Death threats from ranchers reported years before standoff

[struggle4progress]

By Denis C. Theriault | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on January 06, 2016 at 5:25 PM, updated January 06, 2016 at 10:36 PM

Years before the arson fires that sent two Oregon ranchers to federal prison — sparking an armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge — federal officials reported several death threats from the men ...

Earl Kisler, the special agent who arrested the Hammonds in 1994, detailed some of the death threats in a sworn affidavit soon afterward. The affidavit surfaced as part of the Hammonds' 2012 arson case but remained under a court seal as of Wednesday.

But in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Kisler confirmed the history of threats. He said the dispute over the fence grew so heated that he and his partner agent were called from Wilsonville to Harney County to serve as a "small protection detail."

"There had been so many threats against refuge people," he said. "They were trying to finish the boundary fence, and Dwight Hammond had vowed he wasn't going to let that happen" ...

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/oregon_militants_years_before.html

[villager]

1. Shit, I got threats from "Wise Use" types on my answering machine in the 80's, when I was doing

...enviro organizing here in the West.

No out outside eco-activist circles knew what was going on, or cared too damn much. But you knew it would keep metastasizing on the right...