Standoff emerges at polygamist retreat

[ben_meyers]

Source: Yahoo news

14 minutes ago



ELDORADO, Texas - Ambulances are being sent to a polygamist compound in West Texas as authorities prepare "for the worst" in a conflict with members of the compound.

prosecutor Allison Palmer says sect leaders Saturday refused to let authorities search a temple for a 16-year-old member who reported being physically abused.

Palmer tells the San Angelo Standard-Times that medical workers are being sent "in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants."

She says that law enforcers are "preparing for the worst."

A search warrant authorized troopers to enter the retreat run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They are looking for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080406/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat;_ylt=AliUwhPX4yBB1NscAV6uDuqs0NUE

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[maddezmom]

1. oh geez

this isn't sounding good at all. :(

[TomInTib]

4. Those crazies surely learned from the Davidian debacle.

There is simply not enough law enforcement personnel in that part of Texas to deal with this.

This could turn into something awful.

[TomInTib]

2. Goodness, where is the manpower going to come from?

I am familiar with that part of Texas, and there is going to be Hell to pay if those 400 nutcases are well-armed.

By the way, Eldorado is pronounced "el-dough-ray'-dough" by the locals.

[Warpy]

3. The Warren Jeffs sect has been a ticking time bomb

for a very long time. It doesn't matter that Jeffs is finally in prison. There are too many old men with child brides out there, men who want to keep their female property at all costs.

This is probably not going to end all that well.

At least they managed to get a lot of the kids out first.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. That Linda Thompson book...

was something, huh?

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Fuck off, troll.

That debacle belongs only to the religious nutcases who opened fire on the police without provocation.

There is no way that an incindiary device could cause simultaneous fire in five different sections of the building, four of which were well removed from where the ATF tank broke into the building.

They did it to themselves, because they were RELIGIOUSLY INSANE. Just like Jeff's group.

[sam sarrha]

12. "they",the burned dead women, children, were victims of Jeff's Insanity..he went to Israel and

thought he was Jesus.. the Israelis have special hospitals and psychiatric teams to treat all the tourists that are possessed by evil spirits in the old ruins...

which explains the insanity of their government.. explains all the killing

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. Of course, the children were absolutely victims, but they were victims

of the cult, not of the government - "they" = the Branch Davidians, not the innocents they took with them.

Fortunately, most the children have been removed from Jeff's compound, but I do think this could end as badly, as Jeff's people are as much the religiously insane as the Davidians were (unless the 'religion' really is just a cynical cover for a pedophile cult).

[sam sarrha]

37. it was a pedifile cult...

[johnfunk]

18. The blood is on David Koresh's hands

Not ATF. Not the FBI. Not Janet Reno's. Not even their Bush-Sr.-regime's predecessors.

Koresh was, is and will remain the "Don't let this happen to your community" poster child for both gun control and the benefits of secularism and atheism.

[High Plains]

40. There was plenty of blame to go around. And yes, ATF, gets its share

Their boneheaded macho raid started the whole fiasco...so they could look good on TV.

[Ian David]

8. Didn't the Repukes want to impeach Clinton over Waco? n/t

[WCGreen]

9. I was thinking they would probably lay the blame for this one,,,

On Reverend Wright and Obama...

[johnfunk]

19. Naaah... they'll blame The Clenis™!

The Clenis™ is, after all, the root of all evil and corruption in America -- if, that is, you're a politicized Southern Baptist, FReeper, Rush OxyConbaugh Dittohead, or any combination thereof!

[Taverner]

10. Thing is, this is what unquestioned authority looks like

Whether we're talking Nazi Germany, The Dark Ages, or some remote part of Texas.

Reality is not negotiable.

[sam sarrha]

14. we are talking about PEDIFILES hiding behind religion.. all the poligomy is just pedifelia, creepy

old white men pimp'n their children to each other to molest

the 16 year old in question was probably pimped out at about 12... not at all uncommon

[muryan]

34. No this is what saving the lives of abused children looks like

There are many times when the government oversteps its authority without probable cause, this isn't one of those cases.

[Taverner]

42. You are missing my fucking point - I'M ON YOUR SIDE

Warren Jeffs, the whole Polgygamist Mormon movement - that is unquestioned authority

The police going in? That's their job

Protect the public

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

44. That's ridiculous.

They're investigating a claim that a CHILD was raped. What do you want them to do exactly? Ignore it?

[Taverner]

45. Are you even paying attention to what I said? JEFF'S COMPOUND IS UNCHCKED AUTHORITY

NOT THE COPS

Jeesus, can any of you fucking read?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

46. Sorry.

I've just re-read your post, and I must say that it is quite open to misinterpretation. Hence so many people misinterpreting it.

[Maddy McCall]

11. This will not end well. Their compound isn't just a "retreat," it's a citadel

And I imagine many more than 150 people live there.

[sam sarrha]

15. the dirty old men put all the women and children to work to pay for that shit...why did it last this

long..??

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

24. more like welfare fraud

I am sure you will find every woman who was resecued will be found to be on welfare and claiming support for children who don't exist.

[sam sarrha]

36. that too, but also child SEX SLAVES

[Patriot Abroad]

31. Nice wall, excellent fields of fire

Anyone think they might have been looking at a Waco situation when they built that?

[Posteritatis]

47. Yeah, it looks like it was specifically built for defense. (nt)

[medeak]

13. after taking 52 girls as young as 6 months

what would you expect?

[medeak]

16. 137 children and 46 women removed

sounds like just the men left?

By Saturday afternoon, 137 children and 46 women were being housed and interviewed at local community centers.

[sam sarrha]

17. this sort of pologomys pedifelia, small groups swap'n their kids for others, ends up incest

[Moloch]

21. The leader of this cult.. Warren Jeffs

already said he was a false prophet.. and they have a long history of abusing women and kids. I really hope nobody is hurt in this standoff and the polygamist assholes get thrown into jail for a very long time.

[alfredo]

22. bush Sr left Clinton with Waco and Somalia. Jr has to outdo dad with

two wars and some more nut-cases holed up in their compound.

[Ilsa]

23. Mormons can be pretty fussy about who sets foot in their temple.

Even the gathering rooms in the Salt Lake City Temple are off limits. PBS was able to take a video tour of the elaborate fellowship rooms. There are rooms in temples that are designated for special rituals, so I can understand why they don't want outsiders coming in.

ON THE OTHER HAND, this group is a bunch of brainwashed women, some of which may have Stockhollm Syndrome and PEDOPHILES and RAPISTS. They also are welfare cheats and child abusers, having tossed out and abandoned the young males who would later challenge the authority of the old roosters.

[rainbow4321]

25. Update: Authorities have entered the Temple

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/05/authorities-prepare-for-worst-in-efforts-to-area/

Local and state officials entered the temple of a secretive polygamist sect late Saturday, said lawmen blockading the road to the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.

The action comes hours after local prosecutors said officials were preparing for the worst because a group of FLDS members were resisting efforts to search the structure.

The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and Schleicher County sheriff’s deputy confirmed that officials have entered the temple but said they had no word on whether anything occurred in the effort.

-----------------------

Also..from a polygamy blogsite that is following the compound news



3rd link has pics taken from when the compound was "expanding" earlier this year.


http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/


http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/02/eldorado-texas-yfz-is-expanding.html

http://web.sccn2.net/flds/02-19-08.htm

[SpiritMatter]

26. Religious Freedom is Obsolete

Christian Fascists are taking over.

Religious Freedom is now obsolete.

Any church that fails to meet the "reasonable" moral and doctrinal requirements of the orthodox Church of America will soon be banned as a heretical cult.

If you don't stand up for your neighbor's freedom, you will soon lose yours.

[Moloch]

27. Meh...... Freedom of religion doesn't include...

sexual abuse of minors.. Not proven? These people deserve a trial like everyone else but there is extensive evidence of polygamy and child abuse.

[pnwmom]

28. If we don't stand up for children in abusive communities,

then we share in the moral blame for what happens to them.

These children have just as much a right to the protection of the law as all the other children in the U.S.

Their abusers shouldn't be allowed to hide behind the banner of their religion.

[Lil Missy]

29. Freedom of Religion does not include the Freedom to abuse women and children.

[Kitty Herder]

30. Freedom to rape little girls? (Yes, marrying off fourteen-year-olds to their cousins

against their will is absolutely rape!) BTW, with a name like SpiritMatter, I'm assuming your Mormon? Perhaps even FLDS? I've never heard that phrase outside a Mormon context. So how does that color your view on the matter?

[girl gone mad]

33. Who is standing up for the freedom of those children?

The women are slaves, held captive in a secluded compound in an isolated town. They are never allowed contact with outsiders, have little knowledge of the world outside and given little formal education. They are forced into sexual relationships with old men while they are still underage, forced to marry and bear children for these old men while the young men they might actually be sexually attracted to are driven out of town.

[Kitty Herder]

32. Babyland......

http://www.counterpunch.org/mazur03022005.html

Even if you don't read it, scroll down to see the photo of the unmarked, infant-sized graves.

[maddezmom]

35. Cops peacefully enter polygamist temple

Cops peacefully enter polygamist temple By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer
26 minutes ago



ELDORADO, Texas - Law enforcement peacefully gave gained access into a temple on the grounds of a polygamist compound in West Texas.

Prosecutor Allison Palmer says there were tense moments Saturday night, but the situation remained calm.

The search is continuing Sunday at the ranch in Eldorado (pronounced el-dor-AY'-do). Followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs built a compound there on a former exotic game ranch.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080406/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat;_ylt=Ao8rS1xMKf4VoZbdn7JGZg1vzwcF

[DemoTex]

38. Read "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith"

By Jon Krakauer

[seafan]

39. Possible standoff looms at polygamist ranch (April, Waco, TX reminders)

Possible standoff looms at polygamist ranch

April 5, 2008


Authorities are seeking Dale Barlow, 50, seen in a mugshot from a 2005 arrest on child sex charges.

ELDORADO, Texas (CNN) -- Ambulances rolled into a Texas ranch that's home to members of a polygamist sect, as authorities continued their search Saturday night for possible victims of physical and sexual abuse.
The emergency vehicles were called for as investigators prepared to search the group's temple, law enforcement officials said.
The sect is a rogue branch of the Mormon church, which forbids nonbelievers from entering its temples.
Authorities wanted medical backup "in case they're involved in sensitive areas that could escalate into a negative reaction," a law enforcement source said.
A police helicopter also had begun circling the ranch Saturday night.

.....

A total of 183 people, including 137 children, have been taken away since law enforcement officers raided the compound Thursday night, said Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the Texas Child Protective Services Division.
The children -- most of them girls -- were being interviewed by special investigators, she said. .....
Authorities continue to search the 1,900-acre YFZ ranch, occupied by followers of imprisoned polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, and at least one man is being sought by police.
According to the search warrant, authorities are looking for Dale Barlow, 50, whom they suspect of having married and fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl.

.....

Jeffs, the 52-year-old leader and "prophet" of the 10,000-member church, was convicted in Utah last year and sentenced to 10 years on two counts of being an accomplice to rape, charges related to a marriage he performed in 2001. He faces trial in Arizona on eight charges of sexual conduct with a minor, incest and conspiracy.
Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bought the land near Eldorado four years ago and built the ranch, which they call the YFZ Ranch. The letters are said to refer to the words Yearning for Zion.

It is home to as many as 400 members who relocated from their Arizona and Utah compounds.

.....

When CNN crews have visited the ranch, it was guarded by armed men equipped with night vision gear and other high-tech surveillance tools to prevent intruders.
When CNN flew over the ranch in a small plane last year, the crew saw a massive temple, the three-story housing units where Jeffs' chosen followers live, the water tower, the school and community center, the dairy and cheese factory and a massive concrete mill.

The church openly practices polygamy in two towns straddling the Arizona-Utah state line -- Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona -- but members living on their Texas ranch rarely venture into Eldorado, four miles to the south.
Critics of the sect say that it arranges marriages for girls as young as 13 and that competition for brides may be reduced through exiling young men. If male followers are excommunicated, the critics claim, their wives and children can be reassigned to someone else.


CNN's Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.

Out of curiosity, is BlackwaterUSA involved in *protection* of this compound?




UPDATE: Sunday, April 6, 2008

ELDORADO, Texas (AP) — Law enforcement agents entered an enormous temple on the grounds of a polygamist compound, but by Sunday morning they still had not found a 16-year-old girl whose initial report of abuse led to the raid.
"There were some tense moments last night, but everything has remained calm and peaceful and they are continuing their search," said Allison Palmer, a prosecutor from a nearby county handling the case, early Sunday.

.....

State troopers armed with a search warrant raided the compound on Friday to look for evidence of a marriage between the girl, who allegedly had a baby at 15, and 50-year-old Dale Barlow.
Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.
Barlow's probation officer told The Salt Lake Tribune that he was in Arizona.
"He said the authorities had called him (in Colorado City, Ariz.) and some girl had accused him of assaulting her and he didn't even know who she was," said Bill Loader, a probation officer in Arizona.

Palmer said Texas authorities have been in contact with those in Arizona but have not yet talked to Barlow. No arrests have been made.
Barlow was sentenced to jail time last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.
The search warrant instructed officers to look for marriage records or other evidence linking her to the man and the baby. The warrant authorized the seizure of computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.

.....

Jeffs is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., where he awaits trial for four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.
In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.

[High Plains]

41. Many questions here:

They say 183 women and children have been taken from the compound (which is what we call a farm when we want to make it sound scary).

They had a warrant for one 16-year-old girl and the 50-year-old guy who married her.

On what basis is the state of Texas seizing all these people?

Did any of them leave voluntarily?

Where do we draw the line between religious freedom and criminality? It's legal to marry a 16-year-old girl in Texas.

Are arranged marriages illegal?

Do the women and girls of El Dorado have free will?

[mbperrin]

43. Not so many questions if you live near here.

Our daughter lives less than 20 miles from this compound. There's nothing else you can call a 1700 acre area completely enclosed with a solid concrete fence 16" thick and more than 8 feet tall, with a concrete structure 10 stories tall, also made of reinforced concrete more than 16" thick. The whole area is patrolled continuously by men with night vision gear, semiautomatic weapons, and unfriendly attitudes. The residents live in communal dormitories, and the place has its own concrete making plant, among other features.

My relatives farm. That is not a farm.

The girl you're speaking of was 15 when her baby was born, and the "guy" is a convicted sex offender currently on probation. The girl called 911 for help, and she has not yet been found. If she turns up dead and her baby missing, will you accept that perhaps there was a problem? Or maybe we should quit answering 911 calls?

The state of Texas is removing these children for their immediate safety while the investigation continues. 18 are found to have been sexually or physically abused on a prima facie basis, and they are in the custody of the state. All 46 of the women have left voluntarily.

It is not legal to marry a 12 year old girl in Texas. It is not legal to marry a 13 year old girl in Texas. It is not legal to marry a 14 year old girl in Texas. It is not legal to marry a 15 year old girl in Texas. It is not legal to marry a 16 year old girl in Texas without signed parental consent and her consent as well. It is not legal to marry more than one woman of any age at a time in Texas.

Yes, arranged marriages are illegal when they are done without the consent of one or either of the parties being "arranged." We call that forced performance in Texas.

And you judge the free will. A girl calls 911 with her life in danger, and now she is missing.