<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael:
Stormrifle
1) Can you confirm positively that he's still among the living?
2) At this time, can you confirm how many armed personnel are involved in the active tracking of Mr. Rudoplh?
Just curious. My personal experience is somewhat dated in this sort of thing. I'd like to keep it that way.[/quote]
I remember hearing about it fairly recently when the feds put the Eric Rudolph search on the back burner. They left a token force in place, but pulled most of their manpower out and reassigned them.
Rudolph may very well be dead. Maybe he starved or drowned or died of exposure. But that's not what I find most illuminating about the Eric Rudolph story. The points that _I_ think are worth noting are these:
1. Dead or alive, the feds have no clue where he is. So much for their "always getting their man" , despite the millions upon millions of dollars spent, the manpower deployed, and all the high-tech search gear they used.
2. Seeing (on television) and reading about ordinary residents of the area being turned against "their" federal government by months of being treated like citizens of the Soviet Union (endless roadblocks, searches, questioning, noisy and intrusive air searches, and constant exposure to arrogant thugs with badges), and public announcements that they would refuse to cooperate with "their" government because of it. THAT warms my heart. That relentless wall of anger, resentment and (quite possibly) silence is a good sign.
3. Number 2 above is based on the behavior of feds trying to find a single person who had not (to my knowledge) attacked "one of their own". Imagine how thuggish they'd be if they were searching for half a dozen or more people who had actually attacked/killed a goon squad. And imagine how many citizens they'd piss off _then_. Guerillas depend on willing assistance from the ordinary citizens around them--behavior like this will make that MUCH easier.
(And then, on the other side of the nation, there's the US Forest Service bigwig who resigned because of the spontaneous but unrelenting hostility she faced from the local citizens she "served". US Forest Service personnel in that area were being SHUNNED. It was so bad that many of them stopped wearing their uniforms some of the time. At least one was thrown out of a hotel by the owners when they discovered that he was a USFS employee.
THAT'S an idea worth spreading.)