- A group calling itself the "Ghosts of the Revolution"
has issued a threatening warning to the Internal Revenue Service, claiming
that agents, employees and IRS offices could be targeted for attacks after
Sept. 1.
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- "This warning is given to all Americans now employed
by the Internal Revenue Service," the group said in a four-page communiquÈ,
a copy of which was provided to WND.
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- "The IRS is a criminal organization in the service
of collectivists and socialists. A condition of war now exists between
free Americans and the IRS," said the warning. "The failure of
the IRS to conduct itself in a lawful manner has brought about the need
for this action."
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- Several copies of the communique were sent out Aug. 6,
bearing a Casper, Wyo., postmark.
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- The warning comes just weeks before tax reform advocates,
congressional supporters and officials from the IRS and Justice Department
are to meet in Washington, D.C., to discuss the nature, scope and legality
of the federal income tax and the 16th Amendment.
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- The hearings ñ scheduled for Sept. 25 and 26 ñ
are still on, despite the threat, said tax-reform expert and author Bob
Schulz, who plans to attend and participate. Schulz is director of We the
People Foundation, a tax reform group that is also sponsoring the hearings.
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- Besides Schulz, tax-reform advocate Devvy Kidd, tax attorney
Larry Becraft and former IRS agent Joe Banister ñ all hearings participants,
too ñ also received copies.
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- Schulz said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican
who helped arrange the hearings, also received a copy. He said he and Bartlett
discussed the communiquÈ last week when Schulz visited Bartlett
in his Washington office.
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- However, no one in Bartlett's office was available on
Friday to confirm or deny whether the congressman received a copy of the
warning. Schulz said the contents of the communiquÈ weren't made
public until this week because recipients said they weren't sure what to
do. But he did say recipients immediately contacted the FBI.
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- A spokesman at the bureau's headquarters in Washington
told WND he had not heard of the communiquÈ. But Peter Gulotta,
an FBI spokesman in the bureau's Baltimore office ñ in Bartlett's
district ñ said the agency "was aware of the threat."
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- "I don't know where the threat originated, but we're
taking it seriously and looking into it," he told WND.
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- Schulz also said he had been interviewed by agents from
the Treasury Department, but the agency did not return phone calls for
confirmation. Schulz said he wasn't sure if the communiquÈ was sent
by "a competitor" or not, but he suggested it could even have
come from a government agency.
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- He noted that all of the recipients, ironically, are
associated in some way with this month's hearings.
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- Some experts say the warning could be the work of a "provocateur"
ñ either a government agent or other faction seeking to discredit
the tax reform movement specifically in advance of next month's hearings,
or simply to discredit the movement in general.
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- The group claims it sent copies of its statement to other
media outlets, including newspapers, television stations, magazines, and
"select Internet sites."
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- One such Internet newssite, The Sierra Times, reported
that the communiquÈ "warns citizens to avoid IRS facilities
beginning Sept. 1."
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- Schulz told WND he did not in any way sanction the violence
alluded to in the communique.
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- "That's not who I am," Schulz said. "I
don't condone that kind of behavior. We don't want to see anyone hurt."
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- Meanwhile, Schulz said negotiations were moving ahead
in selecting tax-reform attorneys and experts to present evidence and make
arguments during the upcoming hearings. However, Schulz refused to say
whether his group had selected a "lead counsel" to head up the
team.
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- A week ago, WND reported that Robert Bernhoft had stepped
down as the group's lead counsel.
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- "I wish the foundation and the other interested
Americans success," he told WND, saying he wasn't "at liberty"
to discuss the details of why he stepped down.
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- "The federal income tax is a slave tax. We're a
free people; we're not slaves. There are so many constitutional violations
and legal problems with the current tax as it's imposed and collected that
the tax will unwind eventually, somehow," he said.
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- Mike Bodine, a spokesman for the foundation, cited "personality
differences" as the reason why Bernhoft resigned.
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- Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for
WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How
the Military Vote Was Suppressed."
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