Freemen Reject Latest Fbi Offer To Meet At Neutral Site

A hectic week of failed negotiations ended on an appropriate note Saturday when the anti-government freeman - just as they said - spurned an offer to meet with the FBI on neutral ground.

Only the media showed up Saturday at the time and place the FBI had proposed to the freemen in an attempt to end the 41-day standoff.

Fairview Hall was locked. No one was inside.

The rural meeting hall is near Four Corners crossroads where the main FBI checkpoint closes off the territory around the freeman compound, 30 miles northwest of Jordan.

At the 960-acre freemen farm complex, the militant fugitives stockpiled firewood alongside the main farmhouse, where they once taught seminars on their ideology, how to file liens against those they considered enemies, and how to issue checks against those liens.

Three men unloaded wood from a pickup truck while two children played nearby. Overhead, an FBI plane circled the compound.

The freemen contend they are not subject to state or federal law, but only to common law as administered in their own courts.

Several of the group are wanted on state and federal charges ranging from writing bad checks to threatening to kidnap and kill a federal judge. The standoff began March 25 after two leaders were arrested. The FBI believes 18 freemen are on the ranch.