Alaska militia jury hears plot audio

A jury in Alaska listened to secretly recorded conversations by members of a militia on trial for an alleged plan to kill government officials. The recordings were taken at a February 2011 meeting of the Alaska Peacemaker Militia, attended by Shaeffer Cox and Coleman Barney -- who are both on trial -- and Gerald Olson, who was working undercover for the FBI, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday. Militia member Lonnie Vernon is also on trial in U.S. District Court in Alaska for the so-called 241 plot, but was not at the meeting. The men can be heard on tape discussing what to do if police came for Cox for failing to attend his trial for a state misdemeanor weapons charge. "We can hide out or we can run -- or the last thing on this list is 'Operation 141,'" Cox said on the tape. Operation 141 referred to the plan to arrest or kill one government official for every militia member arrested or killed, the newspaper said. Militia member Ken Thesing, who hosted the meeting but is not charged with a crime, is heard on tape suggesting the one-to-one ratio wasn't high enough. "Hell, let's make it two-for-one," Cox said. "So 241 would be that mode and then hopefully the price is so high that they leave people on the shelf."