Tea Party Fascists: Joe Miller used active duty troops in security detail

10-21-2010 • RawStory.com

Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller caught national attention Monday when his security detail handcuffed an editor they said was a problem. Now Miller may have problems of his own. Two of the guards who helped "arrest" the blogger-journalist, Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger -- who was later released after questioning by police -- were actually active duty soldiers in the US Army. "The Army says that two of the guards who assisted in the arrest of the journalist and who tried to prevent two other reporters from filming the detention were active-duty soldiers moonlighting for Miller's security contractor, the Drop Zone, a Spenard surplus store and protection service," The Anchorage Daily News' Richard Mauer wrote Tuesday. "The soldiers, Spc. Tyler Ellingboe, 22, and Sgt. Alexander Valdez, 31, are assigned to the 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade at Fort Richardson," Mauer added. "Maj. Bill Coppernoll, the public affairs officer for the Army in Alaska, said the two soldiers did not have permission from their current chain of command to work for the Drop Zone, but the Army was still researching whether previous company or brigade commanders authorized their employment."