Sheriff meets with anti-government occupiers one day after town meeting

BURNS — For nearly a week, a band of anti-government outsiders occupying a nature reserve has put Harney County, a remote patch of land in southeastern Oregon, in the national spotlight.

But Wednesday, a group of local residents banded together to reclaim the conversation and send their uninvited guests a message: We appreciate the effort, but it’s time for you to go.

Pickup trucks and TV news vans lined the long, snow covered road leading to the Memorial Building at the Harney County Fairgrounds Wednesday evening, where hundreds of Harney residents and people from neighboring counties gathered to hear Sheriff David Ward speak about the ongoing armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

“There’s a lot of things I disagree with in this world, but we can work through it like adults, peacefully, with a united front,” Ward said, calling on the residents to “unite peacefully” and for the armed protesters at the wildlife refuge “to go home and let us get back to our lives.”

In front of an American flag and flanked by state and county law enforcement agents who’ve been deployed to Harney County from across Oregon over the last few days, the visibly nervous Ward received a standing ovation during his impassioned speech.

For nearly a week, Arizona resident Ammon Bundy and a gang of supporters have been holed up in the refuge arguing they have a right to the federal land and the support of locals.

On Thursday, Ward met with Bundy and conveyed the wishes of local citizens, asking he and his supporters to leave. Bundy declined, but did agree to meet with the sheriff again on Friday.

OREGON EXPLAINED: WHY AMMON BUNDY'S STANDOFF IS DOOMED TO FAIL

Slideshow: Armed militia standoff in Oregon >>>

Wednesday night, community members said that while they appreciate national attention to the federal land rights debate that has long raged in the western part of the U.S., they prefer to speak for themselves and not to be represented by Bundy’s crusaders.

“I’m uneasy about Bundy and his outside help because I don’t know them and how they will act,” said Mitch Singer, a rancher who has spent most of his life in Harney County. “That being said, I appreciate much of their message and admire their sense of doing the right thing.”

According to Ward, since the wave of “people from outside the community” hit town, his staff and family have been the target of threats and vandalism. He said his deputies have been followed, his parents harassed and his wife’s car vandalized.

“Somebody flattened my wife’s tire recently,” Ward said. “She packed up and left town. Sometimes the stress is a bit much.”

As Ward spoke, a group of people ranging in age from 11 to mid-70s — many wearing cowboy hats and denim — lined up for a turn at the microphone. Once it was time for questions and comments, Ward turned the floor over to Harney County residents only.

Many raised their hands when Ward asked who wanted to resolve this dispute peacefully and send the armed protesters home.

Kate Marsh, a soft-spoken woman with short silver hair and a bright pink vest, said the exposure the occupation has given Harney County and its concerns does not outweigh the strain it has put on local people, from the schools being closed to community meetings cancelled and the law enforcement agencies from other counties that have spared officers to help keep Harney County safe.

“It’s very nice to know that we’re on television and the radio and all the other media,” Marsh said. But “we don’t need outsiders to bring public attention. We can do that ourselves.”

Though Ward declined to comment on the law enforcement strategy, several people volunteered to accompany the sheriff to the refuge in the morning to tell the activists to leave.

“Let’s ask them to go home,” Ward said.

Community members arrive at the meeting at the Harney County fairgrounds Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, in Burns, Ore. (Caitlin Dickson/Yahoo News)

Seeking support for executive actions on gun control, Obama tears into National Rifle Association

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President Obama Seeks Support For Gun Actions

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) -- President Barack Obama tore into the National Rifle Association on Thursday as he sought support for his actions on gun control, accusing the powerful lobby group of peddling an "imaginary fiction" that he said has distorted the national debate about gun violence.

In a prime-time, televised town hall meeting, Obama dismissed what he called a "conspiracy" alleging that the federal government — and Obama in particular — wants to seize all firearms as a precursor to imposing martial law. He blamed that notion on the NRA and like-minded groups that convince its members that "somebody's going to come grab your guns."

"Yes, that is a conspiracy," Obama said. "I'm only going to be here for another year. When would I have started on this enterprise?"

Obama defended his support for the constitutional right to gun ownership while arguing it was consistent with his efforts to curb mass shootings. He said the NRA refused to acknowledge the government's responsibility to make legal products safer, citing seatbelts and child-proof medicine bottles as examples.

Taking the stage at George Mason University, Obama accused the NRA of refusing to participate in the town hall despite having its headquarters nearby.

"Since this is a main reason they exist, you'd think that they'd be prepared to have a debate with the president," Obama said.

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President Barack Obama, left, during a CNN televised town hall meeting hosted by Anderson Cooper, r …

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said beforehand that the group saw "no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House." Several NRA members were in the audience for the event, which was organized and hosted by CNN. And the NRA pushed back on Twitter in real time, noting at one point "none of the president's orders would have stopped any of the recent mass shootings."

The White House has sought to portray the NRA, the nation's largest gun group, as possessing a disproportionate influence over lawmakers that has prevented new gun laws despite polls that show broad U.S. support for measures like universal background checks. Last year, following a series of mass shootings, Obama pledged to "politicize" the issue in an attempt to level the playing field for gun control supporters.

The American Firearms Retailers Association, another lobby group that represents gun dealers, did participate Thursday. Asked how business had been since Obama took office, Kris Jacob, vice president of the group, replied: "It's been busy."

"There's a very serious concern in this country about personal security," he added.

Obama's actions on guns have drawn major attention in the presidential campaign, with the Democratic candidates backing Obama and the Republicans unanimously voicing opposition. Donald Trump, addressing a rally in Vermont just as Obama was holding the town hall, said he would eliminate gun-free zones in schools on his first day if elected to the White House.

"You know what a gun-free zone is for a sicko? That's bait," Trump told the crowd.

Obama's broadside against the NRA came two days after unveiling a package of executive actions aimed at keeping guns from people who shouldn't have them. The centerpiece is new federal guidance that seeks to clarify who is "in the business" of selling firearms, triggering a requirement to get a license and conduct background checks on all prospective buyers.

The plan has drawn intense criticism from gun rights groups that have accused the president of trampling on the Second Amendment and railroading Congress by taking action on his own without new laws. Just after his 2012 re-election, Obama pushed hard for a bipartisan gun control bill that collapsed in the Senate, ending any realistic prospects for a legislative solution in the near term.

Part of a concerted White House push to promote the effort, the town hall attracted a number of high-profile figured in the gun debate, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in 2011. Obama took questions from Taya Kyle, whose late husband was depicted in the film "American Sniper," and Cleo Pendleton, whose daughter was shot and killed near Obama's Chicago home.

Ahead of the town hall, Obama put political candidates on notice that he would refuse to support or campaign for anyone who "does not support common-sense gun reform" — including Democrats.

All the candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination support stricter gun laws, so Obama's declaration in a New York Times op-ed isn't likely to have an impact on the race to replace him. Instead, it appeared aimed at Democratic congressional candidates from competitive districts who might want Obama's support on the campaign trail this year.

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Lederman reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kathleen Hennessey in Washington and Jill Colvin in Burlington, Vermont, contributed to this report.

Washington (AFP) - A US Hellfire missile has turned up in Cuba after going missing in a fiasco that has left American officials worried the technology may be shared with China, Russia or North Korea, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Though the missile was not carrying a warhead, the alarming diversion while it was in transit from Europe has spurred US investigators to probe whether its arrival on the communist island was the result of criminal activity or merely a series of mistakes, according to the newspaper.

And despite a historic thaw in ties with Cuba over the past year, Washington has been unsuccessful in its push to get the missile back, the WSJ said, citing unnamed sources.

It reported that American officials were not concerned that Cuba would take apart the Hellfire -- an air-to-ground missile often carried by helicopters -- but were worried that Havana would share the technology with US rivals China and Russia, as well as North Korea.

The missile's far-flung journey began in early 2014 when it was sent from Orlando International Airport by arms firm Lockheed Martin to Spain, where it was used in a NATO military exercise.

From Spain it began a journey that was supposed to see it arrive back in the United States, and was passed between several shipping firms on the first leg of its trip.

- Flying to Havana -

Officials loading a flight that was to carry the missile out of Madrid first noticed that it was missing, the Journal said.

They then determined that it had been put on a truck operated by Air France, which took it to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, where it was loaded onto one of the company's flights to Cuba.

By the time the missile was tracked down, it was already en route to Havana where an official noticed the labeling on its crate and seized it.

Lockheed Martin notified the State Department of the incident when it realized the missile was missing around June 2014, the WSJ said.

The US Justice Department is investigating the matter.

If the missile was purposefully diverted to Havana, the incident could be a violation of the Arms Export Control Act and even sanction laws against Cuba, the Journal said.

The bungled missile delivery comes with Washington and Havana working to build on their restoration of full diplomatic relations, a move first announced in December 2014.

The United States and Cuba formally restored diplomatic relations in July and re-opened embassies in each other's capitals.

Obama said he had made the decision because he concluded that 50 years of trying to encourage democratic and economic change in Cuba through isolation had failed.

It also comes with the US pushing for greater pressure on North Korea over an alleged hydrogen bomb test this month, and with Washington at loggerheads with Moscow and Beijing over a litany of issues ranging from the civil war in Syria and the conflict in Ukraine to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.