Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Weekend Contributor
It appears that the militia groups who arrived in Nevada to support Cliven Bundy with his standoff against the Bureau of Land Management have become a cause of concern for some residents, workers, and businesses in the area surrounding Bunkerville.
Horsford talks Bunkerville militia presence with Rachel Maddow
KLAS-TV/News NOW (Las Vegas) reported on April 29th that hotels in Mesquite had suffered financial losses of more than $100,000 due to concerns about armed militia groups patrolling in the area. News NOW learned that Mesquite police were investigating death threats made to hotel workers following a bomb threat earlier in April.
Evidently, the threats multiplied as armed militia groups continued to pour into the area surrounding Cliven Bundyās ranch. One city leader in Mesquite said that āthe entire Holiday Inn Express was evacuated for hours following a bomb threat related to the Bundy sagaā¦ā News NOW obtained a police report which showed that the Holiday Inn Express had received at least nine threatening telephone calls after the hotel allowed BLM rangers to stay there. Hotel workers were told to kick out the BLM or they “would not be standing in the morning.” One hotel worker, who refused to go on camera, claimed that he was told by an anonymous militia member that he would be “dragged out in the parking lot and shot”.
“We are not a playground for armed militias,” Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said during a meeting with area leaders about the militia. Horsford said that he had been contacted by residents of his district who were concerned about the armed militia groups from out of state who were still present in their area. Horsford was told by residents that militia groups had set up checkpoints where residents must prove they live in the area before they are allowed to passā¦ā He was also told that they had set up a “persistent presence” along federal highways, and state and county roads.
Rep. Horsford wrote a letter to the Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie asking him āto look into complaints that militiamen had been present in Bunkerville-area schools and churches and had set up armed checkpoints on state, federal and county roads, seeking proof of residency from motorists.ā Horsford said in his letter, “We must respect individual constitutional liberties, but residents of and visitors to Clark County should not be expected to live under the persistent watch of an armed militia. Residents have expressed their desire to see these groups leave their community.” Horsford added that his constituents were being forced to āālive under the persistent watch of an armed militia,ā that answers to no particular authority other than its own, and is accountable to no one.ā He urged the sheriff āto work with local leaders to ensure that their concerns are addressed in a manner that allows the community to move forward without incident.ā
Note: A News NOW crew that was in Bunkerville last Tuesday said it did not find any roadblocks in the area āwith militia members checking on people trying to pass.ā
The StarTribune reported that Bundyās neighbors and local authorities have grown weary of the Nevada rancherās unresolved dispute with the BLM. Bundy has denied that any militia members had set up checkpoints on public property. A group of militia members, however, was reported to have stopped a neighboring rancher who was trucking cattle to Arizona. Bundy said the milita members were just helping his son. āThey wanted to ensure that Bundy cattle weren’t being rustled.ā
Militias’ Ongoing Presence in Nevada Creates Fear and Friction
Cliven Bundy’s Home on the Range (A Mark Fiore Video)
SOURCES
Concerns growing about militia members at Bundy ranch (KLAS-TV)
Businesses lose thousands in Bundy ordeal (KLAS-TV)
Congressman: Bundy Militia Has Set Up Road ‘Checkpoints’ In Nevada (Talking Points Memo)
Bundy Ranch ‘Militia’ Considered Using Women As Human Shield (Talking Points Memo)
Businesses lose thousands in Bundy ordeal (KLAS-TV/News NOW)
Neighbors grow weary of ‘militia’ remaining with Nevada cattle rancher in federal land dispute (StarTribune)
Nevada Congressman Seeks Probe Of Armed Militia Operations At Cliven Bundy Ranch (Reuters/Huffington Post)
Sheriff urged to clamp down on armed militiamen around BundyĀ ranch (Las Vegas Sun)
Bundy’s ”Militia” Is Lawlessness of a Different Color (Truth-Out)
Ongoing Militia Presence Raises Fears Among Locals Near Bundy Ranch (Southern Poverty Law Center)
NV lawmaker presses sheriff to probe Bundy militiamen (FOX 5/KVVU-TV)
Nevada lawmaker: Cliven Bundy supporters are setting up ācheckpointsā against residents (Raw Story)
The Dark Side Of Cliven Bundy’s Conservative Media-Approved Militia (Media Matters)
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Nick Spinelli
Thatās exactly how this nation was formed.
= = =
Over grazing rights?
Paul,
I think Eisenhower told us in his farewell speech what the main reason was for fighting in Vietnam, in violation of the Geneva Accords of 1954. The accords split Vietnam into two sections, until elections could be held. The US didn’t want elections because we knew that Ho Chi Minh would win any election. He actually came to us for help before going to the communists so the idea that the war was mainly to fight communism is spin. Corporations can always make money in war.
rafflaw – at the end of WWII, we should have stood on our hind legs and stopped all colonialism, or at least where they had already been kicked out. Truman, who I generally like, did us no favors there. He allowed the French to go back into Vietnam. There are a couple of fine military novels translated from the French about their experience in post-WWII Vietnam. I think that one of them is title “The New Centurions.” Probably out of print now but a good read.
synthetic rubber had been in use all through ww2. we were doing a lot with breaking up hydrocarbon chains in petroleum around that time. i think vietnam was mostly france trying to reclaim their colonies in the area. as a plus to the french it gave them something to do with some of the ex-nazis in europe. they ( the french) didn’t have work camps to send them to like the soviets did. i don’t think we had any real economic interests in the region other than stopping the spread of communism. (that worked out well didn’t it)
The Causes of the Vietnam War
From The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Ed. John Whiteclay Chambers II. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Copyright Ā© 1999 by Oxford UP.
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/causes.htm
Excerpt:
Most American wars have obvious starting points or precipitating causes: the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, the capture of Fort Sumter in 1861, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950, for example. But there was no fixed beginning for the U.S. war in Vietnam. The United States entered that war incrementally, in a series of steps between 1950 and 1965. In May 1950, President Harry S. Truman authorized a modest program of economic and military aid to the French, who were fighting to retain control of their Indochina colony, including Laos and Cambodia as well as Vietnam. When the Vietnamese Nationalist (and Communist-led) Vietminh army defeated French forces at Dienbienphu in 1954, the French were compelled to accede to the creation of a Communist Vietnam north of the 17th parallel while leaving a non-Communist entity south of that line. The United States refused to accept the arrangement. The administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower undertook instead to build a nation from the spurious political entity that was South Vietnam by fabricating a government there, taking over control from the French, dispatching military advisers to train a South Vietnamese army, and unleashing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct psychological warfare against the North.
SWM – what are your feelings on the New Black Panthers?
Paul,
Our interest in any war is more than one reason. Elaine is correct that synthetic rubber was in use at least during WWII.
rafflaw – would you like to state another reason why we entered Vietnam under Eisenhower?
feynman,
I believe synthetic rubber was used during WWII.
raff
a question..
If the Middle East is oil, is it fair to suppose that in Nam, between 1945 and 1954, our interest was rubber? Or had synthetic rubber already been developed?
Elaine is correct. However, our interest in Vietnam was stopping communism.
That should say elections would be held…
Paul,
The advisors were there to assist the South Vietnamese break away from Vietnam, even after we stated we would do nothing to break the Geneva Accords which stated that elevtionsbwould be held to unify North and South. And you forgot about the millions we were spending to support the French. We weren’t leaving Vietnam after that investment.
I expect AEI is polishing up a medal for Obama this very moment.
Annie,
I can’t keep up. I thought it was said that Nam was Truman’s fault. I mean there we were, cleaning up the war in the Pacific, occupying Japan, putting together the Marshall Plan, Europeans starving, why, oh why, didn’t Truman just pick a fight with France. I’m sure the troops wouldn’t have minded another six months or so before they got home. That Truman. What a wuss.
Paul, I read in the Boston paper today that the Kennedy School of Govt. gave old man Bush a Profile in Courage Award for raising taxes in 1990. What award did they give Clinton, Carville, etc. for eviscerating him. The Kennedy’s are such a crock o’ shit.
Yeah, those dolts in Bunkerville are real polite. Put the women and children in front to take the bullets. Stop townspeople at armed checkpoints, as if they have some sort of authority. Buffoons and loons with guns, real good combination.
rafflaw – the advisers were advising. We send advisers a lot of places, Columbia, for one. JFK ramped it up and Johnson really ramped it.
And he did it while holding meetings taking a dump.
Dems and Rep both did a great job screwing up Viet Nam, but any objective observer would admit LBJ both escalated it and micromanaged us into a quagmire.
Nick – well, the lose was all ours. š
Elaine – an armed society is a polite society.
Paul, Half of Hollywood said they were leaving if Bush got reelected. He did, they didn’t.
OK, all those in favor of overturning this government raise your hands, the NSA probably already knows your name and address. So speak up “patriots” don’t be shy.