BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia's authorities are investigating reports that a cargo package bound for Portland contained two missiles with explosive warheads on a passenger flight from Lebanon.
N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at a Belgrade airport.
Serbian media say documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland. The American-made projectiles can be fired from air, sea or ground platforms against multiple targets.
The Serbian state news agency Tanjug reported that the missiles had been packed in wooden coffins and unloaded at the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, where they were inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs.
This type of missile was originally designed to be fired from a helicopter and was named Helicopter Launched, Fire and Forget Missile -- later shortened to Hellfire.
The AGM-114 model is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrup Grumman. It weighs about 100 pounds and costs about $110,000 apiece. Most models use laser to home in on their targets, although one version of the AGM-114 relies on radar.
The FBI in Portland said it is looking into the reports.
"We don't have any information on that yet," Jennifer Adams, an FBI spokeswoman, said Sunday afternoon.
N1 reported Sunday that Air Serbia is helping in the investigation. The Serbian flag carrier says "security and safety are the main priorities for Air Serbia."
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A federal grand jury in Nevada has charged 14 more people, including a Utah man, with felony crimes related to the armed standoff over removal of Cliven Bundy’s cattle that broke out between the Bureau of Land Management and armed protesters in 2014.
The charges relate to April 12, 2014 and the standoff near Bunkerville, Nevada, where armed protesters prevented BLM agents from enforcing a court order to seize cattle owned by Bundy.
“This investigation began the day after the assault against federal law enforcement officers and continues to this day,” stated U.S. Attorney Bogden in a press release issued Thursday. “We will continue to work to identify the assaulters and their role in the assault and the aftermath, in order to ensure that justice is served.”
The superseding criminal indictment returned Thursday means a total of 19 people have now been charged. Among the 14 newly charged individuals is 39-year-old David H. Bundy of Delta, Utah.
David Bundy was arrested by the FBI in Utah Thursday morning, and he is scheduled to appear in a federal court in Salt Lake City Friday at 2 p.m.
According to the press release, the other 13 newly charged people are: Melvin D. Bundy, 41, of Round Mountain, Nev.; Brian D. Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nev.; Blaine Cooper, 36, of Humboldt, Ariz.; Gerald A. DeLemus, 61, of Rochester, N.H.; Eric J. Parker, 32, of Hailey, Idaho; O. Scott Drexler, 44, of Challis, Idaho; Richard R. Lovelien, 52, of Westville, Okla.; Steven A. Stewart, 36, of Hailey, Idaho; Todd C. Engel, 48, of Boundary County, Idaho; Gregory P. Burleson, 52, of Phoenix, Ariz.; Joseph D. O’Shaughnessy, 43, of Cottonwood, Ariz.; and Micah L. McGuire, 31, and Jason D. Woods, 30, both of Chandler, Ariz.
Twelve of the defendants were arrested Thursday, while Brian Cavalier and Blaine Cooper were already in federal custody in the District of Oregon.
The fourteen defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, and at least one count of the following: using and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, assault on a federal officer, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of the due administration of justice, interference with interstate commerce by extortion, and interstate travel in aid of extortion.
The release states, “the indictment also alleges five counts of criminal forfeiture which upon conviction would require forfeiture of property derived from the proceeds of the crimes totaling at least $3 million, as well as the firearms and ammunition possessed and used on April 12, 2014.”
Charges against the five previous defendants remain the same. Those defendants are: Cliven D. Bundy, 69, of Bunkerville, Nev.; Ryan C. Bundy, 43, of Mesquite, Nev.; Ammon E. Bundy, 40, of Emmet, Idaho; Ryan W. Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont.; and Peter T. Santilli, Jr., 50, of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The indictment alleges the 19 individuals conspired to create a massive, armed assault against federal law enforcement officers on April 12, 2014 in order to extort those officers into abandoning about 400 head of cattle that, “were in their lawful care and custody.”
They also allegedly encouraged and led hundreds of other followers during that action, and the indictment alleges Cliven Bundy was the main leader, organizer and beneficiary of the conspiracy. The press release states Bundy’s cattle had been grazing on public lands for more than 20 years while he refused to pay the legally required fees or obtain the necessary permits.
The maximum penalties for the charges in the indictment range from 5 to 20 years each, with some of the alleged offenses carrying fines of up to $250,000.
An indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt, according to the release, and all defendants are presumed innocent pending the outcome of a fair trial.
DeLemus faces nine federal charges including conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, attempting to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer and several firearms charges, when he was in Nevada to support the Bundy family at the ranch.
“She said that the FBI just rolled up with lots of vehicles and Agents who were in tactical gear,” Kimball wrote on Facebook earlier this morning. ”They forced their way into Jerry DeLemus and Sue’s condo with weapons drawn and arrested Jerry and took him away.”
Kimball said he believed the custody was connected to the Bundy Ranch incident and asked “all NH patriots to come together ASAP” to ”protest this tyranny in the most visible way possible.”
Kimball said he would update his friends on Facebook after receiving more information.
“A good and Patriotic Marine is now being prosecuted for standing up for Liberty,” he noted.
A media relations officer at the FBI Boston office referred all questions about the charges to the Department of Justice. The U.S. DOJ has not returned an email request to Patch.
HARNEY COUNTY, Ore. (INTELLIHUB) — It looks as the story has now taken a twist, after Shawna Cox, a witness to LaVoy Finicum’s death, came forth, exposing the fact that she filmed the entire event on video, which was soon after confiscated by the FBI.
Moreover, in a bombshell statement, Cox also said she feels the reason they were ambushed by authorities was because they had “many documents” in their possession which show the illegalities of area land grabs, such as the Hammond case, conducted by federal agencies.
According to Cox, Ryan Panye, LaVoy Finicum, and at least one other occupant took fire, “multiple shots,” as they approached the roadblock, however, luckily, most, if not all, of the bullets from the initial barrage were deflected, ether by the metal of the truck or the sharp angle of the windows to the direct line of fire.
We were “shot at,” Cox said. They fired at “the passenger side–Ryan Payne.”
“We got fired upon as soon as he [LaVoy] started around the vehicle–they hit the windows and then we had lasers all over us and the bullets were flying.”
“At the time we turned and headed into the snow, that’s when it [the hail of bullets] started hitting the windshield.”
That’s when LaVoy immediately jumped out of the vehicle into deep snow with his hands raised high above his head.
“There were hundreds of shots [fired].”
Cox described the scene as if it was a war zone.
After Cox was taken into custody the FBI confiscated her camera and its content.
Cox said she “did not see any weapons” when they were on there way to the meeting and said she knows that LaVoy did not have a weapon in his hand.
The group was going to meet a group of people and a constitutional sheriff in a nearby county when they were ambushed.
The four remaining occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge surrendered Thursday morning, bringing an end to the standoff on its 41st day.
Jeff Banta, Sean Anderson, Sandy Anderson and David Fry were taken into FBI custody.
Fry was the last to surrender, finally emerging after an extended phone dialogue with supporters who tried for over an hour after the others left to get him to walk out.
By contrast, the surrender of the others appeared to go off as planned.
FBI agents in armored vehicles had moved in Wednesday night on the four still at the refuge, hemming them into their camp and insisting they put down their guns and surrender.
Also Wednesday night, the FBI arrested Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy at Portland International Airport. He faces federal charges related to the 2014 standoff at his ranch. Bundy, 74, was booked into the downtown Multnomah County jail at 10:54 p.m.
His booking mug shot was released Thursday morning by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
Meanwhile, the surreal scene played out across social media.
With the Bundys and the Malheur National Wildlife occupation, America witnessed its first armed occupation in the kinetic, 140-character social-media age.
Updates:
11:46 a.m.: The Bundy family says on Facebook: "They are safe. Thank you God for watching over us. Keep us in your hand and deliver from this present evil," asreactions begin to come in.
11:41 a.m.: The FBI announces it will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. in Burns to discuss law enforcement's next steps.
11:36 a.m.: Gov. Kate Brown speaks about the end of the occupation:
Gov. Kate Brown on the end of the Malheur occupationGov. Kate Brown on the end of the Malheur occupation
11:21 a.m.: The FBI puts out a statement that includes the following from Billy J. Williams, U.S. Attorney, District of Oregon: "The FBI brought three of the remaining Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupiers into custody without incident. At approximately 11:00 am, agents brought the fourth into custody without incident ... The occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge has been a long and traumatic episode for the citizens of Harney County and the members of the Burns Paiute tribe. It is a time for healing, reconciliation amongst neighbors and friends, and allowing for life to get back to normal. I want to thank our neighbors in eastern Oregon for their patience, resolve, and their kind and welcoming spirit to the many members of federal, county, state, local, and tribal law enforcement who have worked tirelessly to bring this illegal occupation to a conclusion. The fine work of so many dedicated public servants in a difficult endeavor cannot be understated. I am very proud of them all. ... Much work is left to assess the crime scene and damage to the refuge and tribal artifacts. We are committed to seeing the job done and to pursue justice for the crimes committed during the illegal occupation."
11:15 a.m.: William Fry Jr., David Fry's father, texts to an Oregonian/OregonLive reporter: "We are all relieved our prayers were answered."
11 a.m.: Hall begins sobbing after Fry turns himself in. She and Seim then resume the dialogue surrounding their patriotic movement.
As the Oregon standoff holdouts considered their options Thursday for ending the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation by surrender or death, a prominent member of the Tea Party movement emerged as a leading voice on a live broadcast phone call attempting to talk the occupiers into surrendering. KrisAnne Hall, a prominent Tea Party figure who dubs herself a constitutional...
11 a.m.: Authorities say Fry is in custody. The standoff is over.
Gavin Seim's stream on YouTube broke the news that the FBI had surrounded the four remaining armed occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, providing a real-time view of the tension at the refuge, where the occupiers joined by phone.
10:27 a.m.: Fry says he doesn't care about the movement anymore. That he's doing this for himself.
The last remaining occupier in a 27-year-old from suburban Cincinnati who drove to Oregon while his parents were on vacation in Hawaii.
10:17 a.m.: Fry says he's pointing a gun at his head.
10:11 a.m.: Fry says his biggest fear is being raped in jail.
9:56 a.m.: Three of the four occupiers are in custody of the FBI. Jeff Banta, Sean Anderson and Sandy Anderson each face a federal conspiracy charge for their role in the occupation, joining 12 others already arraigned on that charge.
9:55 a.m.: Fry says he is declaring a one-man war on the U.S. government, saying he wants "liberty or death."
9:51 a.m.: The moderators continue to try to persuade Fry to leave.
9:48 a.m.: Fry says he is feeling suicidal.
9:45 a.m.: David Fry says unless his grievances are heard, he will not come out. The feed moderators, identified as Gavin Seim, who calls himself a constitutional activist, and KrisAnne Hall, a prominent national face of the so-called patriot movement, are encouraging him to follow through and leave the encampment.
9:43 a.m.: Jeff Banta is heading out, according to the feed.
9:40 a.m.: Sandy and Sean Anderson have been arrested, according to the refuge live feed.
9:38 a.m.: Sean Anderson says the occupiers are walking out.
9:34 a.m.: Sean Anderson says on the refuge's live stream that the FBI is telling the four remaining occupiers to come out one at a time.
9:15 a.m.: Blaine Cooper, a member of the core group that took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2, has been arrested, his wife wrote on Facebook on Thursday morning. Cooper's wife, Melissa Cooper, was also among the group occupying the bird sanctuary over the past month. Cooper said Friday that he had not been home since he left the refuge Jan. 26 after learning that Finicum had been killed at a law-enforcement roadblock. A spokeswoman with the FBI in Portland declined to confirm or deny that Cooper had been arrested Thursday morning.
9:03 a.m.: Bundy will make his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Portland at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Bundy, 74, will appear on federal charges stemming from the 2014 standoff at his ranch in Nevada.
8:40 a.m.: Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, a high-profile supporter of the Bundy family, said she and Christian evangelist Franklin Graham are traveling to the refuge. Fiore's trip to Oregon is in apparent response to a call from Ammon Bundy, who asked elected officials from across the West to come to the aid of the occupiers.
On her website, Fiore lists job creation, reducing business regulation and taxation and defending Second Amendment rights as among her priorities. She often displays her support for gun rights on social media. Last November, she promoted a 2016 calendar on Twitter that shows her with a firearm for every month of the year.
Follow the latest on Twitter: Oregonian/OregonLive reporters are tweeting updates from Burns:
David Fry, the 27-year-old best known for live streaming the last days of the Oregon standoff, is the last remaining Oregon protestor and refuses to leave the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Fry is defying both the FBI and Nevada lawmaker Michele Fiore, the latter of whom has spent most of the morning attempting to convince him to walk out of the refuge peacefully.
“I’m actually pointing a gun at my head right now,” he said during the livefeed. “I’m tired of living here.”
“I told you exactly what I’d do: I’d hold up a pistol and kill myself.”
Fry decided to remain at the refuge as the other three protestors, Sean Anderson, Sandy Anderson and Jeff Banta, walked unarmed and one at a time to meet Fiore, the Rev. Franklin Graham and at least three FBI agents near the entrance to the refuge.
“There’s a lot going through my mind right now,” he added later.
Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who touched off one armed showdown with federal authorities and applauded another started in Oregon by his sons, was arrested late Wednesday at Portland International Airport and faces federal charges related to the 2014 standoff at his ranch.
Bundy, 74, was booked into the downtown Multnomah County jail at 10:54 p.m.
He faces a conspiracy charge to interfere with a federal officer -- the same charge lodged against two of his sons, Ammon and Ryan, for their role in the Jan. 2 takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns. He also faces weapons charges.
The Bundy Ranch Facebook page reported Cliven Bundy was surrounded by SWAT officers and detained after his arrival from Nevada.
He was arrested at 10:10 p.m., authorities said.
The Bundy patriarch had traveled to Portland with plans to go on to Burns, where four occupiers had been the remaining holdouts of the refuge occupation.
Bundy has been under federal scrutiny since his ranch standoff with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. He has not paid grazing fees on federal land and he owes the agency $1 million in unpaid fees and penalties. He and militia supporters confronted federal agents who had impounded Bundy's cattle that were found on federal property.
To avoid bloodshed, the federal agents retreated and Bundy's supporters turned loose the cattle.
Some of the key participants in that standoff helped orchestrate the wildlife refuge occupation, including Ammon and Ryan Bundy. They are both in custody in Portland.
Another key participant in the Nevada showdown was Ryan Payne, a Montana militiaman who helped organize militia snipers to take aim at federal agents in Nevada. Payne is considered the tactician behind the Oregon takeover and also has been arrested and faces a federal conspiracy charge.
The Bundy brothers and Payne said they took over the federal bird sanctuary to protest the imprisonment of two Burns area ranchers and federal land ownership. They were arrested along with several others Jan. 26 as they traveled to a meeting in a neighboring county.
Occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum was shot and killed by state police at the stop. He was carrying a loaded 9mm handgun and refused to follow police commands, the FBI said.
Cliven Bundy's arrest came as the Oregon refuge takeover seemed headed for a finish.
The last four occupiers, who have camped alone since Jan. 28 at the headquarters compound, agreed Wednesday night to surrender in the morning. They did so after FBI tactical teams infiltrated refuge buildings undetected overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday. The FBI then hemmed in the occupiers with armored vehicles and negotiated with them for five hours to reach the surrender agreement.
Ammon Bundy's lawyer, Mike Arnold, said Cliven Bundy was considering joining Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore at a news conference that had been planned Thursday morning in Portland to talk about the refuge takeover. Almost immediately after she arrived in Portland, Fiore started talking to the last occupiers by phone and left in a car for the six-hour drive to Burns to help work out their surrender.
"It's terribly unfortunate the timing of his arrest, given all the progress Assemblywoman Fiore made this evening,'' Arnold said, referring to Fiore's intervention on behalf of the holdhouts.
Arnold urged the four remaining occupiers to find some good in it. "He was arrested without incident and without violence," the lawyer said. "That should give them comfort in their decision tomorrow.''
Reporter Jim Ryan of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
The FBI has surrounded the four remaining protesters occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, local media reported.
According to the Oregonian, the FBI has placed armored vehicles around the area where the occupiers are located.
“At this time, the FBI has moved to contain the remaining occupiers by placing agents at barricades both immediately in front of and behind the area where the occupiers are camping."
"Negotiations between the occupiers and the FBI continue. No shots have been fired,” the FBI said in the statement.
The FBI stated that the situation began when one of the remaining protesters had ridden an ATV beyond the barricades set up by the occupiers. The individual was spotted by the FBI, but as agents tried to approach the driver, he turned around and sped back to the refuge.
Those remaining at the refuge have been identified as David Fry, Jeff Banta, and Sean and Sandy Anderson, who are husband and wife.
The move by the FBI came on the 40th day of the Malheur occupation. It began when a group of armed ranchers and protesters took over the refuge headquarters to protest federal land management and express their anger over the arson convictions of two other ranchers under an anti-terror law.
In an audio live-stream of the standoff posted by activist Gavin Seim on YouTube, the occupiers debated how to proceed. The protesters invoked the Constitution numerous times and held prayers, while worrying over the possibility of the situation coming to a violent end.
“They killed LaVoy!” a protester said multiple times, referring to rancher LaVoy Finicum, who was fatally shot during a roadside confrontation between law enforcement and the occupiers.
That confrontation also led to the arrest of multiple protesters, including leader Ammon Bundy.
In a letter disclosed Monday in a federal court filing, the FBI confirms one of the world’s worst-kept secrets: It is looking into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Why say this at all, since it was widely known to be true? Because in August in response to a judge’s direction, the State Department asked the FBI for information about what it was up to. Sorry, the FBI said at the time, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation.
Now, in a letter dated February 2 and filed in court Monday, the FBI’s general counsel, James Baker, notes that in public statements and congressional testimony, the FBI “has acknowledged generally that it is working on matters related to former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server.”
Baker says the FBI has not, however, “publicly acknowledged the specific focus, scope or potential targets of any such proceedings.”
He ends the one-paragraph letter by saying that the FBI cannot say more “without adversely affecting on-going law enforcement efforts.”
The letter was filed in one of the Freedom of Information Act cases brought against the State Department over access to documents from Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state. This one was filed by Judicial Watch.
Federal authorities are accusing a Dearborn Heights man of supporting Islamic State extremists and planning to “shoot up” a Detroit church.
Khalil Abu-Rayyan, 21, hasn’t been charged with terrorism-related crimes but faces federal charges of illegally having a firearm while using a controlled substance.
But a complaint unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court reveals the FBI has been investigating him since May “regarding increasingly violent threats he has made to others about committing acts of terror and martyrdom — including brutal acts against police officers, churchgoers and others — on behalf of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.”
Besides allegedly using Twitter to express support for the terror group — often referred to as ISIS or ISIL — Abu-Rayyan reportedly told an undercover FBI employee about a plot to target a church.
“I tried to shoot up a church one day,” Abu-Rayyan is quoted as saying in court records. “I don’t know the name of it, but it’s close to my job. It’s one of the biggest ones in Detroit. Ya, I had it planned out. I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced a lot with it. I practiced reloading and unloading. But my dad searched my car one day, and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask I was going to wear.”
Investigators didn’t name the church Abu-Rayyan allegedly eyed, but claim the property covers about two blocks less than half a mile from his work and can accommodate up to 6,000 members. He allegedly purchased a gun and told an undercover FBI employee that attacking a church would be “easy.”
“A lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church,” the affidavit quotes him as saying. “Plus it would make the news. Everybody would’ve heard. Honestly I regret not doing it. (If I) can’t go do jihad at the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here.”
Abu-Rayyan appeared in federal court Thursday and was detained pending a hearing on Monday, said Gina Balaya, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit.
Court records show he was assigned a federal defender, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night. Messages left for those listed as his relatives were not returned.
“If the allegations are true, then they’re extremely troublesome,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter.
He said the group is urging caution “and encouraging the broader community to also reserve judgment regarding this matter.”
The court document claims Abu-Rayyan used Twitter for “retweeting, liking and commenting” on IS propaganda since late 2014. According to the affidavit, the posts included “video of a Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive, men being thrown from a high rise building to execute them, the beheading of Christians in Egypt and news of ISIL victories.”
In December, he communicated with an undercover FBI employee through social media; during conversations over several weeks, “Abu-Rayyan consistently expressed support for ISIL and repeatedly expressed his desire to commit a martyrdom operation,” the document read. He also said he had an AK-47 with a 40-round magazine like other extremist fighters.
The affidavit says Abu-Rayyan told the undercover FBI employee a firearm he bought in October wasn’t suitable “because it only held six shots and he would have to keep reloading.”
The next month, he “tweeted photos of himself firing an AK-47 type and AR-15 type rifles at a local firing range”; one was captioned “Sahwat hunting,” which authorities said “is a term for Iraqis who oppose ISIL.”
Federal officials said Abu-Rayyan bought a .22 caliber revolver in October from a Dearborn Heights sporting goods store but lacked a concealed pistol license. On Oct. 7, Detroit police pulled him over for speeding; inside the 2001 Buick Century, officers found marijuana. Arrested for toting the drug and carrying a concealed weapon, Abu-Rayyan was later released on bond.
On Nov. 15, the same day the pending case denied him the chance to buy another pistol, Abu-Rayyan rented a firearm at the firing range pictured on Twitter later that month, according to the affidavit.
Wayne County prosecutors charged him for the gun and marijuana; he pleaded guilty to the drug possession Jan. 15 and was scheduled for trial Feb. 16 on the weapon charge, authorities said.
Soon after he pleaded guilty, Abu-Rayyan told the undercover person he “wanted to kill the officer who arrested him.” Since the officer’s heart attack delayed a trial, Abu-Rayyan “wanted to do a martyrdom operation at the hospital, killing the police officer in the process,” according to court documents. The next day, he told the undercover FBI employee about carrying a “large knife or sword in his car” in case of a fight and said “it is my dream to behead someone,” documents allege.
The case coincides with Muslims in Michigan and nationwide facing tensions amid fears about rising extremism in the wake of the recent Paris and California attacks.
“We advise people not to jump to conclusions about what happened and wait for all of the facts to come in,” said Muzammil Ahmed, board chairman for the Michigan Muslim Community Council. “Our thoughts are with our Christian friends and congregation that were threatened. We think that isolated acts like this, if they are indeed true, are an anomaly in this area.”
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved GOP legislation that erected fresh hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees trying to enter the United States. Gov. Rick Snyder suspended efforts to open Michigan to Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war, joining other governors in asking the federal government to examine and toughen security screenings of refugee applicants.
Soon after the shootings in San Bernardino, California, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. — a call that drew rebukes from many, yet found support among others.
CAIR’s national chapter noted that in his visit to a Baltimore-area mosque this week, President Barack Obama rejected “inexcusable political rhetoric” targeting Muslims.
The four remaining occupiers at an Oregon wildlife refuge all face charges, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.
The indictment names a total of 16 defendants, including standoff leader Ammon Bundy and other occupiers who were arrested last week.
A federal grand jury charged all with felony conspiracy, accused of using intimidation to prevent federal officers from doing their work at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
The armed holdouts have said they wouldn't leave until receiving assurances they wouldn't be charged.
The indictment says two conspirators traveled to the area in October to warn the local sheriff of "extreme civil unrest" if certain demands weren't met.
Authorities arrested 11 people last week on a criminal complaint charging them with felony conspiracy. They were accused of using intimidation to prevent federal officers from doing their work at the refuge in sparsely populated southeast Oregon.
In a criminal complaint, defendants have a right to a preliminary hearing in which they can question the arresting officer under oath about probable cause for the charges.
After an indictment, they are no longer entitled to such a proceeding.
The cancellation of preliminary hearings that had been scheduled for Wednesday dismayed attorneys for the accused.
Lisa Hay, who represents defendant Ryan Payne, said it appears prosecutors moved to scrap the hearings even before the indictment had been handed down. She was also annoyed that prosecutors presented the indictment to the judge and not to defense attorneys.
"That's an unusual thing and it's unfortunate in a case like this, where many of the people distrust the government to begin with," Hay said.
The occupation began Jan. 2, with the group demanding the federal government turn public lands over to local control. The remaining occupiers are David Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio; Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, a married couple from Riggins, Idaho.
The government is building a case to show the occupation was a threat to residents and federal employees. Prosecutors say the group was ready to use violence to hold on to the refuge.
Defense attorneys have said their clients engaged in civil disobedience and are being punished for political speech. They say the only use of force during the standoff was by police, who shot and killed occupier Robert "LaVoy" Finicum during a Jan. 26 traffic stop. Bundy and others were then taken into custody.
Federal authorities have released aerial video and said Finicum was going for a gun in his jacket pocket.
In a separate matter, an attorney for Shawna Cox -- a defendant allowed to return home to Utah as her case goes through the court system -- asked Wednesday for her client to be allowed to attend Finicum's funeral on Friday. The funeral is in the same town where Cox lives.
The spokesman for the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon was shot nine times by the FBI.
It should be no surprise the FBI would shoot an unarmed man nine times.This is often their modus operandi, especially with individuals the national police state agency considers political enemies—and the band of constitutionalists at Malheur, no matter how misdirected or naive, were certainly considered enemies of the state.
Now it comes out that the gun the FBI said they retrieved from Finnicum’s body—a body so bullet-riddled it necessitated a closed coffin—was in fact stolen.
The Pacific Patriots Network did a search of the weapon’s serial number and discovered it was stolen, although this crucial fact is not being reported by an establishment media that has consistently portrayed Finnicum and the other activists at the refuge as dangerous terrorists.
The over the top murder of Finnicum and a subsequent video released by the FBI are intended to send a message to the patriot movement and constitutionalists.
The message: if you go up against the federal government, if you question its dictatorial and unconstitutional policies and if you actively resist or engage in behavior to draw attention to its pathological criminality, you will be executed, particularly if you provide the FBI with an opportunity, as Finnicum did when he traveled to a meeting unarmed to resolve the standoff.
The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and other Justice Department officials have said moves by technology firms to encrypt data have choked off critical ways to monitor suspects. Credit: Kevin hagen for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — For more than two years the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies have warned that encrypted communications are creating a “going dark” crisis that will keep them from tracking terrorists and kidnappers.
Now, a study in which current and former intelligence officials participated concludes that the warning is wildly overblown, and that a raft of new technologies — like television sets with microphones and web-connected cars — are creating ample opportunities for the government to track suspects, many of them worrying.
“ ‘Going dark’ does not aptly describe the long-term landscape for government surveillance,” concludes the study, to be published Monday by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.
The study argues that the phrase ignores the flood of new technologies “being packed with sensors and wireless connectivity” that are expected to become the subject of court orders and subpoenas, and are already the target of the National Security Agency as it places “implants” into networks around the world to monitor communications abroad.
The products, ranging from “toasters to bedsheets, light bulbs, cameras, toothbrushes, door locks, cars, watches and other wearables,” will give the government increasing opportunities to track suspects and in many cases reconstruct communications and meetings.
The study, titled, “Don’t Panic: Making Progress on the ‘Going Dark’ Debate,” is among the sharpest counterpoints yet to the contentions of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, and other Justice Department officials, mostly by arguing that they have defined the issue too narrowly.
Over the past year, they have repeatedly told Congress that the move byApple to automatically encrypt data on its iPhone, and similar steps by Google and Microsoft, are choking off critical abilities to track suspects, even with a court order.
President Obama, however, concluded last fall that any effort to legislate a government “back door” into encrypted communications would probably create a pathway for hackers — including those working for foreign governments like Russia, China and Iran — to gain access as well, and create a precedent for authoritarian governments demanding similar access.
Most Republican candidates for president have demanded that technology companies create a way for investigators to unlock encrypted communications, and on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has taken a tough line on Silicon Valley companies, urging them to join the fight against the Islamic State.
Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, has led the charge on the other side. He recently told a group of White House officials seeking technology companies’ voluntary help to counter the Islamic State that the government’s efforts to get the keys to encrypted communications would be a boon for hackers and put legitimate business transactions, financial data and personal communications at greater risk.
The Harvard study, funded by the Hewlett Foundation, was unusual because it involved technical experts, civil libertarians and officials who are, or have been, on the forefront of counterterrorism. Larry Kramer, the former dean of Stanford Law School, who heads the foundation, noted Friday that until now “the policy debate has been impeded by gaps in trust — chasms, really — between academia, civil society, the private sector and the intelligence community” that have impeded the evolution of a “safe, open and resilient Internet.”
Among the chief authors of the report is Matthew G. Olsen, who was a director of the National Counterterrorism Center under Mr. Obama and a general counsel of the National Security Agency.
Two current senior officials of the N.S.A. — John DeLong, the head of the agency’s Commercial Solutions Center, and Anne Neuberger, the agency’s chief risk officer — are described in the report as “core members” of the group, but did not sign the report because they could not act on behalf of the agency or the United States government in endorsing its conclusions, government officials said.
“Encryption is a real problem, and the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies are right to raise it,” Mr. Olsen said Sunday. But he noted that in their testimony officials had not described the other technological breaks that are falling their way, nor had they highlighted cases in which they were able to exploit mistakes made by suspects in applying encryption to their messages.
Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of law and computer science at Harvard who convened the group, said in an interview that the goal was “to have a discussion among people with very different points of view” that would move “the state of the debate beyond its well-known bumper stickers. We managed to do that in part by thinking of a larger picture, specifically in the unexpected ways that surveillance might be attempted.”
He noted that in the current stalemate there was little discussion of the “ever-expanding ‘Internet of things,’ where telemetry from teakettles, televisions and light bulbs might prove surprisingly, and worryingly, amenable to subpoena from governments around the world.”
Those technologies are already being exploited: The government frequently seeks location data from devices like cellphones and EZ Passes to track suspects.
The study notes that such opportunities are expanding rapidly. A Samsung “smart” television contains a microphone meant to relay back to Samsung voice instructions to the TV — “I want to see the last three ‘Star Wars’ movies” — and a Hello, Barbie brought out by Mattel last year records children’s conversations with the doll, processes them over the Internet and sends back a response.
The history of technology shows that what is invented for convenience can soon become a target of surveillance. “Law enforcement or intelligence agencies may start to seek orders compelling Samsung, Google, Mattel, Nest or vendors of other networked devices to push an update or flip a digital switch to intercept the ambient communications of a target,” the report said.
These communications, too, may one day be encrypted. But Google’s business model depends on picking out key words from emails to tailor advertisements for specific users of Gmail, the popular email service. Apple users routinely back up the contents of their phones to iCloud — a service that is not encrypted and now is almost a routine target for investigators or intelligence agencies. So are the tracking and mapping systems for cars that rely on transmitted global positioning data.
“I think what this report shows is that the world today is like living in a big field that is more illuminated than ever before,” said Joseph Nye, a Harvard government professor and former head of the National Intelligence Council. “There will be dark spots — there always will be. But it’s easy to forget that there is far more data available to governments now than ever before.”
The State Department on Friday will release roughly 2,000 pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails, but will delay the final batch of messages until after voters go to the polls in early primary states.
In a court filing late on Thursday evening, the department insisted that it “regrets” its inability to publish the final 7,000 pages on Friday, as a federal court ordered it to do last year.
Yet it defended the delay, blaming an internal oversight and the snowstorm that crippled Washington in the past week.
As part of the process of making the emails public, the State Department is required to have other agencies review Clinton’s emails to check if any information should be redacted or marked as classified.
According to the department, it simply “missed” sending roughly 7,000 pages of emails to other agencies, and did not notice the oversight until earlier this month. Its efforts to correct the problem were further delayed by the snowstorm, which closed the federal government through Wednesday.
The department has not even sent out documents to 12 agencies to review, it said.
Last week, the department pushed to delay the final deadline until Feb. 29.
As the journalist who sued the department to force the emails’ release pointed out, however, that would be after voters in the first four primary states have gone to the polls.
“[I]f the Court allows State to delay release of thousands of pages of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s official work emails, a substantial portion of the electorate will be forced to vote without the benefit of important information to which it is entitled about the performance of one of the candidates for U.S. President while serving as Secretary of State,” lawyers opposing the department’s schedule claimed earlier this week.
The Obama administration was unmoved.
“Upcoming electoral events, while admittedly important to the public, do not change the fact that State needs this reasonable amount of additional time to complete the final stage of this enormous and complex undertaking,” lawyers representing the State Department wrote.
Critics have warned that the final tranche of emails could contain scandalous or scintillating nuggets about Clinton’s time in the State Department. Administration lawyers this week attempted to dismiss those allegations.
The 7,000 pages of emails that won’t be out for another month needed to go through “multiple” other agencies for review, they claimed.
“But that does not mean that these emails are more ‘controversial’ than other emails, or that the oversight that led to them not being sent to all the necessary agencies was related to their substance," they wrote.
On Tuesday, the FBI and state troopers arrested Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan, and several others on their way to a speaking event some 20 miles north of Burns, Oregon.
Robert “LaVoy” Finicum - the self-styled “spokesperson” for the militiamen occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge - was shot and killed by authorities in the arrests.
In the wake of Finicum’s death there were conflicting accounts as to what exactly led police to shoot the 55-year-old Arizona rancher. Some suggested he was shot while his hands were in the air.
On Thursday, the FBI sought to dispel any misconceptions by releasing the following footage of the incident.
Edited version:
Full version:
While there's no sound and the video is shot from an FBI plane making it difficult to discern exactly what happened, it certainly appears as though Finicum reaches into his pocket - twice.
It's true that he emerges from the truck (which had careened into a snow bank after swerving to avoid a police roadblock) with his hands raised, but for whatever reason, he reaches for his hip on two seperate occasions. The second time he reaches down, police open fire. "As state troopers trained their guns on Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum along a secluded eastern Oregon highway, he reached twice for a pocket that police say contained a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun," The Oregonian writes. "That's when they fatally shot Finicum, a video released Thursday by the FBI appears to show." Here's more:
It began as Oregon State Police officers and FBI agents stopped a Jeep and a white pickup as they traveled north on U.S. 395 toward John Day.
Finicum, an Arizona foster parent and rancher who acted as a spokesman for the occupation, drove the truck. It and the Jeep carried key leaders of the occupation that began Jan. 2. They were headed to a community meeting in John Day, with plans to spread their message against federal land control.
Instead, at 4:26 p.m., they were pulled over about 20 miles north of Burns.
Three occupants of the Jeep -- including Ammon Bundy, the son of controversial Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and a leader of the refuge takeover – got out.
In another frame, the video shows another occupation leader, Ryan Payne, getting out of the truck driven by Finicum, with his hands up. Three others remained in the pickup with Finicum, Greg Bretzing, a special agent with the FBI said.
As police stood by with guns trained on the truck, Payne was arrested. Finicum and his passengers remained in the idle truck for about four more minutes as officers hollered for them to surrender, Bretzing said.
That period was blacked out in the [edited] video, which resumed with footage of Finicum's truck speeding away from the scene. As officers trailed in a black SUV and fired shots at the truck, it rounded two bends in the road, then rammed into a snowbank to avoid a police roadblock.
As it came to a stop, the truck nearly hit an officer who was standing alongside the road.
His hands raised, Finicum ran out of the car and toward the snowbank, yelling at police. Then, as police approached with guns drawn, he reached toward the left side of his waist. He began to put his hands back up, then reached down again.
Bretzing said Finicum was reaching toward a jacket pocket that contained a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.
The video shows Finicum being shot, then falling on his back. He raised his arm, then lay still.
"Actions have consequences," the FBI said, and "as the video clearly shows, it was a reckless action."
“On at least two occasions, Finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket. He did have a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in that pocket,” special agent Bretzing continued.
There were two loaded .233 semi-automatic rifles and one loaded .38 special in the truck. Although police wouldn't specify how many times they shot Finicum, they did say it was "in the single digits." He received medical attention once all of the truck's occupants had surrendered.
Finicum's death prompted calls from other armed militias for members to go by the "thousands" to Harney County where five occupiers remain holed up in the bird sanctuary.
Four of the five are free to go, while one is facing charges. The group says they'll leave if those charges are dropped.
“If they’re not willing to do that, we’re all just kind of willing to stay here and see what happens," one of the holdouts said. "Are they really going to kill five people for refusing to drop a charge on a man?”
We don't know, but based on the video shown above, it's probably not a risk the men should take.
The story of Ammon Bundy and his not so merry band of Federal Wildlife Refuge occupiers is about to come to its end.
Following the overnight arrest of the Oregon militia leader and six of his associates by the FBI, as well as deadly shooting during a confrontation with federal authorities of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, spokesperson for the militiamen occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, moments ago Portland's KATU reported that Ammon Bundy, through his attorney, asked the remaining armed occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to stand down and go home.
Bundy and the others were taken to Portland and booked into the Multnomah County Jail and made their first appearance in federal court on felony charges.
It was here that Bundy decided to stand down.
"I'm asking the federal government to allow the people at the refuge to go home without being prosecuted," Bundy said through his attorney Mike Arnold, who stood outside court to read Bundy's statement. "To those remaining at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this fight from here. Please stand down. Please stand down. Go home and hug your families. This fight is ours for now in the courts. Please go home."
Earlier, the handful of remaining armed occupiers tried to convince more people to join them via a YouTube livestream and told any would-be occupiers that if the federal authorities "stop you from getting here, KILL THEM!"
The occupiers took over the refuge Jan. 2.
In addition to Bundy, those arrested were Ryan Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox and Ryan W. Payne. They were taken into custody during a traffic stop. Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy and online talk-show radio host Peter Santilli were arrested in Burns. Jon Ritzheimer was arrested after surrendering to authorities in his home state of Arizona.
Top row from left are Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Brian Cavalier and Shawna Cox. Bottom row from left are Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy, Ryan Payne, Jon Eric Ritzheimer and Peter Santilli. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office/Maricopa County Sheriff's Office via AP)
KATU adds that a federal judge ordered the seven defendants in Portland to stay in federal custody. The judge ruled there's a risk they wouldn't show up in court, and those under arrest pose a danger to the community because the occupation at the wildlife refuge continues.
Defense attorneys argued that none of those under arrest have significant criminal records, but the judge agreed with prosecutors that all should remain in custody until a detention hearing scheduled for Friday.
None of the seven defendants entered any plea on the charge of impeding federal wildlife officers from doing their job, although the outcome of the legal process at this point is virtually assured: prison, of the Federal kind.
A protester keeps watch this month during the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. The FBI kept a low profile but monitored statements the protesters were making on social media and elsewhere. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
As the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon dragged on for most of January, local law enforcement was spread thin and federal agents were nowhere to be seen.
Behind the quiet facade, however, the FBI was running surveillance on the occupation and recording the activists’ public statements, mostly drawn from media reports and the activists' use of social media, while FBI agents encouraged locals to report their experiences with the new strangers in town.
According to the allegations in an indictment and supporting affidavit, the FBI was collecting information that confirmed the occupiers were armed, angry and willing to die.
The court documents detail how a source told a Harney County sheriff’s officer that the protesters “had explosives, night vision goggles, and weapons and that if they didn't get the fight they wanted out there they would bring the fight to town.” The documents show that authorities grew concerned as the occupiers used increasingly heated rhetoric when discussing their plans and the occupation.
One activist, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, 55, was shot and killed Tuesday in an altercation between some of the occupiers and authorities. Ryan Bundy suffered a gunshot wound to his arm.
On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman unsealed the government’s criminal complaint against two brothers, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and Jon Ritzheimer, as well as five others arrested in connection with the occupation.
All stand accused of conspiring to use threats, intimidation or force to stop federal officers from doing their duty, a charge also used against tax protesters Edward and Elaine Brown, a New Hampshire couple who holed up in their home in 2007 and engaged in an armed standoff with federal agents for months. It eventually ended peacefully with their arrest.
A significant amount of the FBI’s information used to charge Ammon Bundy came from an activist named Pete Santilli, who was living inside the refuge and broadcasting live his conversations with fellow activists.
To demonstrate a conspiracy, the government has a lower burden than it would with similar charges, such as aiding and abetting, or solicitation. A conspiracy charge in federal court does not require the underlying offense to have taken place, so prosecutors can charge the defendants based on their statements, without proving they actually committed a crime.
That is where Santilli’s broadcasts proved so useful to the FBI.
“We’re continuing the stand at the Malheur National Wildlife Reserve,” Ammon Bundy told Santilli in a conversation on Jan. 2, the day the occupation began. “Let everybody know that.”
Later, Bundy was recorded telling Santilli, “Malheur, Malheur,” at which point, the FBI affidavit says, Santilli nods and then introduces Bundy, who gives a speech.
At one point in a video, Santilli’s cameraman is recording Bundy speaking to another activist when the cameraman seems to realize he shouldn’t be broadcasting it. The cameraman steps away and bumps into someone. “I was trying to get away from that conversation,” he explains.
The charges filed Wednesday detail activists' behavior in the media and the behavior reported to the FBI by federal employees who said they endured threats from the protesters in town before the occupation.
One employee with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, a prime target of the protesters, said Ritzheimer, an anti-Muslim activist who led an armed protest at a mosque last May, and another man accosted her in a grocery store for wearing a BLM shirt.
“When she turned around, the second individual shouted ‘you're BLM, you're BLM,’ at her,” FBI Special Agent Katherine Armstrong wrote in the affidavit.
“That person further stated to [the BLM employee] that they know what car she drives and would follow her home. He also stated he was going to burn [her] house down.”
Then activists began targeting her, she said. A vehicle matching one she saw Ritzheimer and the other man driving began to appear parked in front of her home and in front of her workplace, she said.
A week later, a white truck with a Confederate flag sticker in the rear window tailgated her and flashed its lights, the affidavit says.
The documents are also sprinkled with repeated references to the occupiers’ principle concerns—upholding the Constitution, protecting the rights of individuals and crushing socialism. It also quotes various protesters using social media to urge “good patriots” to join the occupation.
Oath Keepers is calling for milia to 'STAND DOWN' after one of those involved in the Oregon standoff was shot yesterday.
See full press release below.
PRESS RELEASE 26 January 2016
Pacific Patriot Network – Oath Keepers – III%
Pacific Patriots Network – Official Statement for Immediate Release
On January 26, 2016, Ammon Bundy Ryan Bundy, Shawna Cox, Brian Cavalier, Ryan Payne and LaVoy Finicum were involved in a traffic stop between the town of Burns and John Day, Oregon. They were on their way to a meeting with local ranchers. Ammon Bundy, as well as the passengers of his vehicle were stopped, arrested, and taken into federal custody by the FBI. We can confirm that one man has been shot and taken to the local hospital and that another was shot and killed. We can also confirm that separate from the traffic stop, both Joe O’Shaugnessy and Pete Santilli were also arrested and taken into custody.
It has come to the attention of PPN that many individuals are responding to this news as a ‘Call to Action’. The Pacific Patriots Network is issuing an immediate “STAND BY” Order to all those who are mobilizing to the peaceful city of Burns, Oregon. We will not pursue any action until all of the facts have been pieced together regarding the traffic stop and the arrest of Ammon Bundy. During this time, cooler heads must prevail. We do not wish to inflame the current situation and will engage in open dialogue until all of the facts have been gathered.
Again, we must reiterate the current standing order. No mobilization of any kind is to take place until every piece of speculation and hearsay have been verified or dismissed. We will maintain the high road and continue to communicate with federal officials until a complete time line has been developed. In light of recent events PPN continues to support a peaceful resolution to the occupation of the refuge. As more information is made available to the PPN it will be released accordingly and via the appropriate channels.
Pacific Patriots Network Media Team media@pacificpatriotsnetwork.com
BURNS, Ore. (INTELLIHUB) — Although a plethora of information can be found on Intellihub.com about the constitutionality of the Oregon Occupation and the root of the problem, the FBI can’t seem to find any information on what’s really going on and is unwilling to investigate federal agencies, period.
We are putting this video out there as an open letter to the federal government hereby requesting investigation into the unconstitutional wrongdoings currently taking place in Harney County.
During a phone meeting with the lead FBI negotiator known only as “Chris,” Ammon Bundy said:
“The FBI does not have anything really to do with the situation–it is the people their county and their land. The federal government simply needs to adhere to the Constitution of the United States, adhere to the rules in Article 1, 8, 17 and comply.”
Bundy explained to Chris how the locals are not happy that the FBI is there.
‘You have a standing army in town,’ Bundy said.
At one point the negotiator even threatened Bundy with an investigation of his person, rather than to even focus on the task at hand.
Additionally the FBI negotiator failed to provide his last name upon Bundy’s request.
“Get your investigators out here. Get interviewing these ranchers,” Bundy told the FBI.
