Freemen Learned To Like Media

The Montana freemen “came full circle” in their view of the news media during their 81-day standoff with the FBI this spring, from suspicion to support, a key negotiator in the standoff said Saturday.

Rep. Karl Ohs, R-Harrison, told a panel discussion that the freemen “at first were very reluctant to have anything to do with the press. In time, they began to recognize the press as a way to get things out.”

“They came from not trusting the media to liking it very much, and liking the attention.”

Ohs spoke at the annual meeting of the Montana Associated Press Broadcasters Association, where he participated in a panel on the standoff.

Surrounded by some 600 FBI agents, the anti-government freemen held out on their ranch compound near Jordan for 81 days, from late March until mid-June. They finally surrendered, with Ohs as the key mediator.

Ohs said it is a misperception that the freemen were a monolithic band.

“What you had in there were 18 to 20 individuals, all with different agendas, different reasons for being there, with very little in common,” he said. “They all came from a different direction. When you say freemen, you can’t just lump them all in one pot.”

But U.S. Attorney Sherry Scheel Matteucci, also on the panel, said the anti-government extremism that brought the freemen together should be of concern to citizens.

While the depth of anti-government feeling may rise and fall, she said, there appears to be “an all-time high of anti-government thinking based on nonsense, based on paranoia, based on a profound misperception of our constitutional structure.”

Anti-government groups are connected by “a tremendous network” of radio, faxes, underground press and the Internet that “unites these people as never has happened before. … This is a cause of concern for all of us.”

Matteucci was questioned by reporters about lack of information during the standoff. She insisted that “we did try to accommodate the interests of the public through the media,” including extraordinary access to a crime scene. She defended some decisions, including one late in the standoff to obtain a federal court order moving reporters away from the freemen compound.

She said she could not fully explain that decision, but it was based in part on safety of news people covering the story and on protecting operational security.

Ohs said the decision to move press away from the compound “had an effect” in persuading the freemen to surrender.

Matteucci defended the time taken to conclude the standoff, noting that it was ended peacefully.