Free Republic

Clint Van Zandt served in the FBI for 25 years, including about six as the agency's chief hostage negotiator. He was involved in many major negotiations, including with David Koresh, the leader of the so-called Branch Davidians, whose compound near Waco, Texas, was the focus of a 1993 siege by federal agents, which ended in the deaths of more than 80 people. Since retiring from the FBI, Van Zandt has run a corporate security firm. He spoke to High Country News by telephone from Virginia on Wednesday and Thursday. As of early Thursday, the FBI had arrested 11 people and...

One of the occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is dead after a shoot-out with federal and state authorities. Eight of the crew, including ringleader Ammon Bundy and his brother, were pulled over while driving to a meeting in a neighboring county. Five of the survivors, including the Bundys, have been arrested, and a sixth man was arrested in a nearby town. The officers had arrest warrants charging several of the occupants of the car with "conspiracy to impede or injure an officer," a less serious charge than "seditious conspiracy" but still good for up to six years. It's...

BURNS- OREGON STANDOFF SPOKESMAN ROBERT 'LAVOY' FINICUM WAS KILLED AND OTHER LEADERS OF THE MALHEUR NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE OCCUPATION WERE ARRESTED TUESDAY AFTER THE FBI AND STATE POLICE STOPPED VEHICLES ABOUT 20 MILES NORTH OF BURNS. AUTHORITIES DID NOT RELEASE THE NAME OF THE PERSON WHO DIED AT THE HIGHWAY STOP, BUT FINCICUM'S DAUGHTER CONFIRMED IT WAS FINICUM, 55, OF CANE BEDS, ARIZONA ONE OF THE COWBOY-HAT WEARING FACES OF THE TAKEOVER. 'DAD WAS SUCH A GOOD MAN THROUGH AND THROUGH,' SAID ARIANA FINCICUM BROWN, 26, ONE OF FINCIUM'S 11 CHILDREN. 'HE WOULD NEVER WANT TO HURT SOMEBODY, BUT HE...

With hashtags from #YallQaeda to #VanillaISIS, Twitter users are having a ball skewering the homegrown militia that took over a federal building in Oregon Saturday.... Twitter didn't stop at #YallQaeda, though. User Brian Powers posted a pic of a potbellied man in camo holding a rifle, along with the hashtag #mealteam6. Poking fun at both 1990s rapper Vanilla Ice and the Oregon militia's overwhelming whiteness, Steven English tweeted at one of the group's leaders, Ammon Bundy, saying, "#vanillaisis leader @Ammon_Bundy wants to start his own #cowliphate."...