Hey, I know that guy!

Yep, that is Bill "Dropzone" Fulton marching with folks who want more comprehensive gun laws in this country.

Man has he come a long way since he was this guy.

To be fair Bill was more or less working undercover at this time infiltrating Right Wing militia groups for the FBI.

Still, he did kind of like guns.

However over the years he has mellowed out a ton.

In fact lately he has been calling for a repeal of the 2nd Amendment on his Twitter account.

Just goes to show that people can grow and evolve, you know if you believe in all that evolution hooey.

Here is the article that accompanied the video up above.

In it you can read how Mudflats "broke nearly every single Sarah Palin related news story."

Hmm, who knew?

A picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes those words are misleading. Sally Heath and the "terrorists" edition.

Way back in December of 2011 I posted the picture below.

The picture had been sent to me by FBI informant Bill Fulton, who had found it among his things and thought I would like to post it.

Of course at the time Bill was still deeply in the FBI witness protection program and did not want to be identified as one of the people in the picture, nor did he want his then employee or the name of his business revealed either. Which is why they have been fuzzed out.

At the time he and I both thought that it was kind of telling that this woman, the mother of the Governor of Alaska, would feel so comfortable surrounded by assault weapon toting strangers. But clearly she was.

Now what neither Bill nor I knew at the time was that there was another version of this picture already posted on the internet, which you, my tenacious little pain in the asses, found.

So here was a picture that clearly showed the name of Bill's business, Drop Zone, his face, and the face of the employee who had NO idea that Fulton was working for the Feds or that he would some day be tied to militias and terrorists organizations.

Some of you may remember that on that day I ignored repeated requests to confirm that it WAS Fulton, or to elaborate on where I got the photo, because at the time I really couldn't say anything.

I contacted Bill and told him what had happened, and surprisingly he thought it was funny, and laughed it off.

I asked him if he knew that the picture was already posted and he said no, in fact he only had a vague recollection of some woman handing it to him and telling him he might like to have a copy of it.

This was fairly early in our interactions and the only thing that Fulton cared about was that I had kept my promise to keep his name out of it and protect his anonymity, which I had.

So now that there are no more secrets to keep let's be clear about what this picture shows.

Sally Heath is actually NOT standing with two militia members or terrorists. She is standing with two guys running a booth at a Tea Party event in Wasilla. So let's put that to rest right now.

However now the question remains, who did she THINK she was posing with, and WHY she would have felt it appropriate to pose with them? This was NOT a picture that Bill asked to be taken, this is a picture that Sally Heath WANTED to pose for.

So though in reality there may have been nothing terribly scandalous about the picture, there are in fact some rather interesting things to take away from its existence.

Don't you agree?

Current FBI informant, and one time Joe Miller bodyguard, Bill Fulton breaks his silence.

Drop Zone employee, Sally Heath (Sarah Palin's mom), and Bill Fulton

In September of 2010 Bill Fulton was perhaps the single most misunderstood man in Alaska.

Vilified as a "Jack booted thug" after he handcuffed Alaska Dispatch reporter Tony Hopfinger, and  forced to watch news report after news report flay him to the bone mercilessly, Fulton wanted nothing more than to call them up and explain that he was one of the good guys. In fact he was AT THAT TIME working for the FBI and helping them to build their case against Schaeffer Cox. (And possibly a few others.)

However Fulton was unable to tell anybody his side of the story, because he was undercover with the Feds, and they kind of frown on that sort of thing.

Then later in 2011 after Schaeffer Cox was arrested, Fulton was directed to disappear, which he did. And again the speculation started about why he disappeared? Was he the Alaska militia's weapons supplier?  Was he himself part of Schaeffer's militia group? Or even whether or not he had been assassinated to keep him quiet.

During this time, now newly relocated out of state, Fulton scanned the internet reading about the investigation and the opinions of various news agencies and blogs, hoping that somebody would put two and two together and realize that HE was the FBI informant and not one of Schaeffer's lackeys.

And one day somebody did:

So Cox traveled to Anchorage to make the purchases with this "person" who they believed could hook them up with grenades, silencers, and automatic weapons? Now isn't that interesting? 

Isn't Drop Zone in Anchorage? I do believe that it is. 

And isn't the owner of Drop Zone, William Fulton, the guy Joe Miller hired as "security" to rough up a local journalist? 

And isn't William Fulton referred to as the "supply sergeant" because he is the go-to guy for militia members seeking weapons and supplies? 

And isn't Fulton currently MIA?

This may seem a like an obvious conclusion, but until this post NOBODY had been willing to voice it out loud.

So finally Fulton had some hope that people would start to realize that he was NOT a jack booted thug roughing up reporters at Joe Miller's request and selling weapons to militia members determined to overthrow the government. But that instead he was a patriot doing a very difficult, and very dangerous, job.

And now Fulton felt that he had somebody he could each out to. He wasn't exactly supposed to, but something about that arrogant liberal blogger, who always seemed to be keeping people's secrets for them, seemed like a person he could trust. And so he did.

Now I receive a lot of unsolicited e-mails, many of them are not exactly on the up an up.

For instance I have been contacted by George Soros. (Only not really.) Sarah Palin. (Nope.) Todd Palin. (Not hardly!) And various folks claiming to work for newspapers, federal agencies, and one nice gentleman from Nigeria who offered me the chance to make a million dollars. (I really DO need to get back to that guy.)

However I have also been contacted by somebody who knew all about Willow Palin's night of  housebreaking. (They did.) A guy who claimed he worked as Sarah Palin's head of security. (He was.) The BBC asking for an interview. (They got one.) And this guy named Joe McGinniss who wanted to ask me some questions for a book he was writing. (Well you know how that one turned out.)

So when I received an e-mail from some guy claiming to be Bill Fulton, I thought "Could be him." And indeed it was.

Fulton was impressed that I had figured out that he was the informant, but also wanted to correct me on what I got wrong. But only if I promised to keep what he told me to myself.

And I have.

So from there Bill and I began to have a number of e-mail exchanges and phone calls, often late at night, where he could finally get things off his chest that he couldn't share with anybody else and also tell somebody, sort of in the media, what was really going on.

Well not EVERYTHING of course, because Fulton is not allowed to talk about ongoing investigations, but enough for me to begin to understand some very interesting things about the Republican party in Alaska, the behind the scenes stories concerning the Miller campaign, and a certain ex-Governor's involvement in both.

Of course while THAT allowed Bill to get things off HIS chest it also burdened ME with information that I could know but never use on the blog. Lucky me right? (Though there WERE a few times when it was agreed that some of Fulton's information could find its way into a blog post or two.)

During this time Fulton always said that after the trial, and after Schaeffer Cox was sentenced, he would go public. Schaeffer has now been sentenced, and true to his word Fulton has started talking.

First to Salon.

And then to the Huffington Post. (You gotta love that story about paranoid Joe Miller and the bullet proof vest!)

Also part of our agreement was that I would have the opportunity to officially interview Bill on the record, which I have. All or part of that interview is scheduled for a post on Monday.

However Bill felt he owed me a little something extra, so, and this was totally his idea, he has volunteered to answer some of YOUR questions as well.

I will have more information about how that will be structured for you by Monday.  But until then simply think up what you would like to ask a man who was in the room when Sarah Palin's surrogates planned to take over the Republican party, was deeply embedded in Joe Miller's failed campaign in 2010, and who had to listen as members of a lunatic fringe plotted to murder federal agents in rural Alaska.

And they say blogging is boring.

Alaska Dispatch puts the pieces together.

William "Dropzone Bill" Fulton in the center

From Alaska Dispatch:

First Bill Foxfire Fulton disappeared from Anchorage, and now his store -- DropZone surplus -- is following him into obscurity.

Fulton is believed to have slipped into the federal witness protection program almost a month ago.

Multiple sources, including at least one who claims to have been interviewed for hours by the FBI as a possible accomplice to various crimes, told the Alaska Dispatch they have no doubt Fulton is hiding behind a cloak of government security.

Before disappearing, Fulton not only gave away DropZone, but signed a power of attorney giving Anchorage lawyer Wayne Anthony Ross the authority over two homes Fulton owns, or did own, in Anchorage.

Here is what I love about this.  We KNOW that some of the Alaska Dispatch reporters read this blog, which means they know that I have already confirmed that there is NO question Fulton is the FBI informant.

However they absolutely refuse to link to me, or send an e-mail for verification.

And do you know what is kind of funny about that?  According to my source, THAT attitude is part of the reason they were never provided confirmation themselves.

BTW, my understanding is that Fulton will soon issue a press release.

Somebody might want to tip ADN and Alaska Dispatch to that as well. Oh never mind, they will undoubtedly read it here along with everybody else.

The ADN is still a day late and a dollar short.

Most of you who have been reading this blog for awhile are already aware that I confirmed last month that one of the two  FBI informants who provided assistance in the arrest of Schaeffer Cox was in fact William Fulton, once Joe Miller's head security guy and, up until recently, the owner of Dropzone.

So here we are fully two weeks later and the Anchorage Daily News is still struggling to put the pieces together.

After the Fairbanks arrests and filings in court in which the FBI said it used confidential informants to make their cases, online message boards frequented by militia members have been buzzing with questions about Fulton.

"Was he a plant all this time?" wondered Kath McCubbins-Carlson, a member of the Alaska Citizens Militia, on an online message board, apparently referring to Fulton. "If 'the Anchorage informant' was a certain person who owned a certain establishment that catered to a certain clientele, was he keeping records of everything YOU ever said to him?"

Requests by phone and email for an interview with Fulton for this story went unanswered. His mobile phone was disconnected and calls to a home listed in the phone book returned a perpetual busy signal.

"I don't know and can't say the extent of his involvement, if any, at this time, but he's not a defendant," said Wayne Ross, Fulton's lawyer. Ross said he remains in touch with Fulton, speaking with him in the past week.

But at the surplus store, Giles said he had not heard or seen Fulton for almost a month.

"I don't know what the hell he got into or whatever. It's still up in the air," Giles said. "I don't want to have anything to do with it."

As you can see the ADN is pretty sure that Fulton is the guy, but simply cannot declare it as fact without confirmation even after two weeks of trying to nail it down. Unfortunately for them, they have lost so much credibility up here that nobody will provide that confirmation.

At this point I can only share a portion of what WAS confirmed for me. (I will be able to share more after the trial.)

I can confirm that Fulton was NEVER a true member of the militia, and that the following statement from his attorney is pretty accurate:

"He's a pretty straight-shooting guy," said attorney Ross of his client Fulton.

Ross wasn't sure how Fulton's beliefs matched the militia members, if at all. The extremists worried Ross, a longtime gun-rights advocate.

"When you get these groups forming, it hurts the average gun owner, and I think Bill feels the same," Ross said. "Some people, if they don't go to the ballot box, they go to the bullet box."

I think that pretty much sums up what I have been able to find out about William "Dropzone Bill" Fulton.  Some people hear talk of taking up arms and standing up to the federal government, and they feel a rush of excitement at the chance to become a new American patriotic hero. Others hear that kind of talk and immediately identify it as UNPATRIOTIC and possibly leading to crimes against their country, and feel honor bound to do something to stop it.

Don't forget that whatever we think we know about William Fulton, he WAS a soldier, and he clearly falls into the latter category.

He was never really on the side of the militia. So to address Kath McCubbins-Carlson's fears concerning whether or not he was "keeping records" of everything they ever said to him, why yes he was! And I can only imagine that there are a LOT of customers that came into Dropzone, or talked with Fulton over a beer or two, that are going back over every single word they ever said to him and wondering if there isn't an FBI subpoena with their name on it out there as well. Because you know what, there just might be!

From what I have gathered Fulton played Schaeffer Cox, Coleman Barney, Lonnie and Karen Vernon, and the rest of the militia wingnuts like a fiddle.  He was able to gain their trust, gather the evidence he needed, and skip town before they had any idea how badly they had just been screwed.

But you know they were probably not the only ones who were played by "Dropzone Bill." 

It occurs to me that if you are trying to establish your super right wing, potential domestic terrorism credentials, that it certainly does not hurt to have liberal blogs and news websites going after you day after day.  Much like Talking Points Memo, Wonkette, the Huffington Post, Alaska Dispatch, and of course yours truly did.

As you can imagine being the favored whipping boy of the "lamestream" media certainly could not have hurt Fulton's plan to convince these guys to take him into their confidence.

What can I say?  I do what I can to help.  Even if it is accidental.

New details released by the FBI leave very little doubt as to the identity of one of their informants in the Schaeffer Cox domestic terrorism case.

From the Alaska Dispatch:

Two confidential sources on the payroll of the FBI helped the government make its case against Fairbanks-area militia members who are accused of stockpiling illegal weapons and plotting to kill judges, Alaska State Troopers and others, according to information in federal court records unsealed Friday.

Neither source knew the other one was working with investigators, but both began assisting in the investigation last June, according to affidavits filed with the court in order to obtain search warrants earlier this month.

One is described as a convicted felon facing new fraud charges who agreed to cooperate in hopes of getting the charges reduced. That informant was an insider, promoted in February to the command staff of the Alaska Peacekeepers Militia headed by Fairbanks resident Schaeffer Cox, one of those arrested on numerous federal and state charges.

The other is a person with no criminal record but in the affidavit is said to be someone who the defendants approached to buy grenades, silencers and other weapons because he was thought to "be in a position to produce possible weaponry." Some in the militia community have speculated that the weapons supplier might be William Fulton, former owner of the Drop Zone military surplus store on Spenard Road. He abruptly signed over his store to an employee and disappeared a few days after the Fairbanks arrests. Nothing in the affidavit gives any information about Fulton, whether he may be connected to the case, or why he might have vanished.

The affidavit says both sources were compensated for their assistance and will continue to be paid. Conversations between the sources and the defendants were audio or video taped with the consent of the informants.

I have mentioned before that the evidence seems to point to the fact that Bill Fulton is the Anchorage supplier who Cox came to for the items he wanted in order to kidnap and possibly kill State Trooper and a local judge.  In the beginning I thought possibly that Fulton handed his business over and went underground out of fear that he was possibly going to be arrested next.

However now with some time having passed that scenario seems much less likely since, at the very least, Fulton would have popped up on the militia message boards to let his pals know that he was on the lam from the Feds, as that would have made him a hero in their eyes.  He has not done so, which definitely makes it far more likely that he is the Anchorage weapons supplier identified in the indictments.

Now did you notice WHEN the FBI started working with this informant?

The relationship began in June of last year.  So if it is Fulton (And let's be honest, who else could it be?), that means he was already working for the Feds when Joe Miller hired him, and his Drop Zone goons, to manhandle the local press. (You know we kind of wondered why the Anchorage Police did not arrest Fulton that day.)

So it is an almost certainty that Fulton was working for failed Senate candidate Joe Miller at the SAME TIME that he was on the FBI payroll.  Well isn't that interesting?

Miller's connection to the Alaska militias has been well established, so it stands to reason that if the FBI had a man as close to Miller as Fulton was that they might have done a little information gathering on our local Teabagging Senate candidate at the same time they were building their case against Schaeffer and his militia buddies. Don'tcha think?

I have to imagine that right about now Joe Miller is sitting in a pool of his own sweat, pulling on his sorry excuse for a beard, and trying to remember exactly what he might have said while in the company of his old buddy "Drop Zone Bill" and whether or not he is on his way to a Federal Penitentiary right along with his other old buddy Frances "Schaeffer" Cox.

By the way I have learned recently that the Federal part of Cox's court case will be held in Anchorage, so you can count on some first hand reporting from your old buddy Gryphen during the trial. Oh this ought to be fun!

Apparently the Feds sold Schaeffer Cox and his fellow toy soldiers silencers and fake grenades which they then stored in a trailer. Brilliant military minds at work here folks!

This is my wife. I only have to choke her when she gets uppity.

Courtesy of the Newsminer:

Schaeffer Cox and a Peacemakers Militia associate allegedly stored a cache of weapons in the Fairbanks Ice Park parking lot and were duped into buying inert grenades, according to two federal indictments made available today. (The indictments can be found here and here.)

The indictment on the weapons charge alludes to multiple “weapons caches.” At one time, weapons were stored at Barney’s North Pole area property. They moved them to a white trailer in the parking lot of the Fairbanks Ice Park on March 10, according to the document. (Storing the weapons in a trailer  establishes their "white trash cred."  You CANNOT be a member of the militia without white trash cred.  Ask anybody.)

Cox and Barney allegedly had several meetings with a weapons dealer and wanted to buy 25 grenades at $70 each, according to the indictment. They were later told only eight grenades were available. They bought them, unaware the grenades were inert, according to the document.

They met with a weapons dealer?  Hell there are hundreds of gun sellers in Alaska.  It would be almost impossible to determine who they met with, and who sold them out to the Feds, based on only this information.

Unless of course there are other hints in the indictments.

b. From February 4 through February 6, 2011, on the direction of COX, VERNON and another person travelled to and stayed in Anchorage for the purpose of obtaining grenades.

g. On February 27, 2011, COX and BARNEY met with another person and requested to purchase, and ordered a pistol and silencer matched set, agreeing to pay$1,000 each. COX later agreed to trade a C-93 semi-automatic rifle, with a lower receiver, in lieu of the $1,000 cash purchase price. COX stated that the lower end receiver would, after a some modification, make the C-93 fully automatic.

h. On or about March 1, 2011, COX met with the same person that they ordered the pistol and silencers from and ordered 25 grenades. COX stated that the grenades he currently possessed had two-second fuses. COX asked if the grenades that were for sale were eight-second fuses and asked if he (COX) could get a volume discount on the price. COX stated if they could get the price down to $70 per grenade, he could buy as much as he wanted

So Cox traveled to Anchorage to make the purchases with this "person" who they believed could hook them up with grenades, silencers, and automatic weapons?  Now isn't that interesting?

Isn't Drop Zone in Anchorage?  I do believe that it is.

And isn't the owner of Drop Zone, William Fulton, the guy Joe Miller hired as "security" to rough up a local journalist?

And isn't William Fulton referred to as the "supply sergeant" because he is the go-to guy for militia members seeking weapons and supplies?

And isn't Fulton currently MIA?

So let's see what we have here. Schaeffer comes to Anchorage, where William Fulton, the militia "supply sergeant" has a shop, and purchases a bunch of deadly weapons in order to murder State Troopers, an IRS agent, and at least one Fairbanks judge.

It turns out that the guy selling the weapons is an FBI informant, and now William Fulton is nowhere to be found. (For those of you wondering how I know that the person who sold Schaeffer the weapons is the informant go back up and read the indictments again.)

Does that about sum it up?

Which brings me to the next part of the Newsminer story that I found particularly fascinating.

At a news conference in Anchorage Thursday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler would not comment on whether more federal indictments are pending or whether there are any other alleged co-conspirators.

Hmm, now if there are "more federal indictments pending," and Fulton DOES turn out to be the snitch, just who do you think might be next?

I know what you are thinking, "Gryphen are the people involved in the Alaska Militia's the dumbest human beings on the planet?"  Well, yes and no.

They are indeed too stupid to be allowed to play with pointy scissors, much less things that go boom, but it is NOT because they are Alaskans.

Here, perhaps this video will help to explain just what kind of simple son-of-a-bitch becomes a militia member.



NO, that is NOT a parody.  They were completely serious.

Remember kids, when you have blinded yourself with the smoke bomb that you dropped for effect, and find yourself stumbling through the woods like an eighty year old Alzheimer's patient, don't worry about going back for a reshoot, all you have to add to the video in order to still make it seem cool is an obnoxious heavy metal soundtrack. There all fixed!

So are the Alaska Militia members the stupidest people on the planet?  You betcha!  But sadly  they are also not alone.

Joe Miller decides to turn full time grifter like his Queen. And speaking of Miller whatever happened to his Drop Zone buddies?

From ADN:

Unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller is following in the footsteps of former Gov. Sarah Palin and signing on to an agency to arrange paid speaking engagements for him.

Miller said he plans to speak on March 24th in Montaro, Calif. at “A Night with the Joe’s," where he will join Joe the Plumber and Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona.

It’s a fundraiser for a group called the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama.

Yeah somehow I don't think that President Obama has much to fear from these three geniuses.

You know seeing Miller back in the news, and with the recent arrest of one of his militia buddies, it made me start of wondering what happened to his "bodyguard" William Fulton and his business of selling military supplies to his fellow weekend warriors.

What I found was kind of interesting.

Courtesy of the Alaska Citizens Militia Forum:

To all,
Did a recon of DZ (Drop Zone)today.
Bill (Fulton) was last seen Last Monday, he met with his attorney at the store and signed over ownership of the store and all his assets to another person.
He has not been heard from since. I assume he bugged out to a safer climate due to the number of threats he has received.He had to have received a credible threat to just vanish.
I hope he is doing ok.

Once again I am not buying the whole "number of threats" having driven this candy ass underground (Besides what kind of security guy runs when somebody threatens him?), however I am very aware that the FBI has extensive tapes on Francis "Schaeffer" Cox and the people he associated with.

Which makes me wonder if the threats that Fuller is running from are coming from a law enforcement source?  You know like perhaps he is aware they are coming for him next?

After all what could frighten somebody so much that they handed their business over to somebody else and simply vanished? (BTW officially the business is still in Fulton's name.)

Perhaps somebody needs to tell Rep. Peter King that if he wants to see examples of terrorism that have NOTHING to do with Islam, he need look no further than Fairbanks, Alaska.

Schaeffer Cox pictured in the middle.

From ADN:

Five people in the Fairbanks area were arrested Thursday by state and federal law enforcement on charges connected with an alleged plot to kidnap or kill state troopers and a Fairbanks judge, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

"Schaeffer" Cox, Lonnie Vernon, Karen Vernon, Coleman Barney and Michael Anderson are accused of conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping, and arson, as well as weapons misconduct, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence, according to trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters in a written statement late Thursday.

An investigation "revealed extensive plans to kidnap or kill Alaska state troopers and a Fairbanks judge," the statement said. The plans included "extensive surveillance" on the homes of two Fairbanks troopers, the statement said.

While Peter King is engaging in a massive display of religious intolerance by opening hearings to investigate American Muslims for possible terrorist ties, we have individuals right here in Alaska, professed Christians all, who are plotting to kill our local law enforcement officials.

And by the way this Schaeffer Cox is the same guy who named Joe Miller as a personal friend.

Schaeffer Cox offered but tepid support of Miller saying, “He's going to try to run things in a more conservative way, but he's still trying to run things -- so he has the same fundamental problem of all the other politicians.” He volunteered in the Salon interview, however, " that he personally knows and likes Miller."

You remember Joe Miller right?  Palin's hand picked candidate to run against Lisa Murkowski? The guy with his own personal militia, which he used to harass local journalists?

So my question is why is Rep. Peter King wasting his time, and this nation's precious resources, going after Muslims instead of focusing his attention on the real "enemy within?"  You know the friends and supporters of Sarah Palin, and her AIP associated group of thugs up here in Alaska?

Besides in my opinion the followers of Sarah Palin are far more unstable and potentially hazardous to this country than any Islamic terrorist sympathizer that Peter King could ever manage to ferret out during that ridiculous sideshow in Washington.

Update: Here are some other examples of non-Muslim home grown terrorism that might interest Peter King, if that is he is really serious about addressing the threat of terrorism in this country.

Personally I find these kids more intimidating than the real thing.

From Yahoo New:

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), center, poses with her Halloween 'security guards,' from left, nephew Tate Hart, 6, Luka Hart, 4, and Jack Schroeder 6, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010 in Anchorage, Alaska.

Okay regardless of you political point of view (unless of course you are a Joe Miller supporter) you have to admit THAT is pretty funny.

Shannyn Moore interviews Tony Hopfinger, the guy Joe Miller's goons handcuffed last Sunday, on "Moore Up North."

Joe Miller's militia loving security goon may have lied about reason he "arrested" journalist at town hall. Really, are any of you even remotely surprised?

Here is what the police officer who was called to the scene reported, courtesy of the Alaska Dispatch:

Sgt. Mark Rein wrote in the police report that Fulton initially asked that Hopfinger be arrested for trespassing but that Rein "saw several issues with the arrest" and declined to do that.

"Fulton told me that he needed me to complete the arrest for his insurance," Rein wrote. "I told him that I would not be taking action based on insurance.

"Fulton then said that he wanted to make an arrest for assault because Hopfinger pushed a man into a locker. I asked him to let me talk to this person. Fulton said that he didn't know who it was, but that he would find him. I gave Fulton 10 minutes to find the unknown assault victim, but none was forthcoming."

Hopfinger has maintained all along that it was Fulton who he pushed away after the "security guard" chest bumped him.  However Fulton denies this and refuses to admit that he handcuffed Hopfunger and illegally detained him (In a section of the school that Miller had NOT rented!),  either because Teabagger Joe had instructed him to stop the press from asking him questions or because Fulton lost his temper when he was shoved.

Personally I would like to ask, or have somebody else ask, Joe Miller EXACTLY what his instructions were to Fulton and his merry band of storm troopers? 

You know there is a debate this Sunday evening at the Native Heritage Center.  What a good time to have a question like that answered!

There is one question I have about this story.  What in the hell did Dropzone Bill mean when he said he "needed to complete the arrest for his insurance?" 

Number one if he had no current business license than how likely is it that he had insurance? And number two what kind of insurance policy requires that you make an arrest? 

Clearly it did not make any sense to the police officer either, but I am wondering what Fulton was thinking to use such a strange rational to convince the cop to arrest Hopfinger?

The Department of Public Safety has decided to investigate Joe Miller's private Gestapo. Update!

God I LOVE this picture!

From the Alaska Dispatch (Who else?):

The firm Drop Zone Security is apparently being investigated by the state Department of Public Safety in connection with its handling of a Joe Miller campaign event on Sunday where Drop Zone agents arrested and handcuffed Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger.

The DPS case comes as public attention remains focused on questions surrounding the incident, including why Miller employed private security guards, some of whom were active-duty military, and what led to the physical confrontation that ended with Hopfinger's arrest.

Alaska Dispatch had called DPS Monday to find out whether Drop Zone was licensed as a security company by the state and whether Fulton, its owner, has a valid security guard license as would be required by the state.

Early Tuesday morning, Peters left a voicemail on a Dispatch reporter's phone saying the company did not have a security guard license.

A couple hours later, however, she said she couldn't say anything more about the company or the case because DPS had started an investigation based on numerous questions from reporters. And again, she won't say specifically that Drop Zone is the subject of the investigation.

Okay, seriously I am going to need MUCH more popcorn for this!

(Don't forget to read the entire Alaska Dispatch article, there are many more goodies to be found there.)

Update: I visited the Drop Zone building yesterday just to check the place out.

When you enter the front door there is an immediate sense of claustrophobia, acerbated by the fact that what is causing the closed in feeling is shelf after shelf of khaki colored military apparel and equipment.  (As I told one friend, it looked like General Patton had exploded in the place.)


Essentially the place looked like a militia member's wet dream with helmets, camouflaged bullet proof vests, and military paraphernalia on every wall and shelf in the tiny, closed in, cramped little building. (Have I mentioned the sense of claustrophobia yet?) 

The rather young man behind the counter looked a little spooked by my presence and when i asked a few, I felt innocent questions about where they get their merchandise (from military auctions by the way), he immediately asked if I was a reporter.  I said no (That is mostly true), and asked if they were having a lot of trouble with reporters.

"Oh yeah!" he said.

I wandered around the building (That took about ten seconds.) before choosing a duffel bag that I thought I could use to store some of my exercise equipment, and then went back up to the counter to make my purchase.

When I whipped out my debit card the clerk told me that I would have to use the broken down old ATM machine next to the cash register and withdraw cash to pay for it as they ONLY accepted cash.  I asked why, and he told me they had trouble with credit cards in the past. (Of course it might have something to do with the fact that they have not had a business license for much of this last year.)

As I was waiting for the world's slowest ATM machine to cough up my cash, the phone rang.  When the young man answered the line was dead.  He then hung it back up and  said 'Yeah THAT keeps happening too."

"What?" I asked.

"People keep calling and hanging up.  Or yelling things at us and hanging up." 

"Well that's a bummer." I said.

I had noticed a t-shirt hanging on the wall advertising bail bonds service.  So I asked if Drop Zone was in that business as well.

The kid suddenly looked a little suspicious and replied "Yeah we do a little bit of everything."

I did not bother to ask him if he did any of it well, because that seemed a little mean. (After all he was polite, if a little suspicious.)

I left the store and went out the back where I had parked, and noticed three red, white, and blue directors chairs lined up along the back next to some military vehicles and a giant banner that said "Eddie Burke for Lt. Governor" printed in big black letters.  Well THAT explains a lot, I thought.

Earlier my friend Dennis Zaki had driven by and taken a picture of the back lot, and caught the owner, William Fulton, sitting in one of those star spangled "ass holders." (As my father would have called them.)

So after seeing this pitiful little excuse for a business I have to wonder WHY Miller chose them to provide the security (That he absolutely did NOT need!), when there are many reputable and LICENSED security agencies in Anchorage?  I mean it only takes a few minutes of being inside of this sorry excuse for a business to realize that these guys are NOT professional.

My feeling is that this group's ties to the Alaska Citizens Militia may have played a very large part in his decision to hire them, and it also speaks to how Miller would represent Alaska in Washington.

He is clearly a very unstable individual, with fantasies of a para-military response to the Federal government dancing in his head, and he is NOT the man we want to represent us in Washington!

So if you are an Alaskan looking for sanity (And after Sarah Palin aren't we all?), then this is the candidate for you!