Controversial Oath Keepers' Conference in Las Vegas this Weekend

Founded in March the Oath Keepers claim to be dedicated defenders of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Others, however, see them as heirs to the militia tradition that spawned the Oklahoma bombing that killed 168 on April 19, 1995.

This weekend the Oath Keepers are holding their first national Conference in Las Vegas. Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of serving military personnel, police, firemen and veterans. There oath is to the defend the Constitution. “The Oath we swore, with the support of like minded citizens who take an Oath to stand with us, to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help us God. Our Oath is to the Constitution,” according to their website. Founder Stewart Rhodes is a former U.S. Army paratrooper, earned his law degree from Yale in 2004. He argues that the Oath Keepers are dedicated to preserving the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and defending those liberties from both external and internal threats. Earlier this week he explained this perspective to Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Alan Maimon, “The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here. My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they [the federal government] can't do it without them.... We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you." Rhodes argues that the Oath Keepers are dedicated to preserving American liberties by educating the military and law enforcement officers what they are not obliged to do. Specifically, they are never obliged to follow an order that violates the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. In Rhodes words, "The message to law enforcement is not to become a tool of oppression." To this end a significant portion of their program consists of their March 3, 2009 “Declaration of Orders We Will Not Obey:”

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.

2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people

3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.

4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.

5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control."

9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.

10.We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

Rhodes argues that this amounts to nothing more than a declaration to violate neither the Bill of Rights nor the Constitution, and a declaration to support the fundamental meaning of those documents as intended by the Founding Fathers of the Republic. However, there are opponents of the Oath Keepers who see their purpose as being far more sinister. The Southern Poverty Law Center views them as successors to the Militia Movement and the Patriots of the 1990s, who were committed to violent right-wing revolution and frequently racist. They also argue that it is no coincidence that the Oath Keepers were not formed during the Bush Presidency but rather, shortly after President Obama took Office. The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report entitled, “Return of the Militias” on August 12, 2009 that stated, “Oath Keepers, the military and police organization that was formed earlier this year and held its April muster on Lexington Green, may be a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival.” It also included a quote from Rhodes on the Alex Jones radio show that was less temperate than Rhodes often sounds, “"We know that if the day should come where a full-blown dictatorship would come, or tyranny … it can only happen if those men, our brothers in arms, go along and comply with unconstitutional, unlawful orders. Imagine if we focus on the police and military. Game over for the New World Order." A prominent speaker at the Conference this weekend in Las Vegas is former Sheriff Richard Mack, he also has a testimonial on the Oath Keepers website. His reputation precedes him, Sheriff Mack is the man who took the federal government to Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn the Brady Bill. He is a nationally known pro-gun lobbyist, based on his interpretation of the Constitution. He is also a leading States rights advocate. He is a strong proponent of any and all States right to secede from the Union at anytime. He also believes strongly that no federal law can be enforced within a state unless the state concedes to it. On his website he jokes about how much he would like to see a county sheriff arrest an Internal Revenue Service or Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent for trespass. He also freely refers to healthcare reform as 'Obamacare'. As a retired county sheriff he is an ideal leader and recruiter for the Oath Keepers. His website, his testimonial and his speeches (available on Youtube) also make plain that he views the federal government as a threat to law and order and a greater threat to individual liberty than any external threat.