FBI closes in on armed protesters occupying Oregon wildlife refuge
Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are moving in on anti-government militants still occupying a national wildlife refuge in the state of Oregon to protest against federal land control.
FBI agents tightened the grip on Wednesday on the last four armed protesters after a 40-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside the town of Burns, Oregon.
The FBI said negotiations to end the standoff without violence were continuing as the FBI escalated pressure on the protesters refusing to leave the refuge.
FBI agents had moved to within 50 yards (45 meters) of the occupiers' position in the compound but it was not immediately clear how much further the federal law enforcement officers would proceed in order to attack or force surrender.
"If they tear gas us, it's the same as firing on us," said one of the occupiers, who identified herself as Sandy Anderson. "Don't come in. Don't do it."
Until Wednesday, FBI and police had largely kept their distance from the buildings occupied by the militants, sealing off access to the refuge headquarters with roadblocks.
"However, we reached a point where it became necessary to take action" to ensure everyone's safety, Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, said in a statement.
The occupation, led by Idaho rancher Ammon Bundy, is largely directed as a protest against federal control over millions of acres of public land in the West.
The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is part of the US National Wildlife Refuge System, a system of public lands and waters set aside by the federal government to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants.
Bundy and 10 others were arrested in January in Oregon, most of them during a confrontation with the FBI and state police on a snow-covered roadside. Another member who acted as a spokesman for the group was shot dead.
"They (the federal government) are coming down into the states and taking over the land and the resources, putting the people into duress, putting the people into poverty," Bundy said in January.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Bundy's views as closely aligned with those of the sovereign citizen movement, which generally believes that the US government is illegitimate.
The sovereign citizen movement is considered by the FBI as the nation’s top domestic terrorism threat.
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