"PORTLAND, Ore. — Federal prosecutors today told a jury that the leaders of the armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year 'moved as a military force.'

In his opening statement in the trial of seven leaders in the 41-day standoff, Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow said that what started as a peaceful protest quickly turned into an 'illegal armed occupation.'

At the end of 2015, federal employees at the 187,000-acre refuge were preparing to combat invasive carp that were threatening food for migratory birds, he said.

Soon, he went on, 'they faced an invasion far more dangerous than the common carp.'"

Jeremy Jacobs reports for E&E News PM September 13, 2016. [2]