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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Guest Post + FREE book offer: Steve O'Brien

Redemption Day by Steve O'Brien is FREE for Kindle for a limited time! Hurry over to AMAZON and download yours TODAY!! Offer good April 15-19. Read below about April 19th and its significance to REDEMPTION DAY.

APRIL 19th by Steve O'Brien
April 19 has become a date marking horrific violence in this country's history.

The date is not well known like September 11 or December 7, the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Unlike dates that commemorate great military victories or the end of World Wars, April 19 is about a different kind of violence.

Violence between citizens of this nation and the government itself.

Like most traditions it began as a coincidence, but later transitioned into a date of significance for members of sovereign citizen groups like the Posse Comitatus.

It began in 1985. Jim Ellison was the leader of a sovereign group called CSA (The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord. On April 19, 1985, three hundred federal officers surrounded his compound in northern Arkansas. Ellison surrendered and was later convicted of conspiracy and weapons charges. Aside from traditional firearms, the federal officers rounded up hand grenades, plastic explosives, blasting caps, land mines and even a US Army anti-tank rocket. One of Ellison’s men, Richard Wayne Snell was charged with murder and his execution took place ten years later as fate would have it, on April 19.

April 19, 1993 the FBI stormed the Branch Davidian complex outside Waco Texas, killing seventy six members, including seventeen children. David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidian group was sought for illegal weapons charges, something sovereign groups adamantly believed was not a crime, but a right. This came on the heels of the Ruby Ridge shootings which had enraged members like Tim McVeigh. Terry Nichols and McVeigh saw Waco as yet another illegal intrusion by a corrupt government.

Following Waco, April 19 became a date of significance for sovereign groups. They would use the date as a symbol and cause to retaliate against the government.

On April 19, 1994 militia leader Linda Thompson issued a call for sovereign citizen groups  to assemble in Washington DC, armed and in uniform. The purpose of the assembly was the forced repeal of the Brady Bill and the arrest of Congressmen and Senators for treason. She identified herself as the acting adjutant general of the Unorganized Militia of the United States. Although later rescinded, her call to arms became known as the Thompson Ultimatum.

At nine pm April 19, 1995, CSA member, Richard Wayne Snell, was put to death by lethal injection in Arkansas. Twelve hours earlier, Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols had ignited a truck bomb outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people.

For McVeigh and Nichols the date was not a coincidence. 


ABOUT STEVE O'BRIEN
Steve O’Brien is an author and attorney. Redemption Day is his third novel. His prior works, Elijah’s Coin and Bullet Work, have been recipients of multiple literary awards. Since its release, Elijah’s Coin has been added to the reading curriculum in multiple secondary schools throughout the US and has been incorporated in a university ethics course. Steve is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and The George Washington University Law School. He lives in Washington, DC.

ABOUT REDEMPTION DAY
Award winning author Steve O’Brien bases his new novel on the historical events and documented teachings of the Posse Comitatus – an anti-government militia group in the 1980’s that tried to convince farmers that banks could not lawfully foreclose on their properties. Their beliefs led to the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on a date of significance to the group—April 19.

In Redemption Day, the Posse Comitatus has returned, reinvigorated and inspired by the economic downturn and anger over government intrusion. The Posse seeks to not only wreak havoc on the country, but to actually change the political landscape. In their effort to “take back the country,” they kidnap a Supreme Court Justice. With money extorted from a government contractor desperate to win back a domestic terrorism contract, redemption day unfolds. 


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