In Eastern Oregon on Friday, January 8, 2016, a group of extremist supporters of the Bundy terrorist group began to flood into Harney County.  On Saturday, January 9, their extremist motives and support for the Bundy terror group is leading into a growing terrorist insurrection of the Eastern Oregon area around Burns, Oregon, with terror supporter surrounding the court house in Harney County on January 9 to provide a “resolution” of their demands.

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) remains fully committed to rejecting all terrorist threats and attacks on the Universal Human Rights of all of our fellow human beings, including Americans.  In the United States of America, the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” [28 C.F.R. Section 0.85 (1) ].

As previously reported in Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)’s detailed report, the terrorist activities of the Bundy brothers-led group which began a week ago on January 2, 2016, when the brother Ammon and Ryan Bundy led a terrorist group in an armed takeover of U.S. federal government buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, south of Burns, which is operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which includes the main office, a museum, and homes. The terrorists have also stationed armed extremists within the wildlife center’s watchtower to watch for law enforcement response to their crimes.   They have been accessing U.S. government computers, had access to employee information, identification cards, and they have made demands on their political cause to the U.S. Government over the past week.

As previously reported by R.E.A.L., the Bundy terrorist group has threatened violence, in addition to its violent takeover of the U.S. federal government facility.  Supporters of the Bundy terrorist group have threatened local members of the community, including death threats against the Harney County Sheriff, threats against his wife, slashing the tires of his wife, and stalking his elderly parents.  One of the Bundy terrorist leaders, Ryan Bundy, threatened to kill people.

With no Federal Law Enforcement defiance to a week of such criminal terrorist behavior, other supporters of the Bundy terrorist group have arrived to join them, and the terrorists have managed to gain more public and open supporters among local individuals, who are fearful of retaliation, since the U.S. Federal Government has determined to refuse to restore the rule of law in Oregon.  Reports were that terrorist supporters were allowed to come and go at will, additional family members joined the Bundy terrorist group, and others have been providing food and supplies to the Bundy terrorist group, with no one being arrested and no held accountable for their support for this terrorist group.  Internet social media took to making jokes about the terrorist group, but increasingly the joke has been on the Rule of Law, which has been completely abandoned in this part of Eastern Oregon and terrorists seem to be empowered to do whatever they want.  The source of the failure to act has been a decision by the White House not recognize this as “terrorism,” to abandon its responsibilities for federal facility protection to “local law enforcement,” and for the Obama Administration to order federal law enforcement not to have violent conflict with the emboldened terrorists.

As the Bundy terrorist group felt more empowered, it began dictating to the federal government that it sought transfer of the federal government land to the local government, and the terrorist group created a committee of local representatives that it claimed would oversee local governance.  The Bundy terrorist group “Harney County Committee of Safety” was named, and claimed that it had rights to local governance and drew its power from historical militias, including those they claimed were necessary to protect people  from “threats from the savages.”

On January 7, the Harney County Sheriff offered to provide “safe escort” of the criminal Bundy terrorist group if they would simply leave the small town area terrorized by the insurrection.  The Bundy terror group leader, Ammon Bundy declined the offer and insisted the terrorists would keep control of the U.S. Federal Government facility.   On January 8, the sheriff reported that he did not know when talks would continue.

On January 8, R.E.A.L. and other human rights activists warned the F.B.I. and other federal law enforcement authorities that other extremist groups supporting the Bundy terrorists were planning to join the terrorists’ movement, with a cover story that they planned to create a cordon to protect the terrorists from F.B.I. violence.  R.E.A.L. specifically warned the FBI and other regarding the plans of Pacific Patriots Network to come to the Burns, Oregon area, as initially and publicly announced by the III Percenters of Idaho president,  Brandon Curtiss.  R.E.A.L. obtained a report that Brandon Curtiss planned to protect the Bundy terrorist group by creating “a safety perimeter for the occupiers” (the Bundy terrorists) “so as to prevent a Waco-style solution from unfolding during this peaceful occupation.”  Brandon Curtiss, who is a former police officer, continued that his Anti-Government group sought to “bear witness to any aggressive action initiated by federal agencies” – Curtiss told Sam Bushman, an Anti-Goverment “Patriot” movement radio host, that his group helped organize the original Burns, Oregon protests before the Bundy terrorist armed takeover of the U.S. federal building, which Curtiss calls a “peaceful occupation.”  Our contact to law enforcement on this was not acknowledged.

PPN and III Percent Anti-Government Extremist – Armed Convoy Comes to Eastern Oregon

The groups included the “Pacific Patriots Network,” which had publicly expressed support for the Bundy terrorists, although making a transparently obvious false claim that they sought the terrorist to “stand down.”   The Idaho-based “Pacific Patriots Network” (PPN) had stated: “We wish to establish a safety perimeter of protection for the occupiers so as to prevent a Waco-style situation from unfolding during this peaceful occupation. The primary intention of this outer-ring is to bear witness to any aggressive action initiated by federal agencies or the occupiers, and to encourage an open dialogue towards a peaceful resolution. ”

The PPN denied the Bundy group efforts were terrorism, and stated the armed take over of government buildings “[a]t this point in time this is no different than a sit in protest at a college.”  The real goal has been for the Pacific Patriots Network, the “Oath Keepers, and “III Percenters” (Three Percenters) network, whose anti-government goals have been to spread a more nationwide insurrection and to defy U.S. Government authority, whose slogan is “when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”

In the current efforts by the Pacific Patriots Network in support of the Bundy terrorist group, PPN leader Joseph Rice has been leading armed convoys throughout Harney County, taking over roads, and surrounding the Harney County Courthouse to provide a “resolution” to the Sheriff.

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) reported: “A member of the Pacific Patriots Network, Joseph Rice, told OPB the convoy went to the courthouse to deliver what he called the ‘articles of resolution’ to the county. The Pacific Patriot Network is a collective of people from Oregon, Washington and Idaho, who, Saturday morning, arrived at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge claiming to secure the scene where armed militants have been stationed for the past week.”

As the federal law enforcement has been ORDERED by the Obama Administration not to have any violent conflict with the terrorists, and the local law enforcement is significantly overmatched by the convoys of armed terrorists, a state of confused lawlessness is growing as the insurrection of Eastern Oregon grows.  Local media expecting some type of leadership on law order are left asking the general public basic safety questions, such as whether the road should be closed to stop convoys of armed Anti-Government and terrorist groups from flooding into the area.

Among the new armed convoys of Anti-Government extremists and terrorist supporters, PPN leader Joseph Rice (also an “Oath Keeper” leader) also led a “militia” effort in April 2015 in Josephine County, Oregon to defy Bureau of Land Management regulations over mineral rights in Galice Creek.  The “Oath Keeper” extremists were also a part of the armed groups at the 2014 Cliven Bundy protests in Nevada, where federal law enforcement surrender and withdrew.  Leaders of the Idaho-based anti-government extremists have made violent threats against the government before.  “Pacific Patriots Network” and “Oath Keeper” leaders have supported violent anti-government activities, including the 2014 armed threats against federal law enforcement in Nevada on the Cliven Bundy ranch (which went unpunished), and conflicts with the federal government in Oregon, Montana, and California.

Among other supporters of such Anti-Government Three Percenters, this includes the November 2015 arrest of pro-Confederate Allen ‘Lance’ Scarsella, which R.E.A.L. reported on among the White Supremacist Terrorists who attacked a protest in Minneapolis, where five African-Americans were shot. R.E.A.L. assisted in providing information to the F.B.I. on that investigation.

Anti-Government supporters of the Cliven Bundy armed protest against police included killers Jerad and Amanda Miller; the current Oregon Bundy brother-led terrorist group was inspired by the failure of federal law enforcement to stop them in Nevada in 2014.  Jerad Miller was at the Bundy Ranch, where armed Bundy terrorists threatened law enforcement. The duo had professed strong support for Bundy, who had been cited for grazing his cattle on public land without a permit.  In June 2014, the Bundy Anti-Government couple led a killing spree in Las Vegas in a restaurant and a Walmart department store, ambushing and killing two police officers and killing another American civilian.  Jerad and Amanda Miller claimed they were “freedom fighters” hoping to spark an anti-government “revolution. After storming a restaurant and killing two police officers, Jerad and Amanda Miller placed a swastika and a ‘don’t tread on me’ flag on the officers’ bodies before going to Walmart and taking more lives. The two Anti-Government Millers were then killed by police.

In addition, the Political Research group reports on the history of violence and criminal behavior among the extremist anti-government groups: “Numerous arrests of Three Percenters and those who have shown affinity with them have been documented.” “Three Percenter Brad Bartelt threatened to detonate a homemade explosive on Arkansas State University’s campus in December 2015. Bran­don D. Gibbs, who was heavily armed and armored when police arrested him in December 2014 for threatening a city official, also had shown an affinity for the Three Percenters. And in 2011, Frederick Thomas was arrested in Georgia as a member of a militia group, which ‘planned to attack cities including Atlanta with deadly ricin, bomb federal buildings and murder law enforcement officials and others.’  Thomas was allegedly inspired by Vanderboegh’s online novel Absolved; it describes a future confrontation where activists with Patriot movement views have a shootout with law enforcement and plan to murder government officials.”

Anti-Government terrorist Frederick Thomas and other ricin terrorist plotters sought to spread ricin across the Washington, D.C. area via airplane in a mass murder terrorist attack.

Despite this history of violence and terroristic behavior from such Anti-Government extremist groups and the armed threats against Federal Government law enforcement, the White House has decided to take a tepid response to the Bundy terrorist group activities in the current armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, as well as the new group of Anti-Government extremists pouring into Eastern Oregon from other parts of Oregon, Idaho, and other areas.

The tepid response from the White House to this armed insurrection and takeover of U.S. government facilities, was to deny that these Bundy gang that had taken over U.S. Federal Government facilities at gunpoint were “terrorists,” and to abandon the defense of Federal Government facilities as “ultimately this is local law enforcement matter,” while offering the FBI to provide help in investigation.  The White House has provided no comments or leadership in condemning or defying this terrorist takeover of U.S. Federal Government facilities.

Reuters has interviewed senior Obama administration officials, however, who state that they were ORDERED not to have any violent conflict with the terrorists.  In an article titled, “U.S. authorities under orders to avoid clash in Oregon stand-off,” it was reported that “Federal authorities in a stand-off with armed, self-styled militiamen in eastern Oregon have been told to avoid a violent confrontation, in line with official U.S. policy after deadly clashes in the 1990s, said three Obama administration officials.”  “The occupation’s leaders have issued recruiting calls on social media for more supporters, though it is unclear how many have joined so far. The Malheur occupation began as a march in Burns, Oregon about 30 miles (48 km) north of the wildlife refuge to protest Monday’s scheduled imprisonment of two ranchers convicted in 2012 of setting fires that inadvertently spread to public land. Two administration officials cited the peaceful resolution of a 2014 confrontation with members of the Bundy family as a successful precedent for a non-confrontational approach.”  In 2014, the Cliven Bundy family staged an armed defiance of federal government law enforcement authorities, and the Obama administration had the federal law enforcement give up and withdraw.  No charges have been made and no fines collected from the Bundy family.

————————

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) is stunned by the events over the past week in Oregon, which have been so fast moving that most of R.E.A.L. reports have been on Twitter and Facebook social media, as the blog format simply is not fast enough to keep up with the stream of breaking events.  R.E.A.L has been astounded at the weak response by the White House on this act of terrorism, and its lack of interest in defending U.S. Government facilities, property, and the people in the surrounding area.  R.E.A.L. recognizes and understands that all of the facts are not publicly known, but what R.E.A.L. has witnessed over the past week is inconsistent with the standards of law enforcement and the willingness to defy terrorism, which has previously (and in other cases today) been a hallmark standard of federal law enforcement.  Furthermore, the unwillingness of the President of the United States to make a strong and unequivocal statement in support of the rule of law, especially in the context of other recent “successful” terrorist attacks on the United States seems inexplicable to R.E.A.L.   R.E.A.L. hopes that the President’s position on this will change and soon.

Like everyone, R.E.A.L. hopes there will be a peaceful settlement to this.  However, the inspiration that the apparent weakness has given to ISIS and other terrorist groups across the United States of America and the world, remains a significant undermining of American support the rule of law and human rights.  In the words of that great Darfur human rights leader, Mohamed Yahya, while we all seek peace for all, we must remember “without justice, there can be no lasting peace.”

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands in support of our universal human rights for all, and we stand in defiance against those, including terrorist and hate groups, which seek to attack such universal human rights, dignity, and security for all.

We cannot support human rights, if we also do not reject those who seek to rob our brothers and sisters in humanity of their lives and security, which are also our universal human rights.