ГУЛаг Палестины

March 17, Texas: Texas officials issue two more (civil) arrest warrants against Republic of Texas members Robert Kesterson ("secretary of state") and Carolyn Carney ("secretary of inter-agency coordination").

March 17, California: California "Patriot" Timothy Paul Kootenay, is sentenced to 300 days in county jail and four years' probation after pleading guilty to purchasing assault rifles with bogus money orders issued by Family Farm Preservation, a "patriot" group linked with the Posse Comitatus.

March 19, Arizona: Six members of the Arizona Viper Militia are sentenced to jail terms for conspiracy to make bombs. The

longest sentence is nine years. All had pled guilty. The number eventually increases to 10 who plead guilty. Two do not and

will go to trial.

March 21, Ohio: The FBI and ATF jointly post a $60,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of Aryan Nations

members Cheyne and Chevie Kehoe for shooting at police officers in Ohio in February. The Kehoe brothers are thought to

have fled back to their Spokane area origins.

March 21, Alabama: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously affirms the capital murder conviction of a "patriot,"

George Sibley, Jr., found guilty in the 1993 shooting death of an Opelika police officer. His common-law wife, Linda Lyon

Block, is also on death row for the same offense.

March 25, North Carolina: Dunn, North Carolina, resident Arvalee McLamb is fined $5,000 and sentenced to five months in

prison after pleading guilty to failing to file a federal income tax return. McLamb had ties to the Montana Freemen; he is also

charged in a federal indictment of various crimes committed in connection with James Vincent Wells and Montana Freeman

Russell Landers. McLamb and Wells belonged to an extremist group innocuously called 'The Civil Rights Task Force."

March 25, Kansas: Two Kansas residents are convicted in Tulsa for passing Montana Freemen checks. Bill and Karen

Hanzlicek were found guilty of conspiracy, bank fraud, mail fraud and passing a counterfeit check.

March 26, Florida: In Stuart, Florida, John Foster, is charged with obtaining $662,000 in bogus checks from the Montana

Freemen and using them to pay off the IRS and his mortgage company.

March 26, Ohio: In Columbus, Ohio, common law court activist Larry Russell is found guilty of escape and sentenced to 1 S

years in prison. He fled Ohio following a failed attempt to arrest him for driving without a license, after which he was charged

with assaulting a police officer and escape, but was arrested at the Alaska border and extradited.

March 27, Nevada: Nevada militia man Harry Tootle is convicted on charges of drawing a gun on a security guard, then

resisting arrest.

March 27, Arkansas, Missouri: Arkansas citizen Robert Joos is convicted of resisting arrest and carrying a concealed

weapon during a confrontation with Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers in 1994. The troopers were attempting to arrest

him near his church commune (the "Sacerdotal Order of the David Company") in connection with a 1987 misdemeanor

conviction involving a false court summons served to a trooper. Law enforcement authorities are still searching for Timothy

Thomas Coombs, wanted for shooting and seriously wounding a state trooper in retaliation for Joos' arrest.

March 29, South Carolina, Oregon: In Anderson, SC, Embassy of Heaven member Frank Lewis stages a seven day hunger

strike when arrested for driving without a license and operating an uninsured vehicle. This is one of many hunger strikes

staged by members of the group, which preaches against all forms of government interference. The Embassy of Heaven

issues fake drivers licenses, plates, and registrations for its members; these are purchased by people all over the country. In

late winter, Embassy of Heaven members are evicted from their "church" in Sublimity, Oregon, for nonpayment of county

taxes.

March 30, Michigan: Kalamazoo, Michigan, militia member Brendon Blasz is arrested and indicted on suspicion of making

pipe bombs and other illegal explosives. Blasz and his "small militia band" planned to bomb the federal building in Battle

Creek, an IRS building, a television station and federal armies, according to an affidavit by an informant. The Michigan

Militia claims to have expelled them in 1995.

APRIL

April 2, Washington, Idaho: The jury hearing Spokane bank bandits case convicts the three defendants on illegal weapons

charges and stolen vehicle charges, but deadlocks on the more serious bank robbery and bombing charges when a sole

jury member, sympathetic to the right-wing extremists, refuses to convict.

April 3, California: A Berkeley, California, woman, Mary Margaret Lund, is convicted of using bogus checks to purchase a

motorhome in January 1996. She passed more than $223,000 worth of bad checks.

April 5, Montana: Fourteen of the infamous "Montana Freemen" are hit with a 40-count indictment that will take the place of