From the October 1999 Idaho Observer:

New patriot dance craze sweeping nation

Renowned constitutional Attorney Larry Becraft calls "redemption" program crazy

MOSCOW -- Verel Smith, 56, of Moyie Springs was found guilty on all counts October 7, 1999, by a jury of his peers and will likely be sentenced by Idaho District Federal Judge Edward Lodge to serve five years in prison. Smith was, in essence, found guilty of believing that the teachings of Greg Williams grant him prosecutorial immunity and allow him to make money out of thin air in the form of “sight drafts.”

Smith was represented by nationally esteemed constitutional tax attorney Larry Becraft of Huntsville, Alabama.

The “redemption” program, which has been sweeping the patriot community, is eerily reminiscent of Common Law Court concepts that caused hundreds of “sovereign” Americans to file what were then called commercial liens and then be sent to prison for them in the mid 90s.

According to Becraft, Dave Dereimer admitted to one of the more credible north Idaho patriots, Steve Bernard, that the entire program of Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings -- the “straw man,” sight drafts and birth certificates as securities worth $630,000 in a treasury-direct account -- is all theory. “They are not telling their students that their program is all theory,” commented Becraft who wanted to know if “these people will accept sight drafts from people in payment for their services.”

Becraft has spent the last several years criss crossing the nation attempting to represent well-meaning and desperate Americans who have fallen prey to magic bullet approaches to law and have repeatedly faced prison time as a result. “These people have no idea what they are talking about and they continually construct these baseless inventions out of thin air,” said Becraft. Based upon the beliefs of Roger Elvick, Wally Peterson, Hartford VanDycke and Leroy Schweitzer, the redemption program is merely the next step for people desperate to find a magic bullet that will provide shelter from an increasingly oppressive federal government.

The main components of the redemption program are that its proponents believe that a person's birth certificate is a security, that its presence opens a treasury-direct account (worth approximately $630,000) payable to the individual and that the aggregate of birth certificates are a foundation of credit upon which our economy is based. “There is nothing to be found anywhere in the law that any of this is true. The fact is that this is all a bunch of crazy nonsense,” said Becraft. “Our birth certificates are not warehouse receipts [and our mothers, then, cargo vessels with freight on board] as these people claim,” he added.

Another argument posed by redemption disciples is that our flesh and blood selves are not the entities with which governments (corporations) conduct business (that is, tax, cite, regulate, charge and imprison). The redemption program recognizes that we are only fooled into allowing our flesh and blood selves to accept responsibility for the paper entity, or “straw man” that was created with our birth certificate and represented by government presentments that spell our name in all capital letters.

When asked what, if anything, is the significance of spelling our name in all capital letters, Becraft said with a little frustration in his voice that, “It is just style, nothing more, nothing less.”

Most of us have survived the Common Law Court days and most of us realize that, as an educational tool, the things we learned regarding where we came from, legally, and where we are now, legally, was critical to understanding the truth behind our shadow government. However, as a matter of practical application, those who tried to apply common law concepts in the real world were either ignored, ruled against, committed to mental institutions or sentenced to serve time in prison. There were no victories and the entire endeavor gave tremendous fuel to the government and its media mouthpieces who are looking for an excuse to make patriots look stupid and inimical.

The successful prosecution of Smith is an indication that the redemption process, while being another invaluable educational tool if people would choose to use it that way, is about to be used by the legal system as a dragnet for a new crop of desperate and well-meaning Americans who are simply looking for relief from increasingly venal and oppressive government.

People who are inclined to grasp at legal straws in order to protect their assets and their lives from tyrannical government know that the golden ring on the American merry-go-round is the social, political, economic and spiritual enslavement of her people. To think that filing a piece of paper will alter the Illuminst enslavement agenda is, on its face, silly.