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 The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that no shots had been
fired and that negotiations were continuing to end the standoff at
the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in remote eastern Oregon
without violence.
The FBI said the latest confrontation began after one of the
protesters was seen riding an all-terrain vehicle outside the
encampment.
A number of the occupiers were relating their account of events as
they unfolded via an independent Internet broadcast, "Revolution
Radio," that is known to be sympathetic to the occupation.
The militants said FBI agents had moved to within 50 yards (45
meters) of the occupiers' position in the compound, and one reported
seeing FBI snipers on a nearby hillside with high-beam vehicle
lights trained on the compound.
"If they tear gas us, it's the same as firing on us," said one of
the occupiers, who identified herself as Sandy Anderson. "Don't come
in. Don't do it."
 She later reported that federal agents were trying to coax the
protesters out of hiding, but added, "We're not leaving without our
weapons."
Nevada state Assembly member Michele Fiore, a Republican supportive
of the protesters, identified herself over the broadcast as she
talked with the occupiers via telephone. She said she was in
Portland waiting for an FBI escort to Malheur, roughly 300 miles
(480 km) to the southeast, in order to help broker a peaceful
resolution to the standoff.
The broadcast was frequently interrupted by the sounds of the
protesters shouting and law enforcement officers calling out to them
by bullhorn. Fiore repeatedly tried to calm the occupiers by leading
them in prayers over the phone.
FOUR HOLDOUTS STILL FACE CHARGES
The four remaining protesters were indicted last week along with 12
others previously arrested on charges of conspiring to impede
federal officers during the occupation.
The takeover at Malheur, which began on Jan. 2, was sparked by the
return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires
that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.
The occupation, led by Idaho rancher Ammon Bundy, also was directed
as a protest against federal control over millions of acres public
land in the West.
Cliven Bundy, his father, was arrested on Wednesday when he arrived
at Portland International Airport on his way to the wildlife refuge
to support the militants, according to the Oregonian newspaper.
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Cliven, 74, faces conspiracy and weapons charges, the paper
reported. He lead a 2014 standoff with the government over Nevada
grazing rights that ended with federal agents backing down in the
face of about 1,000 armed militiamen.
Ammon Bundy and 10 others were arrested in January in Oregon, most
of them during a confrontation with the FBI and state police on a
snow-covered roadside where a spokesman for the group, Robert
"LaVoy" Finicum, was shot dead. A 12th member of the group turned
himself in to police in Arizona.
The FBI said its agents moved to contain the remaining four holdouts
Wednesday evening after one of the occupiers drove an all-terrain
vehicle outside the barricades previously set up by the self-styled
militia members at the refuge.
FBI agents attempted to approach the driver, and he sped away back
to the compound, after which federal agents "moved to contain the
remaining occupiers by placing agents at barricades both immediately
ahead of and behind" their encampment, the FBI said.
Until Wednesday, FBI and police had largely kept their distance from
the buildings occupied by the militants, sealing off access to the
refuge headquarters with roadblocks.
"However, we reached a point where it became necessary to take
action" to ensure everyone's safety, Greg Bretzing, special agent in
charge of the FBI in Oregon, said in a statement.
The fate of Bundy and other members of the group who remain in
custody has been clouded by the four holdouts, who joined the
protest after it started but have so far refused to leave. A judge
has cited the continuing standoff as a major obstacle to the release
of at least some of those who remain jailed on federal charges.
(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles;
Additional reporting by Mary Wisniewski in Chicago, Peter Henderson
in San Francisco and Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker and Sara Catania)
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