Oregon Standoff Leader Ammon Bundy, Others Indicted

Bundy was arrested last week with a handful of other occupiers while en route to a community meeting miles away from the refuge.

Ammon Bundy – a Mormon and the main leader of the refuge occupation -has said he was following divine orders when he and his followers seized the refuge January 2. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to impede USA officers, according to NBC News.

The group has occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for weeks, protesting federal land use in the Western United States.

Federal authorities are working to prevent similar situations at other federally-owned properties.

It also says the protesters recruited others in person and over social media to join their ranks beginning in November, and, in October, warned the sheriff of Harney County in the nearby town of Burns of “extreme civil unrest” if their demands were unmet, among other acts of intimidation. Among those named in the indictment are the protesters who were arrested last week during a botched traffic stop that left protester “LaVoy” Finicum dead under what some consider to be questionable circumstances.

Ammon Bundy, the leader of the group, was among the protesters jailed and charged.

PORTLAND (AP) – The government has beefed up security at national wildlife refuges in states south of OR as an armed standoff over federal land policy has created tensions in the region and shows no sign of ending soon. “You have already killed enough”, Bundy says in the 90-second recording.

Other wildlife refuges nationwide have been placed on alert, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday.

In addition to Bundy and the four holdouts at the refuge, those indicted include Bundy’s brother Ryan Bundy, Jon Ritzheimer, Joseph O’Shaughnessy, Ryan Payne, Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox, Peter Santilli, Jason Patrick, Duane Lee Ehmer, Dylan Anderson and Kenneth Medenbach.

For the past week, only four militants have remained at the refuge near Burns, Ore.

“One of the Federal Bureau of Investigation guys put a cellphone, one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation cellphones, in a auto up here that I picked up”, David Fry, 27, said. Hundreds gathered to protest and support the armed occupation of a national wildlife preserve.