Friend does not see duo as threat

DOUGLAS - Around 1 a.m. Thursday, Bill Dore received a call from a friend asking him to watch over his ranch and his two dogs.

When Dore went to the ranch complex of three buildings, he was refused entrance because the compound was under the control of the FBI.

Dore received the call from Casey James Nethercott, who at the time of phone talk was in FBI custody at the Cochise County Jail in Bisbee.

Nethercott, 37, told him that Kalen Robert Riddle, who is called "Tiny" - though he weighs more than 350 pounds - had been shot.

As of Friday night, Riddle was listed in critical condition at the University Medical Center in Tucson where he was flown after being shot by an FBI agent around 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Federal agents were in the process of serving an arrest warrant on Nethercott for an alleged assault against U.S. Border Patrol agents on Aug. 31.

According to an FBI press release, Nethercott and Riddle took actions considered dangerous as the warrant was being served in the Douglas Safeway parking lot. The FBI statement said those actions led to the shooting of Riddle, who was called Nethercott's bodyguard. Nethercott reportedly fled on foot but was quickly apprehended.

During a Friday telephone interview, Dore, who was at Nethercott's residence, said he was shocked the FBI took such harsh measures. He said neither man is a danger to others, and the only thing they wanted to do was to protect the border from an invasion of illegal immigrants coming into the United States.

Bill Straus, the Arizona regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, has a different view on one of the men - Riddle - who he said is a neo-Nazi and is the main recruiter for a group calling itself the Arizona Guard, a militia-type organization established to do armed patrolling of the Arizona border with Mexico "from a compound in Douglas."

Dore said Riddle is not a Nazi sympathizer, although the 22-year-old man who is reported in a coma in the Tucson medical facility, subscribed to some of Hitler's views.

The only Nazi-like view Riddle supported was that a nation must have secured borders to protect its sovereignty, Dore said.

Straus said he has seen a photo of Riddle on a Web site wearing a Nazi uniform complete with swastika armbands and carrying a rifle, all part of his recruiting effort for the Arizona Guard. The swastika was the symbol of Hitler's Nazi party.

That picture has been removed from the Arizona Guard's Web site, Straus added. "But I've seen it."

Dore said he never saw such a photograph of Riddle dressed in a Nazi uniform. Riddle has a collection of World War II German memorabilia, mostly medals, he said, noting many people collect such items.

In a Wednesday press release, Straus noted anti-immigration organizations such as Arizona Guard and Ranch Rescue attract white supremacists and extremist support.

"That in turn poses a threat to people living and traveling along our border, including law enforcement. It is a hate-filled and hate-fueled environment and who better to spread the message of hat than neo-Nazi and white supremacists," Straus said.

Nethercott supported Riddle in his recruiting efforts, the Arizona regional director of the ADL states. The league was formed in 1913 and is considered the leading organization fighting anti-Semitism, with the organization taking stands on other non-Jewish issues involving hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

Dore cannot bring himself to accept that Nethercott or Riddle are either neo-Nazis or white supremacists.

What is important to Dore, who lives about five miles from the Nethercott ranch, is one of his friends is in federal custody and the other is in a hospital fighting for his life.

Glenn Spencer, head of the American Border Patrol, is another man who wants the border controlled and illegal activities stopped.

He, too, has been brushed with allegations he is a racist, something that has not been proven, he said.

When he moved his operation from California to Sierra Vista four years ago, Spencer admitted he gave inflammatory speeches, something he has no problem doing again. He said the speeches were to increase awareness of the border problems facing Arizonans.

Spencer said his nonprofit organization is more involved in showing how technology can be used to control the border and spot illegal immigrants and drug smugglers can be found and apprehended.

To a degree the American Border Patrol, which is not associated with the U.S. Border Patrol, has pioneered the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles and up-to-date sensor technology along the border. The Department of Homeland Security is testing pilotless planes long after the nonprofit group proved their worth, he said.

Having survived to some degree the cries that his organization is a front for improper border control policies - sometimes he has been labeled a vigilante, racist or white supremacist - Spencer said there is a continuing frustration about how the federal government does not control its international boundaries, mainly with Mexico.

To him, Nethercott and Riddle are part of a small group that lack much influence along the border.

"I'm surprised more people haven't done this," Spencer said about people becoming members of armed patrols along the border.

The few followers of the Arizona Guard and Ranch Rescue are not a threat to law enforcement in the area, he said.

Nethercott initially was a supporter of Ranch Rescue, a group from Texas that came into Arizona to protect ranchers and others who live along the border.

But Nethercott broke with Ranch Rescue, kicking its leader, Jack Foote, and others off his property.

According to sources, that led to the establishment of Arizona Guard, led by Nethercott and his chief lieutenant, Riddle.

Spencer said he does not advocate how Arizona Guard and Ranch Rescue operate. But, he said, for people to think Cochise County is becoming vigilante central is wrong.

Area resident's are discontent by inept federal government's policies that leave them unprotected from the massive flow of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers, he said.

Dore agrees the U.S. government has been lax in its constitutional duties, the main one is to protect the nation's borders from invasion.

To him, what is happening along the border is an invasion of America's sovereignty. And to him, Nethercott and Riddle are only doing what is allowed by the Constitution.

Dore's immediate concern though it to make sure Nethercott's property and his two dogs, Varos and Fossi, are protected.

Nethercott was concerned the FBI would harm the two dogs, especially Varos, a 130-pound animal trained to attack, Dore said.

One of the first things the FBI wanted done was to have the dogs removed from the property, but they would not allow him on the compound to do that, Dore exclaimed.

Instead the Cochise County Animal Control Officer Raul Saavedra was called, and he had no problem with the dogs, Dore said.

As for the future of the animals, the FBI didn't care if the dogs were put down or put in a shelter, he remarked.

Fortunately, Saavedra is a professional animal control officer and took good care of Varos and Fossi until he returned them Friday, Dore said.

"The FBI was also afraid the place was booby trapped," Dore declared with a soft laugh.

Nethercott has a criminal record that includes assault with a firearm in California and pistol-whipping an illegal immigrant in Texas. He served time for the California and is appealing the Texas conviction.

As for Riddle, Dore said he likes to swagger by overdressing with "knives and pistols."

The complaint filed by the U.S. Border Patrol that on Aug. 31 three agents were assaulted by Nethercott and Riddle. Dore said he doesn't believe it happened.

What he was told by Nethercott was the agents followed him up to the entrance of the ranch and Riddle came out and there was a verbal confrontation with the agents demanding Riddle, who was armed, to lay on the ground, which the man did. The FBI did not say what led the U.S Border Patrol agents to follow Nethercott.

However, according to the complaint, Nethercott said as far as he was concerned he could engage in a shoot-out then and there. Riddle eventually laid on the ground.

Dore said Cochise County sheriff deputies helped diffuse the situation, and he credits Sheriff Larry Dever and Chief Deputy Rod Rothrock for their help on many occasions when federal agents, and Nethercott and Riddle, had confrontations.

As for part of federal complaint, it stated on Aug. 31 other Arizona Guard members hid in the bushes and behind vehicles on the ranch. Dore said that to his knowledge, the only ones who were there was Nethercott and Riddle.

As for the FBI account of what happened Wednesday night in the grocery store parking lot, he said he can't believe either man tried to draw weapons on FBI agents.

Like the totally innocent kid back east, FBI blasted him in the face for obeying their order to exit the car. He went to get out and they let him have it with a M-16, blowing half his face off. Anyone ever hear how that one came out.

Baltimore, Md. - A federal judge has ruled that an Anne Arundel County man can sue the FBI (website) agent who shot him in the face after mistaking him for a bank robber. Special agent Christopher Braga shot 21-year-old Joseph Schultz during a botched arrest in March of last year.
Braga had asked the judge to dismiss the case, but the judge granted him only a partial victory - dismissing negligence claims and other allegations, but not the excessive force claim.
The judge dismissed all claims against another agent at the scene, Lawrence Brosnan. One claim remains against a third agent, Henry Hanburger, on grounds he improperly ordered a stop of the car Schultz was in.
http://www.wjla.com/../../news/stories/1103/110348.html <-- Nov 14, 2003
by Gregory Kane, The Baltimore Sun [US]
July 14th, 2002
White is the lawyer for FBI Special Agent Christopher Braga, who shot Joseph Schultz in the face March 1. Braga and other agents had stopped Schultz's girlfriend, Krissy Harkum, as she drove her Pontiac Grand Am along Fort Smallwood Road in Anne Arundel County. Schultz was a passenger in the car. The feds were looking for a bank robber. Problem was - not the only one in this case, and not the biggest - Schultz wasn't the guy.
On July 2, an Anne Arundel grand jury refused to indict Braga for making Schultz endure years of facial reconstructive surgery. Braga had committed neither first-degree assault, second-degree assault nor reckless endangerment, the grand jury ruled after carefully considering the weighty matter for all of 20 minutes.
http://newsfrombabylon.com/article.php?sid=1829 <-- Not original source

I haven't found anything more recent than the November 2003 story. It sounds as though a civil case is proceeding. I don't know if Mr. Schultz received compensation from the FBI for his medical treatment.

Ok here go the feds again....

Riddle allegedly neo-Nazi

TOTAL BULL$HI+ and quite typical, the feds probably are figuring out Riddle is gonna live and now they are gonna pour on the demonizing "krap-ola." He will be a pedophile next...

Dore said "Riddle is not a Nazi sympathizer, although the 22-year-old man who is reported in a coma in the Tucson medical facility, subscribed to some of Hitler's views."

Check out which ones....

The only Nazi-like view Riddle supported was that a nation must have secured borders to protect its sovereignty, Dore said.

So protecting the international border is what the fbi considers to be Nazi activity and beliefs? The fed's just might want to reconsider..

Article IV, Section 4,
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion

Article I., Section 8,
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; . . .To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union,suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.

Why... yes! That WOULD be the United States Constitution, thank you. Apparently (and it ain't the first time) that the fbi in that neck of the woods has called normal Americans "nazis" because those very same Americans support the U.S. C-O-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-I-O-N, nothing more.

Said it before, I will probably have cause to say it many more times, the feds have become a bunch of sloppy thugs.

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