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The Neo-Militia News Archive: January -- June 1996
Last Updated June 19, 1996
Militia Leader Revealed to have FBI Connections
Abstracted from the Tulsa World and various Internet
sources.
The "patriot" movement was stunned in mid-April as
the trial of militia leader Ray Lampley and his accomplices for
participating in a bombing conspiracy revealed that a major
militia leader had been accepting money from the FBI for months.
"Colonel" John Parsons of the Tri-States Militia, based
in South Dakota, was brought to the stand on Wednesday, April 3,
to testify that Lampley had traveled to South Dakota to seek the
help of the Tri-States to blow up various buildings. But the
former truck driver also admitted that his Communication
Information Center, consisting of phones, computers, faxes and an
800 number, had been subsidized to the amount of $1,775.00
monthly by the FBI. Parsons claimed that if it had not been for
the FBI money, he would not have had the funds to work full-time
to run the center, and would have had to return to truck driving,
his previous occupation.
FBI Special Agent William Grode confirmed in his own testimony
the arrangement with Parsons, noting that it had been going on
for seven months. "The reason [for] trying to keep [Parsons]
in there," Grode explained, "is I feel he has become a
calming voice for these militias across the country." Grode
was the agent who initiated contact with Parsons, on instructions
from his superiors, who wanted a better understanding of the
militia movement after the Oklahoma City bombing. In addition to
the monthly checks, Grode also funded a trip by Parsons
throughout the Southwest, paying the militia leader $500 a week
for the three-week trip. The agent testified that Parsons did not
share rosters, training sites or meetings with him.
Once the Tulsa World broke the story, news of Parsons'
involvement with the FBI flashed across the Internet and the
patriot fax networks, creating a small thunderstorm of surprise.
Although all of the attempts to unite the disparate militia
groups in the past had failed, the Tri-States Militia had
probably the best claim to being a coordinating and
communications board for militia groups, having ties with such
organizations across the country--some 900 by Parsons' own
estimates. The militias, already operating in an atmosphere of
extreme paranoia, lashed out at Parsons for betraying the
movement. J. J. Johnson, a leader in the Ohio Unorganized Militia
and sometimes considered one of the movement's relatively
moderate leaders, released an "open letter" in which he
announced that his group would not "tolerate, endorse, or
communicate with any so-called Patriots, Militia organizations,
or Militia members giving AID and COMFORT to any federal agency
for any reason, whatsoever, period. Your (Tri-States) actions,
regardless of any excuse you may provide, are TRAITOROUS."
Equally stunned were the members of the Tri-States themselves.
Perhaps typical of the reactions of many such members was that of
Alabama militiaman Mike Vanderboegh, who admitted that he was
"sickened by the revelations...sickened, angered and
dismayed." According to Vanderboegh, a member of the
paramilitary group's national board, some board members resigned
upon hearing the news, while a number of militia units affiliated
with the Tri-States announced their withdrawal from the
confederation. On April 14, Vanderboegh announced that if Parsons
did not resign, board members would ask for a "court of
inquiry" for Parsons.
The revelations might well mean the end for the Tri-States
Militia, although some members are still hoping to hold it
together. But the intense paranoia that surrounds every facet of
the militia movement, and which frequently causes its members to
label each other as "plants" and "agents
provocateur," is unlikely to allow members of the extremist
groups to give the Tri-States the benefit of the doubt now that
its ties to the FBI have been revealed.
Another "Order" to Go?
Abstracted from the Los Angeles Times, the Columbus
Dispatch, and other sources.
Although the FBI is still tight-lipped, there are increasing
speculations that the so-called Midwestern Bank Bandits may have
channeled their ill-gotten gains to right-wing and white
supremacist groups. The Midwestern Bank Bandits robbed at least
eighteen banks over a course of two years before their leaders
Richard Lee Guthrie, Jr., and Peter Kevin Langan were apprehended
in January in Cincinnati and Columbus, respectively.
Not your ordinary bank robbers, Guthrie, Langan, and others
taunted federal law enforcement officials by wearing ATF caps,
renting getaway cars in the names of FBI agents and other
escapades. They also sent letters and cartoons to newspapers, all
designed to get the goat of government agents. When Langan and
Guthrie were apprehended, they claimed they were part of a group
called the "Aryan Republican Army." While the group
seems to consist solely of the bank robbers, there are concerns
that they may have been funneling much of the hundreds of
thousands of dollars they stole to right-wing or racist groups,
much as did the offshoot of Aryan Nations called The Order did on
a larger scale in the 1980s, when, patterning themselves after
the novel The Turner Diaries they robbed armored cars and
funneled the money to neo-nazi groups. Guthrie and Langan are
known white supremacists who have had ties with Aryan Nations and
other groups.
Langan, who has referred to himself as "Commander
Pedro", also appeared in a videotape taken from Guthrie's
apartment which seemed to be a recruiting tape for a white
supremacist organization. The videotape declares that the Aryan
Republican's Army's goals were to "Eliminate the government,
from the federal government to the county seats. Exterminate
Hymie. Repatriate all non-whites to their homes. Return the
country to the Bible--these laws." Langan denies robbing any
bank and claims that the shootout which ended in his arrest was a
botched assassination attempt on him because of his racist
political views.
Bombs, Bombers, and Bombing Update
Abstracted from USA Today, Houston Chronicle, Chicago
Tribune.
As April 19, the anniversary of the tragedy at Oklahoma City,
approaches, the topic of conversation in many circles seems to be
turning increasingly towards bombs. Authorities have erected a
steel-mesh web of security measures around Timothy McVeigh and
Terry Nichols, transported to Colorado for his upcoming trial,
but government employees across the country are wondering how
safe they themselves will be on April 19. On the Internet,
"patriot" newsgroups and listservs are buzzing with
anticipation of the upcoming anniversary, also the anniversary of
the storming of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, and the
possibility that some lone radical or small group might attempt
some sort of retaliation looms large in the minds of those
responsible for the security of federal buildings and
installations.
Acknowledging this concern, John Sturdivant, president of the
American Federation of Government Employees, has said that
"we recognize very much this anniversary. We don't want to
go down hysteria lane. But there will be a heightened level of
anxiety." A number of groups and individuals who monitor the
far-right have advised government employees to stay home on April
19.
Some militia leaders, conscious of public opinion, have tried
to pooh-pooh the notion that some violent event might occur on
April 19. "If you've got some kook out there who wants to do
something," asserts Militia of Montana leader Dave
Trochmann, "it doesn't really make any difference what the
date is. To make a big deal out of April 19 shows us where the
mentality of the American people has slid down to."
But Americans can perhaps be excused for being a little
jittery about the anniversary, despite the special pleading of
the Militia of Montana. The signs of domestic terrorism are all
around them. On Monday, April 1, the trial of Charles Ray Polk
opened in Tyler, Texas. Polk is accused with planning to blow up
the Internal Revenue Service's Service Center building in Austin,
Texas. He was negotiating for the purchase of more than 1,000
pounds of C-4 plastic explosives when arrested while being
delivered a machine gun. Polk, like many other tax-resisters, had
tried various quasi-legalistic means of renouncing his status as
a federal taxpayer, but without success. Polk's attorneys
apparently plan to argue that Polk was entrapped by an undercover
agent.
And while Polk's trial began, another bombing case made
significant progress, as one of two men charged with attempting
to bomb an Internal Revenue Service building in Reno, Nevada, in
December 1995 pleaded guilty to all counts against him,
guaranteeing him at least 30 years in prison. This was part of a
plea bargain for Ellis Hurst, in which he agreed to testify
against others charged in the case if the government would seek
leniency. Admitting that he had "a big plate of crow to
eat," Hurst pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy,
attempted destruction of a government building, and use of an
explosive device while committing a violent crime. The third
count alone calls for a minimum 30 years behind bars. The trial
of Joseph Bailie, also charged with planting the bomb, is
scheduled for June 3, while a third man, Jerry Keenan, has been
indicted for lying to the grand jury that indicted Hurst and
Bailie. The FBI would not confirm or deny that they belonged to
any militia or other anti-government groups.
Abstracted from countless sources.
Updated Tuesday Afternoon, April 2.
Note: For the complete story of the Montana Freemen, be
sure to read "Patriot"
Profile #3: Every Man a King: The Rise and Fall of the Montana
Freemen, now available!
Federal, state and local law officials converged on Jordan,
Montana, on Monday, March 25, to put an end to the activities of
the so-called Montana Freemen, a heavily-armed group of tax
resisters that has been evading or flouting authorities for
nearly two years.
The action began when Freemen leaders LeRoy Schweitzer and
Daniel Peterson were arrested at the 960-acre farm near the
hamlet of Brusset, Montana, where they had holed themselves up.
The farm, formerly owned by Freemen Richard and Emmett Clark, had
been lost to foreclosure in November 1994 (and sold at auction in
October 1995), but the Clarks refused to leave. It became the
headquarters for the fugitive Freemen in September 1995, who
after travelling to the farm from another hideout in armed
convoy, named the place "Justus Township" and refused
to acknowledge any authority other than "township"
authority. The township consisted of about ten buildings and
approximately 20 residents. Armed Freemen patrolled the farm's
perimeter in pickup trucks to catch intruders.
The first reports coming from the scene stated that Schweitzer
and Peterson left the farm to pick up mail at a tiny post office
a few miles away when the arrest occurred, but subsequent
revelations revealed a complex undercover operation. Local news
reports said the FBI had an undercover agent pose as someone
offering to set up a ham radio antenna on the farm. FBI agent
Thomas T. Kubic would only tell CNN that they were not arested at
the Brusett post office but rather on the Clark property itself.
A Washington paper, using unnamed sources, reported that the FBI
sent an undercover agent posing as a ham radio antenna installer
to lure the Freemen out. According to this account, an antenna
installation crew arrived Monday with antenna equipment, and
Schweitzer and Petersen showed up to approve the tower location,
to be met by FBI agents. Other sources have corroborated this
story, claiming that the FBI had undercover agents develop a
relationship with Schweitzer over time. A third man, Lavon
Hanson, was also arrested on charges of conspiring to defraud
financial institutions--Hanson was involved as a
"courier" in a complicated scheme developed by
Schweitzer to buy goods with counterfeit funds and sell them for
profit.
Though the two freemen were armed, there was no struggle or
violence. Schweitzer and Peterson saved their energy for the
following day, when they were brought into a heavily guarded
federal courtroom to be arraigned. They shouted down the judge
and other members of the court, yelling that the court had no
jurisdiction over them and that they did not have to listen to
it. The Freemen called for a change of venue to
"Justus." The judge finally abandoned the arraignment
attempt, and had the court give them written copies of the
arraignment while calling for a new attempt to take place with
the Freemen watching the proceedings in another room.
The Freemen--whose members and strong sympathizers number
perhaps 150 or so in the region--had long been thumbing their
noses at federal, state, and local officials. In addition to the
tax-related charges that many of them faced, they had been
engaging in a wide variety of other illegal and disturbing
activities over the past several years. Most notorious were the
fraudulent checks and money orders that Leroy Schweitzer and the
Freemen had been passing. Counterfeit money orders, drawn on a
non-existent account in a northwestern bank, were sold to
suspecting and unsuspecting customers alike, who would then
attempt to use the fake money orders in an attempt to pay off
loans and debts. A typical scam might involve someone attempting
to pay off a car loan with a counterfeit money order made out for
twice the amount of the loan. The scammer would enclose a letter
demanding a refund of the "overpayment." The
unknowledgeable car dealer might write a (good) check for the
amount before trying to deposit the (bad) money order. Banks and
businesses have lost nearly $2 million from the frauds, while the
amount of money lost by private individuals remains unknown. At
least ten of the Freemen, in addition to Schweitzer and Peterson,
have been indicted in these schemes for bank, financial and mail
fraud. Not only did the Freemen themselves perpetuate such
schemes, but they ran seminars at their farm to teach others the
tricks of the trade. At least 800 people from over 30 states had
travelled to Montana to learn from the Montana Freemen how to
defraud others.
Complementing their illegal financial activities were the acts
of terror the Freemen committed to keep authorities in Montana at
bay. Jim Pate, a Soldier of Fortune writer who had spent
time with the Freemen, described their fanaticism as equivalent
to a holy war. "Their political philosophy is based on their
religious philosophy," he explained. "And in that
respect, they are very similar to the young man who was just
convicted of murdering the prime minister of Israel. They're
similar in the depth of their convictions to Hamas." A
number of the Freemen--including Schweitzer and Peterson--face
state charges of criminal syndicalism, which in Montana law is
the threat of violence for political aims. Many Montanans have
been threatened with one type of violence or another by the
Freemen, including Sheriff Charles Phipps of Garfield County, who
lived for more than a year with death threats and the offer of a
$1 million bounty on his head. The Freemen threatened to hang
Phipps by a rope from a bridge. Among others threatened were U.S.
District Judge Jack Shanstrom and Garfield County Clerk Joanne
Stanton, who had to deal with the hundreds of frivolous filings
issued by the Freemen's self-styled court.
"They...threatened to take over my personal possessions, my
personal property, my real property, including anything my
husband owned," said Stanton. "There were always these
little digs: 'Proceed at your own peril.' Failure to do as they
ordered would cause harm." State warrants for their arrest
on charges of threatening public officials date all the way back
to March 1994. Many of the Freemen on the Clark farm are wanted
on charges from other states, including Dana Dudley and Russell
Landers, who fled charges of conspiracy and securities fraud in
Colorado; and John Richard Hance and his sons Steven and James,
wanted in North Carolina on charges of assaulting a police
officer with a deadly weapon, assault and battery, and resisting
arrest. The Freemen are heavily armed, though an attempt to use
one of their counterfeit money orders to buy $1.4 million in guns
from a Montana arms dealer failed.
The fear that the Freeman can instill is very powerful. Upon
hearing of the move on the Freemen, Musselshell County Attorney
John Bohlman decided to remove himself and his family from his
Roundup, Montana, home. Roundup was the previous refuge of the
Freemen, who became angered at Bohlman when he filed felony
charges of threatening a justice of the peace against several of
them last year. The Freemen demanded he show up at their own
"common law" court, or else face a fine of $1 million
and "apprehension of his person." Though glad that
authorities were finally taking action against the Freemen,
Bohlman decided to take no chances with the safety of his wife
and two small children after picking up on CB scanners reports
saying that Freemen would come into Roundup to kill people.
Two sets of indictments have been issued against the Freemen,
according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The first comes from a
Montana grand jury from May 1995, which charges Schweitzer,
Peterson, Rodney Skurdal, and Richard and Emmett Clark with:
conspiracy to impede government function; conspiracy to prevent
by force, intimidation or threats the official duties of U.S.
District Judge Jack Shanstrom, U.S. Court Clerk Lou Aleksich, and
Garfield Count Sheriff Phipps; threats to assault, kidnap and
murder Shanstrom; and mailing a threatening communication to
Shanstrom. A second Montana grand jury, in December 1995, issued
another indictment naming the above five and seven more--John
McGuire, Cherlyn Bronson Petersen, Agnes Bollinger Stanton,
William Stanton, Ebert Stanton, Ralph Clark and Dale Jacobi--with
51 counts of conspiracy to defraud and to obtain money through
false pretenses, plus interfering with commerce (for hijacking
television camera equipment). William Stanton was arrested in
March 1995.
With Schweitzer and Peterson behind bars, authorities moved
against the remaining Freemen. The FBI, however, was taking great
pains to insure that what happened was not a repeat of the
notorious 1992 standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, which became a
cause celebre among the so-called "patriot" movement,
and which garnered serious criticism from nearly every circle.
FBI Director Louis Freeh consciously decided to eschew earlier
military-style tactics. Indeed, the desire to avoid a
confrontation, contemptuously called "Weaver fever" in
some circles, appears to be what made authorities wait nearly two
years before taking action. During all this time the Freemen were
openly running their fraudulent schemes and threatening public
officials. Increasingly, this do-nothing policy irritated
Montanans. County attorney Nick Murnian had been calling for
federal assistance for over six months, even testifying before a
Congressional hearing in November 1995. The Billings Gazette
conducted a poll which found that 60% of respondents were
dissatisfied with such tactics. Inevitably, it became a political
issue as well, as Democratic candidate for governor Chet Blaylock
announced that "arrests for lawlessness should not be
unreasonably delayed." In fact it appears that local
frustration with the lack of progress in dealing with the Freemen
played a role in the FBI's decision to make its move. After
Schweitzer's arrest a local bank hung up a sign that read
"Goodbye, LeRoy. Hello, FBI." Local resident K. L.
Bliss said that he used to farm near the Clarks, and that
"everybody had planted by June--but [Clark] had weeds this
high. He's never made a bank payment since 1981, he's never paid
taxes since 1981--and he's whining about the government."
Some Montanans were considerably more irate. "I want to see
blood!" the Associated Press reported one local resident
shouting, "I've lived with this for two years, and it's
ruining my life. I want it over." The resident had two
brothers on the Clark farm. Ranch hand Terry Kastner called the
Freemen "brainwashed," and wished that "they'd go
in there and shoot 'em all. It would save the taxpayers a lot of
money and time." Tom Fogle, a county worker, was even more
forceful. "If they can't get them out of there peacefully in
a couple of weeks, I'd say go in and get them out any way they
can. If they don't give up, I say go in and strafe 'em...Bring in
the Apache helicopters and blow the hell out of them. I'm tired
of it."
One of the last straws for local residents was the Freemen's
latest brazen action, a "public notice" published in
local newspapers on March 7 which announced that the Freemen
would take control of large swaths of land in northeastern
Montana, including Bureau of Land Management property, state
grazing lands, and lands that were privately owned. The notice
announced that people who trespassed on the Freemen's new land
would be arrested and punished. Such a move outraged the
neighbors of the Freemen. "So if dad was out feeding his
cows," explained the son of a rancher who leased grazing
land from the state, "to them he'd be trespassing on their
so-called land, and they'd take him to their court. And from
there your imagination could run rampant...Maybe they wouldn't do
anything, but who knows. Dad was really upset; up until that
time, all their threats had been against government officials.
Now they were disrupting our lives." County voters had
scheduled a meeting to discuss moving against the Freemen by
cutting their telephones and closing the county road near the
farms, which perhaps helped to spur the FBI to action. However,
ABC News reported that Schweitzer, at a meeting at the Freemen's
compound on Sunday, the day before the arrest, outlined a scheme
to kidnap local government officials. At the meeting, which was
videotaped, Schweitzer explained that "We'll travel in units
of about 10 outfits, four men to an outfit, most of them with
automatic weapons, whatever else we got--shotguns, you name
it...We're going to have a standing order: Anyone obstructing
justice, the order is shoot to kill." According to this
report, such statements helped prompt the FBI to move when they
did.
However, there were no "jack-booted" thugs appearing
outside the Clark farm. Although over a hundred federal, state
and local law enforcement agents converged on the Montana
hideout, conspicuously absent were camouflauge or black uniforms.
Instead, agents wore civilian clothes and did not ride in armored
personnel carriers. Instead of only the FBI's quasi-military
Hostage Rescue Team, the agents in Montana included behavioral
specialists and trained negotiators. Instead of FBI snipers,
authorities installed video surveillance cameras on a microwave
tower overlooking the main road leading to the farm. The FBI was
aided in this by the fact that the Freemen compound is in an area
of high visibility, unlike the heavily wooded area that had
surrounded Randy Weaver's cabin at Ruby Ridge. The FBI also has
extensive eavesdropping equipment, some of which had been in
operation for months. Managing the situation was the FBI's
Critical Incident Response Group, which sought to fix three
problem areas that plagued the agency at Ruby Ridge and Waco: not
enough agents to handle extended standoffs, a lack of
coordination between tactical agents and hostage negotiators, and
confused lines of authority. Indeed, so many FBI personnel
appeared in the area that they took up all the hotel rooms in
Jordan, causing the army of reporters and journalists to engage
in a mad scurry for apartments, mobile homes, and hotel rooms in
other communities.
Six of the "Justus Townships" residents voluntarily
left the ranch after the arrests of Schweitzer and Peterson,
leaving about twenty Freemen behind, including around three
children. Police blocked media access to the farm, allegedly
fearing violence against journalists (there were several
incidents of Freemen violence against the media within the past
year, including the theft of $66,000 worth of ABC television
camera equipment). The crowd of law enforcement officials
established an operations center at a county fairgrounds in
Jordan, the seat of Garfield County, itself with a population of
only 450. The operations center has vehicles, command post
trailers, and even an airstrip. Phone lines to the farm were cut,
except for a line set up by the FBI for family members of those
on the farm.
To convince the Freemen to surrender peacefully, agents on
Tuesday broadcast a television appeal, in which U.S. Attorney
Sherry Matteucci promised that there would be no violence or harm
done to them. "All of us very much want this situation to be
resolved peacefully," she said. "I urge them to come in
and talk with me, talk with lawyers, talk with whomever they feel
comfortable about this situation. We absolutely intend no harm to
the persons who are on the current property. I assure them that
we are doing everything possible to make certain that a dangerous
situation does not develop up here." Also appealing to the
Freemen was Sheriff Phipps, who was noticeably more considerate
of their safety than they had been of his own. On the minds of
some law enforcement officials is the approaching date of April
19, the anniversary of Richard Snell's execution, the storming of
the Branch Davidian compound and the date of the Oklahoma City
bombing.
The Freemen were unwilling to surrender to the FBI, so they
remain under surveillance, but not a tight siege. There are
roadblocks in the area, but there is no boundary or perimeter set
around the compound of the Freemen. The permeability of the
dragnet was demonstrated by intrepid reporters who skipped by FBI
and Montana Highway Patrol checkpoints to get up to the Clark
farm. At least one camera crew working for NBC, exhibiting more
intestinal fortitude than intelligence, had their camera
equipment confiscated on Wednesday by patrolling Freemen. FBI
agents have been questioning people driving to or from the farm,
but apparently have not been preventing people from entering it.
People travelling through the area have been stopped and asked to
complete a form informing them that they are nearing an area
"which is considered extremely dangerous due to the presence
of persons charged with federal and state crimes," and
explaining that people aiding the Freemen could be considered as
"accessories after the fact." On Thursday the Freemen
themselves blocked the county road in front of their farm with a
barbed wire barricade.
"We are continuing our efforts to talk with the people on
the ranch," said FBI agent Tom Ernst to a French reporter on
Thursday. Amazingly, Ernst added that he "would not
characterize it as a standoff." Authorities were still
hopeful that the Freemen will eventually surrender peacefully.
In a related action, FBI agents in southern California served
search warrants on the Essex House Hotel, situated in Lancaster,
fifty miles north of Los Angeles, to search two hotel rooms and
one meeting area. A local television station reported that the
raid was linked to the Montana standoff. These rooms were used by
Elizabeth Broderick, who runs Broderick Seminars, which taught
anti-tax and other tactics for a fee. These tactics involved
placing false liens on federal agencies, as well as the standard
fake checks and money orders. Hotel owner Jens Neelsen said
agents carted boxes of computer records and equipment out of her
hotel rooms. FBI agents also raided Broderick's home. On
Wednesday, March 27, federal attorneys in Los Angeles filed a
complaint against Broderick and nearly two dozen accomplices, in
order to bar her from issuing her bogus checks and money orders.
Court documents state that more than $30 million in such checks
have been received. Broderick defended her activities, saying
that "Many, many mortgages, many car loans have been paid
off. And I'm proud to say that it works, as long as the feds
don't get in the way. That's the only problem." Broderick
denied that the federal government had any authority over her.
The reaction from the so-called "patriot" movement
to the move on the Montana Freeman by federal authorities was
mixed. Many militia and common law court members have spoken out
in favor of the Freeman, and compared them to Randy Weaver and
the Branch Davidians. Some have claimed that the action would be
the first step in a federal clamp-down on the patriot movement,
and predicted future violence or even civil war. Others,
realizing the adverse publicity that the Montana Freemen have
been garnering, have been considerably more cautious. The
Tri-States Militia, a loose umbrella group of militia units in a
number of states, issued a "press release" condemning
the actions of the Freemen, stating that they find it
"insulting and offensive that people who call themselves
members of the patriot community have combined their 'patriotic'
activities with a clear attempt to defraud banking institutions
and individual citizens through the use of phoney [sic] and/or
money orders coupled with force and threats." The Tri-States
contrasted the Freemen with their own, ostensibly
"constitutional" militias.
The Militia of Montana, not only the militia closest
geographically to the Freemen but also one of the most prominent
of the paramilitary groups, initially acted very cautiously,
feeling its way through the webs of public opinion. The M.O.M.,
as it is commonly referred to, run by John, David and Randy
Trochmann, told reporters that they sent representatives to the
scene to "monitor" the situation and to try to talk, by
telephone or radio, to Freeman Dale Jacobi, who used to own a
business near the Noxon, Montana, headquarters of M.O.M. Like the
Tri-States, the Trochmanns have tried to distinguish their
organization from that of the Freemen. David Trochmann told
Reuters that M.O.M. has told other patriot groups to stand down.
John Trochmann even went so far as to praise the FBI: "I
think the FBI has been handling it very patiently. I admire them
for their patience. And they've had a tremendous amount of
pressure from the public, from the local law enforcement, and
from their superiors in the FBI and the justice department. I
think they're caught between a rock and a hard place, and they're
doing the only thing they can do." Trochmann's attitude
towards the FBI might have softened slightly after the Freemen
put a price on his head with one of their common-law arrest
warrants after the two groups had a falling out.
However, not all M.O.M. members have been as cautious as the
Trochmanns. Militiaman Ed Dosh called the Freemen "good
people," and suggested that "If somebody wants to
travel from Billings to Denver, I might tell them one way, you
might tell them another. It's just different routes to the same
goal. Our views differ on methodology." When militiaman
Steve McNeil heard about the siege of the Freemen, he decided to
lead a militia caravan to Jordan. Later, McNeil settled for
creating a disturbance at the courtroom where Schweitzer and
Peterson were being arraigned, for which he was arrested. Had
McNeil managed to get his caravan going, he might have met with a
rough reception, because a group of 30 local ranchers formed a
posse to stand up to the militias and support the FBI, patrolling
the area in their own vehicles, waiting for the militia to show
up. "The militias will just pump more hot air into the
Freemen, and make it worse," explained a local farmer, Cecil
Weeding. "There will be a clash if they get here. This
country is sick and tired of that thing up there, and wants to
get it over." Jordan resident Virgil Hellyer, uncle of
Sheriff Phipps and husband to sheriff's dispatcher Carol Hellyer,
has said that the sheriff's office has received telephone threats
from militia groups across the country. Carol Hellyer's sister,
Agnes Stanton, is one of the people on the Clark farm.
On a more fundamental level, the newly-declared positions of
groups like the Tri-States and the M.O.M. don't quite ring true.
Though many militia members currently would like to downplay the
connections, the political philosophy of the militia and of the
Freemen differs only in the particulars. As recently as early
1995 the M.O.M.'s newsletter (Taking Aim) vigorously
endorsed the positions of the Freemen and recommended that people
take Schweitzer's classes. Other prominent militia figures, such
as Norm Olson of the Michigan Militia, have also expressed nearly
identical political philosophies. Indeed, according to a
"press release" issued on the Internet, Norm Olson
accused the government of planning the premeditated murder of the
Freemen, along with the complicity of the media. Olson called for
militia units around the country to converge on Montana as
quickly as possible, and hinted that he himself might show up
there. Later he confirmed his intentions by issuing plans for an
"Operation Certain Venture." Olson received support for
this call to action by the Alabama-based Gadsden Minutemen, led
by Jeff Randall. Randall issued his own rallying plea, noting
that he needed "dedicated volunteers," but advised them
that "arrest is possible, and the FBI could very well decide
to shoot unarmed civilians." Minuteman founder Mike Kemp
made dire predictions, asserting that "there won't be
another Waco unanswered. They are pushing us to a confrontation.
If the shooting starts, it could get very ugly, very
quickly." Kemp argued that there was no reason to use armed
force against the Freemen, who, he asserted, only owed debts.
"It's a civil matter," he said, ignoring the charges of
armed robbery and assaulting a police officer with a deadly
weapon that have been lodged against some of those holed up on
the Clark farm.
Operation Certain Venture, according to Olson and Randall,
would consist of an unarmed convoy of food, mail and other
supplies ("women's necessities," explained Olson) to
the Montana Freemen. Olson suggested that April 19, the
anniversary of Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing, might be a
possible day for the convoy to set out, and compared the proposed
convoy to "a Normandy invasion, a landing on the
beach." The Montana Freemen standoff made Olson, ejected
from the Michigan Militia last year for espousing bizarre
theories about Japanese responsibility for the Oklahoma City
bombing, particularly excited about the possibility of a massive
armed conflict. Since becoming leader of a splinter Michigan
militia group, Olson has repeatedly announced apocalyptic
visions, including once during a Detroit radio talk show debate
with Mark Pitcavage in early March in which he predicted that a
civil war would occur in six to eight weeks. Speaking on the CBS
show "Face the Nation" about his plans to go to
Montana, Olson said that "if this is going to be the place
where the second American revolution finally culminates in war,
then it's good for a battlefield commander to be there to look at
the logistics, to look at the needs, and to find out exactly what
the situation is on the ground."
Similarly, other "patriot" figures offered differing
opinions. Gerry Spence, Randy Weaver's lawyer, complimented the
FBI for its restraint. Bo Gritz,
the patriot leader who helped to negotiate the surrender of Randy
Weaver, appeared to be positioning himself for another
intervention, suggesting that "the longer these people stay
within those walls, the more determined they get," and even
condoning the use of armed force against them if necessary.
However, members of the "Freemen Patriots," a splinter
group at Gritz's patriot commune at Kamiah, Idaho, more radical
than their leader, expressed sympathy for the Montana Freemen and
claimed that the standoff at Jordan was simply a trap, with the
Freemen as bait to catch more members of the patriot movement.
They also suggested, as have other members of the movement, that
U.S. Army Special Forces or other military units have been
deployed. The Patriots, led by Ed LeStage, Chad Erickson, Pat
Johnson and Michael Cain, announced plans to hold a protest rally
at Lewistown, Montana on April 1st, to support the Freemen, and
called for all supporters to show up with white ribbons on their
car or truck antennas. "We support the God-given right of
our Freemen Brothers at Jordan, Montana, to be heard in a
righteous constitutional court of law," their call to action
read. The Freemen Patriots, who have criticized Gritz for
inaction, seemed to find the Montana Freemen more to their
liking. Their ability to command support, however, was virtually
nil. On April 1st, only a bare handful of people showed up at
Lewistown as commanded. Lewistown assistant police chief Bob Long
described the scene as "five or six guys out there at a RV
park south of town. Right now, there are more newspeople in town
than freemen." LeStage explained to reporters that they were
in the "early stages of a long rally here," and that he
expected 800 people to show up by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, in court on Thursday, March 29, Daniel Petersen and
LeRoy Schweitzer sat quietly while Judge Richard Anderson read
the indictment to them, but when asked to enter pleas, Peterson
burst out that he wanted "you to be an honest person and the
rest of these perverts to be honest people." Petersen was
taken to a holding cell to watch the proceedings; Anderson
entered "not guilty" pleas on their behalf.
Over the weekend, initiative seemed to shift to local
officials and family members of the fugitives. Some, like Steve
Mangum, a truck driver from Salt Lake City, traveled long
distances to try to reach the compound. Mangum's former wife,
Gloria Ward, as well as their 8-year old daughter Jaylynn Mangum,
is among the Freemen (as are her current husband Elwin Ward and
her 10 year old daughter Courtnie Gunn). FBI agents warned him
not to try to enter the compound, and Mangum agreed. He was,
however, concerned about the fate of his dauther, whom, he told
reporters, "was taught to hate blacks, taught to hate
policemen, [and that] school was evil." Democratic United
States Senator Max Baucus (of Montana) argued that the best way
to resolve the conflict was to let the local folks do it, along
with the aid of family members.
In a small community like Jordan, family ties connect the
Clark farm fugitives with many people in town. Only two years
ago, Jordan residents raised $125,000 for a brain tumor operation
for Casey Clark, now one of the Freemen who have issued death
threats against others in the area. Many families have been split
by the actions of the Freemen: the Stantons are a good example.
While Ebert Stanton, his wife Val, and their 5-year old daughter
Mariah patrol the Clark farm perimeter, staring at them from the
other side is Tom Stanton, a farmer who had organized a 25 man
posse to storm the Freemen stronghold, before the FBI intervened.
Jordan residents circulated a petition to be presented to the
Freemen, urging them to come out and guaranteeing they would get
a fair trial: "The following friends, neighbors and
relatives urge you to immediately end this situation. We are
concerned for your personal safety and the harm that may come to
others." The FBI over the weekend allowed several
individuals to enter the compound, although they would not
identify who those people were. Two vehicles entered the ranch on
Saturday afternoon, then shortly before dark a pickup with
Wyoming license plates carrying four people entered the compound.
A network crew with a high-powered camera lens saw a group of
arriving visitors hugging and talking with Freemen in their
compound. At least one of the vistors allowed through was
apparently an intermediary sent by relatives of those on the
farm.
Authorities were less willing to let others into the compound.
On Friday they turned away two militiamen from Oregon, heavily
armed, who had driven to Montana with groceries for the Freedmen.
They also turned away two members of a local militia (Gordon
Helgerson and Kamala Web), and Kevin Entzel, the stepson of
arrested Freeman Petersen. Entzel hoped to visit his mother,
Cherlyn. FBI agent Tom Ernst explained to reporters that people
wanting to visit the Freemen compound were asked if they were
carrying fuel, groceries, firearms or ammunition. Such supplies
would be confiscated, or the visitors would not be allowed to
proceed. Other militiamen, in twos and threes, also began showing
up in the area, ignoring the calls of John Trochmann to stay
away. More people began to offer their services as intermediaries
as well, including Randy Weaver.
However, neither petitions nor the pleadings of law
enforcement officials could convince the remaining Freemen to
give up. Some people speculated that Rodney Skurdal, one of the
more violent and radical of the Freemen, was holding the others
in line. "It's a pity they didn't get Skurdal," one
local lamented, "His proclamations are as heinous and as
hate-filled as can be." However, ninety miles away, another
Freeman fugitive, Richard Clark, turned himself in voluntarily to
authorities. Clark had not been on the ranch on the Monday when
Schweitzer and Petersen were arrested. When arraigned in federal
court on April 1, Clark refused to accept a lawyer or to give his
name, stating that his name was "private." Hundreds of
miles away, Mary Margaret Lund was apprended by Santa Rosa police
in California. Lund, a common law court adherent with extensive
ties to Schweitzer, was wanted for using bogus checks to purchase
$400,000 worth of goods. Unlike Clark, she did not turn herself
in.
Also less compliant were captives Petersen and Schweitzer,
neither of whom has cooperated with the authorities. Indeed, they
refused to bathe or change their clothes, while Schweitzer
embarked upon a hunger strike, causing his removal over the
weekend to a federal detention center in Springfield, Missouri,
that handles sick prisoners, so that his health could be
monitored. And equally uncooperative were the adherents of
M.Elizabeth Broderick, whose Palmdale, California, counterfeit
check operation was stopped by authorities. A court hearing had
been scheduled for April 1 in Los Angeles for a requested
injunction of Broderick's check-issuing schemes, but the
Freemen--Broderick, Adolf Hoch and Laura Marie Hoey--did not show
up. A woman who refused to give any other name than
"Myra" appeared in court and said she was filing a
response to the injunction prepared by Broderick's attorney. U.S.
District Judge William Keller postponed the hearing until
Thursday.
The standoff continues.
Militias Muster to Aid Deadbeat Dad
Abstracted from wire reports, St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
Houston Chronicle, Washington Post, militia reports.
Militia members from several states converged on a stand-off
in the town of Coushatta, Louisiana, in mid-February to aid a
doctor wanted by authorities.
Federal authorities in St. Louis issued an indictment for Dr.
Lynn Truman Crawford, 42, of Mesquite, Texas, for owing more than
$70,000 in child support to the children of his ex-wife, Mona
Tague of Memphis, Missouri. The Child Support Recovery Act of
1992 makes it a federal misdemeanor offense to refuse to pay
child support to children in another state. Accordingly, on
February 21 Louisiana-based FBI agents as well as local sheriff's
deputies converged on the Coushatta, Louisiana, home of
Crawford's mother, where Crawford was staying. Crawford not only
refused to surrender, but refused to recognize their authority at
all.
The law enforcement officers forced open a carport door,
intending to send in a police dog to compel the doctor's
surrender, but the police dog was attacked by a dalmation
belonging to Crawford's mother. A sheriff's deputy shot and
killed the dalmation. Because Crawford was armed and threatened
to kill law enforcement officers who entered the residence,
authorities backed off, called off the SWAT team, and set up a
loose perimeter around Crawford's house. According to the FBI
agent in charge, James V. DeSarno, Jr., authorities did not want
a repeat of the 1992 Ruby Ridge, Idaho, incident, where federal
marshals ended up provoking a lethal standoff.
Crawford, a "sovereign citizen" or
"Freeman" (he claimed to be a citizen of the
"Republic of Texas") who does not acknowledge the
authority of the federal government, apparently believed that the
FBI intended to kill him. He phoned a shortwave radio broadcaster
active in the "patriot" movement, who in turn put
Crawford in touch with members of the militia movement and
broadcast conversations between Crawford and militia members,
including a conversation with a member of a Texas militia group,
"Lieutenant Colonel" Johnny Johnson of the Texas
Constitutional Militia, in which Crawford announced: "I have
had my life threatened; I am in fear for my life. I am asking for
any able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45 who will uphold
the law and defend those who are being abused by those who
violate the law to come and assist me in any way they can, at the
least, to be a witness of my execution."
Johnson used fax and telephone trees to spread Crawford's call
to help to various militia groups. Local militia, as well as a
few from far away locations in Alabama, Texas, Mississippi and
Missouri began to converge on Coushatta. Three members of the
so-called Missouri 51st Militia drove more than 600 miles from
Kansas City to arrive at the scene. According to militia reports,
other leaders in the movement were being kept abreast of events,
even including John Trochmann in Noxon, Montana. "We were a
little leery about getting involved in it," confessed
militia member Mike McKinzey, part of the Kansas City group,
"We didn't want to be tied into deadbeat dads--our
reputation is having a hard time already." However, the urge
to confront law enforcement officers engaged in an apparent
standoff overcame such reluctance. Johnny Johnson claimed to
reporters to have had over 100 people on the scene, a figure
corroborrated by Chief Deputy Sheriff Warren Perkins.
The first militia began arriving on the scene by nightfall,
though some continued to arrive as late as Sunday, February 25.
According to Perkins, the militia were polite. They were not
visibly armed; some brought video cameras and watched as
authorities began their planned partial withdrawal, pulling back
to a roadblock about 200 yards from the house. This began a
lengthy standoff lasting nearly a week. During the week the
number of militia "observers" steadily dwindled as
Crawford showed no signs of surrendering, until only a few were
left. The Missouri militia members, who arrived on Sunday,
thought Crawford might surrender to the militia, but Crawford
still refused, prompting the Missourians to leave.
By the following afternoon, however, Crawford had a change of
heart, deciding to give up but refusing to be fingerprinted or
photographed. He surrendered to the authorities who ordered him
sent back to Missouri. He arrived at the U.S. District Court in
St. Louis on March 7, to be arraigned on the child-support
charge. Mona Tague, his ex-wife, told reporters she was happy her
ex-husband was locked up.
Larry Pratt Drops From Buchanan Campaign
Abstracted from various sources.
Larry Pratt, executive director of the radical Gun Owners of
America and a noted supporter of the militia movement, left
presidential hopeful Patrick Buchanan's campaign on February 15
after being linked with white supremacist groups. His exit was
ostensibly a "leave of absence" and Pratt said he hoped
to return. Patrick Buchanan supported Pratt, one of four
co-chairmen of his campaign, while Bob Dole's campaign
headquarters said that Buchanan should have fired Pratt.
Actually, Pratt's ties with militia and racist groups have
been well known for some time. Pratt is the head of the Gun
Owners of America, a group of about 150,000 radical second
amendment activists who view the NRA as too moderate. Pratt
himself believes the Bible sanctions gun ownership and has been
quoted as saying that "Consider that when Cain killed Abel,
God did not ban...the ownership of whatever it was that Cain used
to kill his brother." But Pratt has gone far beyond bizarre
biblical analogies in his quest for absolute gun rights. Pratt
emerged as one of the leading advocates of the militia movement
in the early 1990s. He discussed forming militia groups in his
1990 book Armed People Victorious, and in 1992, following
the Ruby Ridge incident, gave a speech advocating the forming of
militia groups.
That speech has since come back to haunt Larry Pratt, since it
was part of an Estes Park, Colorado, gathering that was
essentially a "Who's Who" of racists in America.
Organized by Pete Peters, leader in the white supremacist
religious sect Christian Identity, attendees in addition to Pratt
included Richard Butler, head of Aryan Nations, former KKK leader
Louis Beam, and Kirk Lyons, attorney to many racist groups and
founder of CAUSE, an organization that is essentially a legal
defense fund for racists in Canada, Australia, the United States,
South Africa and Europe. This was not Pratt's only tie with
racists: he has appeared on Pete Peters' television show; has
addressed a Christian Identity gathering in Branson, Missouri;
and the GOA's "charitable wing," the Gun Owners
Foundation, has given money to CAUSE.
Pratt's ties with the militia movement are also very tight,
including an association with United States Militia Association
leader Samuel Sherwood. Pratt has also been a regular speaker at
Preparedness Expos, which are travelling trade shows for
survivalists and militia groups. Pratt has a very close
association with Representative Steve Stockman of Texas, one of
the Congressmen most sympathetic to the militia movement. Pratt
has helped Stockman write articles, has personally campaigned for
Stockman, has given him the most funds of any candidate the GOA's
PAC has provided money for, and has attended closed door
legislative meetings at Stockman's behest. GOA consultant Mike
Hammond has drafted many of the bills Stockman has introduced,
while Larry Pratt's daughter is a receptionist for Stockman.
Predictably, after the recent media exposure of Pratt, a
spokesman for Stockman has denied that the Congressmen has had
close ties to Pratt.
Presumably Pratt will now have more time to promote the
militia movement. He has already published a collection of essays
called Safeguarding Liberty: The Constitution and Citizen
Militias.
Ohio Militia Member Charged With Felonious Assault
Abstracted from various newspaper, newswire, and other
sources.
Larry Martz, a member of the Ohio Unorganized Militia, was
charged with felonious assault and felony assault (he can only be
found guilty of one of the two) after a January 29, 1996 incident
in which Martz attacked an Ohio Highway Patrol trooper. Trooper
William Fulton stopped Martz for a traffic violation in
Interstate 77 near Cambridge, Ohio. Fulton discovered that
Martz's California driver's license had expired and asked Martz
to walk back to the police cruiser. Acording to Fulton, Martz
attempted to grab the trooper's holstered handgun away from him.
Fulton held Martz at gunpoint until officers arrived. The police
obtained a search warrant and found seven firearms in the truck,
including two Russian-made assault rifles (with bayonets), a
Chinese-made assault rifle, two machetes, knives, and 5,057
rounds of ammuniation. In addition, two assault rifles and a
shotgun, all loaded, were found in the cab of Martz's truck.
Martz also had a loaded .45 caliber handgun in his pants at the
time of arrest.
Martz has claimed that Fulton began to hit him when he stepped
out of the truck and that he may have been stopped because he had
witnessed the fatal shooting of an Ohio militiaman last May by a
police officer (see Militia
Follies). He has also suggested that God created the
situation to show that many law enforcement officers exceed the
law. He is being held on $100,000 bond and faces 13-28 years in
prison.
Before moving to Ohio, Martz lived in California, where he was
the local head of an American Pistol and Rifle Association
chapter, and participated as a fringe candidate in an
unsuccessful recall election of a California state senator on the
grounds that the senator was in favor of gun control.
Black Militia Created in Detroit
Abstracted from the Times-Picayune, January 28, 1996.
Michigan, home of the Michigan Militia and Mark Koernke's more
shadowy militia group, now has Clifford Brookins' Detroit
Constitutional Militia to worry about. But Brookins' group,
unlike the others, consists substantially of African-Americans.
Moreover, it eschews paramilitary training in favor of political
action. But much of the rhetoric, including the notion that the
United States is being sold out to a socialist world government,
is the same. Brookins, a building contractor, admits there may be
some racism in the neo-militia movement, but says, "if all
they know is what they see about black people in the media, how
can they help it? Once we sit down at the table, we'll work it
out." Brookins appears to have had help in creating the
militia by Ray Southwell and Norman Olson, the former cofounders
of the Michigan Militia who were kicked out after their
less-than-praiseworthy performance under media fire in the wake
of the Oklahoma City bombing. Southwell, a nurse who works
part-time in Detroit, even stays overnight at Brookins' house
when in the city.
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