Time: Mon Sep 22 21:03:28 1997
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Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 20:54:06 -0700
To: schmidt_ka@leg.wa.gov
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: "Paper Terrorism" Memo from Rep. Karen Schmidt
TO: Rep. Karen Schmidt, Chairman [sic]
Organized Crime Advisory Board
Washington State Patrol
State of Washington
DATE: September 22, 1997
Dear Ms. Schmidt:
Would you kindly confirm whether, or not,
you authored all, or part, of this memo
on "paper terrorism" [sic]? See below.
Were you in any way responsible for faxing
two (2) separate copies of this memo to my
office fax machine, anonymously?
Thank you, in advance, for your assistance.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Mitchell
Counselor at Law, federal witness,
and private attorney general
copies: Supreme Law School (electronic)
Washington State Attorney General (hard copy)
Judge Alex Kozinski (supervising) (hard copy)
[This text is formatted in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]
[CONSPICUOUS WARNING:]
[The authenticity of this transcript has not been confirmed
as of the date of transcript preparation (9/22/97, 09:15).]
[begin transcript]
State of Washington
Washington State Patrol
General Administration Building
P.O. Box 42600
Olympia, Washington 98504-2600
(360) 753-6540
September 17, 1997
TO: Washington State Senators
Washington State Representatives
FROM: Representative Karen Schmidt, Chairman [sic]
Organized Crime Advisory Board
SUBJECT: Paper Terrorism
It has been brought to my attention that anti-government
organizations have been utilizing a tactic called "paper
terrorism" to effectively disable government. Commonly, public
officials are personally targeted. This widespread practice is
accomplished by overburdening our communications, business, or
judicial systems with frivolous or repetitive petitions, property
liens, and small claims court actions.
Enclosed is a brief explanation of this process. If you feel you
are a victim of "paper terrorism," I encourage you to contact the
Washington State Patrol, Organized Crime Intelligence Unit, in
Olympia at (360) 753-3277, for assistance.
KS:csp
Enclosure
PAPER TERRORISM
Introduction
Since the early 1990's there has been a noticeable increase in
the number of people across the country who have joined and
continue to participate in the anti-government movement. These
individuals view themselves as victims of a government conspiracy
to take away their individual rights and liberties. They do not
recognize most forms of county, state, and federal government and
therefore create their own self-styled government. National
speakers in the anti-government extremists or "Patriot" movement
conduct recruitment and information seminars across Washington
State, as well as the entire country. These seminars and
recruitment meetings fuel bizarre conspiracy theories and
communicate new trends within the anti-government movement.
Paper terrorism has grown from a trend to a full scale tactic
used upon businesses, private individuals, government services
and elected officials.
Background
Paper terrorism is designed to clog government services with
meaningless requests which consume time and disrupt schedules.
In the private sector paper terrorism is an attempt to extort
money, goods or services. Some examples of paper terrorism
activities:
* Bogus liens placed upon personal property of government
officials and private individuals.
* Frivolous lawsuits filed in state and federal courts against
businesses and government entices [sic].
* Drafting and passing counterfeit bank checks and other
fraudulent negotiable instruments aimed at defrauding the
financial community and businesses.
* Common Law Courts that issue homemade subpoenas to citizens,
businesses and government officials.
* Challenging judges in an effort to disqualify them on a
current case and to repeat their motions to disqualify these
judges from hearing future cases by referencing the prior
challenges.
* Scheming to avoid paying state sales tax during a purchase
by declaring to be a non resident and then filing claims
with the state's risk management section if refused.
* Disrupting the court system by persuading fellow jail
inmates to defend themselves as Patriots, thus tying up more
of the courts and prosecutors time.
* Distributing the extremist Citizens Handbook to foster jury
nullification.
* using the Internet to promote extremist ideas such as
"Assassination Politics" or predicting the date of death of
a law enforcement officer or government official to win a
cash price.
* Filing bogus claims in small claims court.
* Requesting information from courts, government agencies,
elected officials and businesses in the form of frivolous
questions in an effort to consume employee's time.
Tell-tale signs of Patriot extremists can often be found in their
conversation or written documents. Common indicators are
biblical passages, referring to the state as a "republic",
calling zip codes a "postal zone", refusing to acknowledge direct
questions, separating their middle and last names with a comma or
colon, placing a thumb print on a document, claiming the court
has no authority, or using the phrases: all rights reserved,
without prejudice, UCC 1-207, pro se, sui juris, united states,
Black's law.
Analysis and Trends
These anti-government extremists and supporters are convinced
citizens are being systematically oppressed by an illegal,
totalitarian government. They believe the time for traditional
political reform has passed, that their freedom will only be
secured by resistance to the law and attacks against the
government in several forms.
Members of these groups bond to one another and lose contact with
other people who hold different opinions. The isolation works to
reinforce their views, which in turn gives them new purpose.
This new purpose may take ordinary ideas to extremes, rationalize
their problems into blaming government, and cause members to
compete with each other to make stronger statements.
Trend and Incident Reporting
If you become victimized by paper terrorism, contact the
Washington State Patrol Organized Crime Intelligence Unit at
(360) 753-3277, extension 121. All acts reaching a criminal
level should be referred to your local law enforcement agency or
prosecutor's office.
[end transcript]
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