Darren Weeks
Coalition to Govern America
January 13, 2016
Our concern with the rancher protest and subsequent occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is that the situation has the potential of blowing up into the another Waco-style event. Government agents provocateur and generally unhinged wackos who are drawn to these types of events can end up making an otherwise peaceful situation into a bloodbath. It is for this reason, that we have expressed our concern about operational security at the Malheur refuge, and the fact that the Bundy's et. al. were openly inviting anyone into their ranks who wanted to come.
At this point, I believe it is necessary to remind the reader that while we do support the Hammonds, and we believe the Bundy family are good people, it is our position that the occupation at Malheur was ill-advised and likely provocateured. We do believe that Ammon Bundy and many of his friends are good people who are taking a strong stand against government corruption and malicious prosecution. While we don't endorse the way they chose to do so, we have no doubt that their hearts are in the right place.
That being said, we are very concerned that there are questionable characters that are involved within the ranks of the current operation. Despite the Bundy's, et. al., efforts to banish troublemakers from their ranks, it is extremely difficult to know who is who when you leave the door open wide to strangers from across the country.
In addition to possibly unhinged individuals and groups infiltrating the ranks, the additional threat of false flag operations being pulled off by federal agents provocateur near the Malheur operation has been a great cause for concern from the start. Our worry is that the feds could pull off a violent event and use it to frame the protesters at Malheur. This concern has only heightened with the resignation of Harney County fire chief, Chris Briels. Briels just resigned following a confrontation with county judge Steve Grasty. Briels said in a press conference today that he followed some suspicious men from the county armory.
"The other day, a friend of mine poked me in the chest and said, 'you need to find out what your cohorts are doing at the armory', because there's some people that had been at the armory," he said. "Twice they had been turned into the police. And I thought, my Gosh! So I followed the people and I followed them until they stopped and I got out and asked them who they were. They were dishonest with me. They would not tell me what they were doing and I asked them what they were doing at our armory."
According to Briels, they first denied being at the armory. Then, when Briels informed them he had followed them from the armory, they admitted to being there but told different stories as to why they had been there — first claiming they were looking for a place to put a business, and afterward, claiming they were admiring the deer there.
When Briels attempted to report the incident to the county sheriff, he was not allowed to see the sheriff. He then says he called police dispatch who ran the plate of the men who had been at the armory. It was then he learned that the men were undercover FBI agents. It was after he inquired as to why the FBI was hanging around the armory that he was told by county judge Steve Grasty to back off. Briels resigned as fire chief, a position he has held since 1984, because he said he could no longer trust the local government.
