Members of an armed militia group occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge — including one possible Islamic State supporter — have accessed government computers to create their own website.
The militia’s leader, cattle rancher Ammon Bundy, has repeatedly denied that his group’s members have breached the government computers, but this week, one of the militants occupying the refuge posted a video of himself using one of the computers.
Oregon Public Broadcasting confirmed that the militia members have been using the Department of the Interior computers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and in a video posted on YouTube, occupier David Fry displays a website the group has created on the monitor of one of the federal computers.
In the video, Mr. Fry tells viewers to check out the website defendyourbase.net, where he has posted videos of himself with updates of the standoff, a “list of serious injustices” and a link to buy fellow occupier LaVoy Finicum’s mystery novel.
“Currently I’m actually using one of the BLM computers here,” Mr. Fry says in the video. The computers are protected with passwords and encryption but Mr. Fry said he was able to access the computer using a flash drive with Linux.
He noted that none of the government data stored on the computer was being destroyed and said he is not “sabotaging anything.”
Mr. Fry told OBP that he drove through a winter storm from Ohio to join Mr. Bundy and his supporters in the occupation.
He said he knew the militants who have occupied the refuge for the past 10 days “were pretty good people.”
“It was [a] miracle, that I got here,” Mr. Fry said Tuesday. “I’ve had quarrels with the government myself, and I feel there has to be some point where people have to put their foot down against the problems.”
Mr. Fry’s social media history shows that he regularly posts anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and homophobic comments.
He has also made posts in support of the Islamic State terrorist group on his Google+ account, according to OPB.
“ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS FOR ISIS TO NUKE ISREAL TO HELL” he reportedly wrote in a Nov. 30 post. The comment has since been deleted.
In a followup video, Mr. Fry claimed that he is not an Islamic State supporter and said his comments about nuking Israel were “really just being sarcastic.”
When asked to explain his feelings about Israel and the Islamic State, Mr. Fry spoke at length of government conspiracies, plots against multiple countries, Sept. 11, court records, computer viruses on Japanese computers, Fukushima and a Jewish conspiracy against the free world that involves causing nuclear meltdowns, OPB reported.
FBI officials have said they are monitoring the situation, which has carried on for more than a week.
Mr. Finicum said Tuesday the militia would hold a community meeting Friday to discuss their reasons for taking over the refuge and reveal their exit strategy.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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