Thread: Armed militia group attempting to overthrow the government

Militiamen In Burns, Oregon Break Into Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Building

by Kimberley Freda and John Sepulvado OPB | Jan. 2, 2016 6:23 p.m. | Updated: Jan. 3, 2016 12:51 p.m.

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Embattled Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy told OPB that approximately 150 militiamen occupied the Malheur National Widlife Refuge Building on Saturday evening.

Other sources suggested the number was closer to 15 militiamen inside the building. Ammon Bundy, the spokesperson of the militia group, declined to confirm how many people were there.

The militiamen are in Burns, Oregon to support Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son, Steven Hammond. They’re ranchers convicted of arson, who are due to report to prison Monday.

The militiamen broke into the federal building with supplies, including food and a generator. Cliven Bundy spoke to his son, Ammon Bundy, on the phone after they occupied the building.

“He told me that they were there for the long run. I guess they figured they’re going to be there for whatever time it takes—and I don’t know what that means,” Bundy said. “I asked him, ‘Well how long can ya, how long you going to stand out there?’ He just told me it was for long term.”

RELATED COVERAGE


Who Wants A Burns Standoff? Not The Sheriff, The Ranchers, Or Even Cliven Bundy


The Hammonds have said they will report to prison Monday for a five-year sentence. Bundy said his son felt obligated to intervene on behalf of the Hammonds.

“That’s not exactly what I thought should happen, but I didn’t know what to do,” Bundy said. “You know, if the Hammonds wouldn’t stand, if the sheriff didn’t stand, then, you know, the people had to do something. And I guess this is what they did decide to do. I wasn’t in on that.”Militiamen gathered in the parking lot of a Safeway grocery store Saturday morning, before taking to the streets of Burns. The group traveled Court Avenue to the sheriff’s office, then to the Hammonds’ home.

Dwight Hammond greeted the marchers.
“Remember, this is not about me. It’s about this country,” he said.

Many of the marchers later congregated at the Harney County Fairgrounds, before some diverted to the wildlife refuge.

Law enforcement took a laid back approach to the demonstration: Neither Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward or Oregon State Police made their presence known throughout the day. Both declined to comment for this story.

http://www.opb.org/news/article/mili...fuge-building/

Moved to Other Topics - Current event not concerning immigration of 2016 political races.

http://www.alipac.us/f19/full-story-...ldlife-326985/

Armed militia occupies wildlife refuge in Oregon, say they will remain for 'years'

Leader is son of Cliven Bundy, who led armed stand-off with federal authorities in 2014

Members of an armed militia have occupied a remote US wildlife refuge, reportedly pledging that they are willing to “kill or be killed” rather than leave the land.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the northwestern state of Oregon had been the site of a stand-off between local ranchers and the government over the use of the public lands for grazing livestock.

That dispute turned into an occupation on Saturday night, as militiamen seized the refuge’s headquarters - which were vacant over the holiday weekend - and blocked access roads.

The de facto leader of the occupation is Ammon Bundy, whose father Cliven Bundy staged a high-profile armed showdown with authorities in 2014, also over the use of public lands for grazing.

The elder Mr Bundy became a conservative folk hero when he refused to move his cattle from federal lands in Nevada, though politicians who had praised him later distanced themselves from him after a series of racially charged comments.

His son posted a video to Facebook on Saturday night after he and his followers moved into the headquarters, saying they were prepared to remain in the refuge “as long as it takes”.

“We’re out here because the people have been abused long enough, really,” Mr Bundy said. “Their lands and their resources have been taken from them to the point where it’s putting them literally in poverty.”

The Bundys and their followers claim that the federal government does not have the Constitutional authority to claim lands within a particular state’s borders, and therefore dispute the legitimacy of national parks or other such areas.

The militia that carried out Saturday’s occupation was in Oregon protesting the fact that Dwight and Steven Hammond, the owners of a nearby cattle ranch, had been ordered to return to prison over 2012 convictions for arson.

The Hammonds set fire to lands within the refuge, which borders their property. They claimed the fires were to stop invasive plants from reaching their fields, but prosecutors disputed that motive.

The minimum sentence for the charge they faced was five years, but a judge initially ruled that was excessive and gave the elder Hammond three months in prison, and his son one year. A federal judge has now ruled that they serve out full five year terms.

Two days before the Hammonds were set to report to a federal prison, the militiamen took action.

Estimates of the number of people involved in the operation vary, with militia leaders claiming there are 150 of them, and reporters at the scene saying there appear to be far fewer.

Ammon Bundy insists in the video that the occupation will be peaceful, but local media report that members of the militia told them they were prepared to “kill or be killed”.

Federal authorities have not yet indicated how they plan to respond. A local FBI official said merely that she was aware of the situation at the refuge.Mr Bundy called on like-minded militiamen to join him there, saying “it’s time to stand up” and referring to the Hammonds as “symptoms in a very huge, egregious problem”.

“All comfort, all wealth, everything that we have as a people that we use to live, to eat, to find comfort, comes from the earth,” he said.

“We cannot have the government restricting the use of that to the point that it puts us in poverty.”

Mr Bundy said he would happily leave the refuge once local people are free to “use these lands as free men”.

The Hammond family has said they oppose the occupation, and Cliven Bundy has also questioned the wisdom behind it.

Undeterred, Ammon Bundy said the occupation could last “years”.

Armed militia occupies wildlife refuge in Oregon, say they will remain for 'years' - Telegraph

Explainer: The Bundy Militia’s Particular Brand Of Mormonism

by John Sepulvado OPB | Jan. 3, 2016 6:18 p.m. | Updated: Jan. 4, 2016 10:15 a.m.

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One of the protesters, who gave the name "Captain Moroni," guards the entrance to the refuge Sunday. "Moroni" said he was disappointed that more protesters did not arrive after a widespread call on social media.
Amanda Peacher/OPB

“I’m Captain Moroni, from Utah.” That’s how one militiaman at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge responded to OPB’s Amanda Peacher when she asked for his name.

That name is not a silly response to deflect responsibility: In many ways, it encapsulates a deeply intertwined anti-federal sentiment mixed with Mormon symbolism.

Captain Moroni is a crucial figure in the Church of Latter-day Saints. He’s also a heroic figure for anti-federalist extremists.

In the modern day west, Captain Moroni has become one of several powerful symbols for the Bundy militia’s anti-governmental extremism.

Who Is Captain Moroni?

According to LDS scripture, Captain Moroni took command of the Nephites when he turned 25. Moroni innovated weaponry, strategy and tactics to help secure the safety of the Nephites, and allow them to worship and govern as they saw fit.

In LDS texts, Moroni prepares to confront a corrupt king by tearing off part of his coat and turning it into a flag, hoisting it as a “title of liberty.” This simple call to arms inspired a great patriotism in the Nephites, helping to raise a formidable army. Vastly outnumbered, the corrupt king fled. According to the Book of Mormon, Captain Moroni continued to push for liberty among his people.

“And it came to pass that Moroni was angry with the government, because of their indifference concerning the freedom of their country.”

An Embrace Of The “Title of Liberty”

During an April 2014 standoff with federal officials, supporters and members of the Bundy militia cited Book of Mormon passages centering on Captain Moroni. There were also several flags quoting Captain Moroni’s own writing on his “title of liberty.” Often next to American flags, these banners read “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.”

Cliven Bundy - the Nevada Rancher who called on militia and anti-government forces to help him in the showdown with the Bureau of Land Management – cited his own Mormon faith as a reason for what he viewed as a favorable outcome. As quoted by the Salt Lake City Tribune:

“If the standoff with the Bundys was wrong, would the Lord have been with us?” he asked, noting no one was killed as tensions escalated. “Could those people that stood (with me) without fear and went through that spiritual experience … have done that without the Lord being there? No, they couldn’t.”


Ammon Bundy is the leader of the occupation that took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge building on Saturday.
Amanda Peacher/OPB

Those remarks represent the deep commitment to the Bundy brand of faith. Abraham Bundy – Cliven’s great-grandfather – was a deeply religious man who was driven from prior homes first by flood, and then by revolution. He settled what would become Bundyville, home to a one-room schoolhouse and a scattering of homesteads in a harsh stretch of desert.Ultimately, the small town Abraham Bundy founded would be abandoned, after the Bundy family could not secure water and grazing rights from the federal government.

Bundy has previously said in interviews that relocation played a significant role in shaping his family’s outlook toward the federal government.

Those views are intertwined with Bundy’s faith. Speaking in St. George, Utah, after the standoff with the Bureau of Land Management, Bundy posed these questions to a crowd of mostly conservative Mormons, as reported by the Spectrum of St. George:

“If our (U.S.) Constitution is an inspired document by our Lord Jesus Christ, then isn’t it scripture?” Bundy asked.

“Yes,” a chorus of voices replied.

“Isn’t it the same as the Book of Mormon and the Bible?” Bundy asked.

“Absolutely,” the audience answered.

A New Generation Of Mormon Extremism

David Ammon Bundy – Cliven’s father – relocated the family to Nevada in the 1940s. Cliven named his third son, Ammon, after his father. Ammon is also a figure in the Mormon faith, described as a “great servant” in LDS scripture.

Ammon Bundy is a self-described devout Mormon, with strong anti-federal feelings. He praises his father’s actions against the federal government, and once accused the Bureau of Land Management as using the Endangered Species Act as a type of eminent domain.

“They have this quota that they meet,” Bundy told the Cultural Hall podcast. “What we start to see is them using the resources and selling the land for their own benefit!”

Ammon Bundy uses much of the same language as his father, mixing Mormon religious symbolism with a disgust of the federal government.

Speaking to Harney County residents last December, Ammon Bundy explained why he became involved in the Dwight and Steven Hammond case that sparked this takeover of federal property.

“I got this urge that I needed write something,” Bundy said. “I asked the good Lord…I need some help. And he gave me that help. The Lord is not pleased what has happened with the Hammonds.”

And Bundy justified their armed-intrusion this way to OPB’s Amelia Templeton:

“The main reason we’re here is because we need a place to stand,” Bundy said. “We stand in defense, and when the time is right we will begin to defend the people of Harney County in using the land and the resources.”

Meanwhile, Bundy has called for “fellow patriots” to join him at the armed occupation. That call itself closely represents what Captain Moroni told his fellow Nephites in LDS scripture. And it’s part of the reason why “Captain Moroni” came to Burns.

The man identifying as Captain Moroni said he was inspired by the call, and that the inspiration was validated by God in the form of a flock of geese he saw flying.

“I just knew it was the right thing [to come to Oregon],” Captain Moroni said. “I’m willing to die here.”

http://www.opb.org/news/article/expl...-of-mormonism/

The family behind the Oregon militia cites Mormon beliefs for armed conflicts with the government

BY JASON SILVERSTEIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, January 4, 2016, 11:40 AM

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• Protesters Take Over Wildlife Refuge In Oregon

CBS San Francisco




The menacing militia that has taken over a federal building in Oregon for three days (and counting) appears to be under an unlikely influence: Mormonism.

The Bundy family — a rancher clan with two brothers leading the Oregon siege and a history of flare-ups with the feds — have been known to cite their Mormon beliefs as justification for firearm-filled feuds with the government.

WHY HAS AN ARMED MILITIA TAKEN OVER A FEDERAL BUILDING IN OREGON?

The Bundys’ Book of Mormon dropping started a year ago, when patriarch Cliven Bundy first came to national attention, and continued through the end of 2015, when other Bundys cited scriptures in early warnings about the cause that has now culminated in an armed standoff.

Mormon scripture is rife with stories of founder Joseph Smith and his followers going to war — sometimes literally — with the government in the face of persecution. The religion’s early history in the 1800s includes several bloody conflicts with state governments, leading to the murder of Smith and the exile of Mormons to Utah.

LES ZAITZ/AP

The protest over the treatment of the Hammond ranchers Saturday, which splintered off into an armed militia in a federal building.


That history — of distrusting the government, and needing to claim a land of one’s own — seems to be embedded in the Bundy family, which settled in a Nevada ranch called Golden Butte in the 19th century. Cliven rose to national infamy last year for a faceoff with the feds over his land, which authorities said he was illegally ranching for 20 years. He claimed he had historical rights to do as he pleased with his range.

KING: ARMED MILITIA IN ORE. TAKE OVER PROTECTED BY WHITE SKIN

That turf war escalated into a violent conflict, climaxing with federal rangers cracking down on gun-toting ranchers on the Bundy grounds.

The Bundys were at it again in late 2015, when they started rallying behind the Hammonds, saying the father and son were being persecuted by the government.

AMMON BUNDY VIA YOUTUBE

Ammon Bundy seen in YouTube video posted the day before the protest and siege.


Emails obtained by Buzzfeed News show the Bundys quoting The Book of Mormon while lamenting the fate of the Hammonds, who were facing five years in prison for arson convictions.

“The injustices the Hammonds are suffering will be a type and shadow of the suffering the American people will endure if we do not stand and put an end to it,” Carol Bundy, the wife of patriarch Cliven, wrote in one November email.

She alludes to a term, “a type and a shadow,” used by a prophet in The Book of Mormon who criticizes a king who treats his people unjustly.

Another email sent just days later, this time from son Ammon Bundy, quoted from the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants scripture: “Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.”

JOHN LOCHER/AP

Federal law enforcement near the Bundy ranch in Nevada during the 2014 conflict.


TWITTER USERS SKEWER OREGON MILITIA WITH HILARIOUS TAGS

For the past three days, Ammon and his brother Ryan have led an ad hoc militia — estimated to include anywhere from 15 to 150 fighters — which is holed up in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in Burns. Ammon said the siege is a prolonged protest against the government’s treatment of ranchers.

The Bundy brothers have not cited Mormonism during their siege, and Cliven — despite his public support for the Hammonds — has distanced himself from the armed takeover.

But it seems some explanation for this bizarre conquest was clear long ago: The Bundys believe it was written.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.2484657

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

As per usual anything you say has to be fact

and anything anyone else, or the media says has to be wrong?

A good portion of what the media says is garbage, especially the stuff about global warming and illegal immigration.

Burns, Oregon residents' message to militia: 'Go away'

Donna Edwards: Media treats white militants better than black activists

Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.), who is running for the U.S. Senate, on Monday accused the media of a racial double standard in covering the armed anti-government activists who are occupying a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon.

The group took over a federal building at the refuge Saturday to protest the treatment of a pair of local ranchers who were convicted of arson on federal land. Edwards said in a statement that the activists should be called “lawbreaking . . . militants” and that they are being judged differently than black activists who have demonstrated throughout the country over the past 18 months as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I am deeply troubled by the media portrayal of the events in Oregon and the armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge,” Edwards said in a statement. “Since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement, activists . . . have been referred to variously as ‘thugs,’ ‘criminals,’ and ‘drug users.’ To the contrary, most of these protests and protesters have been peaceful, and organizers have sought and obtained permission to peaceably assemble in exercise of their Constitutional rights. But in Oregon, a group of armed men illegally occupying a federal building have been referred to as an ‘armed militia,’ or simply ‘occupiers,’ as though that behavior is acceptable in a nation of laws. What is happening in Oregon is not protest sanctioned by the Constitution, it is lawbreaking.”

Without naming specific news organizations, Edwards said in her statement that the media “have a responsibility to avoid language that paints these armed militants in a positive light.”

She also argued that a nonwhite group would never be allowed to seize control of government property in this way. “One could not imagine a group of armed black men taking over an unoccupied federal building in one of our nation’s cities as they have in Oregon,” she said. “It is time to tell that tough truth.”

Asked for specific examples of media bias, Edwards spokesman Benjamin Gerdes cited a comment by CNN’s Don Lemon during Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson, Mo., that “obviously there is the smell of marijuana in the air.” He also described Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly comparing Black Lives Matter activists to Nazis and remarks by other Fox News hosts who called the protesters “criminal” and “a hate group.”

Gerdes also referred to the repeated use of the word “thug” to describe rioters in Baltimore after the death in police custody of 25-year-old Freddie Gray last spring. The mayor of Baltimore used the word, although she later apologized. In addition, Gerdes pointed to news stories by a variety of outlets that connected a rise in murder rates in several cities with Black Lives Matter protests.

The media have struggled with how to describe the Oregon occupiers, as The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi has written. Major news outlets, he reported, were avoiding the term “ ‘terrorist’ . . . saying it was unclear that the group’s action was designed to terrorize or harm anyone.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) wrote Monday on Twitter that “it’s time these criminals get to occupy another federal facility: prison.” The FBI says it will work with local and state authorities to seek “a peaceful resolution to the situation.”
Edwards, an African American, is running against Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who is white, for the Democratic nomination to replace Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who is retiring.

There are no black women serving in the U.S. Senate, and the congresswoman has repeatedly argued that she would bring sorely needed diversity to Congress’s upper chamber.
In an op-ed for The Post in April, she said that as a black mother she was “moved” by the protests against police brutality and “disgusted” by looting in Baltimore and Ferguson.

Donna Edwards: Media treats white militants better than black activists | Maryland | U.S. News Hub - 1/5/2016

Black activists



white militants