http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs ... /708220301
In the more than six months since Ed Brown and, later, Elaine Brown have holed up in their castle-like home in Plainfield, they've succeeded in first recruiting and then driving out an ever-changing cast of supporters from across the country.
First, there was Bill Miller, the ex-military exercise trainer who dubbed the Browns' siege the "Little Alamo" and told friends that Brown was "worth more to me dead than alive."
Next, came "Anthony" of Binghamton, N.Y., who went by the online handle "Peace" and created a MySpace page for Ed Brown (and later his wife, Elaine), complete with a wish list asking friends to donate machine guns and body armor.
Then, there was Cirino Gonzalez of Alice, Texas, a former military contractor and weapons expert who brought a 50-caliber rifle, served as the couple's security officer and posted long, incoherent online messages on the couple's behalf.
Those hardcore supporters spent weeks with the couple, who were convicted of tax-related crimes and have refused to surrender to authorities. They helped guide the Browns' communication with news media and supporters. They brought weapons and logistical advice. In some cases, they shopped and cooked for the couple.
But none has lasted long. Miller left the house in February, Anthony in March, and Gonzalez in late June.
U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier, who is charged with arresting the couple, said yesterday that his office is continuing to investigate those who aid and abet the Browns. So far, the marshals have not charged any supporters with crimes.
"This whole thing is a continuing investigation," he said.
Last week, Miller distributed an e-mailed "press release" clarifying his unwillingness to continue to support the Browns.
"I do hereby officially state that I am not to be known as a 'supporter,' nor associate of Edward-Lewis:Brown," the letter says.
"Brown has ignored, on many occasions throughout the years, the good council (sic) of some valiant, focused, hard-working freedom fighters whom, unfortunately, exemplify a larger spiritual vision, and a more finely tuned sense of balance and reason than does Brown," it explains.
Gonzalez was another supporter to leave recently. According to an internet posting by his father, Jose Gonzalez, Ed Brown pushed out his longtime aide after Jose Gonzalez and another one of his sons, a Texas police officer, visited the couple and offered some criticisms of their security plan.
"I found him to be an arrogant, ambitious, self-serving man that is using everyone around him (including Elaine) for his own personal political gain," the posting said. On his own MySpace page, Cirino Gonzalez acknowledged that he was asked to leave.
In the case of Doug Kenline, a blogger who set up a widely read website dedicated to Brown-related news and who interviewed the Browns daily for audio webcasts, Ed Brown rejected him after learning that Kenline's wages were being taken by the IRS to cover unpaid back taxes.
"I'm not talking any more to people who aren't going to stand up for the lawful laws of this land," Brown said in an internet recording of the conversation in which the two parted ways. "People can be slaves, and I'm not going to associate with them any more."
Brown also ejected Dave Ridley, a Keene member of the Free State Project who was organizing pro-Brown demonstrations across the state and sending updates on the situation to the news media. Brown told Ridley to leave, Ridley said, in part because he disagreed with Ridley's pacifist views.
Mark Potok of the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks militias and tax protest groups, said it's not surprising that Ed Brown has repeatedly clashed with his supporters. He said leaders in right-wing fringe groups typically fight among themselves as much as they agree on their common enemies. Potok knew Ed Brown when he was a leader of a local militia in the early 1990s, but Potok has not spoken to him in many years.
"The people who wind up in these situations are people with incredibly stubborn personalities and gigantic egos, and I think that's clearly the case here," he said.
The Browns' newest helpers are Jim Hobbs of Phoenix, who lives in a trailer on the property and helps screen visitors, and Danny Riley of Albany, N.Y., who was arrested and detained by marshals in June, after he stumbled on a surveillance unit while walking the couple's dog.
Yesterday, Riley and a supporter in Illinois issued a fundraising request, asking supporters to send money through the internet transfer service Paypal or by sending personal checks, money orders and cashier's checks. All the money will go to the Brown house, the request said.
"I just got a foreclosure warning on our house, but I'm going to send a few dollars that way," wrote a supporter with the MySpace handle "Jennifer," on the couple's page. "I support their cause, and it'd be foolish not to send the money. I sure hope it helps."
By MARGOT SANGER-KATZ
