Why I am not a part of ICVM - by William Flatt, October 2001
Posted on the Indiana Militia board (formerly at www.clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/indianamilitia)
This monograph was the result of my departure from the Indiana Citizens Volunteer Militia as a consequence of internal corruption within the organization and the abrogation of the principles to which that organization pays lip service, namely, but not limited to, the Constitutions of Indiana and the United States. Ultimately, these injustices led to appeals that I organize a new militia that would exceed the previous accomplishments and goals of other militias, and become the militia that all free states should have. Many of the components of the IMC Basic Manual feature safeguards, general orders and directions that were and continue to be missing from ICVM's SOP.
The Indiana militia board was disassociated from ICVM, yet the leadership of ICVM subversively attempted to seize editorial control of the board in an attempt to deprive me my Right to presenting my views. Their actions ultimately created a public image that was damaging to the militia at large in Indiana. As a result, it was necessary to repost this item here to preserve the public record of what transpires behind the closed doors of ICVM... The old Indiana militia board was deleted shortly after that incident. Many people expressed their outrage at how this militia, defenders of the Constitution, would violate every precept of freedom to preserve the clique-ish and unconstitutional control that is maintained over the organization. In fact, many militia members were totally unaware of the subversion amongst them, and even more yet still do not know because they have no access to the Internet and the information published here.....
Why I am not a part of ICVM - Original Post
It seems that I am the only one who will stand up for the truth that the rank-and-file has not, and apparently will not be told by its leadership. After being emailed by numerous people who DEMAND to know the TRUTH behind the secrets and the dissention lying just under the surface, I will share with you what happened.
Anyone who would suggest that my disclosure of events is inappropriate would be well advised to note that I AM NOT AN ICVM MEMBER NOW, I am a free and unencumbered citizen of Indiana with an inalienable Right to speak. This is an OPEN forum that is NOW unaffiliated with ICVM at ICVM's order.
Without any further ado, here is my letter to Allen Tanner of the New England Militia (written at his request in a query about the events concerning me):
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Al:
...They basically had two secret trials on me, one was the 4th Bde., acting with an unknown number of members and only one side presented. Then after I complained about the totally bogus manner of the first secret trial they do one with a few brigade commanders and some county commanders whom I've never met, and again one side presented, in secret, without my knowledge.
This third one they promised that there would be a 30-day presentment period where I would be allowed to discover the exact charges, and then have time to prepare like any "defendant". Well I never found out what was being said till the morning of the hearing. Then, when I did find out, 1 hour after I got these papers, they started the hearing and changed the "heading" of the hearing papers from "Charges against Will Flatt" to "Reasons for discharge of Will Flatt" - taking me from innocent till proven guilty to guilty till proven innocent!!! I went from being a defendant to an appellant on a secret trial that was never done right in the first place!
There were 7 "charges" - of these, two of which they were forced to immediately drop because there was no basis or relevancy to these.
One involved a private financial obligation I had to another ICVM member.
The second dropped charge involved my subsequent attempts at "discovery" where the original bogus discharge was involved. I contacted the brigade commanders about whether they had been advised of this, as the discharge included language that indicated that the "orders to surrender the ICVM website" came from all the commanders. NOBODY knew anything about it!! So basically, these guys (4th Brigade leaders) LIED - and MISREPRESENTED the ICVM leadership. I tried to take the available facts that I had and bring this to the attention of the other commanders, but because they knew nothing about what was going on, I was basically dropping a ton of bricks on these guys and they weren't ready (and didnt want) to hear all this. Anyway that "charge" was dropped.
The original "charge" and claim for the discharge was that I "disobeyed" a direct order to refrain from any and all recruiting activities due to the fact that I was recovering from unemployment and bankruptcy. The website I designed, which requires little daily maintenance, is an ongoing and unstoppable "recruiting activity" - and recruiting is one of the primary missions of ICVM. Such an "order" is invalid on its face; I would have literally been guilty of such an order from the moment it was issued! However, even in spite of this, these bozos ADMITTED that they never communicated this as a "DIRECT ORDER"!! They admitted it was ONLY a Strong Suggestion!!
The 3rd, 4th, 5th, & 6th charges were not part of the original discharge, and this was where the kangaroo court got going. (These false accusations were heaped on as a means to "insure" that I was removed from ICVM membership.)
Charge #3 & #6 were interconnected - Was that I had falsely claimed to be a "US Ranger", a "Green Beret", a "US Army Chaplain" and a US Marine. Of these claims, I was accused by the 4th Bde leaders of claiming being a Ranger to that cop that I mentioned, and claimed to be an Army Chaplain to the 4th Bde Training Officer, and claimed to be a Green Beret to a Regimental (county) commander in 4th Bde*. I totally repudiated these claims and stated in no uncertain terms that these accusations were total lies. Of all this, in the past several months, not one witness could be procured, and none of these persons have provided affidavits to these allegations. I produced my DD214 as proof of my enlistment in the US Marine Corps. Everyone knows that I was injured during training, and that my stay in the USMC was cut short, but that short time gave me a lot, and was something that changed me for the better. Nonetheless, the DD214 was dismissed as if it was not relevant.
(*Editorial note: subsequent communication after the publication of this monograph with this individual provided me with documentation where he refuted the claims of the Brigade's leaders.)
Then they went out of numerical order to address #5, which was "Disobeyed verbal order to put the ICVM Manual on the website without any changes". Well this was a total farce. I never owned or had access to a scanner, so I was never able to put anything on the website vis-a-vis a manual. The only thing I had was a first-draft proposed revision to the ICVM manual in MS Word format. At the March 2001 State Meeting, Brigade Commander John _ (who also ran this past [29th]Saturday's kangaroo court) basically declared that the only material/literature on the ICVM website should be the ICVM manual. In this regard, he had tasked another Regimental Commander (Mark _, Brown County) to verify that the ICVM website did not have an unapproved version. Meanwhile, this fellow asked me for a copy of the MS Word DRAFT PROPOSAL to the manual and then apparently showed this to John _. John_ is totally computer illiterate and was either told or led to believe that the MS Word DRAFT was "a web page"! So my actions as webmaster were being judged by a computer illiterate. I asked if this was an official investigation why there was no documentation of this alleged violation, and he DECLARED at the hearing that what he saw was a web page, and that no further discussion would be permitted.
Item #4 was then addressed, "Putting extemporaneous links to unapproved sites", namely the website "Gulag Amerika", solely because I am the webmaster of that site, a site that the 4th Bde leadership personally dislikes. I was told, basically, that the website shouldnt have ANYTHING on it that ANYONE might not like. In the hearing I indicated to them that the ICVM website contained disclaimers on every links page, every links page was educational in nature and the disclaimers stated that no relationship or endorsement was implied either for the websites or from the websites to ICVM. Additionally, I made the argument that this charge was never made part of an order, therefore, no offense. I also argued that my duties as a webmaster were never defined or otherwise circumscribed in a consise manner that met with the approval of the state command. Therefore, I could not be accused of putting links on the website that somehow violated the jurisdiction of my duties or an order or the guidelines of ICVM. I was ordered to be quiet and that additional arguments on this would not be heard.
Then they added an eighth item to the already altered agenda of the hearing, in which they examined the "due process" and "the unit membership vote" of the discharge. It was declared that due process had not been violated. I disagreed, and even pointed out that I was NOT EVEN officially a member of 4th Brigade! I moved to the 4th brigade operational area two years ago, and it took me about 6 months to contact the 4th brigade commanders because nobody in the state knew who, if anyone, was running the area and didnt know how to contact them if so.
I was never reassigned to the brigade, never signed any detachment orders, and the commander of the brigade I left never signed off on my detachment from there. So, in spite of the fact that there was no documentation on this, I was declared (post facto) to be a 4th brigade member who could be discharged by the 4th bde commanders.
With this, the 5 brigade commanders sitting in judgment upon me vote me out of ICVM, without witnesses against me, without documentation, without regard for their own ground rules, guilty till proven innocent, I was sworn to tell the truth on the Bible but my accusers were not, et cetera!!
So now everyone pats themselves and says that "Due process" was followed and that the Constitution was upheld.
In spite of my politeness that day, I was steamed. It was a sham and I am convinced now that the N.W.O. WILL WIN because if the BEST of the militias in the Midwest cannot even abide by the principles we claim to hold sacred, if the militia movement cannot practice what it preaches, then all is lost. I have lost faith in the patriot movement, though I remain a patriot at heart.
I would hope that if these guys are going to brag about what they've accomplished, if they claim that they "cleaned up ICVM" by getting the commanders to remove me as a member, I pray that outside militia leaders will repudiate these UnAmerican actions and publicly shun the ICVM, ostracize it from the mainstream patriot movement. The organization that I once embraced is now part of the problem facing America, if they think that what they did was an example of "justice" or "due process" or "defending the Constitution".
I have decided that the whole effort in being a part of ICVM was a waste of time, money and energy because I was misled. People that I thought were patriots have accepted lies and done great injustices. It is for this reason that I have decided that I want nothing to do with ICVM because I have seen, much to my surprise, shock, horror, and amazement that it is rotten to the core.
What eats me most of all is that this whole mess has happened because it was done in secrecy, and because it thrives yet because the participants in this sham have seen fit to HIDE the details of a great injustice from the rank and file members! If ICVM members KNEW that this is what their leaders do behind closed doors, everyone would QUIT!! And had I known before what I know now, I would have quit long before as well.
In defense of Brigade Commanders Mark S.-1st, and Jim W.-5th, they were not part of the Kangaroo Court that did this. They are decent and honorable people who never lifted a finger to say that I was wrong.
Normally I would sign off with "In Liberty", but liberty died on September 29, 2001.
William Andrew Flatt
American citizen
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That was basically what I sent to Mr. Tanner. I know that some people will cry and say, "You agreed not to take further action inside or outside ICVM!" You signed a paper!
Well this isn't "further action". Action is suing someone in court, or calling for a jihad or some such thing. This is called exercising free speech and you cannot, even by ICVM's own manual and other literature, sign away an inalienable Right. See ICVM Guideline #20. http://www.4thbrigade.4t.com/manual/contents.html
So I choose to exercise my Rights as I always have, and honor other people's Right to know the truth.
One of the reasons why the whole matter between me and the 4th Brigade leadership erupted is because of the fact that I was a thorn in their side. I represented a threat to them because I had evidence of their dereliction of duty. I moved to East Central Indiana and when I asked the commanders who was in charge, nobody knew. It took me SIX MONTHS to find someone who was a 4th Brigade member, and EVEN HE wasn't sure who was in charge!! this represented a clear case of dereliction.
Add to that the fact that my creation of the ICVM websites and the resulting doubling of members in ICVM everywhere EXCEPT 4th Brigade was a dramatic asset to ICVM. 4th Brigade continued to suffer from below-par membership because of the documented failure of the commanders to respond to people wanting to join. I had these on file.
Because of this, I represented a threat to these men, and it was they who have perpetuated lies about me. Other people may choose to protect their actions, but I believe in the Bible, which commands us to expose wrongdoing. Basically I am a whistleblower. By exposing what happened, the ICVM leadership is forced to BE ACCOUNTABLE. Some will say that I am bound to secrecy but I am not, by the letter of the agreement I signed. What I signed was not to pursue the matter and I will not. I am THROUGH with ICVM and may the pieces fall where they may.
Personally, I wish everyone good tidings and the blessings of our Creator.
I will also state for the record that the rank-and-file members are no doubt NOT aware of any of the events and actions preceding, during, or since Saturday the 29th. I do not condemn the members and wish to make that absolutely crystal clear. They have been totally in the dark as many leaders have been as well. Whether there has been a deliberate withholding of information may never be known.
POSTSCRIPT TO THIS ARTICLE:
You may have wondered what prompted me to post this article, and some more cynical souls could even jump to the conclusion that I have a chip on my shoulder against ICVM. This is without merit. I gave over 5 years of my life, countless monies, and tremendous labor to the betterment of ICVM. Unfortunately it was all a waste.
Up to the present, specific individuals (whom I have politely left unnamed so far) have engaged in a deliberate and malicious campaign to defame my character. Since the inception of the Indiana Militia Corps, these individuals have continued their pattern of behavior and even have induced a couple people to leave the IMC by contacting these members and proceeding with their defamation of my character. Let this article stand not merely as an indictment of ICVM's lack of checks & balances, not merely as a testament to bad leadership among others in the militia movement, but also to the truth. If you're applying to join IMC and are approached by a member of ICVM and are asked to leave IMC based on this personal slander directed against me, regard it as a hostile contact with an enemy of Liberty. These are the tactics of people like Morris Dees, the SPLC and the ADL.
I still do not wish ill of the ICVM as a whole, there are still a few individuals and some units that are worthy of the name Militia. Rather than working toward excellence and embracing the highly American tradition of spirited competition, others have decided to undercut their opponents so they can be "the only game in town". As much as every state in this nation needs a unified state volunteer militia, we do not need such organizations as the expense of our integrity. We do not need those among our ranks who would create division, or cast out highly talented individuals who have a great deal to offer to the movement. The Bible speaks of backbiting as being a terrible sin. Let's resolve this day forward to put our differences aside, stand upon our principles and our religious faith, and move forward to restore Liberty to this land!
Second Postscript, 7/2003:
The remaining members and leaders of ICVM have removed most of the parties responsible for this debacle.
