Federal Bureau of Investigation tread softly as armed militia dig in

The bumbling band of armed desperadoes who have occupied a federal wildlife refuge in OR need a new federal address – prison.

Bundy told reporters he was fighting for freedom for the Hammonds, saying they were harassed for refusing to sell their ranch to the government.

Bundy told reporters he’s prepared to stay until the government turns the wildlife refuge land back over to county control. Although local and state leaders have condemned the group’s actions, militant leader Ammon Bundy said area ranchers have visited the compound to offer food and support.

The group, which calls itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, has vowed to remain in the building until federally owned land is returned “back to the people”.

An occupation of a remote USA wildlife center in OR by anti-government militiamen entered a fourth day Tuesday despite a local county sheriff and judge demanding that protesters peacefully end the siege, telling them: “It’s time for you to leave our community”.

Ammon Bundy is the leader of the occupation that took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge building.

Best known among the Bundys is Cliven, the family patriarch, a Nevada rancher who federal officials say has been illegally grazing his cattle on federal land for decades.

(AP Photo/Rebecca Boone). Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum speaks to reporters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, near Burns, Ore.

The group, which included a couple of women and some boys and girls Monday, did not release a copy of its demands and Ammon Bundy would not say what the group would do if it got no response.

Residents in the county’s largest towns – Burns and Hines – have said they agree with the activists’ message but take issue with their tactics, such as the armed occupation of government-owned buildings. A community meeting was scheduled for later Wednesday.

“I think they will wait a long, long time“, Moore said. “These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States”, OPB reported.

Once the community is “strong enough”, he said they can “defend themselves and then we can go home”.

“These guys are out in the middle of nowhere, and they haven’t threatened anybody that I know of”, said Jim Glennon, a longtime police commander who now owns the Illinois-based law enforcement training organization Calibre Press. Bundy said they would take a defensive position anticipating a possible raid.

Because Bundy and his band of domestic terrorists are white and Christian the mainstream media and government authorities have been reluctant to label these armed domestic terrorists for what they are: armed domestic terrorists. The FBI said it was seeking a “peaceful resolution to the situation”, but declined to give details.

But many said they viewed the occupation as mostly, if not entirely, the work of outside agitators, a sentiment echoed by Harney County Sheriff David Ward.

Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, the two ranchers who prompted the standoff and who have been sentenced to prison for setting fire to federal land, have also distanced themselves from the group.

In an earlier case, the federal government filed a 2012 complaint against Cliven Bundy for unlawful grazing on federal land after the family failed to comply with a 1998 order to remove their cattle from the disputed territory.