Over the years, I have observed "marketeers" (pronounced like "mouseketeers" of Mickey Mouse fame) and several paralegals make lots of wild and baseless claims about lawyers: "they take a secret oath" and "they have allegiance to the English monarchy" or "they are part of the BAR, the British Accreditation Registry". Once they make these comments, they then start hawking their wares: "Here, buy this corporate sole and it will free you," or "let me sell you this ticket to exit the 'system' -- all you have to do is 'recapture' your straw man!!!" I have detected that the market price for a "corp sole" is usually 4 grand. But of course if that is too "rich for your blood", there are cheaper products that get rid of your 14th Amendment citizenship.

    I address the above and other issues elsewhere. Here, I state as follows:

1. To become a lawyer, I did not and neither did any other lawyer take any secret oath. Lawyers take an oath to support and defend state constitutions and that of the United States. When I was sworn, I did it on the front steps of the Alabama Supreme Court, in front of God, my parents and everybody else. 

2. To become a lawyer, I was not required to have allegiance to anything British, whether the King, the Queen, or the alleged BAR, the British Accreditation Registry. In fact, I have no allegiance to anything that is not American and this is the condition of perhaps 99.99% of American lawyers. The only exceptions are those lawyers who for some reason might also be a member of some British bar association, but I have never met such a lawyer.

3. An organization named British Accreditation Registry does not exist, and such contention is nothing but the fabrication of the above mentioned marketeers. I have challenged the proponents of this wild idea to offer any proof of the existence of this allegedly sinister organization and they have offered none. The simple fact of the matter is that those asserting this BAR contention are unmitigated liars. They have no reservation about making fraudulent statements, so be very careful when you buy any of their "legal products."

    I have asked several lawyers and a law student to provide to me their opinion about the flaky BAR argument and their comments appear below.

From Frederick Graves, ESQUIRE, of  Stuart, Florida:
     e-mail address: attorney@jurisdictionary.com
      (Frederick operates the JurisDictionary website)

Dear Larry,

   Not only did I take no oath to any British Accreditation Registry, I will meet anyone who says otherwise in the streets of downtown Stuart and fight over it!

Here is the oath for Florida lawyers.
 
From Greg Adler, a law student:
    e-mail address: gladler@ucdavis.edu

Larry,

I am one of only a few people I know who has had the experience of being familiar with the arguments of the so-called Patriot movement before attending law school. Most attorneys learn about the Patriot movement and the arguments surrounding it AFTER law school, so I have somewhat of a unique perspective.  

I remember when I used to believe, as many people do, that there was a conspiracy around every corner.  The fringe on the flag was a conspiracy to screw over the litigants.  Birth certificates were part of a conspiracy to own people.  And, of course, "the bar" was a conspiracy to screw people too.  I used to believe these things myself, and unfortunately I had to go through an embarrassing learning curve as I discovered - one by one - that they weren't true.  There is simply no basis in law for the proposition that bar associations in America are in any way connected with those in other countries.  Bar associations exist almost exclusively to regulate the legal profession within a jurisdiction.  They exist basically so that if a lawyer screws up, there's someone for the injured client to go to.  For example, if a lawyer commits malpractice by missing a statute of limitations, the criminal justice system won't do anything because it wasn't a crime.  But the client can file a complaint with the bar association in that jurisdiction and the bar may discipline the lawyer in the form of a suspension, disbarment, etc.  That's it.  There's no sinister plot.  No conspiracy.  No big secret.

To all the skeptics out there that might be reading this, I want to reemphasize one thing.  I've known about these arguments since 1997, when I bought a "sovereignty" package from the Global Prosperity Group.  That spurred my fascination with the law and it's application.  The study of law became my hobby and I quickly joined as many organizations as I could to find out more.  I started law school in August 2001.  It's now New Year's Eve, 2002, so I'm half way done with law school.  My point is that I've been familiar with the Patriot movement's arguments for a lot longer than I've been in law school.  I've had the opportunity to fully explore both sides of each argument without the "corrupting" effect of having gone to law school first and then learning about the Patriot movement's arguments.  In short, unlike most lawyers who only have to defend what they've already learned, I've had to totally re-examine my former beliefs before replacing them with my current ones.  Naturally, there is a certain degree of caution and skepticism that accompanies changing one's mind.  I didn't want to look like a fool after I've told my friends and family since 1997 that the law says "A" and then have to go back later and say I was wrong, that the law is really "B".  But the more I learned, the more I discovered that "A" was wrong, and all of the evidence supported "B".  So I checked everything out thoroughly.  And after doing all of that, I can say with no hesitation that when I believed the argument that the bar is a British Accreditation Registry or whatever, I was wrong.

From Robert C. Aldrich, Attorney at Law
    e-mail address: rob-law@swbell.net

Larry:

Concerning your excellent refutation of the British Accreditation Registry fantasy, and your request for other lawyers to assist you in refuting the "BAR" argument, I lend my support.

I don't know what I can add to your meticulous refutation of the BAR imbecility.

Experientially, however, I was once discharged by a client who fell prey to promoters of the BAR lie.  Attorney-client privilege and confidentiality prohibit me from saying much more than the advice given to my client by these hucksters could be published under the title “What to do and when to do it if you want to go to jail and serve the greatest possible term of incarceration, while at the same time waiving all possible grounds for appeal.” As an attorney, I could not have developed a more comprehensive and effective course of conduct for my client to follow if he had hired me to maximize the certainty, length, and severity of his incarceration and also to guarantee any appeal filed would be denied.  Their advice didn’t miss a thing in accomplishing these ends.

I am a member of the California Bar and took the oath required by California law. I did not take any secret oath. I am not a member of the British Accreditation Registry, which is the figment of somebody's imagination.

I applaud your time and effort spent exposing the factual and legal lunacy of the BAR and other arguments on your website.


Peter Gibbons, Esq.
     e-mail address: LawDr1@attglobal.net


Some of us call it the "Patriot Movement" some of us call it the "Tax Honesty Movement" but whatever you call it, there is a significant portion of the United States citizenry that recognizes the pernicious evil that rapes our country and our countrymen for the profit of a few international banking interests under the guise of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) or Title 26 of the United States Code (26 USC).

Beginning with stubborn heroes like Fighting Red Beckman, of Montana, and Bill Benson, then later including such great men as John Kotmair Jr., Irwin Schiff, Col. Bo Gritz, Bob Schultz, and many others too numerous to mention, an ever growing army of Americans have ceased filing and paying the so called Income Tax. However, the reasons for ceasing and desisting in the financial support of our avowed enemy (the banking system that would enslave us all) are as varied as the patches of a bizarre patchwork quilt. Unfortunately, for Americans seeking escape from a system that is as illegal as it is immoral, there are far too many charlatans, 5th column operatives, and well meaning idiots who do more harm than good.

I came to this area of law through an unusual sequence of circumstances. As a young man I was raised Catholic and was inculcated by my parents with high ideals. As a typical "socially aware" teenager, I was appalled at the injustice and evil I witnessed in the world via the news and other second hand exposure. The Vietnam "conflict" was nearing its end. I was drafted but vowed that if given a gun and forced to kill I would be going to Washington, District of Criminals with it, for the purpose of killing those responsible. Miraculously, I was never called to duty. When I left home at age 17, I came into direct contact with the unscrupulous of every ilk. Over the course of several years I became increasingly cynical. By the time I was out of college 3 years I had built and lost or sold 3 different business, and had experienced my first recession and 2 oil crises, with second being the oil embargo of '79 - '80.

As I was an engineer working in the oil and gas industry at that time, I was living in Montana and happened to meet a former Montana state Senator named Forest Crum. It was the Honorable Mr. Crum who introduced me to both Red Beckman and the American Opinion Bookstore (the official bookstore of the John Birch Society). It was at that time I began to become aware of how the world of government and finance actually works, who the players are, and what their respective positions are. I also got my first glimpse of the fraud perpetrated by the Federal Reserve Act.

Years later after about my 5th layoff, which precipitated a bankruptcy, which precipitated a divorce from my wife, which caused my separation from my daughter (the only person I really loved at the time), all of which caused no small depression and a great deal of soul searching; I was standing in an unemployment line and I was watching those at the front of the line approach the clerk's window. The first words out of the clerk's mouth would be: "Social Security Number?" And, in response, without thinking the prospective applicant would either whip out his wallet and show her the number (usually with his right hand) or he would scratch his forehead and recite the number from memory. Observing this body language from the back, I was reminded of the passage in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelations, wherein the scriptures speak of the beast giving all men a mark which would be a number in their right hand or their forehead and none could buy or sell without it. So, upon making this connection in my head and observing what was happening at the clerk's window, I exclaimed in an audible voice: "We don't need no stinking chip! We're already there!"

There just happened to be a little old man right in front of me in line. Without missing a beat he turned around and said to me: "I have a friend who stepped out of the system." At that point I realized he understood completely what I had just said and that he had just offered me an exit. As it turned out, he had a friend in town who was holding meetings on this very subject. I attended meetings and tried to learn as much as I could, but I kept coming up with conflicting information. I searched diligently, but there was just nothing authoritative written on the subject at that time.

One of the first nut cases I encountered was Bob Wangrud's book Martial Law Rule. He also published a newsletter called "Behold." Martial Law Rule essentially opined that any court flying a United States flag that was bordered with gold fringe was either a military or maritime tribunal since the gold fringed flag is a ceremonial military flag. Unfortunately, the doctrine of "White Separatism" permeated every page and paragraph. So, you can imagine the following that he attracted. ("If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you aint gonna make it with anyone anyhow..."). I should give Mr. Wangrud a fair shake, however. He did correctly raise the issues of why a supposedly free people would subject themselves to the variety of licenses and concomitant bureaucrats, as we do. I believe that Mr. Wangrud was doing the best he could with the education and prejudices he had. I don't think he did the patriot / tax honesty movement any good.

That was when I decided that an authoritative book on the subject of taxation, or rather our freedom from it, was needed and that I was the one to write the book. However, I did not want to make the same mistakes as others who had attempted the same before me. I found a little law school in my town that offered evening classes for working adults. I was admitted with minimal scrutiny, even without a Social Security Number as I had rescinded mine by that time. I thoroughly enjoyed the study of law, I passed my classes, 5 years later I passed the California Bar Exam (my first try), and I was an attorney.

When I became an attorney, I took the oath required by California law. I did not take any secret oath, and I certainly did not become a member of the British Accreditation Registry. Only recently have I heard anything about this non-existent entity named British Accreditation Registry, which is the fabrication of some furtile minds.

When I became an attorney things got really interesting. One of my early cases involved a couple who had hired a so called paralegal named David Winn Miller. Now, Mr. Miller had held himself out to be an expert on legal writing and claimed that he was the lead consultant to the World Court in the Hague for the drafting of all their rules and procedures, etc. etc. Mr. Miller insisted that in "American English" there were no verbs and that any pleading that contained verbs was automatically deficient and could be ignored. (Of course, this would be true of any pleading without verbs).

My clients were attempting to quash a summons from the IRS of records from their offshore trust. Unfortunately for them, they had followed Mr. Miller's advice, and even paid him several thousands of dollars to file a so called complaint under 18 USC § 1983 for violation of civil rights under color of law, and naming two judges, the United States Attorneys, the clerks, etc. etc. ad nauseum. And yes, you guessed it, this so called complaint and subsequent pleading emanating from Mr. Miller, but signed by my clients In Propria Persona, contained no verbs! Zero, zip, nada. You can imagine what sane people must have thought reading these pleadings.

In the end, we were denied the motions to quash but preserved the issue for appeal by making a case in the record which the court simply chose to ignore, and we were able to assert the rule in Kastegar to immunize from criminal proceedings anything that was turned over under threat of contempt. Not a bad outcome, all things considered. But, what did my client's do? They went on the lamb! Stupid is as stupid does. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, especially when it is the wrong end of the horse. I am convinced Mr. Miller is either the most insane con-artist ever, or he was working for the Dept. of Treasury undercover, or both. After all, the cowboys at ATF who brought us the Waco Massacre appear about as sane and work for the same department. The true motives of Mr. Miller may never be known, I can only speculate. What is certain is that he ruined the lives of my clients and further damaged the tax honesty movement.

The list of truly frivolous (I differentiate truly frivolous from legally frivolous as legally frivolous varies with which way the wind blows) patriot and tax arguments is long. This link is right from Larry Becraft's Dixie Law Journal and the Save-A-Patriot Fellowship (SAPF) Independent Representative Handbook. If you are not a member of this incredible organization, you are doing yourself a disservice, as they have exhibited the most exemplary integrity of any patriot organization over time. They have withstood attack from the IRS, other patriot groups such as the John Birch Society, they actually provide the paralegal services they promise, and the fellowship’s insurance like protection against unlawful IRS seizures is unparalleled in its simplicity, effectiveness, and track record. SAPF has stood their ground continuously in the same location since 1986, and when they were raided they actually won (with the help of the able patriot and attorney Mr. George Harp) a Writ of Replevin against the jack-booted thugs, in the District Court. Check out  www.Save-A-Patriot.org.