2 DEPART FREEMEN FARM 13 DAYS INTO STANDOFF.Byline: David Foster  This article or section resembles a .Please help [ improve this article] by removing excessive trivia, irrelevant praise and criticism, lists and collections of links that are of . Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Federal officials allowed two people to leave the compound where militant Freemen have been holed up in a standoff stand·off n. 1. A tie or draw, as in a contest. 2. A situation in which one force neutralizes or counterbalances the other. 3. A standoff insulator. adj. Standoffish. with the FBI, and the U.S. attorney for Montana said Saturday that her hopes for a peaceful settlement have grown stronger in the last two days. In her first news conference since she announced indictments against members of the Freemen as the siege began two weeks ago, U.S. Attorney Sherry Scheel Matteucci said she was ``very optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op that we will be able to resolve this without any serious confrontation.'' Showing the restraint federal officials have been using since the siege began, the FBI allowed a woman and her child who face no charges to leave the compound Friday night after two days of negotiations, Matteucci confirmed. About 20 men, women and children are believed to be barricaded bar·ri·cade n. 1. A structure set up across a route of access to obstruct the passage of an enemy. 2. Something that serves as an obstacle; a barrier. See Synonyms at bulwark. tr.v. inside the Freemen compound. Neighbors have said the group has stockpiled weapons and enough food and supplies to last months. Matteucci would not say specifically why she was optimistic about peacefully ending the 13-day-old standoff. ``I have always been optimistic about it,'' she said. ``I think that we're making some progress.'' The two people who left the compound were not officially identified, but relatives confirmed they were Val Stanton and her 5-year-old daughter Mariah. ``She's out. That's good,'' said Tom Spillum, Stanton's brother-in-law. Montana Attorney General Joe Mazurek identified the men negotiating with the Freemen as four state representatives: Democrats Joe Quilici and John Johnson John Johnson may refer to:
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Mazurek said the four asked him to release a statement that the negotiations have been productive. ``Because the discussions are delicate, no further comments can be made,'' the statement said. The standoff began March 25 after federal agents arrested Freemen leaders LeRoy Schweitzer, 57, and Daniel Petersen, 53. The Freemen have renounced all established authority, set up their own government, issued millions of dollars in bogus checks and threatened to kill those who stand in their way, authorities have said. Schweitzer, Petersen and others face federal charges of writing millions of dollars in bogus checks and money orders, and threatening to kidnap and murder the federal judge who was involved in the foreclosure foreclosure Legal proceeding by which a borrower's rights to a mortgaged property may be extinguished if the borrower fails to live up to the obligations agreed to in the loan contract. of the farm that serves as their base. |
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