From the September 2000 Idaho Observer:

Photo: Paved over evidence

Wimberley from behind the razorwire:

Imprisoned father of murdered(?) son writes ode to compromised country

The sad story of 19-year-old John Wimberley was the front page story for August, 1999. Though The Idaho Observer was threatened with lawsuits and people from the town of Kooskia said we got the story all wrong by believing the evidence and Wimberley's father Scott, nobody could, or would produce evidence to the contrary. Over a year later, it still looks like ISP Officer Scott Swearingen's patrol car pushed Wimberley over an embankment and into the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. The evidence also shows that the young man was found on the other side of the river two weeks later wearing clothes that were different than those witnesses report he had been wearing at the time of his disappearance. For conducting his own investigations, Scott Wimberley is now serving two years for an assault charge that is clearly fabricated to shut him up. The story below is the reflections of a man who has been betrayed at every turn by a government that only pretends integrity. If what you are about to read does not make you think long and hard about what it means to be a real American, then perhaps you deserve the government we have which imprisons decent men and enslaves the rest.

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by Scott Wimberley

I gaze through the fences and razor wire into the valley at the river in which they say my son died. I choke back the pain and try to make some sense of it. I still don't know why John died or what really happened that night. I tried to find out and that is why I am in prison.

The events leading up to my imprisonment are difficult to believe, but then there have been many disappointments. Somehow, they all seem related. Let's see if you agree.

I joined the army after high school. I was raised in Oklahoma on John Wayne, fried potatoes, pinto beans and the National Anthem. Our country was at war in Vietnam and the “Ballad of the Green Beret” was number one on the charts.

The training was tough but I made it. I won my green beret and spent eight years in Special Forces; three of which were spent in the Vietnam War. The projects were Top Secret and I had the benefit of working with the best. I was often humbled and inspired by the dedication and sacrifice I saw. It's just one of those things you would have had to see to understand.

The first disappointment was when I saw the CIA trafficking in drugs from Laos into Thailand. I was told to forget it.

The next disappointment was how the war ended. After all of the sacrifice I saw. After all the unexplainable restrictions. After the statements that we were there to liberate the oppressed.

I got back home and was actually called a “baby killer” at San Francisco airport.

Then I used the G.I. bill to go to college. I had to write a paper for one class and I chose the origins of the Vietnam War for my topic. I had always wondered how the mess got started. That was another difficult pill to swallow.

I finished school and worked as an engineer, not paying much attention to any news unless it was about electronics since I was totally engrossed in that.

Then one day a coworker and fellow vet told me that he was convinced that the U.S. government had abandoned American servicemen in SE Asia and that some were still alive. I told him I respected the fact that he believed it, but I felt it had about as much credibility as UFOs.

A few weeks later, the company we worked for sent me to England for three weeks. While there, I was in a bookstore. Roaming around, I came to a bargain table of books. The first one to catch my eye was titled, “Kiss the Boys Goodbye.” It was written by Monica Jensen-Stevenson, a former producer for 60 Minutes.

It was about the abandonment of American POWs.

I bought the book and read it. It was credible and made me angry. I spent most of the next two years trying to do something about the POWs. I sold everything I had. We lived off my wife's income and saved what we could. I went to SE Asia twice.

John was a teenager at the time but I could tell him anything. He was my best friend. He, of course, wanted the things the other kids had like cool clothes but he was all for what I was doing. He just went out and got a job.

Because I swore to secrecy, I cannot tell about the details, but I can say that on my second trip to Asia I went somewhere that was denied by foreign law. I was almost captured and I now know that when I was there, American POWs were being held by the Laotian government with the full knowledge of the U.S. government. That was another disappointment.

Another disappointment was that the Hmong hill people of Laos that were such loyal friends when I worked with them during the war had been abandoned in one day in 1975 and left to the “wolves.” What happened to them when the communists took over makes Cambodia's “Killing Fields” seem small. In 1995 they were still fighting for survival against a government that used chemical weapons on them. They call the chemicals that fall on them from airplanes “Yellow Rain.”

The only treatment the Hmong found effective was opium. I asked them what happens when they touch or breathe it and they told me that they get “red diarrhea”. Apparently the stuff is a blood agent that causes internal bleeding.

Upon return to America, my family was in debt and I had to accept the first job I could get. This caused me to have to be apart from them for awhile.

I worked and saved with the goal of getting my family back together in a safe place. I wanted my 28 year old and 19 year old sons with me along with my four- year-old granddaughter Mariah.

I bought land in Idaho and started building a cabin. I got enough land to have both sons with me.

My dream was to spend time hiking, fishing and hunting with my sons. I wanted to watch Jason and John interact at the campfire while I lay in my hammock. Somehow, maybe I could make up for the time apart and repay them for their support when I was working on the POW issue.

John got a job working for a neighbor in Idaho. We were living in Seattle at the time and driving to Kamiah, Idaho every weekend to work on the cabin. John started living in an army tent next to the cabin foundation.

One weekend I moved (bumped) something in the tent. A candy tin fell open and I saw a small amount of marijuana in it. I was shocked and asked John about it. I had never heard of him doing anything like that and I was disappointed. I told him how much of a mistake it was and not to ever bring anything like that around again. John said he was sorry and that he would never do that again.

The next weekend I arrived from Seattle and asked John how he was. He looked at the ground and said, “Dad, it has been the week from hell.”

He had been pulled over and the cops discovered a small amount of the “pot.” They told him he had committed a felony and was going to prison for 3-10 years. He said that they told him that the only way to keep from going to prison was to make three “controlled” drug buys for them.

I asked to see his citation. It was clearly marked misdemeanor. I asked him if he had looked at it. He said “no.”

I asked John if the cops gave him a deadline on his decision. He told me they said to give them an answer by June 31.

I told John that it was not a felony but a misdemeanor and that he was not going to prison. I also told him that there are only 30 days in June and that the cops were trying to set him up with a failure to appear if he didn't do what they wanted.

John looked at me unbelievingly. I guess it was because he trusted authority. I told John that I would arrange for him to see an attorney and that I would call him that week from Seattle.

I had an uneasy feeling as I left John on Sunday. I felt like maybe I should take him with me but he was 19, had a job and thus a commitment to his employer. I made a mental note to call often that week and check on him.

That was the last time I ever saw John. He is now buried next to the unfinished cabin.

I am told John died the night before he was to see the attorney. He was pulled over in Idaho county for not having his lights on one night. He did have them on though. All witnesses and the Idaho State Police (ISP) pursuit video shows he had them on. He was pulled over and intimidated by a convoy of law officers.

I still don't know why but John became frightened and pulled away when the ISP officer went back to call in John's information. A pursuit ended with John's car in the river.

I am in prison now because I dared to come from Seattle to find answers to the many unanswered questions. My remaining son, Jason, lost his job because of harassment from the ISP officer that stopped John. The same officer then went to his next job and intimidated him several times and went to his wife's employment and tried to get her fired.

This same ISP officer accused me of stalking him. This is untrue. About five minutes after being told that John's body had been found, I was invited inside a town shop, assaulted, and when I tried to leave, two men came at me with a hammer. They pursued me outside the store. I took a rifle from the front of my jeep and pointed it at the ground telling them to stop.

As soon as they turned to go back inside, I drove to a deputy's home and reported it. The result was that I was charged with aggravated assault and convicted of that felony in a mock trial.

My son, Jason, went back to Arizona when I was imprisoned because of fear for his wife and daughter.

I was sentenced to a term of two to four years by the judge. I guess they wanted to stop me. I was asking a lot of questions. I was getting a lot of answers to questions I did not ask at first. The statements concerned corruption, drugs and cover up.

You may be asking why I am writing this letter. Perhaps you feel it is a self serving story that will end in an appeal for help. If that is what you felt, you are partially correct.

I don't desire your sympathy. What I want is to give you enough background to understand that if this can happen to me and my family, it can and WILL happen, to some degree, to your family.

You see, what happened to us is TYRANNY! It is that simple, folks. I have a real education in the effects of tyranny. The POWs, my friends the Hmong and my family. It is just the same stuff as Waco and Ruby Ridge.

I feel that our “written” constitutional form of government as originally intended by our forefathers is the best form of government ever formed. It was without a doubt divinely inspired. I have only admiration and devotion to our government but I have exceeding contempt for MOST of the officials now administering it. They can call me any name they want such as right wing extremist, militia type, separatist or whatever. None of that fits. Even if it did, it wouldn't change the facts.

Before being put into the “system,” I felt that “criminals” were given too much slack in our country. The truth is that most people in here don't belong in here. Of those that do belong in here, they do get too much slack.

When I was in Idaho county jail, there were 10 men in my cell. I figured out after talking to them that three of us were innocent of the charges. That ratio is about the same in prison if you consider the “War on Drugs” as just. The fact is that the war on drugs is destroying our country. It has been used to destroy our rights. What should they have learned from prohibition? Prohibition caused increased crime and corruption. Sound familiar?

Let's see.increased crime..harsher laws.scare the people into accepting removal of basic rights to “protect” them.

I now ask three things:

1) Look deep into the trusting eyes of your child or grandchild. Then ask yourself what you are going to do to leave them a chance to live free.

2) Read the following prayer, and then change it or improve it. Send in those improvements to The Idaho Observer. We need to have a patriot's prayer for all of us to identify with. We must fellowship with each other and our divine savior in a common way as brothers in freedom.

3) Pray for guidance for yourself and those other brave souls that are leading the way -- THEN DO SOMETHING!

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Patriot's Prayer

by Scott Wimberley

Oh heavenly Father, I humbly acknowledge the divine instrument of your written word as man's inspiration in his quest for liberty and freedom. I know it guided men during the age of struggle against the evil of oppression, and without it, this great country would never have been born.

Our forefathers stood up together in their faith to face the mightiest army in the world. They risked everything for freedom and prevailed. By their inspired courage and faith, a beacon of rights was created for the whole world to follow.

Those brave men would bow down before a battle and ask for your help, and then rise to meet their fate. Once the smoke had cleared, they would again humbly bow, lift their eyes from the carnage to you in thanks and ask mercy for the enemy dead.

Those great men are gone now, Lord. Our leaders are no longer men of honor. Satan is in charge. They are leading us back to slavery and shame. Where have the inspired men gone, Lord?

Doctors kill babies at birth because their mothers feel they would be a burden. Parents are no longer allowed to raise the children they love in the way they wish. Our schools have changed and the prisons are full.

Oh Lord, we have lost our way. Our people are off the path. We are losing our freedoms. We no longer seem to honor what brought us here. Your sacred inspiration is seldom sought.

As an American Patriot, I humbly ask you to once again inspire us Lord. Please guide us once again with your divine grace. Please make us up to the task as our founding fathers were. Please let us not shrink from Satan's grasp only to be devoured by him in shame. Please bless us with courage knowing that if we fail, our children are lost.

In Christ's name, I pray that your will be done. Amen.

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Editor's note: Scott Wimberley is one of the few men whose faith compels him to view imprisonment as a mission from God. He is telling us something. Have you ears to hear? If you have a moment, consider dropping Wimberley a line at the address below. He would like to hear your thoughts.

Scott Wimberley #60170
Housing Unit C-1
ICI-O
Hospital Drive North #23
Orofino, ID 83544