[Update: An earlier version of this article reported that the number of Americans being targeted for arrest was 86. The report has been updated to reflect that the true number is 68.]

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, 74, was arrested late yesterday evening while exiting a plane at Portland International Airport on his way to Burns, Ore., a town located 30 miles south of the federally claimed Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the site of a months-long standoff between freedom-loving Americans and the U.S. government.

Celebrated for standing up to government land-grabs in 2014, Bundy has been charged with conspiracy to interfere with a federal officer, an allegation that reportedly stems back to his standoff with the Bureau of Land Management, which tried stripping him and his family of land-use rights they spent a century earning. The charges are identical to those filed against seven protesters (including his son Ammon Bundy) who occupied the wildlife refuge in protest of government overreach.

NewsTarget has received exclusive information that Bundy’s arrest, which was made using facial recognition technology and TSA goons, may not be isolated, but is in fact the first of many to come in an effort to silence those who have obtained incriminating information about the BLM and its unlawful land grabs.

Government uses facial recognition to apprehend libertarian activists

While taking up occupancy of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, protesters reportedly gained access to sensitive information stored on the computers there, revealing sinister plans by the BLM to confiscate privately owned land with uranium reserves before auctioning it off to foreign interests that have donated to the Clinton Foundation, according a source who requested anonymity.

In an effort to suppress this information, the FBI is believed to be conducting a nationwide warrant roundup of protesters and independent journalists involved in the recent protests and standoffs against the federal government. A total of 86 people, including Bundy, are believed to be on the FBI’s roundup list and could subsequently be arrested for their “crimes.”

The war on indie journalists and citizen protesters refusing to fall in line with the government’s increasing tyrannical actions is escalating. Radio show host Pete Santilli, who merely covered the wildlife occupation as a citizen journalist, never spending a single night at the refuge, was also arrested on felony conspiracy charges.

When asked about his role at the wildlife refuge occupation, Santilli replied: “My role is the same here that it was at the Bundy ranch. To talk about the constitutional implications of what is going on here. The Constitution cannot be negotiated.”

Constitutional law and human rights attorney John Whitehead wrote that “the government doesn’t actually believe that 50-year-old Santilli is an accomplice to any criminal activity. Read between the lines and you’ll find that what the government is really accusing Santilli of is employing dangerous speech.

“As court documents indicate, the government is prosecuting Santilli solely as a reporter of information. In other words, they’re making an example of him, which is consistent with the government’s ongoing efforts to intimidate members of the media who portray the government in a less than favorable light.”

The Obama Administration‘s notorious crackdown on journalists is part of a large-scale government effort to use political correctness and accusations of hate speech to silence First Amendment rights – in turn, attempting to destroy citizen journalism, the only facet of journalism that remains uncontrolled by the establishment.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

Rutherford.org