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IxCimi

03/13/12 11:32 PM

#235065 RE: fuagf #235063

Every man has to decide for his fate for himself... I am not saying, and can NOT say I agree with every action. However, it is WRITTEN in our Constitution, the rules of engagement.

Break the contract, suffer the consequences.

I dare say if the rank and file of LE knew of fraud being commmitted against even them, they would drop the fraud and uphold Constitutional law.

Apparently you know nothing of pre-Independence history...

Each one of these acts, like those that came before them in the 1700's lead to a conclusion.

And that conclusion may be a division of tyranny from those who will not tolerate it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Boston#Early_skirmishes

I suggest before you attempt a weak, emotional argument, you read the pertinent facts...

IxCimi

03/13/12 11:33 PM

#235067 RE: fuagf #235063

All this means is you are a New Age Tory...

Quite alright.

fuagf

03/16/12 1:20 AM

#235256 RE: fuagf #235063

Quatlosers Hall of Shame .. Joe Banister ..

These special-editions Quatloos commemorates those who have
made a name for themselves in their particular business endeavors.



100 Q
Joe Banister

Our 100Q Woopoo chip commemorates notorious tax scam artists. Usually it isn't difficult
to figure out where these crooks are coming from, but occasionally there is the exception.

Alleged "former" IRS-CID agent Joseph Banister is a regular speaker at "tax protestor" events and has published the book "Investigating the Income Tax". In just a couple of years, Banister has emerged as the poster child of the de-tax gurus, appearing on national TV interviews -- where, amazingly, he admits that he himself reports and pays his income tax, although advocating to others that the payment of income taxes is "voluntary". Strange.

But it gets even stranger: Many of the "tax protestor" gurus are convinced that Banister is simply a plant and is still working for the IRS-CID in an attempt to infiltrate the de-tax industry. Pat Shannan, who lingers on the periphery of the tax protestor crowd, claims that Larry Becraft has warned that Banister is still an IRS-CID agent and a "Trojan Horse" to infiltrate the business. According to Shanna, Becraft purportedly told Bill Benson, "I don't care what he says, Bill, he's still a !@#$% IRS agent, and I don't trust him!"

Fellow Quatlooser Otto Skinner has proclaimed Banister to be an undercover IRS plant, see http://www.ottoskinner.com/ articles/ banister.html

Nobody even knows if Joseph Banister is this guy's real name. Few IRS agents use their real names when on duty, because of fear of retaliation by citizens whom they have crossed. And, Banister burst onto the scene in 1999 when the IRS was just realizing that it had a significant problem with tax protestors, so the timing is pretty suspicious.

Banister's website is http://www.freedomabovefortune.com where he sells The Banister Report and gives out his free report "Investigating the Federal Income Tax". Banister claims to have been inspired by fellow tax scam artists and Quatlosers Bill Conklin and Devvy Kidd. Banister seems to show up with Conklin and Kidd at speaking events, along with another Quatlooser, Bill Benson. We suspect Banister is one of two things: (1) an ex-IRS agent who figured out that he could make a lot more money selling de-tax books and stuff than he could working for the governent, and who believes that so long as he pays his own taxes the U.S. government can't do much about it as long as he throws in the appropriate disclaimers into his materials (which he does) and thinks that the suckers dumb enough to believe him get what they deserve; or (2) he is -- as many in the tax protestor movement suspect -- a plant. Our bet is on the first.

Otto Skinner says that Conklin and Banister are just flat wrong, see http://www.buildfreedom.com/ fiscal/ fifth_amendment.html

///////////////////////////////////////////////
Banister Acquitted

On June 23, 2005, a jury acquitted Joe Banister of multiple counts of assisting Al Thompson file a fraudulent tax return. Banister's position was that as a then-member of the federal tax bar (he has since been disbarred) he was privileged to assist Al Thompson in preparing what is known as a "protest return".

Al Thompson, one of the USA Today posterboys for Bob Schulz's We The People organization, was convicted of failing to withhold paychecks from the employees of his Cencal Aviation, and is currently serving a six-year sentence. The Banister acquittal will not help Thompson's appeal.

Interestingly, Banister's attorney admitted that Banister had been paying his federal income taxes (which was apparently why he was not charged with tax evasion), and repeatedly referred to Al Thompson as a "liar" and "convicted felon".

Contrary to the claims of some tax protestors, this case did not even involve the question of the liability for federal income taxes, and did not in any way establish a right to not file tax returns or pay taxes. But with the tax protestor movement losing many significant cases in recent months (Meredith, Simkanin, Thompson, etc.) they'll grasp at even straws.
///////////////////////////////////////////////
__________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Patty
Pontello, 916-554-2706

November 18, 2004
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae/home

CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT AND REDDING BUSINESS

OWNER CHARGED IN TAX CONSPIRACY


SACRAMENTO--United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott and IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Roger L. Wirth announced today that a federal grand jury has returned a seventeen-count indictment charging JOSEPH BANISTER, 41, of San Jose, California and WALTER A. THOMPSON, 57, of Redding, California with multiple tax crimes.

BANISTER and THOMPSON each are charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States by impairing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service with regard to approximately $259,669 in income and employment taxes during the period of July, 2000 through December 31, 2002. In addition, BANISTER is charged with three counts of aiding and assisting the filing of false tax returns for THOMPSON for the 1996, 1997 and 1998 tax years.

In addition to the conspiracy count, THOMPSON is charged with two counts of filing false claims with the IRS, one count of filing a false income tax return with the IRS, and ten counts of willfully failing to collect and pay over approximately $176,215 in taxes from the wages and salaries of employees.

This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Special Agents.

According to Assistant United States Attorneys Robert M. Twiss and Carolyn K. Delaney, who are prosecuting the case, the indictment alleges that THOMPSON owned and operated Cencal Sales ("CENCAL"), an aviation flight bag manufacturing business located in Shasta Lake, California. CENCAL employed a number of hourly wage workers who were predominantly seamstresses, production managers or office workers.

BANISTER, a Certified Public Accountant ("CPA") and former Special Agent in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service, is alleged to have entered into a conspiracy with THOMPSON to remove employees of CENCAL from the taxpayer rolls by no longer withholding employment taxes from wages and salaries, not filing Employer's Quarterly Tax Returns, Form 941, and not providing the employees or the IRS with annual wage or other income statements, Forms W-2 or 1099, as required by law.

The conspiracy count alleges that on July 21, 2000, THOMPSON falsely advised CENCAL employees that the compensation which they received in return for their labor was not "income" within the meaning of the internal revenue laws and that they were not required to pay individual income taxes on the compensation which they received from CENCAL. THOMPSON stopped withholding income and employment taxes from his employees in July of 2000, and stopped filing Employers' Quarterly Tax Returns and Forms W-2 at the same time.

The indictment further alleges that there was a second meeting on October 11, 2000 at which THOMPSON and BANISTER again falsely advised CENCAL employees that the compensation which they received was not "income" and that they were not required to pay individual income taxes on those wages. BANISTER assured the employees of CENCAL that THOMPSON would not lie to them regarding the tax issues.

The indictment further alleges that BANISTER prepared false Amended Individual Income Tax Returns, Forms 1040X , for THOMPSON and his spouse for 1996, 1997 and 1998. THOMPSON had filed returns for these three years, reporting over $300,000 in total income for the three years and substantial taxes. The amended returns purported to reduce the amount of income and tax in each year to $0, and sought refunds of approximately $65,000 for 1996 and 1997, and to eliminate a tax liability in the amount of $15,500 for 1998. THOMPSON signed and filed the fraudulent amended returns with the Internal Revenue Service at the Fresno Service Center.

Ten counts of the indictment charge THOMPSON with willfully failing to deduct, collect, account for and pay over to the IRS those federal income and employment taxes due on the wages paid to the employees of CENCAL between July 1, 2000 and December 31, 2002.

"The blatant and far-reaching defrauding of honest taxpayers by these two individuals warrants an aggressive federal prosecution. This case should serve as a stark reminder to our citizens that caution should be heeded when approached by those advocating wild theories as to why one does not have to obey federal tax laws," stated United States Attorney Scott.

"Joe Banister, a former IRS agent, knew exactly what he was doing. Tax professionals and employers who break the law will be held accountable," said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson.

According to IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Roger Wirth, "Taxpayers shouldn't be taken in by false descriptions of the law or misrepresentations of the facts. Dozens of taxpayers were adversely affected by the actions of Mr. Banister and Mr. Thompson."

If convicted of all counts with which they are charged, the maximum penalty to which defendant BANISTER could be sentenced is imprisonment for 14 years and a fine of $1,000,000. The maximum penalty to which defendant THOMPSON could be sentenced if convicted of all counts is imprisonment for 68 years and a fine of $3,500,000.

The charges are only allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
__________________________________________________________________

CPA’s Appeal of Disbarment Denied

IR-2004-93, July 13, 2004

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department has denied the appeal of Joseph R. Banister from an administrative law judge’s decision that Banister be disbarred from practice before the Internal Revenue Service. Banister is a Certified Public Accountant from San Jose and former IRS criminal investigation agent.

The IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, in a complaint against Banister, alleged that he was misrepresenting the law to taxpayers and that he failed to file his own federal income tax returns for tax years 1999-2002. OPR investigates allegations of disreputable conduct and incompetence against tax practitioners and enforces the standards of practice for those who represent taxpayers before the IRS, as detailed in Treasury Department Circular 230.

Judge William B. Moran in a Dec. 24, 2003, decision found that Banister provided erroneous advice to taxpayers, including improperly advising them that returns were not required because Sections 861 through 865 of the Internal Revenue Code define “source of income” in a manner which excluded the income of U.S. citizens residing in the U.S. from U.S. tax. Banister also provided erroneous advice that they were not required to file returns because the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was not properly ratified. The original complaint against Banister was later amended to charge Banister with not filing his own returns for tax years 1999-2002.

Banister filed an appeal of the judge’s decision with the Department of the Treasury, citing numerous alleged errors. In a decision dated June 25, 2004, David F.P. O’Connor, acting under a delegation from the Secretary of the Treasury, affirmed Judge Moran’s decision regarding erroneous advice to taxpayers. O’Connor found that the Office of Professional Responsibility had not met its burden of proof with respect to the charge that Banister had failed to file his own returns. He did not send the case back to Judge Moran for further proceedings, during which the Office of Professional Responsibility could have introduced the required additional evidence, because O’Connor agreed with Judge Moran that the charges related to erroneous advice to taxpayers alone warranted disbarment from practice before the IRS.

In rejecting Banister’s claim that his advice to clients was protected speech, and that sanctions under Circular 230 should not restrain zealous advocacy on behalf of taxpayers, O’Connor said “zealous advocacy does not constitute license for the assertion of frivolous positions.” O’Connor noted a number of court decisions in which Banister’s positions on Section 861 and the 16th Amendment have been rejected. He agreed with the spirit of Judge Moran’s statement that “the 861 argument and the non-ratified Sixteenth Amendment argument share a related lunacy in that, for differently concocted reasons, neither accomplishes the presumed goal of creating a Federal income tax on U.S. citizens.”

In addressing the charges related to Banister’s failure to file his own tax returns, O’Connor found that the Office of Professional Responsibility had not met its burden of proof. The missing element was evidence that Mr. Banister had gross income sufficient to trigger a filing obligation in each of the cited tax years.

O’Connor considered and rejected a number of claims that Banister raised regarding the fairness of the discipline process and his opportunity to present his case to the Administrative Law Judge. As a result of this decision, Banister has been disbarred from representing taxpayers before the IRS. He may appeal the decision to U.S. District Court.

Links on IRS.gov:

Banister Appeal Decision — http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/bannister.appeal.decision.pdf

IR-2004-5 — Judge Grants Request of IRS Office of Professional Responsibility to Disbar CPA; http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=119380,00.html
__________________________________________________________________

Thurston Bell says Joe Banister is a Scam Artist

from http://www.nite.org/docs/academic-deficiency.

Notice of Academic Deficiency

5.12.2001

There just seems to be an endless number of people out here on the internet, who, without credentials, positive accomplishments, or evidence of prior experience or knowledge of their work on the Internet, and who also believe that they have some argument "worthy" of hearing by the federal courts, will ask that YOU send them some money. There are in fact SO MANY of these people, that I could spend every day for the rest of my life arguing against and exposing them. This will do nothing but serve the wishes of the Treasury Department.

I have to learn to trust that individuals can be responsible for themselves, can show prudence, and judge that which is sent to them over the World Wide Web.

When it comes to IRS lawsuits, I can only share a few points of certainty regarding the issues of lawsuits.

A: The Federal Courts do NOT want to rule in YOUR favor because;

B: No Federal Judge wants to be the Federal Judge who collapses the House of Cards known as the Economic Stabilization Program.

C: The Government and the Judge will use Rule 12(b)(6) to throw your case out at the drop of a hat. That rule is: Failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted.

D: The Courts and the Government will look for the weakest point of your argument and they will rule on that one and ignore the rest of the issues.

So, if someone is sending an e-mail regarding wanting money from you to help support a case where there is no specifically damaged plaintiff and there are multiple arguments, I will not respond to such e-mails.

If you are seriously considering spreading news of or financially supporting the ideas of such people who have discovered the Internet as a means of conning people out of money, instead of sending me their e-mail please write back to them and ask them what their credentials are, what results have they had, what is their area of expertise and experience, and do they have references from anyone that you might hold in esteem.

This how the Establishments of Academia control discussions and discourse. (References are important.) And believe me folks, if someone out there was doing something that you needed to know about, I would have told you already. And if they don't have the guts to come to me directly and seek counsel with people like me who have results, they certainly are NOT worth your time and effort.

Thurston P. Bell
Founder

PLEASE NOTE:

NITE has VERY strict standards about following the letter of the Law. The people and organizations listed below use arguments that the courts have already deemed frivolous, and make all sorts of claims with no results to show for themselves. While some have truth mixed in with lies, there is just enough truth to get people tangled into their web. [my emphasis] Some of these people are academic plagiarists who have been using NITE's work product and claiming it as their own and / or intermingling our argument with frivolous res judicata patriot arguments. Many of these people / organizations are networked (i.e. working together). A few of them are SHAM trust salesmen / women. Therefore, we can truthfully say that from our experience and first hand knowledge, the following people are "Snake Oil" peddlers and / or CON-men/women who do not deserve your trust:

Al Adask;
Al Beyer;
Al Thompson;
American Rights Litigators;
American Tax Consultants;
Barry Konicov;
Big Al;
Bill Benson;
Bill "William" Conklin;
Bill Drexler;
Bob Schulz;
Brad Barnhill;
Bruce Hatcher;
Chad Prater;
Christopher H. Hansen;
Christopher M. Hansen;
Dale Livingston;
Dan Meador;
Dave Bosset;
Dave Champion;
Dennis MacPhaeddon ;
Devvy Kidd;
Dick Simkanin;
Don Proctor;
Ed Akehurst;
Eddie Kahn;
Ed "Eduardo" Rivera;
Edmund Fitzsimmons;
Erwin Rommel School of Law;
Fairtax;
Financial Fortress;
Financial Prosperity;
Freedom Above Fortune;
Freedom Hall;
Freedom Law School;
Free Enterprise Society;
Gordon Phillips;
Howard Freeman;
Inform America;
Institute of Global Prosperity;
IRS Decoder;
Inhabitant;
Irwin Schiff;
Jeff Dickstein;
Jack Cohen;
Jim Deal;
John Feld;
John Gliha;
John Hecht;
John B. Kotmair;
Joseph Banister;
Joy Foundation;
Justin Garriott;
Ken "The Hornet" Hunter;
Lamar Hardy, Hawaii;
Larry "Lowell" Becraft;
Law Research Registry;
Les Hollingshead;
Lynda Wahl;
Lynn Meridith;
Marcia Doerr;
Mel Stamper;
Pat Patton;
Paul Lienthall;
PreferredServices;
Richard Cornforth;
Richard Standring;
Right Way Law;
Save-A-Patriot Fellowship (SAPF);
Sean O'Hara;
Solutions Group;
Steve DeLuca (S.T. Fitzgerald, Thomas Luca, other alisases)
Steven Swan;
Steven Beresford;
Supreme Law Firm;
Tax Ax;
Taxgate.com (NOT Tax-Gate.com);
Tax Statement;
The Informer;
Tom Scambos;
Tom Smith (Alleged Doctor);
Treasury Tax Secrets;
Virginia Cropsey a/k/a Little Red Hen
Wallace Institute ( A Disgrace to William Wallace and Clan Wallace);
Wayne C. Bentson
"We The People Foundation"

Review Pending
Paul Sulla, Attorney

People who do not seem to understand have not seen as many people as Mr. Bell has seen, get hurt. They lose their property, jobs, paychecks, and / or families. They obviously do not have the discernment to understand how vitally important this issue is, and how we MUST stay on point or lose.

There is no room for those who claim it is their 1st Amendment Right for supporting people who are espousing such res judicata arguments. The courts and the Kotmair case made it clear. Guilt by association is NOW supported by CASE LAW.
__________________________________________________________________

Thurston Bell says those who follow Joe Banister's advice will be convicted of tax evasion:

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Thompson [mailto:AlThompson@cencal.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 6:23 PM
To: JohnFeld@Taxgate.com
Subject: Fw: indictments against business owners who follow Banister

--
Al Thompson
Cencal Aviation Products
http://www.cencal.com
http://www.flightbag.com
800 423-6225 International 1 530 275-0667
Fax 530 275-0837

----- Original Message -----
From: Desk of Thurston P. Bell
To: Al Thompson; dick@arrowplastics.com
Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 2:49 PM
Subject: indictments against business owners who follow Banister

Dick and Al:

In response to the Feb 10 David Cay Johnston article regarding the threats of prosecution against business owners for tax evasion, NITE is going public to advocate for Nick Jesson of NTD Electronics. We should have great success with Nick's case since he has stuck with my arguments since the very beginning and has not wavered.

Joe Banister's arguments are doomed to fail in the courts and those who follow his ideas are doomed to face criminal tax evasion charges. In consideration of the fact that you have used NITE arguments in the past, I would like to afford you another opportunity to work with my method. My retainer cost is $25,000 since I have the only argument that will keep you out of jail. My only other condition is that you renounce Banister and everyone else with flawed arguments and stick to my guns.

Feel free to contact me regarding this, but I advise you to move swiftly because NITE will be moving very soon on this.

Thurston Bell

http://www.quatlosers.com/joe_banister.htm

See also .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=73246015

Joe Bannister, scam artist, great role model for every American boy. Just homework. Just learning stuff.

fuagf

03/18/12 9:15 AM

#235404 RE: fuagf #235063

Sherry Peel Jackson Makes a Bad Situation Much Worse

Postby Dr. Caligari » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:03 pm

Assuming this email (posted at Cornforth Strategies) is real, Sherry is about to make a bad situation a lot worse:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday in federal district court I filed a 90 paged Collateral
Attack by Commercial Affidavit against the judgment set against me.
I can't go into a lot of detail but:

1. I fired all the lawyers December 28, 2007. They had no part
in this filing. I obtained Godly Counsel.
2. The filing went to 15 different people including the president,
secretary of state, attorney general, treasury secretary, appellate
court and more.
3. Prior to the filing I filed in the local county courthouse my
Nunc Pro Tunc, severing all adhesion contracts with government and
waiving all their benefits.
4. They do not have subject matter jurisdiction nor in
personam jurisdiction and I will no longer step foot on federal
property/federally controlled property.
5. I will not be attending any sentencing.

18 USCS 4100 (c) "an offender shall not be transferred to or from
the United States if a proceeding by way of appeal or collateral
attack upon the conviction or sentence be pending."

This is a BOLD move. I was lied on; I was mislead; I was not
represented but was re-presented to a court that is no longer
under the Constitution of our United States . Please pray for me
and my family.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pray for her family, indeed. If the judge had any thought of giving her less than the maximum sentence, he will now likely change his mind.
Dr. Caligari
(Du musst Caligari werden!)


Dr. Caligari
First Mate and Ships Surgeon

Posts: 1980
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 11:02 pm
Location: Southern California

more .. http://www.quatloos.com/Q-Forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2013

Please note: Sherry Peel Jackson is number 2 on the list ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=73246015

Hope all are happy, healthy, and wiser each day, actually there is a tiny feeling some
may be getting wiser .. i am thanks to some here .. chuckle .. am grateful for that.

fuagf

03/25/12 11:03 PM

#235715 RE: fuagf #235063

Sovereign Citizen Gets Five Years For Trillion-Dollar ‘Paper Terrorism’ Scheme



Jillian Rayfield December 14, 2011, 3:23 PM 1638 37

A so-called sovereign citizen in New York was sentenced to five years for mail fraud after a “paper terrorism” scheme that involved sending bankers and public officials fake bills and liens worth trillions of dollars.

Richard Ulloa of Ulster County, New York received the sentence on Monday for several mail fraud charges, related to a scheme that involved filing around $4 trillion in liens and bills against public officials, including police officers, judges, and other county employees.

“I lost a job, I lost a business and I lost property,” Ulloa told federal Judge Thomas McAvoy on Monday. “I have lost more than anybody else.”

“Somewhere along the way, you decided to follow the voice of the sovereign citizens,” McAvoy said. “You did that with reckless disregard and evil intention.”

Sovereign citizens often engage in what’s called “paper terrorism” when confronted with law enforcement officials, which usually involves filing fake liens or bills against officials, and effectively ruins their credit.

In Ulloa’s case, the Middletown Times-Herald Record .. http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111212/NEWS/111219948 .. reports:

It started in late 2008, when he fell behind on mortgage payments and Mid Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union began foreclosure proceedings on his home on Ridge Mountain Road.

Ulloa countered by sending a “criminal complaint” to the bank, and demanding that bank executives pay him $46 million. He then followed up by filing a $2.8 billion lien against bank CEO Bill Spearman and other MHVFCU executives.


Ulloa also filed fake liens and bills against police officers and other
county officials involved in processing several traffic tickets he had received.

In addition to the five years, Ulloa was ordered to repay the county $63,401.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/sovereign_citizen_gets_five_years_for_trillion-dol.php

Yup, it's "incremental" alright. What the heck the whole legal
structure of the US has been illegal for some 140 years, anyway.

fuagf

03/25/12 11:15 PM

#235716 RE: fuagf #235063

Working Class Man



Good WCM do not indulge in multi-million dollar paper scams, even if it's
based on a so called 'sovereign citizen' taxes are illegal, anyway, philosophy.

"Thank you, very much."

fuagf

03/26/12 2:23 AM

#235741 RE: fuagf #235063

Extremism in America .. Sovereign Citizen Movement

Origins: Çirca 1970; fully developed by early 1980s
Ideology: Anti-government, some white supremacist elements
Outreach: Vigilante courts, seminars, shortwave radio, the Internet, "schools of common law"
Notable Episodes: 1996 Montana Freeman standoff; 1997 Republic of Texas standoff Tactics "Paper terrorism," including frivolous lawsuits, frivolous liens, fictitious financial instruments, fictitious automobile-related documents, and misuse of genuine documents such as IRS forms; various frauds and scams
Hot Tactic: "Redemption" (see below)

The "sovereign citizen" movement is a loosely organized collection of groups and individuals who have adopted a right-wing anarchist ideology originating in the theories of a group called the Posse Comitatus in the 1970s. Its adherents believe that virtually all existing government in the United States is illegitimate and they seek to "restore" an idealized, minimalist government that never actually existed. To this end, sovereign citizens wage war against the government and other forms of authority using "paper terrorism" harassment and intimidation tactics, and occasionally resorting to violence.

2010 UPDATE: On May 20, 2010, two West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers were killed and two Crittenden County sheriff’s officers wounded in two linked shootouts involving an anti-government sovereign citizen with ties to Ohio and Florida.

The sovereign citizen, Jerry Kane, was a “guru” in the movement who traveled around the country, often with his teenaged son Joseph, holding seminars in which he would teach his anti-government conspiracies and pseudo-legal “solutions.” Kane specialized in a set of sovereign citizen theories called “Redemption;” .. http://www.adl.org/mwd/redemption.asp .. he told audiences that his theories could get them out of their mortgages.

Kane and his son were apparently returning from a seminar he advertised for mid-May in Las Vegas when their vehicle was pulled over by West Memphis Police Department Sergeant Brandon Paudert and Officer Bill Evans, who were engaged in a drug interdiction exercise along the interstate. The Kanes allegedly got out of the vehicle with firearms and opened fire on the two officers, killing them both. They drove off.

An hour and a half later, an extensive manhunt located the vehicle at a Wal-Mart parking lot. As police closed in on the vehicle, a second shootout occurred. During this shootout, Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby was shot in the arm and Deputy W. A. Wren received a serious wound to the abdomen. Jerry and Joseph Kane were killed in the return fire.

The tragic incident occurred during a rise of sovereign citizen activity nationwide in 2009-2010. In two incidents in April and May, a Tennessee sovereign citizen, Walter Fitzpatrick III, and a Georgia sovereign citizen, Darren Huff, were arrested in connection with attempts to make “citizens” arrests of various local officials in Monroe County. In April 2010, a sovereign citizen group calling itself Guardians of the Free Republics issued ultimatums to all 50 governors to vacate their offices within 72 hours.

Introduction: A Letter from Michigan

In April 1992, an angry resident of Sanilac County, Michigan, wrote a letter to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources stating he was no longer a "citizen of the corrupt political corporate State of Michigan and the United States of America" and was answerable only to the "Common Laws." He therefore expressly revoked his signature on any hunting or fishing licenses, which he viewed as contracts that fraudulently bound him to the illegitimate government of Michigan.

That obscure Michigan hunter would, three years later, become known to the entire world. He was Terry Nichols, friend and accomplice of Oklahoma City Federal Building bomber Timothy McVeigh. Nichols subscribed to an unusual right-wing anti-government ideo-logy whose adherents have in recent years increasingly plagued public officials, law enforcement officers and private citizens with a variety of tactics designed to attack the government and other forms of authority. Its members call themselves, variously, consti-tutionalists, freemen, preamble citizens, common law citizens and non-foreign/non-resident aliens (Nichols used several of these), but most commonly refer to themselves as "sovereign citizens."

Members of the sovereign citizen movement engage in a variety of seemingly bizarre activities. Nichols, for instance, several times repudiated his allegiance to federal and state governments. He tried to pay a credit card debt with a fictitious financial instrument called a "certified fractional reserve check." Brought into court in Michigan in 1993, he refused to walk to the front of the courtroom and denied the court's jurisdiction over him. Even when he wrote addresses on letters, Nichols made sure to use the abbreviation "TDC" to indicate that he was using the federal zip code under "threat, duress and coercion." These exhibitions of behavior might seem odd or even humorous, but the same ideology that led to those activities also helped lead Terry Nichols to assist Timothy McVeigh in building a bomb that would kill 168 people and injure hundreds more. By then the sovereign citizen movement to which Nichols subscribed had embarked upon a nationwide resurgence that would last into the 21st century; its anti-government activities would cause problems in every region of the country.

Origins: The Posse Rides Again

The key distinguishing characteristic of the sovereign citizen movement is its extreme anti-government ideology, couched in conspiratorial, pseudohistorical, pseudolegal and sometimes racist language. Many extremist movements in the 20th century have been anti-government in the sense that they opposed governmental policies, but few have been so purely anti-government that they challenged its very legitimacy. In fact, a number of extremist movements, from the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s to the anticommunist groups of the 1950s and 1960s, attempted with some success to ally themselves with government.

However, beginning in the late 1960s, a number of right-wing fringe groups formed that questioned the authority and nature of the federal government. Most grew out of a recently emergent right-wing tax-protest movement: arguments about the illegitimacy of income tax laws were easily expanded or altered to challenge the legitimacy of the government itself. The most important of these groups was the Posse Comitatus,1 which originated in Oregon and California around 1970.

Members of the Posse Comitatus believed that the county was the true seat of government in the United States. They did not deny the legal existence of federal or state governments, but rather claimed that the county level was the "highest authority of government in our Republic as it is closest to the people." The basic Posse manual stated that there had been "subtle subversion" of the Constitution by various arms and levels of government, especially the judiciary. There was, in fact, a "criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice, disfranchise citizens and liquidate the Constitutional Republic of these United States."

The Posse wanted to reverse this subversion and "restore" the Republic through

(1) unilateral actions by the people (i.e., the Posse) and (2) actions by the county sheriff. The sheriff, they argued, was the only constitutional law enforcement officer. Moreover, his most important role was to protect the people from the unlawful acts of officials of governments like judges and government agents. Should a sheriff refuse to carry out such duties, the people (i.e., the Posse) had the right to hang him. In fact, the two most prominent Posse symbols became a sheriff's badge and a hangman's noose.

The Posse reached its peak in the early 1980s when a farm crisis in the Midwest allowed Posse leaders to recruit among angry and desperate farmers. By this time Posse ideology had developed into an elaborate theory involving an original, utopian form of government based upon "common law" (the "de jure" government) that had been subverted and replaced with an illegitimate, tyrannical government (the "de facto" government). Americans obeyed the de facto government, because they had been tricked into believing it was legitimate.

Although the basic Posse philosophy was anti-government in nature rather than hate-filled, many leaders of Posse groups were virulent racists. The Posse's revisionist ideas about government and conspiracy were especially attractive to Christian Identity believers; as a result, many Identity adherents, including William Potter Gale, James Wickstrom, Gordon Kahl, Bob Hallstrom and Thomas Stockheimer, among others, became involved in the Posse or similar groups. The result was that Posse ideology was often, though by no means always, imbued with racist and anti-Semitic as well as anti-government language, reflecting the movement's increasing violence and criminal activity. In the early 1980s, Posse members and sympathizers became involved in a number of shootings, standoffs, fraud schemes and other criminal activities. The most notorious incident involved Gordon Kahl, a North Dakota Posse leader, Christian Identity adherent and activist in the "township" movement (which advocated forming civil bodies independent of outside control, a tactic the Montana Freemen would resurrect in 1996). When United States marshals attempted to arrest Kahl in 1983 for violating his probation, he opened fire, killing two officers and wounding others before escaping. Four months later, he was tracked to an Arkansas farmhouse, where he died in a second shootout that also took the life of a sheriff.

By the end of the 1980s, however, the Posse had largely died away. In addition to adherents like Kahl, who died violently, other Posse leaders, including William Potter Gale and Henry "Mike" Beach died naturally. Still others were jailed or simply dropped out of the movement. The Posse lived on in isolated pockets but had largely lost its force (in the 1990s, Wickstrom and August Kreis would recreate the group, but this time solely as a white supremacist organization with little interest in anti-government theories). Still, the ideology underlying the Posse lived on, waiting for new leaders and organizations to emerge.

Ideology: The Pernicious 14th Amendment

The ideology of the sovereign citizen movement had matured and crystallized by the 1980s as an unusual form of right-wing anarchism that focuses, on the one hand on the importance of local control and, on the other hand, on the avoidance of virtually all forms of authority and obligation.

Sovereign citizen ideology justifies these goals by claiming that at one time there was an American utopia governed by English "common law," a utopia in which every citizen was a "sovereign," and there were no oppressive laws, taxes, regulations or court orders. However, a conspiracy gradually subverted this system, replacing it with an illegitimate successor. Different sovereign citizen theorists have varying versions of this progression, but most include the following elements: the alleged suppression of a "missing" 13th Amendment that would have disallowed citizenship for attorneys; the Reconstruction amendments; the 16th Amendment (allowing an income tax); the 17th Amendment (allowing popular election of senators); the Federal Reserve Act and the 1933 removal of United States currency from the gold standard. By that time, many sovereign citizen theorists agree, the United States government was completely illegitimate, using emergency war powers and other unlawful measures to rule unconstitutionally.

Among the various subjects of energetic sovereign citizen revisionism, perhaps none is more important than the 14th Amendment. Ratified in 1868, the Amendment had several aims, including the guaranteeing of United States citizenship for the ex-slaves. But to sovereign citizens it did much more; they claim that before its ratification, virtually no one was a "citizen of the United States." One would previously have been a citizen of the republic of Ohio or of some other state; only residents of Washington, D.C., or federal territories were citizens of the United States. The 14th Amendment created an entirely new class of citizens, they argue, one that anybody, theoretically, could voluntarily join.

But to become a citizen of the United States was to willingly subject oneself to the complete authority of the federal and state governments; clearly, no one would want to do this. The government, therefore, tricked people into entering into its jurisdiction and that of the "corporate" state government by having them sign contracts with it. The trick was that people did not even realize they were signing contracts: these included items like Social Security cards, drivers' licenses, car registrations, wedding licenses or even, as Terry Nichols noted, hunting licenses and zip codes.

The sovereign citizen solution to this problem is the one that Nichols used. Since these contracts were made without people's knowledge, they could be declared invalid and torn up. Social Security numbers, licenses and permits, even birth certificates could be revoked, allowing people thereby to become "sovereign citizens," freed from the jurisdiction of the "de facto" government and courts. They were once more subject only to the "common law."

The development of this theory resulted in a movement whose members believe not only that virtually all levels of government have no jurisdiction over them whatsoever, but also that acceptance of any government regulation or permit means entering into a "contract" with the government that results in the loss of liberty and freedom. Consequently, committed sovereign citizens resist, sometimes with violence, nearly every form of governmental authority, from police enforcing traffic regulations to inspectors enforcing building codes. Unsurprisingly, they end up in constant conflict with the law.

Tactics: Terrorism and "Paper Terrorism"

In the early 1990s, particularly after the deadly standoffs at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993, the extreme right experienced a considerable resurgence. Many older groups like the National Alliance increased in number, while entirely new movements like the militias developed. Moribund since the decline of the Posse, the sovereign citizen movement enjoyed a significant rise in numbers and activity.


The compound in Jordan, Montana, where Freemen kept the F.B.I. at bay for 81 days

This activity included acts of violence, usually against representatives of the government that sovereign citizens so hated. In October 1993, extremist fugitives Linda Lyon Block and George Sibley murdered an Opelika, Alabama, police officer in a shootout in a shopping center parking lot. In early 1994, a band of extremists associated with the group Juris Christian Assembly viciously assaulted Karen Mathews, the Stanislaus County, California, recorder, outside her home. In May 1998, sovereign citizen and Christian Identity adherent George Wolf shot two volunteer firefighters in Ashtabula County, Ohio, because their vehicle blocked him. Occasionally, sovereign citizen groups even engaged in high-profile standoffs with author-ities. In the spring of 1996, the Montana Freemen held off federal authorities attempting to arrest them (on a variety of charges) for 81 days near Jordan, Montana. The following spring, members of Richard McLaren's faction of the so-called "Republic of Texas" initiated another armed confrontation in far-West Texas when they kidnapped a local couple in response to the arrest of one of their members. One member was killed during the standoff.

Yet despite a pattern of violent activity, the preferred weapon of members of the sovereign citizen movement is what has come to be called "paper terrorism." Paper terrorism involves the use of fraudulent legal documents and filings, as well as the misuse of legitimate documents and filings, in order to intimidate, harass and coerce public officials, law enforcement officers and private citizens. Many paper terrorism tactics originated during the days of the Posse Comitatus, but were refined and popularized in the 1990s and distributed in books, during seminars and through the Internet.

One of the first tactics of the resurgent sovereign citizen movement was the formation of vigilante "common law courts." Members of these courts used them as a forum for grievances against the "de facto" government or for assistance in attempts to harass their enemies. A number of common law courts issued threats of various kinds against public officials. One of the earliest and most visible such courts was established in Tampa, Florida, in 1993 by Emilio Ippolito and various followers. Calling itself the "Constitutional Court of We the People," the court moved in short order from granting divorces to issuing arrest warrants against judges. Eventually Ippolito and six followers were convicted in 1997 for interfering with trials in Florida and California and for sending letters threatening to kidnap and arrest judges and jury members. Other common law courts were equally defiant; in the Midwest, two leaders of a central Ohio common law court became involved in violent confrontations during traffic stops, resulting in one death. Common law courts were especially active from 1994 through 1997, but because of their relatively high visibility, they were more vulnerable to concerted action by law enforcement officers. In Missouri and Illinois, for instance, dozens of common law court members were arrested in 1996 on harassment-related charges related to their use of bogus liens. This vigilance on the part of law enforcement helped shut down the common law courts in those states. More generally, such vigilance caused sovereign citizens to abandon common law courts as a preferred tactic.

The filing of frivolous lawsuits and liens against public officials, law enforcement officers and private citizens, on the other hand, has remained a favorite harassing strategy. These paper "attacks" intimidate their targets and have the beneficial side effect of clogging up a court system that sovereign citizens believe is illegitimate. Frivolous liens became such a problem in the 1990s that a majority of states were forced to pass new laws to make filing them illegal, their removal easier, or both. Today, eager sovereign citizens can use the Internet to download a variety of boilerplate forms and documents to wield against the government. More adventurous types can matriculate at "schools" such as the Erwin Rommel School of Law; additionally, a number of activists, ranging from David Wynn Miller to The Aware Group, hold seminars around the country to teach people -- for a price -- about the latest tactics and weapons.

Sovereign citizens also widely use fictitious financial instruments such as phony money orders, sight drafts and comptrollers' warrants. Believing paper money to be invalid, the movement easily justifies the creation of entirely new forms of "money." From "Public Office Money Certificates" in the early 1980s to the money orders and warrants of the 1990s, this has been a particularly popular tactic because it potentially allows the sovereign citizen to get something for nothing whenever a government agency, bank, business or private citizen mistakenly accepts one of the bogus instruments. Groups like the Montana Freemen, Family Farm Preservation and the Republic of Texas put out billions of dollars (face value) of such instruments before finally being shut down.

The most recent surge in the use of fictitious financial instruments began in 1999 with the development of a tactic called "Redemption" (sometimes known as "Accept for Value"), based on the theories of Roger Elvick, a sovereign citizen and white supremacist convicted on fraud charges in the 1980s. Redemptionists argue that by using a complicated process known as "regaining one's straw man" they can establish special Treasury Department accounts and issue bogus instruments they call "sight drafts" to pay off debts or make purchases. Should law enforcement officials or others interfere with this activity, redemptionists are told to file falsified I.R.S. Form 8300s against them, alleging that such officials engaged in a suspicious currency transaction. By the end of 1999, Redemption had swept across the country. Sovereign citizen organizations like The Aware Group, Rightway L.A.W. and the Republic of Texas, among others, regularly hold Redemption seminars to teach the tactic to eager audience members. A number of practitioners have been arrested since 1999 in Idaho, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia and other states for attempting to pass the fictitious sight drafts or for harassing public officials attempting to halt the practice. In 2001, it is probably the single most popular sovereign citizen tactic.

However, sovereign citizens have a number of other weapons at their disposal. Many have engaged in a variety of frauds and scams, often targeting people with similar ideological beliefs in what might be called affinity fraud. A few of these schemes, most notably those perpetrated by the Colorado-based We the People and the Florida-based Greater Ministries International in the 1990s, took in millions of dollars. Other sovereign citizen groups, like the Embassy of Heaven and the Washitaw Nation, have specialized in the creation of fictitious car-related documents ranging from drivers' licenses to license plates.

Still others, including the Civil Rights Task Force and the Constitution Rangers, have created fictitious law enforcement agencies, complete with fake identification cards, badges and even raid jackets. People associated with the Civil Rights Task Force have advocated what they term "reverse intimidation": interrogating the spouses of law enforcement officers who have had dealings with members.

Even when jailed, sovereign citizens often continue their activities. They teach other prisoners their tactics; as a result, a number of non-extremist prisoners have engaged in such sovereign citizen stratagems as filing bogus liens. Convicted drug dealer and prisoner Kenneth E. Speight, for instance, filed more than $12 billion in liens against federal judges and prosecutors in Connecticut. According to federal officials, a fellow prisoner associated with the Montana Freemen taught Speight how to harass people with liens.

Prominent Groups and Individuals: A Rogue's Gallery

Sovereign citizens constitute a large and energetic extremist movement. Activity can be found in virtually every state, from pirate radio stations in Florida to secessionist groups in Hawaii. Well over a hundred sovereign citizen Web sites have been identified. This list includes some -- but by no means all -- of the movement's notable groups and leaders:

Alfred Adask. Former publisher of Anti-Shyster magazine (now published via the Web) and aggressive practitioner of "guerrilla lawfare," the Dallas, Texas-based Adask was especially active in the 1990s in promoting the use of bogus liens. In addition to his Web site, Adask also hosts a satellite radio show.

The American's Bulletin. Published from Central Point, Oregon, by Robert Kelly, it is the leading publication promoting sovereign citizen tactics and activities, especially Redemption.

The Aware Group. A Greenville, South Carolina, sovereign citizen group led by John Howard Alexander that is active in marketing "common law" trusts and Redemption over the Internet and at seminars across the country.

The Embassy of Heaven. A small group led by Paul Revere (formerly Craig Fleshman) and based in Stayton, Oregon, the Embassy markets bogus license plates and other automobile documents to followers nationwide. It was evicted from its former location for nonpayment of local taxes. Followers -- called "Ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven" -- disdain obedience to any earthly authority.

George Gordon. From Isabella, Missouri, Gordon runs a "School of Common Law," which he also promotes on his radio show, "The American Law Hour."

Brent Johnson. Host of the "American Sovereign" radio show and, with Lee Parker, director of Freedom Bound International, a "common law service center," Johnson holds seminars nationwide to promote his books, trusts and other products.

David Wynn Miller. This Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based sovereign citizen is one of the most unusual of the "common law gurus" who travel the country holding seminars and offering legal advice. Miller has created his own unique version of English grammar, one that even many sovereign citizens find hard to understand or accept. He has also been active in Canada.

Republic of Texas. The original “Republic of Texas,” formed in late 1995, soon split into several competing factions, which later re-unified in 2002. Daniel Miller, the leader of one of the factions, is the “President” of this sovereign citizen group, which pretends that Texas is an independent country.

Rightway L.A.W. With headquarters in Akron, Ohio, this group is one of the most active sovereign citizen groups in the country, with 15 chapters in at least 10 states. Led by Rick Schramm, Jack Smith, Jeanne Collins and Mary Keane, it is one of the major promoters of Redemption. Some chapters also reach out to prison inmates.

Charles Weisman. Based in Burnsville, Minnesota, Weisman is a prolific author on "common law" topics like martial law, the right to travel (unfettered by traffic laws or automobile regulations) and so forth. A Christian Identity adherent, he is also currently one of the most visible white supremacists promoting sovereign citizen doctrines.

Moorish groups. The resurgence of sovereign citizen activity in the 1990s led to an unexpected development: the appropriation of sovereign citizen ideology and tactics by a variety of African American groups. These groups, generally identifying themselves as "Moors," combine standard sovereign citizen theories with many new twists and additions of their own. Some groups are, to varying degrees, Islamic in nature, while others adhere to various New Age philosophies. Examples include the Moorish Nation, the United Mawshakh Nation of Nuurs and the Washitaw Nation. A number of such groups have ties to "traditional" sovereign citizen groups. Many of their tactics are the same, too, from bogus automobile documents to Redemption.




Do-it-yourself automobile documents: a Washitaw Nation license plate
and a "registration" card issued and stamped by the Embassy of Heaven.


1 Posse Comitatus is a Latin term for "power [or force] of the county." It originally referred, in English legal traditions, to the power of local authorities to call upon the body of the people to enforce the law in a time of crisis. The American idea of the "posse," as in the Old West, is a descendant of these traditions.

http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/scm.asp?xpicked=4

fuagf

03/26/12 9:16 PM

#235827 RE: fuagf #235063

'sovereign citizens', crackpot, many are birthers, too .. ROTFLMAO!

Alaska Birther Launches ‘Sovereign’ Attack on ‘Mulatto’ Obama

Posted in Birther Extremism, Neo-Confederate, Sovereign Citizens by Leah Nelson on February 24, 2012

An Alaska man who is challenging President Barack Obama’s eligibility for office on the grounds that the president is a “mulatto” based his complaint on an argument common to the neo-Confederate and antigovernment “sovereign citizen” movements, Hatewatch has learned.

In a complaint filed Tuesday with the Alaska Division of Elections, Gordon Warren Epperly of Juneau argued that Obama isn’t eligible for office because, as a person of mixed-race descent, he is not a “natural-born citizen” of the United States.

“As Barack Hussein Obama II is of the ‘Mulatto’ race, his status of citizenship is founded upon the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Before the (purported) ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the race of ‘Negro’ or ‘Mulatto’ had no standing to be citizens of the United States under the United States Constitution,” the complaint says. “As the Fourteenth Amendment is only a grant of ‘Civil Rights’ and not a grant of ‘Political Rights,’ Barack Hussein Obama II does not have any ‘Political Rights’ under any provision of the United States Constitution to hold any Public Office of the United States government.”

Though this appears to be the first time it has been used in an effort to challenge Obama’s citizenship status, Epperly’s argument is not unique. Indeed, it seems to be an amalgam of two bizarre extremist legal theories — one that says that blacks do not have the same legal rights as whites because their citizenship is founded on the 14th Amendment, and another that claims that in order to be a “natural-born” U.S. citizen, one’s parents must both be U.S. citizens as well.

The latter theory most recently made its appearance in a Georgia court, where attorneys Mark Hatfield and Van Irion argued unsuccessfully that since the president’s father was never a U.S. citizen, Obama not a natural-born citizen and is constitutionally ineligible for political office. Van Irion is affiliated with the Southern Legal Resource Center, a neo-Confederate outfit co-founded by white supremacist attorney Kirk Lyons, who was married at the Aryan Nations compound in a ceremony officiated by the late Aryan Nations leader and Christian Identity preacher Richard Butler.

The 14th Amendment component of Epperly’s challenge stems from an idea promulgated by the Posse Comitatus, a racist and anti-Semitic group that roiled the Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s and believed that the county sheriff is the highest legitimate law enforcement authority. Posse ideologues argued, in effect, that God gave America to the white man and therefore the government cannot abridge most rights of whites unless they submit to a “contract” with that government. Black people were only made citizens by the 14th Amendment, they argued, meaning that they have permanently contracted with the government and therefore must obey all its dictates. Or, put another way, black people were truly second-class citizens, forced to obey government and tax laws that, the Posse argued, don’t apply to white sovereign citizens (the Posse often called them “organic citizens”).

Epperly appears to have been comingling sovereign and neo-Confederate ideology some time. In 2006, he sued Congress for unconstitutionally enacting the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which, he alleged, placed him “in a state of involuntary servitude” and made him “liable for the debt of the United States.”

The Reconstruction Acts, enacted in the wake of the Civil War, placed the former Confederate States under military rule, and required them to draft new constitutions and ratify the 14th Amendment. Some neo-Confederate sympathizers argue that the 14th Amendment was not properly ratified because its ratification involved strong-arm tactics. Sovereign ideology – a form of which has recently been embraced by the neo-Confederate League of the South – says whites can reject the 14th Amendment and proclaim themselves independent, free from what they perceive as an overweening and downright criminal federal government.

The modern-day sovereign citizen movement
, whose adherents believe they are exempt from most laws and are often confrontational with police officers, is a direct descendant of Posse Comitatus. Most modern sovereigns, however, seem unaware of the movement’s racist origins – and in recent years a permutation of sovereign ideology has gained traction among blacks.

Amazingly enough, this is not the first time Epperly has challenged the eligibility of an elected official he does not like. In a 2010 letter to the Alaska director of elections, he declared that Lisa Murkowski, who had just been elected senator, was not qualified for office “as she is not a citizen of the United States under Article I of the Constitution for the United States.”

His argument stemmed from a 22-page “Proclamation,” apparently researched solely by Epperly, which supposedly proves that female and non-white elected officials are “usurpers of office” who “have no political privileges to hold public offices of the United States under the qualification clauses of Article I, Article, II, and Article III of the United States Constitution.”

In the same proclamation, Epperly concluded also that Obama is a “usurper,” and that the president, Murkowski and all other non-whites and women who hold government office were “inserted” into their positions by seditious “domestic enemies” intent on infiltrating and destroying the United States under cover of “political correctness.”

Epperly ends with a barely veiled threat. Demanding that Congress and the Supreme Court “come forward and give answers to the allegations of sedition as stated herein,” he wrote: “If those who are participating in the sedition of the Constitution of the United States of America do not remove themselves from public office, the people will have no choice but to remove those individuals from office by what ever means it may take.”

LOLOLOL .. an "organic citizens"! I'm learning they are more easily cooked than honest citizens.



fuagf

03/26/12 9:28 PM

#235831 RE: fuagf #235063

Mental Exam Ordered for Arizona ‘Sovereign’ Double Murder Suspect

Posted in Extremist Crime, Sovereign Citizens by Leah Nelson on February 28, 2012

Arizona officials say a murder suspect who used language reminiscent of that employed by antigovernment “sovereign” citizens during court appearances must undergo a mental competency exam before returning to court, the Arizona Republic reported yesterday.

Michael Lee Crane, 31, of Mesa, Ariz., pleaded not guilty yesterday to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, two count of armed robbery, and several counts of arson and theft. He is accused of killing Lawrence and Glenna Shapiro in their home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., home on Jan. 30, then setting fire to the couple’s home in an attempt to conceal the crime.

Crane, who previously served time in prison in Arizona, also has been identified as a suspect in the gunshot murder of Phoenix cigar salesman Bruce Gaudet. Gaudet was found shot to death in his home, which was burned down just a few days before the Shapiros were killed.

An alleged accomplice whose name has not yet been released is also being held in connection with Gaudet’s murder.

Addressing Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Brian Rees yesterday, Crane spelled out his name in upper- and lower-case letters. He also spelled out his name at his initial court appearance on Feb. 15 and said he didn’t want court-appointed counsel. Sovereign citizens often wish to act as their own lawyers and frequently punctuate their names in unusual ways, occasionally using all capital letters or hyphens and colons in the mistaken notion that the practice somehow sets them free from government regulation and control.

In a statement to the judge during his Feb. 15 appearance, Crane delivered a rather garbled version of typical sovereign rhetoric: “I would like to reserve my right to Uniform Commercial Code 1-207 and Uniform Commercial Code 1-103,” he said. Sovereigns frequently cite the commercial code in the belief that there’s a contract of some sort between the government and its citizens.

“The Uniform Commercial Code does not apply to criminal proceedings, sir,” the judge told Crane.

“It is a commercial affair, that correct?” he responded.

“This is a criminal proceeding, sir,” the judge said again, before Crane was heard muttering, “Mmm, okay, that’s what you say.”

Officials say there is no indication that Crane was previously involved in the sovereign citizens movement.

“He spent time in prison and there is the feeling on our end that this is one of the tricks he’s learned in prison,” Jerry Cobb, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office told Hatewatch. “He’s not somebody that has targeted law enforcement or gone after government. There has been nothing in the previous cases that he’s been involved in that indicate he has any formal association with the sovereign citizen movement.”

The case against Crane is based, at least part, on statements provided to police by one of five co-defendants arrested on related, non-murder charges, the Arizona Republic reported.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gee .. it's clearly understandable to me why the FBI have the 'sovereign citizens'
on a watch list .. maybe this is the case lxCimi has tucked up his sleeve ..

Nah, wouldn't be a murder case.

Jeepers creepers, there are so many of these s cs in trouble. Enough for now.

Ps: if the emphasized bit above is not pseudolaw then what is?

fuagf

04/04/12 4:42 AM

#236141 RE: fuagf #235063

Commonwealth of Australia is a corporation?

Post #1 Post by Mondomatty » Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:59 pm

Hi I am new to the forum and was hoping to get some information regarding this conspiracy theory.

I can't find anything online to oppose this theory, but this appears to be the idea that
the commonwealth of Australia is actually a corporation that is registered in the USA?

Here is where I got the information(if you can call it that, it's a bit rambling).

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150718198340657&set=a.10150718148995657.705981.513295656&type=1&pid=19681635&id=513295656

Thanks in advance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: Commonwealth of Australia is a corporation?

Post #2 Post by Matthew Ellard » Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:04 am

Mondomatty wrote:..... appears to be the idea that the commonwealth
of Australia is actually a corporation that is registered in the USA?
Thanks in advance.


It is complete rubbish.

The Commonwealth of Australia was a colony and then dominion, of Great Britain. Although the Queen is still the monarch of Australia ( and 56 other countries) Australia obtained its full independence with Britain's Statute of Westminster Act (1931) formally ending most of the constitutional links between Australia and the UK. In reality, the right to appeal to the UK's House of Lords only ended in the late 1970's.

Australia retains the facade of the old colonial system, in that we still have a governor general who takes orders and reports to HRH, the Queen (of Australia). This legacy is mostly ceremonial but maintained so Australian commissioned officers can transfer back and forth between Canadian, English and other realms of the crown. Our constitution states that our next monarch will be the next monarch of the U.K. which seems odd but that's the way it is. I understand Canada is exactly the same.

It would be impossible for the Commonwealth of Australia to be registered as a corporation in the USA as it is not a USA trading entity, nor does it have directors, shareholders or unit holders. It may be that for tax and copyright purposes under the double tax agreement in the USA that elements of the Australian government have holding entities in the USA but that's really nothing at all. North Korea has a variety of Australian companies to do the same thing in Australia.

You may be amused to consider the American War of Independence. In the middle of this war a Royal Navy captain "discovered" Australia and suddenly the UK had a new huge empty colony without all those pesky settlers wanting voting rights. This probably upset the Dutch who had just named Australia "New Holland" and had already established trade in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) ( I have always wondered if the UK lost interest in pursuing the war against the USA's colonialist rebels after Australia was "discovered").

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: Commonwealth of Australia is a corporation?

Post #3 Post by Matthew Ellard » Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:11 am

I forgot to link you to the Australian Constitution......viola!

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/ ... /coaca430/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: Commonwealth of Australia is a corporation?

Post #4 Post by Mondomatty » Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:47 am

Thanks for your reply, very helpful. I'd really like to know exactly what that registered corporation listed on sec is, as you are probably aware most conspiracy theorists would claim there is 'something else going on' when in truth I'm sure its easily explained. Also do you mind eloborating on the north korea stuff? Or simply linking me to some more info? Sorry about my spelling/grammar I'm on my blackberry on a packed train!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: Commonwealth of Australia is a corporation?

Post #5 Post by xouper » Wed Aug 17, 2011 3:14 pm

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), foreign governments that wish to
trade securities in the U.S must file certain financial statements such as Form 18 and Form 424.

See for example:
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar ... getcompany

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sec-form-18.asp

Form 424A and its variations are for filing a prospectus.

But apparently this is all just a cover story for a deep dark conspiracy.

Who knew.



And this "corporation conspiracy" is not limited to just Australia.

See for example, Hungary
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar ... getcompany

Venezuela:
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar ... getcompany

And even Quebec:
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar ... getcompany

more .. http://www.skepticforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=16545

Gee, he missed the USA ..



fuagf

04/04/12 5:09 AM

#236142 RE: fuagf #235063

‘Sovereign’ President' .. Tim Turner says his ‘Republic for the united States’
is all about peaceful change. But recent events have authorities worried

By Ryan Lenz

On June 19, 2011, a police officer responding to a domestic violence call shot and killed William Foust, a prominent businessman who ran a marine outfitter with his wife in Page, Ariz. The death was unfortunate — a police call that soured as Foust tried to wrestle away the officer’s Taser during an argument. But it opened a window on Foust and the antigovernment group he helped lead in Arizona.

Foust, it turned out, was a principal of the so-called “Republic for the united States of America” (RuSA) — an Alabama-based organization that in the last year has grown in lockstep with the explosive rise of the “sovereign citizens” movement. .. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/sovereign-citizens-movement .. In Arizona, Foust was RuSA’s “chief justice,” the man designated to serve as the state’s leading legal officer once the group, as it hopes, finally comes to power.


As part of a shadow government created by the "Republic for the united States of America,"
William Foust was designated the "chief justice" for Arizona. He was killed in June during
an altercation with a police officer who responded to a domestic disturbance call.

Conceived during a private meeting last year at a guest ranch in Spring City, Utah, RuSA may now be America’s most prominent group of sovereign citizens, people who believe they are immune from most federal laws and taxes. It certainly is the most ambitious, with preparations to build a national government-in-waiting and 50 state governments well under way. It promises freedom from taxes and other government meddling to all who sign up. And if RuSA’s views seem merely bizarre in the extreme, the Department of Homeland Security nevertheless has warned that some of its demands could be interpreted “as a justification for violence.”

Foust, apparently pumped up with fears of an evil government, certainly seems to have felt that he needed to use violence to resist the officers who responded to reports of a heated argument between him and his wife. And now, reacting to the “execution” of Foust, some members of RuSA are suggesting a response in kind, a notion that worries RuSA’s leader, who frequently denounces violence.

“Many feel angry and may want revenge,” James Timothy Turner, 55, told his followers three days after Foust’s killing this summer. “This is understandable, but this was an isolated incident and will not cause any problems.”

Turner has outlined a plan to “reinhabit” the U.S. government, which he says has been unlawful ever since the Civil War. He describes it as “a bold, achievable strategy for behind-the-scenes peaceful reconstruction of the de jure institutions of government without controversy, violence or civil war.” But in March 2010, RuSA sent letters to all 50 state governors demanding they step down immediately, causing at least one state to beef up security at the capitol, and there apparently are new plans to send similar letters to more than 5,000 sheriffs nationwide. That, plus the fact that sovereign citizens unrelated to RuSA have engaged in numerous crimes, including the murder of two Arkansas police officers in May 2010, has raised concerns.

RuSA, which has gotten the attention of authorities in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida and other states, teaches a whole panoply of practices typical of the sovereign citizens movement — the filing of fraudulent property liens against enemies, ways to halt the foreclosure process and cancel debts, and arcane methods that are intended to wrest millions of dollars from the federal government — all while claiming that the current United States government is utterly illegitimate. But some of what Turner has to say is far out even by the standards of the sovereigns.

“Get ready to hear things that sound absolutely impossible,” Turner’s chief spokesman, Kelby Smith, says regularly at the start of a weekly conference call to several hundred followers that was monitored by the Intelligence Report this spring over a period of several months. All of these impossible things come compliments of one man — a former commercial fisherman and devout evangelical Christian from Skipperville, Ala., who is known to his followers as “Mr. President.”


Tim Turner, a former commercial fishermen known to followers as “Mr. President,” has outlined
a plan to “reinhabit” the U.S. government. He also claims the government has tried to
assassinate him and that all industrialized nations have treaties with aliens.
FROM YOUTUBE

Birth of a ‘Republic’

Tim Turner burst onto the sovereign citizens scene in 2007, offering a series of highly popular seminars that promised attendees they could pay off their mortgages, credit card debts, and income tax bills using the “power of negative averment” — a technique of turning statements into questions in a bid to shift the burden of argument to opponents. The programs cost an average of around $400 and came with a package of “Freedom Documents,” which were forms and instructions for the filing of bogus liens and dozens of other pseudo-legal documents.

Turner taught clients to file such groundless court documents and, when the opposing parties didn’t respond accordingly, to file absurdly large retaliatory property liens against them. In one foreclosure case in which Turner was not even a party, he personally filed nine baseless liens totaling more than $158 billion against bank and court officials. While he told followers that he won the case, the truth was that the court had actually slammed Turner with a $22,500 fine.

At some point, Turner became a principal in a new sovereign group called the Guardians of the Free Republics (GFR), which had been founded by, among others, Dr. Glenn Richard Unger .. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/fall/the-sovereigns-leaders-of-the-movement .. (alias “Dr. Sam Kennedy”) of Clifton Park, N.Y. Another principal, GFR “elder” Samuel Lynn Davis of Boise, Idaho, last year had $53,000 in outstanding state and federal tax liens against him; this year, Davis also was convicted on 31 counts of bank fraud and money laundering.

In March 2010, the GFR made national headlines when it mailed letters to the governors of all 50 states demanding they step down. Although the letters did not spell out what would happen if they did not, the state of Nevada, at least, decided to add metal detectors to the Capitol and closed all but one entrance. “We just decided that it was appropriate to err on the side of caution,” an official said then.

That same month, the GFR issued a rambling list of its goals and maxims that it called the Restore America Plan. It vowed to end “unjust” taxation, destroy the Internal Revenue Service, and dismiss all constitutional amendments after the 13th, which abolished slavery (the 14th made the freedmen citizens). It said a “European prince” had promised to fund a new government. “These are the words of Tim Turner,” it added, “an intelligent, courageous Sovereign man of God.”

On March 29, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent police agencies a confidential “Intelligence and Analysis Note” about the GFR’s demand that governors step down. “[L]aw enforcement should be aware that this could be interpreted as a justification for violence or other criminal actions,” it said.

That May, a veteran Sarasota, Fla., police detective heard about Turner and his promises from his brother. Det. Tom Laughlin went on to file documents in the local courthouse calling himself an “American National Sovereign.” Two weeks later, on May 20, 2010, two police officers were murdered by a pair of sovereign citizens in West Memphis, Ark., an event that drew national attention to the nature of at least some sovereigns. Laughlin was fired as a result of his filing.

Renaming the Revolution

In the months that followed, Turner cemented his leadership role in the GFR and ultimately pushed Unger out of the group. Then, in a secretive Nov. 13, 2010, gathering in Spring City, Utah, Turner and other GFR “delegates” decided to change the name of the group to the Republic for the united States of America. (Many sovereigns believe if they do not capitalize the “U” in United States, they will avoid acknowledging the federal government is legitimate and thus capitulating to it.)

This February, Turner caused a stir among his followers when he sent them a letter insisting that the future “Republic” he hopes to create will be a Christian nation — an idea that many sovereigns do not agree with. He lambasted a series of nine U.S. presidents, blaming them for everything from an exploding national debt to “rampant homosexuality” to the “intentional poisoning of our people.” And Turner focused in on President Obama: “He is not even a lawful American citizen,” he said. “He is a Muslim which [sic] are sworn to kill anyone who is not Muslim.”

Around the same time, Turner announced that he was forming a militant wing of RuSA, to be called the American Rangers. Although it’s unclear if that ever really happened, law enforcement officials near his south Alabama town said they have seen armed “marshals of the Republic” patrolling in the area.

This spring, Turner told his followers that he would soon be leaving the country to consult with prime ministers and princes in 80 countries, all of them supposedly promising to financially back Turner’s new government. On each weekly phone conference, followers asked how preparations were progressing. During one, Turner said he would be leaving “in a few days. We’ve been held up because of paperwork. … But the Lord is delivering that situation right now.”

Turner disappeared from the weekly calls in the middle of March, and his associates told followers that he had finally left the country. But local officials say he simply stayed at home with his wife on a secluded piece of property, holding meetings in a rundown mansion some 10 miles away.

Many of Turner’s followers didn’t swallow his story. They asked about the promised foreign money, and about the status of the developing Republic. Dozens left as more and more of them began to question Turner’s representations.

Turner fired back in April. “There are many out there who accuse me of being a liar,” he said. “But if every one of those people go back and analyze the words that I’ve said, I’ve not lied to anybody. … God will vindicate me on [sic] the time that I’m supposed to be vindicated, and that time is getting very near.”


Leaders of the “Republic for the united States,” which may be the most prominent antigovernment “sovereign
citizens” group in the country, meet clandestinely in this mansion in Ozark, Alabama. RYAN LENZ

Impossible Things

Is James Timothy Turner a prophet or a confidence man?

It seems clear that some of his followers are beginning to suspect it’s the latter. And it’s certain that some of what Turner associate Kelby Smith refers to as “things that sound absolutely impossible” are, in fact, clearly untrue. And that’s not even counting Turner’s predictions, promises, and bogus legal theories.

Turner has said that he cured leukemia in five days.

He repeatedly regales his followers with vague but electrifying accounts of attempts to assassinate him by the federal government. “It didn’t work out so well, not for them at least,” he told followers of one supposed attempt in Virginia. “But you have to remember, these attacks, even though they appear to be personal, really don’t have anything to do with me. It’s an attack on the Republic.”

Earlier this year, he promised followers he would disclose certain “state secrets” following an economic collapse he predicted would happen by March. March came and went, but Turner never revisited the subject.

In one of his weekly calls, a follower asked Turner to explain what really happened when, as some people believe, an alien spacecraft crashed in 1947 near Roswell, N.M. His jaw-dropping reply: “I’m not going to tell you they [aliens] exist or don’t exist. What I’m going to say is every nation on Earth, or every industrialized nation on Earth at least, has a treaty with them.”

And he regularly claims to have “hundreds of thousands” of followers.

At press time, RuSA was still roiled with anger at the death of William Foust, who many Turner followers believe was purposely murdered by the police. In late June, Kelby Smith made a plea to increasingly angry acolytes. “I formally ask everybody to stand down,” Smith said. “We are a law-abiding people that simply know the truth, and our job is simply to share it, even with the cops.”

For his part, Turner keeps pressing on, apparently unfazed by the death of Foust, the bank fraud conviction of Samuel Lynn Davis, the questions about his own leadership, or even the rising talk of violence among his members.

“We may be in a hard place due to the power of the [government] that seems to care little for the law or the American people,” he wrote his followers recently. But, he said, “We will overcome their violence and oppression… . If we remain faithful to the principles even in these hard times, God is faithful and will deliver this Republic into its proper place among the governments of the world.”

Related Profile: Sovereign Citizens Movement
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/sovereign-citizens-movement

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2011/fall/-sovereign-president

See also:

Repeat after me. No four years left of the Federal territorial Corporation. It's been exposed
and is under attack from all sides on the judicial level. (last place before bloody revolution)
more .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=73826710