It’s evening 40 of the takeover of Malheur Wildlife Refuge after the FBI moved to more closely surround the defensive position of the remaining four militants with armored vehicles.
A variety of livestreams are available as well as tweets from media near the site. Negotiations continue and it appears that a variety of “negotiators” have involved themselves in a process that may take all night.
No shots fired as of yet, but the time-honored “come out with your hands up” demand has been made as negotiations began to bring the siege to a final conclusion.
BURNS – The FBI on Wednesday evening moved in on the last four occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, apparently placing armored vehicles around their camp.
Up to this moment in time, the now-indicted Fab Four holding(sic) the Malheur Wildlife Refuge outside Burns Oregon had built some fortifications, refused an attempt by other insurgents to walk them out, and managed to upload videos taunting the feds.
Several live feeds are available but as night begins to fall, any final assault could be messy to listen to, as one doubts whether the hold-outs are equipped with anything but semi-auto rifles, maybe night-vision, and improvised armor, whereas one assumes the FBI will be equipped with .50 caliber weaponry among other things. And the quarrelsome quartet have promised to meet any assault with force rather than surrender.
And in local news, there are controversies with Sheriff Palmer of Grant County to whom the arrested insurgents were traveling in an underdefended convoy when they were captured by a combination of feds and Oregon State Police, resulting in one death. The militias are casting about for future warlord-leadership even though some would question the loyalty of even those seeming to be most sympathetic.
Militant leader Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, armed, angry and facing arrest, shouted again and again to police who had stopped him outside Burns that he needed to go see "the sheriff." He felt only one man could protect him – Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer. In the days since the Jan. 26 shooting, Finicum's final words and Palmer's response to the deadly confrontation have focused attention on the sheriff who has openly challenged federal authority in his own county…
His reputation as a hardline critic of the federal government has drawn strong support from some local loggers, ranchers and outdoor enthusiasts who have defended Palmer in recent days. One militant pledged online that 6,000 militia members would respond to Grant County if the sheriff needed help. www.oregonlive.com/...
An opportunistic Nevada legislator who doesn’t know the difference between cartridge cases and bullets is making hay over a trip by the Bundy patriarch to protest the arrest of his children in Oregon. No word on travel permits or visa documents or whether any travel would violate California airspace.
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy may be coming to Oregon to demonstrate on behalf of his sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy, as well as the remaining four armed occupants of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge...
Nevada State Assemblywoman Michele Fiore told OPB Monday that she, along with other state lawmakers from western states, will be traveling to meet Bundy in Burns and in Portland. www.opb.org/...
The remaining Bundystani have demanded the withdrawal of feds from Oregon in videos uploaded on the weekend.
In one of a series of videos posted Sunday, an occupier of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge railed against people who destroyed a memorial for a dead occupier, called for the FBI to leave Oregon, and took a joyride in a pickup truck with government plates.
The occupation could have taken another dramatic turn Saturday, the day a group called the Pacific Patriots Network planned to walk onto the refuge and escort out the holdouts. The network's members regularly protest perceived government overreach, and have been a regular presence in Burns since the occupation began. Those plans changed when it was revealed that the four occupiers had been indicted, said one of the network's leaders, BJ Soper. That and the fact that the occupiers had said they would meet any attempt to remove them with force prompted Soper to cancel the action. Soper asked members of the network who had come to Burns to attend a memorial for Finicum instead. www.oregonlive.com/...
"That's the kind of people we're dealing with nowadays. Just absolute trash, low-life scumbags, with no morals, no remorse for the dead," Fry said. "And that's the people that we're fighting against."
Fry continued to ask for the "good people" to stand up and tell the "evil" people to "piss off."
"It's time to take a stand, it's time to fight, and it's time to show these scumbags who's really in charge of this country," Fry said, before asking for the "patriots" of this country to "kick the feds out of the state."
He also asked the feds to leave Oregon voluntarily.
"Get the hell out of Oregon, get the hell out of all the states," Fry said. "I'm tired of you guys."
www.oregonlive.com/...
Thursday, Feb 11, 2016 · 2:51:06 AM +00:00 · annieli
www.oregonlive.com/…
A friend of occupier David Fry was streaming on YouTube through an open phone line with the occupiers as authorities made what appeared to be a final push to end the 40-day old occupation.
Besides David Fry, 27, of Ohio, the encampment includes Jeff Banta of Elko, Nevada, and Sean and Sandy Anderson of Riggins, Idaho.
"Come out with your hands up," a law enforcement official was heard saying.
In a statement, the FBI said one of the occupiers rode an ATV outside their encampment at 4:30 p.m. When FBI agents tried to approach the driver, he returned "at a high rate of speed" to the camp. Agents then moved into position ahead and behind "the area where the occupiers are camping."