HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Houston-area man suspected of leading an
anti-government group appeared in federal court on Friday to face
charges of trying to rob an armored car with explosives and plotting to
blow up U.S. government buildings.

Robert James Talbot Jr., 38, of Katy, Texas, was arrested by U.S. agents
Thursday after an eight-month federal probe as he was about to rob an
armored car with inert explosives provided to him by informants who had
entered his group, according to a criminal complaint filed in a U.S.
federal court in Houston.

Talbot provided a manifesto to his accomplices, which included the
informants. It read: "We must rebel. Blood and bullets are the only two
things that will change this world, short of divine action," the
complaint said.

A lawyer for Talbot said he was only appointed on Friday and had no
statement to make at this time.

"Talbot espoused his desire to recruit five to six other like-minded
individuals to blow up government buildings, rob banks and kill law
enforcement officers," federal officials said in a statement.

If convicted, Talbot faces up to 20 years in prison, the statement said.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force had been investigating Talbot since
August using undercover agents and other means of surveillance, it said.

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More on Talbot from the SPLC:

After setting up a Facebook page called American Insurgent Movement
(AIM), Talbot allegedly sought to recruit five or six like-minded people
who wanted “to restore America Pre-Constitutionally and look forward to
stopping the Regime with action by bloodshed.” He wrote this year on the
AIM page that he was seeking people interested in “walking away from
your life … to stop the regime.”

The crimes Talbot was plotting to carry out — detailed in a six-page
criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Texas — sound
eerily similar to a series of terrorist attacks carried out 30 years ago
by members of an infamous neo-Nazi group called The Order, also known as
the Silent Brotherhood (or Brüders Schweigen in German). There’s just
one big difference: Talbot talked about some of his planned crimes on
Facebook, the complaint says, while The Order committed murders, robbed
armored cars, and carried out a number of other attacks.

Talbot was expected to be held without bond as a flight risk and danger
to the community after an initial appearance today before a U.S.
magistrate judge in Houston.

Court documents say the FBI opened an investigation into Talbot’s
activities last August after learning of his desire to recruit others
for terror attacks. The “like-minded” individuals he initially attracted
worked for the FBI, it turns out. The FBI used a confidential informant
and two undercover FBI agents assigned to the agency’s Joint Terrorism
Task Force.

On Oct. 18, 2013, the complaint says, Talbot asked his new recruits
about their willingness to walk away from their current employment and
join him in robbing banks to fund the revolution he envisioned.