John R. Houk
© June 30, 2017
Here is a reprise of Oregon Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
standoff instigated by the unjust re-sentencing of Dwight and Steven Hammond
after they had already served time for a conviction that should never have
happened. A bunch of ranchers from all over the Western U.S. came as a protest
militia against the unjust actions of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). There
were a few leaders of this rancher militia but the few headlines that made into
the MSM placed Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan as the faces of BLM resistance.
Ammon and Ryan were fresh off a successful standoff with their father Cliven
Bundy in Nevada.
Here’s a rehash of the Hammonds’ BLM difficulties:
According to an October 7,
2015 press release from the Obama Department of
Justice, Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 73, and his son, Steven
Dwight Hammond, 46, both residents of Diamond, Oregon in Harney County, were
sentenced to five years in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken for
arsons they committed on federal lands.
The men were charged nearly a decade
after the first fire and five years after the second.
Oregon Live reports on the fires:
The Hammonds' run-ins with the
government began in 1999, when Steven Hammond started a fire that escaped onto
U.S. Bureau of Land Management territory. The intent of the fire was to burn
off juniper and sagebrush that hindered the growth of grass for their cattle.
BLM employees reminded Steven Hammond that although his family leased public land for grazing, he couldn't burn it without a permit. But in September 2001, the Hammonds started another fire. This one ran off their property on Steens Mountain, consumed 139 acres of public land and took the acreage out of production for two growing seasons, according to court papers.
Then in August 2006, lightning sparked several fires near the spot where the Hammonds grew their winter feed. Steven Hammond set a back-burn to thwart the advancing flames, and it burned across about an acre of public land, according to federal court records.
BLM employees reminded Steven Hammond that although his family leased public land for grazing, he couldn't burn it without a permit. But in September 2001, the Hammonds started another fire. This one ran off their property on Steens Mountain, consumed 139 acres of public land and took the acreage out of production for two growing seasons, according to court papers.
Then in August 2006, lightning sparked several fires near the spot where the Hammonds grew their winter feed. Steven Hammond set a back-burn to thwart the advancing flames, and it burned across about an acre of public land, according to federal court records.
…
First, both men were sentenced in
2012 by now-retired U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, following the trial.
Steven received one year and a day in prison for setting fires in 2001 and
2006. Dwight got 3 months for his 2001 involvement. Hogan did not believe the
men had malicious intent to be labeled as terrorists under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act of 1996, even though he sentenced them to jail for the time he
did.
…
Both men served their sentences and
were released. Now, the feds have appealed those sentences and want the
mandatory minimum five-year sentence imposed on the men, and so they appealed
to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who agreed with the feds that the
judge ruled illegally. However, now they are wanting to label the Hammonds as terrorists under the
1996 law in order to put them back in jail.
... READ ENTIRETY (Bigger Than Bundy Ranch: Militia put on Level
2 Alert to Defend Oregon Ranchers against Tyrannical Feds Who Label Them
Terrorists; By TIM
BROWN; Freedom
Outpost; 11/24/17)
NOW, after this rehash and couple it with the Obama
Leftist corrupt regime which pushed much of the BLM land grabbing and rancher
persecution; there are HUGE indications that the FBI has become so
inculcated with Obama’s Leftist swamp, that they are severely a part of the
problem to devastate the property rights of Ranchers.
Can you say, Communist redistribution in favor of State
management?
At least one FBI Agent (so far) is under criminal
prosecution for intimidation and manipulating evidence. Below is the story.
JRH 6/30/17
***************
SHERIFF BACKS CLAIMS OF
FBI-LAWBREAKING IN OREGON STANDOFF
Documentary-makers release more evidence that raises
questions
By BOB UNRUH
June 29, 2017
In a stunning development a year after the standoff at the
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, where two-dozen armed supporters
gathered to protest the courts’ extension of sentences for two ranchers, a sheriff
has backed claims of FBI misbehavior.
The declaration came from Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson just
as FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita was pleading not
guilty to three counts of making false statements and two counts of
obstruction of justice in federal court in Portland, Oregon.
The FBI agent was accused of firing at the protesters, then
picking up shell casings to conceal that fact and lying to investigators.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon said Astarita
falsely stated he had not fired his weapon during the attempted arrest of
protester LaVoy Finicum, who was shot dead by another officer during the
incident, “when he knew he had in fact fired his weapon.”
“Astarita also knowingly engaged in misleading conduct
toward Oregon State Police officers by failing to disclose that he had fired
two rounds during the attempted arrest,” the statement said.
Nelson said, as the Washington Times reported, that the
actions by “multiple members of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team” had “damaged the
integrity of the entire law enforcement profession, which makes me both
disappointed and angry.”
Nelson said he told Justice Department and FBI
officials, including now-acting Director Andrew McCabe, over a year ago about
“possible criminal conduct” by some involved FBI Hostage Rescue Team agents.
And while the case against Astarita is in court, new
evidence also is arising from the makers of an acclaimed documentary about
the incident.
WND reported earlier on
the armed standoff that has been variously described by opponents as
“militia terrorism” and by defenders as rebellion against government
tyranny.
The 41-day standoff ended in mass arrests after law
enforcement fatally shot one of the occupiers.
The documentary is “American Standoff,” and while it aired previously on
DirecTV, it can now be viewed in its entirety at
this website. Among the people interviewed in the
documentary is best-selling author and WND Vice President David Kupelian.
The “American Standoff” story starts with Dwight and Steven
Hammond, Oregon ranchers who were controversially convicted and sentenced for
setting a controlled land-management fire on their property that went out of
control onto federal land. But after they served their sentences and were
released, a judge – at a federal prosecutor’s insistence – ordered them back
into court, where they were sentenced to further time in prison under an
anti-terrorism law, even though there was no evidence presented that the
ranchers had planned or engaged in terrorism in any way.
Sympathetic ranchers and others – encouraged by the federal
government’s stand-down from a previous armed confrontation in Nevada two years
earlier on the land of rancher Cliven Bundy – protested the new injustice and
ended up staging an armed occupation of the refuge.
They succeeded in keeping federal officers at bay until they
were finally taken into custody when police staged a highly dangerous highway
stop of vehicles carrying the protesters and shot two men.
Ryan Bundy, one of Cliven Bundy’s sons, was injured, while
LaVoy Finicum was killed.
Eventually, seven of the others who were arrested were acquitted of
federal charges related to the standoff. The feds even dismissed charges against a
self-described independent broadcaster, Peter Santilli, who
documented the occupation near Burns, Oregon, but was accused by prosecutors of
being part of the protest group.
However, one of the FBI agents was charged with serious
infractions of the law for the final confrontation. So far, Astarita is the
only FBI agent to be indicted.
In addition to the feature-length “American Standoff”
documentary, director Josh Turnbow and his film-making crew have now produced
a series of “Aftermath” short video segments
that have been posted online.
In the first, Jeanette Finicum, the widow of LaVoy Finicum,
explains how the government, after killing her husband, also canceled the lease
she needed to continue her family’s ranching operation.
She said she has lawyers fighting to restore the lease.
And she said a wrongful death case is inevitable against the
government after a certain legal time period passes.
She insists her husband had his hands in the air and
was surrendering but “was murdered.”
“He was mowed down in cold blood.”
Then, the video explains, the federal agents were “caught on
camera, picking up casings before the forensic team arrived at the site of the
shooting.”
Also, the video shows, Finicum’s gun, which he reportedly
had been reaching for, wasn’t found for eight hours after the shooting.
“How many people tended to his body without finding it?” the
video asks.
See the footage of the first segment:
Posted by Audience Network
Published on Jun 8, 2017
American Standoff: Aftermath is a
new short form series that delves deeper into the personal lives of the
characters and key issues surrounding the 2016 Malheur Standoff.
Episode 1: Finicum
After the death of Lavoy Finicum, the BLM cancelled the Finicum Ranch Grazing Permit. More than a year later, Lavoy's widow Jeanette is still trying to get the permit reinstated.
Watch the next episode here: [Blog Editor: Original link not functional as of 6/30/17. The link after the bracket works.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2TBRsf-4cM
Audience Facebook: http://bit.ly/AudienceNetworkFacebook
Audience Twitter: http://bit.ly/AudienceTwitter
Audience Instagram: http://bit.ly/AudienceInstagram
Episode 1: Finicum
After the death of Lavoy Finicum, the BLM cancelled the Finicum Ranch Grazing Permit. More than a year later, Lavoy's widow Jeanette is still trying to get the permit reinstated.
Watch the next episode here: [Blog Editor: Original link not functional as of 6/30/17. The link after the bracket works.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2TBRsf-4cM
Audience Facebook: http://bit.ly/AudienceNetworkFacebook
Audience Twitter: http://bit.ly/AudienceTwitter
Audience Instagram: http://bit.ly/AudienceInstagram
In addition to conducting in-depth
interviews with nearly everyone involved on all sides of the conflict,
Turnbow said he tapped WND’s managing editor, David Kupelian, to offer a
journalist’s perspective and analysis.
“I think Josh Turnbow did a terrific job in ‘American
Standoff,'” said Kupelian, “not just in fairly and sensitively presenting all
sides of a complex and troubling situation, but in telling a riveting, deeply
thought-provoking true story about today’s America.”
Kupelian said the documentary “captures the classic modus
operandi of an oppressive government: Perpetrate injustice, provoking
widespread public outrage, which always includes a small number of people who
seriously overreact and, however well-meaning, do something illegal or
irresponsible – and then portray them as the real problem, or in this case as
‘criminals’ and ‘terrorists.'”
He said the main provocation in the story was
“convicting two Oregon cattle ranchers, a father and son team whose controlled
burn on their own property had gotten out of control and migrated onto federal
land, with arson under an anti-terrorism statute that
mandates a minimum five-year prison sentence.”
“Even the presiding judge said such a severe and unjust
sentence would ‘shock the conscience.’ Well, it did shock the conscience of a
lot of other ranchers – and the Malheur standoff was the result,” he said.
Turnbow said he would like to find out what really
happened and consider what the outcome should have been, especially with
regard to the still-imprisoned ranchers serving a five-year “terrorism”
sentence.
“We should be talking about it,” Turnbow says.
The larger issue at hand – federal control over land in the
American West – continues to loom large.
The federal government is the largest landowner in the Rocky
Mountain and Western states, owning contiguous parcels of millions of acres.
Conflicts between ranchers, who in some instances have
owned and worked their land for generations, and a federal government seemingly
always hungry for more, are common.
President Trump’s recent executive order to review the
possibility of shrinking the boundaries of federal monuments
could help defuse the longstanding tensions between America’s ranchers and
the government.
See the trailer for “American Standoff”:
[Blog Editor: I am not sure if this is the same trailer
WNDTV uses but it is about the same length on Youtube.]
VIDEO: American Standoff Trailer
Posted by Audience Network
Published on Apr 25, 2017
A story as tragic and incredible as
the West itself, AUDIENCE Network presents the AT&T original documentary
American Standoff which tells the story of the armed takeover of Oregon’s
Malheur Wildlife Refuge and its violent conclusion. Don’t miss the premiere on
5/4 at 8PM!
________________
Evidence of FBI Corruption
John R. Houk
© June 30, 2017
_____________
SHERIFF BACKS CLAIMS OF FBI-LAWBREAKING IN OREGON STANDOFF
