Ed Brown says feds have no jurisdiction in New Hampshire

The Union-Leader
June 8, 2007
by Kristen Senz

"What are they trying to do, start a war?" Ed Brown said of the police presence near his Plainfield home yesterday. "What do they think we have in here, tanks?"

Brown, who maintains there is no law that requires average American citizens to pay a direct tax on their wages, spoke to a group of reporters from a second-floor window in his house after a veritable army of heavily armed police officers and federal agents left the area around his rural home without ever making contact with him.

The government detained and questioned a man who discovered surveillance teams positioned around the house yesterday morning.

As Brown spoke, half a dozen helicopters made wide circles overhead.

"How does a foreign national army act in a country they are occupying?" Brown said. "These people are no different than our troops in Iraq. I feel bad for our troops over there."

Brown, who asserts that the federal government has no jurisdiction in New Hampshire and no authority to charge him under a non-existent law, said the activity surrounding his properties in Plainfield and West Lebanon yesterday was a "Zionist, Illuminati, Free Mason movement."

"I hope I don't see anybody up there with guns in the woods, because what am I supposed to do?" he said, citing a New Hampshire law that allows citizens to defend their property with deadly force.

Brown, who called his residence "a house of peace," said a friend took his dog for a walk at 8 a.m. yesterday and never came back.

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"The dog came running back in a panic about 45 minutes later," he said.

His friend was taken into custody by federal agents after the man discovered surveillance activity on the property, according to U.S. Marshal Steve Monier.

Brown said the agents "kidnapped" his friend and "stole" his West Lebanon property.

Brown said he had an inkling Wednesday night that federal agents were planning something when he saw a low-flying police aircraft pass eastward over his house around 9:30 p.m. By yesterday afternoon, he said, his house telephone line and Internet service had been shut off and his cell phone rendered useless. All this because, as Brown sees it, he's standing up for his rights.

"I'm you," he said. "I'm just saying I'm not going to take it anymore ... I'm fighting for your freedoms."

Brown said it's only a matter of time before everyone who stands up to the U.S. government ends up in his shoes.

"Your time is coming up pretty soon," he said. "If you don't go along with the Free Masons, they'll attack you too." Brown, who says he now adheres only to the laws of the creator, sharply criticized state and local police officers, calling them "candy a----" who don't think for themselves.

"They really are babies," he said. "They're mindless little ... They're nothing like the police we had 15 years ago."

Brown declined to say how many supporters were staying with him and his wife, Dr. Elaine Brown, but he did say a "huge raft" of 20-somethings have passed through his doors over the past few months. "The sleeping giant is waking up," he said.

Brown said he doesn't care about warrants or court orders, because he doesn't believe he's a criminal. If he committed a crime, he said, he would turn himself in.

"This is just paper," he said. "This is fiction. The entire American government is fiction. We created it, didn't we?" Brown said he does not plan to surrender to authorities.

"We're a very reciprocal people. You do us good, we're going to do you good. You do us bad, we're going to do you bad," he said. "... This whole thing is a joke, but they'll kill me because of this joke."