Posted on 10/13/2013 9:03:57 AM PDT by george76
The Obama administration has turned bureaucrats at environmental agencies into armed SWAT teams to conduct unprecedented raids on small mining operations for what used to be simple reviews of clean water permits.
That’s according to Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, chairman of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on energy and mineral resources, who held a hearing Thursday that examined the August raid of armed federal officials including the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicken, Alaska.
Lamborn said the “EPA SWAT team of heavily armed and armored agents conducted paperwork inspections on small mining operations, in what appears nothing more than an effort to intimidate and scare hardworking Americans.”
The armed bureaucrats were supposedly collecting water samples at the gold mines and included officials from the Alaska Department of Public Safety and federal agents of the EPA, Bureau of Land Management, Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Park Service, FBI, and Fish and Wildlife Service.
...
the raid was not on federal land, but on state mining claims on state land.
“We consider them raids,” said Sheldon Maier, president of Alaska’s Fortymile Mining District 29 where the incident occurred.
“It was a serious invasion,” Maier told the congressional panel.
The officials “charged in” to 30 different mining locations, refused to identify what agency they represented, climbed and “poked around” mining equipment, saying only that they were there to enforce the Clean Water Act, Maier said.
“Not withstanding this unacceptable show of force, we are used to getting inspected by state and federal agencies,” Maier said. “This is definitely not professional conduct of a law enforcement agent.”
“I’ve been mining for 22 years in the Fortymile,” Maier said. “We drink the water, we eat the fish, we care deeply for the land. We don’t want to see it ruined.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoloradoobserver.com ...
Oh, shaddup Sheldon. Be a patriot. This is all covered in the Patriot Act.
Criticizing is nice, now do something about it.
My guess is Lamborn is much like the rest, once he gets a little favorable press to help charm his constituents it will be back to the usual “servicing” of them.
Yep, the same kind of “servicing” my Grandfather's bull did with his cows.
There is no reason EVER that EPA bureaucrats should be armed. If they fear for their safety or that evidence might be destroyed let them get a court order and enlist the FBI or US Marshals.
It’s not just the EPA. Every department of the federal government has a SWAT team. Even the FDA? They used their JBTs to raid the clinic of the former editor of “Prevention” magazine, doctor Jonathan Wright, back in 1991. It was called the B Vitamin Bust.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Wright_%28physician%29
In 1991, the pharmacy adjacent to Wright’s clinic (which sold products prepared in a laboratory co-owned by Wright, also adjacent to his clinic) was raided by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for selling L-tryptophan, a supplement that had recently been banned from marketing after contaminated supplies were associated with eosinophilia–myalgia syndrome. After several months of investigations and difficulties between Wright and the FDA, a magistrate issued warrants to search the premises of Wright’s clinic and adjacent pharmacy. On May 6, 1992, FDA agents entered the premises by knocking down the door after employees refused to open it; one of the agents had a drawn gun, under the incorrect assumption that the “illegal drugs” referred to in the investigation were narcotics. Wright and his sympathizers distributed footage of the events, calling it the “Vitamin B-Bust”. In August of the same year, Wright was fined $850 for court costs and fees, and ordered to destroy his supply of L-tryptophan; a grand jury declined to criminally prosecute him for violating FDA drug laws.
Since when can they refuse to identify themselves? No official ID = get the hell out of my business.
Spread the word!
The FEDcoats are coming!
The FEDcoats are coming!
How many dogs did they shoot?
One day we will drown the EPA in their own Ethanol.
And all this time we have been told there was a government shutdown.
Guess the Jack Booted thugs didn’t get the memo.
When they are heavily armed and armored...
You know the only thing which will stop such behavior...holding the “men” on the scene responsible for their assertion of “justified” force.
“You know the only thing which will stop such behavior...holding the “men” on the scene responsible for their assertion of “justified” force.”
I was listening to a guy explain in a podcast that we have to stop thinking of these twerps as members of an organization but as individuals and treating them as such.
Why was the Coast Guard involved? WTH?
“Why was the Coast Guard involved? WTH?”
Raid Gold Mining Claims... it looked like a good time. That is my guess.
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