SENATE
Nevada officials blast feds over treatment of cattle rancher
Cliven Bundy
FoxNews.com
Two of Nevada’s top elected leaders are riding to the rescue of
a rancher whose decades-long range war with the federal government has reached
a boiling point in recent days.
The federal Bureau of Land Management has surrounded the Clark
County ranch of Cliven Bundy with armed officers, helicopters and four-wheel
drive vehicles. Last week, they began seizing cattle found grazing on adjacent
federal lands in violation of a law meant to protect an endangered desert
tortoise.
“No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation which
currently exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are sacred to
all Nevadans.”
- Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval
Both Gov. Brian Sandoval and Sen. Dean Heller have condemned the
BLS for what they characterize as heavy-handed actions involving Bundy and
other Silver State residents.
“No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation which currently
exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are sacred to all
Nevadans,” Sandoval, a Republican, said. “The BLM needs to reconsider its
approach to this matter and act accordingly.”
Heller, also a Republican, said he told BLM Director Neil Kornze
the situation is being handled poorly.
“I told him very clearly that law-abiding Nevadans must not be
penalized by an over-reaching BLM,” Heller said.
Bundy, 67, who has been a rancher all his life, told FoxNews.com
last week he believes the federal agency is trying to push him to the breaking
point and likened his situation to the 1993 disaster in Waco, Texas, in which
federal and state law enforcement agencies laid siege to a compound of
religious fanatics calling themselves Branch Davidians, a move that resulted in
the deaths of 76.
“This is a lot bigger deal than just my cows,” Bundy told
FoxNews.com. “It’s a statement for freedom and liberty and the Constitution.”
The fight involves a 600,000-acre area under BLM control called
Gold Butte, near the Utah border. The vast and rugged land is the habitat of
the protected desert tortoise, and ranchers whose cattloe graze there must pay
fees. Bundy, a descendant of Mormons who settled in Bunkerville more than 140
years ago, claims an inherent right to graze the area and casts the conflict as
a states' rights issue. He said he doesn't recognize federal authority on land
that he insists belongs to Nevada.
BLM
spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon said agents on Saturday and Sunday rounded
up 134 of an estimated 900 trespassing cattle in a vast 1,200-square-mile area
of rangeland northeast of Las Vegas and the Lake Mead National
Recreation Area. Cannon said the roundup was a last resort and blamed
Cliven Bundy for "inflammatory statements," including vows to fight
and characterizations of the cow removal as a range war.
"Mr.
Bundy has been in trespass on public lands for more than 20 years," Cannon
said, adding that he owes the federal government some $1.1 million in unpaid
grazing fees.
The
bureau last week announced the area would be closed through May 12 while
contractors conduct the roundup using helicopters, vehicles and temporary pens.
Cannon said the agency paid the contractors $966,000.
Bundy's son, Dave Bundy, 37, was arrested Sunday for refusing to
disperse as the roundup began, but freed the next day.
Federal
officials tried to round up Bundy's livestock two years ago, but he refused
to budge.
Since
then, he has lost two federal court rulings — and a judge last October
prohibited him from physically interfering with any seizure or roundup operation.
Federal officials said BLM enforcement agents were dispatched in
response to statements Bundy made that the agency perceived as threats.
“When threats are made that could jeopardize the safety of the
American people, the contractors and our personnel; we have the responsibility
to provide law enforcement to account for their safety,” National Park Service
spokeswoman Christie Vanover told reporters Sunday.
The trouble started when Bundy stopped paying grazing fees in
1993. He said he didn't have to because his Mormon ancestors worked the land
since the 1880s, giving him rights to the land.
“We own this land,” he said, not the feds. He said he is willing
to pay grazing fees but only to Clark County, not BLM.
“Years ago, I used to have 52 neighboring ranchers,” he said.
“I’m the last man standing. How come? Because BLM regulated these people off
the land and out of business.”
FoxNews.com's Robert Gearty contributed to this report.
5 comments:
Sounds like poetic justice to me. The land that is in question is already under federal oversight and belongs to the federal government. He doesn't have a leg to stand on. The legal avenue has been exhausted and he has been ordered to graze his cattle elsewhere. What more does this fellow want? If the government caved in to every miscreant there would be no law and order or rule of law. The land was taken from the Native Americans anyway, so this John Wayne wannabe is twice removed from the usage scenario of the land. This isn't the 1880's, it's 2014.
I really hope that a growing number of American people will now become aware of how serious the situation is in America with regard to the US Corporation versus the free people on the land. The aggression and actions testifying of inexplicable hatred by the FED and the US Corp are born out of the dark matrix and evil people that against their own reason and conscience have given up the light.
My message to the oppressed is to maintain and protect your mind and emotions. That is really the focus of the enemy's attack. Let uncorrupted justice take its course and give it every assistance you can. Restore real life to America. Peace
Yes,it is 2014 and humanity takes back its freedom from a corrupt USA corporation that has sold us all into wage slavery. This rebellion against corrupt government is happeing world wide not just here and as more and more people awaken, corrupt government is going to have a most difficult time. USA Inc. has 800 FEMA internment (retraining/extermination camps) verfied by people who constructed them and railcars. Our corrupt leaders do not want their slaves becoming free sovereign beings and the executive orders are there to lock us up. You can verify this yourself with a simple search.
Ditto!
Agreed !! The time to gather is now before they separate us from each other farther.
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