Ed and Elaine Brown arrested (Continued)

[Demosthenes]

Alleged Tax-Evaders Arrested Without Incident in N.H.

By Paul Lewis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 5, 2007; 12:12 PM

PLAINFIELD, N.H. -- The fugitive couple had been waiting on their porch for nearly eight months for law enforcement officials to make their move. "The word is 'poised,' " Ed Brown said recently, handgun wedged in his jeans, AK-47 assault rifle behind the door, as he stared at a yard of cut grass and bags of explosives hanging from trees. His wife, Elaine, kept her pistol inside a pouch with her reading glasses.

A retired exterminator and a dentist in their 60s, the Browns don't believe the federal government has authority to tax income. In January, after a decade of not paying tax on nearly $1.9 million in earnings, they were convicted of tax-related criminal charges, and four months later, they were sentenced in absentia to 63 months in prison.

Refusing to surrender, they barricaded themselves in their estate in this New Hampshire town of 2,200 in February, warning that any attempt to arrest them would end in bloodshed. They claimed they could sustain themselves indefinitely from solar and wind electricity generators, after federal agents cut their power and phone lines.

But late Thursday night, U.S. marshals posing as supporters entered the Browns' property and arrested them on their porch without incident. "They invited us in, and we escorted them out," U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier told the Associated Press.

At a news conference, Monier said officials found booby traps in the woods on the 100-plus-acre property and weapons, ammunition and homemade bombs inside and outside the house. He said more charges are likely.

It was hardly surprising for the Browns to have considered the agents to be supporters. Through daily radio broadcasts and Internet postings, the couple had become a cause celebre for tax protesters, a disparate movement that claims federal taxes are fraudulent. "Show me the law and I'll pay the tax," Ed Brown, who was involved in a "patriot" militia in the 1990s, said in an interview several days before his arrest. "Don't show me the law and I'm not going to give you a dime. What part of that don't you understand?" Wearily, he wife added: "The only way to leave here is free, or dead."


The Browns repeatedly compared their situation to the confrontations at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992, and Waco, Tex., a year later. Those events, which ended in bloodshed, prompted the Justice Department to adapt its approach to prolonged sieges of this type, emphasizing patience. Recently, the couple held a news conference with Randy Weaver, whose wife and son were fatally shot in the Ruby Ridge siege.

Before Thursday's arrest, Monier had "ratcheted up" pressure on the couple. Two weeks ago, simultaneous raids took place on the homes of Brown supporters across the country. Federal authorities charged four men with various counts of aiding and abetting the Browns.

They include Cirino Gonzalez, a 30-year-old from Alice, Tex., who fell out with Ed Brown some months ago; the couple's blogger, Daniel Riley, 40, from Cohoes, N.Y.; and a friend, Robert Wolffe, 50, who is from Randolph, Vt.

The fourth, Jason Gerhard, 22, a recent Army recruit from Brookhaven, N.Y., who was arrested at his basic training camp in Missouri, faces the most charges -- found guilty of all felony counts, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 125 years.

The Browns dismissed the charges against their associates as lies. But unsealed court documents hinted at preparations for battle that Ed Brown has long boasted about. Along with groceries and fishing line, they state, some of the defendants snuck Tannerite, an explosive, onto the property, as well as fire extinguishers and firearms powerful enough to pierce body armor.

The arsenal described in the indictments seems to conflict with the middle-class life the Browns tried to lead. During the summer, the Browns had dinner parties and fundraisers in their yard, hosting an array of supporters, from nearby families and spiritual gurus to hardcore militia members.

But in June, the festival atmosphere was interrupted when the property was surrounded by SWAT teams, bomb disposal units and heavily armed police, while U.S. marshals seized Elaine Brown's dental practice.

Recently, as they waited for authorities to make a move, Ed Brown attended to plants in the yard, while Elaine baked a pie and arranged surgical tools for the ad hoc dental practice she set up in her living room.

Cut off from the rest of the world, the Browns said they expected help to come. The couple's ordeal would likely be over by the spring, said Ed Brown, when a "warrior class" will rise up against the "Zionist Freemasons" who, he said, have infiltrated the echelons of power and control the world.

During his conspiratorial soliloquies, Ed Brown would occasionally lose his temper and raise the specter of all-out war. He warned that if he if and his wife were killed, retribution would be enacted against journalists, judges and law enforcement officials on a secret list. Monier said that that by making such threats the couple "turned this into more than just a tax case."

Increasingly alone and with their supply chain drying up, in quieter moments the Browns were candid about their frustrating predicament. "See. They should have let us slip into oblivion," Ed Brown said recently. "I guess they didn't believe our resolve."

Turning to his wife, the resolve seemed to dissipate. "What can I do?" he asked. "I'm trapped. I got my back against the wall."

[The Observer]

One interesting point. In response to a question, Monier pointed out that, if they had shut down all entrances to the property and isolated the Browns as many people had urged them to do (including me, I should add), they wouldn't have been able to arrest them in the way they did.

As I've said already in this thread, it seems like a *very* good job by the Marshal's office. They endured a lot of flak, but ultimately their strategy turned out to be the right one.

I will have to confess that I was in that crowd as well urging isolation. I should have remembered that one of Napoleon's maxims applied to this situation ("Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.") and that Monier was on the right track all this time.

[Famspear]

From an article in the Los Angeles Times:

Shaun Kranish, a supporter from Rockford, Ill., who had visited the Brown home, said that he was discouraged by their arrests and that he found it hard to believe they had not put up a fight.

"We were not told," he said, "how or what types of weaponry were involved in taking them."

Erika Hayasaki, "Tax-evading couple arrested at their N.H. compound",
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 5, 2007, at
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... &cset=true

Wahhhhhhh! It's not faaaiiiirrrrr! Poor Shaun Kranish is discouraged!

If the Feds had bigger guns that Ed did, does that invalidate the arrests, Shaun? Or, you were hoping for a more tragic outcome -- a somehow more "heroic," Wagnerian, "Valhalla-isch" Goetterdaemmerung kind of thing -- for Edward Blowhardhands, eh Shaunnie-poo? How sad for you and Ed.

[Lambkin]

Neighbors reported large convoys of SUV's approaching the property before the arrests.

Reported... but apparently not to the Browns. I guess they violated the #1 rule of guerrilla warfare: making sure the local population is on your side.

[Famspear]

Lambkin wrote:

Reported... but apparently not to the Browns. I guess they violated the #1 rule of guerrilla warfare: making sure the local population is on your side.

What? All those months of hate-filled poisonous nonsense rhetoric about "show me the law," and Judaism, and Illuminati, and Freemasonry, and the evil government, and conspiracy -- by the tax protester movement's poster boy intellectual, Edward Blowhardhands -- did not win the hearts and minds of HIS OWN NEIGHBORS? I am shocked.

Ohhhh the humanity!

[Harrison Bergeron]

One interesting point. In response to a question, Monier pointed out that, if they had shut down all entrances to the property and isolated the Browns as many people had urged them to do (including me, I should add), they wouldn't have been able to arrest them in the way they did.

As I've said already in this thread, it seems like a *very* good job by the Marshal's office. They endured a lot of flak, but ultimately their strategy turned out to be the right one.

I will have to confess that I was in that crowd as well urging isolation. I should have remembered that one of Napoleon's maxims applied to this situation ("Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.") and that Monier was on the right track all this time.

Who knew Ed was stupid enough to let the US Marshals walk right through the door as if they were long-lost friends?

[The Observer]

Who knew Ed was stupid enough to let the US Marshals walk right through the door as if they were long-lost friends?

Apparently Monier knew.

[Trippy]

What? All those months of hate-filled poisonous nonsense rhetoric about "show me the law," and Judaism, and Illuminati, and Freemasonry, and the evil government, and conspiracy -- by the tax protester movement's poster boy intellectual, Edward Blowhardhands -- did not win the hearts and minds of HIS OWN NEIGHBORS? I am shocked.

Ohhhh the humanity!

You forgot the the one free benefit concert they managed to have ... I'm guessing Ed's blowoff of his neighbors' concerns about that one didn't endear him to anyone, either. In addition to the crappy music and weirdos ...

[Trippy]

Please, please, please Trippy, let's be correct here....that's GUN-TOTING, EXPLOSIVES HAULING, wierdos.

I stand corrected, Captain!

That is true ... gun-toting, explosives-hauling weirdos don't endear one to the neighbors (any more than crappy music does).

[Harrison Bergeron]

Who knew Ed was stupid enough to let the US Marshals walk right through the door as if they were long-lost friends?

Apparently Monier knew.

I don't think he knew. I think he hoped. If he knew it would work, he'd have done it a long time ago.

[TheSaint]

I will have to confess that I was in that crowd as well urging isolation. I should have [known] that Monier was on the right track all this time.

I'll eat a slice of humble pie on that point as well. Huzzahs all around for Stephen Monier and the US Marshals. Not just for resolving the situation without anyone getting hurt, but for denying Ed Brown the gun battle and ensuing publicity he so desperately wanted.

[Dezcad]

Who knew Ed was stupid enough to let the US Marshals walk right through the door as if they were long-lost friends?

Apparently Monier knew.

I don't think he knew. I think he hoped. If he knew it would work, he'd have done it a long time ago.

I think he had to wait until the house was empty (aside from E&E) which only happened recently with the arrest of the 4 supporters and the departure of Ole Buck.

[Demosthenes]

I don't think he knew. I think he hoped. If he knew it would work, he'd have done it a long time ago.

This is only the second time when the house didn't have a lot of supporters around. The first time was the two week period between Anthony leaving and Reno showing up and at that point, while the Browns were alone at times, locals were still showing up randomly.

Thanks to the arrests two week ago, literally all of the locals finally drifted away.

[Demosthenes]

From an article in the Los Angeles Times:

Shaun Kranish, a supporter from Rockford, Ill., who had visited the Brown home, said that he was discouraged by their arrests and that he found it hard to believe they had not put up a fight.

"We were not told," he said, "how or what types of weaponry were involved in taking them."

Erika Hayasaki, "Tax-evading couple arrested at their N.H. compound",
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 5, 2007, at
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... &cset=true

Wahhhhhhh! It's not faaaiiiirrrrr! Poor Shaun Kranish is discouraged!

If the Feds had bigger guns that Ed did, does that invalidate the arrests, Shaun? Or, you were hoping for a more tragic outcome -- a somehow more "heroic," Wagnerian, "Valhalla-isch" Goetterdaemmerung kind of thing -- for Edward Blowhardhands, eh Shaunnie-poo? How sad for you and Ed.

Be sure to listen to Shaun whine and distance himself from the Browns (he didn't really help them or anything...)

http://www.hipcast.com/export/Pe2c1751d ... REYWRw.mp3

[Demosthenes]

The feds are questioning the NH Free Staters about anything and everything concerning the Browns. This fool thought it would be wise to illegally tape his conversation with the government agents.

http://www.freetalklive.com/files/411-2007-10-05-A.mp3

[Dezcad]

The feds are questioning the NH Free Staters about anything and everything concerning the Browns. This fool thought it would be wise to illegally tape his conversation with the government agents.

http://www.freetalklive.com/files/411-2007-10-05-A.mp3

So his NHFree handle of "Error" is appropriate, huh?

[ASITStands]

One interesting point. In response to a question, Monier pointed out that, if they had shut down all entrances to the property and isolated the Browns as many people had urged them to do (including me, I should add), they wouldn't have been able to arrest them in the way they did.

As I've said already in this thread, it seems like a *very* good job by the Marshal's office. They endured a lot of flak, but ultimately their strategy turned out to be the right one.

I will have to confess that I was in that crowd as well urging isolation. I should have remembered that one of Napoleon's maxims applied to this situation ("Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.") and that Monier was on the right track all this time.

It was an excellent job! I thought the marshals should have acted sooner, but it turns out to have been a brilliant plan.

[The Operative]

The feds are questioning the NH Free Staters about anything and everything concerning the Browns. This fool thought it would be wise to illegally tape his conversation with the government agents.

http://www.freetalklive.com/files/411-2007-10-05-A.mp3

Geez, what a bunch of idiots. Officer asks, "Are there any guns in the house?" This moron answers, "I don't own any guns in the house." Simple tip, don't want cops to harass you, don't give them stupid answers.

The officer did make a mistake though, he told them to use their heads. They might have heads, but they are empty.

[Demosthenes]

The feds are questioning the NH Free Staters about anything and everything concerning the Browns. This fool thought it would be wise to illegally tape his conversation with the government agents.

http://www.freetalklive.com/files/411-2007-10-05-A.mp3

So his NHFree handle of "Error" is appropriate, huh?

Error (Michael Hampton) didn't make the recording, Supperman15 (Philip Allen) did.

[Famspear]

Since lots of us are eating humble pie for not recognizing what U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier's plan was, do I get to rub it in by saying "I told you so"? When a fellow contributor stated the following about the so-called "Freedom Concert" in June:

It's tax protester Woodstock. I simply cannot believe the federal marshals can possibly allow that to happen. I also truly do not understand why they allow people to come and go to that property

,

I responded as follows:

I think I have a pretty good idea. Things are not always as they appear.

--from
viewtopic.php?p=11407&highlight=#11407

OK, OK, I won't again mention my cosmic, expansive Weltanschauung, my brilliance, my prescience regarding the special operations that I knew would be carried out against the dastardly Edward Blowhardhands.

Seriously, although I (and I'm sure others) had a pretty good idea of what Monier was trying to do, I definitely was not prescient on the point that this would end so well. I had a very, very bad feeling about how this was going to turn out when I first began hearing about this case in late 2006 or early 2007. I am very relieved, and I hope that the U.S. Marshal's Office and the other people involved read these pages so they will know that so many people do recognize the great job they did. I'm thinking I should write a letter or something.

As a former reporter, I am also very happy with the way the media handled this over all. I was really concerned early on that the mass media would create problems on this one, and my fears were not founded. Thanks to all in the media who exercised restraint as well.