Лев Гунин - ГУЛаг Палестины

and twelve federal fraud and conspiracy counts, respectively, ending a trial marked by combative behavior by Landers. The

two used bogus money orders to purchase vehicles to drive back to Montana.

February 21, Washington: Supporters of the Washington militia/freemen defendants on trial in Seattle file a $1.76 billion lien

against the judge, John Coughenour, and five prosecutors.

February 24, Texas: Local authorities in Texas issue an arrest warrant for Rick McLaren, leader of the secessionist

common-law group, "The Republic of Texas," after McLaren failed to appear for a preliminary hearing on a 1995 burglary

charge. However, authorities take no steps to arrest McLaren, who is barricaded in a remote West Texas settlement.

February 28, Washington: The Washington militia/freemen explosives conspiracy case ends in a mistrial. The mistrial is

declared on federal conspiracy charges against seven people, while four defendants are convicted of weapons charges.

Washington State Militia founder John Pitner is convicted of possession and transfer of machine guns. John Lloyd Kirk and

Marlin Lane Mack is convicted of possession of unregistered destructive device. Gary Marvin Kuehnoel is convicted of

possession of a machine gun. Jururs can not reach verdicts on additional weapons charges against Kirk and his wife Judy

Carol Kirk, and against Kuehnoel. Kuehnoel is found innocent of three counts of possession of unregistered firearm. An

eighth defendant previously had pled guilty.

MARCH

March 1, Wisconsin: $2 million cash bond is ordered for Wisconsin man charged with hiring a hit man to murder his

estranged wife and her father. James Schuman, the man charged, is a member of Wisconsin Militia.

March 2, Washington, Idaho: Trial begins for Charles Barbee, Robert Berry and Jay Merrell, Christian Identity white

supremacists part of a bank-robbing gang in Spokane, WA, area associated with the Phineas Priesthood.

March 2, Ohio: Ohio Aryan Nations member Morris Gulett is arrested for ramming a Dayton police cruiser then fleeing.

March 3, New Hampshire: New Hampshire militia leader pleads guilty to federal charges of stealing $100,000 in equipment

from Fort Devens Army base. Fitzhugh MacCrae, member of Hillsborough County Dragoons, admits to three counts. He is

the second Dragoon to plead guilty.

March 3, Texas: "Republic of Texas" member John Albert Crain files $27 million lawsuit over three traffic tickets in San

Angelo. The atmosphere between "Republic of Texas" members and the real government of Texas grows increasingly

tense.

March 4, Texas: Pecos County Sheriff Steve Bailey warns he may have to use extreme measures to arrest Richard

McLaren, "ambassador" for the Republic of Texas, for warrants on burglary and failure to appear in court. McLaren is holed

up in a housing resort west of Fort Davis, Texas.

March 6, Wisconsin: Federal prosecutors go to court to stop two Milwaukee area men, Robert Raymond and Robert

Bernhoft, from selling their "De-Taxing America Program."

March 9, Oregon: Salem, Oregon, Militia leader Michael Cross is sentenced to five years on probation for pleading guilty to

criminal mistreatment after receiving $25,000 gift from an elderly foster-care resident.

Ca. March 9, Texas: Members of extremist group Republic of Texas begin "impeachment" proceedings against Richard

McLaren as the group, under pressure from law enforcement authorities, fragments.

March 10, California: Elizabeth Broderick of Palmdale, California, is sentenced to nearly seventeen years in prison on 28

charges related to selling more than 8,000 fraudulent "Comptroller Warrants" with a face value of more than $800 million.

Several accomplices also receive prison sentences in subsequent weeks.

March 12, Connecticut: "Sovereign citizens" John Barney and Nina Barney of Salisbury, CT, appear in court on charges of

criminal trespass and interfering with police. They are members of a common law court and they refuse to vacate the

properties where they live despite having hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of unpaid loans.

March 13, Washington, Idaho: FBI agents arrest a fourth suspect, Brian Ratigan, in the Spokane bombings, about the same

time as the prosecution rests in the trial of three other suspects.

March 13, Oklahoma: Former Tulsa opera singer Carol Elizabeth Howe is indicted in Federal court in Tulsa, accused of

willfully making a bomb threat, possession of a non-registered destructive device and conspiracy. James Dodson Viefhous,

already in custody, is also indicted. The two are founders and members of the National Socialist Alliance of Oklahoma, as

well as part of the Aryan Intelligence Network. They left a message on this phone network that bombs would be detonated in

15 US cities unless action was taken by December 15 by "white warriors" against the government of the U.S.

March 13, Ohio, Pennsylvania: Aryan Republican Army members Scott Stedeford and Peter Langan plead not guilty to

conspiracy charges related to bank robberies they carried out. Both have been previously convicted on armed robbery

charges. Mark Thomas, an Aryan Nations leader in Pennsylvania, previously pled guilty to the charges. Thomas and

another defendant are cooperating with government investigators; a fifth defendant, Michael Brescia, is jailed and awaiting

trial. Another suspect committed suicide in jail.

March 17, Montana, Indiana: Joe Holland, leader of the North American Volunteer Militia, is sentenced in Missoula, Montana, to 10 years in prison for jury tampering and advocating violence. He is also indicted on charges in Indiana.

March 17, Texas: Texas officials issue two more (civil) arrest warrants against Republic of Texas members Robert Kesterson ("secretary of state") and Carolyn Carney ("secretary of inter-agency coordination").

March 17, California: California "Patriot" Timothy Paul Kootenay, is sentenced to 300 days in county jail and four years' probation after pleading guilty to purchasing assault rifles with bogus money orders issued by Family Farm Preservation, a "patriot" group linked with the Posse Comitatus.

March 19, Arizona: Six members of the Arizona Viper Militia are sentenced to jail terms for conspiracy to make bombs. The

longest sentence is nine years. All had pled guilty. The number eventually increases to 10 who plead guilty. Two do not and

will go to trial.

March 21, Ohio: The FBI and ATF jointly post a $60,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of Aryan Nations

members Cheyne and Chevie Kehoe for shooting at police officers in Ohio in February. The Kehoe brothers are thought to

have fled back to their Spokane area origins.

March 21, Alabama: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously affirms the capital murder conviction of a "patriot,"

George Sibley, Jr., found guilty in the 1993 shooting death of an Opelika police officer. His common-law wife, Linda Lyon

Block, is also on death row for the same offense.

March 25, North Carolina: Dunn, North Carolina, resident Arvalee McLamb is fined $5,000 and sentenced to five months in

prison after pleading guilty to failing to file a federal income tax return. McLamb had ties to the Montana Freemen; he is also

charged in a federal indictment of various crimes committed in connection with James Vincent Wells and Montana Freeman

Russell Landers. McLamb and Wells belonged to an extremist group innocuously called 'The Civil Rights Task Force."

March 25, Kansas: Two Kansas residents are convicted in Tulsa for passing Montana Freemen checks. Bill and Karen

Hanzlicek were found guilty of conspiracy, bank fraud, mail fraud and passing a counterfeit check.

March 26, Florida: In Stuart, Florida, John Foster, is charged with obtaining $662,000 in bogus checks from the Montana

Freemen and using them to pay off the IRS and his mortgage company.

March 26, Ohio: In Columbus, Ohio, common law court activist Larry Russell is found guilty of escape and sentenced to 1 S

years in prison. He fled Ohio following a failed attempt to arrest him for driving without a license, after which he was charged

with assaulting a police officer and escape, but was arrested at the Alaska border and extradited.

March 27, Nevada: Nevada militia man Harry Tootle is convicted on charges of drawing a gun on a security guard, then

resisting arrest.

March 27, Arkansas, Missouri: Arkansas citizen Robert Joos is convicted of resisting arrest and carrying a concealed

weapon during a confrontation with Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers in 1994. The troopers were attempting to arrest

him near his church commune (the "Sacerdotal Order of the David Company") in connection with a 1987 misdemeanor

conviction involving a false court summons served to a trooper. Law enforcement authorities are still searching for Timothy

Thomas Coombs, wanted for shooting and seriously wounding a state trooper in retaliation for Joos' arrest.

March 29, South Carolina, Oregon: In Anderson, SC, Embassy of Heaven member Frank Lewis stages a seven day hunger

strike when arrested for driving without a license and operating an uninsured vehicle. This is one of many hunger strikes

staged by members of the group, which preaches against all forms of government interference. The Embassy of Heaven

issues fake drivers licenses, plates, and registrations for its members; these are purchased by people all over the country. In

late winter, Embassy of Heaven members are evicted from their "church" in Sublimity, Oregon, for nonpayment of county

taxes.

March 30, Michigan: Kalamazoo, Michigan, militia member Brendon Blasz is arrested and indicted on suspicion of making

pipe bombs and other illegal explosives. Blasz and his "small militia band" planned to bomb the federal building in Battle

Creek, an IRS building, a television station and federal armies, according to an affidavit by an informant. The Michigan

Militia claims to have expelled them in 1995.

APRIL

April 2, Washington, Idaho: The jury hearing Spokane bank bandits case convicts the three defendants on illegal weapons

charges and stolen vehicle charges, but deadlocks on the more serious bank robbery and bombing charges when a sole

jury member, sympathetic to the right-wing extremists, refuses to convict.

April 3, California: A Berkeley, California, woman, Mary Margaret Lund, is convicted of using bogus checks to purchase a

motorhome in January 1996. She passed more than $223,000 worth of bad checks.

April 5, Montana: Fourteen of the infamous "Montana Freemen" are hit with a 40-count indictment that will take the place of

earlier indictments against them. Charges include multiple counts of conspiracy bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, false

claims, threats to public officials and weapons charges. A second indictment charges eight people with helping fugitives

escape arrest.

April 7, Washington: Gary Kuehnol, one of the seven Washington militia/freemen charged with conspiracy (see above),

pleads guilty to a charge of transferring a machine gun to a federal informer. He will not face new conspiracy charges as a

result of the agreement. Another participant, Caitlin Hansen, earlier pled guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to

three years of probation. Six still await a new trial.

April 8, Montana: Pre-trial hearings begin for the Montana Freemen.

April 8, Washington: A Clark County, Washington, motorist is arrested with 2 loaded handguns, a bogus license plate, and a