- to 3,000-acre III Citadel complex for as many as 7,000 “Patriot†families near St. Maries, in Idaho’s sparsely populated Benewah County.

The criticism is sparked by the fact that one of the key players linked to the unlikely-sounding venture is three-time convicted felon Christian Allen Kerodin, a Maryland contractor who has apparently used various aliases and whose birth name was Christian Hyman. His wife or partner, Holly Ann Kerodin, has been involved in questionable charity, counseling, publishing and other ventures that have failed, various critics say.

In the past few days, attacks on the much-ballyhooed Citadel fortress and its planned gun-building plant have come from Alabama Patriot leader and blogger Michael Brian Vanderboegh and survivalist author and so-called “sovereign citizen†James Wesley, Rawles. Rawles (who, like many sovereigns, punctuates his name in a bizarre way) generally is credited with coming up with the idea of building a fortified community in the Pacific Northwest — what he has called the “American Redoubt†— for Christian Patriots.

Kerodin, public records show, was convicted in 2004 of federal extortion, attempted extortion and possession of an illegal firearm charges. The accusations were filed in Virginia after Kerodin, purporting to be a counter-terrorism expert, attempted to coerce shopping mall owners in the Washington, D.C., area to hire him to develop better security. He served 30 months in federal prison and now can’t legally possess firearms as a felon.

“Who would want to go live in a community run by this guy?†Vanderboegh asked on his website, where he spends most of his time bashing the federal government. “Not that there’s a chance in hell he’ll even have a viable firearms business … let alone his Citadel (community).â€

Rawles, for his part, said on his survivalist blog that he was “quite troubled to learn that the main promoter of Citadel III is a convicted felon.â€

Kerodin “seems to imply that I’ve somehow endorsed his venture or that what they are doing fits in with my American Redoubt concept,†Rawles said. “I haven’t endorsed it, and he is not my buddy,†he added. “To the best of my knowledge I’ve never met, spoken or corresponded with the man.â€

Rawles wrote that he has “nothing to do with†with the plans to build a walled fortress whose residents would make their living by manufacturing AR-15-style assault rifles and 1911-style .45-caliber semi-automatic pistols. “My only nexus to him is that he chose a piece of land that is in one of the states that I recommend for relocation. He has apparently tried to capitalize on my name,†Rawles said.

This week, Kerodin responded angrily on his blog, saying “Little Mikey Vanderboegh is attempting, once again, to hurt hundreds of Patriots, using me as a weapon.â€

He asked if Vanderboegh had enough “courage to ever meet me face-to-face and repeat your written words,†and dared him to show up at a meeting on April 19, the anniversary of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. “Insignificant people like Vanderboegh will always seek to attack the winners in life,†the convicted felon sniffed. “For those Patriots involved in the Citadel project, march on!â€

Kerodin has an assortment of antigovernment rants on his blog and talks there about changing his name when he decided to open a “small security consulting firm in the D.C. area.†“Knowing that I was certain to annoy various elements of the violent Muslim world, I went to court and legally changed my name,†he wrote in 2010. “The concept was that when I ticked off the Muslims and they came looking for me, they would not show up at my parent’s home or sister’s home, endangering my family.â€

Kerodin’s associate, James L. Miller, who identifies himself as president of III Arms Co., also responded angrily to the project’s critics on the Citadel’s Facebook page. “Folks, we are being slandered by some very disgusting people, and that slander has been furthered by someone a lot of us probably both trusted and respected: James Wesley, Rawles,†Miller wrote.

“Mr. Rawles, without researching a single bit of the cut/paste hatchet job from a cancer ridden, soon-to-expire self-admitted communist, has insulted the intelligence of Patriots all across the globe,†Miller wrote.

Its promoters say that III Arms Co. “exists to help Liberty survive by dedicating revenue to build a community of Patriots, by Patriots, for Patriots. You can find us in the Citadel, Idaho.†Its website continues: “More than 40 American Patriots joined together to form III Arms and to build solid firearms with a purpose: Fighting Arms to defend Liberty,†according to its website, which already is taking orders for assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols.

“The Citadel will be a small planned community of 3,500-7,000 families of patriotic Americans who voluntarily choose to live together in accordance with Thomas Jefferson’s ideal of Rightful Liberty,†the website adds.

Christian Kerodin, listing an address in St. Maries, and Holly Kerodin, listing a Gaithersburg, Md., address, filed organization papers in November with the Idaho Secretary of State for Citadel Land Development LLC. In August, Holly Kerodin filed similar incorporation papers in Idaho and Maryland for III Arms Co., LLC.

Citadel is now accepting $208 “application fees†for Patriot applicants, who must pass a screening test to be accepted in the community Kerodin and his partners say they are planning. “Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles,†its website says.

“We hope to acquire our final destination for the Citadel during the summer of 2013, and break ground shortly after,†the Citadel backers say on their website.

The proposed patriot community is stirring a lot of interest and media coverage, spurred in part by the national gun-control discussion. It got a brief recent mention in the far-right Drudge Report.

The St. Maries Gazette, a weekly newspaper in the community, reported this week that county property records show that III Arms Co., LLC, of Meridian, Idaho, bought 20 acres at the head of Cherry Creek in October. “The property is served by a logging road and is not accessible during winter months,†the newspaper reported.

The editor of the newspaper, Dan Hammes, told Hatewatch that he has made repeated unsuccessful telephone and E-mail attempts to contact Citadel representatives. “I’ve gotten nothing back from them,†he said.

Christina Crawford, president of the Benewah Human Rights Coalition, said that many in her community question if the Citadel backers can find enough land and meet necessary water-rights and sanitation requirements.

“Benewah County has had the reputation in the past of being the Wild West, but that doesn’t mean building codes and health requirements will be thrown out the window,†she told Hatewatch. “Our concern is not only for the people coming in, but for the people already here.â€

Although the Citadel backers have boasted that they already have several hundred families planning to move to their dream city, there’s no evidence that that is in fact the case. In any event, Crawford said, reports of the planned project have “alerted, I won’t say alarmed, people who live here.â€