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01/27/2025

Peter Montgomery

Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for orchestrating a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol to keep President Donald Trump in power after losing the 2020 election, was on stage at Trump’s rally in Las Vegas this weekend. Rhodes appeared in news photos among people standing behind Trump as the president spoke.

Rhodes was among 14 members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys whose sentences were commuted by Trump on his first day in office, when the president also pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Rhodes had been serving an 18-year sentence.

Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, had repeatedly threatened bloody civil war to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election. He urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act against “domestic traitors.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, the group had stockpiled weapons and stationed a “quick reactionary force” across the river in Virginia. A group of Oath Keepers in a military-style “stack” formation worked their way through the mob and forced their way into the Capitol, with some attacking Capitol Police and others hunting for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After retreating from the Capitol, Rhodes called someone he believed had access to Trump, urging them to have Trump call on the Oath Keepers and others to fight to keep him in power. That evening, Rhodes sent a message to a Signal chat group saying, “Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what's coming.”

Rhodes launched Oath Keepers after the election of President Barack Obama. Sam Jackson, author of a book about the Oath Keepers, wrote shortly before the 2020 election that since its founding, the Oath Keepers had “urged its members and supporters to arm themselves and get ready for war.” Right Wing Watch reported in 2017 that Rhodes responded to a church shooting by urging his supporters to prepare for “a wave of left wing terrorism” that could “lead to a full blown civil war.” Back in 2015, Rhodes called for Sen. John McCain to be hanged.

When Rhodes was arrested in 2022, his estranged wife urged the judge not to release him before trial, detailing years of abuse she said Rhodes had inflicted on her and her children. Family members of both the attackers and police officers who were brutalized are reportedly fearful of retaliation from people Trump ordered released and from their supporters. And experts believe Trump’s order could embolden violent extremists.

Vice President J.D. Vance, who recently said that “obviously” those who attacked Capitol Police officers should not be pardoned, is now singing a different tune, and defending Trump’s mass pardons. All Senate Democrats are co-sponsoring a resolution condemning pardons of the insurrectionists who attacked police.

The judge who oversaw Rhodes’ trial has banned Rhodes from entering Washington, D.C without court permission, though Trump officials are seeking to have that restriction overturned. Judge Ahmit Meta had called the prospect of a pardon “frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country.”

proud boys parade at inaug

List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States - Wikipedia

on January 20, 2025, Trump issued roughly 1,500 pardons and 14 commutations to people charged in connection to the January 6 United States Capitol attack.^[109] This included former leader of the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio and founder of the Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes.^[110]

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'I was in the eye of the storm': Inside Roger Stone's plan to help Trump overturn the 2020 election

Charges may be near for Roger Stone over Jan. 6 Capitol riot: legal expert

Jordan Green

andRaw Story

August 23, 2023

Former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants — many of them relatively obscure figures involved in the fake electors scheme — were indicted in Georgia last week, while top leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militias have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

One person linked to the fake electors scheme, as well as to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers has not faced any charges to date over Jan. 6. That would be political operative Roger Stone, who has been Trump’s friend and adviser for more than three decades.

Stone’s role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election is increasingly coming into focus through the halting, start-stop release of the new documentary “A Storm Foretold” by Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen. Footage shot by Guldbrandsen’s crew showing Stone dictating a plan to an assistant named Enrique de la Torre that calls for lobbying Republican-controlled state legislatures to send Trump electors on the basis of claims of fraud before Joe Biden was declared the winner was shown by MSNBC host Ari Melber last week.

On Aug.18, Guldbrandsenreleased the film on Vimeo, and then pulled it back while negotiating a deal for U.S. distribution. On Monday, Melber again showcased footage from the film on his MSNBC show.

One scene from before the election that was reviewed by Raw Story shows Stone vociferously articulating a strategy for Trump to use the authority of the office of president to prevent legitimate Biden electoral votes from being counted.

“Oh, these are the California results? Sorry, we’re not accepting them,” Stone says, jabbing his index finger for emphasis. “We’re challenging them in court. If the electors show up at the Electoral College, armed guards will throw them out. I’m the president. F--- you. You’re not stealing Florida. I’m challenging all of it. And the judges we’re going to are judges I appointed. F--- you.”

De la Torre was deposed by the January 6th House select committee in May 2022. A senior investigative counsel asked him about Stone’s tirade, in one of at least three instances they referenced footage from Guldbrandsen’s film. The question by the senior investigative counsel indicates that Stone’s statement was addressed to de la Torre in July 2020. Gulbrandsen reportedly provided clips of his film to the committee, some of which were shown during one of its hearings in October 2022.

De la Torre invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination in refusing to answer the committee’s questions. Stone likewise declined to answer the committee’s questions while invoking the Fifth Amendment and declined to produce any documents.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Inside the MAGA plan to track and control your life

Stone could not be reached for this story, but he indicated on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Monday night that he had watched Melber’s segment on Guldbrandsen’s documentary, proclaiming that the footage “had all the hallmarks of Danish disinformation.”

Stone defended his statement about Republican-controlled legislatures submitting Trump electors based on purported claims of fraud during his podcast on Monday evening.

“I was in the eye of the storm late last week because I had the audacity to correctly cite Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which says that the state legislatures have the authority to certify the electors that go to the Electoral College,” he said. “And within that context, they have the authority to examine the election results. This was days before the election that I said that if there was evidence of theft, that process — which would be a very, public, open, transparent process — may have to take place.”

Three Trump electors are under indictment as co-defendants in the racketeering case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia, while 13 others are cited as unindicted co-conspirators. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has separately charged 16 Trump electors in that state with conspiracy to commit election law forgery and other crimes.

In the statement he dictated to de la Torre on Nov. 5, 2020, Stone said, “We must be prepared to lobby our Republican legislatures by personal contact and by demonstrating the overwhelming will of the people in their state — in each state that this may happen.”

It remains unclear who, if anyone, might have received the memo from Stone or his associates. De la Torre could not be reached for comment for this story.

The Fulton County indictment describes one component of a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn the 2020 election as making false statements “to persuade Georgia legislators to reject lawful electoral votes cast by the duly elected and qualified presidential electors from Georgia.” The indictment describes a phone call by Trump and Giuliani to Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, in which Giuliani allegedly made false statements about fraud while Trump “importuned Bowers to unlawfully appoint presidential electors from Arizona” as “overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.”

ALSO IN THE NEWS: 'Seething' Melania furious at Trump's use of Barron as 'political pawn': report

Similarly, the federal indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith cites as one component of Trump’s alleged conspiracy to defraud the government that “on the pretext of baseless fraud claims,” Trump “pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors; and ultimately cause the ascertainment of and voting by illegitimate electors” in his favor.

Responding to a commentary published in the Philadelphia Inquirer questioning why he has not been criminally charged, Stone scoffed on X on Sunday: “Sorry there is no evidence whatsoever that proves my involvement in the effort to delay the certification of the Electoral College in the U.S. Senate, the riot at the U.S. Capitol, or the effort in the states to challenge the certification of electors. Guilt by association is an ugly tactic used by ignorant haters.A video in which I correctly state the effect of Article II of the Constitution, and which is both historically, and legally correct, proves nothing whatsoever.”

‘Looking for any retired military or law enforcement officer’

While maintaining a close relationship with President Trump, Stone also cultivated ties with the Proud Boys, a neofascist street-fighting group founded in 2016, which underwent a recruitment explosion after Trump signaled during a presidential debate shortly before the election: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”

When a graphic depicting federal judge with crosshairs superimposed over her face was published on Stone’s Instagram account in 2019,he testified that Proud Boys national chairman EnriqueTarrio was among a small number of people who had access to his phone. (Stone was subsequently convicted of obstructing a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and later pardoned by President Trump.)

During the 2018 midterm election, futureProud Boy Joe Biggsvolunteered for an early iteration of “Stop the Steal,” a mobilization by a handful of conspiracy theorists surrounding Stone to protest a recount in the Florida Senate race between Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Bill Nelson.

Biggs, a U.S. Army veteran who was a correspondent for InfoWars, posted on Twitter in November 2018: “I’m no new Floridian. I’ve spent most of my life there and in Texas. I love both places more than life itself. Which is why I will be helping #StopTheSteal. I will back home to Florida [sic] from my other home in Texas tomorrow. We will not let radical leftists destroy our home!”

Footage from “A Storm Foretold” shows Stone describing his plan to resurrect the campaign to Guldbrandsen on Nov. 5, 2020.

“We are relaunching Stop the Steal,” Stone said. “I’m looking for any retired military or law enforcement officer who would go on the committee. Don’t care what rank, don’t care how old. Old, young, disabled, doesn’t matter.”

Around the same time, the film shows Stone speaking into a cell phone and dictating the inaugural message of the “F.O.S.” — short for “Friends of Stone” — chat onSignal, an encrypted messaging platform.

“We provide information several times a day, so please monitor the F.O.S. feed so you can act in a timely fashion,” Stone said. “Let me stress that the F.O.S. feed is not a chat room, and this is not the place for prolonged discussion.”

The Signal group included protest organizers and militant leaders, allowing them to coordinate security for a series of rallies in Washington, D.C. and other cities that set the stage for Jan. 6. A copy of the chat obtained by the January 6th House select committee shows that both Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes were members.

The Oath Keepers made outreach to military veterans and retired law enforcement the centerpiece of their recruitment pitch. According to an analysis by Raw Story, at least 14 of the 52 Proud Boys members and associates arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack were either military veterans or active-duty military service members.

A document turned over to the January 6th House select committee shows that Roger Stone and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes participated in the "F.O.S." chat on Signal.January 6th House select committee

The chats show Stone pushing out messaging to the protest organizers and militants, including a Nov. 10, 2020 post urging them to read a forthcoming “manifesto” that he promised would expose “the HOAX claiming Joe Biden has been elected President” and outline “President Trump’s path forward in the Courts, in the House and in the Electoral College.”

The chats also show Rhodes pledging that Oath Keepers members would provide security for VIPs at the Nov. 14, 2020 Millions for MAGA rally in Washington, D.C. as well as another pro-Trump rally held in Austin, Texas on the same day.

Rhodes also used the chat as a forum to issue a call for the Trump to use the military to declassify government secrets and to invoke the Insurrection Act “to suppress the communist insurrection” while using the military “to go after the domestic enemies at the top.”

Rhodes is currently serving an 18-year sentenceat Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution in Maryland for seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Stone said on his podcast on Monday night that he doubts that former Vice President Mike Pence will be able to testify that Trump told him he knew that he lost the election, adding, “I don’t think Trump believed it then. I certainly don’t think he believes it now.”

But the footage in Guldbrandsen’s film suggests that Stone himself harbored doubts about whether Trump could win in the waning days of the 2020 election.

Speaking on the phone while riding in a car one week before the election, Stone can be heard telling an unidentified woman: “Don’t know. Totally up in the air. Not looking good. Not looking good. I say that as a professional. I’m trying to divorce my emotions from it. But it does not look good.”

The woman can be heard asking whether Stone thinks Giuliani — now a co-defendant with Trump in the Fulton County racketeering case — would be able to help Trump turn around his dim election prospects.

“Rudy is — he’s a great guy; he’s been very helpful to me,” Stone says. “He’s very loyal, but he likes booze and p---- a little too much. And he’s a single guy, so he’s getting a lot of ass.”

Violent racism

Proud Boys have identified themselves as “Western chauvinists” who focus on opposing political correctness and white guilt. But these claims have generally been seen as cover for deeper racist and antisemitic sentiments. For some Proud Boys members, this group was a steppingstone to more extreme groups, such as The Base.

Like any street gang, the Proud Boys as a national group is made up of semi-autonomous chapters of varying numbers and abilities. They are in different degrees of contact and coordination with other chapters [3x after stand by?] . It’s not clear the level of interest – or capability – that most members have in actually following through with overthrowing the government.

Oath Keepers is an anti-government group that calls itself a “militia” focused on defending the Constitution and fighting tyranny. Former Oath Keepers spokesman Jason Van Tatenhove stated that the group is actually “selling the revolution,” meaning that the group is pushing conspiracy theories and propaganda to facilitate confrontations with federal law enforcement.

While members of the Proud Boys have concentrated their confrontations on anti-fascists or other protesters, Oath Keepers have participated in several armed standoffs against the government.

In 2014, the Oath Keepers joined an armed standoff between far-right patriot groups in Nevada on behalf of Cliven Bundy. In 2015, Oath Keepers showed up heavily armed in Ferguson, Missouri, during protests over the killing of Michael Brown. And in 2016, Oath Keepers were present at the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

Members of the Proud Boys, along with others, march toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.]

A challenging road

Historically, prosecutions of seditious conspiracy charges succeeded against militant Islamist or Marxist groups.

But prosecuting far-right groups has tended to be much more difficult. In 1988, Louis Beam, a figurehead in the white power movement, and 13 white supremacists from groups such as the Aryan Brotherhood and the Ku Klux Klan were acquitted of conspiring to kill a federal judge and an FBI agent and plotting to overthrow the federal government to establish an all-white nation in the Pacific Northwest.

In 2012, charges of seditious conspiracy against members of Hutaree, a militant far-right Christian nationalist group, were dismissed after the judge concluded the government had not proved there was an actual conspiracy.

But it is clear from the charges stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection – involving hundreds of alleged participants – that police and prosecutors are taking seriously the threat of violent action by Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other far-right groups against individuals, organizations and local and national governments.

Matthew Valasik, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Alabama and Shannon Reid, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of North Carolina – Charlotte

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/maga/

raw story

Patrick Bergy rode his Harley-Davidson to Austin, Texas, and was waiting for an interview with conspiracy-theory honcho Alex Jones in mid-August of 2020 when he learned about thearrest of Millie Weaver, who also happened to be a correspondent for Jones’ outfit InfoWars.'

The details were vague, but Weaver and her partner and producer Gavin Wince, along with her brother, had been arrested at their home in Ohio while Weaver was uploading the final cut of a documentary called ShadowGate, in which Bergy was featured as a “whistleblower” who spoke about his experience as a military contractor following his discharge from the Army in 2007. Given the urgency of the moment, Bergy looked up the address for InfoWars and walked into the studio without an appointment. Jones quickly recorded an interview for a breaking-news segment about the arrest of one of his contributors.

“I’m the pioneer of [Interactive Internet Activities], basically social media/fake news,” Bergy said,remarking on the irony that he was sitting in the guest chair at InfoWars. “The last place that I’m going to go is an organization called ‘Information Warfare,’ right?”

Following Weaver’s arrest and while he was still in Texas, Bergy said he also spoke to a man named Robert Caron, a shadowy figure who claimed to have a background in intelligence. Bergy had met him before when Caron convened a meeting of his group Joint Task Force MAGA, or JTF MAGA — aself-described “MAGA counterstrike supergroup of American patriots to help expose illegal government surveillance and support President Donald Trump in Making America Great Again” — at a restaurant in the Tampa, Fla. area two years earlier, according to Bergy’s recollection. Bergy turned down an offer to join JTF MAGA, concluding that it wasn’t geared to his specific interest. But he had stayed in touch with Caron.

Caron then offered Bergy a $5,000 retainer to stay in Texas and work on a project, according to Bergy. As much as Bergy could discern based on the details offered by Caron, the job entailed setting up a website to promote JTF MAGA’s content. Bergy said he declined the offer, telling Caron he needed to get to Ohio to help Weaver and Wince.

Shortly after Weaver’s arrest, according to Bergy, he was contacted by Lara Logan — a former correspondent for CBS’ "60 Minutes" who had been widely praised for her coverage of Iraq and other conflict zones in the Middle East. At the time she was working for the Fox Nation streaming service. The claim was first outlined in an affidavit that Bergy executed in early December 2020 and that he provided to attorney Sidney Powell for use in her lawsuits seeking to overturn the presidential election.

Bergy did not disclose the identity of the “person that arranged the conversation,” but has since said that it was Caron. During a conference call with Weaver, Wince, Bergy, Caron, Logan and Logan’s husband, Joseph W. Burkett, Bergy wrote in his affidavit that “we were asked if we would meet them at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to discuss further; I declined and so did Millie and Gavin.”

Upon its release, the ShadowGatedocumentary took hits from all sides, withlegacy media assailing it as being “filled with false claims and insinuations,” and others on the far right questioning Weaver’s credibility because she was charged with domestic violence. The chargesreportedly stemmed from an incident in April when Weaver, her brother and Wince attempted to wrest a phone away from Weaver’s mother, prompting her to flee to a neighbor’s house and called 911. Shortly after the documentary’s release, Alex Jones — never shy about making outlandish claims himself — fired Weaver from InfoWars.

But Logan came to Weaver’s defense,tweeting on Aug. 22: “By now this is a familiar pattern — another tactic of information warfare that has proved so effective. I know many Americans are looking forward to getting the whole truth on this. It’s on all of our interests given the significance of what was done just to hold onto power.”

Logan’s endorsement carried some weight. On one hand, her credibility had sustained damage from a story about the 2012 Benghazi attack that “60 Minutes” was forced toretract (and much later would bepushed out of Fox Nation for comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele). On the other hand, unlike Jones who built a career around promoting conspiracy theories,Logan had worked at the highest levels in journalism and was widely admired for her courageous reporting in Iraq and decades of experience.

Later, Bergy said Wince told him that Logan had Burkett reach "out to them with information that exposed the arrest of Millie Weaver was orchestrated” by military contractors in a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside of Dayton, Ohio.

Bergy noted that Burkett had previously worked as a military contractor himselfemployed by the public relations firm Lincoln Group, which was hired by the Defense Department toplant positive stories geared towards Iraqi audiences during the Iraq war. Bergy faulted Logan in his affidavit for not investigating information that she privately shared with Weaver and Wince, especially considering her track record as an investigative journalist.

“It is extremely concerning to all involved the claims made by the Logans [sic] and warrant further investigation,” Bergy wrote in his affidavit. “The arrest of a US journalist, orchestrated on a US military base, cannot be dismissed without a thorough investigation into the Logan’s [sic] claims.”

While Logan has not reported on the mysterious connection between Weaver’s arrest and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, her journalistic instincts would prove to be attuned to the behind-the-scenesefforts to overturn the election. On Jan. 5, 2021, one day before the assault on the US Capitol, Logantweeted out a link to a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN.” The document had been used in presentations byPhil Waldron, a retired Army colonel with a background in information warfare, as hebriefed members of Congress on Jan. 4 and 5. The PowerPoint called on Trump to order the National Guard, with support from the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, to conduct a recount of the 2020 election. On Jan. 6, the day Congress was scheduled to meet to accept the presidential elections, the PowerPoint proposed three options for Vice President Mike Pence, all of which would have either delayed or prevented Joe Biden from becoming the next president.

“This is what is being briefed on the Hill today re election fraud — for those of you who want to go to the source rather than get it second-hand,” Logan wrote.

Logan and Burkett could not be reached for comment for this story.

The charges against Weaver and Wince were eventuallydropped. Whether there is any truth to the explosive claim that Weaver’s arrest was secretly orchestrated from a military base remains unclear. Regardless, it reinforced Weaver’s paranoid view of a Deep State intent on silencing Trump supporters.

“From what I hear, we’re in the jurisdiction for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” Weaver told her followers during a Periscopelivestream in late 2020. “And apparently it would have been really easy to have us at this jail here and then transferred to an espionage jail. What’s going on right now is insane, guys. It’s very creepy.”

‘They were setting all these scams up’

The ShadowGate documentary had been quickly debunked byUSA Today andPolitiFact, and although it reportedly drew millions of views, it receded from public discussion as just one more QAnon-inspired conspiracy vehicle, as violence inKenosha, Wis. andPortland, Ore. set the stage for the final tumultuous months of the 2020 presidential election campaign. While the documentary might have seemed obscure even for the far-right audience to which it was geared, its four principals would find roles in the network of conspiracy theorists and operatives that sprung into action to delegitimize the 2020 election and aid Donald Trump in his quest to hold onto power.

In addition to Weaver, the producer and writer of ShadowGate, Wince, credited as its director, and thedocumentary’s two featured “whistleblowers” — Bergy and pro-Trump podcaster Terpsehore “Tore” Maras — all wound up in Washington, DC in mid-November 2020.

The ShadowGatedocumentary had a particular utility in the effort to delegitimize the 2020 election, as Bergy himself would come to recognize. More than three months before attorney Sidney Powelltold radio host Glenn Beck on Nov. 20 that “our forces” confiscated servers held by an election technology company named Scytl in Germany, Weaver had narrated a similar scenario in ShadowGate.

“Scytl is one of the most notorious outsource companies for elections, with regular electronic voting machine problems, who also tabulate our election results and cloud services in Europe, aka servers outside the United States,” Weaver said. The claim was false.

Weaver could not be reached for this story.

Spurned by Alex Jones —who heavily promoted the Jan. 6 rally in DC and took to a bullhorn to address rioters at the Capitol that day — Weaver found a new patron in Patrick Byrne. After Jan. 6, Weaver collected and analyzed video for Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, in support of his effort to cast the attack as the work of “antifa” agent provocateurs.

Bergy told Raw Story that he also later learned that Logan was responsible for arranging for Weaver and Wince to come to Washington, DC after the 2020 election. Bergy said he was asked to come to DC by Weaver and Wince, and they were already there when he arrived around Nov. 15, 2020. Byrne, the former Overstock.com CEO and significant financier for the election denial efforts, confirmed in a text message to Raw Story that he covered the cost of hotel rooms for Weaver, Wince, Bergy and Maras at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel in late 2020. But Byrne said he had no knowledge of Logan encouraging Weaver and Wince to come to DC and did not make any arrangements with her.

Byrne also footed the bill for a reporting trip to California by Weaver and Wince in late November 2020, according to Bergy. In a text provided by Bergy, Wince warned that alienating Byrne “could cost us our trip to CA.” Byrne did not dispute the claim that he covered the cost of the trip.

“No, I don’t have a specific recollection of this, it sounds plausible,” Byrne told Raw Story. “I’ll go farther: vaguely rings a bell. That is to say, I’m vaguely remembering that I did pay for a trip or two for them. Along with many dozens of others, incidentally.”

The catalyst for Maras to show up in DC in November 2020 is somewhat murkier. In a conversation on the Stereo app in July 2021, Maras told Bergy that she had known Byrne “before everyone else.” Byrne gave a different account, telling Raw Story that he had “never met or heard of her until” he met her around Nov. 16, 2020. But Joshua Merritt, an IT consultant who provided a declaration to support Powell’s lawsuits attempting to overturn the election, has made statements in the past that predate the relationship between Byrne and Maras long before November 2020. In a reply to an April 30 Twitter thread, Merrittsaid Maras had been “brought in with Byrne” to work on investigating alleged election fraud after the 2019 election in Kentucky.

In retrospect, Bergy said he has come to see that the claims put forward in ShadowGate performed a valuable service in preparing the ground for the broad election denial narrative that Trump’s supporters worked to build in November.

“That was two or three months before the election,” Bergy said. “That was right after ShadowGatewas released. What else was in ShadowGate? Scytl. They knew November 3rd was going to happen, let alone January 6th. They were setting all these scams up. It sure seems like they were putting these things in place at least three months ahead of time to be able to prepare for Trump’s loss.

“It was useful,” Bergy added. “If they didn’t plan it, they should have.”

Bergy said he learned later that Waldron, the retired Army colonel, praised ShadowGateto Weaver and Wince at a party at Trump International Hotel on Nov. 14, 2020.

“Phil Waldron approached Millie and Gavin, and said he was the biggest fan of ShadowGate,” Bergy told Raw Story. “He identified himself as Phil Waldron and said he believed everything in ShadowGatebecause he replaced the IIA chief after I left. He said he knew who I was, and he understood my background in ShadowGate.”

Waldron could not be reached for comment for this story, while Byrne denied that the content of ShadowGateplayed any role in shaping his initial impressions of Weaver, Wince, Maras and Bergy.

“No, never heard of them or that movie until mid-November 2020,” he told Raw Story. “They were on their own path when I met them, and they have continued so. None of them have ever taken any direction from me.”

‘Calling out too many people… will backfire’

Lara Logan’s behind-the-scenes role would prove to be a source of ongoing tension among the principals in the ShadowGatefilm during the period they were working out of the Westin hotel to aid the effort to overturn the election.

“Calling out too many people (Logan, Burns [sic]) will backfire,” Wince told Bergy in November 2020, according to a text obtained by Raw Story. “It could compromise things we have in the works.

“Pissing off Burns [sic] could cost us our trip to CA we have planned that are important, and pissing off Logan while mentioning Millie could piss off Millie and/or cost her ability to use that channel,” he added.

Wince could not be reached for this story.

In Bergy’s view, his duty as a whistleblower obligated him to tell the whole truth, no matter whose sensibilities might be offended.

“When you say we need to be putting this s*** out because nothing’s getting done,” he told Wince, “I didn’t link to Millie, and I’m posting my affidavit tomorrow online which literally includes Lara’s/Joe’s involvement.”

The central focus of Bergy’s 70-page affidavit was the development of “social media psychological warfare weapons and techniques'' that he had observed as a military contractor, and his position that they were being applied on domestic targets in the United States. The affidavit traced a history from a complaint filed by Bergy to the Department of Defense Inspector General in 2015, and then name-dropped a wide array of prominent figures with whom he interacted in his quest to bring the information to light, including Logan and her husband, Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro, InfoWars host Alex Jones, “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander and Trump confidant Roger Stone.

Bergy has said his sole objective during his time in DC was to get his information to Trump.

In August 2021, Bergy asked Byrne to explain what happened to his affidavit once he submitted it to the legal team led by Sidney Powell so that he could include his response in a book. Byrne obliged.

“Your affidavit was read and absorbed,” Byrne confirmed. “The whistleblowers were met with and debriefed. Everything they and you had to say got put into a larger picture we were forming. The information from the whistleblowers in Arizona could immediately inform what we were doing; your bigger picture information, while accepted as truthful, did not have a precise application, though it was valuable for our situational awareness.”

In contrast to Bergy’s affidavit, Powell filed a 37-page anonymized declaration submitted by his fellow ShadowGate“whistleblower”Terpsehore “Tore” Maras in support of her lawsuits in Wisconsin and Arizona.

Maras’ declaration mentioned Scytl, the Spain-based election technology company, a total of23 times, echoing the claim made by Weaver three and a half months earlier in ShadowGate. In her declaration, Maras claimed that votes cast in the 2020 election were put through a “mixing phase” while an “algorithm redistributes votes.” Her declaration also claimed that “Scytl re-encrypts ballot data” and has the ability to access the vote through “backdoors” that could “alter the range of the algorithm deployed to satisfy the outcome sought in the case of algorithm failure.”

Maras’ claims represented a fundamental misunderstanding of Scytl’s role in US elections. The company provides election-night reporting services that offer a visual representation of votes tabulated by local election officials, but as it noted in a fact-checkingstatement issued more than two weeks before Maras executed her declaration, Scytl does not tabulate votes.

“On election night, each election office tabulates the vote using their tabulation vendor’s physical machines and uploads those results to Scytl’s [election-night reporting program],” the company explained. All ENR servers being used for the US elections are physically located in the United States. Scytl does NOT tabulate, tally or count votes.” Scytl’s statement was cited by a fact-check published byReuters, which rated as “false” a claim by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) that the US Army had seized Scytl’s servers in Germany.

Seth Keshel, a former Army military intelligence captain who assisted Powell’s team in preparing the lawsuits, cautioned another election denier in a private Telegram message in August 2021 that Maras’ claims shouldn’t be taken at face value.

“Tore is not credible,”Keshel wrote. “I was on the initial teams drafting lawsuits over the states with Sidney and Flynn. Our teams researched her heavily and found many problems.” He added that “unfortunately she wound up as a key witness in one of our cases.”

Byrne told Raw Story in an email that he “had no hand” in preparing the lawsuits, “and was not aware until much later that Tore had provided the affidavit.”

But Byrne was sufficiently concerned about Maras’ credibility that he tasked a team with interviewing her a couple of weeks after the declaration was filed in federal court.

“Tore was taken out and interviewed by some people I know in the intelligence community who are absolutely on our side,” Byrne told Bergy in his August 2021 email. “They came back telling me: ‘She knows some things and has been behind the curtain, but she also lies, exaggerates, deflects, changes subjects rapidly trying to throw people off, and we cannot rely on her for anything factual because we caught her in too many lies and exaggerations over three hours (precisely as I warned her they would do if she did not heed a little coaching from me).”

Maras defended her qualifications in an email to Raw Story.

"If you read my affidavit, you would know that I am an amateur cryptographer," she said. "Therefore, I am very familiar with cryptography, ethics and research surrounding it. I participate in attending such conferences and seminars when I can."

Robert Caron, who had initially put Bergy, Weaver and Wince in touch with Lara Logan, was in and around DC from November 2020 through January 2021, according to Bergy.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, Maras perceived him as a threat. Speaking with Bergy on the Stereo app in July 2021, Maras fumed about a host of obscure operators vying for Powell and Flynn’s attention in late 2020.

“And you have this motherf***er standing there, bidding to help you?” she said. “They’re there to destroy you. And they are seeing everything we are giving you. And they are dismantling it. Like, that other guy, f***ing, you know, Caron, right, popped out of nowhere.”

While Maras distrusted Caron, she felt differently about Lara Logan.

“You know who hooked me up to Logan?” Bergy asked. “Because I introduced Logan to Millie and Gavin. You know who hooked me up with Logan? Our friend, Robert. She’s got interesting friends. If known contractors and CIA assets are arranging your introductions to journalists that are married to military-industrial complex psy-op contractors, am I wrong in thinking possibly a lot of people that are passed along or networked through Lara are basically…?”

Maras interrupted Bergy.

“Well, you and me are going to disagree on Lara,” she said. “I like Lara…. If it came down to it, and I had to trust someone with something, I would actually trust her.”

A plan to order the National Guard to shut down Congress

Caron’s background remains murky. In one of the few publi with him that is available, Caron was identified in a March 2018 story that aired on the far-right network One America News as “the spokesman for JTF MAGA, the collection of veteran members of the intelligence, law enforcement and military communities dedicated to exposing the dark secrets of the Deep State.” The “team” page for awebsite that houses reports by JTF MAGA, including one proclaiming retired Lt. General Michael Flynn’s innocence and another that disputes claims about collusion between the Trump campaign — has at various times included photos of Caron and Veterans for America First co-founders Joshua Macias and Vlad Lemets.

When Caron arrived in DC, Wince and Bergy viewed him as a replacement for Dennis Nathan Cain, a cybersecurity expert brought in to analyze the results of the 2020 election.

Cain told Raw Story that former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon recommended him to White House trade advisorPeter Navarro, who published a series of reports claiming without evidence that the election had been stolen. Cain said he worked on a three-man team that included another man named Harry Haury and a third person whom he declined to identify. Cain said he primarily worked with Phill Kline, a former Kansas attorney general whoreportedly promoted a scheme to submit pro-Trump electors in the six swing states carried by Joe Biden.

Cain filed an expert report in a civil suit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona to challenge the election results. Cain opined that based on his assessment that the election error rate in Arizona during the 2020 election failed to meet the standard set under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, the election result should not have been certified.

“I was specifically looking at the certification and accreditation of the system,” Cain told Raw Story. “I had no interest in looking at any of the technical aspects from the standpoint of whether they were hacked, because you can’t do that unless you have access to the machines.”

Cain told Raw Story that he and Caron met in DC at Caron’s request, and that Caron wanted to join his team. Cain said he declined Caron’s request because he had been working without compensation in DC for two months. Cain had set up a GoFundMe page, but it only covered about half the cost of their hotel bill at the Westin. By the time Caron approached him, Cain said he considered his work to be complete. He disbanded the team, and went home after Christmas.

Cain said he came to regret his meeting with Caron.

“He went out and wrote some emails; some of the people that were associated with me didn’t like that,” Cain said. “It kind of did some damage with some people that I was working with that didn’t care for him.”

After Cain left DC, his name appeared on a document arguing, among other things, that the states were not in compliance with the Help America Vote Act and concluding bizarrely that Trump had a “mandatory duty to immediately declare the 2020 election in violation” of the Constitution and declare Congress “illegitimate” as a prelude to ordering the National Guard to shut down Congress.

“President Donald J. Trump, to preserve our sovereign form of government, has the mandatory duty to immediately declare the 2020 election in violation of our United States Constitution and declare the 117th Congress illegitimate, then access and direct the National Guard already sent by the mayor, to prevent entry into their offices and the Capitol,” the document declared.

Entitled “Invincible Argument, the document was dated Jan. 4 and featured a dozen names, beginning with Caron and also including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers general counsel Kellye SoRelle, Veterans forAmerica First co-founder Joshua Maciasand Latinos for Trump President Bianca Gracia. Eleven members of the Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, have been indicted for seditious conspiracy. Macias wasarrested on weapons charges outside the Philadelphia Convention Center, where votes were being tabulated, on Nov. 5, 2020, and was present at the US Capitol on Jan. 6.

Jerome Corsi, who heavily promoted thefalse claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and therefore was not qualified to serve as president, was also named on the document, and Corsipublished it on his website on Jan. 5, the eve of the assault on the US Capitol.

Cain said he did not authorize his name to be used on the document.

“I am familiar with my name being on there,” he told Raw Story. “It was done without my permission. I don’t have any comment to give on what the legal ramifications of the system not being compliant with HAVA might be.”

Caron’s name also appeared at the bottom of the document’s Forward, and another section was credited to Caron and SoRelle.

On the same day Corsi published the “Invincible Argument” document, Caron was quoted in astory published by Vision Times News headlined, “Over 400 ex-intelligence officers have started investigating election fraud.” The story quoted Caron as saying, “The fraud was so massive and so blatant, despite what the mainstream media said, that we need to get this information out to the public.”

Caron could not be reached for this story, but he has toldCNN that he was approached by two FBI agents at a hotel in Toronto last December. According to CNN, Caron said the agents told him they were investigating events that led up to the violence on Jan. 6 and that he sat down to speak with them about “key people” involved in the effort to overturn the election.

Rhodes, SoRelle, Macias and Gracia were all filmed in a meeting in ahotel parking garage with Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio on Jan. 5, 2021. Tarrio has beencharged with conspiracy, along with five other Proud Boys leaders, for his role in the Jan. 6 attack.

The “Invincible Argument” document” wouldform the basis of another lawsuit seeking to overturn the election, this one filed not by Powell and her team, but by SoRelle, the Oath Keepers’ general counsel.

A transcript of an Oath Keepers teleconference that took place on Nov. 9, 2020, shows that the militia group was working on a legal track even as they prepared to mobilize a tactical force at the US Capitol. Asked by Rhodes to update members on the “legal fight,” SoRellementioned Giuliani as heading up one of several legal teams working to overturn the election.

“And then you have the Giuliani pals, I guess, previewing the Campaign pod that’s trying to solve the mystery of the ballots,” SoRelle said. “So, I’ve been in communication. I obviously work the RNC version of it, and then I’m in — I like the Q crowd, they’re kind of fun, and then I’ve been meeting with the Campaign crowd.”

The lawsuit sputtered almost immediately when friction arose between SoRelle and her co-counsel, Paul M. Davis, over Caron’s involvement in the litigation.

In a February 2021 filing, Davis reported that he had “expressed concern to SoRelle that Bob seemed to have some sort of undue influence over the plaintiffs and was poisoning their thinking about the case strategy with suggestions of inclusion of what the whole team had previously agreed were frivolous legal claims (this has always been a case strictly about violations of election law and NOT a case about election fraud).”

Davis went on to suggest SoRelle was disclosing confidential attorney-client communications to Caron, who was not a plaintiff.

SoRelle responded, Davis reported with incredulity, that Caron had been “listening in on our comms.”

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Newly released text messages show Oath Keepers discussing Jan. 6 security for Trump allies: report

An Oath Keepers billboard in Pine River, Minnesota in July 2015, Wikimedia Commons] 10 in logo? bill of r?]

Alex Henderson April 21, 2022

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is among the 11 members of that far-right militia group that is facing federal seditious conspiracy charges because of their January 6, 2021-related activities. According to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney, a “newly released trove of text messages” shows that “top members” of the Oath Keepers who have been indicted “chatted for days about providing security for some of the highest-profile figures associated with Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the election.”

Rhodes and Florida-based Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs, Cheney reports, “discussed plans to provide security for figures like Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Ali Alexander and Michael Flynn on January 5 and January 6, (2021), describing potential partnerships with other groups and security details.”

“While several members of the group now facing charges notably flanked Stone on January 5 — including Joshua James, who has since pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy — the extent of the Oath Keepers’ work for other figures has been murky,” Cheney explains. “For example, Alexander indicated, in a recent statement, that the Oath Keepers never ended up providing security for him because his own January 6 event was canceled amid the chaos on Capitol grounds. But the group’s conversations reveal an easy relationship among several of the groups and entities now under scrutiny by federal prosecutors and the January 6 select committee.”

Cheney adds, “In one exchange, Meggs — identified by his handle ‘Gator 1’ — indicates he attempted to call Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, after hearing reports he had been arrested on January 4, 2021.”

The text messages, according to Cheney, were “posted” by Ed Vallejo, one of the Oath Keepers facing seditious conspiracy charges.

“Vallejo was stationed at a Comfort Inn in Arlington, VA, where prosecutors say he oversaw the group’s cache of weapons and was prepared to drive it to the Capitol if the fighting grew more intense,” Cheney reports. “Vallejo is seeking release from pretrial detention. Evidence that Meggs had a direct line to Tarrio — whose phone was confiscated by law enforcement and has now been accessed by federal prosecutors — adds new heft to the evidence of coordination among the groups. Prosecutors recently highlighted their interest in a January 5 meeting between Rhodes and Tarrio in a parking garage in Washington, D.C., shortly after Tarrio was released following his January 4 arrest.”

Federal prosecutors, Cheney notes, had “previously disclosed” text messages from Meggs that described “efforts to forge an ‘alliance’ between Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and other groups like the Three Percenters.”

“In the newly released cache of messages,” Cheney reports, “Oath Keepers discuss the possibility of joining Flynn’s security detail. Rhodes noted that he had previously worked with First Amendment Praetorian, a group linked to Flynn, to protect Flynn, as well as with a group assigned to protect pro-Trump broadcaster Alex Jones, who has described relying on a group of retired police officers for his protection on January 6.”

the other has orcs

After multiple failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and his far-right extremist associates had another idea to bring former President Donald Trump's sordid dream to fruition.

According to The Daily Beast, their ideas were detailed in a bizarre lawsuit that "went off the rails almost as soon as it hit the courts, with the lead attorney citing **The Lord of the Rings** as legal precedent." Days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, Rhodes and other paramilitary members joined forces to file a federal lawsuit in hopes of overturning the election.

The initial lawsuit was reportedly compiled by Oath Keepers' former general counsel Kellye SoRelle and Paul Davis, a Texas attorney who attended the Jan. 6 "Save America" rally to “collect evidence” on behalf of “one or more of the Plaintiffs.”

Per The Beast:

"The full scope of the Oath Keeper’s shadow legal effort, largely spearheaded by the group’s then-general counsel Kellye SoRelle, stretched back well before the riot, according to multiple people involved. In fact, it ran on a parallel track alongside the paramilitary-style buildup that has defined the militia’s role, and it roped in a number of key Jan. 6 figures along the way—including people tied to the Proud Boys and First Amendment Praetorians."

The lawsuit also highlighted aspects of "The Lord of the Rings" as an example of how government should be run.

“During the course of the epic trilogy, the rightful King of Gondor had abandoned the throne,” the lawsuit explained. “Since only the rightful king could sit on the throne of Gondor, a steward was appointed to manage Gondor until the return of the King, known as ‘Aragorn,’ occurred at the end of the story."

To make matters worse, the lawsuit continued: “This analogy is applicable since there is now in Washington, D.C., a group of individuals calling themselves the President, Vice President, and Congress who have no rightful claim to govern the American People."

Speaking to The Daily Beast, Rick Hasen, a renowned law expert with an emphasis on elections, weighed in with his take on the lawsuit describing it as "absurd."

“I don’t know the fact that he was one of many who joined this absurd lawsuit is all that significant compared to the other, more immediately dangerous things that he did,” Hasen said.

http://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GroundZero-3.pdf

Executive Summary............................................................................2

Elmer Stewart Rhodes.........................................................................4

Trent Loos............................................................................................10

Sean Reyes...........................................................................................18

Paul Gosar............................................................................................24

Wendy Rogers.....................................................................................29

Yvette Herrell......................................................................................35

Cliven Bundy.......................................................................................39

Ammon Bundy....................................................................................43

Phil Lyman..........................................................................................48

Matt Rosendale...................................................................................55

Lauren Boebert....................................................................................60

Sonny Borrelli.....................................................................................69

Walter Blackman................................................................................76

Dennis Linthicum...............................................................................81

Matt Shea.............................................................................................86

Cliff Bentz............................................................................................95

Brady Knowlton.................................................................................10

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the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is working to detain Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes following the release of text messages he allegedly sent that detailed his intentions for Jan. 6.

As Rhodes prepares for trial in connection with the sedition conspiracy case alleging that he and members of the far-right extremist organization conspired to halt the certification of President Joe Biden's victory. On Thursday, January 20, lawyers for the federal government released a memo in district court with details about the evidence in the case and Rhodes alleged involvement.

“The weight of the evidence of Rhodes’s dangerousness is immense,” the lawyers said in their memo. Text messages Rhodes sent are at the center of the investigation.

According to Rolling Stone, Rhodes “'spearheaded' the conspiracy to block the peaceful transfer of power." The government also wrote that Rhodes needs to be detained to 'protect the community, ensure his return to court, and safeguard the integrity of evidence and the proceedings.'”

"The filing offers choice new details, including a text Rhodes allegedly sent a co-conspirator on Christmas Day 2020, discussing their plan to intimidate Congress on Trump’s behalf during the proceedings on Jan. 6: 'The only chance we/he has is if we scare the shit out of them,” Rhodes wrote, “and convince them it will be torches and pitchforks time if they don’t do the right thing.'”

Lawyers also highlighted messages that detailed Rhodes' promotion of violence. “From November 2020 through January 2021,” it states, “Rhodes regularly used the terms ‘civil war’ and ‘revolution’ to describe the necessary path forward.”

The latest report follows the Justice Department's press release on Jan. 13 detailing the charges being brought against the Oath Keepers. According to court documents, Rhodes, a resident of Grandbury, Texas, and Edward Vallejo, of Phoenix, Ariz., are facing charges in connection with the events leading up to the Capitol insurrection.

In addition to Rhodes and Vallejo, thenine other members of the far-right group include: "Thomas Caldwell, 67, of Berryville, Virginia; Joseph Hackett, 51, of Sarasota, Florida; Kenneth Harrelson, 41, of Titusville, Florida; Joshua James, 34, of Arab, Alabama; Kelly Meggs, 52, of Dunnellon, Florida; Roberto Minuta, 37, of Prosper, Texas ; David Moerschel, 44, of Punta Gorda, Florida; Brian Ulrich, 44, of Guyton, Georgia, andJessica Watkins, 39, of Woodstock, Ohio. In addition to the earlier charges filed against them, they now face additional counts for seditious conspiracy and other offenses."

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Before the Donald Trump era, no one accused Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming of being a centrist — let alone a liberal or a progressive. But the arch-conservative congresswoman and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney has become an unlikely ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, playing a prominent role in Pelosi’s select committee on the January 6, 2021 insurrection. And MAGA Republicans are hoping to oust Rep. Cheney from the U.S. House of Representatives via a GOP congressional primary in Wyoming. One of them is far-right conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump devotee Frank Eathorne, who chairs the Wyoming Republican Party and is a member of the Oath Keepers militia.

In an article published by the Daily Beast on January 17, reporter Sam Brodey explains, “Frank Eathorne, who was revealed in a leak last year to be one of 191 Wyoming-based members of the far-right militia group, was in Washington for protests on January 6. But Eathorne is no rank-and-file fringe crank; he is the sitting chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party. That role has made him one of the more influential Republican officials in the country. Eathorne is presiding over what is perhaps the GOP’s highest-profile primary battle of the 2022 election: the MAGA-fueled campaign to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) for her unrelenting criticism of former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.”

Eathorne, Brodey notes, “has been one of the top figures fighting to defeat Cheney.” But the fact that Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes has been charged with seditious conspiracy along with other members of that militia group complicates things, according to Brodey — who points out that Eathorne “was not mentioned in the federal indictment of Oath Keepers” and “has not been arrested or charged with any offense in relation to January 6.”

“The Oath Keepers indictments mean that Eathorne’s aggressive efforts to keep the pressure on Cheney — in hopes of replacing her with a MAGA acolyte — are going to be complicated by his association with an extremist group facing grave, and rare, federal criminal charges,” Brodey observes. “Aside from his aggressive efforts to bring down Cheney, Eathorne has made national news for amplifying the most fringe of right-wing ideas. Appearing on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast in 2021, he expressed interest in the idea of Wyoming seceding from the United States.”

Lindsay Schubiner, program director for the Western States Center, believes it is a “dangerous signal about the state of our democracy” when members of extremist organizations are in major leadership positions in the Republican Party. The Western States Center tracks extremist groups.

Schubiner told the Beast, “It’s troubling to see leaders in institutions that should be engaging in the democratic process not only condone paramilitaries, but officially join them.”

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aha note QRF fits in with narrative of defensive; less benign interp is that they waited to see if there was an opening for force/guns

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New report details Tucker Carlson's promotion of a man now facing Capitol riot sedition charges

Meaghan Ellis January 14, 2022

Fox News' Tucker Carlson has repeatedly hosted a man said to be a member of the Oath Keepers and who is now facing sedition conspiracy charges for his participation in the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

According to Media Matters, Carlson interviewed Thomas Caldwell, of Berryville, Virginia, on his Fox News primetime show and his Fox Nation podcast given him and his wife a platform to depict themselves as "victims of overzealous prosecution for the events of January 6."

During their multiple discussions, Carlson described Caldwell as simply being a “disabled veteran” and seemed to downplay the potential that he had serious criminal exposure.

However, the indictment offers details that paint a relatively different picture of Caldwell's involvement. Caldwell, who reportedly goes by the name "Commander Tom," was charged along with nine others for involvement in the far-right extremist, anti-government organization. The indictment alleges Caldwell marched to the Capitol and was "stationed" outside of the federal building on Jan. 6.

READ: Here's what it would really mean to prosecute Trump]

Per Media Matters:

"As noted in the indictment, Caldwell was stationed outside Washington, D.C., on January 5, standing ready to distribute weapons to his fellow militia members at the direction of Rhodes. He allegedly helped coordinate the Oath Keepers’ so-called “quick reaction force.” The indictment states that the militia had “amassed firearms on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., distributed them among ‘quick reaction force’ (‘QRF’) teams, and planned to use the firearms in support of their plot to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power.”

The indictment continued with more allegations against Caldwell and members of the organization. "The government’s case claims Caldwell sought boats to assist the QRF, saying he wrote in a message that they could have “heavy weapons standing by, quickly load them and ferry them across the river to our waiting arms,'” Media Matters reports. "It also alleges that 'on January 5, 2021, Caldwell and others drove into Washington, D.C., around the Capitol, and back to their hotel in Virginia' where the Oath Keepers had stockpiled weapons. The indictment says that 'Caldwell described the trip as ‘recce,’ or a reconnaissance mission.'”

The indictment also contends, “The QRF teams were prepared to rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington, D.C., in support of operations aimed at using force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power. The QRF teams were coordinated, in part, by Thomas Caldwell and Edward Vallejo.”

READ: The radical right's takeover of the Supreme Court is complete]

The latest report comes amid charges filed against Caldwell on Thursday, January 13. If convicted on sedition charges, which are common in cases involving Caldwell could face a maximum of 20 years behind bars.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/oath-keeper-thomas-caldwell-tucker-carlson-sedition-charges-1284783/

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Oath Keeper Who Allegedly Said ‘Hang the Traitors’ Tells Tucker Carlson New Jan. 6 Charges Are ‘Good vs. Evil’

Thomas Caldwell claims he is completely innocent despite Thursday indictment alleging he helped plot to “oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force”

By RYAN BORT

[pix People wearing hats and patches indicating they are part of Oath Keepers attend a rally at Freedom Plaza Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)People wearing hats and patches indicating they are part of Oath Keepers attend a rally at Freedom Plaza Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)]

Oath Keepers leader Stuart Rhodes and 10 co-conspirators were charged with seditious conspiracy on Thursday for allegedly plotting “to oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force” via an armed, well-coordinated takeover of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

One of the co-conspirators the Justice Department alleges helped organize teams who would transport firearms into Washington, D.C., in support of this effort is Thomas Caldwell, a 66-year-old Navy veteran and fellow member of the Oath Keepers. Caldwell appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight hours after the indictment was unsealed on Thursday.

Carlson did all he could to portray the Caldwell as a sympathetic figure, introducing him “pushing 70 and 100 percent military disabled” before Caldwell flat-out denied he did anything wrong. Carlson showed pictures of Caldwell and his wife smiling together on Jan. 6, as Caldwell professed his innocence and described his treatment as a travesty of justice that should concern every American.

[RELATED STORIES

'Fuck Em': Indictment Reveals Top Oath Keeper's Reaction to Endangered Lawmakers on Jan. 6

Oath Keepers Lawyer Takes Over as Acting Leader of Militia With Stewart Rhodes in Jail]

“I have consistently taken the high road about this,” Caldwell said. “My wife and I are Christians. We understood there was a rush to judgement. I got arrested because somebody referred to me by my military rank: Commander Tom. That’s all they needed to put guns in my wife’s face and take me off my farm in chains. But everything they’ve said about me, and everything they said today about me, is untrue, and we can prove it.”

“We have all the faith in the world in God,” he said later. “We believe this is good versus evil. We are Christians.”

Tucker Carlson's Interview With 70 Year Old Disabled Veteran Lt Commander Thomas Caldwell On Being Charged Today With "Conspiracy To Commit Sedition"

Lt. Caldwell: "Everything that they've said about me and everything that they say today about me is untrue and we can prove it." pic.twitter.com/4pm8ieuOyr

— The Columbia Bugle ???? (@ColumbiaBugle) January 14, 2022

The Department of Justice, however, doesn’t seem to agree Caldwell is the kindly old man Carlson wants viewers to believe he is. Here’s Caldwell allegedly writing that he told people to “storm the place” and “hang the traitors” as the riot was unfolding, according to a December court filing:

“Then we heard Pence fucked us. Wr [sic] had over a million oeople [sic] here. Then the lying media said Trump supporters were breaking through barricades so I said if we’re going to get blamed, might as well do it so I grabbed up my American flag and said let’s take the damn capitol,” Caldwell allegedly said. “So people started surging forward and climbing the scaffolding outside so I said lets storm the place and hang the traitors. Everybody thought that was a good idea so we did.”

The filing also includes a message Caldwell allegedly sent to another Oath Keeper about how he had “booked a hotel room” that “gives us a spot to stage materials should things go into high order.” Caldwell also allegedly wrote about a “quick reaction force” and that “we will have the goodies in case things go bad and we need to get heavy.”

There's also more about the "quick reaction force" staged at the Comfort Inn in Ballston "should things go high order."

Plus, new messages from Oath Keepers president Stewart Rhodes (Person 1) saying OKs would have "no choice" but to act if Trump failed to do so. #CapitolRiot pic.twitter.com/nonu3emMzf

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) December 16, 2021

Caldwell denied all of this on Thursday night. “This stuff I don’t know anything about,” he told Carlson. “I didn’t have any role in planning any of it. It’s just more hooey.”

“I can tell you I never saw any weapons nor did I talk to anybody who talked about bringing in heavy weapons and overthrowing the government, which is what sedition is all about,” he added. “It’s just plain nuts.”

In This Article: Jan. 6, Oath Keepers, Tucker Carlson

ggl 1 22 tucker carlson oathkeeper rhodes stewart

Oath Keeper Who Allegedly Said ‘Hang the Traitors’ Tells Tucker Carlson New Jan. 6 Charges Are ‘Good vs. Evil’

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2 teams, one looking for peolsi] said cvil war inevitable, bought $10K arms, cache QRF

A right-wing talking point about Jan. 6 just completely collapsed after indictment of the Oath Keepers

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/oath-keepers-sedition/

An Oath Keepers billboard in Pine River, Minnesota in July 2015, Wikimedia Commons minuteman]

Alex Henderson January 13, 2022

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers, has been charged with seditious conspiracyas part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s probe of the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Washington Post reporters Spencer S. Hsu and Devlin Barrett have described the 56-year-old Rhodes as “the most high-profile person charged in the investigation so far.” And according to Never Trump conservative Amanda Carpenter, Rhodes’ arrest explodes a MAGA talking about the violence that occurred during the Capitol riot.

Ten others were charged along with Rhodes.

Carpenter, who is known for her commentary on CNN and her articles for The Bulwark, notes that “Trump defenders” have been claiming that the January 6, 2021 violence wasn’t an insurrection “because people like Rhodes had not been charged yet.”

“That talking point is out the window now,” Carpenter emphasized in a Twitter thread. “Sedition is being charged.”

READ: One sentence from the Supreme Court's ruling against an OSHA vaccine rule reveals its upside-down logic]

Carpenter, who once served as communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz but now criticizes him for being a Trump apologist, observed:

The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel also believes that Rhodes’ arrest totally discredits a flawed MAGA talking point. Weigel tweeted:

Fox News’ Brit Hume has argued, “Let's base our view on whether 1/6 was an ‘insurrection" on whether those arrested are charged with insurrection. So far, none has been.” And blogger Marcy Wheeler explained why Hume’s reasoning doesn’t hold up:

Christian Vanderbrouk likewise noted that the lack of sedition charges had been a popular right-wing, Jan. 6 apologist talking point:

Here are some more reactions to Rhodes’ arrest for seditious conspiracy:[twt]

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

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RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

January 6 committee weighs options to get members of Congress to ... ›

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omg yikes

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/trump-2655520362/

no lnx

'Barely concealed bloodlust': Claremont Institute laid out detailed plan for using cops to overturn Trump’s election loss

Travis Gettys and Raw Story November 08, 2021

The right-wing Claremont Institute published a report in mid-October 2020 that gamed out a scenario where Donald Trump would remain in office through an alliance between law enforcement and militant extremists.

The report was prepared by attorney John Eastman, who authored a memo laying out another strategy for keeping Trump in office, and former Trump deputy national security advisor K.T. McFarland, as well as Kevin Roberts, then-executive director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, alt-right figure Jeff Giesea and right-wing blogger Charles Haywood, reported The Bulwark.

"Despite the authors' pretensions to scholarship and rigor — 'for a simulation to be valuable, the other side gets a vote and actions must be based in realism' — the final document is a frenzied and paranoid piece of work, revealing of the anxieties and aspirations of the authoritarian right," writes columnist Christian Vanderbrouk. "Practically, the report is an instruction manual for how Trump partisans at all levels of government — aided by citizen 'posses' of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers — could, quite literally, round up opposition activists, kill their leaders, and install Donald Trump for a second term in office."

Most of the predictions in the report, titled "79 Days to Inauguration," did not come to fruition, such as the authors' belief that some states' voting results would be fatally tainted by cyber attacks and suspicious fires, and left-wing mobs did not converge on Washington, D.C., to incite violence, and police did not execute antifa/Black Lives Matter leaders as part of a federal operation.

"A barely concealed bloodlust runs through the report," Vanderbrouk writes. "This isn't a serious wargame or a policy study so much as a bowdlerized retelling of The Turner Diaries."

The report was produced in response to the bipartisan Transition Integrity Project's (TIP) exercise on "Preventing a Disrupted Presidential Election and Transition," which considered the prospect of Trump refusing to concede an election loss and made recommendations for avoiding a crisis -- which seems to be the opposite intent of the Claremont Institute's exercise.

"To the extent that the Claremont-TPPF report offers recommendations, they are mostly focused on how to emerge victorious from the chaos, including preparation 'for destructive urban unrest [with] potential targets includ[ing] ballot counting facilities, government buildings, especially state capitols and city halls, as well as television and radio studios,'" Vanderbrouk writes. "The Claremont task force seems either resigned to—or perhaps energized by—the view that 'prudent steps are likely to be spun as preparations for a military takeover or coup and may result in negative consequences either way.'"

"Either way. It's as if they're steering into the violence instead of trying to avoid it," he adds. "The message is clear:do whatever it takes to crush your opponents and all will be forgiven in the second Trump term."

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/oath-keepers/

pro pub

North Carolina state representative Mike Clampittswore an oath to uphold the Constitution after his election in 2016 and again in 2020. But there's another pledge that Clampitt said he's upholding: to the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militant organization.

Dozens of Oath Keepers have been arrested in connection to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, some of them looking like a paramilitary group, wearing camo helmets and flak vests. But a list of more than 35,000 members of the Oath Keepers — obtained by an anonymous hacker and shared with ProPublica by the whistleblower group Distributed Denial of Secrets — underscores how the organization is evolving into a force within the Republican Party.

ProPublica identified Clampitt and 47 more state and local government officials on the list, all Republicans: 10 sitting state lawmakers; two former state representatives; one current state assembly candidate; a state legislative aide; a city council assistant; county commissioners in Indiana, Arizona and North Carolina; two town aldermen; sheriffsor constables in Montana, Texas and Kentucky; state investigators in Texas and Louisiana; and a New Jersey town's public works director.

ProPublica's analysis also found more than 400 people who signed up for membership or newsletters using government, military or political campaign email addresses, including candidates for Congress and sheriff, a retired assistant school superintendent in Alabama, and an award-winning elementary school teacher in California.

Three of the state lawmakers on the list had already been publicly identified with the Oath Keepers. Other outlets have also scoured the list, finding police officers and military veterans.

People with law enforcement and military backgrounds — like Clampitt, a retired fire captain in Charlotte, North Carolina — have been the focus of the Oath Keepers' recruiting efforts since the group started in 2009. According to researchers who monitor the group's activities, Oath Keepers pledge to resist if the federal government imposes martial law, invades a state or takes people's guns, ideas that show up in a dark swirl of right-wing conspiracy theories.The group is loosely organized and its leaders do not centrally issue commands. The organization's roster has ballooned in recent years, from less than 10,000 members at the start of 2011 to more than 35,000 by 2020, membership records show.

The hacked list marks participants as annual ($50) or lifetime ($1,000) members, so not everyone on the list is currently active, though some said they viewed it as a lifelong commitment even if they only paid for one year. Many members said they had little contact with the group after sending in their dues but still supported the cause. Others drifted away and disavowed the group, even before Jan. 6.

The list also includes at least three people who were arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and who federal prosecutors did not identify as Oath Keepers in charging documents: Andrew Alan Hernandez of Riverside, California; Dawn Frankowski of Naperville, Illinois; and Sean David Watson of Alpine, Texas. They pleaded not guilty. These defendants, their attorneys and family members didn't respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department also declined to comment.

According to experts who monitor violent extremism, the Oath Keepers' broadening membership provides the group with two crucial resources: money and, particularly when government officials get involved, legitimacy.

Clampitt said he went to a few Oath Keepers meetings when he joined back in 2014, but the way he participates now is by being a state legislator. He has co-sponsored a bill to allow elected officials to carry concealed guns in courthouses, schools and government buildings, and he supported legislation stiffening penalties for violent demonstrations in response to last year's protests in Raleigh over George Floyd's murder. Clampitt said he opposes violence but stood by his Oath Keepers affiliation, despite the dozens of members charged in the Capitol riot.

“Five or six years ago, politicians wouldn't be caught dead hanging out with Oath Keepers, you'd have to go pretty fringe," said Jared Holt, who monitors the group for the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab. “When groups like that become emboldened, it makes them significantly more dangerous."

The State Lawmakers

Then-state Delegate Don Dwyer from Maryland was the only elected official at the Oath Keepers' first rally, back in April 2009. Dwyer was, by his own account, a pariah in Annapolis, but he was building a national profile as a conservative firebrand.He claimed to take direction from his own interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and a personal library of 230 books about U.S. history pre-1900.

The Oath Keepers' founder, a former Army paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate named Stewart Rhodes, invited Dwyer to speak at the group's kickoff rally — they called it a “muster" — in Lexington, Massachusetts, the site of the “shot heard round the world" that started the Revolutionary War in 1775.

“I still support the cause," Dwyer told ProPublica. “And I'm proud to say that I'm a member of that organization." He left politics in 2015 and served six months in prison for violating his probation after a drunk boating accident.

Dwyer said he was not aware of the Oath Keeper's presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6. “If they were there, they were there on a peaceful mission, I'm sure of it," he said. Informed that members were photographed wearing tactical gear, Dwyer responded, “OK, that surprises me. That's all I'll say."

Among the current officeholders on the list is Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, who was already publicly identified with the Oath Keepers.Finchem was outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 but has said he did not enter the building or engage in violence, and he has disputed the characterization of the Oath Keepers as an anti-government group. He is currently running to be Arizona's top elections official, and he won former President Donald Trump's endorsement in September.

Serving with Clampitt in the North Carolina assembly, deputy majority whip Keith Kidwell appeared on the Oath Keepers list as an annual member in 2012. Kidwell declined to comment, calling the membership list “stolen information." A spokesperson for the state house speaker declined to comment on Kidwell's and Clampitt's Oath Keepers affiliation.

The membership list also names Alaska state Rep. David Eastman as a life member and Indiana state Sen. Scott Baldwin and Georgia state Rep. Steve Tarvin as annual members. Eastman confirmed his membership and declined to answer further questions. Baldwin's spokesperson said he was unavailable to comment.

Tarvin recalled signing up at a booth in White County, Georgia, in 2009 when he was running for Congress. He lost that race but later became a state lawmaker. He didn't view the Oath Keepers as a militia group back then.

Tarvin said he stands by the pledge he signed and said he isn't aware of the Oath Keepers' involvement in the Capitol breach on Jan 6. His congressional district is now represented by Andrew Clyde, who helped barricade a door to the House chamber on Jan. 6 but later compared the riot to a “normal tourist visit."

Kaye Beach, who is listed as an annual member in 2010, is a legislative assistant to Oklahoma state Rep. Jon Echols, the majority floor leader. Beach sued the state in 2011, arguing that the Bible prohibited taking a driver's license photo of her. She eventually lost at the state supreme court. Beach and Echols did not respond to requests for comment.

Two other lawmakers have long been public about their affiliation with the Oath Keepers.

Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers announced her membership a few years ago. She responded to Trump's 2020 loss by encouraging people to buy ammo and recently demanded to “decertify" the election based on the GOP's “audit" of Maricopa County ballots, even though the partisan review confirmed President Joe Biden's win.

Idaho state Rep. Chad Christensen lists his Oath Keepers membership on his official legislative biography, in between the John Birch Society and the Idaho Farm Bureau.

Rogers and Christensen didn't respond to requests for comment.

South Dakota state legislator Phil Jensen appeared on the list as an annual member in 2014, using his title (then state senator) and government email address. His affiliation was reported Tuesday by Rolling Stone. He did not respond to a request for comment.

South Dakota state Sen. Jim Stalzer, whose 2015 annual membership was first reported by BuzzFeed, said he never renewed his membership and stopped supporting the Oath Keepers because he disagreed with “their confrontational approach to what they view as federal overreach." In an email, Stalzer said he supported peaceful demonstrators on Jan. 6 but “we do not have the right to damage property or harm others, whether it be at the Capitol or anywhere else."

The Candidates

Virginia Fuller first encountered the Oath Keepers in 2009 at a meeting in San Francisco featuring Rhodes, the group's founder. Fuller liked Rhodes' message of upholding the Constitution, she told ProPublica. For a while she corresponded with one of the group's leaders but they eventually lost touch, and she moved to Florida and ran unsuccessfully for Congress on the Republican ticket in 2018.

Rhodes and other leaders of the Oath Keepers embraced Trump's lies about election fraud and promoted Jan. 6 as a last chance to make a stand for the republic. Asked about Jan. 6, Fuller said, “There was nothing wrong with that. The Capitol belongs to the people."

The Oath Keepers rose to prominence when handfuls of heavily armed members showed up at racial justice protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, and their profile grew thanks to a series of standoffs between right-wing militants and federal agents in the Western U.S.

At the 2016 funeral for a rancher who officers shot while trying to arrest him, Stan Vaughan met several Oath Keepers and became an annual member. Vaughan, a one-time chess champion from Las Vegas, ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Nevada State Assembly in 2016, 2018 and 2020. Even though Vaughan ran in a predominantly Democratic district, he had the support of his party's establishment, receiving a $500 campaign contribution from Robin Titus, the Assembly's Republican floor leader. Titus did not respond to requests for comment. Vaughan said he'll probably run again once he sees how new districts are drawn.

Vaughan said he wouldn't join the Oath Keepers today. It's not their ideology that bothers him or their involvement in the Jan. 6 riot. Rather, he said he has concerns about how the group's leaders spend its money.

One Oath Keeper seen on Jan. 6 wearing an earpiece and talking with group leaders outside the Capitol was Edward Durfee, a local Republican committee member in Bergen County, New Jersey, who is running for state assembly in a predominantly Democratic district. Durfee has not been charged and said he did not enter the building.

“They were caught up in the melee, what else can I say? For whatever reason, I didn't go in," Durfee said. “They brand you as white supremacists, domestic terrorists. I don't know how we got in this mix where there's so much hatred and so much dislike and how it continues to get fomented. It's just shameful actually."

The Local Party Officials

When Joe Marmorato, a retired New York City cop who moved upstate, signed up for an Oath Keepers annual membership in 2013, he described the skills he could offer the group: “Pistol Shooting, police street tactics, driving skills, County Republican committee member." Marmorato later rose to vice chairman of the Otsego County GOP, but he recently resigned that post because he's moving. Reached by phone, Marmorato stood by the Oath Keepers, even after Jan. 6. “I just thought they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. I know most of them are all retired police and firemen and have the best interests of the country in mind," he said. “No matter what you do, you're vilified by the left."

Steven K. Booth, a twice-elected Republican county commissioner and state senate candidate in Minnesota in the 2000s, said he wants to run for office again if his wife agrees to it. He's still active in the local GOP. Booth joined the Oath Keepers as an annual member in 2011 and said he hasn't heard from them in years. He said he wasn't aware of their role in Jan. 6 but he's concerned that some Capitol breach defendants are being held in jail. “That seems kind of weird to me," Booth said. “I also think it's kind of weird that nobody is doing anything about all the fraud we were told about in the last election either."

Asked about the possibility of Booth running for office again, local GOP chair Rich Siegert started talking through openings Booth could aim for. Booth's Oath Keepers affiliation did not give Siegert pause. “When tyranny comes, that's when you stop and say you've got to do something about it," said Siegert, who heads the party in northern Minnesota's Beltrami County. “To go out and get violent and kill people like they did in the early days, I'm not really in favor of that. How do you get the attention of liberals and get them to listen? Firing guns, I don't know, it's what they do in some countries. Define what 'radical' is."

Not all party officials shared Siegert's view. Richland County, South Carolina, GOP chair Tyson Grinstead distanced his committee from Patsy Stewart, who is listed as an Oath Keepers annual member in 2015. “Personally," Grinstead said, “I don't think there's a place for that in our party."

Stewart has been a delegate or alternate to the GOP state convention and is currently a party precinct officer in Columbia, South Carolina. She didn't respond to requests for comment. In recent months, Trump supporters have flooded into precinct positions in South Carolina and other states as part of an organized movement inspired by the stolen election myth, ProPublica reported in September.

The Poll Worker

When Andy Maul signed up for the Oath Keepers as an annual member around 2010, he touted his role in the Pittsburgh GOP. Maul said he let his membership lapse because there wasn't a local chapter, but he still likes the group's concept.

Maul became the party chairman of his city council district starting around 2016. But other local party leaders chafed at Maul's confrontational style and lack of follow-through.

“Andy was getting a little out there," said Allegheny County chairman Sam DeMarco, who had to ask Maul to take down some of his inflammatory social media posts. “If you want to be associated with our committee, you have to represent mainstream traditional Republican values and not be affiliated with fringe groups."

Maul left the local party committee in 2020, but he continued serving as a poll worker. According to the county elections department, Maul was the “judge of elections" in charge of his precinct in every election since 2017, including this year's primary in May.

In Pennsylvania, the judge of elections in every precinct is an elected position. If no one runs, as often happens, the local elections office appoints someone to fill in, so a person can sometimes land the job “if you have a pulse and you call them," said Bob Hillen, the Pittsburgh Republican chairman.

“If I opposed people based on their views for being a judge of elections or anything, that would eliminate a whole lot of people," Hillen said. “I'm a city chairman, I don't have time to think about all those things like that."

Maul said he observed “aberrative" ballots at his precinct on Nov. 3 — just a handful, but he asserted that if the same number occurred at every precinct in the state, it would add up to more than Biden's margin of victory. (There is no evidence of widespread fraud that could have affected the outcome in Pennsylvania or any other state.)

On Jan. 6, Maul said he marched toward the Capitol but couldn't make it all the way and returned to his bus. He said he wasn't familiar with the Oath Keepers' activities that day. “As a supporter of the Constitution, I had strong differences and concerns about Trump," Maul said in a text message. “Although my feeling on Trump were mixed, I went to the Jan. 6 rally mainly due to what I experienced at my polling location."

The Democrat

Around 2005, Marine veteran Bob Haran joined the Minuteman Project, a group of armed people who took it upon themselves to patrol Arizona's border with Mexico. Haran resented that critics called the group vigilantes and Mexican hunters. All they did, he said, was call the Border Patrol.

Haran held positions in the local GOP and had run for the state House as a Republican. During the tea party wave, Haran became frustrated with the new activists' anti-government tilt and turned to the Constitution Party, a minor party that's to the right of the GOP. Haran rose to be the state chairman and secretary. By the time he became an Oath Keepers annual member in 2016, Haran was looking for a new political home.

When Trump rode down a golden escalator to launch his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists," Haran took offense. He faulted the government for failing to secure the border, but he didn't blame people for seeking better lives for themselves and their families. Haran grew up in Coney Island, near a middle-class apartment complex built by Trump's father, and he remembered Trump as a braggadocious playboy, not as the successful self-made businessman he later played on TV. Haran said he was appalled as Republicans fell in line behind Trump.

Then, Haran did something unusual, even among never-Trump Republicans: He became a Democrat.

Haran doesn't agree with the Democrats on everything, but he said he feels welcome in the party. He's still passionate about guns and immigration, but he also supports environmental protections and universal health care. Above all, he wanted to help get rid of Trump. In 2020, he joined his local precinct committee and started regularly attending party meetings.

Haran was so excited to see Trump leave office that he tuned in to watch the Electoral College certification process on Jan. 6. He couldn't believe how fast the Trump supporters reached the Senate floor, or how Oath Keepers were attacking the Constitution they swore to defend.

Haran thought back to when he ran for office as a Republican, in 2000, and lost. “I called my opponent and congratulated him: I would have won except he got more votes," Haran said. “I conceded, which is bestowing legitimacy on my opponent, which is more important than anything."

He finds it disturbing that Trump and other Republicans today won't do that anymore. “They were anti-government," Haran said of the GOP, “but now they're being anti-democracy."

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/this-southern-california-sheriff-was-a-dues-paying-member-of-the-militant-insurrectionist-oath-keepers-report/

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/nypd-oath-keepers/

2021 oops tho name not accident/drafting on?

guk no lnx

How the far-right group ‘Oath Enforcers’ plans to harass political enemies

This article is more than 5 months old

Chats indicate white supremacists are aiming to leverage the group’s success in recruiting disillusioned supporters of former President Donald Trump and the ‘QAnon’ conspiracy movement.

Revealed: online chats indicate some members are threatening to unleash harassment tactics on officials and government workers

Jason Wilson

@jason_a_w

Tue 6 Apr 2021 02.00 EDT

A national online network of thousands of rightwing, self-described “Oath Enforcers” is threatening to unleash harassment tactics on elected officials and government workers around the country, the Guardian can reveal.

While the network’s founder insists that the group is neither violent nor a militia, internal chats indicate that some members are planning for confrontations with law enforcement and their perceived political enemies.

The chats also indicate that white supremacists and others connected with the militia movement are aiming to leverage the group’s success in recruiting disillusioned supporters of Donald Trump and the “QAnon” conspiracy movement, who are being exposed to a wide range of conspiracy theories, white nationalist material and rightwing legal theories inside the groups.

The group’s founder, who makes videos and organizes under the name Vince Edwards, lives off-grid in a remote corner of Costilla county, in Colorado’s high desert region. Arrest records from 2016 indicate that he has also used the name Christian Picolo, and other public records associate him with the name Vincent Edward Deluca.

Experts say that Edwards’ personal history reflects the potential danger in the spread of “sovereign citizen” ideology– along with voluminous online propaganda, that history includes an armed standoff with Costilla county sheriff’s deputies in 2016.

Edwards initially published videos and a printable flyer promoting the formation of “oath enforcement teams” of at least 30 people in every county in the nation during late January 2021, just weeks after his own self-documented attendance at a rally at the national Capitol on 6 January.

His initial videos explicitly appealed to QAnon supporters, pointing out that “Q”, the supposed Trump administration insider whose gnomic forum posts animated the conspiracy-minded social movement, had not communicated with the movement since December, and that rather than “trusting the plan”, as adherents are enjoined to do, they should begin taking action.

In the wake of the Capitol attack, his efforts seem to have resonated with a growing pool of grassroots rightwingers. The Guardian found over 3,100 members in 50 state-based Telegram chats and a national chat. Some state-based groups – in Texas, Washington and Alabama – were very active and had hundreds of members.

The stated aims of the group include posting flyers designed by Edwards, the formation of “constitutional enforcement groups”, for every person to hand out 1,000 of Edwards’s flyers, and the creation of local hotlines to help “enforce the contract we made with our public servants” by livestreaming interactions with them, or lodging spurious legal claims against them.

In an introductory video entitled “OE training”, Edwards encourages new recruits to the network to emulate so-called “first amendment auditors” (FAAs).

Professor Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) at California State University in San Bernardino, said in a telephone conversation that FAAs are a social-media driven movement of libertarian provocateurs who “go to sensitive locations to see if law enforcement, security guards, or property owners will interfere with their activities, which are annoying, but not usually illegal”.

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, rancher Cliven Bundy stands along the road near his ranch in Bunkerville, Nev. Bundy, the father of the jailed leader of the Oregon refuge occupation, and who was the center of a standoff with federal officials in Nevada in 2014, was arrested in Portland on Wednesday night, Feb. 10, the FBI said, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

[

They hate the US government, and they're multiplying: the terrifying rise of 'sovereign citizens'

A solid survey

[method grfx]

extreme beliefs

This polling found that 9% of American adults say they agree with the statement that “Use of force is justified to restore Donald J. Trump to the presidency." And 25% of adults either strongly or somewhat agree with the statement that “The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president."

Overall, 8% of the survey participants share both of those views.

The margin of error of this survey was plus or minus 4 percentage points. So when calculating the number of the 258 million adult Americans who hold these views, we looked at the range of between 4% and 12% – which gave us between 10 million and 31 million. The best single figure is the middle of that range, 21 million.

People who said force is justified to restore Trump were consistent in their insurrectionist sentiments: Of them, 90% also see Biden as illegitimate, and 68% also think force may be needed to preserve America's traditional way of life.

The fringe moving into the mainstream

Combined with their military experience, gun ownership and connections to extremist groups and militias, this signals the existence of significant mainstream support in America for a violent insurrection.

This group of 21 million who agree both that force is justified to restore Trump and that Biden is an illegitimate president has two additional views that are also on the fringes of mainstream society:

63% agree with the statement that “African American people or Hispanic people in our country will eventually have more rights than whites" – a belief sometimes called “the **Great Replacement**."
54% agree that “A secret group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is ruling the US government," which is the key belief in the QAnon movement.

Some people with insurrectionist sentiments hold one of these political views but not the other, suggesting there are multiple ways of thinking that lead a person toward the insurrectionist movement.

Broader support

This latest research reinforces our previous findings, that the Jan. 6 insurrection represents a far more mainstream movement than earlier instances of right-wing extremism across the country. Those events, mostly limited to white supremacist and militia groups, saw more than 100 individuals arrested from 2015 to 2020. But just 14% of those arrested for their actions on Jan. 6 are members of those groups. More than half are business owners or middle-aged white-collar professionals, and only 7% are unemployed.

There is no way to say for sure when – or even whether – these insurrectionists will take action. On Jan. 6, it took clear direction from Donald Trump and other political leaders to turn these dangerous sentiments into a violent reality. But the movement itself is larger and more complex than many people might like to think.

Robert A. Pape, Professor of Political Science, **University of Chicago**

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/roger-stone-aide/

roger Stone associate Kristin Davis is behind a new column blaming Women for America First for being behind the organizing of the "Stop the Steal" rally and saying that Stone had nothing to do with it, reporter Nancy Levin discovered Sunday.

Writing in a conspiracy theory publication, Davis explained that all Stone did was stand outside his hotel with an entourage waiting for a car to pick them up.

"I booked Roger to speak at the Rally to Save America the night prior and was led to believe by Women for America First that he was supposed to speak the following afternoon on January 6th, at a rally they organized which featured President Donald J. Trump. After a completely peaceful rally on January 5th, which attracted thousands of brave American patriots, we woke up the next morning expecting to attend the rally at the Ellipse," the column read.

"However, despite Women for America First promoting Stone as a speaker and insisting that they were sending a transport for Mr. Stone and our team to the Willard Hotel, the escort never came," the piece continued. "As we were waiting, the staff at the Hotel Willard asked anyone congregating in the lobby to stay out of the cold to step outside in order to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines set forth by the Mayor of Washington, D.C. A simple walk outside, which lasted mere minutes, is the first part of the dishonest conspiracy theory by the mainstream media and Democrat (sic) elected officials that Mr. Stone was somehow organizing the insurrection, or had some sort of advance knowledge of what was going to happen later that day."

Raw Story has never reported that Stone was part of the organizing of the event, but those members of the Oath Keepers militia who were working as the security for Stoneare accused of being linked to the plotting of violence.

Justice Department filings showed Jessica Watkins saying to allies that the task "sounds like a sweet gig," meaning the guarding of Stone.

"Looks like we might be security for Roger Stone, if we end up rolling with the Oath keepers(sic)," Watkins texted Donovan Ray Crowl on Jan. 1. Crowl texted back later that day saying, it "should be fun."

Crowl was cited for believing that there would be a "literal war" in the United States on Jan. 6.

Crowl's lawyer said in the court documents that his client wasn't doing anything other than security on Jan. 6, but other messages prosecutors got showed that the Oath Keepers were coordinating with "30-40" people during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Watkins and Crowl were both indicted on charges of conspiracy, conspiracy to injure an officer and destruction of government property.

Stone appears to be denying that he and the security had discussed anything outside of their work for him.

Women for America First was behind the rally, according to permits requested from the Parks Service.

See the screen capture of the excerpt from Nancy Levin:

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/trump-insurrection/

In the 2020 presidential election, then-President Donald Trump ran on a fear-mongering "law and order" platform — insisting that the United States would be overwhelmed by violent crime, looting, chaos and anarchy if now-President Joe Biden were elected and warning that any "insurrectionists" would be dealt with harshly. But Never Trump conservative Amanda Carpenter, in an article published by The Bulwark on June 7, finds it ironic that the same Trump who ranted against insurrection encouraged the insurrectionist Oath Keepers — one of the far-right groups that attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6.

"On January 6, 2021, members of the Oath Keepers, high on conspiracies and disinformation, went to Washington, D.C. to support then-President Donald Trump," explains Carpenter, who is often featured as a conservative pundit on CNN. "They anticipated that they would be providing 'security' for 'patriots' attending his Stop the Steal rally — and should the need present itself, that they would put down an insurrection. In reality, their group, which explicitly recruits former military service members and law enforcement officers, helped spur an insurrection of its own. And today, some of the Oath Keepers are defendants at the center of the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history."

Carpenter recalls Trump's emphasis on "law and order" following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. On June 1, 2020, she notes, Trump "delivered a terse Rose Garden speech threatening to deploy the U.S. military to any city or state that 'refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents.'"

Carpenter notes, "Trump's staff argued that the threatened military deployment would have been permitted under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which empowers the president to deploy federal troops for domestic law enforcement under certain circumstances…. As summer changed into fall, talk on the right of an 'insurrection' that might be met with a military response shifted from the George Floyd protests and civil unrest to the 2020 election — the same terms and the same proposed action, just a new target."

You might be surprised how much June 1, 2020 had to do with January 6, 2021. Come with me as I seek to understand w… https://t.co/N9nWy3NgYv

— Amanda Carpenter (@Amanda Carpenter) 1623069890.0

When Trump appeared on Fox News in September 2020, Carpenter recalls, host Jeanine Pirro asked him how he would respond if he won the election and Democrats rioted. And the then-president responded, "We'll put them down very quickly if they do that. We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that if we want. Look, it's called 'insurrection.' We just send in, and we do it, very easy. I mean, it's very easy."

Carpenter goes on to say, however, that Oath Keepers founder and Trump supporter Stewart Rhodes "has been talking about insurrection for years." In an August 2020 Facebook post, Rhodes wrote, "Civil war is here, right now." And after Trump lost the election, Rhodes and Kelly Meggs (who heads the Oath Keepers' Florida chapter) declared that they would do whatever it took to keep him in the White House in 2021. In a December 19, 2020 Facebook post, Meggs wrote that he had formed an "alliance between Oath Keepers, Florida 3%ers (Three Percenters), and Proud Boys."

"We have decided to work together and shut this shit down," Meggs posted — and what he wanted to "shut down" was the certification of Biden's Electoral College victory over Trump in a joint session of Congress on January 6.

Trump, Carpenter stresses, railed against insurrection but had no problem with it when his "own supporters" were the insurrectionists.

"The fight that the self-appointed militia of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers apparently expected to have with Antifa on January 6 never materialized," Carpenter writes. "Ironically, their actions as part of the mob attack on the Capitol offered a defensible reason for invoking the Insurrection Act — but Donald Trump didn't invoke it against his own supporters…. Sixteen Oath Keepers have been charged with federal conspiracy, among other offenses, for their actions that day. Prosecutors have started discussing plea deals with some Oath Keeper members, which will presumably lead to more information about who else was involved in their activities."

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proud boys 3 oathkeepers charges?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/capitol-invasion/

no lnx

the more the media and law enforcement officials discuss the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol Building, the more disturbing the details become. Journalists Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein address the events of Jan. 6 in an article published by Politico this week, reporting that according to federal investigators, evidence is suggesting that some of the insurrectionists were making detailed and complex plans in advance of the attack on the Capitol Building.

Cheney and Gerstein explain, "A new affidavit filed Tuesday by the FBI described preparations by the right-wing Proud Boys to storm the Capitol, including using earpieces and walkie-talkies to direct movements throughout the building and a discussion about wearing black to dupe people into blaming Antifa for any trouble."

And according to the Politico reporters, a "separate criminal filing released Wednesday afternoon…. described leaders among the rioters issuing marching orders to more effectively fight police."

An affidavit from a deputy U.S. marshal, they note, reads, "Unidentified rioters are heard instructing the front line of rioters to make a 'shield wall' to prevent law enforcement from controlling rioters with oleoresin capsicum spray."

Cheney and Gerstein quote Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Gianforti as saying of the Jan. 6 attack, "Mob is not the right term, because there's a level of organization here that bears noting. The rioters are swapping in people here who are fresh. They're passing weaponry to the front of the scrum to use against officers."

According to Cheney and Gerstein, "The new court filings were the latest indications that the Jan. 6 riots included cells of organized, militarized insurrectionists, beyond the rabble of disorganized Trump supporters who joined the fray. That evidence includes the conspiracy case filed this week against three so-called Oath Keepers, members of an Ohio-based chapter of the loosely connected paramilitary group, who face charges of seeking to injure police officers,obstruct Congress and damage federal property."d paramilitary group, who face charges of seeking to injure police officers, obstruct Congress and damage federal property."

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Capitol rioters planned for weeks in plain sight. The police still ... ›

'A mass-delusion event': Reporter describes disturbing ... ›

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Capitol rioter in horned hat gloats as feds work to identify suspects ›

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making up for not pulling trigger [heh] on insurr?

https://www.mediamatters.org/oath-keepers/oath-keepers-leader-stewart-rhodes-calls-militia-members-prepare-violence-against

qanon said infiltrate inaug w/ nat g uniforms; FBI has to do bkgd checks to stop insider attack, 2 guys booted

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/capitol-riot-2650025524

U.S. authorities have arrested the leader of an extremist group on a conspiracy charge for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to interfere with the certification of the electoral college vote.

According to The Washington Post, alleged "Oath Keeper" Thomas Edward Caldwell of Clarke County, Va., was arrested on Tuesday, Jan. 19, and is now facing four federal charges including "conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States in the attack on the Capitol. The conspiracy charge is reserved for offenses interfering with or obstructing the lawful operation of government."

Law enforcement officials' affidavit notes that Caldwell was reportedly responsible for organizing a group of 8 to 10 individuals, including some who have been identified as "styled Ohio militia members" who "wore helmets and military-style gear and were seen moving purposefully toward the top of the Capitol steps and leading the move against police lines." The Ohio members of the group were reportedly arrested on Sunday, Jan. 17. [DUNNO IF GRAB BUDDY COLLAR MEANS ANYTHING]

The affidavit also references a message Caldwell shared on Facebook on Jan. 1, just days before the pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. In that message, Caldwell noted that he had looked into travel accommodations for a group of individuals. One hotel location, in particular, was located in Ballston, Va., just 8 miles away from the U.S. Capitol. Caldwell reportedly highlighted that location because it "would allow us to go hunting at night if we wanted to."

That message was sent to a woman named Jessica Watkins. The 38-year-old U.S. Army veteranwas among the Ohio residents arrested on Sunday, Jan.17 for storming the Capitol along with other members of the "Ohio State Regular Militia," an extremist group she allegedly founded back in 2019.

The FBI also highlighted another message Caldwell sent suggesting they would be mobilizing since Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes had not made his "call to arms."

"I don't know if Stewie has even gotten out his call to arms, but it's a little friggin late," Caldwell wrote on Jan. 1, adding, "This is one we are doing on our own. We will link up with the North Carolina [sic] crew."

The affidavit also reveals that Caldwell also sent a video message from inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. Accompanying the disturbing clip, he wrote, "us storming the castle. Please share. Sharon was right with me! I am such an instigator! She was ready for it man! Didn't even mind the tear gas."

"Proud boys scuffled with cops and drove them inside to hide. Breached the doors. One guy made it all the way to the house floor, another to Pelosi's office. A good time," Caldwell said. Shortly after making that remark, Caldwell added, "We need to do this at the local level. Lets [sic] storm the capitol in Ohio. Tell me when!"

As of Tuesday, Jan. 19, more than 100 people have been arrested in connection with the riot that took place on Capitol Hill.

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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/oath-keepers-stewart-rhodes-repeats-demand-that-trump-declare-martial-law-to-avoid-militia-led-civil-war/

[pix we the ppl big on forearm he hold mic w/ oath Keepers' Stewart Rhodes at a pro-Trump "prayer rally" Dec. 12, 2020.]

Stewart Rhodes, pro-Trump leader of the anti-government extremist group Oath Keepers, posted an open letter to President Donald Trump Monday urging Trump to invoke the Insurrection Actagainst “domestic traitors,” order “trusted military units” to “seize all databases of the CIA, FBI, NSA, DNI, etc and the records held by all state electoral systems and administrators,” and declassify evidence of treason by “corrupt and compromised elites” who he claimed had worked with the Chinese government to subvert the election.

The letter echoes comments Rhodes made at a Dec. 12 “prayer rally” on the National Mall, wherehe warned Trump that if he doesn’t take action, right-wing militias will have to do so in a“much more bloody war.”

This language is nothing new for Rhodes. During last year’s impeachment investigation, Rhodes warned, “We ARE on the verge of a HOT civil war. Like in 1859.” In a 2017 Fourth of July message he said that if Hillary Clinton had defeated Trump with the help of “election fraud” and “illegal alien votes,” the country would have been involved in civil war “combat.” As Right Wing Watch’s Kristen Doerer noted in October, the Oath Keepers’ violent language is part of a broader use of rhetoric about civil war from across the right-wing movement.

In his new open letter, Rhodes writes:

It’s time to honor that oath by defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

This is your moment of destiny. Will you take your place in history as the savior of our Republic, right up there with President Washington and Lincoln? Or will you fail to act, while you still can, and leave office on January 20, 2021, leaving We the People to fight a desperate revolution/civil war against an illegitimate usurper and his Chicom puppet regime?

Rhodes claims that the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the recent case brought by the attorney general of Texas “shows that the cancer of cowardice, compromised officials, and treason has spread even to the Supreme Court.” He urges Trump not to concede the election:

Through well-orchestrated mass vote fraud, the Communist Chinese and their domestic enemy allies are about to install their illegitimate puppet, Joe Biden, and his equallyillegitimate puppet running mate, Kamala Harris, into the White House, with their treasonous fingers on the nuclear launch codes.

You must act NOW as a wartime President, pursuant to your oath to defend the Constitution, which is very similar to the oath all of us veterans swore. We are already in a fight. It’s better to wage it with you as Commander-in-Chief than to have you comply with a fraudulent election, leave office, and leave the White House in the hands of illegitimate usurpers and Chinese puppets. Please don’t do it. Do NOT concede, and do NOT wait until January 20, 2021. Strike now.

If you fail to act while you are still in office, we the people will have to fight a bloody civil war and revolution against these two illegitimate Communist China puppets, and their illegitimate regime, with all of the powers of the deep state behind them, with nominal command of all the might of our armed forces (though we fully expect many units or entire branches to refuse their orders and to fight against them) and with their foreign allies also joining in to assist in the suppression of American patriots.

Rhodes urges Trump to federalize all National Guard units, call up military veterans under the age of 65, and order “all able-bodied Americans between the ages of 17-45 who are still loyal to the Constitution to likewise report for duty, bearing their own arms” to keep the peace and “suppress the expected riots, terrorism, and armed insurrection by the radical left in the United States (who have been armed and equipped for months now by our foreign and domestic enemies).”

Rhodes concludes the letter to Trump with a repeat of the demand and threat he posed at Saturday’s rally:

WE ARE IN FOR A FIGHT, NO MATTER WHAT. LET’S GET IT DONE WITH YOU AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF

There is no way out but through. And we will NOT submit to a Chicom puppet regime. You must stand tall and use your constitutional powers to fight this war against enemies foreign and domestic while you are still President and Commander-in-Chief. If you fail to do so, we the people will have to fight a bloody revolution/civil war to throw off an illegitimate deep state/Chinese puppet regime.

Oath Keepers, launched by Rhodes in 2009 after the election of President Barack Obama, claims to be a nonpartisan group of current and former law enforcement and military service members committed to protecting Americans’ constitutional rights by refusing to abide by unconstitutional orders. In reality, Oath Keepers under Rhodes is a hard-right anti-government group. Rhodes has repeatedly called for violence and declared that the U.S. is at the point of civil war.

In an article in the November 2020 issue of The Atlantic, Mike Giglio reported that Oath Keepers “has recruited thousands of police, soldiers, and veterans.” His reporting drew in part on adatabase of 25,000 Oath Keepers members and supporters obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Rhodes told Giglio that it would be better to wage civil war than to “slide into a nightmare” of a dictatorship. Giglio reported that at a recruiting meeting outside Nashville, Tennessee, in July,Rhodes called anti-fascist activists and protesters “insurrectionists” and declared, “Us old vets and younger ones are going to end up having to kill these young kids,” adding, “And they’re going to die believing they were fighting Nazis.” At an event in Virginia, a former marine declared, “We should have been shooting a long time ago instead of standing off to the side.”

Politico’s Ciara O’Rourke reported earlier this month that “Oath Keepers are quietly infiltrating local government.”

In 2016, Trump gave a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention toSheriff David Clarke,who had previously received an award from the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group that shares some of Oath Keepers’ ideology. Clarke had also spoken at a fundraising event for Oath Keepers’ New York chapter.

The Rhodes letter was co-signed by Kellye SoRelle, identified as a “Texas attorney and former prosecutor.” SoRelle, identified in news reports as a member of Lawyers for Trump, ran unsuccessfully for the Texas legislature this year, drawing single digits in the March 3 Republican primary. After the November election, she was “at the center of a debunked election conspiracy” when she reportedly made a video of a man rolling a wagon carrying a box into the Detroit convention center where ballots were being counted. The video was given life onlineby right-wing websites, including Gateway Pundit, and boosted on social media by Eric Trump and others, even though a television station affirmed that the man was a photographer bringing camera equipment to cover the counting.

Tags: Stewart Rhodes Civil War Disinformation Election 2020 Stop the Steal violent rhetoric Oath Keepers

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/the-far-right-oath-keepers-have-been-making-disturbing-inroads-in-this-texas-county-report/

alexh

far-right militia groups have felt emboldened by Donald Trump's presidency. And in Hood County, Texas, according to Politico's Ciara O'Rourke, members of the Oath Keepers are infiltrating the local government.

Hood County is a Republican-leaning county near Fort Worth. Although Dallas leans Democratic — not unlike Houston, Austin and El Paso — Hood County is more Republican and predominantly White. And O'Rourke, in a Politico article published on December 9, describes some of the inroads that the Oath Keepers have been making there.

O'Rourke notes that John D. Shirley, the Hood County constable, is a "sworn member of the Oath Keepers" — which, she reports, has "in recent months…. been warning of a civil war."

On August 31, Shirley called for the execution of Democratic Portland, Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler, who he blamed for the shooting death of a member of the far-right militia group Patriot Prayer by an Antifa activist. Shirley, on Facebook, posted, "Ted Wheeler needs to be tried, convicted and executed posthaste. He has blood on his hands, and it's time for justice."

O'Rourke explains, "By the time he was posting about Wheeler, Shirley had been an Oath Keeper for more than a decade, serving on the organization's board of directors as its national peace officer liaison and as the Texas chapter president. But he isn't the only elected official in Hood County affiliated with the group. One member, a newly elected justice of the peace, said in February that Oath Keepers was having a 'surgence' there. Shirley has described an incoming county commissioner as an Oath Keeper."

According to O'Rourke, "What's happening in Hood County may represent a shift for a group that was once seen as a governmental antagonist but is now establishing itself inside the halls of the elected officialdom. And it is setting up potentially dangerous conflicts between officials with different ideas of what constitutes legitimate government authority."[twt]

o'Rourke points out that the Oath Keepers, founded in 2009, have been joining President Donald Trump in claiming, without evidence, that the election was stolen from him because of widespread voter fraud. The Oath Keepers posted in an e-mail blast, "Our POTUS will not go down without a fight. He WILL NOT concede. This election was stolen from We The People. We will prevail but we need your help!"

On November 7, Shirley — typing in all caps — posted on Facebook, "NO WHINING, NO CRYING, NO PEARL CLUTCHING! DONALD TRUMP WON THE ELECTION. YOU CAN FEEL IT IN YOUR BONES. THIS WAS TAKEN FROM US ILLEGALLY.THE ONLY WAY WE LOSE IS IF WE DON'T FIGHT. LEAVE IT ALL ON THE FIELD. ITS TIME TO SEPARATE THE WINTER SOLDIERS FROM THE SUNSHINE PATRIOTS."

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...At heart is a fight between two figureheads, Kyle Chapman and Enrique Tarrio, over whether the Proud Boys should stick by their dubious claim that there is nothing racist about the ideology of "Western chauvinism," or should openly embrace white nationalism and anti-Semitism.Chapman is representing the blatant-racism side, declaring himself the new president of the splinter group calling themselves, no kidding, the "Proud Goys." Tarrio is insisting that Chapman is a flunkey, failing to understand that the same can be said of anyone associated with the Proud Boys.

Other right wing militia and white nationalist groups, such as the Three Percenters and the:{Oath Keepers:(style="background-color:#ffcc66;"):}:, spent the weeks before the election firing themselves up for what they believed was an upcoming civil war. Now that Trump's presidency is deflating like a day-after birthday balloon, they're not quite ready to give up the fantasy. https://www.mediamatters.org/infowars/militia-leader-stewart-rhodes-says-he-has-men-stationed-outside-dc-ready-engage-violence

On Wednesday, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, appeared on Infowars with Alex Jones and promised the faithful that the violence against hated liberals is still coming.

"We have men already stationed outside D.C. as a nuclear option in case they attempt to remove the president illegally, we will step in and stop it," Rhodes declared, swearing that his forces are armed and "prepared to go in, if the president calls us up."

As with most of the threats made by far-right figures, this is both a fantasy and a dangerous one. It's just plain silly to imagine that a handful of middle-aged and badly organized conspiracy theorists, no matter how many guns they have, could manage the task of seizing the federal government in a paramilitary coup.

ref no guns allowed in DC

https://www.mediamatters.org/infowars/militia-leader-stewart-rhodes-says-he-has-men-stationed-outside-dc-ready-engage-violence

no vid

Oath Keepers militia leader Stewart Rhodes said that he has armed men on standby outside of Washington, D.C., to supposedly prevent the 2020 presidential election from being stolen from President Donald Trump. Echoing elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory during an appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ program, Rhodes said the only way to prevent his men from engaging in a “bloody fight” would be Trump declassifying information to supposedly expose pedophiles in the “deep state” and allow the president to stay in power.

Rhodes also indicated his militia will be involved in a rally to support Trump planned for this weekend in the nation's capital.

Rhodes’ Oath Keepers militia, which comprises “former law enforcement officials and military veterans,” is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the U.S. today.” But, as Rhodes recent public comments have made clear,the organization’s purpose has shifted from opposing the government to instead act as a pro-Trump vigilante group that is willing to violently support Trump’s unjust attempts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.

Rhodes joined Jones and Infowars host Owen Shroyer during the November 10 broadcast of The Alex Jones Show. Rhodes claimed that, in order to stop the election from being stolen from him, Trump needs to declassify information exposing members of the “deep state” so that Americans will “all know exactly who the pedophiles are.” According to Rhodes, judges -- including Supreme Court Justice John Roberts -- politicians, and members of the legal community, academia, and media are all part of the “deep state.” These comments echoed a central tenet of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that Trump is engaged in a battle with a cabal of pedophile elites.

[vid CitationFrom the November 10, 2020, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show]

rhodes said Trump should task special forces leaders in the military to gather and process the information because “he cannot trust the normal military intelligence services.” Noting that he has previously been opposed to U.S. military intervention in domestic matters, Rhodes said that in this case Trump should invoke The Insurrection Act to accomplish this goal.

Rhodes then said that, in support of Trump, “we have men already stationed outside D.C. as a nuclear option in case they attempt to remove the president illegally, we will step in and stop it” and emphasized that these men are “armed” and “prepared to go in, if the president calls us up.” In addition to activity outside of the capital, Rhodes said he will have Oath Keepers inside the city this coming weekend to support a caravan of Infowars supporters being led by Shroyer who say they will hold an event on November 14. The Infowars contingent is one of several far-right groups that say that they will rally in the city to support Trump. Stewart added that his group has been doing “recon” for the past week in the Washington, D.C., area.

Rhodes called on supporters of Trump to converge on the capital in the same manner as far-right militia members gathered at a Nevada ranch in 2014 to threaten federal law enforcement officers who were attempting to enforce a court order against rancher Cliven Bundy. He also made it clear during his appearance that the only alternative to Trump staying in power would be violence, saying, “It’s either President Trump is encouraged, and bolstered, [and] strengthened to do what he must do or we wind up in a bloody fight. We all know that. The fight’s coming.”

Rhodes previously claimed during an appearance on Jones' show to have Oath Keepers stationed outside of Washington, D.C., for Election Day, to prevent an unhinged scenario he predicted in which opponents of Trump, aided by foreign terrorists, would storm the White House, and the Secret Service would run out of bullets, necessitating backup from members of his militia. While making those comments, Rhodes hyped the prospect of his Oath Keepers members engaging in widespread violence against the left in a civil war scenario.

bannon ecourage violence we need new horatios? see stop the steal

anti-gubment primarily, so core ID / funct not racial; stance is defend from tyrant, so not actively aggressive (set up buffer at malheur bundy]

new book

https://kpfa.org/episode/rising-up-with-sonali-october-26-2020/

mma1120

Oath Keepers militia, which is comprised of “former law enforcement officials and military veterans,” is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S. today.” This week, Oath Keepers militia leader Steward Rhodes told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that members of his militia will be at polling locations on Election Day to “protect” Trump voters.

Rhodes went on to make many other unhinged statements on the program, including that the militia would follow directives from President Donald Trump to take members of the “deep state” into custody and “do what we have to do,” and that Oath Keepers will “be in range” of Washington D.C., to stop a “Benghazi-style” attack on the White House on election night, among other statements. Rhodes also hyped the possibility of a second civil war where his “battle-hardened” supporters kill the “street soldiers” and “command and control” of “the radical left.”

Media Matters’ Timothy Johnson explained the danger Rhodes and other militia members could pose: “Ahead of Election Day, there is mounting concern that firearms will be brought to voting locations and used to intimidate voters. On October 27, a Republican-appointed Michigan judge struck down a directive that prohibited firearms from being openly carried at polling sites in that state after several pro-gun groups filed a lawsuit. Just six states and Washington, D.C., have total bans of firearms at voting locations.”

Also: Media Matters president Angelo Carusone spoke to Politicoabout how militias are organizing around right-wing predictions of left-wing violence: "There is a high possibility, researchers have noted, that militia posturing around the election will not result in actual demonstrations or violence. But as long as conservative rhetoric focuses on playing up left-wing violence, warned Media Matters’ Carusone, it will help perpetuate militia culture. 'Hyping warnings about potential left-wing violence is significant because that's what we're seeing militia groups planning around,' he said. 'We are seeing a similar theme in militia/extremist activity — that they're hyper focused on potential for left-wing groups to become violent on or after the election.'"

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/how-the-plot-to-kidnap-whitmer-fits-into-right-wing-extremists-violent-rhetoric-around-the-2020-election/

analysis

Adam Fox was worried about a rat. In the:{dark and cluttered basement:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, Fox gathered the men’s phones in a bin and took them upstairs to the main floor of the nondescript vacuum store in Grand Rapids, Michigan—a measure meant to avoid surveillance. After he returned through the trap door normally hidden by a rug, the group of men began discussing how they would storm the state capitol in Lansing, Michigan, counter law enforcement who arrived on the scene, and throw Molotov cocktails at their vehicles. It was June 20. Six days earlier, Fox had explained in a call that they’d need “200 men” to storm the capitol and take hostages, including the governor. They would try her for “treason,” he said—and they would carry out their plan before the November presidential election.

The FBI arrested six men on Oct. 8—including Fox—for conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and overtake the state government. Through FBI informants and FBI agents, we know how those meetings went, spelled out in detail in an:{FBI affidavit:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:. The men, in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, belonged to Wolverine Watchmen, an anti-government, anti-law enforcement militia group. Prior to the arrests, the group had surveilled Whitmer’s summer home, discussed bombing a bridge to block law enforcement response, and at another point, considered simply shooting Whitmer. On Tuesday, the FBI revealed the group had also considered kidnapping Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia.

Whitmer has been the:{target of extremists:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:since she implemented a series of public health measures, including a stay-at-home order, in March, acting swiftly to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Michigan. In May, protesters and anti-government groups, some heavily armed, protested the restrictions at the state capitol, where they demanded to be let in and compared Whitmer to Hitler. Among the protesters were members of the Wolverine Watchmen.

In addressing the conspiracy to kidnap her, Whitmer was quick to:{point out:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: President Donald Trump’s recent rhetoric at the first presidential debate: how he tried to skirt condemning white supremacists and then told the Proud Boys hate group to “stand back and stand by.”

“Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight,” Whitmer said.

Right Wing Watch has seen an increase of violent rhetoric across different right-wing subgroups—from conspiracy theorists and religious-right activists to white nationalists and anti-government groups. In some instances, extremists call for civil war, the use of force against Black Lives Matter protesters, and for government leaders to be tried for treason and executed.

Trump has no doubt ushered in more radical proclamations from extremists—this is the man, after all, who:{won’t commit:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election. But the right-wing media ecosystem is a two-way street, where fringe figures influence the president, and the president influences the boldness of fringe figures and their prominence in the conservative mainstream.

Conspiracy Theorists and Radical Right-Wing Commentators: Fear-Mongering, Violent Language, and Anti-Government Sentiment

[pix Radical right-wing conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles blamed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for the plot to kidnap and potentially murder her.]

On the day the arrests of the Wolverine Watchmen members were announced, Rick Wiles, a conspiracy theorist whose TruNews conspiracy outlet claims to offer news and analysis from a conservative, Christian worldview,:{took to his program:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: to put the blame on Whitmer for the plot to kidnap and potentially murder her.

“Did you at all stop and think, what are you doing that drives middle class, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens to think about kidnapping you?” Wiles said. “What are you doing? Are your policies so extreme, so radical that you’re pushing people over the line to say we have to get that woman out of the governor’s office?”

And it’s not surprising for the ranks of conspiracy theorists and radical right-wing commentators who distrust news reports and the government—save for Trump—and imagine a “deep state” or globalist “New World Order” that wants to take away constitutional rights, get Trump out of office, and impose their will on the people.

Wiles’ penchant for violent rhetoric is well documented by Right Wing Watch: In the past year alone, Wiles has:{rejoiced:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: in Trump’s use of the military to forcefully clear protesters from a church to take a photo op with a Bible, vocalized his hope that Trump will round up liberal activists and:{torture them:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, and gleefully claimed that special op forces were going to:{hunt down and shoot commies:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:—which to Wiles apparently includes Black Lives Matter, antifa, and Right Wing Watch. During the impeachment of Trump in December 2019, he claimed to have been stockpiling ammunition to prepare for a “violent civil war” between the “pagan left” and “religious right.”

While the enemies in the minds of right-wing conspiracy theorists are many, the hate directed at government officials who oppose Trump, particularly those who are women or people of color, in right-wing networks is particularly noteworthy.

Josh Bernstein, a radical right-wing commentator with a penchant for calling for people to be executed, took to his YouTube channel earlier this month to call for Rep. Ilhan Omar to be charged with treason and executed. Omar has faced racist, xenophobic attacks from right-wing activists and the president himself as recently as:{September:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:. Bernstein, who has:{said:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that Omar has earned every death threat she’s received, followed up on Trump’s attacks just days later.

“I believe that the FBI and the Department of Justice should charge Ilhan [Omar] with sedition, treason, marriage fraud, voter fraud, illegal campaign contributions, immigration fraud, and aiding and abetting our enemies,” Bernstein said,:{adding:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, “this bitch should be executed.”

Last year, Bernstein:{urged:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: Trump to become a “dictator for patriotism” and:{claimed:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that members of the Trump administration watch his broadcasts.

He’s not the only one talking about killing opponents to his extreme right-wing world view or calling for civil war. Claiming his warnings about a globalist “New World Order” takeover were coming true, radical conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told his listeners of his “Infowars” conspiracy show in August to wage war against academics and “the establishment perverts and pedophiles that run it,” adding that “the best thing to do in a defensive way is kill as many of them as quickly as possible.” In February, radical right-wing conspiracy theorist Chris McDonald:{declared:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that government officials who testified in the impeachment hearing against President Donald Trump are traitors and are “lucky they’re not hanging from nooses,” and in June during the protests against racism, McDonald andfellow QAnon conspiracy theorist Mark Taylor**:{claimed:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:**Black men were hanging themselves to start a civil war. “They’re trying to start a civil war in this country, a race war,” Taylor said.

Among those fear-mongering and calling for violence against Black Lives Matter and antifa—shorthand for anti-fascist activists—is John Guandolo, a:{disgraced:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: former FBI agent turned right-wing:{conspiracy theorist.:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: In June, Guandolo, who has made a new career out of:{peddling:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: anti-Muslim law enforcement trainings,:{said:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, “we should round up the leaders and execute them for trying to revolt and overthrow the government. And if this doesn’t happen soon, we will lose this.”

Religious Right Calls for Civil War

[ pix Robert Jeffress speaking at Values Voters Summit in 2017. In 2019, he claimed on Fox News that “removing the president” would “cause a Civil War-like fracture in this nation from which this country will never heal.”]

Like right-wing conspiracy theorists, some religious-right activists and pastors:{see the 2020 election as a civil war:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: coming to America and warn that Christians need to wake up. They paint the current political climate as a spiritual battle, and Trump’s opponents are frequently depicted as “demonic.” Such messages have been promoted through “The Jim Bakker Show,” influential pro-Trump Pentecostal-oriented media outfit Charisma, and:{networks:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: of prominent:{dominionist:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: “apostles” and “prophets.”

Rick Joyner has been:{warning:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}::{for years:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that civil war is coming to the:{United States:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: and that the country is headed toward:{martial law:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:. In September, the right-wing pastor spoke to televangelist Jim Bakker on “The Jim Bakker Show,” where he:{told:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: viewers that God had seeded the country with military veterans experienced in urban warfare, citing a “prophetic” dream.

“We’re in time for war. We need to recognize that. We need to mobilize. We need to get ready. I’m talking to law enforcement, talking to people. One of the things I saw in a dream I had related to our civil war was that militias would pop up like mushrooms. And it was God. These were good militias.” Joyner, who heads up Morningstar Ministries, said. “If God’s people don’t become a part of the militia movements, the good militias, the bad people will take them over.”

Who are “the bad people”? In September, Joyner pointed to Black Lives Matter,:{declaring:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that Christians must take a stand against the organization because it’s “the KKK of this time.” And during the impeachment inquiry, Bakker and Joyner:{agreed:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that efforts to impeach Trump were satanic and treasonous.

Bakker, himself,:{warned:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: in August that if Trump is not reelected, “we’re gonna have a revolution” with right-wing Christians taking to the streets.

At the 2019 American Priority Festival and Conference, an annual pro-Trump conference held at Trump National Doral Miami resort held in October,:{calls for civil war:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:were loud and clear. “I need you to know that 2020 is a civil war that will change the face of America forever,”Joshua Feuerstein, a former pastor turned evangelical internet personality, said on the same stage Don Trump Jr. would later speak on. “And it’s God, ladies and gentlemen, it’s God that calls the qualified, that qualifies those that are called, that are willing to step up in the moment that matters, that has greatness thrust upon them. And tonight, together here in this place to say that we are willing to fight, we may think ourselves insignificant, but that we will stand together in 2020, and we will win the war that will change the face of America.”

Earlier in the evening at the conference (known colloquially as AMPfest), televangelist:{Mark Burns called for war:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:. “We’ve come to declare war!” he yelled, with attendees in the back of the ballroom echoing his call, shouting “War! War!” in response.

This summer,:{F**rank Pavone**:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, a Catholic priestwho runs an advocacy group committed to abolishing access to abortion in the U.S.,:{declared:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that the 2020 election “is a spiritual battle and no less than a civil war.” Pavone held advisory positions in Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, only resigning in July at the:{direction of Roman Catholic Church authorities:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:.

These messages from Trump’s religious-right boosters have reached the president. Days after Congress launched its formal impeachment inquiry last September, megachurch pastor and ardent Trump supporter Robert Jeffress claimed on Fox News that “removing the president” would “cause a Civil War-like fracture in this nation from which this country will never heal.” Apparently viewing the segment was Trump, who:{tweeted:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: Jeffress’ quote.

Far-Right Militant Groups: ‘Awaiting the Green Light’

[pix]

when the militant group the Oath Keepers saw Trump’s tweet of Jeffress’ comments on Fox, they responded in turn. “This is the truth,” read a:{post from the group’s Twitter account:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:. “We ARE on the verge of a HOT civil war. Like in 1859.”

The Oath Keepers, conceived as a group of “patriots,” law enforcement officers, and former military members who would defy orders they didn’t like in opposition to a deep state members saw as conspiring to declare martial law, have now sided with Trump and see their role as ensuring law and order.

Other militia groups have done the same. Trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this sentiment; by forgoing a federal response, Trump has continued to receive the support of anti-government groups, while state and local governments have been left to issue piecemeal restrictions and face the ire of such groups.

It’s amid this violent rhetoric, fear-mongering about government overreach, and calls for civil war that militia groups and white supremacist organizations are feeling emboldened—and Trump’s language has given these groups tacit, if not explicit, approval.

In April, Trump sent off a series of tweets calling for states led by three Democratic governors, including Whitmer and Northam, to be liberated from supposedly draconian public health measures. “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” he:{tweeted:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, followed by “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”

Michael German, a former FBI agent who infiltrated neo-Nazis in the 1990s, is not surprised the Michigan governor was targeted by these groups following Trump’s message.

“These are groups that are used to listening for dog whistle affirmation among the powerful, and so when they get that affirmation spoken out loud, indirectly, it takes on a completely different meaning,” said German, a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program. “You know, something like ‘liberate Virginia‘ and ‘liberate Michigan‘ would be taken as ‘OK, this is a green light from the highest levels of our government. We should start planning.’”

In August, German published a:{report:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: with the Brennan Center detailing the militia groups that have law enforcement and former military members, though “only a tiny percentage of law enforcement officials are likely to be active members of white supremacist groups.” An investigation in:{The Atlantic:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: details these connections in the Oath Keepers, which recruited thousands of police, soldiers, and veterans.

As protests erupted in the days following George Floyd’s death at the hands of police, members of extreme right-wing movements followed Trump’s lead in identifying common enemies among police and far-right militants, demonizing Black Lives Matter, anarchists, and antifa.

“We’ve been through a lot of these protests, and [police] seem to have a less antagonistic and violent response when it’s far-right militants who are engaging in protest violence,” German said. “And I think that’s because the messaging that they’re receiving about who is the enemy of state, as the president is identifying these groups as the enemy of state and suggesting that there are friendlies among the far-right, white supremacist groups. That sends a pretty clear message both to the groups and to the police about who should be the target of their violence.”

“So when these groups feel like they have the authority granted by the state to engage in this kind of behavior, they’re more likely to do it,” German said. “These groups operate on margin where their violence is reinforcing state action and state violence often, right—that the groups that the far-right militant and white supremacist groups target are the same groups that law enforcement targets disproportionately.”

In August, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who considers himself a militia member, fatally shot two demonstrators and injured a third at a protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Much has been said about how, minutes prior to the shooting,:{police thanked the group:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: for their presence and offered Rittenhouse water.

Creating the Justification for Right-Wing Violence

After Trump’s Proud Boy comments at the presidential debate, the hate group took to the social media platform Telegram where they took the president’s words:{as a command:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:. “Standing by sir,” Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio wrote.

Two days later, Tarrio:{told:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: conspiracy theorist and failed congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine—who in June had urged conservatives to form militias:{while awaiting the “green light”:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: to take back the streets—that his group had gained 2,000 to 3,000 new followers.

Violent rhetoric and civil war chatter among extremists is nothing new. But as we’ve approached the 2020 elections, the confluence of violent rhetoric among the extremists Right Wing Watch covers seems to have taken a frenzied pace, with different subgroups of the right-wing acting as an echo chamber, radicalizing each other and the president and vice versa. Trump, himself, has cultivated that echo chamber, creating a megaphone for his messaging.

Trump has refused to say whether he will step down peacefully should he lose the election. And since 2016, Trump and his team has pushed the narrative that Democrats and the deep state worked tirelessly to prevent him from becoming president in 2016 and, when they failed, conspired against him to prevent his reelection. By fear-mongering about voter fraud through mail-in voting and engaging with far-right conspiracy theories, Trump has insisted that any election he loses will have been fraudulent—creating justification for right-wing violence should he lose.

Tags: Chris McDonald Donald Trump Frank Pavone Jim Bakker John Guandolo Josh Bernstein Joshua Feuerstein Mark Burns Mark Taylor Rick Joyner Rick Wiles Robert Jeffress Antifa Civil War conspiracy theories Oath Keepers Trunews Wolverine Watchmen

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/here-are-5-far-right-extremist-groups-or-movements-that-pose-a-national-security-threat-in-the-us/

alex h

Throughout the anti-racism protests that have rocked the United States since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, President Donald Trump and his obedient sycophants at Fox News have engaged in nonstop fear-mongering over the Antifa movement. But it isn't Antifa that is imperiling the United States from a national security standpoint in 2020 — it is far-right white nationalist and white supremacist groups and extremist militias. And on Thursday, October 8, the danger that white nationalists and militia groups pose was evident when theFBI announced that six men had been arrested in connection with analleged terrorist plot to kidnap and possibly murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Six men are facing federal charges, while seven of their allies are facing weapons charges at the state level in Michigan.

The men arrested include members of the Wolverine Watchmen, an anti-government militia group, as well as allies of the Boogaloo movement. As these groups see it, Democrats like Whitmer do not hold power legitimately: the alleged would-be kidnappers, according to the FBI, planned to take Whitmer to Wisconsin after kidnapping her, put her on "trial" and execute her for treason if found guilty.And there is no reason to believe that far-right white extremists will not engage in violence in the weeks ahead if they do not like the way the presidential election is going.

Here are five extremist groups or movements to be worried about in the months to come.

1. The Boogaloo Bois

According to NBC News, some of the Wolverine Watchmen arrested in connection with the alleged terrorist plot against Whitmer are also supporters of the Boogaloo movement — which has been calling for a civil war as well as a race war and seeks the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Boogaloo members also openly advocate killing police officers. In Northern California, Boogaloo supporter Steven Carrillo was arrested in connection with an armed attack on a federal courthouse in Oakland on May 29. That attack left a security officer from the Federal Protective Service dead.

Trump's claim that Antifa is a terrorist movement is laughable. For all their militant rhetoric, Antifa do not engage in terrorist activities like the alleged plot against Whitmer or the drive-by attack in Oakland. But far-right white nationalist groups do.

2. QAnon

The QAnon movement has been identified by the FBI as a possible source of domestic terrorism, and its sympathizers are making their way to the U.S. House of Representatives. In Georgia, QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene won a congressional primary on August 11, and given how deeply Republican her district is, it is entirely possible that she will win the general election in November and be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2021 — which is incredibly disturbing when one considers what QAnon believes. According to the QAnon conspiracy theory, the U.S. government has been infiltrated by an international ring of pedophiles and Satanists, and Trump was put in power to combat the ring. According to QAnon, an anonymous figure named Q is giving them updates on Trump's battle.

As ludicrous as QAnon's beliefs are, supporters take them quite seriously. And if Trump loses to former Vice President Joe Biden in November and QAnon members feel a sense of desperation, that could make them even more dangerous and unhinged.

3. The Proud Boys

During Trump's debate with Biden on September 29, moderator Chris Wallace (one of the more reasonable conservatives at Fox News) gave Trump every chance to condemn white nationalism and white supremacy. Instead, Trump expressed his solidarity with the far-right Proud Boys — a group of self-described "western chauvinists" who openly advocate violence and have been carrying out violent attacks against members of Black Lives Matter at anti-racism demonstrations. After Trump's endorsement, members of the Proud Boys expressed their feelings of empowerment and declared that they were ready to carry out acts of violence on the president's behalf.

Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs, following that debate, posted, "Trump basically said to go fuck them up! This makes me so happy." By "them," Biggs was referring to Antifa. And Biggs also posted, "President Trump told the proud boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA...well sir! we're ready!!"

4. The Three Percenters movement

The Three Percenters aren't one specific group, but rather, a movement of far-right militias. Three Percenters are well-armed and engage in military-like training, and they have made it clear that they are fully prepared for armed struggle. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, "Percenterism is one of three core components within the anti-government militia movement, along with the Oath Keepers and traditional militia groups. The reference to '3 Percent' stems from the dubious historical claim that only 3% of American colonists fought against the British during the War of Independence.

5. The Wolverine Watchmen

The Wolverine Watchmen are among the many militia groups that believe that liberals and progressives and anti-Trump conservatives do not hold power legitimately and that it is their duty to wage armed struggle against their enemies. According to the FBI, the Wolverine Watchmen believed that Whitmer had violated the U.S. Constitution by promoting social distancing restrictions in Michigan in response to the coronavirus pandemic — and after kidnapping her and putting her on "trial" for treason, they would execute her if found guilty. But the group's activities, the FBI said, went way beyond their alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer: they also hoped to kidnap other officials in Michigan, overthrow the state government and ignite a civil war.

'Tacit endorsement': The Proud Boys are celebrating Trump telling them to 'stand by'

http://www.politicalresearch.org/2020/06/19/mapping-paramilitary-and-far-right-threats-racial-justice

no lnx

By Political Research Associates and the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR)

Additional research support provided by Alexander Reid Ross

We have been tracking reports of paramilitary and other far-right actors who are showing up at or adjacent to protests demanding an end to racist policing and a transformation of our carceral state. This map seeks to right-size the threat of paramilitaries to our social justice movements, neither exaggerating nor minimizing. We have confirmed 136 reported incidents since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, and with new reports daily there are dozens more as of yet unconfirmed incidents to review. Given the variety of groups and factions involved and types of incidents, we have divided the data into a few broad categories of actors/ideologies on the one hand and actions and tactics on the other. In most cases, the underlying data preserves more nuance and can be used to make finer distinctions.

Background

Although most people may not remember, if they ever knew, far-right paramilitaries did turn up at previous rounds of protests over police violence. For example, during the second wave of Ferguson protests, after a grand jury declined to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown, members of the paramilitary group the Oathkeepers patrolled rooftops claiming to be there to protect people and property. The heavily armed militia—which reports drawing its membership primarily from military veterans, police officers, and other first responders—was greeted with mixed reactions by protesters. Mostly they were a distraction from demands for justice and police accountability.

Now in 2020, far-right paramilitaries are once again making the scene at racial justice protests.Particularly in the last days of May, rumors circulated that large numbers of armed militia members and/or outright White Nationalists were infiltrating, disrupting protests and threatening activists. Some of the armed militias were claiming to be there to support the protestors—or at least to speak against police violence and overreach.

President Trump continues to try to divert attention to an invented threat from “antifa,” tweeting that he will have them declared a terrorist group and the Attorney General of the United States has threatened to point the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at “Antifa and similar groups.” Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has run over 2,000 advertisements on social media since June 2, warning about “Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups,” some versions of which featured a point-down red triangle, an image used to identify political enemies in Nazi concentration camps. Even as police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets against protestors, activists and organizers were left wondering how seriously to take the threat of violence from right-wing paramilitaries.

Key Findings

The absolute number of far-right and paramilitary actors at racial justice and police accountability protests has been relatively small, typically no more than a dozen people, and often only one or two men in Hawaiian shirts and tactical gear in a sea of racial justice protestors. The exceptions have been where less organized groups of people with guns have turned up to confront an imaginary “antifa” menace, usually in smaller towns in the West.

In spite of the low numbers involved, there are reasons to be concerned. Some of the paramilitary actors are proving to be willing not just to talk about using violence to stir up chaos and provoke confrontation between protestors and the state, but to take violent action.

Steven Carillo, an active-duty staff sergeant in the Air Force, has been arrested and charged with killing a guard at the federal courthouse in Oakland. In a Facebook post before the attack, Carillo allegedly wrote: “Use their anger to fuel our fire. Think outside the box. We have mobs of angry people to use to our advantage.” Wounded in a firefight with Santa Cruz deputy sheriffs, Carillo apparently highjacked a car and scrawled “Boog” on the hood in his own blood.

Three men also connected to the Boogaloo movement were arrested in Nevada on charges of possessing explosives and conspiring to incite violence.

Other rightwing violence has been less intentionally directed toward fomenting chaos and confrontation with the state. For example in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a one-time city council candidate shot and critically wounded a racial justice protestor and assaulted several others in an attempt to defend a conquistador monument. He was subsequently defended from the crowd by members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, a militia group, though they subsequently disavowed any connection to the shooter.

Map Details

Incidents are grouped into four categories:

Harassment/counterprotest is the largest category, with 106 instances, and includes a variety of activities including verbal harassment, intimidation, those claiming to be there to protect property, prevent looting, or defend the First Amendment or engaged in the doxxing of protestors.

Violence/threat, which includes only actual or attempted violence in or around the protest space or direct menacing, such as pointing a gun or other weapon at someone.

Attended protest claiming support, includes mostly members of the Boogaloo faction, and only when they have shown through words, spoken or written, or through their actions, that they intend their presence to be in support of racial justice and police accountability, for example by carrying signs that say Black Lives Matter or Justice for George Floyd.

Law enforcement complicity is a small category in the data with large implications and refers to law enforcement officials who indicate alignment with paramilitary or far-right groups, for example by wearing a III% insignia.

The main actors that show up in our data include:

The Boogaloo, or Boogaloo Bois, is a very loose network of actors that originated online, but who have begun to show up at in-person protest actions in recent months. They are often recognizable by wearing tactical military-style gear and Hawaiian shirts. The “Boogaloo” is a code word for a new civil war, which they tend to see as inevitable, if not desirable. They have shown up in a variety of ways, including claiming support for police accountability and violence/threat.

The Oathkeepers and the III% (Three Percenters) are closely allied paramilitary or militia factions that typically claim a constitutionalist orientation—that is, that they exist to defend the Constitution from threats. Many are or claim to be military veterans or first responders of one sort or another.

Proud Boys, who define themselves as “Western chauvinists” defending U.S. institutions from leftists and outside influences. In practice, they are best known for their street brawls with anti-fascists, anarchists, anti-racists, and others. They have shown up mostly in the counterprotest/harassment category.

Other categories include armed mobs of mostly white men who have appeared after online calls to defend their communities from mostly imaginary threats of left-wing looters being bused into town. They are, as far as we can tell, not part of any organized or recognizable group. There are also a small number of explicit White nationalists, including some neonazis, who have shown up in the counterprotest/harassment lane.

The map presented here is our joint attempt to create a resource for organizers and activists, journalists and researchers, to place the threat of the far-right showing up at racial justice protests in context, more-or-less at a glance.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/radical-right-wing-paramilitary-group-recruits-texas-cops-for-bloody-civil-war-report

no lnx

radical right-wing paramilitary group recruits Texas cops for ‘bloody civil war’: report

Charlottesville "Unite the Right" Rally. Far-right Oath Keepers patrol Emancipation Park. Credit: Anthony Crider https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Written by Tom Boggioni / Raw Story February 29, 2020

According to a report from the Star-Telegram, a senior member of the rightwing paramilitary group Oath Keepers who moved to Texas in 2015 is actively recruiting local law enforcement employees while telling them a “bloody civil war” against the U.S. government is on the horizon.

The report states that John D. Shirley, the national director of the Las Vegas-based Oath Keepers finagled himself a job as a county constable in Hood County which provided him with access to other police officers and now he is using his position to recruit.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Oath Keepers organization is “one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the U.S. today” with, reportedly, thousands of members made up of former law enforcement officials and military veterans.

The Star-Telegram reports that Shirley’s “Oath Keepers of Hood County” drive was scheduled at a local golf course earlier in the week before being canceled by the management because they felt the group had misrepresented itself when they booked the meeting place.

The report notes that Shirley has attempted to allay fears about the group’s intentions despite claims on their own website about a coming “New World order” and antisemitic rhetoric, that goes hand-in-hand with their unyielding defense of gun ownership.

According to Shirley, in column for the online publication Hood County Today, the Oath Keepers are not “anti-government” because, as he wrote, “I am a public servant OF the government,” before adding, “The U.S. Constitution, the document this organization holds as sacrosanct, is the foundational document of our GOVERNMENT.”

The report notes that local law officials say there is no policy that bans police from joining the group which has one local running for sheriff extremely concerned.

According to Vance Keyes of Fort Worth, “I am absolutely concerned about militia groups infiltrating law enforcement. Their presence in policing undermines our obligation and ability to provide impartial justice … free from the thinly veiled, and often outright, racial bias that exist in such organizations.”

He added, “They destroy sincere efforts to strengthen police/community relations in minority communities. Their anti-government rhetoric is also an affront to police professionals that take seriously their obligation to public service and the rule of law.”

You can read more here.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article240714426.html

ref no lnx

no lnx many

Fort Worth Star Telegram

A paranoid militia infiltrating Texas police is bent on rebellion, ‘ready to rise up’

BY BUD KENNEDY

FEBRUARY 28, 2020 09:26 AM

FORT WORTH

A revolution-minded, conspiracy-bent militia group named the Oath Keepers is recruiting law officers in Hood County to take up arms in what the founder predicts will be a “bloody civil war” against the U.S. government.

A national director of the Las Vegas-based Oath Keepers, John D. Shirley, moved to rural Hood County in 2015 and has been appointed by county commissioners as a constable, giving him both access to confidential information and a political platform to recruit more militia members.

A regional recruitment rally announced for Monday was canceled by Harbor Lakes Golf Club, citing misrepresentation. It was supposed to launch Shirley’s “Oath Keepers of Hood County” chapter.

The Oath Keepers’ current recruiting pitch focuses on gun rights and the Second Amendment. But unlike other gun libertarians, the Oath Keepers promote paranoid fears of a “New World Order” conspiracy and spread veiled anti-Semitism in distrusting “elites,” similar to discredited Austin showbiz personality Alex Jones.

Mainly, the group asks for money. Its website begs law officers and veterans to militarize and also pay $1,200 for a “lifetime membership” or $50-$120 for annual memberships.

“They view themselves as ready to rise up” to oppose the government, said Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League, which watches militia hobbyists and so-called patriot-movement groups along with monitoring neo-Nazis and race or religious hate groups.

Officially, the Oath Keepers are nonpartisan and nondiscriminatory. The ADL labels the group as “anti-government extremist.”

But the group rose in 2009 along with the Tea Party months after the election of President Barack Obama.

Founder Stewart Rhodes had worked and campaigned for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, a gun-libertarian Republican.

IMG_3398.jpg

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes at a 2013 rally in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Tyler Tjomsland AP/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW]

In a Jan. 22 speech posted on the Oath Keepers’ Facebook page, Rhodes claimed Americans have a legal right to the same weapons as the U.S. military.

“A weapon of war is what you want in your hands,” he said.

Accusing “pencil-neck lawyers” in government of conspiring against gun owners, Rhodes said “they know we will resist. And that’s precisely why they want your semiautomatic rifles. ... They are useful in resisting tyranny.”

The Oath Keepers’ mantra is a list of 10 “Orders We Will Not Obey” — say, turning cities into concentration camps, or forcing Americans into detention camps.

Neither seems likely in Hood County.

At the height of the recent debate over new stricter Virginia gun laws, Rhodes said in a speech: “We are being pushed towards a revolutionary war.”

He blamed presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg and Democratic campaign donor George Soros, both of Jewish descent, using the term “elites.”

“Texans beware — they’re coming for us,” he said.

[IMG-3405.JPG

Constable John D. Shirley of rural Hood County is on the national board of Las Vegas-based Oath Keepers. WWW.CO.HOOD.TX.US]

Shirley, a retired Houston police officer, has said he was one of Rhodes’ first allies in 2009 and spoke at a2009 Tea Party rally, calling for law officers and veterans to organize. He has been described as the group’s law enforcement recruiter.

He operates a false Twitter account, “@HoodCoTxConst2,” that is labeled the public office’s official Twitter feed but actually contains personal political content.

It uses the official badge as artwork. Commenters or those sending direct messages may falsely believe they are sending information to a law enforcement agency and not to a political account.

[IMG-3406.JPG

A false Twitter account uses a county badge but promotes Constable John D. Shirley’s political views. TWITTER.COM/HOODCOTXCONST2]

The badge appears to be used illegally for a private political account.

In a guest column in the online publication Hood County Today, Shirley wrote that the Oath Keepers shouldn’t be called anti-government, because “I am a public servant OF the government.”

He went on: “The U.S. Constitution, the document this organization holds as sacrosanct, is the foundational document of our GOVERNMENT.”

His Oath Keepers plans were first reported in the Hood County News..

Hood County Judge Ron Massengill did not return a message asking about Oath Keeper infiltration of law enforcement.

Sheriff Roger Deeds left a message saying he is not a member of the Oath Keepers but “I have heard of it.”

One of Shirley’s two opponents Tuesday in the Republican Party primary, Keith Martin, responded to a message and said he is not a member but “I am aware of the organization.”

Shirley’s other opponent, James D. Edwards, did not return messages left on both his personal and campaign Facebook pages.

I asked a Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office spokesman whether our county has a policy against outside memberships in militias like the Oath Keepers.

Tarrant County has no policy. Sheriff Bill Waybourn of Dalworthington Gardens had no comment.

His Democratic opponent, Vance Keyes of Fort Worth, had plenty of comment.

Keyes wrote by email that the Oath Keepers have no place in law enforcement.

“I am absolutely concerned about militia groups infiltrating law enforcement,” Keyes wrote.

“Their presence in policing undermines our obligation and ability to provide impartial justice ... free from the thinly veiled, and often outright, racial bias that exist in such organizations.

“ They destroy sincere efforts to strengthen police/community relations in minority communities. Their anti-government rhetoric is also an affront to police professionals that take seriously their obligation to public service and the rule of law.”

The Oath Keepers are selling poison. And charging $1,200.

BUD KENNEDY

Columnist Bud Kennedy is a Fort Worth guy who covered high school football at 16 and has moved on to two Super Bowls, seven political conventions and 16 Texas Legislature sessions. First on the scene of a 1988 DFW Airport crash, he interviewed passengers running from the burning plane. He made his first appearance in the paper before he was born: He was sold for $600 in the adoption classifieds.

819

The leader of a large right-wing militia group told followers to skip a planned rally in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, saying that organizers hadn’t properly kept white nationalists away from the event and that attendees could face legal consequences.

In a statement on his group’s website, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes said he owed it to his membership to disavow the so-called “End Domestic Terrorism” rally, where attendees will demand that anti-fascists, or “antifa,” be labeled a terrorist group.

“We do not believe the organizers are taking the steps necessary to ensure that white nationalist and suspected white nationalist groups and individuals will be excluded,” he wrote.

Rhodes expressed concern that threats of violence from the right could put attendees at legal risk.

Citing the work of anarchist news website It’s Going Down, Rhodes pointed to the archived posts the site has collected that show prominent far-right figures, including the event’s organizers, seemingly threatening violence.

Rhodes said that statements that can be “construed as expressing an intent to come to Portland to seek out Antifa and engage them in street fights” or “worse” could “potentially expose all attendees to possible prosecution using both an Oregon state ‘rioting’ statute and a federal rioting statute.”

Joe Biggs, an event organizer and former InfoWars host who frequently posts threatening messages and memes online, claimed in a recent Facebook post flagged by The Oregonian that the FBI had asked him to “tone down” the rhetoric about the event.

“Everyone in law enforcement is on edge after these last two shootings,” he wrote, presumably referring to the shooting massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, recently.

The Portland Police Bureau said in a statement earlier this month, “Based on publicly-available information, the Bureau is concerned events on August 17 may involve persons interested in participating in criminal activity.”

Messaging for Saturday’s rally has focused on the assault of right-wing commentator Andy Ngo in Portland in late June. Video from the last time the right-wing “Proud Boys” gang rallied in Portland appeared to show counterprotesters — clad in black with their faces covered, a uniform of some — attacking Ngo and pouring milkshakes on him. The footage spread like wildfire on the right and was touted by conservatives as supposed evidence of the left’s terrorism problem, and used as fodder for Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) resolution calling antifascists a domestic terrorist organization.

But Portland has seen multiple violent confrontations in recent years between extreme right-wing groups, including outright hate groups, and anti-fascists.

Rhodes’ note to Oath Keepers membership came on the same day the leader of the ultranationalist groupPatriot Prayer, Joey Gibson, was reportedly charged with felony rioting over a brawl at a Portland cidery on May Day. (Gibson’s attorney denied wrongdoing.) The group’s leader is one of several people charged recently in relation to the incident.

Trump had a rally in El Paso, Texas, on February 11, and there was a curious figure in the front row: Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Rhodes founded Oath Keepers, a far right militia, in reaction to the election of Barack Obama claiming that the federal government was working to destroy liberties protected by the Constitution.

Here are some of the conspiracy theories that Rhodes and the Oath Keepers have pushed in recent years:

Claiming Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is using identity politics focused on “anyone not white” to “weaponize them against their own nation.”
Claiming during the Obama administration that the federal government was running "mass, forced internment into concentration camps."
The group was also on the forefront of pushing the Jade Helm conspiracy theory that a military drill in Texas in 2014 was allegedly part of a nefarious government plot."
Calling transgender rights “nuts.”
Claiming that there is massive voter fraud by undocumented immigrants; Rhodes has also tasked the Oath Keepers to take action to combat it.
Claiming that the Obama administration was using Ferguson riots and the Ebola virus to "spark a race war."

In 2015, Rhodes reportedly said that Sen. John McCain "should be hung by the neck until dead."

Rhodes has also been a frequent guest on Alex Jones' Infowars show in recent months. In one appearance, Rhodes announced a he was launching a new training program for what he hoped eventually be an armed militia to do Trump's bidding. In another appearance, Rhodes echoed the white nationalist supremacist talking point that the migrant caravan was part of a nefarious "globalist" plot. Following Rhodes' appearance, the Oath Keepers issued a call for members to go to the southern border themselves.

It is still unknown how Rhodes ended up in the front row next to Trump. But in the days since, he has written for Infowars about how Trump's national emergency declaration should be even more hardline.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/jan/20/wsu-college-republicans-leader-says-he-was-attacke/

allsup

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/:{2018/07/:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:20/oath-keepers-didnt-show-their-own-protest-maxine-waters

The Oath Keepers had planned to protest the California office of Rep. Maxine Waters. But then they had second thoughts when counter-protesters showed up.

Plans for the Oath Keepers to stage an “indefinite” protest at California Rep. Maxine Waters’ congressional office in Los Angeles were scrapped at the last minute on Thursday to avoid confrontation with counter-protesters who had gathered by the dozens.

The protest, announced earlier this week, was both “againstMaxine Waters’ incitement of terrorism,and a stand FOR ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the Border Patrol, as they enforce the perfectly constitutional immigration and naturalization laws of this nation,” a call-to-action posted on the group’s website read.

But as the time for the protest arrived, there wasn’t an Oath Keeper in sight.

“[A]uthorities had been in contact with the group, and it had decided not to come in order to ensure peace,” the Los Angeles Timesreported.

Instead, counter-protesters had gathered by the dozens and remained long after the Oath Keepers bailed on their promise to appear. At one point, they doused a small flag they had taken off a pickup and set it on fire, chanting, “America was never great,” the newspaper reported.

While the Oath Keepers have proven capable of mustering large numbers of supporters, this isn’t the first time national and state leaders have issued a call-to-action only to find an unenthusiastic response from members, many of whom are former military and police personnel obsessed with far-right conspiracy theories.

Last February, after Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and injured more than a dozen more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Oath Keepers called for members to stand armed guard at schools across the nation. According to news media accounts, at least one Oath Keeper stood guard, outside a school in Indiana.

In January 2017, the group called for Oath Keepers to provide security at President Trump’s inauguration. But only a dozen or so people came. Those that showed up had plans to comb the crowd, looking for suspicious behavior from political opponents on the left, and anyone who appeared to be a member of ISIS.

Such a lackluster public presence isn’t always the case, though.

Oath Keepers came out in force last summer to provide security for ACT for America, an anti-Muslim hate group that claims to have more than 500,000 members, when the group hosted rallies protesting Islamic law in more than 20 cities, including New York, Dallas and Atlanta. The Oath Keepers were also critically involved in public lands disputes across the West, beginning in 2014 when militia members came by the hundreds to support Nevada cattle rancher in what escalated into an armed standoff in April 2014.

Before the protest was scheduled to begin, Waters, who has come under intense political attack for encouraging her supporters to confront members of the Trump administration in public, urged people to stay away to avoid being “baited into confronting the Oath Keepers.”

“The Oath Keepers have a history of engaging in violent and provocative behavior,” Waters said in a statement. “They Oath Keepers would like nothing more than to inflame racial tensions and create an explosive conflict in our community.”

Radical Right Joins in Secession Frenzy

HATEWATCH

November 14, 2012

Nevada Rancher Says Confrontation With Feds Is 'Spiritual Experience'

HATEWATCH

August 05, 2014

Bringing Out The Big Guns at the Phoenix March 4 Trump

HATEWATCH

March 07, 2017

Leader of Josephine County Oath Keepers Breaks with Stewart Rhodes Over Leadership Style

HATEWATCH

May 16, 2017

Indiana Sheriff with Antigovernment Views Creates Stir by Traveling to Bundy Ranch

HATEWATCH

May 07, 2014

"Alt-Right" Declares Flame War On Oath Keepers

HATEWATCH

June 15, 2017

Bundy Sons Lead Antigovernment Extremists, Militia in Takeover of Federal Wildlife Headquarters in Oregon

HATEWATCH

January 04, 2016

https://www.alternet.org/activism/dc-police-and-federal-prosecutors-partner-hard-right-convict-trump-protesters

, D.C., police and federal prosecutors have been collaborating with notorious right-wing groups known for fascist statements and using doctored videos to ambush their targets in an attempt to convict and jail protesters from President Trump’s inauguration.

The question is not whether the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, D.C., are working with Oath Keepers, a group of cops and veterans with rabid anti-government views, and Project Veritas, a far-right group known for fabricating accounts to ambush the media and the political left.

The question is, how deep is the relationship between the police, federal prosecutors and these extremists? And in MPD’s case, are Washington police breaking the law, as its city council has passed laws barring them from spying on protesters or protest groups?

“It’s extraordinarily dangerous for prosecutors and police to be accepting information and evidence from politically motivated organizations that are intending to work against their political opponents,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director and constitutional rights attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. “That’s not how they’re supposed to operate.”

“So when the U.S. Attorney’s Office takes video from the widely discredited Project Veritas, in fact, edited video, and submits it into evidence in an effort to prosecute protesters and put them away for decades in prison, it is critically important that the public has an opportunity to see what’s going on behind those scenes, and to know what the relationships are that the Metropolitan Police Department, the D.C. police department, or any police department, has with right-wing organizations,” she said. “They simply can’t be working in collaboration.”

The capital’s cops and right-wingers are apparently working together, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by PCJF against D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Karl A. Racine in the U.S. Attorney’s office.They want to force the police and prosecutors to turn over all documentation of the relationship between their agencies and right-wing groups that was “used to prosecute persons whose political views are in apparent opposition to the political goals of the providing entities,” as the lawsuit said.

“What we are trying to get at is the nature and extent of the relationship, of the D.C. police department working with Project Veritas, Oath Keepers and other entities,” Verheyden-Hilliard said. “We know for a fact that the police department worked with Project Veritas, obtaining edited video that group created when it infiltrated organizations that were planning protests for [President] Trump’s inauguration. And in fact, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., introduced that video in their failed prosecution of six people caught in that dragnet arrest on January 20. There are still dozens of cases pending. But in the initial round, they tried to prosecute six people for having been in proximity to a demonstration, where other people are alleged to have engaged in acts of property damage at other locations and times separate from the location and time of the arrest.”

Astoundingly, federal prosecutors introduced the doctored video evidence made by Project Veritas the same week the Washington Post reported that the group had tried to bait the paper with a fabricated account by a fellow right-winger who accused Alabama Republican Roy Moore—then a U.S. Senate candidate—of sexual harassment. (Moore has been accused by a series of women, first reported by the Post.)

“So they did introduce this video into evidence” to try to convict six protesters from Trump’s inauguration, Verheyden-Hilliard said. “It was created by Project Veritas. The police also were given video that they used, and the U.S. Attorney’s office used, from the right-wing militia Oath Keepers. When they introduced that video in court, it was the exact same week that Project Veritas was exposed for trying to plant a fake story in the Washington Post. So we immediately filed a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] demand, seeking records showing the nature of the police department and its officers and Project Veritas, Oath Keepers and any other private entity that is providing intelligence information to the MPD. And they refused to respond to that request. We have even had followup inquiry and they are absolutely silent. They will not respond, so we sued them for the documents.”

There is a long history of police working with right-wing groups to subvert the organizing and speech rights of social justice groups. On Friday, the Guardian reported police in California were working with white supremacists before June 2016 anti-fascist protests in Sacramento, the state capital, to target protesters for arrest. That wasn't the only example cited, either. “At an Oregon ‘alt-right’ event, police allowed a member of a right-wing militia-style group to help officers arrest an anti-fascist activist,” it reported. “Police in Charlottesville were widely accused of standing by as Nazis attacked protesters, and a black man who was badly beaten by white supremacists was later charged with a felony."

A generation ago, the San Francisco Police Department was caught working with the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, a Jewish civil rights group, to “spy, harass and intimidate” pro-Palestine activists, as the New York Times reported in 1993. But one big difference between the California state police and the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington is that the District of Columbia’s city council has explicitly passed laws barring the city’s police from spying on and framing protesters.

That law came after the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund sued the city after anti-globalization protests more than a dozen years ago.

“We have information showing during the anti-globalization movement that police agencies in both Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia were readily obtaining and using politically created false information by right-wing organizations. It’s very dangerous,” Verheyden-Hilliard said. “But in Washington, D.C., we put these restrictions in place under the law. So there’s a key component here, which is, the police are actually barred by law—there are restrictions on their surveillance of political protest groups. And we are very concerned that they are actually trying to outsource that by working with these right-wing organizations to do what the police are barred by law from doing. But, in our view, that would still be illegal. We don’t think that they can actually work as a proxy.”

It’s chilling to recall what the capital’s police did a dozen years ago, and to ponder who they’re partnering with today to apparently evade restrictions on that behavior.

“We found that the D.C. police were sending agent provocateurs into peaceful organizing meetings, encouraging people to undertake acts of violence, which were rejected,” Verheyden-Hilliard said. “We found that they were sending cops on long-term assignment pretending to be social justice activists. They were going into people’s homes. They were participating in their meetings in an active capacity. And when we were finally able to bring this to light, after some years of litigation, there were laws put into place to make it clear that the police could not conduct themselves in those ways.”

But some police departments are conducting themselves in that manner—and not just in Washington.

“It is shocking and really angering to see the level of collusion and the amount to which the police covered up for the [neo-]Nazis,” Yvette Felarca, “a Berkeley teacher and anti-fascist organizer charged with assault and rioting after participating in the June 2016 Sacramento rally, where she said she was stabbed and bludgeoned in the head,” told the Guardian. “The people who were victimized by the [neo-]Nazis were then victimized by the police and the district attorneys.”

While this police tactic is not new, Verheyden-Hilliard said Trump has given extremists in police ranks his blessing to go after the political left.

“With Trump taking over the presidency, and his comments before and after, he made it clear that he’s giving a green light to the police to act against social justice demonstrators,” she said. “He has heralded police brutality as an acceptable form of policing. And I think he has certainly sent a message to police forces and to anyone inside those police forces who has an affinity for any of these right-wing organizations that it's completely acceptable to act on their views in the context of policing. We can see with Charlottesville real questionable police conduct; their failure to act against white supremacists and neo-Nazi demonstrators, while simultaneously acting against social justice demonstrators

Hundreds were arrested during inauguration day demonstrations – including journalists, legal observers and medics – drawing criticisms that law enforcement was issuing overly broad charges against people caught up in the chaos, without specific evidence tying them to alleged crimes. Though some charges were later dropped, many are still on trial for conspiracy, rioting and property destruction allegations, and some could face 60-year prison sentences.

The video comes from Project Veritas’ infiltration of a meeting where activists discussed plans to disrupt inauguration activities.

The use of Project Veritas footage is the latest example of prosecutors relying on evidence linked to controversial far-right sources. The US attorney’s office has also submitted video from the Oath Keepers, a rightwing militia group that has been present at “alt-right” rallies.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-berkeley-trump-rally-20170415-story.html

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, said he came from Montana with about 50 others to protect Trump supporters. They were joined by bikers and others who vowed to fight members of an anti-fascist group if they crossed police barricades.

“I don’t mind hitting” the counter-demonstrators, Rhodes said. “In fact, I would kind of enjoy it.”

But Rhodes credited Berkeley police for new tactics that mostly kept the two sides apart and “our side chilled and relaxed,” though sporadic fights broke out among both groups throughout the morning and afternoon.

“It’s getting sporty,” said Oath Keeper John Karriman, 59, who is from Missouri and was among the group’s security leaders.

AJ Alegria, 31, of Sacramento said he also came to Berkeley to help defend Trump supporters. He said he pursued a counter-demonstrator down a side street and found himself surrounded by a dozen protesters in black masks who he said attacked him with sticks andpepper spray.

“These people create violence all the time... somebody has to stand up to them,” said Alegria, who was injured in the fight. He was treated by Trump supporters who bandaged his head, washed off the pepper spray and gave him encouragement, saying, “You’ve earned your stripes, bro.”

Alegria wasn’t the only one injured.

“Stand up, America! Stand up!” shouted a Trump supporter in the middle of Center Street with a bandage on his head and streaks of blood on a sign that read “Stop Liberal Intolerance.”

Brenna Lundy, 28, said she drove from San Francisco to attend what she thought was an organizing event against the alt-right. As the violence unfolded, she stayed and attempted to talk to some of the people shouting insults at her.

“So I genuinely wanted to talk. I am trying to talk to you,” Lundy said to a woman screaming at her that “Obama hates blacks.”

Another woman from the pro-Trump side came up to Lundy and, putting a hand to her ear, said, “Ask her why she hates white people.”

Lundy looked confused. She gave up and turned away.

“This is more of a riot,” she said....

https://oathkeepers.org/2017/01/navyjack-oath-keepers-inauguration/

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NavyJack – Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

January 21, 2017Navy Jack All, Current Events, Featured, Oath Keepers

First, I want to thank all of the Oath Keepers and Patriots that responded to our Call to Action and came to Washington DC to participate in Operation DefendJ20. We were not there to impede peaceful protesters. We were there to assist and protect innocent citizens trying to attend the inauguration events from dangerous anarchists, ANTIFA and black-bloc rioters. I am sorry that I did not get to meet everyone. This was the best SHTF orientation training program you could ever hope for, because S did HTF yesterday afternoon.

I know there has been some criticism of the operation from members who do not see a role for Oath Keepers during events like this. To the naysayers, had we not been there, many more innocent citizens would have been harassed or injured. You see, there were hundreds of thousands of people in town to participate in various inauguration activities. To make it easy, the city posted signs last Wednesday all over the city to help those from out-of-town navigate to these events. The problem with this is that before the sun came up, the protesters were already in motion.

If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please consider making a donation to support our work. You can Donate HERE.

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

The protesters successfully blocked 10 of the 12 security zone entry points before 9AM. They were able to hold 6 of these on the North side of the Washington Mall all day. For a visitor trying to follow the signs to an event, this became a nightmare. They could not proceed as directed and the DC Police were stretched far beyond their ability to even consider providing these people any assistance. This became one of our first objectives of the day. We did a full recon of the situation, found which security portals were likely permanently blocked and then communicated with the officers on the ground what they should tell visitors regarding getting to their assigned area for each blocked portal. Not a big deal, but it needed to be done.

“For the record,Oath Keepers from Operation HYPO attended and videotaped the meetings of the organizations responsible for disrupting the inauguration events and instigating this violence. We provided that information and the raw video to the DC Metropolitan Police on January 11th, 2017. Project Veritas and Oath Keepers cooperated on these activities.” – NavyJack

Oath Keepers informed the organizers of the Inauguration DeploraBall and the DC Metropolitan Police of the planned DisruptJ20/ANTIFA chemical gas/smoke bomb attack INSIDE of the National Press Club ballroom on January 9th. We also provided photographs of the individuals most likely to carry out the attack so that they could be stopped from entering by the National Press Club security team.

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

Injuries inflicted on Jame Allsup by unprovoked ANTIFA attack at the corner of 14th and F Street.

https://twitter.com/KGBVeteran/status/822317913428197376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

During the entire day, agitators from the ANTIFA and Black-bloc harassed visitors to the city. Usually a simple “knock-it-off”, or “that’s going too far” statement in a stern voice from an Oath Keeper would suffice in curbing their actions. In a few instances, the agitators briefly challenged the request and then moved on. I know of only one instance where an Oath Keeper was forced to defend himself. It was brief and nobody was injured.

This is an example of their tactics:

https://twitter.com/NellaLou/status/822590490000453633

I was present when this attack occurred. I had just taken this picture when the attack started:

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute (NPI) conducting a televised interview.

It happened so fast, there really was no opportunity to intervene. The ANTIFA attackers ran away without further incident. For the record, I am a vocal critic of Mr. Spencer and NPI. His provocative actions were certain to generate this attack. He intentionally put himself in this dangerous situation right in the middle of the ANTIFA stronghold. While I may completely disagree with the positions of Mr. Spencer and the NPI, I would have intervened to protect him from the assault had I been in a position to do so. I did not leave until I was confident that he was not seriously injured. If asked, I would also suggest that in the future, Mr. Spencer bring security personnel with him if he is going to discuss the advantages of White Nationalism and racial segregation in the middle of a riot at the camp of the Anti-Fascist Coalition.

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

ANTIFA and Black-Bloc Anarchists Assemble at Logan Circle

At about 11AM, a large group of ANTIFA and Black-bloc anarchists assembled at Logan Circle. I felt that something bad was about to happen and alerted police. Based on their actions and discussions, I believed that they intended to occupy Freedom Plaza, directly on the parade route. I stayed with this group until the group reached 12th and L Street.

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

Newspaper vending stations removed and later thrown thru windows on I Street.

https://twitter.com/rxvodc/status/822519357347659777

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

Protesters attempt to escape mass police roundup at 12th Street and L Street

Police were ready and had quickly established a line of riot control police. The advance of this group to the parade route was halted. I unfortunately was not able to escape fast enough and got caught up in the melee. My primary cell phone got dislodged from its’ case and the SIM card failed. I had a backup phone and sent a message out on our Signal channel detailing the activity, but that phone ended up being lost when I was struggling to escape.

Over 100 protesters were arrested. I am sure that my inability to let everyone know I was alright caused some concern. I quickly got underground and jumped on a Green Line Metro train heading east to get out of the area. That was a mistake. The train was stopped by protesters that had gotten onto the tracks. Police immediately responded, but I was stuck without communications underground for over an hour. I missed the swearing in ceremony and speech. I resurfaced at Gallery Place near the US Navy Memorial, was able to repair the SIM card in my primary phone and get a message out on Signal.

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

DisruptJ20 permitted parade at I Street and 13th Street

The DisruptJ20 organization held a very large permitted parade that started at Union Station and ended at McPherson Square Park starting about Noon. The parade provided cover for ANTIFA and Black bloc to take and hold numerous key intersections along I Street and K Street from 10th Street to 14th Street. I believe their intent was to stop visitors from reaching the parade viewing area. The police attempted numerous times to push thru and clear their blockades.

Without any verbal warning that I could hear, the police launched a full-on assault using smoke grenades, flash-bangs and concussion grenades. Again, I found myself in the middle of a very bad situation. A concussion grenade exploded near me and I was thrown to the ground. It was at this point that I summoned the Calvary. Stewart Rhodes and his Washington Mall security detail came to the sound of gunfire (it wasn’t really gunfire, it was just concussion grenades, but they are are REALLY loud and there were at least a 40 used).

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

Black-bloc protesters destroy limo parked on K Street near 13th Street

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

Bricks thrown by protesters rest at the feet of police officers during Inauguration.

Over the next hour, the blockades turned into a full-fledged riot. I am sure whatever you heard on the news did not even scratch the surface on how much damage was done. It was violent. All of the newspaper and vending machines along I Street and K Street were broken free and thrown thru windows. Protesters took bricks from walls and the street planters and started throwing them at police. Six officers were injurred seriously enough to be taken from the scene. There were dozens of scrapes, bruises and cuts on all sides, including people caught in the middle. Thousands of innocent citizens were in the area and had to be directed or escorted to safety. Oath Keepers rose to this challenge. We escorted and directed dozens if not hundreds of people away from the conflict area. The police absolutely appreciated our assistance as did the National Guard. We did the right thing by going.

I am sure that every one of our Oath Keepers has a story of their own to tell and I encourage them to tell their story in the comments section below. For security purposes, do not include the names of any individuals assigned to a covert operations team. Also, refrain from providing details regarding the number of personnel assigned to your groups area. We may have to do this again someday and we do not want to tip our hat on our deployment strategies.

We will provide an after-action-report via Web-Conference in the coming days and post the details on the Members-Only forum. We have some great pictures and personal stories to share with you.

In conclusion, I would like to say a special thanks to Stewart Rhodes. He dropped everything to head out here early to assist me with the escort of citizens attending the Inauguration DeploraBall. His dedication enabled me to ensure the safety of those I was responsible for protecting. Thank you.

Update 01/21/2017

Disruptj20 leader charged with conspiracy to commit assault in failed DeploraBall attack.

CBS News compiled a photo album of some of the events here

Infowars provides an accurate summary of the violence against Trump supporters yesterday here

CBS News – Most protesters arrested on Inauguration Day will face felony rioting charges here

I have added an update section to my previous article titled “The Presidential Inauguration (or not) of Donald J. Trump” to provide a comparison of forecast activities to the actual events.

STATEMENT BY STEWART RHODES, FOUNDER OF OATH KEEPERS:

Hat’s off to the Oath Keepers members who stepped up in DC. I met some awesome patriots, both military and police veterans, and it made me proud and thankful to know we have such men in this organization. And a special hat’s off to Navy Jack and his team of “infiltrators” who did an amazing job infiltrating the various leftist organizations plotting illegal activity on the 18th, 19th, and 20th in DC (and elsewhere in the nation too). As always, our intent was to do what we felt was our duty under our oaths to keep people as safe as we could in the face of clear official failure to prevent a dangerous situation. Yes, it was a short notice call to action, but so was our first Ferguson, Missouri operation (we had men on the rooftops in two days), and for the same reason – it became clear, just days in advance, that the official “authorities” were not going to take the needed steps to keep bad things from happening to good people.

In Ferguson, it had become clear that the Governor was not going to use the National Guard in an effective manner to actually protect the local residents and shop-owners, with the National Guard instead deployed to protect only government buildings and/or the wealthier residential areas, leaving all others to fend for themselves. We had advocated for the use of the National Guard in a dispersed fashion, posted on the rooftops and inside the shops, where they could actually defend the buildings against the deadly threat of arson. And we also recommended that the cops use dispersed teams of undercover officers to go out in the crowds of protesters and hunt for the relatively few bad guys committing illegal acts. But that was not done. So, we did it ourselves, posting volunteer military and police veterans on the rooftops and inside the shops (protecting apartments too) on an entire city block, to show by example the right way to go. And some of the local took our advice and also posted themselves outside shops, with rifles and shotguns in hand. Way to go!

In DC, as Navy Jack said, we had infiltrated DisruptJ20, the Anti-Fascist Coalition (aka Anti-Fa), and Refuse Fascism, and beginning on November 9, we had provided the DC Metro Police with steady flow of ample evidence of conspiracy to commit numerous illegal acts. All that happened on January 20, with the blockades of access points, violating the free speech and assembly rights of thousands of Americans, the property damage, and some assaults, could have been prevented or severely curtailed by arresting the leadership we had already caught on tape and video plotting illegal acts. As the Inauguration events got closer, and even after the weapons caches were discovered near the American University, and even after the public was made aware by the excellent work of Project Veritas, there was still no move by the DC Police leadership to put a stop to the now abundantly documented and clear plans of DisruptJ20, Anti-Fa, and their allies, to commit illegal acts that would endanger the public. And that is when we felt compelled to act.

And our chosen strategy was much the same as what we had recommended in Ferguson – dispersed teams. When the bad guys are using small, dispersed teams who blend in with a larger crowd as cover, to jump out and sucker punch people and then blend back in with the crowd, the proper response is for the good guys to also use small, dispersed and low-profile teams to blend in with the crowd and hunt for the bad guys. I’m not much of a fan of the whole “sheepdog” meme, because American was never meant to be a nation of sheep, but in this case, it fits. The “sheepdogs” need to blend in with the sheep, and they need to be dispersed in the “herd” so they can catch the wolf. Having all your “sheepdogs” standing up in one big, overt group is a nice show of force, and it has its time and place (such as a great mass of bikers roaring into town, as Bikers for Trump is famous for doing – to great effect), but it really doesn’t get the job done of making the little roving packs of “wolves” worry about where the Sheepdogs are, since they know where they are – they’re all over there in one big group. It is sometimes better to be dispersed (frankly, a blend of the two methods is best, if you can do it).

Yes, it is more dangerous for your dispersed teams, but it is also more dangerous for the bad guys, and more effective at protecting people in the great mass coming and going. And having those dispersed, concealed teams out there, and publicly announcing that they are out there, will make the bad guys worry and watch over their shoulder. They don’t know where you are, or how many of you there are. That is the same strategy we used with our Operation Sabot, where we put incognito dispersed teams out to watch for election fraud on election day.

The team I was with made the tactical decision to “de-cloak” by putting on our Oath Keepers hats when we got close to McPherson Square park, when we were moving toward the ongoing riot by the Black Block and Anti-Fa elements after the swearing in ceremony. We wanted them to know we were there, and were watching. And we left our hats on as we moved toward the Washington Post office entrance on K street, where they were already standing on, and smashing the windows of a limo and lighting fires in the middle of the street. We did not step in to stop property crime, because that was not why we were there. We were there to protect people.

At that point, given the increasing antics of the window breaking and rock throwing punks, we decided a visual presence was warranted to help prevent assaults on the many innocent and oblivious Trump supporters, sight-seers, and tourists, including school kids on their school trip to D.C., who were just beebopping through the middle of a riot with black block clowns just a few feet away burning stuff and throwing chunks of brick at cops and through windows.

And no doubt our presence there helped to keep the commie clowns confined to just property crimes. While there were some assaults and fights elsewhere, there were none in our presence. I call that a win.

Nor did the Black Block or Anti-Fa try to attack us, even after we put our OK hats on and effectively announced our presence. They clearly knew we were there, as the black clothed, masked wearing Black Block kids walked or ran right past us on multiple occasions, and two who were posted near the National Guard lines were visibly shocked as we walked past the National Guard and right into “their” territory and posted ourselves on the sidewalk in the middle of the block, with our back to the Washington Post building.

I want to give a special shout out to the stand-up, hardcore biker MC members from Indiana who were also there, on that same block, just a few feet from us, also keeping a sharp eye on things (members of Bikers for Trump too, I believe). You know who you are. Next time, beers are on me brothers. They clearly had the same idea, and did the right thing by being there, right in the middle of the Anti-Fa “stronghold.”

We will be doing a “hotwash” review of our mission among Oath Keepers leadership, and then we will hold a public webinar on lessons learned and how to do such operations in your own town or city. We know that the bad guys intend to keep doing this kind of thing, so we want to see patriots across the nation have effective answers to take care of business when they do. We will post up the access info for that webinar as soon as we schedule it.

Stewart Rhodes

PS – Here is what our lead Florida POC, a U.S. Army Ranger veteran, had to say:

To All Involved in Operation Hypo -Especially Navy Jack,

News like this gives us even more reason to have faith in our Oath Keepers organization. You’ve brought great credit to not only humanity itself, but to America AND to Oath Keepers by voluntarily holding yourself to such high standards, uncompromising levels of professionalism and dedication to duty -again, all of your own volition. It’s reassuring to all Oath Keepers, especially in our efforts to adopt and hold ourselves to high standards; in so continually improving the credibility of Oath Keepers and ourselves -whom help represent “the good People of these (former) Colonies”.

You’ve solidly set the standard for others to follow. Thank you for your continued sacrifices and contributions in the defense of Liberty, as your actions have exemplified the Oath Keepers motto, “Not on our watch!” You certainly are a credit to not just Oath Keepers, but to the spirit of the American fighting man himself.

From all of us in Oath Keepers, thank you for inspiring us to fight on. Well done.

FtR,

Ivan Chiplinsky

NavyJack - Oath Keepers at the Inauguration

DID YOU ENJOY THIS POST?

Navy Jack

During my service I deployed on various platforms, including submarines, amphibious assault units and special boats. I participated in expeditionary and humanitarian missions to the North Atlantic, Iran, Beirut, Libya, and the Caribbean. I am a Patron Life Member of the NRA. I am an Oath Keeper Life Member.

47 comments

KEITH says:

January 21, 2017 at 11:49 am

Times are a changing. American need to understand the issues of the politics of division. Those who divide us like the news media in particular are there to keep us from confronting those who would like to weaken us an harm us. United we stand or divided we hang separately.

Don Wright says:

January 24, 2017 at 10:06 am

I was there with friends, I am a Pa Oath Keeper, and attended the Inauguration with my wife and friends. The one incident I was involved in concerned a group of women (there a day ahead of their Saturday march) stopping and harassing people at one of the major intersections. I did confront them, verbally, explained what being a veteran means and informed them in not so polite terms (no profanity) that their views, their position etc. was more akin to Nazi Germany than expressions that should be aired in a free society. I guess my demeanor, all in camouflage and wearing tactical pants, was a little disconcerting to them as they all packed up their banners etc. and moved to the other side of the street. I was prepared to assist anyone I saw in trouble or in need of help but we did not encounter anything else that was threatening.

GREEN GIANT says:

January 24, 2017 at 11:02 am

For certain. If they cannot attack you from behind and they are aware that you are trained, they will back down. Cowards only attack from ambush or attack the weak and old.

Chip says:

January 21, 2017 at 12:25 pm

Yesterday was one of the most amazing days of my life. I spent it with a group of men, young and old (myself in the latter), who define what it means to be a man. We [Information removed by NavyJack for OpSec] NY and NJ Oath Keepers were part of a nationwide team of Oath Keepers mobilized by OK Founder Stewart Rhodes earlier in the week, after threats to disrupt the Inauguration and overthrow Trump grew to the level of “Serious”.

Our mission was to back up and support local military and police efforts in providing event security and civilian protection. Our “Intel” team had done a superb job infiltrating the four protest groups (ANTIFA being the most violent) so we knew exactly who we were dealing with, their tactics…hell, everything but their names and addresses before the event. And then, helped us to track them on the day of the event. We got down there late Thursday evening, hooked up with Stewart early Friday morning and were on the Mall by around 8:15 that morning. The first thing Stewart did was divide [Information removed by NavyJack for OpSec] into “buddy teams”. I am honored to report that Stewart chose me…which is the first and only time I ever recall questioning (to myself) our Leader’s judgment!

During the course of the day, we connected [Information removed by NavyJack for OpSec] Oath Keepers from Georgia and Pennsylvania. The [Information removed by NavyJack for OpSec] from PA made us an [Information removed by NavyJack for OpSec] team for the remainder of the day. Our #1 objective was to keep people safe. Unfortunately, we weren’t there when a Trump supporter wearing his red Trump hat at the Deplora-Ball the night before was attacked and beaten with a flag pole and hospitalized after leaving the event early…by himself. The only injury I’m aware of sustained on Friday (while we were there), was when the head of our “Intel” team (I’ll refer to here as NJ) got knocked to the ground by a stun grenade and lost his “favorite” OK hat. Unfortunately, as many of you have read, the rioting took a nasty turn early evening yesterday, resulting in police and civilian injuries as well as significant property damage. The only consolation I can offer is, that effective noon yesterday, we all have a new Sheriff in town! ??

We wrapped up close to 5pm and were treated to “Shelly Reubens” and cold beer by NJ before leaving DC. I want to personally thank NY Communications Officer Pete Norris for keeping us all “connected” on the ground, Matt McDonnell, Co-Leader of our Chapter (and driver), Bret Hamilton, Jason Wendell all from the Orange County Chapter, and Jim Breheny from the North Jersey Chapter for stepping up to “answer the call.” It was an incredible honor and privilege to spend such a historical day with you all. Thanks to NJ, and especially thanks to our founder and leader Stewart for bringing us all together. God Bless! I actually believe America WILL be great again! I, like you, heard our President officially acknowledge and invite God back to His official role in our most cherished relationship with Him. J

Note- Pictured in attached photo from left to right; Matt McDonnell, Bret Hamilton, Chip Murray, Georgia OK, Jason Wendell, Jim Breheny, Stewart Rhodes, PA OK, PA OK (If anyone made note of the GA & PA names, please provide)

Respectfully and gratefully submitted,

Chip

Attachments area

STEWART RHODES says:

January 25, 2017 at 4:28 pm

Chip, hats off to you, Matt, and all of your crew from NY and NJ. Standup patriots all. And it was great to have you as my buddy for the day.

Stewart

WGP says:

January 21, 2017 at 1:47 pm

Nice job patriots!

Maybe some changes in law enforcement nationwide will take place that are more in line with Giuliani. Protest peacefully – that means no property damage, blocking the public from their right to travel or assault on police and other; otherwise plan on going to jail, plan on a court hearing, plan on fines and convictions.

If these super liberal left Mayors continue to allow their cities to be burned and pillaged, the business community will move out. No more revenue, no more commerce, no more taxes. Welcome to our downtown, we have nothing to offer but chaos and anarchy.

NORTON II says:

January 21, 2017 at 2:26 pm

It took real guts to infiltrate and document these meetings, great work guys ! It’s especially exciting to see the working relationship between OK and Project Veritas. These creeps will be looking over their shoulder now. We saw the collectivist “Democracy” in action in DC, and I can’t help but compare these thugs with our peaceful and diciplined actions at Bundy Ranch, Sugar Pine and Mlahure. Yet, that one man who can make a difference, and other Americans of True Sight, rot in jail.

hoss says:

January 21, 2017 at 3:26 pm

Just what did these idiots accomplish? They caused a ruckus, and didn’t accomplish a single thing , unless of course you believe that making noise by beating on a can yelling, and some dumb female standing with her hand raised flipping the bird.

I wonder what these idiots are afraid of? Maybe they’re afraid they’ll have to get a job, and go to work instead of the gov. taking care of them their whole live.

These are not men, and women, they’re spoiled little brats that didn’t get their way, so now they’re throwing a tantrum!

DB OF IDAHO says:

January 24, 2017 at 11:41 am

Whether they ‘accomplished’ anything ‘positive’ or not, they still pose a serious threat, if anything by their numbers. In Nam we had human wave attacks that were designed to literally push a human wave over our positions…..

As I’m sure most of U.S. know by now, this is all part and parcel of the desperate actions of the NWO to retain their momentum.

Carry on warriors of America ! Good job ! God Bless this nation, it’s leadership from the very top to the deepest trenches, and all those warriors in between .

STEWART RHODES says:

January 25, 2017 at 4:25 pm

Amen DB. Well said. This is, indeed, a sign of the desperate actions of the NWO/globalists to retain their momentum in the face of an awakening in the West, and a resistance among all people who love liberty.

Your recollections of human wave attacks in Nam reminds me of a quote from Chesty Puller at the “frozen Chosen”:

“Don’t forget that you’re First Marines! Not all the Communists in hell can overrun you!”

Ken2 says:

January 21, 2017 at 5:10 pm

This day, I could not be prouder to be associated with this fine organization. I live in a rural area halfway between LA and SF, otherwise would have been in DC with you patriots. Your efforts have obviously made the visit safer for some who attended.

My hope as time goes on, these organizations lose funding or are disbanded by good intelligence. It’s obvious their only mission is to bring anarchy to our streets.

Thank you and God bless to all of you who were able to represent Oath Keepers this week. I believe this will also help demonstrate to those in the law enforcement community who we are and that we represent that which is good and service to the community.

God save the Republic!

Charles says:

January 24, 2017 at 10:37 am

For all our liberal socialist friends in the US of A , you live in a Constitutional Republic with laws ! You do not live in a democracy with mob rule . The Founding Fathers created a Constitutional Republic with laws 1778 when the wrote the US Constitution . For the last 100 years liberal/socialist/democrats have been spewing the lie that we live in a democracy . And of course they believe if you tell a lie often enough it becomes truth . Again , Thanks to the Oath Keeper for their efforts in keeping US Citizens safe .

Milt says:

January 22, 2017 at 5:58 am

SALUTE! Well done.

NAVY JACK says:

January 22, 2017 at 2:59 pm

I have received a few emails on the Richard Spencer assault that I documented above. To be clear, my oath to the US Constitution does not provide me with the latitude to decide which free speech I will protect and defend. I am obligated to defend all free speech, even if it turns my stomach. While I may completely disagree with the positions of Mr. Spencer and the NPI, I would have intervened to protect him from the assault had I been in a position to do so. It happened too fast and I was too far away. I did not leave until I was confident that he was not seriously injured. If asked, I would also suggest that in the future, Mr. Spencer bring security personnel with him if he is going to discuss the advantages of White Nationalism and racial segregation in the middle of a riot at the camp of the Anti-Fascist Coalition.

Chip says:

January 22, 2017 at 5:02 pm

” if he is going to discuss the advantages of White Nationalism and racial segregation in the middle of a riot at the camp of the Anti-Fascist Coalition.” The only better definition of stupidity than these words, are these words without “security personnel”. The cascading failure of scams, false prophets and a history of lies is crashing before our eyes. Schumer told us his name means “protector”. His name means “Shit”. Oath Keepers are protectors. Watch and learn Chuck…I’ll choose NJ over Schumer in that ultimate fox hole when it matters most!

Retired Navy Spook says:

January 22, 2017 at 9:08 pm

I would have loved to have been there, but you that were did a phenomenal job. Well done!

sealaw says:

January 23, 2017 at 7:29 am

I cannot adequately express the degree of pride I have in being part of this organization! Thank you all for your courage and resolve in putting yourselves in harm’s way to defend the principles we all believe in. Carry on brothers – God Bless all of you and God Bless our great nation!

Lee Johnson says:

January 23, 2017 at 8:41 am

screw these punk liberals…enough of their whiny crap.

angela D. says:

January 23, 2017 at 10:16 am

Chip: If Schumer says his name means “protector” in German, then he’s a damn liar. There’s no such word as “Schumer” in German. The only word that exists that’s even close is “Schummeln” which means ” to chisel or cheat”. Obviously, that shoe fits and Mr. Shumer should wear it.

Chip says:

January 23, 2017 at 12:03 pm

@ Angela…

Schumer means protector in “Hebrew” according to his Regional Director…who got busted for drug possession a year later. ??

Jeep guy says:

January 23, 2017 at 7:13 pm

Great job guys and gals.

“All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.”

? William Bradford

LJ says:

January 24, 2017 at 10:27 am

Why weren’t all the Bikers for Trump called? Only a few were in the mix helping out, while the rest of them waited at a park 10 minutes away and were never deployed. I am ashamed that American’s can’t seem to get their act together long enough to stop violent thugs commies on our streets. The problem is, we all knew this was going to be violent, yet they wee allowed in, in the first place. I am disgusted. Citizens were assaulted with urine and feces whilst entering and exiting the Deploraball. Seriously disgusting. What I see is no real training in PREVENTION, just a bunch of blockheads dressed in military gear, posing as mechanical robots..

GREEN GIANT says:

January 24, 2017 at 11:15 am

In truth, had the conservatives and Constitution supporters wanted to actually do what it takes to stop this from happening again, they would have gone, in mass, into these thugs with such force that the thugs activities for the day would have been over. (In the hospital) You see, as far as they are concerned, they did have a “win” of sorts. So next time, step it up. To make sure they are going to “hide” and “run” much quicker, make sure that they KNOW they have been defeated.

Sorry. This is a time that FREEDOM OF SPEECH has been abused. There is NO freedom of speech that is designed to harm others.

Gail says:

January 24, 2017 at 10:50 am

Thanks Oath Keepers; for having the you know what, (that word that rhymes with falls), for all you’re peace making efforts on President Trump’s inauguration day….May you be twice blessed for “all” you do in the name of liberty for justice and righteousness.

STEWART RHODES says:

January 24, 2017 at 11:32 am

Thank you. We do what we can, and hopefully it can be used as a model/example for what any group of patriots can do in any town or city. That was actually the most important thing to do – show how it can be done. Lead by example.

GREEN GIANT says:

January 24, 2017 at 10:57 am

This could have been greatly reduced if the LEOs had used greater force against these people. Face it.

These “non-violent” protests where the perfect place for the very violence that DID occur. And the answer is at the FIRST sign of violence, go after them with batons, and any other non deadly force necessary to disperse them.

No longer can we pretend that these people will be NON VIOLENT.

STEWART RHODES says:

January 24, 2017 at 11:30 am

What the police should have done is send out teams of undercover officers, blending with the crowd, to identify the worst offenders, and then have snatch teams of a dozen or so cops who can grab them and arrest them. Or even better yet, arrest the leadership of LEFTY-FA (what I call them) and DisruptJ20 before the inauguration, using the reams of evidence we gave to DC Metro, and also cancel the permits that gave them a park to use as a base. When an organization is systematically planning on carrying out illegal acts, such as blocking other people from being able to exercise their own right to free speech and assembly, they cross the line far beyond free speech and their permit should have been pulled.

pnoldguy says:

January 24, 2017 at 1:01 pm

Absolutely correct, Stewart. Maybe the new administration will revert back to the rule of law and ALL Americans can feel safe that no “special interest” group can ignore the law at will. Our new President needs to flush the current progressives out of law enforcement and install constitutionalists in their place. Good job all. We shall have LEO’s back!!

Nancy-California Patriot says:

January 24, 2017 at 7:11 pm

I am so proud to be an Associate Member of this awesome group of real men and real women! I’m passing this follow-up article along to all of my Patriot friends and encouraging them again to join us! Thank you to all who represented REAL America in D.C. during this time of testing and bless God for keeping you safe!

This kind of crap by the “mob” needs to be nipped in the bud at the outset and not let to fester and grow as fungus does. These punks are spoiled brats who had too many “time-outs” and not enough sore keesters. They’ll push that line as far as they are ALLOWED to get away with! They are extremely lucky they weren’t at Kent State on May 4, 1970. One thrown brick and that would’ve been it!

And in California, the LEO’s don’t want to mess with the paperwork of hauling them in as Gov. Jerry Brown just lets them go due to prison “realignment” and “rehabilitation” efforts – while at the same time signing more unconstitutional anti-gun laws that make it more difficult to defend ourselves (legally) against the rubbish and criminal illegal aliens. I thought “sanctuary” meant for law-abiding, innocent people?!

Thank you again to all OK’s and Patriots! May God sanctify all of our endeavors to re-establish justice and righteousness in this nation!

Firehawk says:

January 24, 2017 at 7:59 pm

Maybe next time the authorities will get some gonads and use water on the rioters. That would have stopped them dead in their tracks.

ROBERT says:

January 25, 2017 at 6:30 am

I’d also like to thank to the Oath Keepers and Patriots. These riots are absolutely terrible. I hope that despite all the difficullties we will find a peaceful solution to all of our country’s problems.

UNKNOWN RANGER says:

January 25, 2017 at 7:15 am

I feel , that the DC police , failed to do their job’s professionally and allowed the riot’s too spend out, of-control ; Bad policing , on their part !!!

STEWART RHODES says:

January 25, 2017 at 4:18 pm

The rank and file we interacted with were, to a man, solid, professional, and dedicated. The brass is to blame, as usual.

BBK says:

January 25, 2017 at 10:54 am

Are Oath Keepers a group to promote keeping our oaths to the Constitution or a national wannabe

security team?

STEWART RHODES says:

January 25, 2017 at 1:39 pm

So, when we protect people’s rights to peaceably assemble and their right to free speech, against thugs, that is not also keeping our oaths to defend the Constitution? The point, which you seem to miss, is that we the people are supposed to be the militia of the several states. That means you, me, and all our neighbors, who then provide the security of a free state, and that would certainly mean protecting peaceable people who are simply trying to assemble from the attack of thugs who want to stop them from assembling.

We don’t defend the Constitution just by handing out pocket constitutions, brochures, or merely asking current serving cops and military to refuse orders. We also have to work our way back to restoring the militia of the several states, made up of the people themselves.

To do that, we need to lead by example, and then encourage people to do the same thing in their own local community. So, in the end, the answer is no, we are not a national security team, but we feel the need to step up and show how to do it, so people can replicate our example in their local community, by coming together with their neighbors and organizing community security and defense, through neighborhood watches, volunteer town watches, auxiliary and reserves to local police, and as a posse for a good sheriff, along with joining their local volunteer fire department, volunteer EMT team, Search and Rescue, etc (all part of our CPT program).

All of those are necessary stop-gaps and stepping stones toward that ultimate goal of a truly revitalized militia of the people in the local community, which would in turn be part of a state militia system. We are a long way from that goal, but these are steps in the right direction.

Otherwise, the American people will be left with the false choice of chaos in the streets, with no resilient local security and no real capacity for local disaster relief (remember Katrina?), or an increasingly militarized and expanded professional police presence in their communities, which will lead to a police state in the truest sense of that term.

What is your alternative? To sit on the couch and gripe and snipe at us, and maybe call on the police and military to do all the heavy lifting of defending the Constitution, but to otherwise “let the authorities handle it”?

That was not the Founders’ plan, and that was not what they wrote into our Constitution.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

If you are not taking active steps toward a revitalization and restoration of what the Founders regarded as necessary to the security of a free state, you aren’t defending squat.

Stewart

NAVY JACK says:

January 25, 2017 at 3:22 pm

BBK – If you are a good citizen, you must render assistance to anyone being assaulted in your presence. If you are an Oath Keeper, you must be a good citizen.

We all have different abilities and the assistance we are able to render will vary. We should all strive, to the best of our ability, to protect and care for each other; regardless of our political views. I refuse to sit on the couch and watch women, children, the elderly and the outnumbered being harassed, beaten and worse for nothing more than wanting to attend a public event like the Inauguration of the President of the United States. I feel the same way about those who peacefully protest. They deserve the same respect and the same protection because they too are citizens exercising their rights.

Too many times the police have been ordered to stand-down and not intervene to avoid becoming the target of the protesters. Too many times the police have been unprepared or so vastly outnumbered as to make their presence useless.

Do what you want. Complain if you must, but I would hope you would at least respect the views of those of us that have watched too many of these events turn violent against those least able to protect themselves.

NavyJack

STEWART RHODES says:

January 25, 2017 at 4:17 pm

Well said. To each his own. But the idea that this org should be “RTI” (Reach, Teach, Inspire) only, in some stinted way that confines us to just education, was NEVER my intent as the founder of this org and is entirely incompatible with keeping the oath. You DO NOT keep your oath to defend the Constitution just by urging others to keep theirs. Hate to break it to you, but you don’t get a pass on your duty to take action when required.

And in my speech on Lexington Green, on April 19, 2009, which was our official founding date, I spoke at length about the duty of us veterans, and I used the example of Samuel Whittemore, a combat veteran of the French and Indian War, who was 80 years old on April 19, 1775, when he decided that his duty required him to step up, one more time, in defense of his community and country. He was not “current serving” (which was the militia of the time) because he was too old, but he answered the call nonetheless, because he still felt honor bound to do so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Whittemore

We veterans do not get to just sit this one out and urge the current serving to do the right thing.

First of all, in the Founders Republic, there is no separation between the people and the law enforcement function, because all were supposed to answer the “hue and the cry” and turn out to bring the criminal to justice (such as in the posse of a good sheriff), and there was no separation between the people and the military function, because all were the militia, as I said above.

And second of all, even us older veterans are still under the same duty that grabbed hold of the old veteran, Samuel Whittemore, and drew him toward the fight. As with him, our oath does not expire until we do, no matter our age. You are still on the hook, all you “dangerous old men.”

Remember your purpose, and reflect on the reality that you were born an American, and at this time in our history, for a reason. And it was not to sit on the couch. Liberty is not a spectator sport.

Embrace your place in history, fear not, and answer the call.

Stewart

Rokdog says:

February 2, 2017 at 7:47 am

Do the research on the OK’s and you will have the answer. We support the constitution and will defend it when needed. The simple fact that we are mostly vets and retired/active law enforcement, and committed to honoring the oaths that we took, should give you some idea. And yes, we do train to act a a “security team” on occasion, when it’s needed and being requested by our fellow citizens/neighbors/law enforcement to provide emergency services. . Here in Az, we have a working relationship with our sheriff’s dept. and the sheriff himself, is a solid patriot/sheriff and loves our organization. He has already advised us that in the event of a major situation, that we would be called on in that emergency.

Aeron says:

January 25, 2017 at 7:07 pm

We, I believe, are one of the best trained and armed citizenry on the planet. This is due to having one of the best military’s to date. The mission is to disarm America, I think, so as to weaken the internal fabric in order to assist in whatever world agenda there is that is intent on disenfranchising the Unites States of America. This is/has been advanced through decreasing the need for a draft, decreasing the size and scope of the National armed forces, incorporating and utilizing a paid mercenary/contracted force and then de-legitimizing law enforcement while giving more power to the judicial system and government. Checks are in place while Balances are being weighted to one side of the pendulum, the Executive–Government and away from the People–States.

The only distraction adversarial party’s and nations have to advance their agenda on us/our citizenry currently, as in the past, is the strength of our trained and armed citizens that might raise a question of certainty toward success of their plan without complicated resistance.

We are a bipolar nation today due to the forced two-party war of politics that only makes concrete the certainty of discontent and riff. The “us vs. them” delineation-factor makes it easier for the orchestrated management, by the suspect forces (unknown for certain, but, Global Control Agenda Cartel, sounds like an appropriate clandestine title, maybe?) against us, to gain control and bring to submission the United States of America because most of the work will have been done by the fracturing of our belief in ourselves and our nation as well as our ability to resolve our differences while ensuring our individual privilege and safety without having to submit to violence toward one another.

Thank You Oath-Keepers for staying grounded in your Oath; to stand firm in defense of our Constitution and free of expressed preferential bias against or for the diversity within our citizenry.

AIRVET says:

January 26, 2017 at 11:16 am

Well Done Oath Keepers, wish I could have been close enough to help.

Deadman says:

January 28, 2017 at 10:11 pm

Hat off to my Brothers! To. BBK just about any member that wanted to be a contractor or operator in the private sector could be and some have I’m sure for me I was security back during the Bush era. I wore. A lapel. Pin and should patch under my suit coat make you go hmmm!

CHIEF says:

February 5, 2017 at 6:08 am

Glad to see the Oathkeepers were there and made a difference with no casualties. At least I did not hear or read of any Oathkeepers casualties. Way to go Oathkeepers. Lack of funds kept me from being there.

Comments are closed.

HONOR YOUR OATH, JOIN US!

BYLAWS

COMMUNITY RULES

CODE OF CONDUCT

COOKIE POLICY

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/04/15/18798357.php

Oathkeepers, ‘2 Million Bikers,’ Identity Evropa and Beyond

The far-Right militia the Oath Keepers have stated that they will do security at the event. In their statement they write:

Calling on all Oath Keepers (and all three percenters, military veterans, patriot police officers, bikers, and all other brave American patriots):

Seeking capable volunteers for an overt Oath Keepers security detail to protect people during the “Patriots Day Free Speech Rally” to be held on April 15, 2017, at 12PM PDT, in the Martin Luther King Jr. Park, 2151 M.L.K. Jr Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

Team Leader for the Oath Keepers on the ground April 15 will be John Karriman (Missouri police academy defensive tactics instructor and team leader on both of our Ferguson operations in 2014-2015).

The Facebook page for ‘2 Million Bikers’ currently has over 50 going, and the group plans to ride from Sacramento to Berkeley.

Identity Evropa, a neo-Nazi organization has stated that their leader, Nathan Damigo will be in attendance. He wrote about the event on AltRight.com, the same website that Pettibone writes for and is run by Richard Spencer. Damigo rarely rolls alone, and we expect him to bring around 10 or more members of IE with him, along with a collection of Alt-Right trolls.

The leader of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a white nationalist pagan group in Northern California has also endorsed the action and is attending, as are members of the Soldiers of Odin and potentially members of the Golden State Skinheads(GSS). One member, Jason Kale Cas, is on the “going” list of the Facebook event, along with other neo-Nazi skinheads.

Conclusions

Different sections of the Alt-Right, the militia movement, Trump supporting ‘Deploraballs,’ and neo-Nazis are all coming together in Berkeley on the 15th. This is happening to a degree which hasn’t been seen anywhere else in the country on this large a scale. Regardless of whatever the organizers like Chapman, Black, and Quillian, (whose own politics are racist, Alt-Right, and fascist themselves) say – the Alt-Right and neo-Nazis are coming.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/frightening-implications-acquittals-oregon-standoff

On Thursday, seven anti-government protesters who took over a federally owned wildlife sanctuary in Oregon last winter were acquitted of all charges. Led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who is being tried for another illegal standoff with the federal government, the group's lawyers were somehow able to persuade a jury in federal court that this was a case of government over-reach, not domestic terrorism. The acquittals on all federal conspiracy and weapons charges shocked many.

“I had been telling my client you can count on being convicted,” Matthew Schindler, a lawyer for one of the men on trial for the armed takeover of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, told the Wasington Post. “You don’t walk into a federal court and win a case like this. It just doesn’t happen.”

The Wild West-like armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Preserve in southeastern Oregon started as a protest against the arrests of two men who illegally started fires at the preserve, and was rooted in the rabid anti-government belief that the federal government has no right to control the lands that fall under its jurisdiction. Eleven people had already pleaded guilty in the standoff. One, who said he'd rather die than be arrested, got his wish: LaVoy Finicum was killed by authorities at the end of the standoff.

Although the takeover was clearly planned, ringleader Ammon Bundy argued it was a spontaneous action rooted in his religious beliefs. These beliefs apparently inspired him to put out the call to like-minded people nationwide to join his band of outlaws with their guns. One wonders if his beliefs and followers had been Muslim how that argument would have gone over.

The verdict is seen to have potentially frightening implications. John Horning, executive director of WildEarth Guardians, worried it would embolden others and endanger employees of public land-management agencies. “It is entirely possible there will be threats or intimidations from militants that believe such actions are justified by this verdict.”

It could also embolden other far-right groups calling themselves "patriots," such as the Oath Keepers, who see far-ranging conspiracies like election rigging and a plot to deprive them of their Second Amendment rights. The group, which is made up of former military and law enforcement officers, and others like it, are calling for members to "take action on election day." Oath Keepers "has urged its members to 'blend in' with voters and do 'incognito intelligence gathering and crime spotting' at polling places across the country on Nov. 8," the Post reported this week.

The Bundy brothers remain in custody, still facing charges along with their father for the standoff at Bundy ranch.

http://www.politicalresearch.org/2015/04/23/profile-on-the-right-oathkeepers/#sthash.YngHGt0V.dpbs

Oath Keepers is one of the largest anti-government “patriot” groups in the nation. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) includes the organization in its list of Hate and Extremist Groups and its Patriot Movement Timeline.1 Oath Keepers differs from the 1990s wave of patriot movements in that “full members” of the organization are former and current military and police.

Oath Keepers was registered as a nonprofit in Nevada in 2009.2 Stewart Rhodes, founder and president of the organization, is a Yale graduate and former Congressional staffer for Ron Paul. Founding directors included Richard Mack, who continues as a director and the organization’s most prominent

spokesperson.3 4

The stated purpose of the Oath Keepers is to organize and train current and former military, police, and first responders to refuse to “obey unconstitutional orders.” 5 New members make an oath affirming “ten orders we will not obey” and liken their mission to resisting the tyranny of Nazi Germany. In 2014, the organization claimed 40,000 members in chapters in all fifty states,6 up from 30,000 reported in a 2011 interview with Rhodes in the libertarian Reason Magazine. 7 8 Full membership is available for current and former members of the military, National Guard, Reserves, police, firefighters, and first responders. Other are eligible for associate membership.

The “Friends of Oath Keepers,” listed on the organization’s website, include the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), Gun Owners of America (GOA), the Tenth Amendment Center, and S.W.A.T. Magazine.

CSPOA9, an organization for “oathkeeper sheriffs,” was founded in 2011 by Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff who is known for challenging the Brady Bill in Mack and Printz v. United States. Mack has also been a lobbyist for GOA and co-authored a book with Randy Weaver about Ruby Ridge, the 1992 incident which has served as a rallying cry for Patriot and militia groups. CSPOA is specifically for sheriffs who would “be willing to interpose on behalf of the people to protect their freedom.”10 The mission is to “train and vet them all [county sheriffs], state by state, to understand and enforce the constitutionally protected Rights of the people they serve, with an emphasis on State Sovereignty and local autonomy.”11 The mission statement continues, “In short, the CSPOA will be the army that sets our country free.”

For both the Oath Keepers and the CSPOA, the enemy keeping the country from being free is the federal government. Both groups promote and train for resistance to “unconstitutional” actions of federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, Environmental Protection Agency, and Food and Drug Administration. They prioritize fighting any type of gun control.

Rhodes has written that he got the idea for organizing Oath Keepers while volunteering for Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign, and first started a blog in which he warned about threats to gun rights in a new administration. He reposted an article he had written for S.W.A.T. Magazine warning that after being sworn in as president, Hillary Clinton (“Herr Hitlery”) would sign a “total ban on private possession of firearms.”12 Rhodes continued, claiming that the “dominatrix-in-chief” would declare “the entire militia movement” to be enemy combatants, and order resisters of gun confiscation to be shot. The article was accompanied by photographs of Nazi atrocities.13 Oath Keeper media products feature former Congressman Paul, GOA’s Larry Pratt, and “New World Order” or one-world government conspiracists including G. Edward Griffin and Alex Jones.

The Oath Keepers capitalized on the emerging Tea Party movement and the “Ron Paul Revolution” to build its membership.14 As noted in a Mother Jones article on the Oath Keepers, Rhodes sent speakers to administer the organization’s oath at 30 Tea Party rallies in the early days of the movement.15 Association with the Tea Party, and the willingness of local authorities to participate, has enabled Oath Keepers and CSPOA to gain more access to the mainstream than many in the patriot movement of the 1990s.

Photo: Stewart Rhodes, Sheriff Brad Rogers

Stewart Rhodes, Sheriff Brad Rogers18 (CSPOA member) and Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore speak at the Bundy ranch in April 2014.19

:{On April 10, 2014, Oath Keepers posted an announcement about their participation with CSPOA in the Cliven Bundy standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management. “[We must] stand vigil at the**Bundy ranch**to prevent the Federal Government provocation of violence resulting in another Ruby Ridge or Waco type incident.” 16 Oath Keepers paid for the Elkhart Indiana sheriff to make the trip to participate:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:.17

Related Patriot Movement Profiles:

Three Percenters

Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA)

Next Profile arrow

END NOTES

1 http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/summer/meet-the-patriots/the-patriot-movemen

2 http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=s8EtUq7rLzqNBvRDF%252b%252fglQ%253d%253d&nt7=0

3 Other directors listed on the Nevada registration are Jeff Ford, James Hanna, Michele Imburgia, Sharon M. Manery, John Shirley, L. Franklin Shook III, and Jay Stang. Jay Stang is head of Texas Oath Keepers and the son of the late Alan Stang.

4 Stewart Rhodes continues as president and Richard Mack is on the current board of directors. Other current directors are Michele Imburgia, L. Franklin Shook III, John D. Shirley, Jay Stang, David Helms, Jeff W. Ford, and Jim Ayala. http://oathkeepers.org/oktester/board-of-directors/

5 http://oathkeepers.org/oktester/about/

6 https://web.archive.org/web/20140414202439/http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2014/04/10/coalition-of-western-state-legislators-sheriffs-and-veterans-stand-vigil-in-support-of-embattled-nevada-rancher-cliven-bundy-%E2%80%98to-prevent-another-ruby-ridge-or-waco%E2%80%9D/

7 http://reason.com/archives/2011/02/07/an-interview-with-stewart-rhod

8 http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/oath-keepers

9 http://www.politicalresearch.org/2013/11/22/profiles-on-the-right-constitutional-sheriffs-and-peace-officers-association/

10 http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/winter/resurrection

11 http://cspoa.org/about/message-from-mack/

12 http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/2009/05/keeping-your-oath-not-just-following.html

13 http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/2009/05/keeping-your-oath-not-just-following.html

14 For more on the ideology of the Ron Paul Revolution and the promotion of nullification of federal law, see “Nullification, Neo-Confederates, and the Revenge of the Old Right” beginning on page 2 of the Fall 2014 Public Eye. http://www.politicalresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/12/PEfall2013_finalpdf_onserver.pdf

15 http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/oath-keepers?page=2

16 Archive of http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2014/04/10/coalition-of-western-state-legislators-sheriffs-and-veterans-stand-vigil-in-support-of-embattled-nevada-rancher-cliven-bundy-%E2%80%98to-prevent-another-ruby-ridge-or-waco%E2%80%9D/

17 http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/politics/Indiana-Buzz/2014/04/29/Elkhart-County-Sheriff-Brad-Rogers-defends-trip-to-Cliven-Bundy-ranch.html

18 http://www.elkhartcountysheriff.com/sheriff.html

19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVLJnqwIezs

- See more at: http://www.politicalresearch.org/2015/04/23/profile-on-the-right-oathkeepers/#sthash.YngHGt0V.hSbLaXA0.dpuf

july '13

splc

**Oath Keepers founder****Stewart Rhodes** has always trusted his intellectual pedigree to keep him above the fray.

Boasting a Yale Law School degree and a smooth-talking manner, Rhodes from the start described the group he formed in 2009 — made up largely of law enforcement officials and past and present members of the military — as merely standing up for the Constitution and American liberties. When he urged his members to resist orders to impose martial law or create detention camps, he said, his were merely theoretical worries. After all, he said, Hessian mercenaries once did help the British during the American Revolution and Japanese Americans were rounded up and detained in internment camps during World War II.

He was no conspiracy theorist.

But nearly four years later, if there were any questions still remaining about what the Oath Keepers really are, an event the group has planned for this weekend should lay them all to rest. Starting on Friday at the Farragut State Park outside Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the Oath Keepers are hosting the Northwest Patriots and Self Reliance Rally. The lineup of participating allies is revealing.

There will be a workshop on colloidal silver — a substance that many on the radical right believe is a cure for all kinds of ailments that the government has kept secret from the people. In fact, the substance has no known medical use and, if used with the frequency that some radicals do, turns human skin blue.

There will be seminars on Agenda 21, a United Nations sustainability plan that has no legal enforcement mechanisms or requirements, but that the radical right is convinced is a secret plot to impose socialism on the United States.

There will be representatives from the John Birch Society — a primary proponent of the Agenda 21 conspiracy theory, the idea that fluoridation of water is a Communist plot, and the charge that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a Communist agent. Also scheduled to attend are Sheriff Richard Mack, a long-time darling of the antigovernment “Patriot” movement who has been encouraging county sheriffs to resist federal gun laws, and Chuck Baldwin, a far-right pastor and “constitutionalist” who moved to Montana several years ago to battle the incursions of the federal government.

Also featured will be training sessions on hand-to hand combat, nighttime military patrols, survival firearms, and preparation of “bug-out bags” — all of these an obvious reflection of the radical right’s obsessive fear that the government is about to move against the American people, seizing their guns and ending liberty.

“If you’re concerned about the future of America, if you’ve awakened to the peril facing our American heritage, our Judeo Christian way of life and the very existence of our future as a nation, if you realize the importance of preparing for an uncertain future and striving for a self-sufficient lifestyle, then there will only be one place to be,” a promotional radio advertisement about the rally says.

These kind of end-of-freedom fears are not new. So-called “preparedness expos” were common during the first wave of the antigovernment “Patriot” movement during the 1990s. Toward the end of that decade, with many on the far right predicting a “Y2K” crash at the millennial date change, tens of thousands of those on the right rushed to the expos to prepare for imminent hard times.

All this seems to obviously fly in the face of Rhodes’ assertion that he is no conspiracy theorist of wild-eyed radical. But, in fact, almost since the beginning, the Oath Keepers struggled to explain away the extremism in their ranks.

Last year, Rhodes and others raced to distance themselves from Charles Dyer, a former Marine and self-described Oath Keeper who led police on a cross-country chase amid allegations he raped his 7-year-old daughter. Although many Oath Keepers claimed Dyer was the victim of a government conspiracy to silence Patriots, he was later convicted.

In 2011, hundreds of armed Oath Keepers descended on the tiny town ofQuartzsite, Ariz., to weigh in on a fight between the town’s elected officials, arguing, in effect, that the tiny, desert outpost was the first battle in the fight against the much-feared, socialistic “New World Order.”

Most recently, Mark Kessler, a self-described Oath Keeper and police chief in tiny Gilberton, Penn., formed a paramilitary militia group called the Constitutional Security Force to fight against proposed gun control legislation. Few knew of it until this week, when Kessler posted a profanity-laced video online that got wide attention. “Fuck all you lib-tards out there,” a heavily armed Kessler says in the video. “As a matter of fact, read my shirt,” he says, turning around to show the camera a T-shirt printed with the words, “Liberals take it in the ass.”

Rhodes has shown his paranoia about a coming dictatorship, or loss of freedom, before. Two years ago, he moved to **Montana** to be part of an “American Redoubt” to make a kind of last-ditch defense of the Constitution. Now, with his latest set of friends in Idaho, he seems to have gone even further to the extreme right.

Elmer Stewart Rhodes

Yale Law School graduate Stewart Rhodes in 2009 founded the far-right Oath Keepers, a fiercely antigovernment, militaristic group that improbably claims more than 30,000 law enforcement officers, soldiers and military veterans as members. The core idea of the group is that its members vow to forever support the oaths they took on joining law enforcement or the military to defend the Constitution. But just as central is the group’s list of 10 “Orders We Will Not Obey,” a compendium of much-feared but entirely imaginary threats from the government — orders, for instance, to force Americans into concentration camps, confiscate their guns, or cooperate with foreign troops in the United States. These supposed threats are, in fact, part of the central conspiracy theory advocated by the antigovernment “Patriot” movement of which the Oath Keepers is a part — the baseless claim that the federal government plans to impose martial law, seize Americans’ weapons, force those who resist into concentration camps, and, ultimately, push the country into a one-world socialistic government known as the “New World Order.” In 2013, the group took on a more aggressive stance, announcing the planned formation of “Citizen Preservation” militias meant to defend Americans against the New World Order.

In His Own Words

“Imagine that Herr Hitlery [Hillary Clinton] is sworn in as president in 2009. After a conveniently timed ‘domestic terrorism’ incident (just a coincidence, of course) … she promptly crams a United Nations mandated total ban on the private possession of firearms. … But Hitlery goes further, proclaiming a national emergency and declaring the entire militia movement (and anyone else Morris Dees labels ‘extremists’) to be ‘enemy combatants.’ … Hitlery declares that such citizens are subject to secret military detention without jury trial, ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques, and trial before a military tribunal hand-picked by the dominatrix-in-chief herself. Hitlery then orders police, National Guard troops and active military to go house-to-house to disarm the American people and ‘black-bag’ those on a list of ‘known terrorists,’ with orders to shoot all resisters.”

—“Enemy at the Gates” column in S.W.A.T Magazine, April 2008

“We need to accept the reality that an economic collapse is coming. … When the Federal Reserve created fiat money system collapses, when the ship sinks, they will then ‘rescue us’ by sweeping us all onboard theU.N.N. Global Leviathan— their ‘final solution’ of a world-wide version of the ‘Fed’ along with ‘world governance.’ That has been their plan all along.”

—Post on the Oath Keepers’ Operation Sleeping Giant website, April 17, 2011

“The Republic is on the verge of destruction precisely because Republicans have chosen the lesser of two evils (the lesser of two oath breakers) in each election. … When you take a slightly reduced dose of poison, say 80% poison instead of 100%, you are still poisoning yourself, and you will still die. This Republic has been subjected to a reduced dose of poison over and over, for decades, and is now about to die.”

—Post on Rhodes’ blog, Nov. 6, 2012

“It is the height of Orwellian perversion of language and logic to say that disarming you of the most effective arms for combat that you still have is somehow not really disarming you, because you still have hunting rifles and shotguns. And you can bet that if you let them take away your military semi-autos, next on their list will be bolt action rifles, which they will call ‘sniper rifles’ (and By God, that is certainly what they are good for!).”

—“My Personal Pledge of Resistance Against Any Attempt to Disarm Us by Means of an ‘Assault Weapons Ban,’” on the Oath Keepers website, Dec. 19, 2012

Background

Stewart Rhodes grew up in the Southwest and joined the Army after finishing high school. He became a paratrooper, receiving an honorable discharge due to an injury in a night parachuting accident. Then Rhodes attended college at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, graduating in 1998. Rhodes has said that he taught street crime survival and rape prevention at the college women’s center and also worked as a certified Nevada concealed-carry firearms instructor.

After college, his first politically oriented job was supervising interns in Washington, D.C., for libertarian Ron Paul, then a Republican congressman from Texas. Rhodes subsequently attended Yale Law School, graduating in 2004, and clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Michael D. Ryan. A trial lawyer and libertarian, he later volunteered on Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Rhodes’ experience with the Paul campaign prompted one of his first documented diatribes in the political arena. Appearing on his blog in January 2008, the post blasts political opponents’charges that Paul was linked to hate groups and racists. (The congressman’s Ron Paul Report, in fact, did contain many racist statements over the years, but Paul has claimed that he did not write or read them). Using the fevered language that would become his trademark, Rhodes railed against the “full-blown smear campaign.” Calling it a “lame attempt at guilt by association” and “stupid,” he added, “This only tells me that Ron Paul is a real threat to the political establishment, and they are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to stop the Ron Paul Revolution.” Then Rhodes pulled out his own ethnic card, disclosing that ancestors on his mother’s side were Hispanic and “American-Indian.” Being of minority ancestry himself and working with Paul, Rhodes said he saw no indication of racism—and that alone proved the racism claims were phony.

Also in 2008, Rhodes had what he described as a pivotal epiphany, described in a long profile published by Mother Jones magazine in March/April 2010. Rhodes had been writing a weapons-oriented column called “Enemy at the Gates” for S.W.A.T. Magazine, a monthly firearms publication that focuses on police SWAT teams. Rhodes said he received a wake-up call response to one of his columns from a retired colonel arguing that the Bill of Rights and Constitution were in peril and that soldiers, veterans and police “is where they will be saved, if they are saved at all!” (Rhodes has described himself as intrigued at the thought that if German soldiers and police officers had defied the government, Hitler’s regime would have collapsed.) After hearing from the retired colonel, Rhodes posted a now-notorious article on his blog, referring to Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton as “Hitlery” and spelling out how he thought she might impose a dictatorship.

Rhodes then took a hard-right turn away from electoral politics, putting up the Oath Keepers blog and beginning grassroots organizing among military officers, veterans and police officers. Soon, he had assistance from Tea Party and Ron Paul strategists. At a rally in Lexington, Mass., organized by a pro-militia group on April 19, 2009, Rhodes officially set forth the 10 “orders” Oath Keepers must not obey and officially launched the group before an audience of several hundred. It didn’t stay just an idea for long. On July 4, 2009, Rhodes dispatched speakers to more than 30 Tea Party rallies around the U.S., administering the new group’s “oath.” He also began to organize rallies of his own and aggressively recruit new members at the Oath Keepers web site.

Within a year, the group had drawn members from every state, Rhodes said, and by 2014 the Oath Keepers was claiming to have more than 30,000 people on its membership rolls, although that is an unverifiable and highly unlikely number.

In 2010, Rhodes left his Nevada legal practice and moved to Montana, joining a growing Patriot movement presence in the Big Sky state, where antigovernment extremists envision a coming “last stand” confrontation against globalist tyrants expected to steamroll across the U.S., crushing our freedoms.

Rhodes’ fervent call to resistance has been amplified with frequent media appearances on platforms offered by megaphone-wielding demagogues such as radio conspiracy-monger Alex Jones, and through alliances with other right-wing groups, including extreme Tea Party factions and the John Birch Society.He’s known to be a facile talker who tries to sound eminently reasonable.

Rhodes and his followers have launched some laughable “operations” in the last few years, but other actions they’ve taken vividly reveal the danger of their conspiracy-inflamed convictions.

On the comic opera side, Oath Keepers stormed into Quartzsite, a small Arizona town, to defend local residents who were ejected after refusing to leave a 2010 Town Council meeting on alleged government corruption. Led by Rhodes, the Oath Keepers marched into town and the group’s website called Quartzsite a pivot point for Americans to finally see the looming danger of the “New World Order.” The upshot: The Oath Keepers left town rapidly, and the State Bar of Arizona later censured Rhodes for practicing law without a state license because he wrote letters threatening a lawsuit on behalf of the ejected residents. He was fined $600.

In a far more serious episode, Daniel Knight Hayden, an Oklahoma man self-identified as an Oath Keeper, was indicted by a federal grand jury after posting Twitter messages threatening to unleash a violent attack on Oklahoma state government officials on April 15, tax day. Hayden was sentenced to eight months in prison in 2010. Another troubling example: Matthew Fairfield, a suburban Cleveland man described by prosecutors as the president of a local Oath Keepers chapter, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for storingbombs at his and a friend’s home and for obstructing justice. After Fairfield’s 2011 sentencing, a county prosecutor said it would be fair to call the Oath Keepers officer a potential terrorist.

And, in a widely publicized case, another Oath Keeper was sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping his own 7-year-old daughter. After failing to appear for trial in 2010, Charles Dyer, an ex-Marine, led police on a multi-state chase and began issuing threats against law enforcement, warning that they’d better not catch up to him. Although Dyer had spoken on behalf of the Oath Keepers and online videos identified him as the group’s liaison to the Marines, Rhodes claimed he really wasn’t part of the group.

Rhodes has continued to appear at Patriot-themed organizing rallies, joining forces with antigovernment extremist groups such as the Tenth Amendment Center and the Northwest Patriots. He’s contended that states have the right to disregard federal laws — a falsehood, as a trained lawyer should know — and that any form of gun control is a noxious attack on freedom that should trigger resistance. When gun control efforts ratcheted up in early 2013, shortly after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre, Rhodes announced Oath Keeper rallies at statehouses across the nation to send lawmakers the message that “they will be held accountable if they choose to dishonor” their Constitutional oaths. He’s appeared on shows like “Coast to Coast AM,” the most listened to overnight radio program in North America, and the radio show of Alex Jones, an über-conspiracy theorist, that is livestreamed online five days a week and carried by more than 60 radio stations.

An announcement made by Rhodes in the fall of 2013 is seen by some analysts as particularly frightening. In it, Rhodes said he planned to create local militia units, organized along the lines of U.S. Special Forces teams and filled with Oath Keepers, to provide security “during crisis” and also help train local militias. “They can fight, of course,” said the E-mail announcement in October. “But they are most dangerous as a force-multiplier by helping an entire community to fight.” It was the first time Rhodes had ventured beyond words into practical preparations for dealing with the government-created apocalypse he fears so deeply.

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/elmer-stewart-rhodes-0

Oath Keepers is an American organization associated with the patriot movement. It encourages members—some of whom are current and former U.S. military and law enforcement officers,—not to obey orders which they believe would violate the United States Constitution. The group is best known for its controversial presence in Ferguson, Missouri duringprotests and unrest in the city, and during which its members were armed with semi-automatic rifles^[1][2] and were described as a far-right militia group by the media.^[3][4][5][6] Oath Keepers are now involved in Malheur National Refuge in support of the protesters.

The organization describes itself as a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders, who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”^[7]

[hide]

Organizational history:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Oath Keepers was founded in March 2009 by Stewart Rhodes.^[8][9] Rhodes is a Yale Law School graduate, a former US Army paratrooper, and a former staffer ofRepublican Congressman Ron Paul.^[10] Rhodes was disbarred by the Montana Supreme Court for conduct violating the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct on December 8th, 2015 after refusing to respond to disciplinary action regarding grievances filed against him in the Federal District of Arizona and ordered to pay the costs of the disbarment proceedings.^[11]

Rhodes is reported to have taken inspiration from the idea that Hitler could have been stopped if German soldiers and police had refused to follow orders.^[12] In this same context, Stewart has compared Hillary Clinton to Hitler, writing in S.W.A.T. Magazine in 2008, '“It” (a full-blown totalitarian police state) cannot happen here if the majority of police and soldiers obey their oaths to defend the Constitution and refuse to enforce the unconstitutional edicts of the "Leader." Imagine that Herr^[13] Hitlery is sworn in as president in 2009. After a conveniently timed “domestic terrorism” incident (just a coincidence, of course) or yet another Prozac induced mass shooting, she promptly crams a United Nations mandated, Great Britain style, total ban on the private possession of firearms through a compliant, Democratically controlled Congress.'^[14]

Membership:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

The organization claims on its website that full membership is open to "currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, police, fire-fighters, other first responders (i.e. State Guard, Sheriff Posse/Auxiliary, Search & Rescue, EMT, other medical 1st responders, etc.) AND veterans/former members of those services," and that others who support the organization's mission can become associate members.^[7] The organization claims to have up to 30,000 firefighters as members, though this figure has been questioned by some critics.^[15]

Racism accusations:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Protesters have accused the group of racism, especially after groups of all-white members armed with rifles congregated in Ferguson during demonstrations related to police brutality and racial inequality.^[16] The group says its bylaws prevent potential members from joining if they have a history of bigotry or have been associated with any discriminatory organization.^[17] Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in an interview that the group has no history of political violence, but that, "The core ideas of these groups relate to the fear that elites in this country and around the world are slowly and steadily and nefariously moving us towards a one-world government, the so-called New World Order."^[18]

In August 2015, John Karriman, a teacher at Missouri Southern State University's Police Academy and head of the Missouri chapter of the Oath Keepers used the term “mulatto” to describe U.S. President Obama on CBC Radio’s As It Happens program.^[19]

St. Louis County police officer Dan Page was relieved of duty in 2014 after pushing CNN journalist Don Lemon on live television in Ferguson. Subsequently a YouTubevideotaped speech was found in which he had criticized President Barack Obama, Muslims, and denounced hate crime laws while addressing an Oath Keepers meeting. The YouTube video had a disclaimer stating that Mr. Page's opinions did not reflect those of the local chapter nor of the national organization.^[20]

Activities:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Ferguson protests

Main article: Ferguson unrest

In late November 2014 during the unrest in Ferguson, the Oath Keepers put out a national request to its members to help in the city after the grand jury decision was released in the Shooting of Michael Brown case. In reference to the perceived failure of the government's response to the unrest, the organization's founder, Stewart Rhodes, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “We thought they were going to do it right this time, but when Monday rolled around and they didn’t park the National Guard at these businesses, that’s when we said we have got to do something." On December 2, 2014, volunteer security guards associated with the Oath Keepers kept armed watch on Ferguson rooftops, ignoring a police order to stop.^[21]

In August 2015, four members of the group appeared again on the streets of Ferguson, following peaceful street demonstrations on the anniversary of Brown's shooting.^{[16][12][22][23][24]} According to an article in the Washington Post, "The men — all of them white and heavily armed — said they were in the area to protect someone who worked for the Web site Infowars.com, which is affiliated with talk-radio conspiracy theorist and self-described 'thought criminal against Big Brother' Alex Jones." The Oath Keepers claimed to be on the side of the protestors.^[25] St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told the newspaper that the Oath Keepers' "...presence was both unnecessary and inflammatory.”^[25]

The group's activities in Ferguson led to them being labeled "vigilantes" by some journalists.^[26][27]

Pacific Northwest mine disputes:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

In 2015 armed Oath Keepers in the Pacific Northwest attended two disputes between gold miners and federal authorities. In April they gathered in Medford, Oregonafter the owners of the Sugar Pine Minenear Galice were ordered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to stop working it.^[28][29] In August they patrolled the White Hope Mine in the Helena National Forest, about 20 miles from Lincoln, Montana; the US Forest Service said the mine had engaged in illegal construction and tree-felling.^[30][31]

Bundy Ranch standoff:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Main article: Bundy Ranch standoff

In 2014 Oath Keepers were present at the Bundy Ranch standoff, when agents of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seized cattle that a rancher was judged to be illegally grazing on federal land in Clark County, Nevada.^[32][33]

Oregon mine owner:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Oath Keepers have attended protests, their members armed with firearms to provide security at the request of an Oregon mine owner.^[28]

Kim Davis:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

On September 10, 2015, the Oath Keepers announced that they would travel to Rowan County, Kentucky to "protect" Kim Davis from federal marshals should she be held in contempt for a second time for violating a court order prohibiting her from interfering with marriage licensing in her office.^[34]

Members were advised the following day that Kim Davis' legal team, acting on her behalf, had declined their offer. While members were still welcome to visit Rowan County, it would be in an unofficial capacity only with Kim Davis' right to the "...time honored, respectable, and honorable American tradition" of civil disobedience being acknowledged.^[35]

Reception:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

In the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) 2009 report The Second Wave: Return of the Militias, Larry Keller wrote that the Oath Keepers "may be a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival."^[36] Keller described Richard Mack, an Oath Keeper, as a "longtime militia hero"^[36][37] and quoted him as having said, "The greatest threat we face today is not terrorists; it is our federal government. ... One of the best and easiest solutions is to depend on local officials, especially the sheriff, to stand against federal intervention and federal criminality."^[36] Mack, a former sheriff, responded by denying the claims, saying, "I have had no contact with any militia group and have never been a member of any militia."^[38][39]

In 2009 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) wrote in a report that, "The 'orders' the Oath Keepers refuse [to obey] reveal their extreme conspiratorial mindset, because the 'orders' are not instructions ever likely to be actually handed down by Obama or his officials; instead, they are reflective of the anti-government conspiracy theories embraced by the extreme right."^[40]

Quoting the Las Vegas Review-Journal, MSNBC political commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said, "Oath Keepers, depending on where one stands, are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia." Buchanan himself concluded that "America was once their country. They sense they are losing it."^[41][42]

Fox News Radio host Lou Dobbs spoke with founder Stewart Rhodes on his radio show in 2009 and criticized the Southern Poverty Law Center for "perpetuating the same kind of intolerance it claims to condemn."^[43] On Hardball with Chris Matthews, Matthews questioned Rhodes about his "vigilante group" and on his "strange view of the world."^[43]

Midnight Ride:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

The Oath Keepers have sponsored a film, Midnight Ride, by filmmaker James Jaeger. The film purports to show how the "militia system" could maintain "constitutional order" if the United States were hypothetically under martial law. According to Jaeger, the film is inspired by lawyer and Oath Keepers member Edwin Vieira's book, By Tyranny Out of Necessity: The Bastardy of Martial Law, and will feature interviews with politician Ron Paul, writer and conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, Richard Mack, and Oath Keepers national Chaplain Chuck Baldwin.^[44]

Jaeger has been criticised as anti-Semitic by the editor of The American Interest magazine, Adam Garfinkle.^[45] Jaeger's websites feature a number of antisemitic articles, including, "Who rules America"^[46] and, "Stunning Jewish Success Dominates American Media".^[47] Jaeger has accused Mossad and Israel of being behind 9/11.^[48]

Board of directors

Stewart Rhodes, Michele Imburgia, Rex H. McTyeire,Richard Mack, John D. Shirley, Steven C. Homan, Jim Ayala, Jay Stang

References:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

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^ Sakuma, Amanda; Rayford, Bradley J (11 August 2015). "‘Oath Keepers’ armed with guns roam streets of Ferguson". MSNBC. Retrieved 7 September 2015. With their hands resting casually on the assault rifles strapped across their chests, the men formed a diamond around their subjects, surveying the area in search of a threat.

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^ Duara, Nigel. ":{':(style="padding-left:0.2em"):}:Oath Keepers' with rifles roam among Ferguson protesters, raising concerns". Los Angeles Times. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2015. As protests in Ferguson continued on a sweat-soaked Missouri night, at least three men openly carrying assault rifles approached the south end of West Florissant Avenue -- and began to attract a crowd themselves.

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^ McCoy, Terrence. "The Oath Keepers: The Little-known Militia Now Roaming the Streets of Ferguson." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. The Washington Post

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^ Dearden, Lizzie. "Oath Keepers: Who Are White Militia at Ferguson Protests and Why Are They Allowed to Carry Guns?." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 11 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. The Independent

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^ Tesfaye, Sophia (22 August 2015). "Far-right extremists patrol Ferguson: Oath Keepers militiamen descend on city". Salon. Retrieved 14 August 2015.

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^ "Return of armed militia group Oath Keepers to Ferguson raises concern". Chicago Tribune. August 14, 2015. Retrieved August 14, 2015.

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^a b Oath ^Keepers ^Official ^{Website "About} ^Oath ^Keepers", ^Retrieved ^on ^13 ^August ^2015.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Acosta, Jim (November 18, 2009). "Who are the Oathkeepers". CNN. RetrievedNovember 18, 2009.

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^ "Incorporation Information for the Oath Keepers, Inc.". Nevada Secretary of State. E0559982009-3 (State of Nevada). October 22, 2009. RetrievedNovember 18, 2009.

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^ Maimon, Alan (October 18, 2009). "Ready To Revolt: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States". Las Vegas Review-Journal. RetrievedOctober 24, 2009.

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^ Scribd.com

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^{a b Fowler,} ^Sarah ⁽¹² ^August ^{2015). "Ferguson} ^unrest: ^Who ^are ^the ^mysterious ^'Oath ^{Keepers'?". BBC} ^News. ^{Retrieved 13} ^{August 2015.}

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^ "Herr" is German for "Mr.", indicating a male person. The proper German word for "Mrs." (Clinton) is "Frau".

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^ Rhodes, Stewart. "Just Following Orders." S.W.A.T. Magazine Apr. 2008. Web. 20 Aug. 2015. Oath-keepers.blogspot.com

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^ Fowler, Sarah. "Ferguson Unrest: Who Are the Mysterious 'Oath Keepers'? - BBC News." BBC News. BBC, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. BBC

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^{a b Laughland,} ^Oliver, ^Jon ^Swaine, ^and ^Joanna ^Walters. ^"White ^Militiamen ^Roam ^Ferguson ^with ^Rifles ^While ^Black ^Men ^Wrongly ^Arrested." ^The ^Guardian. ^Guardian ^News ^and ^Media ^Limited, ^12 ^Aug. ^2015. ^Web. ^13 ^Aug. ^2015. The ^Guardian

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Oath Keepers Official Website - Bylaws "BYLAWS OF OATH KEEPERS, Article VIII 8.02b", Retrieved on 13 August 2015.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Wang, Hansi Lo. "Oath Keepers Say They're Defending Ferguson; Others Say They're Not Helping." NPR. NPR, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. NPR

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Bambury, Brent. "An Oath Keeper on guns, race and Ferguson". CBC Radio. Retrieved 11 September 2015.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ McLaughlin, Michael. "St. Louis County Police Officer Dan Page Suspended Following Inflammatory Video." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. The Huffington Post

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Bogan, Jesse (December 2, 2014). "'Oath Keepers' are back on the rooftops in Ferguson despite St. Louis County ordinance". St Louis Today. Retrieved 13 August 2015

:{:{Jump up}:

^ "Heavily-armed white men patrol Ferguson, 'ready to confront authorities to defend US Constitution:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". RT (TV network). 2015-08-11. Retrieved 2015-08-11.

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^ "Heavily armed 'Oath Keepers' inject new unease in Ferguson". Irish Times. 2015-08-11. Retrieved 2015-08-11.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ "Oath Keepers arrival at Ferguson protest 'inflammatory,' top cop says". Fox News. August 11, 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2015.

:{:{Jump up to:}:^

^{a b Larimer,} ^Sarah; ^Phillip, ^Abby ⁽¹¹ ^August ^2015). "Who ^are ^the ^Oath ^Keepers, ^and ^why ^has ^the ^armed ^group ^returned ^to ^{Ferguson?". The} ^Washington ^Post. ^Washington ^Post. ^{Retrieved 13} ^{August 2015.}

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Annabel Grossman (December 1, 2014). "Ferguson police shut down armed 'Oath Keeper' vigilantes guarding rooftops of besieged town". The Daily Mail (London).

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Paul Vale (December 1, 2014). "Vigilante 'Oath Keepers' Offering Free Security In Ferguson Told To Stand Down By St. Louis Police". Huffington Post.

:{:{Jump up to:}:^

^{a b Urquhart,} ^By ^Jim ⁽²³ ^April ^{2015). "Oregon} ^mine ^that ^summoned ^armed ^guards ^in ^land ^dispute ^files ^{appeal". Reuters.} ^{Retrieved 2015-08-13.}

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Moriarty, Thomas (23 April 2015). "Armed protesters gather at Medford BLM office over Sugar Pine Mine dispute". Mail Tribune. Local Media Group. Retrieved2015-08-13.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Puckett, Karl (6 August 2015). "Constitution advocates issue cease, desist order at mine". Great Falls Tribune. Retrieved 2015-08-13.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Swearingen, Marshall (12 August 2015). "Dispatch from White Hope Mine dispute in Montana". High Country News. Retrieved 2015-08-13.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Henandez, Daniel (April 3, 2014). "Federal rangers face off against armed protesters in Nevada 'range war:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". The Guardian. Retrieved Aug 13, 2015.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Botkin, Ben (13 April 2014). "Bundy ranch dispute with federal land agency draws variety of foot soldiers". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2015-08-13.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Badash, David (September 10, 2015). "Kim Davis wont be arrested again promise patriot militia group". thenewcivilrightsmovement.com. Retrieved September 13,2015.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ "Kim Davis’ Legal Team Declines Oath Keepers’ Offer to Protect Her Against Unlawul Arrrest (sic)". 9 September 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.

:{:{Jump up to:}:^

^{a b c Keller,} ^Larry ^(August ^2009). "The ^Second ^Wave: ^Return ^of ^the ^{Militias". A} ^Special ^Report ^from ^the ^Southern ^Poverty ^Law ^{Center (Montgomery,} ^Alabama): ^5–10. ^{Retrieved September} ^12, 2013.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Fausset, Richard (September 18, 2009). "Oath Keepers organizer sees need to sound an alarm". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 2, 2009.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ "Sheriff Richard Mack (RET) Responds to Southern Poverty Law Center Smear Attack on Oath Keepers and on Sheriff Mack" (Press release). Oath Keepers. August 14, 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2009.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Johnson, Jon (September 2, 2009). "Local man appears on Internet news show". Eastern Arizona Courier. Retrieved November 3, 2009.

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^ "Rage Grows in America: Anti‑Government Conspiracies." ADL Special Reports: Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies. N.p., 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. Adl.org

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Patrick J. Buchanan (October 20, 2009). "Alienated and Radicalized". MSNBC.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Maimon, Alan (18 October 2009). "Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States". Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, Nevada: Stephens Media LLC). Retrieved 4 July 2014.

:{:{Jump up to:}:^

^{a b Maimon,} ^Alan ^(October ^25, ^{2009). "Ready} ^To ^Defend: ^Oath ^Keepers ^speak ^out ^at ^inaugural ^{conference". Las} ^Vegas ^{Review-Journal.} ^{Retrieved October} ^25, 2009.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Alias, Elias. "MIDNIGHT RIDE, The Movie: Update From James Jaeger".Oathkeepers.org. Oathkeepers. Retrieved 13 August 2015.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Garfinkle, Adam (2009). *Jewcentricity: Why the Jews are Praised, Blamed, and Used to Explain Just About Everything*. John Wiley & Sons. p. 137. ISBN 978-0470198568.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Havibakhshi, S. "Who Rules America?". Jaeger Research Institute. Retrieved13 August 2015.

:{:{Jump up}:

^ Blankfort, Jeffrey. "Stunning Jewish Success Dominates American Media".Jaeger Research Institute. Retrieved 13 August 2015.

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^ Jaeger, James. "THE TERRORIST ATTACKS Was 9/11 a False Flag Operation?". Retrieved 13 August 2015.

External links:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Categories:

wiki

Richard Ivan Mack is the former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona and is best known for his role in a lawsuit brought against the federal government of the United States which alleged that portions of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act violated the United States Constitution. He is a former lobbyist for Gun Owners of America (GOA) and a two-time candidate for United States Congress. Mack is also the founder of Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), and established the "County Sheriff Project" movement, both of whom claim the power to refuse to enforce federal laws.^[1]

[hide]

Mack v. United States:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Mack served as Graham County Sheriff from 1988 to 1996. In 1994 he was recruited by the National Rifle Association as a plaintiff in one of nine lawsuits against the Clinton administration over the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.

Mack v. United States (later restyled to Printz v. United States), a lawsuit against the federal government which alleged that portions of the Act violated the United States Constitution, because they comprised a congressional action that compelled state officers to execute Federal law.^[2] These portions were interim provisions until a national instant background check system for gun purchasers could be implemented. In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the provisions of the Brady Act in question were, in fact, unconstitutional.^[3]

Political views

Mack is involved in the patriot movement through his role in the Oath Keepers organization and as founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA).^[1] In 2009, Mack appeared in interviews on a cable public access show^[4] and a one-person website,^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} in which he discussed his membership inOath Keepers, and the importance of police officers and members of the military upholding their oaths to the U.S. Constitution.

Mack opposes all gun control laws, telling the program News21, "I studied what the Founding Fathers meant about the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, and the conclusion is inescapable. There's no way around it. Gun control in America is against the law."^[1]

Mack is also an opponent of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), writing on his website, “The States do not have to take or support or pay for Obamacare or anything else from Washington DC. The States are not subject to federal direction.”

Oath Keepers and Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

In 2011 Mack founded the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). The organization has a mission similar to Oath Keepers, encouraging members to refuse to enforce laws that they believe are unconstitutional.^[1]

Mack is also on the board of Oath Keepers, a far-right patriot organisation known for its controversial presence during the Ferguson unrest and for supporting Cliven Bundy in his standoff against the federal government. In April, 2014, Mack asserted that as part of the citizen response to the Bundy standoff that the Oath Keepers were "...actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front. If they're gonna start shooting, it's going to be women that are gonna be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers." ^[11]

The Southern Poverty Law Center included both CSPOA and Oath Keepers on its list of 1,096 anti-government "patriot" groups active in 2013.^[1] Mack announced in 2011 that he was initiating a lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center for libel, slander, and defamation.^[12]

Campaigns for Congress:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Mack ran as a Libertarian candidate for United States Senate in Arizona in 2006 against incumbent Jon Kyl, a Republican, but finished in the general election with 3% of the votes.

In 2012, Mack opposed 13-term Representative Lamar Smith, who introduced and sponsored the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act legislation, in the House electionRepublican primary for Texas's 21st Congressional district. The primary was held on May 29. Mack lost, receiving 14.78% (10,111) of the votes.

Campaign for Navajo County (Arizona) Sheriff 2016:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

On December 13, 2014, Mack announced his candidacy for Navajo County Sheriff. In his announcement, he said, “We’re gonna make it a constitutional county and show everybody the blueprint for freedom. And there’s a lot more people running for other offices than me. I just said I’d run for sheriff. We’re going to give this one more try. The election is in 2016. I’m going to be moving there in spring of 2015 so I can start getting ready for this. You have about a year and a half to decide. And I’m dead serious about this. If I can move there, so can you.”^[13]

Law enforcement career:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Mack spent eleven years with the police department of Provo, Utah, and then moved back to Arizona to run for Graham County Sheriff in 1988. While serving as sheriff, he attended the FBI National Academy and graduated in 1992. In 1994, he was named Elected Official of the Year by the Arizona-New Mexico Coalition of Counties. He was also named the National Rifle Association Law Enforcement Officer of the Year for 1994, and was inducted into the NRA Hall of Fame.^[14]

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Mack was born in 1952^[15] in Arizona.^[14] He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and attended Brigham Young University.^[16]

In January 2015 he suffered a heart attack and his wife became ill in late 2014. Mack claims that because he and his wife are self-employed they do not have insurance to pay for their medical bills. As a result, friends of the Macks have started a Go Fund Mesite on their behalf, asking others to donate money to pay for their medical expenses.^[17] The CSPOA is helping to fund raise for the Macks’ medical expenses.

Bibliography:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Mack has authored several books relating to gun laws, ownership and the role that law enforcement should play in America.

The County Sheriff America's Last Hope
The Proper Role of Law Enforcement
From My Cold Dead Fingers: Why America Needs Guns with Timothy Robert Walters (1994)
THE NAKED SPY: His Mission Began the Day He Died (2005)
The MAGIC of Gun Control (2011)

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^{a b c d e Chertock,} ^Marlena, ^Emilie ^Eaton, ^Jacy ^Marmaduke, ^and ^Sydney ^Stavinoha. ^"'No' ^Sheriff ^in ^Town: ^Some ^Lawmen ^Refuse ^to ^Enforce ^Federal ^Gun ^Laws." ^NEWS21. ^NBC ^News, ^21 ^Aug. ^2014. ^Web. ^14 ^Aug. ^2015. NBC ^News

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^ "Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997)." Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997). N.p., 27 June 1997. Web. 14 Aug. 2015. Law.cornell.edu

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^ "*Printz v. United States*". Justia. Retrieved August 31, 2012.

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^ on YouTube

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^ About Us

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^ on YouTube

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^ on YouTube

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^ on YouTube

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^ on YouTube

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^ on YouTube

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^ Sheriff Mack Announces Lawsuit Against SPLC, Run for Congress

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^ "Richard Mack Announces Plan for 'Constitutional' Takeover of Arizona's Navajo County." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Dec. 2014. Web. 14 Aug. 2015.

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^{a b Sheriffmackforcongress.com[dead} ^link]

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^ Date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via corresponding WorldCat Identities linked authority file (LAF) .

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^ Splcenter.org

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^ Talkingpointsmemo.com

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Biography portal

Categories:

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/02/inside-the-bizarre-paranoid-world-of-the-right-wing-oath-keepers/

... official Oath Keepers membership card is in my outstretched hand. With great power comes great responsibility: my duty is to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. No compromise. I’m now a member of a controversial conservative group whose members make Ted Nugent look like a bleeding-heart Rachel Maddow. Our mission is to keep the government accountable. Just remember: Not on my watch.

Let’s rewind: The scene wasFerguson, Missouri. When riots broke out over the August shooting death of Michael Brown, armed members of the Oath Keepers took to the city’s rooftops, appearing out of the smoke and shattered glass of ransacked buildings. Their supposed duty was to secure the local businesses from looting. In the first days of the protests, demonstrators had broken out windows of storefronts, set arson fires, and torched a beauty supply store. ABC News reported that a number of business owners embraced the Oath Keepers’ armed presence. Group members boarded up storefronts and kept buckets of water and fire extinguishers handy in case nearby arson attacks escalated. This was the vigilante group’s moment in the media sun.

Still, rumors flew. Some protestors thought the armed men in camouflaged fatigues were members of the Ku Klux Klan. The St. Louis County police ordered the Oath Keepers to leave the rooftops of Ferguson, threatening them with arrest for acting as a security force without a license. This only added fuel to the right-wing group’s conspiracy that the government is not protecting its people. The volunteer security force packed up and left Ferguson, leaving people wondering exactly who these heavily armed mystery men were.

2014 Was Quite a Year for the Oath Keepers

The Oath Keepers made one of their first appearances in the national news last April, when more than 100 members headed to the Nevada desert to support rancher Cliven Bundy. Their mission was to assist with an armed standoff against agents from the federal Bureau of Land Management, who were attempting to seize cattle Bundy had been illegally grazing on federal land. No shots were fired during the standoff, though it is virtually unparalleled in modern history to have armed American citizens using the threat of gunfire to force federal officers to back down. Controversy redux: Critics were concerned that the government’s decision to withdraw in the face of armed resistance emboldens militia groups and sets a dangerous precedent. It didn’t help matters that Bundy went on a racist rant about African Americans during a New York Times interview, tarnishing his image. It seems that the anti-government movement always attracts a few bad eggs.

Who the Hell Are These Guys?

The Oath Keepers were founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, a Yale-educated attorney, ex-army paratrooper and former staffer of Congressman Ron Paul. The “non-partisan,” yet libertarian-leaning organization claims to have active chapters in all 50 states, as well as an estimated 40,000 members—which, if true, would make the group one of the fastest growing far-right organizations in the world.

What separates the Oath Keepers from, say, the radical Michigan Militia and their well-armed members? The Oath Keepers’ core membership is comprised of active duty and retired police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and military personnel. On paper, this sounds like a no-nonsense bunch.

“It’s ridiculous to disarm the people and tell them they have to rely on the police when the police cannot possibly protect you in some of these circumstances,” Rhodes has stated. “The United States is on the fast track to economic ruin and Americans need to learn to protect themselves because the government soon won’t be able to.” The Oath Keepers founder cites the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as a warning. He fears a future where martial law will be instigated during future disasters and every American will be placed in a 24/7 government-run FEMA camp. But not on their watch! The Oath Keepers adhere to a strict originalist interpretation of the Constitution and swear to fight back against overly militarized police and unconstitutional acts by the government. (Cue Nazi government comparison.)

“The whole point of the Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here,” Rhodes said. “My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can’t do it without them. We say if the American people decide it’s time for a revolution, we’ll fight with you.”

Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, sees the Oath Keepers as a radical anti-government group. In his words: “When you believe that you have to arm yourself in order to protect the people from the government, and you’re such a loosely organized group that anybody can join you, that’s a combination that can potentially create violent incidents in the future.”

Example of guilt by association: In 2013, Oath Keeper and former Giberton, PA police chief Mark Kessler formed a paramilitary militia group called the Constitutional Security Force to fight against proposed gun control legislation. Kessler posted a profanity-laced video that went viral: “Fuck all you libtards out there,” a heavily armed Kessler screams. In another video, Kessler calls Secretary of State Kerry a piece of shit: “Come and take it, motherfuckers!” he cries before blasting off an assault rifle. (Police Chief Kessler was soon fired.)

What a PR nightmare. This was clearly not what the Yale-educated Rhodes envisioned for his group. The Oath Keepers quickly tried to distance themselves from America’s scariest police chief, insisting that one bad assault-weapon-toting lunatic did not reflect their entire group.

Thanks to incidents like this, surely the Oath Keepers must now have some sort of screening process to keep out the racists, radicals, Mark Kesslers and lone wolves—those who might give respectable members a bad name. It was time for me to become a member of the Oath Keepers and find out.

Time to Join

The Oath Keeper raison d’etre can be found on their website, under “Orders We Will NOT Obey”:

We will NOT obey any order to disarm the American people.

We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty and declares the national government to be in violation of the compact by which that state entered the Union.

We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control” during any emergency, or under any other pretext. We will consider such use of foreign troops against our people to be an invasion and an act of war.

While this sounds like fodder for conspiracy theorists, the Oath Keepers see themselves as freedom’s last defenders, standing up for the Constitution and American liberties.

I follow the banner link that reads, “Join the Fight to Defend the Constitution,” which takes me to the Oath Keeper membership page. It features images of soldiers from the Revolutionary War along with the mission statement: “Guardians of the Republic. Honor your oath. Join us.” And their catchphrase: “Not on our watch.”

My Oath Keeper-joining parade is rained upon: “Full membership is open to currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, police, fire-fighters, other first responders (i.e. State Guard, Sheriff Posse/Auxilliary, Search & Rescue, EMT, other medical 1st responders, etc.) AND veterans/former members of those services. Those who are not current or prior service can join as an Associate Member—as a citizen who supports our mission.”

So that’s how they filter out the crazed extremists; the Oath Keepers have a stringent process for full membership that keeps out imposters. But I want to dig deeper, not just be a “citizen member.” Why be a tourist when you can be a local? What if I lie on my membership application, create a pseudonym, and simply fabricate a background in law enforcement to become a full member? But since full members of the Oath Keepers are comprised of current and former law enforcement and military, surely they must conduct some sort of background check to sift out imposters (like myself, extremists and racists)?

Along with my fake name and background, I add to my application vague rhetoric they might enjoy hearing: “The greatest threat we face today is not terrorists; it is our federal government.”

Can you be prosecuted for lying on an Oath Keeper membership application? Let’s hope not.

I PayPal the Oath Keepers $40 of my cold hard American cash for a one-year full membership. Other price plans include $1,000 for a lifetime membership (payable in $50 monthly increments).

A woman named Cindy emails me more information about my Oath Keeper membership package: “We ask that you give us 4-6 weeks, but we try to get them out in 3…however much depends on the volume at the time and it’s very high currently.”

I fall asleep each night with dreams of full Oath Keeper membership and Constitutional defense. Where the hell is my goddamn Oath Keepers membership packet? So much time goes by I even forget that I’m soon to be an official full member of the Oath Keepers. Maybe the background check found too many red flags? For the safety of future armed showdowns, that’s probably a good thing.

Then the clouds part and the skies open up. Late in January, I open my mailbox to find a nondescript manila envelope mailed from a PO box in Georgia. A computer label reads: “Membership Fulfillment.”

I rip open the envelope. Within seconds, my jaw drops with complete disappointment. Am I missing something here? Here’s what I got for my $40 full Oath Keepers membership:

-A bunch of bumper stickers that say: “Guardians of the Republic” and “Not on our watch.”

-A paper copy of the Constitution.

-10 Oath Keeper business cards, with the Oath Keepers oath on the back and the words “Not on our Watch!” I assume these are to hand out to 10 people who also want to defend the Constitution, but might not know how to go about it.

-10 Oath Keeper brochures. I’m told in the introduction letter to pass these on at local gun shows and Tea Party rallies, 9-12 rallies, etc. to at least 10 people I come across.

-A laminated Oath Keeper membership card with my fake name, stating I’ve been an official Oath Keeper since the year 2015.

-A membership certificate with my fake name and declaration that “As an Oath Keeper, the member has pledged NOT to obey the ten specific unlawful orders listed in our “Declaration of Orders We Will NOT Obey.” I have no idea what that means (too many double-negatives).

-A homemade Oath Keeper DVD on a generic disc with an Oath Keeper sticker on it, featuring speeches with pull-quotes such as “They hate people who speak the truth.”

My estimated cost of the entire Oath Keeper membership pack (including shipping): $2. The Home Depot folder for my official membership Certificate leads me to believe that a very old person put all this together. I’d almost describe the entire Oath Keeper membership package as “cute.” But if I were living in a cabin in the woods—which I declared as my own sovereign nation—I would feel pretty fucking ripped off.

Regardless, now I’m an official member of the Oath Keepers. It’s time to take to the roof of my building armed with a rifle to make sure no one is violating the Constitution while screaming, “Fuck all you libtards out there!” And if there should be some ill-fated confrontation, the first thing police officers will find in my wallet is my Oath Keepers membership card. The misguided media will attribute my lone wolf actions to my affiliation with the Oath Keepers. Perhaps they shouldn’t let just anyone join their group after all.

http://www.**hcn**.org/articles/oath-keepers-show-up-for-another-public-lands-squabble-this-time-for-gold-miners-in-oregon

...

Barclay reportedly put on the brakes a couple of days later. "We're not under attack, this is not the Bundy Ranch," he told the local Mail Tribune last week. (Barclay was referring to the April 2014 gathering of 300-plus armed militia and other protestors that helped a Nevada rancher fend off the BLM’s attempt to impound his cattle, which had been grazing illegally on federal land.) "Please stop calling the BLM and threatening their personnel," Barclay said. Yet, as of Wednesday, Oath Keepers were still asking for more “boots on the ground,” and Barclay was supporting the escalating presence. (a group that holds anti-federal government views and is named for the three percent of the colonial population that fought in the American Revolution) have also rallied to Medford to support the miners.

The root of the dispute, said BLM spokesperson Jim Whittington, is that surface rights were transferred from a private owner to the agency in 1961. Whittington said that finding miners on unpermitted lands isn’t all that uncommon in his area. But they rarely haul in a militia-type group to back them up when the BLM calls them out on it. Local BLM staff have received threatening phone calls since the miners’ situation went public a few weeks ago, but Whittington couldn’t give details because the threats are under investigation.

BLM personnel have been asked to avoid the mine area for now. The miners can appeal the BLM’s letter of non-compliance, stop operations, or file paperwork to renegotiate their level of mining activity and come into compliance. Whittington said the miners are focusing only on that second option—stop operations—when there are in fact other avenues they can take. Whittington said the miners have until Friday to file an appeal with the Interior Board Land of Appeals, and are likely to do that at Thursday's protest. ...

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2015/11/17/breakaway-oath-keeper-attempts-arm-protesters-ferguson

splc

A protest that for months was billed in right-wing media as an “epic rights flexing march” –– an Oath Keeper arming black residents with AR-15s and marching them through the streets of Ferguson –– turned out to be little more in the end than an exercise in futility.

Sam Andrews, the former leader of the Oath Keepers in St. Louis, led the march on Tuesday from a public transit pavilion to the Ferguson Police Department and back. But there were no armed black protestors from Ferguson at his side, as he had promised. Instead, the two dozen or so who came were gun rights enthusiasts, Obama birthers and Andrews’s family and friends.

A protest that attracted so much attention, and ultimately led to Andrews leaving the Oath Keepers over an argument with founder Stewart Rhodes,proved in the end to be a glimpse at the complicated internal politics of an organization that has worked hard to put itself at the center of the most contentious issues on the American cultural landscape, from LGBT rights to land rights.

And as the protest was about to begin, Andrews was eager to explain why.

“The [Oath Keepers] leadership didn’t want black people to be armed in a protest,” Andrews told Hatewatch on Tuesday. “They didn’t want to see black people opposing the police. They were perfectly OK seeing white people and people of different colors pointing their rifles at federal agents at the Bundy Ranch. But you can’t have black people marching for their rights with their rifles pointed at the ground.”

Comprised of law enforcement and former military personnel who fear the Constitution is being undercut by a tyrannical government, the Oath Keepers understood that arming protestors against the police who make up potential Oath Keeper recruits was almost self-sacrificial, Andrews said. But if the 2nd Amendment was absolute, as Andrews and the Oath Keepers believe, there was no reason not to arrange the protest.

Unless the question was of whether to arm black people.

In August, Andrews told Newsweekthat “fear had contributed to destructive protests” and his intentions were to bring the same message to the inner city as they brought to Nevada in April 2014, when hundreds of armed Oath Keepers defended cattle rancher Cliven Bundy in his fight with the federal government.

“They don’t know how to react to the abuse, so they throw rocks and bottles and do other silly stuff, but we are flying black Oath Keepers from around the country to educate the black leaders and the people of Ferguson that not only can you open carry, you should open carry,” Andrews told the magazine. “The peaceful protestors, the lawful people which make up the vast majority of protesters, should be quietly standing there with rifles, saying, ‘We’re not going to take this abuse anymore.’”

Rhodes, however, told *Reason* magazine that he questioned Andrews intentions and cautioned him from making it seem they were training Ferguson residents to “confront the cops.”

"He could not take constructive criticism," Rhodes told Reason. "All we were doing is saying, 'Look, Sam, don't make it sound like we're gonna arm violent people who were rioters. We're gonna arm the good people of Ferguson, to stand up for their rights against the police and to control the hoods.'"

The hoods? It is that cultural disconnect that has landed the Oath Keepers in such hot water in Ferguson, at almost every step along the way.

The Oath Keepers first made national headlines in Ferguson a year ago when pictures surfaced of armed members standing atop white-owned businesses in Ferguson, as civil unrest raged on the street beneath in the weeks after the death of Micael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014. It was simply another moment in a five-year history of Oath Keepers popping up — invited and uninvited — around some of the more contentious backdrops involving questions of law and order.

The Oath Keepers, in fact, have eagerly sought out opportunities to present themselves as the keepers of law and order — from Quartzsite, Ariz., where Rhodes’ Oath Keepers took a stand against what they saw as a corrupt city council, to the latest efforts offering personal protection to Rowan County, Ky., clerk Kim Davis, who defied the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.

Perhaps it is no wonder that the turnout on Tuesday was so slim. The weather may have been a contributing factor, but long before the protest began, there were rumblings of distrust.

On one Facebook group, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, discussion ran the gamut, with some concerned that the very ideology of the Oath Keepers would undermine the mission.

“Don’t touch the Oath Keepers,” a user identified as Joe Kelly wrote. “They’re vigilantes whose concept of open carry is about white aggression and the defense of white power and privilege. They need 50 blacks on their parade to serve as a foil for an agenda that is purely white supremacist.”

But no one came to provide the foil, and the Oath Keepers have never openly espoused a white supremacist ideology. Rhodes’ concern over arming black protesters against police was either the unfortunate reality of finding his group at the nexus of race and the 2nd Amendment, or simply a political worry that even Andrews understood.

“There are two things we could accomplish," Andrews told Hatewatch. "One is black people and white people are going to stand together and exercise their rights, to show minorities all around the country that you have the right to defend yourself and open carry.” Andrews continued, “The second thing is nobody shows up, and it proves my point: that people are completely afraid of these serial rights abusers called the St. Louis County Police and the St. Louis City Police.”

When the time came to march, Andrews’s second prediction came true. There were more cameras than guns, and more news reporters than protesters, none of whom were from Ferguson, and only few armed with rifles.

The lone armed black protestor was Paul Berry III, from Bridgeton, Mo., who is exploring a congressional run in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District. An avowed constitutionalist, Berry carried an assault rifle slung over his shoulder for the short march

oathkeepers bak rhodes

Violent racism

A challenging road

The State Lawmakers

The Candidates

The Local Party Officials

The Poll Worker

The Democrat

A solid survey

The fringe moving into the mainstream

Broader support

Conspiracy Theorists and Radical Right-Wing Commentators: Fear-Mongering, Violent Language, and Anti-Government Sentiment

Religious Right Calls for Civil War

Far-Right Militant Groups: ‘Awaiting the Green Light’

Creating the Justification for Right-Wing Violence

'Tacit endorsement': The Proud Boys are celebrating Trump telling them to 'stand by'

Oathkeepers, ‘2 Million Bikers,’ Identity Evropa and Beyond

Conclusions

Elmer Stewart Rhodes

Contents

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Ferguson protests

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Political views

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