From: [d--a--p] at [lsid.hp.com] (Dean Payne) Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns Subject: FBI Shaken by Inquiry Into Idaho Seige Date: 29 Nov 1993 22:48:27 GMT This article appeared on the front page of the Seattle Post- Intelligencer, Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1993. It is a distilled version of the New York Times article of the same day. The PI added mention of possible homicide charges in Boundary County. The Seattle Times has been silent about this story. Dean ---------------------------------- Elite FBI team probed Justice Department inquiry far-reaching in Weaver standoff [second page banner:] FBI: Top managers warned of possible charges By David Johnston with Stephen Labaton The New York Times WASHINGTON - The bloody standoff between the FBI's elite paramilitary force and a white separatist in Idaho has produced one of the largest and most wrenching internal inquiries ever conducted by the Justice Department, threatening some of the country's top law-enforcement officials with criminal prosecution. The far-reaching inquiry, which has been under way for weeks but has remained largely unknown, centers on the operation at a remote ridge in August 1992 by the Hostage Rescue Team, the FBI unit trained to capture terrorists, hostage-takers and other violent criminals with minimal casualties. The rescue unit was sent to the Idaho mountain after a confrontation between white separatist Randy Weaver and federal marshals in which one federal agent and Weaver's 14-year-old son were killed. The next day a sniper from the rescue team shot and killed Weaver's wife, Vicki, who was in the doorway of their cabin holding their 10-month-old daughter. She was not considered a threat, and the FBI later acknowledged that she had been shot by mistake. After a 10-day siege, Weaver surrendered. Deputy Attorney General Philip Heymann, who is supervising the inquiry, described it as a top-to-bottom review of the case. People who have been interviewed by government agents in the course of the inquiry said it is focusing on whether officials misjudged the danger the agents faced and knowingly violated the agency's limits on the use of deadly force by killing Vicki Weaver. The inquiry is also examining whether officials failed to consider less aggressive tactics and later closed ranks to avoid scrutiny of their actions. Investigators from the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Justice Department's internal ethics unit, have warned top managers, agents, prosecutors and former officials that they could face civil or criminal charges, including obstruction of justice and violations of civil rights law. The investigation has begun to reach the highest officials in the FBI and the Justice Department in the Bush administration, although investigators say many of the officials they interviewed are not likely to be charged. Among those questioned is Larry Potts, head of the FBI's criminal investigative division. He is the most senior Washington, D.C., official involved in allowing agents to shoot without provocation, a change in procedures that led to Vicki Weaver's death. Other officials who have been questioned include George Terwilliger III, the former deputy attorney general, and Henry Hudson, former director of the U.S. Marshals Service. Investigators say they will also talk to William Barr, the former attorney general; William Sessions, the former FBI director, and Floyd Clarke, the FBI's No. 2 official, who announced yesterday that he was retiring. Officials said his departure was not related to the inquiry. In interviews with The New York Times, Barr, Terwilliger and Sessions said they were not directly involved in the decisions that led to the death of Vicki Weaver. Hudson defended the actions of the Marshals Service and said it had sought to exercise caution. FBI Director Louis Freeh would not permit any bureau officials to comment on the case, and he himself declined to talk about it because, he said, the investigation was continuing. "Complex legal issues should not be prejudged," he said. "My priorities are firm: that the complete truth be discovered about this case; that the truth be given to the courts and the public, and that the law be fully upheld." Some FBI officials said they also feared that a separate investigation by a state prosecutor in Boundary County, Idaho, where the incident took place, could lead to homicide charges against FBI agents. The Hostage Rescue Team, with its black Ninja uniforms and body armor, its crack snipers and assault specialists, has achieved near heroic status within the FBI and at the Justice Department. Team members have taken part in dozens of operations, including a 1991 case when they stormed a prison cell block to free a hostages without firing a shot. Earlier this year the team's performance was heavily criticized after it led the tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. It ended when the compound caught fire and at least 75 cultists died, including 25 children. Now, after the two deadly incidents, agency officials are planning changes in managing crises. The hostage team was called into the Idaho case on Aug. 21, 1992, after William Degan, a decorated U.S. marshal, was killed in a shootout on Ruby Ridge with Weaver and two others that left Weaver's son, Samuel, dead. The marshals had been preparing to arrest Weaver on weapons- selling charges. That evening, the FBI hostage team flew to Idaho. It encircled the Weaver cabin the next day. Then, acting under the relaxed restrictions on the use of force, an FBI sharpshooter killed Vicki Weaver. Nine days later, Weaver and a family friend, Kevin Harris, both of whom were wounded by FBI agents, surrendered. Federal prosecutors in Boise, Idaho, charged them with killing Degan in a broad criminal conspiracy to engage a violent confrontation with the government. But in July, after the prosecution case all but collapsed under contradictions, Weaver and Harris were acquitted. Within the ranks of the hostage rescue unit the inquiry has stirred deep resentment. Agents who took part in the operation defend their actions and regard the inquiry as unfair second-guessing of those who place themselves at risk to uphold the law. Some, including Richard Rogers, its commander, have refused to cooperate with investigators. The questions about the FBI's conduct come more than a year after an initial review by the bureau itself in September 1992 justified the killing of Vicki Weaver on grounds she willfully placed herself in harm's way. But the agency's report, disclosed during Weaver's trial, failed to examine many issues now at the heart of the inquiry. The timing could not be worse for the FBI. The agency defended its decision to attack the Branch Davidians with tear gas on the ground that the hostage team was fatigued after the 51-day siege. ----------------------------------