Posted on 04/14/2014 7:40:49 PM PDT by robowombat
Questions Raised About Senator Reids Connection to Bundy Ranch Dispute Written by Warren Mass
The standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) deescalated on April 12, when the bureau announced that it will stop its operation to confiscate Bundys cattle.
But another aspect to this ongoing story is jumping: The blogosphere is alive with allegations that Senator Harry Reid (pictured), and his son, Rory, have motivations of their own for wanting Bundys cattle off the disputed lands.
Though the major media announced that a deal had been reached between Bundy and the BLM, Bundy explained what transpired differently in an interview with KLAS TV in Las Vegas: There is no deal here. The citizens of America and Clark County went and took their cattle. There was no negotiations. They took these cattle. They are in possession of these cattle and I expect them to come home soon.
The BLM stated in its statement released on April 12: Based on information about conditions on the ground, and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public.
The BLMs language made apparent that the bureau still regarded its actions to remove illegal cattle from federal land consistent with court orders as being legally justified:
This is a matter of fairness and equity, and we remain disappointed that Cliven Bundy continues to not comply with the same laws that 16,000 public lands ranchers do every year. After 20 years and multiple court orders to remove the trespass cattle, Mr. Bundy owes the American taxpayers in excess of $1 million. The BLM will continue to work to resolve the matter administratively and judicially.
As William F. Jasper noted in his April 11 article about the standoff, however, there was more to the federal action to remove Bundys cattle from public lands (where they are, allegedly, damaging the fragile habitat of the protected desert tortoise) than has been widely reported:
According to Bundy, whose family has been ranching in the area since the 1800s, the BLMs armed invasion and occupation of Nevada has nothing to do with protecting the tortoise and everything to do with running him off the land, as it has already done to all of the other ranchers in Clark County.
As for the BLMs assertion that its actions to remove illegal cattle are legally justified, among the many points that Joe Wolverton II made in his April 12 article charging that the seizure of Bundys cattle was unconstitutional was this citation from Section 1 of the Nevada constitution, titled Inalienable Rights:
All men are by Nature free and equal and have certain inalienable rights among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty; Acquiring, Possessing and Protecting property and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.
Wolverton observed: Despite the Nevada constitutions capitulation to supreme federal authority (authority, remember, that does not exist in the Constitution) it could be argued [that the above-quoted language from Section 1] supersedes the other articles cession of state and popular sovereignty.
That which is unconstitutional, therefore, cannot properly be called legal.
As the tension between Bundy and the BLM ratchets down, a number of conservative bloggers and pundits have raised questions about another angle in this case: Does the BLM want Bundys cattle off the land his family has worked for over 140 years in order to free up the land for the construction of solar panel power stations?
That question was prompted, in part, by since-deleted information previously posted on the BLM website, information retrieved from Googles cache.
The text of a BLM document retrieved from Googles cache and posted by Liberty News Online contains the following chronology of events:
In 1993, some of the terms of Mr. Bundys grazing permit for the Bunkerville allotment were modified to protect the desert tortoise.
In 1998, the United States filed a civil complaint against Mr. Bundy for his continued trespass grazing in the Bunkerville Allotment.
In 1999, the Las Vegas Field Office Resource Management Plan designated the Bunkerville allotment as Closed to Grazing to protect desert tortoise habitat.
In March 2011, BLM counted 903 cattle from a helicopter spread out over approximately 90 miles in northeast Clark County within the Gold Butte area 41 percent had either brands or earmarks registered to Cliven Bundy.
In May 2012, the United States filed a Complaint seeking declaratory and injunctive relief for Cliven Bundys trespass grazing within the Gold Butte area outside the Bunkerville Allotment.
A PDF of the BLMs document, Regional Mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar energy Zone: Technical Note 444, produced by the BLM in March, can be found online.
Technical Note 444 states that the Regional Mitigation Strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone recommends a strategy for compensating for certain unavoidable impacts that are expected from the development of the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone (SEZ) in southern Nevada.
Technical Note 444 states: The resource values found in the Gold Butte ACEC are threatened by: unauthorized activities, including off-road vehicle use, illegal dumping, and trespass livestock grazing ; wildfire; and weed infestation. (Emphasis added.)
The above-referenced BLM Technical Note 444 specifically mentions the Gold Butte Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) 76 times. While the document expresses many environmental concerns, including trespass livestock grazing, it is important to keep in mind that the title of the document reveals the BLMs ultimate objective, which is to create a solar energy zone.
One of the references listed in Technical Note 444 is Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States. FES 12- 24, DOE/EIS-0403, published jointly by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The PEIS, notes TN 444, assessed the impact of utility-scale solar energy development on public lands in the six southwestern states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
The BLM and the DOEs joint venture is stated concerns about tortoises aside about the generation of solar energy.
An article published by The New American in September 20012 noted that Rory Reid, the eldest son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), is the chief representative for ENN Energy Group, a Chinese firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada.
The plan generated a great deal of controversy because Clark County officials voted to sell ENN the public land for $4.5 million, a figure far below its $38.6-million appraised value.
It is important to recognize that the land on which Bundy grazes his cattle is not the same land that ENN sought near Laughlin, which is over 200 miles away. However, the Bundy grazing land is within the BLM's Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, an area the BLM and DOW also want to use for utility-scale solar energy development, whether constructed by ENN or someone else. As blogger and candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Californias 8th District Rodney Lee Conover recently wrote:
As part of the plan for the Dry Lake solar zone, any solar developers are expected to pay into a fund to mitigate the Gold Butte area. However, the mitigation activities cant take place with cattle grazing in the area. If the mitigation doesnt take place, no money for the BLM.
Conovers assertions are supported by the BLMs document entitled Cattle Trespass Impacts, which states that grazing by Bundys cattle impacts solar development, more specifically the construction of utility-scale solar power generation facilities on public lands.
Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle, an article by Kit Daniels posted by Infowars quoted the document.
Motivations are not always easy to prove, but in this case, Senator Reids hand has shown up more than once. The BLMs principal deputy director, Neil Kornze, previously served as Senator Reids senior policy advisor. And we have noted Rory Reids role as the chief representative for Chinas ENN Energy Group, which has sought to develop solar energy in Nevada. Whether these suspicions are proof of wrongful or illegal acts remains to be seen.
However, one thing is evident from what has transpired in Nevada: The federal government has reneged on a long-standing arrangement made by a rancher in good faith by which he and his family have earned a living for generations. In so doing, they have run roughshod over the rights of a U.S. citizen and have employed constitutionally dubious means to do so. If justice prevails, some judge with respect for the Constitution may follow the example of Chief Judge Robert C. Jones of the Federal District Court of Nevada. Last year in the case of U.S. v. Hage Jones issued an impassioned preliminary bench ruling in which he charged federal officials of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with an ongoing series of illegal actions against Nevada rancher E. Wayne Hage. Jones described the bureaucrats actions as abhorrent and a literal, criminal conspiracy.
Which is a pretty apt description of the BLMs recent actions against Cliven Bundy.
Western land grab scheme by Reid and his ilk. Throw Reid and his crony buddies in prison, and tell Nevada to take back ALL of their state from the fedgovmonster. This is OUR land, not their land. The feds are really pushing their luck in regards to state’s rights, and in the end, they need us MUCH more than we need them.
It’ll never happen.
Nevada keeps voting the rat ba$tard in.
Good thing that we are not living in days gone by!
I was curious as to why the judge wrote the Bundy order as a permissive order and why he let BLM service the order. He did not want the Marshall’s Service involved, he was washing his hands. If the Marshalls would have serviced it, it would have been a court action. He knew it was a hot potato.
Good thing for Harry Reid,anyway.
Nevada keeps voting the rat ba$tard in.
Are we sure of that?
In March 2011, BLM counted 903 cattle from a helicopter spread out over approximately 90 miles in northeast Clark County within the Gold Butte area 41 percent had either brands or earmarks registered to Cliven Bundy.
so a minarity of the cow belonged to bundy yet he was targeted. selective enforcment — he probably has the largest private ranch. at least the parts the chi-coms want.
Isn't this what they used to call 'cattle rustling'?
I remember that the penalty for cattle rustling was pretty severe.
Like horse-thieving, cattle hustlers usually wound up decorating trees. After a perfunctory trial, on the way to the tree. That’s probably why local LEO’s had to ... escort the feeb hired hands from the premises.
It’s the Code of the West.
Voltaire? Who’s that?
you’ve got a point.
I wonder if anyone has checked to see how many of the dead keep voting for him.
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