BILLINGS.....OR BEIJING? By J. Patrick Shannan Copyright 1996
(downloaded from Alaska)

Standing Army, Controlled News, and Suppressed Court Documents in Montana
are the U.S. Government's Latest Chapter of Tyranny

A Preview Distributed By The Fully Informed Grand Jurors Alliance

Reviewing the preview of Patrick Shannan's report on the Freemen Standoff,
I thought back about all the comments from jurors that I have heard over the years. They have reported being harassed by patrolmen, removed from jury deliberation for holding to their vote, regretful for following the judge's instructions, and one entire grand jury's no-bill was set aside and the jurors were replaced by another grand jury that would true-bill in one case in the West.

I've heard some terrible stories from jurors all over America. FIGJA has been trying to alert Americans about the judicial crises in America for some time. It is encouraging to see investigative reporters like Mr. Shannan verify our situation. It is just not in Montana, its all over America. We have a serious problem. It appears that the very people who want to uphold the Law of the Land are becoming more desperate and provoked by the pathetic abuse and contempt being displayed by the public servants elected to try cases in the courts. Its not just the civilians either, its also the law enforcement officers who are finding themselves without a way to peacefully resolve the unrest in America. It seems as though anarchy is being forced on America by the very ones who are elected to prevent it. But it is noteworthy to mention that the many bar associations in America deserve a great deal of the blame. I'll not go into a lot of the things I've discovered as the National Director of the Fully Informed Grand Jurors Alliance (FIGJA) here. I only wish to state the Mr. Shannan's observations about the judicial system are not far-fetched or unusual, and ask that everyone in America really try to understand what he has to say in his report...get involved...unite ourselves together as one voice to bring justice back to the courtroom and juryroom.

Historically, the grand jury was the solution for avoiding violent conflicts between hostile parties. Without it the only other way to resolve the matter was combat in most cases. The grand jury is also the people's check against tyrannical government. Today, the grand jury has become a rubber stamp, an "appellate" to summary judgments and decrees. The Freeman Characters in Montana had only wanted a true judicial grand jury all along. The fact that they have not gotten one should speak for itself, Americans. While some may think the Freemen's words will "disappear into the nether world," I contend that if the truth is spread far and wide about this story that the nether world may just be losing some inhabitants. Think about this next July 4th. ~Burk Elder; Hale, Third/FIGJA National Director.

The following is a preview of the new book by J. Patrick Shannan, an Investigative Reporter that has been investigating the Freemen Standoff since the beginning, spending many days on location. Shannan's report will be published in book format and will be available in August through Liberty Lobby and Peoples Radio Network. This preview is strictly intended to be distributed freely by all interested parties and may not be used for sales or promotions without the author's permission, for this preview is intended to address the current judicial crises in America by focusing on the recent events surrounding the Freemen Standoff, a serious circumstance that affects all Americans today, and time is of the essence. FIGJA encourages your support of Mr. Shannan and others like him who are endeavoring to awaken the Spirit of America in The People. In situations regarding government security, we journalists have found in recent years that there are always two stories. One is the who-what-where-and-why of the truth, and the other is the myth ~ the discombobulation reminiscent of the chuckles we used to emit from reading the distortion of facts flowing from the Soviet Union's news agency Isvestia. Its mission was always to glorify the government's position and its agents while demonizing anyone who might be an adversary.

Today in the USA, whenever we see information suppressed for "reasons of national security," we immediately perceive this actually to mean reasons of government security. When the reader becomes aware of the "five W's" of the Montana Freemen story, the facts propose a whole new perspective. We wonder how Dan Rather can justify calling them a "hate group" when after years of confrontation, there is yet to be a bloody nose or a black eye. Why is this a criminal matter instead of a civil one? Jerome Peterson was a Montana Freeman Character convicted of "willful failure to file" and served his time in federal prison in the late 1980's, but when he remained recalcitrant while on parole, he was sent to the government horror camp in Springfield, Missouri on what amounted to a life sentence: He would have to remain until he filed the forms demanded by the government, but in order to acquiesce to this invasion of his rights, he would have to violate his own religious laws. He died of cancer there in 1992. Clay Taylor is a 38-year-old sheep rancher in Garfield County, Montana and a twelfth generation American. On April 20, 1992, he and his wife Karen were threatened by an official of the Fish and Wildlife Commission with, "We will get you out of here, one way or another ~ if we have to kill you to do it." The officer's name is Chad Karges but he has since been transferred out of the area. Mr. Taylor has a friend with the Montana State Police who attempted to run a computer check on the license plate on the vehicle in which Karges was riding the day of the threat but found the number did not exist. A few weeks later, while returning in the evening from checking the sheep on their expansive property, the Taylors saw their home and most of their possessions and those of their children burn to the ground. Witnesses saw a cream-colored Dodge pickup from the F&WC in the area that evening but did not know of the significance until the next day. Karen Taylor filed a report with Sheriff Charles Phipps which has subsequently disappeared. The Sheriff's office denies any report was ever filed. Strange. Clay and Karen still have their copy of the last filing signed by Sheriff Phipps which dated him at 5:50 p.m. on October 25, 1992. In old time western fashion, friends and family rallied around the Taylor family that summer to help them rebuild. Ralph Clark had a problem in 1986. He was about to lose his farm in Garfield County, eighty miles west of the Taylor's ranch. Clark had reason to believe that a certain amount of duplicity was occurring between the bank plaintiff and the court but found little satisfaction with his numerous challenges over the ensuing years. Clark defaulted on several loans on his ranch but refused to pay when he noticed that the bank had "padded" his debt account by as adjusted figure of somewhere between sixty and one hundred thousand dollars. He declared the eventual foreclosure a "fiction" and refused to recognize it. When his property was sold at auction, he refused to move. It was destined to become the location of the now famous FBI standoff. A hundred miles south and at about the same time Clark's situation was reaching a crescendo, Dan Petersen, now 54, was discovering judicial duplicity on his own in the little town of Winnett. He had lent some $20,000 worth of Snap-On Tools to his son, who subsequently got a divorce and eventually got behind on the court-ordered alimony and child support payments. The son had his property confiscated by the sheriff to satisfy these bad debts. Part of this confiscation was the truckful of valuable tools belonging to the father. When Dan attempted to explain the truth to the sheriff, he was directed to the court. When he asked the court to return his goods, he was ignored. For redress of grievances, he sought remedy three times with the county commissioners, but this also proved fruitless. Dan Petersen's tools were sold to satisfy the debts of another. On the day of the sale, he noticed that the auctioneer was selling from the same list which he (Dan) had given in his own handwriting to his lawyer some weeks earlier, describing which items could not be lawfully sold. Word travels quickly in Garfield County. In a 9,000 square mile area about the size of Connecticut, there are about 1,500 people (and, most bothersome, but one licensed attorney ~ Nicholas Murnion ~ who handles civil matters for his own clients and, as county attorney, prosecutes criminal matters for the state. Back to him in a moment). Through the grapevine, it did not take long for Clark, Petersen, Taylor, and several others to begin commiserating with one another and to decide what to do about their problems. A coalition was formed, and soon others were eager to join them. They began an informal study group to meet periodically and examine the law. Similar study groups sprang up around the state, and the groups shared their newly found knowledge with each other. They soon discovered as a fact what long had been suspected: Those elected and appointed officials who had sworn oaths to obey the law were actually side-stepping those federal and state statutes designed to restrict their powers. With an in-depth study of the monetary system, the group learned of the immense power being held over the people by the banking cartel since the foisting of legal tender statutes by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. They realized they were living in the prophecy of Thomas Jefferson who 200 years earlier had said, "Whenever the public servants begin to be paid by something other than what the people produce, the roles of master and servant become reversed." Since June 24, 1968, when the Fed began to renege on its contract of redeeming legal tender notes in exchange for lawful money [12 USC 152 ~ "The terms 'lawful money' and 'lawful money of the United States' shall be construed to mean gold or silver coin of the United States."] on demand, the nation has been locked into a ballooning cage of credit. The farmers were being hoodwinked out of their land with fictional foreclosures. A few anointed plutocrats could manipulate the stock and commodity markets, create boom and recession ~ even war ~ at their own whims, and generally whipshaw the economy in any direction at any time they chose. Worse yet, through "deficit spending," the United States Government could and did expand the bureaucracy by hiring and arming more and more agents at the FBI, BATF, IRS, and CIA to force the people to obey whatever statutes were passed. The Constitution, which had been the product of the collective wisdom of the nation's founders in 1787-1791 and had united the states ~ written and ratified for the express purpose of limiting the national government's intrusion into the private lives of the people ~ had been circumvented by the chicanery of a select few. Still believing they were free, the people had actually become servants to the master government. While the natural range land reaction to the realization that one is being robbed likely might be to "get my gun and shoot the !@#$%." The cooler heads of the Montana group prevailed. Now armed with the same legal weapons being used against them, they embarked on their own legal ploy. If the Federal Reserve Bank, a private corporation owned by the bankers, could repay credit with credit, then so could anyone else, they believed. Barred from the local courts, [In an outrageous display of tyrannical power, Judge Kenneth R. Wilson of Miles City, Montana actually issued a written order to the Clerk of the Court in Garfield County barring the filing of any motions which might reek of a common law stand until the county attorney could examine the papers and decide if they were "acceptable" to the country. The Bill of Rights prohibits the denial of "equal access to the law" or "lack of due process." Yet without any adjudication of the matter, Wilson had arbitrarily acted on his own.] the group established "Freeman" status for themselves by rescinding all contracts with the state and federal agents and, in perhaps the boldest move of all in this year-long chess game, established their own lawful Township ~ naming it "Justus" ~ on the Ralph Clark ranch outside of Jordan, Montana. Following the rules laid out in Magna Carta, The Declaration of Independence, the national and state constitutions, and the Uniform Commercial Code, they believe this was done properly ~ even to the point of advertising in the county newspaper for the required amount of days. It would become the basis for their challenge to the jurisdiction of the FBI's surrounding of their township later. They established their own courts, and Clay Taylor was appointed a Justice of the Peace. Meanwhile, a local cropduster, who had been subjected to IRS harassment and confiscation of property which he termed "robbery," joined the research group's meetings at the Clark ranch. His name is LeRoy Schweitzer, now 57. Schweitzer and Petersen were not only the most articulate spokesmen, but both are excellent researchers and can quote more law from memory on the credit money subject than most lawyers even know where to locate in the lawbooks. The two became classroom instructors of the course and began to teach others the law in their monthly meetings. The Freemen say that they are the ones obeying the law and that the real villain of this story is Nick Murnion, the Garfield County Attorney. Schweitzer says that he was warned by one of Murnion's federal cronies two years ago that "if we ever get our hands on you, we're going to send you to Springfield for a chemical lobotomy." Schweitzer, Petersen, et al. Not only could never get satisfaction in the courts ~ their motions often times were sealed and ignored, if not dismissed; records mysteriously disappeared ~ but were later barred altogether by a court order from filing any motions at all [see previous note]. When the Schweitzer/Petersen spotlight of exposure began to illuminate too brightly in secret corners, a government attack was imminent. It said, to all of us paying attention, "If we can't stop'em legally, we will have to use force." To the rest of the world monitoring the nightly news, it said once again ~ parroting the government scripts from Waco and Ruby Ridge ~ "These people are a hate group who want to destroy the government." Very few Americans paused to wonder: could this be merely the voice of corruption, fearing exposure? Schweitzer and Petersen have repeated a hundred times over that they love their country, and if they hate anything it is the debauchery in the ungodly monetary system which has been foisted upon the nation by the banking cartel. The enemy's guns were too big, the judges too corrupt, and the juries too stacked with simpletons programmed to march to the beat of the judge and prosecution for an honest man to gain a victory in federal court. Instead Schweitzer and Petersen decided to fight fire with fire. They would use the Fed's own system against them. First they sued County Attorney Murnion, the Attorney General, political figures, various judges [Federal judges work for the corporate entity called "United States." In the event that the judge did not own enough personal assets to cover the lien, the corporate entity is liable. If the kludge had been upholding his sworn oath to defend and protect the Constitution, then the corporation would not be liable, and there never could have been a viable action filed.] and the United States Government ~ all of whom had been instrumental in thwarting the judicial process in the many cases of the Freemen ~ for violation of their oaths of office. They sued in their own court at the township, which the many defendants found frivolous and so ludicrous that they did not bother to even respond. The township's court then found them to be in default (after granting the defendants a grace period of double the allotted time) and granted judgment to the Freemen plaintiffs ~ in the total of some 17 trillion dollars. It was with these assets that the group later made an offer to Bill Clinton to pay off the national debt, a paltry four trillion or so. The next step was to secure the judgments with liens. When the judges and politicians found that everything they owned ~ cars, boats, homes, land, and equipment ~ no longer could be sold without first satisfying the debt, the situation was not quit so humorous anymore. They began to complain to the press and publicly call the liens "illegal" and the Freemen "criminals." However, no one from the media asked why, if the liens were illegal, it would not be a simple matter to have them legally removed. The only ones so far that have been removed were done so unlawfully. The Freemen say that sheriff's deputies have gone into some of the County Clerk's offices and ripped the pages from the record. Short of paying off the liens, this tyrannical fashion appears to be the only means available for getting them removed. The liens appear to be very lawful, indeed. LeRoy Schweitzer is a god-fearing Christian and, out of fear of appearing self-aggrandizing, mystic, or maudlin, is hesitant to tell how the next piece fits into the Freemen's monetary puzzle. Nevertheless, the fact remains: LeRoy had a vision one night. Just as surely as God gave the message to Joseph about the future of Egypt one night in a dream, LeRoy was delivered the message which would prove to be the coup de grace for the banking cartel. He leaped from the bed in the middle of the night and began to look up the code sections about which he had just dreamed, and began to write. By the time the sun was up he was talking with his fellow researchers over coffee, he was babbling like a schoolboy about his first love. When he had gone to sleep that night he had been bothered with the problem of how to convert the liens to actual bank credit. He will be convinced forever that it was God who explained the procedure of Controller Warrants to him and where to find them in the law.
A Controller Warrant is the same type instrument used by people in the livestock or grain business. They are called "drafts" and are drawn on somebody's line of credit. The Freemen had sued and gained a legitimate line of credit up to 17 trillion dollars with hard assets to back it up ~far better than the imaginary credit extended by the Federal Reserve and its 16,000 commercial banks around the country. Schweitzer picked up a batch of lien draft forms which were designated after the same forms used by the Federal Reserve Banks for credit/deposits, filled one in for seventy seven million dollars, and deposited it to his account. To everyone's amazement except his own, the draft deposit was cleared by the bank, and LeRoy's account was credited accordingly. He then began to write lien drafts payable to various banks and government agencies such as the IRS to satisfy imaginary debts which had been created from arbitrary assessments. Schweitzer believed in the Biblical Law of repaying a debt in double, which he did not covetously hog it all for himself. His goal was to expose the fraud in the Fed's credit money system. In every case, when the drafts were presented to the IRS and credit institutions for the extra amount, the original draft cleared and a refund for the difference was sent by check or credited to the senders account. Later, when the federal prosecutor and the news media began to accuse the Freemen of writing "bogus" checks, it was not as honest report. Until this issue is adjudicated in an unbiased court of law, the world cannot know whether or not the liens were "illegal" and the checks "bogus." Schweitzer and Petersen want it to be tried in an honest court because they know that, if all the facts can come out, they win--regardless of the outcome. Either what they are doing is legal and honest and the Freemen are a total of 17 trillion wealthier than they were, or else the whole system is illegal and the have managed finally to expose this fact to the American people. They already know that the latter is the correct answer to the question but realize that they must not sit in jail on any such criminal charge unless Alan Greenspan is their cellmate ~ a sentence they would joyfully serve, if it would free the American people from the stranglehold of fiat money and get gold and silver coin circulating in the starts again. While Nick Murnion has been accused of everything from sexual promiscuity to drug-running, no hard evidence yet has surfaced to prove such charges. However, prosecutorial misconduct may be more than just a hollow accusation. The following is a matter of court record. Murnion admitted on a recent "Hard Copy" TV show that "we couldn't really find a law they had broken...but then we found one." Bill Stanton, 65, a local rancher and self-declared "freeman," was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to the Montana State Prison for ten years, where he know resides, for the "crime" of "criminal syndicalism." [With typical journalistic innuendo, the Billings Gazette referred to this as "advocating terrorism," but Black's Law defines it as "Any doctrine or precept advocating, teaching, or aiding and abetting the commission of crime, sabotage, or unlawful acts of force and violence or unlawful methods of terrorism, as a means of accomplishing a change in industrial ownership, or control, or effecting any political change."] The problem that Murnion should have had with prosecuting under such a law was the blatant fact that this offense was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court twenty-five years earlier as being "unconstitutional." Bill Stanton was prosecuted under a non-existent law. When John Kieth, attorney for Clay and Karen Taylor on a different Freeman matter, appeared in court on December 21, 1995, he confronted Nick Murnion with the question, "How could you prosecute someone with a law that is no longer on the books?" Nick Murnion's arrogant reply typified that of a prosecutor interested only in convictions and not very much concerned with fairness and justice. Said he: "It worked, didn't it?!"
If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. ~ John Stuart Mill, 1859
Murnion and the U.S. Attorney appear to be grasping at straws. When Clay Taylor's unsigned name appeared at the bottom of a Justus Township Proclamation as "Justice of the Peace," Murnion prosecuted him for "impersonating a public servant." Numerous counts in the federal indictment signed by AUSA James Seykora accuse William Stanton of "obstruction of commerce," armed robbery, and using a firearm "in relation to a crime of violence." The indictment alleges that Mr. Stanton committed the crimes on October 2, 1995 at the Clark Ranch northwest of Jordan, Montana. At that time and for more than a year, Mr. Stanton had been locked up several hundred miles away in the Montana State Penitentiary. When that 51-count indictment came down from the grand jury in the fall of 1995 against twelve of the so-called "Freemen," [The name comes from "Freeman Character" as adopted by these Montanans when they separated from the corporate "United States." It was the same with the Colonists before and after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. One enemy of the American free men told the British Parliament in 1756, "...it is a formidable adversary to government. If the spirit is not tamed and broken by these happy methods (great emoluments from government, mentioned earlier in the text), it is stubborn and litigious. This study (of the law) renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defense, and full of resources...They augur misgovernment from a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze."] the group went into seclusion at Justus Township (previously formed at the Clark ranch) and refused to come out. The following March 25th, FBI agent, Timothy Healy (who had been posing as "Mike Manson" and a friend to the inhabitants by acquiring various pieces of equipment for them) lured Schweitzer and Petersen from the house to a remote corner of the property under the pretenses of having the two show Healy/Manson and four other workmen where to install a satellite dish Healy/Manson had provided. Schweitzer was grabbed from behind as he was leaning into the back of a pickup truck to retrieve something, and Petersen as immediately disabled by a zap of 150,000 volts from a stungun. The two men were taken to the Yellowstone County Detention Center in Billings and held without bond. Because the agents were acting without the benefit of an arrest warrant, "kidnapping" rather than "arrest" may be the more accurate term. An arrest warrant did not appear on the court docket until April 14th, three weeks after the fact. The next day's arraignment was a ridiculous charade, the transcript from which reads more like something out of Beijing than Billings. The professionals were reduced to the appearance of law students at a lecture, turning pages of the statute books struggling to keep up; as Schweitzer and Petersen quoted law from memory faster than the bank of attorneys at the prosecution's table could find the cites in the law books. The accused men challenged the federal jurisdiction and demanded a common law venue, citing The Eleventh Amendment, ["The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the united States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state." In a jurisdictional matter involving the Washington D.C. government's right to intervene, it was an excellent basis on which to begin.] numerous rules of procedure from the court's own federal code book, case law precedent, and Montana Constitution. The court's only response was to continually warn the accused men that they were being "disruptive" and were bordering on contempt of court. U.S. Magistrate Richard W. Anderson and Assistant U.S. Attorney James Seykora finally decided to continue with the arraignment as if the two men were not even present, ignoring everything that was said contrary to the court's agenda. When this didn't work either, because of the vociferous objections by Petersen especially, he was removed from the courtroom to watch the star chamber proceedings on a TV screen from a nearby holding tank. The Magistrate and AUSA tried not to take a breath but could not suppress the record as an undaunted LeRoy Schweitzer continued on behalf of himself and his friend and displayed his photographic mind as he cited in one lengthy burst Article 2, Section 24 of the Montana State Constitution, then Article 2, Section 23, then Article 2, Section 2. Hardly pausing Schweitzer then said, "And I am bringing in Rule 44.1, judicial notice of foreign law that brings in Rule 202 which binds the agents, and happens to be the United States of America corporation to the common law constitutions and statutes." When Schweitzer stumbled, which was not often, Petersen would pick up the cue and sink the shot. LeRoy said, "Bring up 2624...Uh ~ 624, that is not quite the code. Remember where they are bound." From the holding tank Dan's voice boomed over the courtroom speakers: "Oh! Where they are bound. It is 2-4-612 out of the Montana Code Annotated. And I am also relying on 26-1603 where all books printed with law are presumed correct." LeRoy announced, "is there any objection to a common law venue?" and nobody objected. "Okay, there's been no objection, therefore it is sustained, I hereby declare a mistrial." He then called for objections on that and there was none. "We had the case beat," he told me. From behind the glass at the jailhouse, I asked him, "Why did no one object?" He said, "Because they cannot object. Venue is the birthright. That's the religious stand, the practice of your faith. We have an 1830 law that says 'those who can't follow the laws of Jesus Christ, they had to create statutes for them.' Statutes is [sic] Baal worship. Ignoring all law spoken by the men in their own defense, without even bothering to look up the cites, Magistrate Anderson then said, "Pursuant to the government's motion, the court finds that there is no condition or combination of conditions I can impose which would satisfy the safety concerns of the community or guarantee the return of these defendants to this court if they are released." The safety of the community? In over fifty years of living, neither Schweitzer nor Petersen have been accused of anything more serious than a traffic violation. To cover the court's contended threat of flight by the defendants if they were released, Schweitzer offered to the court what must be the largest bond in history for his release ~ the full portion of a 700-billion-dollar lien on Congressman Pat Williams ~ and was turned down. Of course it was turned down. For the court to have accepted the offer would have been tantamount to agreeing that the liens were lawful. But in a court seeking justice, fairness, and truth, should this issue not be adjudicated first? As of May 13th, out of some one hundred motions and responses filed in the case, forty-six had so far been sealed by the court. The message of the freemen is being suppressed from the public. What does the government fear? Captured Freemen LeRoy Schweitzer and Dan Petersen say the reason is obvious: "The government does not want the people of America to learn of our lawful stand." They say, and a large percentage of Montanans concur, that the Fed's fictional credit system is hanging by a thread, and the plutocrats are horrified that the sunlight of Truth is shinning so brightly in their formerly darkened corner. Hence, this enormous show of power. AUSA James Seykora offers no comment on the subject. However, to any unbiased observer, the behavior of the court is perplexingly suspect. On May 23rd, friend of the Freemen Warren Stone, filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus and Affidavit in support of same with the Federal Court. The next day District Judge James M. Burns issued an order characterizing the document as "...a diatribe about claimed violation of the rights of LeRoy Schweitzer and Daniel Petersen arising from arrest and custody in Yellowstone County Detention Center. The document describes various ways in which the above-named defendant's rights have been and are being violated. The files of this case should not be cluttered with bunkum such as this. The Clerk is, therefore, ordered to return to Mr. Stone all further documents received May 23, 1996, from the file and directed to return to Mr. Stone all further documents received from him. Any further attempt by him to repeat this conduct may very well produce a citation for contempt of court." The "bunkum" to which Judge Burns referred were sworn affidavits by people who had visited LeRoy Schweitzer in jail, attesting to the physical evidence of his maltreatment; as well as Constitutional and supreme court cites which provide glaring legal support for the challenge to federal jurisdiction and the right of the FBI to even be on the scene. Far from a rambling "diatribe," Warren Stone's six-page document is a more lucid and discernible compilation defining the law ~ at least from the perspective of the accused ~ than the legalese usually compiled by attorneys. It commands adjudication, at the very least, and not scorn and immediate dismissal without further review. In the wee hours of the Saturday morning following the physical examination by his cousin the doctor, LeRoy Schweitzer's worst nightmare ~ the federal agent's warning of two years earlier ~ was coming to pass. He was whisked away by the U.S. Marshals in a C-141 jet for Springfield, Missouri. The report to the press was "for health reasons" because LeRoy had pledged to fast until he could appear before a common law grand jury. However, Dr. Michael Schweitzer, LeRoy's cousin and a medical practitioner in Billings, examined him and had pronounced him in good health only hours earlier. During the flight, he began to think of the threat by the federal agent some years before and the fate of Jerome Peterson when he had disappeared into the abyss behind the walls of the Springfield prison hospital. Prior to his swift removal, LeRoy had been visited by his two brothers at a Yellowstone County Detention Center in Billings. They had gone public with the story of beatings LeRoy had undergone since being incarcerated. In fear form their father's life, Brian and Brandi Schweitzer, fraternal twins aged 21, traveled to Springfield to visit, finally being allowed in on April 6th. The sworn affidavits of their experience suggest that if, indeed, LeRoy Schweitzer was sent to Springfield for "health reasons," the treatment was somewhat unorthodox. AS Brandi speaks of her father's ordeal, the text from the affidavit sounds more like a page from Alexander Solzhenitisyn's Gulag.
"He described in detail how the federal marshals put shackles around his ankles and wrists so tightly that he bled. He said they strapped him in a chair and kicked him in the legs, hit him in the face, grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head around, pushed in his ears with their fingers until he almost passed out, and pressed the backs of his fingernails. They turned down the heat in his cell, took his blanket and his mattress, and left him in only his T-shirt and pants."
On May 14th, after six weeks in Missouri, LeRoy Schweitzer was transported by marshals back to Billings and housed once again in the Yellowstone County Detention Center. During visiting hours the following day he told us more of his torture in Springfield. Against his will, he had been force-fed with a tube painfully inserted though his nose into his throat and warned that if he removed it, they would insert a larger one. Then, under the pretext of checking the progress/problems of this horror show, he was forced to submit to a daily overdose of X-rays, complaining that each prolonged treatment continued long after his chest began to hurt. One of the doctors then warned Schweitzer that if he persisted with his protests, they would inject him with cancer cells. Did Dan Petersen witness any of this maltreatment while LeRoy was in Billings? "No, but I did hear it. Because every time that it happened, we were in these holding tanks over here. He was screaming. Then Tom Hansen and I were in the next room to him downtown when the marshals were working him over at the courthouse." One of the young guards at TCDC pulled Dan's hair when he wouldn't voluntarily submit to having his picture taken. "I told him it just cost him everything he owns and everything he will ever own. Now that I showed some of the other guards what the law says, they all leave me alone." LeRoy said that when he returned from Springfield, several guards apologized to him for the earlier mistreatment at YCDC. As the siege at the Clark Ranch continued for more than sixty days, renowned author and documenter of government atrocities, Eustace Mullins, who in his own past has fallen victim to a dose of some of the above-mentioned medicine, speculated that "...Jordan, Montana may go down in American history as a name of equal prominence with Lexington and Concord, as the launching pad for the New American Revolution. Or it may join the tragic names of Ruby Ridge and Waco as the site of yet another vicious massacre of American dissidents." On May 29th, the large contingent of media personnel was removed from the scene. The FBI claimed that the two newsmen from Fox Television had attempted to enter the Clark house that morning and had been caught. [Fox correspondent Rita Cosby of Washington D.C. said that she and a colleague had walked to the fenceline, talked to two Freemen, and were given a written invitation to return for an interview. It was when she showed the note to the FBI that they were barred from returning because "it was considered too dangerous." Indeed, if the Freemen's message ever reaches the American people, it would prove to be catastrophic for the government.] The next day FBI officials banned all media from the scene, giving them until 9:00 p.m. that evening to get out. Fox news personnel screamed "Foul" at the same time their lawyers were headed straight to the federal court, but by mid-afternoon they had received an emergency order from the judge upholding the government's stand. The First Amendment notwithstanding, news media today apparently have to operate at the pleasure of the federal government. Meanwhile, Dave Rydel leader of the Michigan Militia told the FBI Team Leader Jim Cleaver that if he could go in and determine that the Freemen were not dealing in good faith, that the militia would pull out. Cleaver not only ignored the offer but refused to pass the information on to his superiors. On June 1st, the government moved in tanks and helicopters in preparation for either as assault or a massive bluff. Approximately 1,000 militia observers remained ion the area. There is much more to this story than the government would dare let the public learn. The Freemen are anxious for their day in court but are terrified of being railroaded in a government-controlled situation. How can we expect justice from Caesar in Caesar's court? Seems to be a justifiable concern for the Freemen who remember the lies told by agents in the trials and senate hearings following the Waco and Ruby Ridge debacles. The answer is, You can't. Schweitzer, Petersen, et al. Are living in a Fool's Paradise. The laws of the republic are on their side, but the democracy of Washington D.C. has taken over by usurpation and is calling the shots. Whatever lawful stand they might have had at one time will be shrouded now by these "crimes against the government." The Freemen's hollow screams will continue to echo through the marbled halls of justice and disappear into the nether world, as would those of a Mormon at the Vatican.