Craig, with sincerity and objectivity, American news journalists have been parroting and conveniently believing COPY READY news releases written by tax paid government "spokespersons" who are journalists hired to write propaganda, for so many decades, that news journalists literally do not know how to ask the type questions that conclusively prove that the government personnel are lying if their lips are moving. I was as equally foolish to believe the government lies that convinced me to fight in Vietnam.

The US trains young military personnel to WANT to kill, thus damaging the mind's normal reasoning ability. Then those trained-to-be-malicious personnel, especially those without sufficient education to get better jobs, get priority selection for American police jobs, including National Park Service Gestapo jobs. Look more openly at America. It has become a War and Police Regime. We are fighting more wars and imprisoning more of our own citizens, than any other nation.

That could only happen for the same reason it happened in Nazi Germany. The "free press" became a shill for government, an unmitigated failure of their purpose.

While I was studying the conflict phenomenon of the Alaska Lands Act (ANILCA) and its results, the primary conclusion was the consistency with which the Anchorage and Fairbanks newspapers defended malicious government violations of law, and attacked Alaskans. That was interestingly in harmony with all of Governor Hammond's staff refusing to describe the conflict as between federal power and the rights of Alaskans, to keep the dutifully compliant news media rhetoric as "saving the wilderness from the (illusionary) developers".

I was most involved with mountain climbing issues. Without any journalism training, when I simply read Public Law 89-249 (two pages), to discover that the Denali and Glacier Bay National Park Superintendents were, and still are, unlawfully engaged in highly lucrative, criminal racketeering operations in regard to mountaineering guide and kayaking guide concession permits, I asked the questions, on record, that exposed the proof. I was therefore arrested by the Park Service, and jailed for a week, shackled, chained, denied bail, denied a trial, denied an appeal and given a federal criminal record, etceteras. Having faced the pointed end of bullets in Vietnam, I was amused by the petty school yard bully mentality of the Park Service Gestapo.

Upon fully informing the Anchorage and Fairbanks newspapers, and giving them copies of the records, they supported the Park Service and denigrated me. The examples of Alaskan news media malicious treatment of Alaskans, to support government violations of law, are countless. The American free press is the greatest failure of the American form of government.

A REAL news reporter need only read Public Law 89-249, rationally written to limit the number of hotels in the Parks, to recognize that there is no lawful authority to impose (limited and thus lucrative) concession permits on adventure guides in National Parks, and that the practice constitutes your good National Park friends, knowingly committing felony crimes. Lacking "facilities development" or any lawfully defined "crowding", concession permits cannot lawfully apply to adventure guides. The system is rife with kickbacks and "favors". It was used to deny Alaskans the right to work in Alaska, and give lower 48 Park Service political supporters those lucrative permits. Park Service business as usual.

So Craig, after good people died horrible deaths in wars, to create and defend the "American free press", what use will you make of it, and what is your level of courage among your good National Park Service Gestapo friends?

Respectfully, DougBuchanan.com
cc: other news services

Another fine piece of writing Craig! My experiences with the federal government have been nothing but negative. They are getting worse and worse. I just got back from a great motorcycle trip in the lower 48. I had two encounters with the feds. Both encounters were very negative, and unecessarily so. Unless you comply with EXACTLY what they demand, you are toast.

Until the majority of Americans stand up and say we've had enough, the abuse will just keep getting worse and worse.

Since Mr. Wilde was on a subsistence hunt and lived in a village, I've assumed all along that he was Alaska native as well. What Craig hasn't said here is that if he is, these idiots also acted as if they had profiled him as a criminal because he wasn't white. Craig, I hope you will send this entire piece not only to Alaska's Congressional delegation, but also to Ken Salazar, head of the Dept. of Interior. Before he was appointed there, he was my Senator, and I respected him highly. I can't believe he would condone this kind of behavior among the staff of an agency under his leadership, were he made aware of it.

Thank you Craig for keeping us posted. What the prosecutor said about the sand bar and making it out like it wasn't dangerous shows how it is so wrong to have city people trying this. Having been in Alaska since 1972, I haven't heard of an instance of a ranger being attacked, even with the confrontations of Joe and the Pilgrim Character. Craig maybe you have some knowledge of how dangerous people contacts are for the Park Rangeers in Alaska. In these two case, the Yukon was the danger. Do they cuff an attacking bear?

When I read that Wilde was cuffed and then hauled by boat for some distance, I'm chilled. I think I would have gone totally berserk were I in Wilde's position. If the NPS boat had any trouble or sank - what hope of survival would there have been for Wilde? Did they make any extra safety arrangements? What would the NPS liability be? I can't feature carrying a cuffed person in a boat.

Above all I still wonder how it can be legal or acceptable in any way for NPS to threaten with firearms at a "safety stop". I could see it if they were hunting a dangerous suspect, had some warrant, probable cause, or some other serious crime issue. I can't imagine how NPS can say a vessel registration problem warrants conducting business at gun point. I have made mid-river interviews and enforcement visits to anglers in the range of 100 per day many times. I even found much more serious violations than Wilde's. This whole issue is unimaginable to me. I'd say there is a serious problem with the officers.

As far as I have heard, NPS doesn't roadblock the Parks Highway near McKinley park and stop cars, especially at gun point. How is the Yukon any different? Does NPS have authority to stop cars on the Parks Highway?

I hope our DC delegation gets onto this more closely and makes sure this stuff never happens again.

I have heard other people complain after visiting some national parks in AK that the staff made them feel like they shouldn't be there and that the park was the private preserve for the staff. I've seen new summer staff be grossly officious ordering the public around like drill sergeants when clearly they were very low on Alaskan experience.

I worry what the judge's verdict will be. I hope Wilde appeals if he's not exonerated. I'd contribute to an appeal fund.

I've read everything I can find from ADN, News Miner, and AD, including many many comments.

Keep the pot stirring Craig.

The only outcome from this that would be an effective message and lesson, would be terminating or replacing these two incompetent thugs. And that is exactly what they are. I hope Mr Wilde finds the support to see this through to a just decision, and not a settlement with dropped charges and things continue on as they are. That should not stand. Back in 1933 Europe there were jackbooted thugs with guns and bats who went around asking for peoples "papers". "Papers please" was a command,.. not a request. That was Nazi Germany, run by a fellow named Hitler. Is this now AmeriKa?..asking for our papers? That river falls under state authority anyway. Why are feds pulling Alaskans over on state property without warrant or reason and threatening them? A safety check should never involve guns and arrests. A security check might. Were these two federal park rangers/law officers operating on state waters with state permission? I`d like to know the answer to that question.

part of the problem is that the park service, forrest service and fish and wildlife service all are now required to hire enforcement personnel trained to homeland security standards. they don't get sufficient cultural training, aren't required to understand local issues and aren't given the option to tailor their procedures to local conditions. essentially, the citizenry is viewed as terrorists or potential terrorists. there is no provision for using a measured response to a perceived violation of regulations. i cut the park service some slack in places like denali and brooks falls; they are dealing with people from new jersey who have never been out of the concrete jungle and who don't know appropriate behavior for being in wild places. But the situation on the yukon never involved and never likely would involve those kinds of people. these rangers were not appropriately trained for the environment in which they were working. their response was totally inappropriate.

This reminds me of the story which years ago reported theft of timber on Southeast Alaska's rivers. This was used to justify creating an enforcement office within the US Forest Service. So now we have federal cops patrolling the highways of Southeast Alaska. Certainly they are on forest roads from time to time, but they have become harassment goons instead of something useful. Just an unnecessary level of federal oversight which isn't needed.

I mentioned rivers, but if you're from Southeast there aren't many examples of rivers as one might normally think of them. There are the Iskut and Stikine (both federally designated Wilderness Areas), the Taku and the Alsek (the latter being part of the Glacier Bay Preserve) hardly ones which one might attract log robbing types. Still theft on rivers with timber isn't a very good example - no examples were cited to my knowledge. These examples were enough to bring in the feds. Whatever happened to a ranger as a means of enforcement? No we need jackbooted thugs to enforce the statutory idea of federal lands in Alaska.

I agree it's time to cut these positions to the bone.

First of all, when the "crusty old alaskan" was asked to stop for a boat inspection, all he had to do was what each of us should do when stopped by a law enforcement official is to comply. He would have had a quick boat inspection, probably given a citation for no registration and then be on his way. Instead he provoked the situation by being confrontational with the law enforcement and then starting to flee. The moment he started to flee the law enforcement then had reason to pursue him, they didn't know if he was running drugs, weapons, or whatever, and his actions certainly seemed suspicious and confrontational. Until they had a chance to confirm that there was no underlying illegal reason for him to start to run from law enforcement they were under an obligation to follow through. How many innocent people just run from law enforcement??

And just because he is an elderly person does not grant him automatic respect. From different people I have talked to who live in or summer in the Central area, this guy is more than a "crusty" old man.

Your statement in your article that they could have followed him until he decided to stop is juvenile....who knows what would have occurred then. He could have led them into an ambush situation or anyone of a dozen situations. All he had to do was say, I don't want to stop in the middle of the river, let me pull over to the bank and tie up...

I agree; these men were deceptive and malicious. One wonders what kind of brain damaged individual would then expect that they deserve respect and a pass for such despicable abuse of power and force used to intimidate and harass innocent elderly citizens.

To these child-men it is not important that Mr. Wilde was not committing a crime, it was that they perceived a lack of compliance for a sum total of two minutes which must have been so terrible for their inflated egos that they found it appealing and reasonable to top their otherwise disgusting behavior with violence. Bravo, and apparently it was all in line with the policies and procedures of a federal agent. Good job doing exactly the opposite of what you are employed to do feds.