Armed Militia Takes Over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge HQ

Rallies in Portland, Eugene, other NW cities implore Malheur occupiers to go home

But in recent days, as the standoff has dragged toward its third week, a new element has been added to the chemistry: counterprotesters who are converging here to denounce the occupying faction — in person at the refuge headquarters — and demand that federal public lands remain open for all. The newcomers include environmental activists, retired federal workers and a couple of long-distance hikers.

“We’re here to say the Malheur is not occupied by the militia — we’re here, we’re on the land,” Kierán Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group in Tucson, Ariz., said Tuesday during a rally at the refuge. About a dozen people joined him, from places like Eugene, Oregon and Spokane, Wash., and waved signs at passing vehicles...

Since then the Bundys, who have gained notoriety as opponents of the federal government, have attracted an assortment of sympathizers — and, now, enemies. The Malheur refuge is remote, about 30 miles from the nearest town, and yet people like Mr. Suckling were upset enough to make a pilgrimage to ask the Bundy group to leave. ..

Some in the Malheur takeover group have not liked the new incursion very much, as small as it has been. On a recent morning, a spokesman for the occupiers — gun on hip, cowboy hat on head — was calmly addressing reporters at a news conference when a small but visible tussle started unfolding in view of television cameras.

Mr. Suckling held up a sign denouncing the occupation: “Keep Public Lands Public.”

Pete Santilli, a supporter of the takeover who was standing next to Mr. Suckling, grabbed the edge of an American flag that was suspended nearby and tried to cover the sign. Mr. Suckling moved the sign to keep it in camera range. Mr. Santilli moved the flag. The men jostled. “Don’t touch me,” Mr. Santilli snapped, loudly enough to be heard by reporters. “If you touch me once, I am going to defend myself.”

Boundary law is pretty much settled in this country. The Ninth was just applying that law.

One of the complaints by the Hammonds is that the BLM fenced off BLM land to springs the water rights to which the Hammonds claimed they purchased from the state

I think I read somewhere that they had access across federal land with 24 hours notice. They abused that, and would take 3 days to cross, basically letting their cattle graze on federal land. The Hammonds are their own worst enemy.