Edited of those posts making it personal.

soufie
Site Moderator

yes, that's correct

A couple of things need to be noted with this.

First of all, the self-appointed defenders of freedom and justice were NOT, repeat NOT invited by, or desired by, the actual victims of possible government persecution.

That is, the Hammonds, who have already said that they intend to go to prison as directed, have also said that they are in no way associated with these people, and don't want anything to do with them, or with the crimes they are committing.

The Bundy's and company, already have other messes they have made, and crimes they have committed, and are looking for more opportunities to grandstand on behalf of their own agendas, while pretending to be fighting the good fight for justice.

Terrorists, they are not. They are making lots of egotistical drama-queen statements and boasts, about how they intend to stay in this deserted office building for ever. That's not terrorism.

If law enforcement are smart, they will quietly wait, and announce how much additional criminal penalties the participants are accruing by their continued mistaken actions.

For an occupation to be effective, there has to be a desperate need to get into the building. There isn't.

Amanda Marshall: Former U.S. Attorney for Oregon. Marshall recommended that the federal government challenge the Hammonds' original prison sentences. By law, the convictions come with mandatory five-year sentences, but U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in 2012 balked at the punishment and instead sentenced Dwight Hammond to three months and Steven Hammond to one year. Marshall called Hogan's punishments "unlawful." The solicitor general authorized a rare appeal of an Oregon judge's order. The appeals court sided with the prosecution, and the Hammonds returned to federal court last year to face a second sentencing. At that hearing, U.S. Chief District Judge Ann Aiken ordered the pair to finish five-year terms.

WTH happened to this thread?
Affirmative action ?

HISTORY: (aa) The Harney Basin (were the Hammond ranch is established) was settled in the 1870’s. The valley was settled by multiple ranchers and was known to have run over 300,000 head of cattle. These ranchers developed a state of the art irrigated system to water the meadows, and it soon became a favorite stopping place for migrating birds on their annual trek north.

(ab) In 1908 President Theodor Roosevelt, in a political scheme, create an “Indian reservation” around the Malheur, Mud & Harney Lakes and declared it “as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds”. Later this “Indian reservation” (without Indians) became the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

(a) In 1964 the Hammonds purchased their ranch in the Harney Basin. The purchase included approximately 6000 acres of private property, 4 grazing rights on public land, a small ranch house and 3 water rights. The ranch is around 53 miles South of Burns, Oregon.

(a1) By the 1970’s nearly all the ranches adjacent to the Blitzen Valley were purchased by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and added to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge covers over 187,000 acres and stretches over 45 miles long and 37 miles wide. The expansion of the refuge grew and surrounds to the Hammond’s ranch. Being approached many times by the FWS, the Hammonds refused to sell. Other ranchers also choose not to sell.

(a2) During the 1970’s the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), took a different approach to get the ranchers to sell. Ranchers were told that, “grazing was detrimental to wildlife and must be reduced”. 32 out of 53 permits were revoked and many ranchers were forced to leave. Grazing fees were raised significantly for those who were allowed to remain. Refuge personnel took over the irrigation system claiming it as their own.

(a3) By 1980 a conflict was well on its way over water allocations on the adjacent privately owned Silvies Plain. The FWS wanted to acquire the ranch lands on the Silvies Plain to add to their already vast holdings. Refuge personnel intentional diverted the water to bypassing the vast meadowlands, directing the water into the rising Malheur Lakes. Within a few short years the surface area of the lakes doubled. Thirty-one ranches on the Silvies plains were flooded. Homes, corrals, barns and graze-land were washed a way and destroyed. The ranchers that once fought to keep the FWS from taking their land, now broke and destroyed, begged the FWS to acquire their useless ranches. In 1989 the waters began to recede and now the once thriving privately owned Silvies pains are a proud part of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge claimed by the FWS.

(a4) By the 1990’s the Hammonds were one of the very few ranchers that still owned private property adjacent to the refuge. Susie Hammond in an effort to make sense of what was going on began compiling fact about the refuge. In a hidden public record she found a study that was done by the FWS in 1975. The study showed that the “no use” policies of the FWS on the refuge were causing the wildlife to leave the refuge and move to private property. The study showed that the private property adjacent to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge produced 4 times more ducks and geese than the refuge did. It also showed that the migrating birds were 13 times more likely to land on private property than on the refuge. When Susie brought this to the attention of the FWS and refuge personnel, her and her family became the subjects of a long train of abuses and corruptions.

(b) In the early 1990’s the Hammonds filed on a livestock water source and obtained a deed for the water right from the State of Oregon. When the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) found out that the Hammonds obtained new water rights near the Malhuer Wildlife Refuge, they were agitated and became belligerent and vindictive towards the Hammonds. The US Fish and Wildlife Service challenged the Hammonds right to the water in an Oregon State Circuit Court. The court found that the Hammonds legally obtained rights to the water in accordance to State law and therefore the use of the water belongs to the Hammonds.*

(from my Link,more to follow)

well,HooddahThunkit?

Abstract
Mineral surveys were conducted on 41,315 acres
of the Pueblo Mountains Wilderness Study Area (OR-
002-08 l/NV-020-642) in southeastern Oregon and
northern Nevada, at the request of the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management (BLM). The original wilderness
study area is larger than the area on which mineral
surveys were requested. This report discusses the
geology, mineralizing processes, and mineral resource
potential of an area larger than the 41,315-acre area
on which surveys were requested, in order to more
accurately determine the mineral resource potential of
the study area. Throughout this report "wilderness
study area" and "study area" apply only to the 41,315-
acre area on which surveys were requested. The U.S.
Bureau of Mines (USBM) and the U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS) conducted geological, geophysical, and
geochemical surveys during 1984 and 1985 to assess
the mineral resources (known) and mineral resource
potential (undiscovered) of the study area.
No resources were identified in the Pueblo
Mountains Wilderness Study Area. However, the study
indicates high potential for silver and mercury
resources in altered rocks located along two
northwest-trending fault zones that cross the east
boundary of the study area; moderate potential for
gold, silver, copper, mercury, and molybdenum
resources in quartz veins along a fault near the east
boundary of the study area; low potential for silver,
zinc, mercury, and molybdenum resources in
intermediate flows located in the central part of the
study area; and low potential for undiscovered silver
and mercury in silicic tuff. The eastern part of the
study area has low potential for copper, lead, and zinc
resources in metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks;
and the northeast part of the study area has low
potential for mercury resources in mafic flows. The
resource potential for oil, gas, and geothermal energy
is considered low in the study area.
Part of the Pueblo Mountains east of the study
area has four areas of high mineral resource potential
and several areas of moderate and low mineral
resource potential. All terranes that have high
mineral resource potential outside of the study area
are discussed in the text. Metamorphic rocks and
Quaternary sedimentary deposits exposed along two
segments of the Pueblo Mountains range-front fault, 2
mi east of the study area, have high potential for gold
and silver resources. Rocks adjacent to the Pueblo
caldera ring fault, 1 mi east of the study area, have
high potential for silver, copper, zinc, mercury,
molybdenum, and uranium resources. A
metamorphosed quartz diorite intrusion near the
southeast boundary of the study area has high potential
for gold, silver, copper, and molybdenum resources.
Caldera-fill sedimentary rocks 3 mi east of the study
area have low potential for diatomite and bentonite
resources.


No wonder the Feds want to grab it!

In a nut shell

Armed US PATRIOTS In Standoff With Feds NOW/OREGON:

http://youtu.be/wRoVjQ-l5vY/ 22:58

Full Story on What’s Going on In Oregon – Militia Take Over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge In Protest to Hammond Family Persecution… | The Last Refuge

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/01/03/full-story-on-whats-going-on-in-oregon-militia-take-over-malheur-national-wildlife-refuge-in-protest-to-hammond-family-persecution/

They have Militia's in Oregon? Or is that what they call armed thugs who protect their Marijuana growing operation?

Surely you jest ?

(c) In August 1994 the BLM & FWS illegally began building a fence around the Hammonds water source. Owning the water rights and knowing that their cattle relied on that water source daily the Hammonds tried to stop the building of the fence. The BLM & FWS called the Harney County Sheriff department and had Dwight Hammond (Father) arrested and charged with “disturbing and interfering with” federal officials or federal contractors (two counts, each a felony). He spent one night in the Deschutes County Jail in Bend, and a second night behind bars in Portland before he was hauled before a federal magistrate and released without bail. A hearing on the charges was postponed and the federal judge never set another date.

(d) The FWS also began restricting access to upper pieces of the Hammond’s private property. In order to get to the upper part of the Hammond’s ranch they had to go on a road that went through the Malhuer Wildlife Refuge. The FWS began barricading the road and threatening the Hammonds if they drove through it. The Hammonds removed the barricades and gates and continued to use their right of access. The road was proven later to be owned by the County of Harney. This further enraged the BLM & FWS.

(e) Shortly after the road & water disputes, the BLM & FWS arbitrarily revoked the Hammond’s upper grazing permit without any given cause, court proceeding or court ruling. As a traditional “fence out state” Oregon requires no obligation on the part of an owner to keep his or her livestock within a fence or to maintain control over the movement of the livestock. The Hammonds intended to still use their private property for grazing. However, they were informed that a federal judge ruled, in a federal court, that the federal government did not have to observe the Oregon fence out law. “Those laws are for the people, not for them”.

(f) The Hammonds were forced to either build and maintain miles of fences or be restricted from the use of their private property. Cutting their ranch in almost half, they could not afford to fence the land, so the cattle were removed.

(g) The Hammonds experienced many years of financial hardship due to the ranch being diminished. The Hammonds had to sale their ranch and home in order to purchase another property that had enough grass to feed their cattle. This property included two grazing rights on public land. Those were also arbitrarily revoked later.

(h) The owner of the Hammond’s original ranch passed away from a heart attack and the Hammonds made a trade for the ranch back.

(from my original link)

I guess you're forgetting that Oregon just legalized like Washington and a lot of our illegals moved to Nevada..... No profit here now!

But also I have anywhere to read "Oregon Militia" in any of the press. Just ranchers, out-of-staters, local families, and a few ex military types.

About 300 marched thru town this weekend, non-violent, many families, just a protest, and those at the reserve are claiming a right to be on "the peoples property" not surprisingly managed by the govt but paid for and owned by the people.

There are some hot-heads and glory seekers (suspected infiltrators to incite hostilities) but hopefully they are known and cooler heads prevail so we don't have another Waco or Ruby Ridge!

Lots of families with children in peaceful protest..... hope it stays that way. The 2 ranchers are still reporting today. The protest is for the govts heavy handed actions....as usual, hoping for change.

The BLM has a bad record of "claiming rights" to land in this area! Hell, every area!

If this is terrorism, then our civil war was nothIng but two extremists group fighting over power........

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Public_land_oregon_1996.png

Tell me where ranchers rights are on this map when the BLM controls all the range lands?

(i) In the early fall of 2001, Steven Hammond (Son) called the fire department, informing them that he was going to be performing a routine prescribed burn on their ranch. Later that day he started a prescribed fire on their private property. The fire went onto public land and burned 127 acres of grass. The Hammonds put the fire out themselves. There was no communication about the burn from the federal government to the Hammonds at that time. Prescribed fires are a common method that Native Americans and ranchers have used in the area to increase the health & productivity of the land for many centuries.

(j) In 2006 a massive lightning storm started multiple fires that joined together inflaming the countryside. To prevent the fire from destroying their winter range and possibly their home, Steven Hammond (Son) started a backfire on their private property. The backfire was successful in putting out the lightning fires that had covered thousands of acres within a short period of time. The backfire saved much of the range and vegetation needed to feed the cattle through the winter. Steven’s mother, Susan Hammond said: “The backfire worked perfectly, it put out the fire, saved the range and possibly our home”.

(j1) The next day federal agents went to the Harney County Sheriff’s office and filled a police report making accusation against Dwight and Steven Hammond for starting the backfire. A few days after the backfire a Range-Con from the Burns District BLM office asked Steven if he would meet him in town (Frenchglen) for coffee. Steven accepted. When leaving he was arrested by the Harney County Sheriff Dave Glerup and BLM Ranger Orr. Sheriff Glerup then ordered him to go to the ranch and bring back his father. Both Dwight and Steven were booked and on multiple Oregon State charges. The Harney County District Attorney reviewed the accusation, evidence and charges, and determined that the accusations against Dwight & Steven Hammond did not warrant prosecution and dropped all the charges.

(k) In 2011, 5 years after the police report was taken, the U.S. Attorney Office accused Dwight and Steven Hammond of completely different charges, they accused them of being “Terrorist” under the Federal Antiterrorism Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. This act carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of death. Dwight & Steven’s mug shots were all over the news the next week posing them as “Arsonists”. Susan Hammond (Wife & Mother) said: “I would walk down the street or go in a store, people I had known for years would take extreme measures to avoid me”.(from my link)

Vanilla lsis

what objective does BLM hope to achieve? to break laws and maybe die to stop people from dying while breaking the law?

not seeing a point there...

BLM hope to achieve justice and equal treatment by the law , amongst other things

is that not as noble as dying and killing over land ownership?

(l) Shortly after the sentencing, Capital Press ran a story about the Hammonds. A person who identified as Greg Allum posted three comments on the article, calling the ranchers “clowns” who endangered firefighters and other people in the area while burning valuable rangeland. Greg Allum, a retired BLM heavy equipment operator, soon called Capital Press to complain that he had not made those comments and request that they be taken down from the website. Capital Press removed the comments. A search of the Internet Protocol address associated with the comments revealed it is owned by the BLM’s office in Denver, Colorado. Allum said, he is friends with the Hammonds and was alerted to the comments by neighbors who knew he wouldn’t have written them. “I feel bad for them. They lost a lot and they’re going to lose more,” Allum said of the ranchers. “They’re not terrorists. There’s this hatred in the BLM for them, and I don’t get it,” The retired BLM employee said. Jody Weil, deputy state director for communications at BLM’s Oregon office, indicated to reporters that if one of their agents falsified the comments, they would keep it private and not inform the public.

(m) In September 2006, Dwight & Susan Hammond’s home was raided. The agents informed the Hammonds that they were looking for evidence that would connect them to the fires. The Hammonds later found out that a boot print and a tire tracks were found near one of the many fires. No matching boots or tires were found in the Hammonds home or on their property. Susan Hammond (Wife) later said; ” I have never felt so violated in my life. We are ranchers not criminals”. Steven Hammond openly maintains his testimony that he started the backfire to save the winter grass from being destroyed and that the backfire ended up working so well it put out the fire entirely altogether.

(n) During the trial proceedings, Federal Court Judge Michael Hogan did not allow time for certain testimonies and evidence into the trail that would exonerate the Hammonds. Federal prosecuting attorney, Frank Papagni, was given full access for 6 days. He had ample time to use any evidence or testimony that strengthened the demonization of the Hammonds. The Hammonds attorney was only allowed 1 day. Much of the facts about the fires, land and why the Hammonds acted the way they did was not allowed into the proceedings and was not heard by the jury. For example, Judge Hogan did not allow time for the jury to hear or review certified scientific findings that the fires improved the health and productivity of the land. Or, that the Hammonds had been subject to vindictive behavior by multiple federal agencies for years.(ibid)