THE 70 day stand off between the anti government "Freemen" on a Montana ranch and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached a critical stage, with the authorities moving in three armoured vehicles to the scene. The FBI has also cut off power to the ranch where the Freeman are housed.
A Montana state politician, Mr Karl Ohs, who has met the Freemen 18 times since the stand off began, has reported that their position is hardening and that they "seem much more entrenched". Negotiations between the dissident group and another politician who was sympathetic to their aims broke down recently.
Reporters and TV crews have been moved three miles away from the ranch. The FBI says it wants "to keep open all lawful options" and that the black armoured vehicles are available for "emergency rescues" or for occupying parts of the ranch. Emergency generators have also been moved in to provide power to neighbouring farms.
Mr Louis Freeh the FBI director, has ordered a "softly softly" approach to the operation, both because of the criticism which followed the loss of life at Waco and for fears of igniting the many right wing groups throughout the United States who are in sympathy with the Freemen.
The ranch which the Freemen have named "Justus Township" is surrounded by about 100 FBI agents. However, conscious of the criticism of the way it handled the 1993 Waco siege, which ended in the deaths of large numbers of Branch Davidian sect members the FBI insists that it has not given up negotiating with the Freemen.
The FBI says that 18 persons, three of them children, are living in the besieged ranch. Some of the adults are wanted on criminal charges.
These include allegations that they circulated millions of dollars in bogus cheques and threatened the life of a federal judge.
The Freemen reject government authority and are said to hold white supremacist "Christian identity" religious beliefs. A religion expert, Mr Philip Arnold, has now been brought in as a "consultant" to the FBI.
A director of the Religious Freedom Task Force in Houston, Texas, Mr Arnold was rebuffed when he offered to help the FBI to end the Waco stand off which ended with the agents invading the compound, which was then set on fire by the occupants.
The blunders of the authorities on that occasion led to more than 70 deaths.
The Montana stand off began on March 25th after two Freemen were arrested. Mr LeRoy Schweitzer (57) and Mr Daniel Petersen (53) were charged, with 10 others, with using counterfeit money orders and cheques.
They also faced allegations that they had made death threats to a US District Court judge, Mr Jack Shanstrom.
The Freemen are just one of numerous right wing citizens' groups, some militaristic, who defy the powers of Washington which they say infringe the average citizen's liberty.
The Montana siege, outside the town of Billings, has been going on all year. The Freemen are said to be earning their living by giving seminars on tax evasion.