Sen. Duke Says Progress Made In Freemen Talks

FBI agents and a Colorado senator met with the anti-government freemen for a second day Friday, this time seated around a card table.

The four freemen, two FBI agents and Colorado state Sen. Charles Duke had stood in a steady drizzle throughout Thursday’s first meeting, ignoring three folding chairs the FBI brought.

On Friday, Day 54 of the standoff, the FBI set up seven chairs and the table, and they met for 90 minutes on the muddy road near the entrance to the group’s 960-acre farm complex.

The freemen could be seen passing around sheaves of paper, then speaking alone with Duke, a leader in his state’s “patriot” movement, a loose confederation of groups that feel established government has gone beyond its constitutional boundaries.

Later Friday, Duke said outside the FBI’s local headquarters that some progress was made in the talks, which involve “probably 30 or 40 major issues,” and they are “horribly complex.”

Another session was scheduled for today.