Oregon standoff leader warns feds: Back off

Oregon Live ^ | 1/19/2016 | Les Zaitz

[Nextrush]

BURNS-Ammon Bundy on Tuesday cautioned federal employees not to interfere with local ranchers and miners who defy government regulations as he stepped towards increased militancy on Day 18 of his occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

The armed protestors are clearing the way for Harney County residents to again ranch, mine and log on land now controlled by federal managers, Bundy said.

The occupation leader addressed 'range cons"-federal range conservationists who work with ranchers on grazing schedules and rotations to minimize the ecological impact of cattle. He also cited their employer, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the bird sanctuary.

Federal agents shouldn't try to intimidate those who assert their rights, Bundy said in a news conference at the entrance to the refuge headquarters, 30 miles southeast of Burns.

"We give warning they are not to do that," Bundy said.....

About an hour later and eight miles down the road, another protest took place by citizens outraged by the occupation.

Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, assembled a half-dozen protestors overnight as a counterweight to the attention Bundy and his group gets with its daily news conferences.....

They are spurring a revolution but not the revolution they wanted," Suckling said......

Suckling said he got the idea for the counter-protest after confronting the militants Monday at their own news conference. When he got back to Burns later, he found 200 emails, including questions: "Is it safe?" "Can we come?"

If he had more time, he estimated he could draw 500 to 1,000 people.

"The Malheur does not belong to the Bundys," he said.

Bundy's followers make up the "radical spearhead" of a political movement backed by powerful corporate interests trying to access public lands, he said.....

[Carthego delenda est]

Forbes has an excellent article on how Suckling’s lawsuits exploit our taxpayer dollars as he destroys the livelihoods of those out west involved in ranching and the timber industry titled:

“The “Sue And Settle” Racket”

Snip
“The overall anti-societal mindset that has overtaken these groups is no different than the contempt for ordinary society that dominated the now-moribund Occupy Wall Street movement. Mr. Suckling’s contempt also runs to those who staff the agencies he assaults with CBD’s “sue and settle” tactics, as he brags about the “psychological warfare” CBD and the other anti-development groups wage on these bureaucracies:

“New injunctions, new species listings and new bad press take a terrible toll on agency morale. When we stop the same timber sale three or four times running, the timber planners want to tear their hair out. They feel like their careers are being mocked and destroyed — and they are. So they become much more willing to play by our rules and at least get something done. Psychological warfare is a very underappreciated aspect of environmental campaigning.”

“Bullying, ruining reputations, psychological warfare – it all sounds like something out of “The Sopranos”, doesn’t it? Try to imagine the outrage that would emanate from the nation’s news media if the leader of an oil and gas industry trade association, or CEO of a coal company bragged about deploying similar anti-government, anti-societal tactics in an interview. No industry leader would keep his job for more than a few days after uttering such statements in public. Yet Mr. Suckling remains firmly ensconced in his lofty perch four years later.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2013/05/27/the-sue-and-settle-racket/#583c94545e3221a2d0f25e32

[Faith65]

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