The Far Right Wing Excellent Vacation Adventure at the Oregon Bird Refuge

OJ Simpson meets the Three Stooges in a Three Ring Circus that Narrowly avoided a Waco, Texas came to end today. And what an entertainment show it was.

By Nate Thayer

February 11, 2016

The occupation of a Oregon bird sanctuary, which began January 2nd, by an eclectic gathering of armed right-wing stragglers promoted no one’s political agenda. An investigation into the background and political views of the 27 now under arrest create a portrait of angry, armed, posers and unhinged goofballs with no shared ideology who had a need to vent their personal angst at a common enemy.

 

They chose the U.S. federal government, whose superior firepower made it pretty clear that the saga would not end well for the erstwhile political dissidents.

After a 41 day siege, the final holdout was one David Fry from Ohio. Fry surrendered today to the FBI.

Among other things, Fry has claimed the government is hiding information on aliens and is using science experiments to intentionally mutate people.

Fry’s Google+ page includes numerous anti-Semitic rants which feature the hash tag “#HitlerWasRight”, demands “Obama needs to be hung after being found guilty for TREASON!!”, #Pray4ISIS”, and “#BombIsrael.”

 

Among his postings are:

 

“You cant say to just go killing ALL Muslims” and “Facebook run by “Jews” and “I DO NOT HATE HOMOSEXUALS! IF YOU BELIEVE TO BE GAY AND YOU WANT TO MARRY A MAN. THAT IS YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT! RIGHT TO PURSUE HAPPINESS!” and “Christians are the dumbest dolts right next to liberals!” and “Facebook owned and run by Communist Zionist Satan Worshiping Fake Jews!

 

 

The standoff was an epic example of the wonders of the digital age. It was broadcast via You Tube for anyone who cared to listen. At 10:11 a.m. Thursday morning, Fry offered that his biggest fear was being raped in jail. Six minutes later, he put a handgun to his head. Ten minutes after that Fry said he no longer cared about the politics of the occupation cause but was in it for himself and really did not want to be arrested.

 

His negotiating demands included: in order for him to surrender the government must provide him a job that did not require paying taxes; pizza to be delivered by the FBI; and a fresh supply of  “weed”.

 

The 27-year-old pointed a gun to his head, threatened to kill himself, and said “Until you guys address my grievances, I will just sit in here by myself.”

“I’m actually feeling suicidal right now…It’s liberty or death. I will not go another day as a slave to this system,” he told the FBI a few minutes before he surrendered Thursday morning.

 

A few days prior to his arrest, Fry said “If they come in to arrest then they’re going to throw us behind bars where weird shit would happen.”

 

Three of the last four holdouts surrendered to the FBI earlier Thursday morning, leaving Fry the last holdout.

 

Fry refused to surrender. “I declare war against the federal government. I’ve peacefully voted and nothing is ever done.”

 

Fry has been convicted of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, and having an insufficient number of life jackets while using an inner-tube to float down a river.

 

Fry lived, until a few weeks ago, at his parents house in Ohio. When they went on vacation to the Caribbean, David took the family car to Oregon. His father was not happy upon his return to Ohio.

And the rest is history, however inconsequential.

 

There is, in fact, a legitimate and organized “Patriot” political movement that promotes an anti-federal government agenda. The knuckleheads who gathered at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon were late-night comedy poster boys of who they are not—or certainly who they should not be if they want anyone to take their political message seriously.

One of those occupiers who has avoided arrest, so far, is Kelly Gneiting, a former Sumo wrestler who runs a right white supremacist political party.

 

He features himself here from the Maheur National Wildlife Refuge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8TTWujUGsU

Gneiting sports a pair of diapers and challenges presidential candidate Chris Christie to a wrestling match on You Tube

The DaDa-esq political extremist drama took on the trappings of an extreme slumber party within days of it getting off the ground.

Gentian writes on his website: “I joined the Marine Corps and was taught that in wartime or peacetime disobeying orders would cost lives, falling asleep at my post would cost lives, and NOT showing courage would cost lives. Yet the stakes got even higher than that… I didn’t think the stakes could get any higher until I began to be a patriot, and learned that God had a family too, and that He needs responsible team-members to preserve and nourish His children. The new “team” I was choosing to be a part of extended to every living person on planet earth! That’s a big team! Yet if this new team of mine involved everyone on planet Earth, who then would we be competing against? “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)”

27 people have had federal arrest warrants issued for them for participating in the 41 day armed occupation of federal land. Most of them have been arrested.

 

Thursday morning, the FBI arrested the last four people occupying the bird sanctuary. They were:

* Sean Larry Anderson, age 47, of Riggins, Idaho

* Sandra Lynn Anderson, age 48, of Riggins, Idaho

* Jeff Wayne Banta, age 46, of Yerington, Nevada

* David Lee Fry, age 27, of Blanchester, Ohio

 

Indictments against 7 others were announced simultaneously:

 

*Blaine Cooper, 36, of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona;

*Corey Lequieu, 44, of Fallon, Nevada;

*Neil Wampler, 68, of Los Osos, California;

*Jason Charles Blomgren, 41, of Murphy, North Carolina;

*Darryl William Thorn, 31, of Marysville, Washington;

*Wesley Kjar, 32, of Manti, Utah;

*Eric Lee Flores, 22, of Tulalip, Washington.

 

 

On February 3, 2016, a federal grand jury indicted 16 people:

 

* Dylan Wade Anderson, age 34, of Provo, Utah

* Sandra Lynn Anderson, age 48, of Riggins, Idaho

* Sean Larry Anderson, age 47, of Riggins, Idaho

* Jeff Wayne Banta, age 46, of Yerington, Nevada

* Ammon Edward Bundy, age 40, of Emmett, Idaho

* Ryan C. Bundy, age 43, of Bunkerville, Nevada

* Brian Cavalier, age 44, of Bunkerville, Nevada

* Shawna Cox, age 59, Kanab, Utah

* Duane Leo Ehmer, age 45, of Irrigon, Oregon

* David Lee Fry, age 27, of Blanchester, Ohio

* Kenneth Medenbach, age 62, of Crescent, Oregon

* Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, age 45, of Cottonwood, Arizona

* Jason S. Patrick, age 43, of Bonaire, Georgia

* Ryan Waylen Payne, age 32, of Anaconda, Montana

* Jon Eric Ritzheimer, age 32, Peoria, Arizona

* Peter Santilli, age 50, of Cincinnati, Ohio

 

 

Most have been arrested in a federal swoop through six states.

Here are a few random incomplete biographies of those arrested:

*Corey Lequieu from Nevada. He is an avowed racist and member of the obscure “Watchmen of America” who has called Obama a “Muslim porch monkey traitor.”

*Rance Harris is from Oregon and an avowed white supremacist

*Brian “Booda” Cavalier is from Arizona via California and Utah. He was the personal bodyguard of the leader of the refuge occupation, Aamon Bundy. He also claimed to be a former Marine. The camouflaged, heavily armed, 6 foot tall, heavyset Cavalier repeatedly claimed he was a U.S. Marine combat veteran. “I’m a retired United States Marine, I can rage.” He is not. Cavalier never served in the U.S. military, according to the US Marine Corps. In truth, he is an Arizona “tattoo artist” where he has been convicted of driving while drunk and theft. When he was confronted as a military fraud on January 6, Cavalier fled the Oregon compound and holed up in a nearby Oregon motel drinking heavily.

 

*Ryan Payne repeatedly publicly claimed to be a veteran of the elite Army Rangers. He never was, according to the website thisainthell.us, run by U.S. military veteran Jonn Lilyea. “Payne was not a Ranger by any measure of the word, but, I guess militia folks don’t care about veracity,” said Lilyea. Payne declared himself the unofficial “leader” of the militia at the 2014 Bundy ranch occupation in Nevada and is a member of the West Mountain Rangers, 41st Mountain Field Force militia group, Operation Mutual Aid, and the Arizona Militia. These groups promote an anti-federal government philosophy highlighted by anti-immigrant, anti-tax, and anti-Muslim philosophies. Payne told the Missoula (Montana) Independent that blacks “didn’t view themselves as slaves“, that Jews “control the world”, that taxes were “legal plunder”, and that “in most states you have the lawful authority to kill a police officer that is unlawfully trying to arrest you.”

*Blaine Cooper said he is a “militia adviser” to the Bundy’s and “head of security.” Cooper also says he is a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran. He never was. Blaine Cooper is not his real name. His real name is Stanley Blaine Hicks, but he changed it to the Hollywood screen name of Jesse Ventura’s character in the 1987 movie “Predator”, Blaine Cooper. Stanley Blaine Hicks failed to show up for his signed agreement to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps and, shortly afterwards, changed his name to Blaine Cooper. Cooper is a member of the militia group Arizona Border Recon and was a prominent figure in the Bundy Ranch confrontation, the current Oregon occupation, anti-Muslim demonstrations, and anti-immigrant armed militia patrols. In a YouTube video, Cooper is seen rubbing bacon on the Koran before setting it on fire and shooting the holy book as a “message to Muslim extremists”. Cooper publicly called for the arrest of U.S. senator and Vietnam War POW John McCain for being “guilty of treason”. Cooper/Hicks has at least 16 felonies arrests, according to Arizona court records. These include supplying liquor to a minor; falsifying reports to police; criminal damage; assault with intent of reckless injury; failure to appear; intimidation/harassment/threats by phone; assault; disorderly conduct; threats with intent to injure; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with intent to injure; kidnapping; unlawful imprisonment; aggravated assault; disorderly conduct; interference with judicial hearing; criminal damage; and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

*Joseph Rice claims he is a twice-wounded combat veteran of the first gulf war where his helicopter was shot down and Saddam Hussein held him as a prisoner of war. But Rice never served in the Iraq war, was never wounded, and was never a POW. Rice was a mechanic in the National Guard and then trained as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army reserves, but never left the U.S. He left his military reserves service in 1988—two years prior to the beginning of the 1990 war with Iraq, according to his military service records. But that didn’t stop Rice from displayed Oregon state “Purple Heart” license plates on his car before he was outed as a military “Stolen Valor” fraud by the thisainthell.us website.

Jon Ritzheimer claims he was “forced out” of the U.S. Marines Corps because of a revised tattoo policy. Jon Ritzheimer is indeed a former U.S. Marine who served in the reserves from 2004 to 2013 and is a veteran of Iraq, where he was a “motor vehicle operator”, according to U.S. military records. But military records show he never earned a “Combat Action Ribbon,” which would indicate he engaged in combat while in Iraq. Recently, Ritzheimer has organized an armed protest at a Phoenix mosque in collaboration with the Ku Klux Klan, threatened to “arrest” President Obama and U.S. senators who voted for the Iran nuclear agreement, and was intercepted by the FBI as he headed in a car, ranting and displaying weapons to New York to confront a Mosque. The FBI issued an alert of a “potential threat to law enforcement.” “I am an American Patriot who has everything to lose,” Ritzheimer said recently. “I’ve had to kiss my family goodbye on 3 occasions now and didn’t know whether I would see them again. I am now planning on doing it again.” During the Oregon bird sanctuary occupation, he appealed for support. “We will humbly accept monetary donations…care packages would be greatly appreciated. Things we could use: cold weather socks; snacks; energy drinks; equipment for cold weather; snow camo gear; anything you think will help. Thank you all for the support.”

*Brand Thorton of Nevada worked as a heating and air-conditioning technician and is a member of the Southern Nevada Militia. Thornton is an anti-Semite who called Jews the “synagogue of Satan” and “The devil’s spawn from the pits of hell.”

 

*Schuyler Barbeau is an anti-government extremist who was arrested on weapons charges in December in Oregon and still jailed.

* Sean Anderson and his wife, Sandy, of Riggins, Idaho, were two of the last four holdouts. The Anderson’s own Hurricane Outdoor Supply, a Riggins, Idaho hunting and camping supply business. “Prison isn’t an option,” Anderson said days before he surrendered to the FBI. He has an outstanding bench warrant for an August 2014 arrest charged with resisting an officer, possession of THC and possession of drug paraphernalia. Last week, Anderson said “The American people better wake up, get here, and fight for your country! Right now! Ger ‘er done! All you military who have been fighting for your country overseas, you can fight for your country right here in America! Get here! Get some! There are no laws in this United States now! This is a free-for-all Armageddon. Any military or law enforcement or feds who stand up and fuck their oath, don’t abide by their oath are the enemy! If they stop you from getting here, kill them!!” Those comments resulted in a federal warrant for Anderson’s arrest.

Last week, a You Tube video showed Anderson and his wife slow dancing in the dark to music playing from a truck radio at the federal refuge. “We want to go home,” said Anderson. “We don’t need checkpoints. We don’t need felony charges. We’re camping out here. God help us.” The video showed the four around a campfire drinking beer, smoking pot and concluding “God will direct us through this.”

 

Each is charged with a federal felony of “conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 372.” It is likely that many will face additional charges.

The surrender of the final occupiers was obtained by several negotiators who had gained the trust of the armed ‘Patriots’. They included Brooklyn, New York born Michele Fiore, a candidate for US congress this year who has been a member of the Nevada legislature since 2013 and a staunch supporter of the armed right-wing patriot movement. She was a key negotiator convincing the ‘Patriots” to surrender, which brought to a close the 41 day siege and confrontation with federal, state, and local law enforcement.

Fiore is a decidedly unique American politician who has been the staunchest public defender of the far right armed movement of “Constitutionalists, “Patriots”, and other assorted far right armed extremists. She also is a vocal advocate for legalization of Marijuana, supports same-sex marriage.

 

She is also decidedly anti immigrant, offering to personally go to France and shoot Syrian refugees. “I will fly to Paris and shoot ’em in the head myself.’ I mean, I am not OK with Syrian refugees. I’m not OK with terrorists. I’m OK with putting them down, blacking them out. Just put a piece of brass in their ocular cavity and end their miserable life. I’m good with that.” She also has contended that cancer is a fungus and can be cured with salt water.

While negotiating with Fiore, the last holdout, David Fry said “If everybody says hallelujah, I’ll come out” as heavily armed FBI agents waited 50 meters away. Fry was speaking on a live You Tube broadcast. “Everybody’s listening, everybody’s listening…I’m walking toward them right now,” said Fry.

 

“Keep walking my friend, hallelujah,” a man said.

 

“Slow down. Keep your hands up,” said the FBI agents heard on the broadcast. “Turn around, keep walking toward the sound of my voice, nice and easy. Right here. Going to put your hands behind your back, OK? You got any guns on you or anything?”

 

“No,” said Fry.

 

“Ammo?” asked the FBI.

 

“No”, said Fry.