During the winter of 1995 Idaho's militia movement discovered new fields of opportunity for its political agenda, which took it well beyond its original focus on 2nd amendment issues involving the right-to-keep-and- bear-arms. Litigation and controversies over saving salmon and wolves on public lands under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act radicalized many Idaho citizens. It made them easy prey for someone with messages of what to fear and who to blame. State elected officials offered symbolic promises of relief, but also courted the militia as possible shock troops for the radical right-wing of the Republican party. Some politicians were more adept than others at avoiding accountability for bringing extremism into mainstream politics. The cloak of ambiguity fit too well in several instances, but others, like the state's superintendent of education, decided it didn't suit them.
Dateline -- Challis, ID 1/22/95
Thousands of people in Idaho became unemployed with one stroke of
the pen from U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra who January 9th
ruled on a suit brought by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and the
Wilderness Society to save an endangered species of salmon. In his
decision the Hawaii District Judge ordered all grazing, logging,
mining and road-building activities on public lands in central Idaho
must be halted until further notice to protect endangered salmon.
Over 4,000 people could lose their jobs representing $83 million in
annual payroll. The decision created a storm of protest. The
injunction radicalized area residents, released huge amounts of
unfocused anger, and left many vulnerable to messages of what to fear
and who to blame.
Some of those affected by the injunction threatened violent action as
a means to oppose it. Idaho's growing militia movement sought to
exploit the situation by sending its key organizers to Challis, ID,
to focus this rage on its "new world order" conspiracy theories and
to gain new members. Idaho's state and federal elected officials
reacted to the suit offering up largely symbolic promises of relief
from the injunction.
Six national forests are affected; Nez Perce, Sawtooth, Payette,
Salmon, Boise, and Challis. Economic activities normally taking place
on public lands which will be shut down include 190 active mines, 532
grazing permits, tens-of-millions of board feet of timber under
contract to be cut, and 8.2 million acres of forest area. [data
from Idaho Falls Post Register, Pg.A8, 1/22/95]
"It is clear that the US Forest Service must be enjoined from
announcing, awarding, permitting or conducting any new timber sales,
range activities, mining activities or road building projects until
formal consultation on the LRMPs (land and resource management plans)
is completed," the Honolulu-based judge ruled, adding, "under the
circumstances, the court is also compelled to enter an injunction
against all on-going and announced activities."
"Judge Ezra is halting all activities in which the Forest Service
said 'may affect' salmon survival and salmon habitat," said Kristen
Boyles, the Sierra Club attorney who argued the case on behalf of
Pacific Rivers Council of Eugene, Oregon, and the Wilderness Society
of Boise, Idaho. That means all new and current projects that may
affect salmon habitat.
Projects like the Thompson Creek Mine, Challis, ID, (employs over 800
miners) would be shut down until the Forest Service and National
Marine Fisheries Service agree the molybdenum open-pit mine will not
adversely affect habitat, or until Judge Ezra agrees the project will
not adversely affect salmon habitat.
Outrage and anger over unemployment caused by a court ruling under
the Endangered Species Act (ESA) erupted like a volcano this week and
prompted 2,500 people to turn out in the deep cold of an Idaho forest
on January 22nd to have their picture taken. Thousands of copies of
the color photo are being sent to anyone who has a say over the
shutdown of six Idaho forests.
The Salmon-Challis Forest is likely to be the hardest hit. It's no
surprise that signs sprouted saying things like, "Hungry? Eat an
Environmentalist." Salmon-Challis Forest Supervisor Chuck Wilds
pleaded with area residents. "Please don't shoot me," he called out
to hundreds of ranchers and miners, some carrying weapons, who
surrounded his office to stop implementation of the federal court
order closing the forests where they make their living.
While a federal judge ordered the injunction to protect the habitat
of endangered salmon, area residents told Wilds that it is not their
activities which threaten the salmon, but dams on the Columbia River
in Washington and Oregon which cut off the fish from returning to
their spawning grounds. With the injunction hanging over their heads,
area residents feel, as one put it, "that there is nothing which so
clarifies one's thinking as a potential hanging in the morning."
The court suit has galvanized the community. Lemhi County
commissioners organized and handed out lists of fax number of members
of congress, environmental groups, the governor, and anyone else they
could think of. Area businesses which had fax machines opened them up
for public use and had their employees help people send faxes to
their elected officials.
The phone lines in this rural part of the state buckled and then
collapsed under the load. One area resident expressed frustration
with sending faxes. He said that when this area [Lemhi
County] was settled 100 years ago. "people did their fighting
with Winchester rifles and bullets and not with fax machines and
screwy paper."
However, none of the protests have, so far, been acts of violence.
This is partially the result of a temporary stay of the injunction
requested by the environmentalists when they realized they'd
over-achieved in their suit against the US Forest Service. A
spokesman for the Wilderness Society in Boise, ID, said his group
never expected the judge to close the forests, only to enjoin new
activities. The government now has 45 days to come up with a response
to the suit or face the full effects of the injunction.
Reaction to the stay of the injunction was one of widespread relief,
but it did not remove the threat of violent protest. Wise Use
advocate Phil Nesbet told the Idaho Falls Post Register he was
relieved to have time for things to work out. However, he continued
to remind people living in Lemhi County that they have only 45 days
until the current stay on the injunction runs out.
Challis City Councilman Stan Davis told the media he shares Nesbet's
worries. "I have fear in my system over what happens when 45 days are
up," he said. Perhaps more than any other factor, the location of the
federal judge in Hawaii, and not in Boise, bewildered many.
It turns out the Boise, ID, Federal District Court seat has been
vacant for some time due to the inability of the Clinton
Administration and Idaho's Republican congressional delegation to
reach an agreement on a replacement. The Sierra Club sued in Hawaii
which has temporary jurisdiction. This helped the militia's
conspiracy theorists who did a pretty good job of spinning up outrage
that a judge sitting in Hawaii could shut down forests in Idaho.
Next, they said, the United Nations will send "blue helmented troops"
to enforce the judge's decision.
As a practical matter it took several days for the judge's decision
to impose the injunction to reach Idaho. Further, the U.S. Forest
Service office staff had no desire to enforce the injunction over the
objections of angry and armed local citizens.
U.S. Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID) said he would pursue whatever
remedies were necessary to change the Endangered Species Act to
prevent further occurrences like Judge Ezra's ruling.
Kempthorne is now chairman of the Senate subcommittee which plans to
rewrite the Act this year. His comments offered only symbolic relief
as there is little the senator could do immediately about the judge's
ruling.
Idaho Congressman Mike Crapo also paid a symbolic visit to Lemhi
County this week. He agreed with calls by area residents to make the
court suit and its impending impact on thousands of jobs a national
issue. Crapo said the court suit had given opponents of the ESA
exactly what they wanted - "ammunition against the act." Crapo also
said environmentalists hurt their cause because the original ruling
has turned into a rallying cry for those who want to change the
Endangered Species Act. He said, "This is a situation where the
result was so harsh that they may have lost the war in winning the
battle."
Wise use activist Bert Jeffries told the Idaho Falls Post Register,
"the Endangered Species Act has been taken hostage by the
environmentalists." He added that people are frustrated, "because the
law does not recognize that people have to live, work, and eat while
bureaucrats figure out whether the fish are threatened or not."
Another activist said he was furious that the environmentalists used
the salmon as a way to address the fact that they are unhappy with
the forest planning process in Idaho. He said, "it is stupid for them
to want us to believe that this is about fish. We know that what this
is really about is that the environmentalists haven't gotten their
way with the forest plans in central Idaho so they sued over fish and
got this result [the injunction]." He added that the area
consensus is that the suit filed by the environmental groups has
backfired with enormous consequences nationally.
County Extension Agent Bob Loucks agreed with this analysis. He told
the Idaho Falls Post Register, "the fact that the ESA needs to be
rewritten so that it is not a handy vehicle to accomplish other
aims."
Many criticized the U.S. Forest Service for making their jobs
vulnerable to litigation. North Fork logger Joe Fraser complained
that forest service employees are poorly trained and as a result do a
poor job of designing environmental protection measures for timber
sales. Another resident said that if the forest service "knew what it
was doing up here we wouldn't be in this mess."
For their part environmental groups wrote letters to area
newspapers explaining their position on why the suit was justified.
They charged that area forest logging, mining, and grazing operations
were destroying salmon spawning habitat and have to be stopped.
Environmentalists said, unsympathetically, the Forest Service has to
fulfill its job under the Endangered Species Act. "Some of the forest
plans, such as the Nez Perce and Payette, called for degradation of
salmon habitat and have inflated targets for timber harvest," said
Craig Gehrke, regional director of The Wilderness Society in Boise,
one of the plaintiffs in the case. He also made this comment, "We're
saying, let's face reality, we've got an endangered species here,
you've got to revise the forest plans and lower those timber targets
so you can protect salmon habitat."
Some observers noted that the only people gaining from the suit were
Wise Use and Militia organizations who were recruiting new members
among the now out-of-work and angry ranchers and miners milling about
in Challis and Salmon with too much time on their hands and not much
to do with it.
Dateline -- Boise, ID 3/5/95
Citizens Militia organizer Samuel Sherwood of Blackfoot, ID, told
Idaho Lt. Governor Butch Otter in Boise this week he is being "duped
by those who are quietly plotting to throw out the U.S.
Constitution." Sherwood also said that the state legislature and
other elected officials in Idaho were in the same boat with
Otter.
In a separate speech in Challis, ID, Sherwood predicted "blood would
flow in the streets" if a Federal District Court judge shuts down six
national forests in central Idaho March 15th over a suit brought by
environmental organizations to protect salmon under the Endangered
Species Act.
Idaho Lt. Gov. Otter, a Republican, received a rude message this
week after trying to give a 20-minute speech to members of the United
State Militia Association (USMA), which is based on Blackfoot, ID, an
agricultural community located in the midst of Idaho's potato farming
country 40 miles west of the Wyoming border. Members of the USMA wear
military-type clothing and combat boots at their public meetings.
Otter never got to deliver the standard "stump speech" he uses at
appearances with political action groups. Instead, militia members
verbally pounded Otter for 90 minutes with their fears about a
planned "takeover" of the U.S. government. They told him a
'Conference of the States' set for September 1995 would not enhance
states rights, but was a "conspiracy" to overthrow the government.
When Otter defended his participation in the meeting, Sherwood told
him, according to the Associated Press, "You've been tricked Butch.
You've been tricked. A lot of you have been tricked."
Otter held his cool under fire and in the face of obvious
provocation. He told militia members, regardless of their excitement
over issues, that they had to "obey the law." However, he also
criticized militia members for not supporting the National Rifle
Association (NRA).
In Idaho, where hunting and guns are second nature, it is unthinkable
for an anti-gun control group like the militia to not support the
NRA. Otter gave the NRA credit for the Republican Party's landslide
in Idaho in the November election. He added, "they did it without
wasting a pound of gunpowder."
When asked why he spoke to the militia, Otter defended his appearance
before the controversial organization. He said, "No matter what a
group is or what it stands for, I think the government needs to be
accessible."
Sherwood did not explain the reasons why his group did not support
the NRA. However, Sherwood, who has tried to take credit for aiding
the election of Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID) and Anne Fox, State
Superintendent of Public Instruction, was irritated by Otter's
criticism of the militia and praise for the NRA. Some attending the
meeting said Otter's remarks stung Sherwood, and made him look
foolish or ineffectual.
Prior to the meeting with Otter, Sherwood had been up along the
Idaho / Montana border to recruit new members among miners and
ranchers affected by a court suit brought by environmentalists that
closed six national forests and cut them off from making a living.
Focusing on fears of losing their jobs and homes, Samuel Sherwood
told groups of miners and loggers in Challis, ID, they should join
his United States Militia Association to defend themselves against
the "green gestapo" of environmental organizations out to close down
their forests.
Sherwood traveled to the remote mining town in response to an
injunction by Hawaii Federal District Court Judge David Ezra which
could shut down all resource activities on public lands in six
national forests in central Idaho. The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund
and the Wilderness Society filed suit on the grounds that U.S. Forest
Service plans for the six forests did not protect habitat for salmon
protected under the Endangered Species Act. The pending injunction is
expected to be lifted or implemented by March 15th after a review of
the forest plans by the National Marine Fisheries Agency, which is
charged with protecting the salmon.
Challis, ID, is so far off the beaten path that locals sell a
colorful, green t-shirt that says, "End of the world, 12 miles,
Challis 15." However, hundreds make their living in mining, logging,
and ranching. Closure of the six forests would put an estimated 4,000
people throughout Idaho out of work with an estimated payroll loss of
$83 million.
Sherwood told the Challis meeting "all it's going to take is for
this crazy judge in Hawaii to actually shut down the forests and
there will be blood in the streets." Sherwood urged everyone at the
meeting to "get a semiautomatic assault rife and a revolver and a
uniform."
Idaho Secretary of State Pete Cenarrusa, who also was in Challis with
Sherwood, encouraged locals to join the militia, saying that the
government was planning to confer legal status on the militia once it
reaches 10,000 members. Referring to the possible shutdown of all
mining, ranching, and logging in national forests in central Idaho,
Cenarrusa called for the restoration of the "sovereignty of Idaho
through the court system." If that fails, he said, "there is going to
be a great uprising among the people here. It's a matter of survival
and when these instincts are aroused, anything can happen."
As a result of hearing the strong rhetoric of a leading state elected
official, Custer County Commissioner Lyn Hintze said that "three
platoons of militia" would be ready by March 15th to oppose the
injunction. He said they would require the U.S. Forest Service to
show proof they owned the land. If not, Hintze said, "we're going to
take over." Sherwood added, "we want a bloodless revolution," but if
the bureaucrats won't listen, we'll give them a civil war to think
about. We're ready to look the federal government in the eye."
###
Dateline -- Boise, Idaho 3/12/95
According to a report by the Associated Press (AP) printed in
today's edition of the Idaho Falls Post Register, the leader of the
Idaho U.S. Militia Association (USMA) said civil war could be coming
and with it the possibility that some Idaho legislators might be
shot. Samuel Sherwood, leader of the Blackfoot, ID, based
organization, told the AP on March 10th some Idaho lawmakers may
"betray" their fellow citizens in Idaho and cling to Washington, DC,"
hence the need to shoot them. He said, "Go up and look legislators in
the face, because some day you may have to blow it off." Sherwood
added that history frequently shows politicians pick the wrong side
in a revolution and today's politicians are no different.
Sherwood confirmed to the Associated Press and to the Twin Falls, ID,
'Times-News' that he made the statements on March 2, 1995, after
leaving a meeting with Idaho Lt. Governor Butch Otter, and again at
another militia meeting in Boise March 10th. Sherwood's statements
move the militia to the dangerous ground usually occpied by
terrorists. He is now seen as a threat to the lives of elected
officials.
Reaction from Idaho elected officials was swift. Most state elected
officials in Idaho were outraged at being threatened because they do
not share Sherwood's apo calyptic vision of the future. Idaho
Governor Phil Batt, Lt. Governor Butch Otter, and State Attorney
General Al Lance condemned Sherwood's remarks. Through a
spokesperson, Governor Batt said he would not support anyone who
condones violence. However, Anne Fox, State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, declined to comment.
Last month Sherwood claimed that 1,000 of his USMA members manned
phones banks and worked vigorously to assure her election. The AP
reported that Fox declined to publicly question her association with
the USMA.
Two elected officials possibly in Sherwood's gun sights were quick to
respond to his threats. State Legislator Wendy Jaquet of Ketchum
called Sherwood's statement, "extremism at its worst." State Senator
Ron Beck of Boise also issued a statement condemning the remark. Both
labeled Sherwood's remarks "frightening and uncivilized."
Sherwood was not deterred by the criticism. He said the media, and
not the militia, is responsible for focusing on inflammatory matters.
"The press had better stop trying to fan people's fear and a
paranoia," he said, warning it could lead to "confrontation or self-
immolation."
Sherwood's threat against the Idaho legislature drew an angry
response from that body as a whole. On its last day in session, both
houses passed a unanimous resolution condemning his remarks.
Postscript Some predicted Sherwood would pay dearly for his foray
into radicalism. This turned out to be a far more accurate prophecy
than any supermarket tabloid could have hoped for in projecting a
verdict on the consequences of rash actions.
###
Dateline -- Challis, ID 3/8/95
This week Challis, ID, rancher Gene Hussey, age 74, got another
shock to his system over the death of a wolf on his land. Three armed
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agents (USFWS) served a search warrant on
Hussey seeking the bullet that killed the wolf which had earlier been
reintroduced to Idaho's Frank Church Wilderness Area. The wolf was
found shot to death near the body of a calf on Hussey's ranch.
The action by the USFWS produced protests amplified by statements
from Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID) charging that the agency used "black
helicopters" to intimidate Idaho ranchers and other users of public
lands. Locally, Lemhi County Sheriff Brett Barsalou told the news
media, "sending three armed agents to serve a warrant on a 74-year
old man is inappropriate, heavy handed, and dangerously close to
excessive force."
On Friday Sheriff Barsalou and rancher Hussey were treated as heroes
before a cheering crowd of 300 organized by People of the West and
other Wise Use groups who flocked to Challis, ID, after the Wednesday
incident with the USFWS.
As it turns out, the situation is reversed. The USFWS agents secretly
tape recorded their encounter with Hussey. From the transcript it
appears that the Challis rancher threw rocks at the agents, called
them foul names, but that they did a remarkable job, under the
circumstances, of not responding to provocation.
The calf turns out to have died from natural causes, and not from a
wolf attack. Hussey has not been charged in the shooting death of the
wolf, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act.
In a separate development, Federal District Court Judge David Ezra
lifted a pending injunction which would have closed six national
forests in Idaho stopping all ranching, logging, and mining
activities on public lands in central Idaho. This is the second time
the injunction has been lifted pending the outcome of a review of
U.S. Forest Service management plans over habitat protection for
endangered salmon.
The action defused a potentially dangerous situation in the Challis
area. Earlier militia members attempted to organize armed opposition
to the injunction. A spokesman for the Wilderness Society, which
brought the original suit that resulted in the injunction, said that
if further consultations with the National Marine Fisheries Service
and the U.S. Forest Service over endangered salmon do not go well it
might provoke future litigation.
Hundreds of people gathered in Challis and in nearby Salmon, ID,
this week to protest the actions by environmental groups and the
actions of the USFWS. The Idaho Falls Post Register reports that
Idaho State Rep. Lenore Barrett, of Challis, told a crowds of more
than 200 people in Challis, and 300 in Salmon, "We are not Waco. We
are not Ruby Ridge. We are exercising our constitutional rights.' She
told the crowd, "the feds must back off."
It appears her message was heard in Washington, DC. Responding to
criticisms of the USFWS by Idaho Congressman Mike Crapo, USFWS
Director Mollie Beattie said she would not have approved the search
if asked and would not let it happen again. A USFWS spokesman said
the search was called for because the results of the autopsy of the
wolf indicated that the dead wolf did not kill the calf it was found
next to.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department is taking legal action
against Nye County, NV, which claims the state, and not the Federal
government, own national forests. Nye County Commissioner Dick
Carver, a national Wise Use leader, spoke to a crowd of 600 people
last week in Challis, ID, urging similar resolutions be enacted
asserting control over federal lands. He advocated the continued
promotion of the 'county supremacy' movement which asserts federal
public lands should be returned to county or local control.
While Carver's confrontational politics were well received in Custer
County, ID, they were not accepted in nearby Lemhi County. In Salmon,
ID, Dennis Hawley, Lemhi County Commissioner, told the Idaho Falls
Post Register that his commission held a meeting with Justice
Department Attorney Margo Miller to remove Lemhi County from the list
of entities challenging federal government ownership of public land.
"We don't even want to get involved in that at this time," Hawley
said.
The Justice Department's suit challenges the Nye County supremacy
doctrine advocated by Carver, but does not seek civil damages against
him for charging into a Forest Service wilderness area with a
bulldozer last July. Environmental groups have criticized the Clinton
Administration for failing to prosecute Carver for his heavy
equipment aided assault.
States News Service reported this week disclosure of "threads" environmentalists allege link Nye County Commissioner Dick Carver and other property rights activists with citizen militia that have been blamed for violence and threats against federal workers. Jeff DeBonis, of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said at a press conference, "One top Forest Service official recently told me he thought there was a 50 percent chance of a Forest Service employee getting murdered this summer in either Idaho or Nevada." This prediction came terrifyingly close to reality as a result of several pipe bombs exploding at Nevada forest service offices. While no one was injured in any of the blasts, one ranger's personal van was destroyed, apparently targeted by the bomber(s).
The Associated Press reported this week that growing tensions
between users of public lands and federal land management agencies
have prompted Idaho Sen. Larry Craig to advocate disarming all
federal law enforcement officers who patrol national forests and
wildlife refuges. Craig said people are increasingly frightened by
the presence of "an armed federal entity" in the West." He
elaborated, "There has always been a healthy suspicion of the federal
agent. Now there is developing a healthy fear, especially if the
agent is armed," he told the Associated Press.
Craig said conflicts between landowners and federal officers in the
West are due in part to what he views as the "aggressive nature of
federal agents and their unwillingness to work with local
authorities." Craig said guns are not needed at the Forest Service,
Bureau of Land Management, or Fish and Wildlife Service. He said he
would maintain some armed law officers at the National Park Service
because that agency "is a manager of people as much as a protector of
property."
An outspoken opponent of gun control and a board member of the
National Rifle Association, Craig said there was no inconsistency in
his defense of the right to bear arms at a time he was calling for
disarming federal agents. Craig made initial comments about disarming
law officers during an interview with the AP about citizen militia
and property-rights groups in the West. But Craig didn't stop there.
In a recitation of the mantra of the militia, Sen. Craig said fear of
armed U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service agents is growing out of such
incidents as the deaths at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco,
TX, and the killing of a militant's wife and son at Ruby Ridge,
ID.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service declined to comment on Craig's
remarks as did the U.S. Forest Service. The Interior Dept. agency was
not involved in either tragedy. Federal land management law
enforcement agency staff in Utah, who are perhaps less reticent than
their cousins in Idaho, said that they had to deal with everything
from drug smuggling to illegal dumping of hazardous waste. A monthly
crime report from the U.S. Forest Service in March 1995 clearly
indicates that crime not only knows no season, but also no place is
safe from it. Crimes of every type occur on public lands leaving one
wondering how the laws would be enforced if Sen. Craig's policies are
implemented.
Quote of the Day: "There can be no appeasement with
ruthlessness," Jim Baca, former director of the Bureau of Land
Management, speaking to a meeting of the Greater Yellowstone
Coalition, on the subject of wise use and militia connections, and on
opposition to the Noranda mine.
Postscript Journalist David Helvarg, and author of the book,
"The War Against the Greens," said he has found strong ties linking
Oklahoma City bombing witness James Nichols to the Michigan Property
Rights Association. Helvarg connects Nye County Commissioner Dick
Carver with the Christian Identity church, widely considered by human
rights groups to be a militant, racist religious organization with
ties to the Aryan Nation, a neo-Nazi group based in Hayden Lake,
ID.
Helvarg, along with Wilderness Society representative Jim Baca, said
the western property rights groups have become a recruitment ground
for the militia. Baca, a former federal Bureau of Land Management
director, said that at first the property rights advocates were
likely looking to maintain the "western way of life," even though
resources industries are not as economically viable now.
In an weird echo of the threat made by Idaho Militia leader Samuel
Sherwood to "shoot" legislators, Helvarg quoted Dick Carver bragging
about the infamous incident last July when he and an armed citizens'
posse chased two Forest Service rangers off a road he was illegally
bulldozing through the Toiyabe National Forest and wilderness area.
"All it would have taken was for one of those rangers to have drawn a
weapon," Carver is quoted as saying, "and 50 people with side arms
would have drilled him."
Some Wise Use activists have been driven by rhetoric from western
members of Congress, who claim there is a federal "war on the West,"
to join armed militia. "I can't say every member of the wise use
movement is a member of the militia, but the threads are there," Baca
said. "The rhetoric is the same: anti-federal government. And
lawmakers' influence pumps every one up."
Lawmakers, such as Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) have said working on
behalf of citizens angry with the federal government for perceived
abuses of power is not the same as supporting armed militia that
break the law. True, but providing political cover for environmental
terrorism such as Carver's bulldozer tactics, is not the same as, as
some would say, "sweetly reasoning with the magistrate."
This is a story of how Idaho's elected state superintendent of
education flirted with right wing radical politics, took an
unintended high dive into much deeper waters than she bargained for,
and came up with a better appreciation for the currents of
history.
Dateline -- Boise, ID 2/12/94
Anne Fox, State Superintendent of Education, was elected this past
November with the help of 1,000 militia members according to Samuel
Sherwood of the United States Militia Association, Blackfoot, Idaho.
Sherwood said his group manned phones, distributed campaign
literature, and provided other forms of support for Fox's Republican
candidacy for state superintendent of public instruction. This
represents the first instance in Idaho of a militia group engaging in
mainstream politics.
The militia group includes white supremacists and racists according
to the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment and the
Montana Human Rights Network. However, Fox apparently now wishes she
had not received so much public support from the group. She ended
this week apologizing to Idaho's Jewish community for a bizarre
remark about Holocaust victim Anne Frank after a public speech to a
militia meeting in Boise.
Samuel Sherwood made his claim of 1,000 militia members helping to
elect Anne Fox after a speaking engagement by Fox to 80 members of
the Blackfoot, ID, organizations in Boise on February 11th. Idaho
Secretary of State Pete Cenarrusa also spoke to the group. Militia
members attending the session wore combat green fatigues, military
style sweaters, and black boots.
Sherwood told the Associated Press Fox was invited to address the
group, "because she agrees with the group's calls for less federal
interference and more local control." For her part Fox endorsed the
militia's strong stand against gun control and for states rights.
Sherwood also lashed out at federal control of BLM and USFS lands. He
said that the lack of income from property taxes on these lands hurts
the schools. Sherwood neglected to mention the millions of dollars
the Federal government pays the state in the form of "payment in lieu
of taxes" as a result of its ownership of public lands.
Some wonder why Fox sought out political support from a radical
right wing group like the militia? Perhaps it's because she is losing
the mainstream political support that got her elected as part of
Idaho's Republican landslide in the last election. Fox has not had an
easy first six weeks in office. She made a series of costly political
blunders.
* The head of her newly created architectural design office had to
resign when it was learned he mis-represented his qualifications to
design schools. Instead of having built schools, the appointee was a
furniture salesman who sold desks and other items to schools.
** A more serious problem emerged when it was discovered that her
campaign manager and chief deputy, Terry Haws, had been charged in
Alaska with soliciting sex from a minor in return for drugs. Fox
fired Haws when the charges surfaced. Haws later pleaded no contest
to the charges.
*** In addition to firing two campaign aides, Fox also fired the
state's leading expert on school finance and the science curriculum
chief. Simultaneously, Fox submitted a budget to the state
legislature which drastically increased the discretionary spending
available for her office and hired an advisor who advocated
creationism teaching over evolution in public school science classes.
The legislature has since trimmed Fox's proposed budget to a level
recommended by Idaho Governor Phil Batt. After no small amount of
public controversy, the expert on Creationism was "demoted" from paid
staff to being an unpaid member of an advisory committee.
**** Fox has taken heat for leasing a new luxury car at $530 a month
when other state officials, including the governor, leased cars for
about half that amount.
Fox may have put her foot in yet another bucket. In what appears
to be her most bizarre public statement to date, Fox compared the
political struggles of her first six weeks in office to Anne Frank's
persecution by the Nazis.
This drew strong responses from Idaho's small Jewish population. R.T.
Tavi, a spokesman for the Jewish Community of Eastern Idaho said,
"Anne Fox has no right to wrap her petty political problems in the
cloak of Anne Frank's sufferings." Jewish leaders said they sent
copies of their complaint about Fox's statement to the
Anti-Defamation League office in Seattle. Tavi said, "we cannot
permit elected officials to make a mockery out of the Holocaust for
short-term political gain."
Jewish leaders in Idaho were not the only group to react to Fox's
exploits with the militia. Newspaper editorial writers at the
Lewiston, ID, Morning Tribune and the Idaho Falls Post Register
raised questions about Fox's judgement and political instincts. The
Lewiston Tribune wrote on 2/14/95; "Idaho school Superintendent Anne
Fox's lack of perspective has never been more glaring than when she
appeared before a gathering of uniformed black booted members of a
self- appointed civilian army to complain that her critics are making
her look bad.
"Does she have any conception of what kind of message it sends to
have the elected head of Idaho schools appear not just as a speaker,
but as a soulmate at a gathering of people who feel so alienated from
government and the rest of us that they are donning uniforms and
forming private armies.?"
The Idaho Falls Post Register wrote on 2/17/95 "Idaho is gaining a
reputation as a haven for extremists. Fox does not serve the state
well or provide a good example to its children by appearing before
such a group.
Fox responded to criticism by telephoning Jewish leaders in Boise
and in Idaho Falls and offering apologies for her remarks about Anne
Frank. Boise Rabbi Dan Fink said that he spoke with Fox and
encouraged her to visit with him anytime she was contemplating making
remarks about Jewish subjects. He said her choice to issue an apology
"was commendable," and added that Fox was writing a letter of apology
to go on record about her feelings. Fox also told Jewish leaders she
did not understand the true nature of the militia. When informed
about a November 1994 report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
detailing the activities of the militia in more than two dozen
states, Fox requested a copy.
The ADL also wrote a letter to Fox explaining their position about
the inappropriate nature of Fox's remark comparing her transient
political problems in Idaho to the death of Anne Frank in the
Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis. Fox said her remarks about Anne
Frank came from a conversation with Shirley Silver, a friend, who was
raised Jewish, who took Fox on a tour of a traveling exhibit about
Anne Frank in Boise.
What Fox did not know, and perhaps still does not know, is that
Silver is no longer a practicing Jew in a traditional sense. Rabbi
Fink said that Silver belongs to a messianic group called 'Jews for
Jesus' which is not affiliated with Boise's Jewish congregation. The
group is a radical and fundamentalist Christian sect. Fox's logic,
according to Silver, who called Tavi to explain her role, was that,
"I'm getting this comment about Anne Frank from a Jewish person at a
Jewish exhibit. If I repeat it how could I go wrong?"
Is It More than a Failure to Educate? Is it conspiracy or stupidity?
Is Fox evil or just not thinking very clearly? Is it possible to
believe Fox's remark about not knowing the true nature of the Idaho
citizens militia? How could she ignore political support from 1,000
people as claimed by Sherwood? Is the Idaho state superintendent of
public instruction capable of being educated on these issues? If this
exchange with Fox is about the politics of meaning then it is also
about confronting evil, about speaking truth to power, and about
educating people where this evil lives. Tavi says, "I do not think,
for now, that Anne Fox is evil, just badly mis-informed. Her future
actions might confirm that view or cause it to change. We'll have to
wait and see. For now, she's apologized and listened to what we had
to say. It's enough."
###
compiled from reports by the Associated Press, Idaho Falls Post
Register, and other sources/ Dateline -- Post Falls, ID 4/17/95
Nearly 300 supporters of the militia movement gathered this
weekend in Post Falls, Idaho, to send a signal of rebellion to the
federal government. While many in America celebrated spiritual
renewal as part of Easter or Passover observances, an embittered
alliance of extreme right-wing groups strengthened itself for action
in this wild and remote corner of the continent. Haunted and driven
by the specters of real and imagined attacks on individual liberties,
they came from all corners of the country and from as far away as
Hawaii.
Including citizens militia, white supremacists, tax protestors, and
constitutionalists, they appeared to arrive out of the gloom and fog
of 40 years of hate and discontent like devils' disciples convening
for a night on bald mountain. Fiery rhetoric pierced the evening
skies as speaker after speaker denounced the spirits and apparitions
of gun control and taxes. They invoked the twin icons of the
stand-off at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and the massacre at Waco, TX.
"Rebellion is in the air and I love it," said Eustace Mullins, a
Staunton, VA-based activist and the featured speaker at the Northwest
Liberty Network Seminar. "All over the country, people are rising
up." Mullins, a notoriously anti-semitic firebrand, brought his
incendiary rhetoric to an Idaho panhandle already amply inhabited by
neo-nazi demons. M.J. "Red" Beckman, a tax protestor from Billings,
MT, echoed Mullins' call for "revolutionary changes." He said, "these
are needed to reverse federal laws that have eroded rights guaranteed
under the constitution. A revolution of truth, not a bloody
government overthrow, is needed." Few believed his pledge of
non-violence. Beckman said that supporters of militia,
constitutionalists, white supremacists, and tax protestors were
banding together to act to counter government propaganda. "We've had
an overthrow of our lawful government," he said, and he charged, "the
people have been duped into believing that the government is actually
serving them though the opposite is actually the case."
Other speakers at the meeting urged participants to write letters of
support for Anne Fox, Idaho's state superintendent of public
instruction. Still others gathered signatures for petitions to return
ownership of federal lands to the states. Mullins distributed copies
of his books which address topics ranging from racial theories about
Jews to conspiracy theories about who controls the Federal Reserve
System. While Beckman and Mullins were fueling the flames of
rebellion in Post Falls, ID, next door in Montana game wardens and
Ravalli County officials seized the elk herd of Calvin Greenup at the
fugitive militia leader's home south of Darby. Authorities said
Greenup, who is wanted on charges of felony obstruction of justice
and failure to pay state income taxes, lacked a state license to
operate a game farm.
Despite this setback for the Montana militia, Mullins struck a note
of bravado. He said the militia and its supporters are now strong
enough to act together instead of just talk about protesting taxes
and gun laws. However, Mullins will have to act with one less
follower.
Postscript The Associated Press reports that the State of
Montana has filed criminal charges against three militia members in
Ravalli County following an undercover investigation. Three of the
four charged are accused of advocating the murder of public officials
and other terrorism tactics for political purposes. Charged are Joe
Holland of Booneville, Indiana, and national director of the North
American Volunteer Militia; Calvin Greenup of Darby, MT, and also,
Dennis Stucker and Benjamin Schneider, both of Darby, MT. The last
two are also charged with obstructing justice for helping Greenup
escape. Greenup was briefly holed up in his ranch as a home alone
fugitive.
The charges against Greenup stem from a wiretap of his telephone. A
recorded conversation recounts how Greenup allegedly asked other
militia members for help in getting firearms to arrest and try local
county judges and prosecutors for treason, and if found guilty, to
hang them. Evidence was also introduced from two undercover policemen
who said Greenup's plan of escape included provisions to run police
roadblocks with guns blazing. Greenup recently told a reporter from
the TV program 60 Minutes he would not be taken alive. Greenup was
arrested on April 17th without incident, and held pending bail of
$50,000. Two days after the Post Falls meeting, and 2,000 miles away,
words were converted into action as the Federal office building in
Oklahoma City was blown up killing 169 people. The FBI believes the
domestic terrorist attack was carried out based on militia plans. Two
of those arrested and indicted for the crime are linked to the
Michigan Militia.