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  1. #1
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    REID SMELLING ANYTHING BUT ROSY IN RANCH FIGHT

    THIS LAND WAS YOUR LAND

    REID SMELLING ANYTHING BUT ROSY IN RANCH FIGHT

    Desert showdown blows lid off long-standing plans with the Chinese


    JEROME R. CORSI
    April 12. 2014

    Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

    NEW YORK – When Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy refused to take his cattle off land the federal government demanded for the habitat of an endangered desert tortoise, it focused the nation’s attention on an arena Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., may have preferred to be kept quiet.

    An investigative report published last week by Infowars.com drew a connection between Senate Majority Leader Reid’s involvement with Chinese energy giant ENN, Chinese efforts to build massive solar facilities in the Nevada desert and the showdown between Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, or BLM.

    It wasn’t the first report to notice curious dealings involving the Chinese and America’s top Democrats.

    On Jan. 20, 2013, WND warned Chinese government-backed economists were proposing a plan to allow Chinese corporations to set up “development zones” in the United States as part of a plan proposed by the Chinese government to convert into equity the more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt owned by the Chinese government.

    The next day, Jan. 21, 2013, WND documented the Obama administration had begun to allow China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the USA.

    China grabs oil interests in USA

    The first major intrusion of China in the U.S. oil and natural gas market can be traced to the Obama administration decision in October 2009 to allow state-owned Chinese energy giant China Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC, to purchase a multi-million dollar stake in 600,000 acres of South Texas oil and gas fields.

    By allowing China to have equity interests in U.S. oil and natural gas production, the Obama administration reversed a policy of the Bush administration that in 2005 blocked China on grounds of national security concerns from a $18.4-billion dollar deal in which China planned to purchase California-based Unocal Corp.
    China’s two, giant, state-owned oil companies acquiring oil and natural gas interests in the USA are CNOOC, 100-percent owned by the government of the People’s Republic of China, and Sinopec Group, the largest shareholder of Sinopac Corporation, an investment company owned by the government of the People’s Republic of China, incorporated in China in 1998, largely to acquire and operate oil and natural gas interests worldwide.

    On March 6, 2012, the Wall Street Journal compiled a state-by-state list of the $17 billion in oil and natural gas equity interests CNOOC and Sinopec have acquired in the United States since 2010.


    • Colorado: CNOOC gained a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southwest Wyoming in a $1.27-billion pact with Chesapeake Energy Corporation.
    • Louisiana: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 265,000 acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale after a broader $2.5-billion deal with Devon Energy.
    • Michigan: Sinopec gained a one-third interest in 350,000 acres in a larger $2.5-billion deal with Devon Energy.
    • Ohio: Sinopec acquired a one-third interest in Devon Energy’s 235,000 Utica Shale acres in a larger $2.5-billion deal.
    • Oklahoma: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 215,000 acres in a broader $2.5-billion deal with Devon Energy.
    • Texas: CNOOC acquired a one-third interest in Chesapeake Energy’s 600,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale in a $2.16-billion deal.
    • Wyoming: CNOOC has a one-third stake in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming after a $1.27-billion pact with Chesapeake Energy. Sinopec gained a one-third interest in Devon Energy’s 320,000 acres as part of a larger $2.5-billion deal.


    On March 6, 2012, in a separate story, the Wall Street Journal described that China’s strategy implemented since 2010 by Fu Chengyu, who has served as chairman of both CNOOC and Sinopec, involved the following components: “Seek minority states, play a passive role, and, in a nod to U.S. regulators, keep Chinese personnel at arm’s length from advanced U.S. technology.”

    Harry Reid and Chinese solar investments in Nevada

    On April 3, 3012, Bloomberg reported Chinese billionaire Wang Yusuo, one of China’s richest citizens and the founder of Chinese energy giant ENN Group, had teamed up with Senate Majority Leader Reid to win incentives including land 113 miles southeast of Las Vegas that ENN sought to buy for $4.5 million, less than one-eighth of the land’s $38.6 million assessed value.

    Bloomberg reported ENN intended to create solar energy farms on the Nevada land, despite the nearly 50 percent plunge in solar panel prices globally in the previous 15 months that led to the bankruptcy of solar equipment maker Solyndra LLC, which had received approximately $535 million in U.S. government loan guarantees.

    Bloomberg further documented ENN had contributed $40,650 individually and through its political action committee to Sen. Reid over the previous three election cycles.

    Subsequently, on Sept. 4, 2012, Breitbart.com reported lawyer Rory Reid, the son of Sen. Reid, had been appointed the primary representative for ENN Energy Group, fronting the bid by the Chinese company to build a $5-billion solar panel plant on a 9,000-acre Clark County desert plot in Laughton, Nevada.

    A Reuters report published on Aug. 31, 2012, documented that Reid was recruited by ENN during a 2011 trip he took to China with nine other U.S. senators, supposedly to invite Chinese investment in the United States.

    The Senate group accompanying Reid on his 2011 trip to China included six other Democrats and three Republicans: Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.; Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; and Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

    “A tortoise isn’t the reason why BLM is harassing a 67-year-old rancher,” blogger Dana Loesch wrote last week. “They want his land.”

    Loesch pointed out that Reid has been accused by ranchers in Nevada of using the BLM to control Nevada land, over 84 percent of which is already owned by the federal government, and to pay back special interests, including his top donor, Harry Whittemore, who first urged Reid to have the habitat of the desert tortoise moved before he was convicted of violating federal election laws by illegally funneling $150,000 to Reid’s 2007 reelection campaign.

    Confirmed by a 71-28 Senate vote on April 9, BLM chief Neil Kornze served as a former senior adviser to Reid before he joined BLM in 2011, serving for the past year as the agency’s principal deputy director, according to a CBS local television news report broadcast in Carson City, Nevada.

    In 2012, BLM and the U.S. Department of Energy published a “Final Pragmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States” that Inforwars.com charged established the basis for allowing the endangered desert tortoise to migrate habitats, paving the way to put solar energy development projects on acreage that includes public land at dispute in the Bundy standoff over grazing rights.

    Loesch’s analysis of the BLM’s actions was echoed at the Moapa Valley Town board meeting last Wednesday when one of the local citizens rose to give a stirring defense of Cliven Bundy and issue a warning to the BLM.

    “They can throw an army of men around there … with sniper rifles on people just like you are, men, women and children … out there, who believe they have a right to be there,” he said.

    “Maybe you believe in some other place that you believe you can be. Someday they’re gonna throw that army of men around you. And then somehow they feel like they got the right … they can drop a damn tripod in the ground and set a sniper rifle on it, so if you cross a line, they can put a bullet in you. Who the hell is the man behind that trigger? I wanna know … which one of you guys gives that guy the authority to throw that rifle down? And when he does, which one of us is he going to shoot?”

    “Good God, didn’t he grow up in this country? Are we gonna give it up? This is a helluva lot bigger than Clive Bundy.”

    The audience erupted in applause as the man concluded his speech.

    “And when Clive decides to go back in there after his cows, and they’ve got orders to shoot anyone who goes in there, I’m gonna be with him.”
    Someone in the crowd piped up, “Carrying a gun I hope.”

    “No, no,” he said, “because them son of a bitches will fire the next shot heard around the world … and we will fire the rest!”
    The full speech can be viewed, below.


    Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/reid-smel...ueYmeLwOQei.99

  2. #2
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Solar Jobs Join Harry Reid to Chinese Billionaire in Price Drop

    By Jennifer Oldham and Shai Oster
    Apr 3, 2012


    A Chinese billionaire is teaming up with the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate to build a solar plant in a dusty corner of Nevada, even as officials accuse China of driving energy companies out of business by dumping cheap components on the American market.

    ENN Group (ENNGZ) plans a manufacturing and generating facility worth $5 billion, more than all Chinese investment in the U.S. combined last year, in Laughlin, Nevada, a town pockmarked with foreclosed properties and the skeleton of a 14-story resort abandoned when the project went bankrupt.
    Company founder Wang Yusuo, one of China’s richest men, has joined with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to win incentives including land 113 miles (182 kilometers) southeast of Las Vegas that ENN is buying for $4.5 million, or less than one-eighth of the $38.6 million assessors say it is worth. The project has produced legal work for Reid’s son, Rory, a lawyer at a Las Vegas firm that gave the Nevada Democrat more than $40,000 in the past three election cycles.
    “This is counter to most logic,” said Thomas Maslin, an analyst at IHS Emerging Energy Research in Washington, D.C. “It doesn’t make sense in terms of supply and demand. The likely rationale is that because they’re building on public land they need to justify somehow the price through job creation and high- tech manufacturing.”

    Growing Clout

    ENN’s project highlights the growing clout of Chinese capital in this country. Chinese investment in the U.S. jumped to 66 deals worth $4.5 billion in 2011, up from just 11 deals worth $146 million in 2003, according to the Rhodium Group, a New York-based firm that researches trade with China. While it is rising quickly, that total is still far lower than countries such as Switzerland, whose $42 billion infusion makes it the top foreign investor, according to a July report from the U.S. Commerce Department.

    Solar panel prices have plunged almost 50 percent globally in the past 15 months, leading to the bankruptcy of equipment maker Solyndra LLC, with $535 million in U.S. government loan guarantees, and job cuts at other solar manufacturers. The Obama administration, under pressure to curb Chinese companies’ trade practices, imposed preliminary duties on March 20 of as much as 4.73 percent on solar equipment imported from China. Tariffs may prompt more Chinese companies to move their manufacturing facilities to the U.S., Maslin said.

    ENN’s Nevada plan calls for solar panel manufacturing and generation facilities and an eco-community people can visit -- part of what Reid proposes as an alternative-energy hub in a March 12 report called “Playing to Win in Clean Energy.”

    Energy for California

    Reid, 72, a Nevada Democrat who has led the U.S. Senate since 2007, promotes the project planned by ENN, based in Langfang, Hebei Province, as a way to put thousands of people back to work as his state struggles to overcome one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates.

    “It will generate the electricity California must have in just a few years -- 30 percent of all electricity must come from renewable resources,” Reid said during a March 12 conference call with reporters. “This project is close to California. It’s within walking distance.”

    Plans for ENN’s Nevada facility say it may eventually generate about 700 megawatts of electricity, more than 100 times the output of the company’s biggest solar operation now, in Germany. If actually built at that size, it would be 12 times bigger than the largest solar power plant currently in operation in the U.S., Sempra Energy’s 58-megawatt Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility, and also larger than the biggest facility under construction, the 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farm in Santa Margarita, California, with financing from Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.

    Creating Jobs

    The solar complex could create as many as 2,505 jobs during construction through 2023, according to an economic impact study by Las Vegas-based Applied Analysis, a market research consulting firm.

    “Other solar companies said they could produce electricity, but they didn’t have anything that would offer a permanent number of good jobs -- ENN’s manufacturing component will,” said Jacquelyne A. Brady, Laughlin’s town manager, in an interview.

    Both Rory Reid, 49, and former Nevada Governor Richard Bryan, attorneys at the Lionel Sawyer & Collins law firm, have worked on the project, according to documents and Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak.

    Payments to Reid

    The firm gave $40,650 individually and through its political action committee to Senator Reid over the past three election cycles, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan firm that researches the role of campaign contributions in public policy. Lionel Sawyer’s political action committee also contributed $2,000 in 2010 and $5,000 in 2008 to the Searchlight Leadership Fund, a political action committee that lists Reid as an affiliate, according to the CRP’s opensecrets.org.

    The senator’s son hasn’t lobbied him on the ENN project, said Kristen Orthman, a Reid spokeswoman.

    “We have a longstanding office policy that strictly bars any member of the staff’s family or the Senator’s family from lobbying our office on behalf of their clients,” Orthman said in an e-mail. Reid did not recommend the law firm to ENN, she said. Bryan and Rory Reid didn’t return repeated calls.

    While the project may create jobs, it doesn’t make sense in terms of market dynamics, said Lawrence Gasman, principal analyst at Glen Allen, Va.-based NanoMarkets, an alternative- energy research firm.

    ‘Reasons to be Skeptical’

    “There are many reasons to be skeptical of this project,” Gasman said. “Running a power plant and running a manufacturing plant making solar panels are two very different skill sets.”

    Cash-strapped states nationwide want to draw foreign investment to create jobs and boost tax revenue. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Feb. 24 that PepsiCo Inc. and Theo Muller Gmbh, a German dairy company, would invest $206 million in a yogurt factory that would create 186 jobs.

    In Florida, a Malaysian developer announced plans to build a five-star resort on Biscayne Bay that state officials said would boost employment and raise millions in tax revenue.

    In January, Xinyu, China-based LDK Solar Co. announced plans to build two solar plants with a capacity of 8 megawatts in California.

    Like struggling U.S. solar manufacturers, Nanosolar Inc. and SoloPower Inc., both based in San Jose, and Loveland, Colo.- based Abound Solar Inc., ENN manufactures thin film solar panels. ENN’s panels aren’t made with the same material as its U.S. competitors’ and rely on a non-crystalline substance known as amorphous silicon.

    Firing Workers

    SoloPower announced in August that it received a $197 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. Abound Solar, with $400 million in approved federal loan guarantees, said in February it was firing 180 workers and halting solar panel production.

    Solar price weakness may be good news for consumers and for utilities such as San Francisco-based PG&E Corp. (PCG), which is required to buy much of its power from renewable sources, said Anthony Earley Jr., PG&E’s chief executive officer. The trend isn’t as healthy for government-backed solar companies struggling to make ends meet in the aftermath of the collapse of Solyndra.

    “Every time we go out for bids we are seeing the price come down,” Earley said in an interview. “A lot of it is that the Chinese and others are dumping cheap solar cells on the market. The risk is the industry just collapses.”

    Suits of Armor

    The man behind the proposed Nevada plant is Wang, 48, chairman of ENN Group, which includes ENN Energy Holdings Ltd. (2688, the fourth-largest Hong Kong-listed natural gas supplier by sales. He founded the company that became ENN Group in 1989 and it now operates in more than 100 cities across China, according to its website.

    Wang rose from a background selling natural gas canisters for home cooking and renting cars to build the 100-acre ENN headquarters 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Beijing, with manufacturing facilities and a company museum. Nearby, Wang built a luxury golf course with his personal villa and a five- star hotel, featuring a wine cellar guarded by suits of armor.

    With his wife, Zhao Baoju, Wang is estimated to be worth $2.7 billion, ranking the couple among the top 100 richest people in China, according to the Hurun Report, a Shanghai-based publisher of luxury magazines, which tracks the nation’s wealthy using publicly available information.

    Land Deal

    The land deal ENN negotiated with Clark County commissioners requires the firm to obtain an agreement from a utility to buy power before it can break ground, Sisolak said.

    The California Public Utilities Commission approved only a fraction of renewable power deals brought before it for review last year, said Timothy Alan Simon, a member of the commission.

    “We have a situation where we’re oversubscribed,” Simon said in a telephone interview.

    Speaking through an interpreter, Wang touted the proposal in August in Las Vegas at Reid’s fourth annual Clean Energy Summit. Vice President Joe Biden and California Governor Jerry Brown -- who asked Wang to consider bringing the project to his state -- were photographed alongside the ENN chairman, Reid and Sisolak.

    ‘Resort Destination’

    “We plan to build an eco-community by using our ‘Ubiquitous Energy Network’ technology, with the aim of making it a good resort destination just like Las Vegas,” Wang said in a speech at the summit.

    In a statement provided by a company spokesman, ENN Solar Energy Co. Chief Operating Officer De-Ling Zhou said: “After reviewing your questions, it became clear that at this early stage in the proposed project, we simply do not have enough details or are not in a position to adequately answer them.

    “We can say ENN’s proposed project will bolster the long- term economic health of Clark County and the State of Nevada,” Zhou wrote.

    Job creation persuaded Clark County commissioners to approve the subsidized land deal, which requires ENN to meet a series of milestones including investing $100 million by 2014 and $1 billion by 2018. Officials also offered to use ENN’s land payments to build infrastructure on the property.

    “Next to the hospitality industry, construction has been our life blood,” said Sisolak. “It’s not like it got a little rough for construction over the last couple of years. It basically went away.”

    Food Banks

    For Clark County, where 70 percent of homeowners owe more on their homes than they are worth, furloughed construction workers rely on food banks at local union halls, and unemployment is 13.1 percent, the project could singlehandedly diversify a stagnant economy.

    “I can’t tell you how many tours I’ve given people over the years trying to get them to see Laughlin as an attractive place,” said Brady, who has managed the town since 1995 on behalf of Clark County.

    About 30 percent fewer people visited Laughlin in 2011 than in 2007, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Gaming revenues at its riverside resorts -- battling competition from Indian casinos in Nevada and California -- were off by 25 percent, statistics show.

    ENN isn’t the only company interested in the desolate desert where road runners race across potholed two-lane roads in front of Baby Boomers on Harleys. Here, the sun shines 320 days a year and mobile phones can’t decide whether to use Pacific (Laughlin) or Mountain (Arizona) time.

    Others are also looking to buy land for solar projects in the area, wrote New York-based Integra Realty Resources in an appraisal commissioned by Clark County for the 9,000-acre ENN parcel and obtained by Bloomberg through the Nevada Public Records Act.

    “From what we can surmise, this is just the beginning,” Integra wrote. The firm added: “We also found that this is a highly secretive business.”

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...rice-drop.html

  3. #3
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Very interesting video - lets you know where the stimulus was spent. This is a Harry Reid sponsored BLM meeting.

    Office of Harry Reid Land Re-use Initiave.

    http://www.ntc.blm.gov/krc/uploads/4...eid%20%20.html


    Office_of_Senator_Harry_Reid
    NTC.BLM.GOV


    Renewable Energy Summit: Session 2

    Monday PM, August 31

    VIDEO CLIPS of the Renewable Energy Summit are now available for viewing. These are large files, so they may take a while to download, linked through the BLM's National Training Center's Knowledge Resource Center system. Click on the title or screen image to start the video. Transcripts are being created and will soon be available. If used in the presentation, PDF VERSIONS of PowerPoint presentation are also available . Click on the PDF icons to download.


    Video 3: Land Reuse Initiatives


    Ray Brady, Teri Raml, and Lura Matthews
    Speaker
    PDF of
    PowerPoint
    Shannon Raborn, Office of Senator Harry Reid
    Not Available
    Teri Raml, Arizona BLM Restoration Design Energy Project Manager
    Lura Matthews, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
    Ginny Pyles, BLM National Operations Center


    Video 4: Wind Energy Overview and Advancements

    Ian Baring-Gould
    Speaker
    PDF of
    PowerPoint
    Ian Baring-Gould and Robi Robichaud, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Department of Energy
    Facilitated by Ray Brady, BLM Energy Team manager
    Video 5: Solar Energy Overview and Advancements

    Linda Resseguie
    Speaker
    PDF of
    PowerPoint
    Tom Mancini, Sandia Labs
    Fred Morse, Abengoa Solar
    Facilitated by Linda Resseguie, BLM Washington Office

    Video 7: Geothermal Panel


    Kermit Witherbee
    Speaker
    PDF of
    PowerPoint
    Kermit Witherbee, BLM National Geothermal Manager
    Not Available
    Jack Peterson, Idaho BLM
    Not Available
    David Batts, EMPS, Inc.
    Not Available
    Karl Galwell, Geothermal Energy Association

    http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/energy/renewable_energy/renewable_summit/Session2.print.html





    Last edited by Newmexican; 04-13-2014 at 02:05 PM.

  4. #4
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    BLM TN-444

    Gold Butte on page 36.
    http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medial...dat/TN_444.pdf

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    Quote Originally Posted by Newmexican View Post



    Surprise Surprise....

  6. #6
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    Is Harry Reid Involved? Seven Answers to Seven Questions You’re Probably Asking Right Now About the Nevada Rancher Situation

    Apr. 13, 2014




    MESQUITE, NV – APRIL 11: Rancher Cliven Bundy poses for a picture outside his ranch house on April 11, 2014 west of Mesquite, Nevada. (Getty Images)

    Government officials retreated Saturday from federal property in Gold Butte, Nev., leaving behind some 389 “trespass cattle” that had been impounded as the result of a decades-long dispute between a local rancher and the U.S. government.
    But while the story has managed to capture the attention of thousands of Americans, it has also managed to confuse thousands more. Indeed, from questions regarding property rights to whether a Democratic senator was involved in the cattle roundup, many have been left wondering what it’s all about and searching for the facts.

    So in an effort to provide some clarity on the ongoing developments in Gold Butte, here are some answers to the seven main questions people have asked about the decades-long fight between 67-year-old rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government:

    7. Does Sen. Harry Reid have a connection to the Bureau of Land Management?

    In a way, yes.

    The new head of the Bureau of Land Management recently served as senior policy adviser to Nevada’s Democratic Sen. Harry Reid.
    Neil Kornze, 35, left Reid’s office (where he managed public land issues) in 2011 to join the Bureau of Land Management as senior adviser to the director. He later became the deputy director for policy and programs in 2013.
    The U.S. Senate then voted 71-28 on April 8, 2014, to confirm Kornze as the new director of the agency.

    6. Is Harry Reid working with the Chinese to force the Bundys out?


    The facts don’t support it.

    Reid and his son, Rory, were both deeply involved in a deal with the Chinese-owned ENN Energy Group to build a $5 billion solar farm in Laughlin, Nevada. But that is roughly 177 miles away from Bundy’s 150-acre ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., and 213 miles from the federally owned Gold Butte area where Bundy ‘s cattle graze, according to Google Maps.

    Image source: Google Maps

    It’s worth noting that Rory Reid is the former chair of the Clark County commission (Clark County is located near the Gold Butte area). He left in 2011 to work for a Las Vega law firm representing ENN.

    But despite the Reids’ best attempts to secure the land for ENN, and despite the Bureau of Land Management expressing concerns that “trespass cattle” could complicate plans to use land in the Gold Butte area for “offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development,” it was all in vain: The Chinese company eventually shelved the project in June 2013 when it failed to find a customer. The deal is over and the proposed construction will not happen.

    5. So Who Owns the Land in Question?


    The federal government owns the disputed land and has claimed ownership since before Nevada even joined the union, according to a 2013 U.S. District Court ruling.

    “[T]he public lands in Nevada are the property of the United States because the United States has held title to those public lands since 1848, when Mexico ceded the land to the United States,” the ruling states.

    The ruling confirmed the federal government’s longstanding claim that it lawfully acquired ownership of the in land 1848 under the Treaty of the Guadalupe Hidalgo.
    The court rejected Bundy’s repeated claim to having an intergenerational right to use the land as invalid and said his arguments against federal ownership carry no legal weight.

    “Bundy has produced no valid law or specific facts raising a genuine issue of fact regarding federal ownership or management of public lands in Nevada,” the decision reads.

    Federal law enforcement officers block a road at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Overton, Nev. Thursday, April 10, 2014 (AP)

    It’s important to note that like most states, in its constitution Nevada recognizes federal authority over public lands:

    That the people inhabiting said territory do agree and declare, that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States; and that lands belonging to citizens of the United States, residing without the said state, shall never be taxed higher than the land belonging to the residents thereof; and that no taxes shall be imposed by said state on lands or property therein belonging to, or which may hereafter be purchased by, the United States, unless otherwise provided by the congress of the United States. [Amended in 1956. Proposed and passed by the 1953 legislature; agreed to and passed by the 1955 legislature; approved and ratified by the people at the 1956 general election. See: Statutes of Nevada 1953, p. 718; Statutes of Nevada 1955, p. 926.]

    In 1934, Congress enacted the Taylor Grazing Act, giving the federal government the authority to regulate grazing on the public lands in an effort to improve rangeland conditions.

    Twelve years later, the General Land Office and Grazing Service were combined to form the Bureau of Land Management, which has been given the authority to regulate public lands, including nearly 600,000 acres in Gold Butte.
    Lastly, it’s worth remembering Nevada joined the union in 1864. Bundy’s family didn’t start working the Clark Country area until the late 1880s.
    Here’s the 2013 court ruling against Bundy:

    4. Did Mr. Bundy ever recognize federal authority and pay grazing fees?

    According to his daughter, yes.

    Mr. Bundy has stated repeatedly in the past that he does not recognize federal authority in Gold Butte, arguing instead that the state owns the land.

    However, he hasn’t always taken such a strong stance against federal ownership of land located inside Nevada’s border. In fact, Bundy used to pay the Bureau of Land Management’s grazing fees “for years,” according to his daughter, Shiree Bundy Cox, but stopped in 1993 when he decided it wasn’t in his best interest.
    “My dad did pay his grazing fees for years to the [Bureau of Land Management] until they were no longer using his fees to help him and to improve.

    Instead they began using these [sic] money’s against the ranchers,” she wrote in a blog post dated April 11, 2014. “They bought all the rest of the ranchers in the area out with they’re [sic] own grazing fees. When they offered to buy my dad out for a penence [sic] he said no thanks and then fired them because they weren’t doing their job.”

    By “fired,” Cox means her father stopped paying the federal grazing fees.
    Her post continues, claiming Cliven Bundy tried at one point to send grazing fee payments to the county instead of the Washington, D.C., but was turned down by local officials.

    “So my dad just went on running his ranch and making his own improvements with his own equipment and his own money, not taxes,” she wrote.
    An interesting note: When federal agents first deployed last week to shut down Gold Butte, Bundy did several interviews with well-known media outlets, including ABC News, Fox News and the L.A. Times.

    TheBlaze also spoke with him for nearly an hour.

    He never mentioned trying to make grazing fee payments to the county or being turned away by local officials. His explanations for using the land focused almost entirely on his so-called “pre-emptive rights,” which include the right to forage.
    It wasn’t until Friday, more than a week after federal agents started impounding his “trespass cattle,” that Bundy started talking about trying to pay the county.
    TheBlaze has not yet contacted the Clark County clerk’s office to confirm whether Bundy tried to make payment. We will include that information in this story when we receive it.

    3. Is the Bundy cattle fight really all about a desert tortoise?

    Several observers have suggested that the fight between Bundy and the federal government revolves around an endangered tortoise. Although this claim is mostly true, it lacks important context.

    Here’s a timeline of events:


    • 1993: The Lake Mead National Recreation Area for the National Park Service reduce the number of cattle that could graze on the Bunkerville allotment “to 150 because of the emergency listing of the desert tortoise as an endangered species,” according to a formal agency official.
    • 1993: Bundy “fires” the BLM.
    • 1994: The Fish and Wildlife Service formally identifies Gold Butte as an area “critical to the long-term survival of the desert tortoise.”
    • 1994: Federal officials revoke Bundy’s grazing permit for failure to pay and failure to reduce the number of his cattle. The Bunkerville allotment is closed to grazing.
    • 1998: The Bureau of Land Management closes off the Gold Butte area to cattle.
    • 2013: The Bureau of Land Management announces plans to euthanize ”hundreds” of tortoises due to budget restrictions


    Gold Butte being turned into a cattle-free zone wasn’t exactly sudden. It was a few years in the making, which brings us to our next question.
    This section has been updated.

    2. Were the ranchers really chased off and forced into bankruptcy?

    Were all the other ranchers in the area of Clark County really “chased off” and, as Cox (Bundy’s daughter) put it, forced into bankruptcy by the federal government?
    It’s not clear.

    After the federal government agreed to designate the area for the endangered animal, Clark County purchased all “valid existing grazing permits for Gold Butte, paying $375,000 to retire them for the benefit of the tortoise.”

    MESQUITE, NV – APRIL 11: Armed security guards guard the entrance to Rancher Cliven Bundy ranch house on April 11, 2014 west of Mesquite, Nevada (AP)

    Ordinarily, this would be considered a simple buyout, which is obviously different from being “forced into bankruptcy” or being priced out entirely. However, as Cox wrote, the ranchers were bought off with their “own grazing fees,” suggesting they made no net gain from turning over their permits.

    TheBlaze will request clarification from the Clark County clerk’s office as soon as possible to help explain this question.

    1. Did the Feds Overreact?


    Contract cowboys and hundreds of armed federal agents descended on the publicly held property last week, bringing with them dozens of retrofitted SUVs, helicopters and heavy duty hauling equipment (the Bundy family claims the government also deployed snipers and “heavy artillery,” but these claims have not been confirmed by secondary sources).

    This prompted the obvious question: How did this go from a property dispute to something featuring plenty of armed agents and even a Bundy relative being tased?

    Contractors for the Bureau of Land Management round up cattle belonging to Cliven Bundy with a helicopter near Bunkerville, Nev. Monday, April 7, 2014 Vegas. (AP)

    Consider that there has been a lot of saber-rattling rhetoric being used.
    For instance, Bundy once casually told reporters in an interview that he keeps several firearms at his ranch, adding that he would do “whatever it takes” to protect his cattle.

    “I’ve got to protect my property … If people come to monkey with what’s mine, I’ll call the county sheriff. If that don’t work, I’ll gather my friends and kids and we’ll try to stop it. I abide by all state laws. But I abide by almost zero federal laws,” he said in reference to what he repeatedly calls a “range war.”

    Bundy has also regularly invoked Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, claiming often and loudly that he’s the “last cowboy standing.”

    Even his wife, Carol, said in an interview: “I’ve got a shotgun … It’s loaded and I know how to use it. We’re ready to do what we have to do, but we’d rather win this in the court of public opinion.”

    And then there are the militias that showed up to support Bundy.
    “This is what we do, we provide armed response,” Jim Lordy with Operation Mutual Aid told a local station. “They have guns. We need guns to protect ourselves from the tyrannical government.”

    Still, the militia members and protesters insist it’s the government that became violent first with the tasing incident, as well as the mere presence of the armed federal agents. And Ammon Bundy, Cliven’s son who was tased, did restrict rifles within camp last week:

    8 News NOW Either way, it appears the language being used has put at least a few federal officials on edge.

    “I was one of those public officials who were told to back off at one point because of concern for violence,” a former National Park Services official said in an op-ed.
    In the end, the feds say they pulled back out of fear of escalating tensions, with each side likely pointing the finger at the other as the instigator.

    “Based on information about conditions on the ground, and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public,” Neil Kornze, the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, said Saturday in a statement. “We ask that all parties in the area remain peaceful and law-abiding as the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service work to end the operation in an orderly manner.”

    Initial estimates put the cost of the federal government’s failed attempt to remove Bundy’s “trespass cattle” at around $3 million.

    TheBlaze will continue to follow the story and bring you any updates.

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014...her-situation/
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    Secret audio recording from Bundy Ranch reveals BLM Special Agent Dan Love and Pete Santilli threatening each other with arrest over violations of U.S. Constitution

    April 13, 2014


    Mike Adams, (NaturalNews) Natural News has obtained and is now releasing a secret audio recording of a conversation that took place Thursday, April 10th, between Daniel P. Love, Special Agent in Charge of Region 3 of the BLM and Guerilla Media Network radio host Pete Santilli, serving in the role as a communications liaison between the armed citizen protesters and the BLM.

    In this recording, you can hear Daniel Love and Pete Santilli discussing life-and-death confrontations, during which Santilli says Daniel Love and the Sheriff of the county will be arrested if they do not uphold their oath to the United States Constitution.

    This audio gives us all a special look inside the twisted mind of BLM Special Agent Dan Love who functions as an agent of government tyranny operating in complete violation of the U.S. Constitution even while telling himself he’s backed by the Constitution!

    Background: The recording was made during a time when armed citizen protesters were only beginning to arrive, and BLM personnel at the time outnumbered armed citizens. (That situation reversed on Friday when armed citizens vastly outnumbered BLM.)

    Click here to hear the audio recording
    (slightly edited for length, but nothing removed that’s inherent to the conversation).

    Recording transcript

    Note: I typed this in myself (Mike Adams), late on a Saturday night, so I apologize for typos or errors. Doing my best to get this out ASAP for the sake of liberty in America…

    The first voice you hear in this audio is of Pete Santilli asking, “Where’s the cattle?”

    The next voice, the lower voice is of Dan Love from BLM. Some of the highlights of the recording, transcribed (this transcript is EDITED for length and continuity, listen to the actual audio if you want every single word).

    Santilli: “We want zero conflict. You know, confrontational, nose to nose…” And then later, “Are we going to be here screaming at you, and you’re gonna be tasing, are you gonna do that type of confrontation. What we are trying to do is to completely de-escalate, 100%.”

    Santilli: “What we’re going to ask for to de-escalate and to make sure we are not in confrontation with you… we want to let you know that we’re going to come here and it’s going to be non-negotiable what we believe in, and what we believe is the right thing to do.”

    Dan Love: “We have two federal court orders, and if you interfere, you will be arrested. If you impede and interfere, you will be taken into custody.”

    Santilli: “Tell DC Justice [Eric Holder] this is non-negotiable… but if you choose to go face to face and people get hurt, then we are going to hold you personally accountable.”

    Dan Love: “And I will hold you legally accountable. And I guarantee that the Constitution is on my side and not that side… Your Constitutions aren’t decided on the dirt… you can fight that argument from jail.”

    Santilli: “It’s not gonna be a fight, it’s gonna be a non-negotiable terms, peacefully. If you bring violence…”

    Dan Love: “If you interfere, if you impede, you will be arrested. I don’t know how you plan on arresting me, but good luck with that.”

    Santilli: “There are gonna be some law enforcement officials who are gonna be going to jail.”

    Dan Love: “Yeah, don’t do that. That’s not gonna end well for ya. That doesn’t happen. And again, I’ve seen your numbers right now, you’d better hope that 10,000 show up…

    Dan Love: “You’re telling me you’re gonna show up and arrest officers? That’s not gonna happen, Mr. Santilli.”

    Santilli: “If anyone is unconstitutional, is not following to abide by their oath to the U.S. Constitution, they are going to be arrested including the Sheriff of this county.”

    Dan Love: “Okay, you start with him, go arrest Mr. Gillespie, and once you accomplish that you come back…”

    Santilli: “He will be incarcerated if he fails to uphold his oath to the U.S. Constitution… he will go to jail.”

    Dan Love: “I’m telling you right now I’m putting YOU on warning as the messenger, if you violate, if you impede, if you interfere with two lawful court orders, you will be prosecuted, you will be arrested.”

    Santilli: “They are unlawful court orders…. I did not come here to do anything but to give you the opportunity to prevent a scenario where you’re going to make a decision to cause harm to people.”

    Dan Love: “We’re lawfully here! Do you see all these signs? You’re in an enclosed area, you’re on federal land…”

    Santilli: “It’s not federal land.”

    Dan Love: “It is federal land. I am positive.”

    Santilli: “I’ll bet you lunch.”

    Dan Love: “Mr. Santilli, if you were right, I wouldn’t have a job. So you know what? Be right. Get it changed, and then I’m happy not to wear this little gold shield…”

    Santilli: “Do you know how dangerous it is for you to run around with a gun and a badge with what you just told me?… That you actually believe that you have the Constitution, and the law behind you, and the entitlement and you have a badge and a gun?”

    Dan Love: “If you come unlawfully, to impede or interfere, you will be arrested. Non-negotiable.”

    Click here to listen to the full transcript.

    http://agenda21radio.com/?p=7525
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