Date: Fri, 08 SEP 1995 06:18:25 GMT 
From: Jerry Morgan <[j--r--n] at [galstar.com]>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.org.batf, talk.politics.misc
Subject: ATF Takes a Beating and Looses Memory! 

Day 2 of the Ruby Ridge Hearings was a rough one for ATF agents Byerly
and Vita.  It started off looking bad and quickly went down the
crapper as agent Byerly was repeatedly confronted with questions which
tended to leave him looking both stupid and incompetent.  Here's a few
of the "major points", not necessarily listed in chronological order:

	1.  The "confidential informant" that assisted the ATF in the
investigation of Randy Weaver was the "initiator of the sale of the 2
sawed off shotguns and had admitted that Randy Weaver DID NOT appear
predisposed to commit the crime.  The confidential informant led Weaver into
the crime of which he was accussed and found NOT GUILTY.

	2.  The ATF was far more interested in Randy Weaver as "a potential
informer" than as a criminal and the ATF view of him changed only when
he refused their offer to infiltrate Arayan Nations.

	3.  Agent Byerly solicited the opinions of the Boundary County
Sheriff, Weavers neighbors and acquaintances about Weaver and, without
checking out their statements regarding Weaver, passed them on as
FACT to the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Marshals service.

	4.  Agent Byerly informed the U.S. Attorneys office that Weaver had
been convicted for "previous activities", implying he was a former
convicted felon when he knew that was not true.

	5. When Agent Byerly was informed the Committee had memos from the
U.S. Marshals Service indicating Byerly had informed them that Weaver
was akin to Bob Matthews and had the potential to rob banks, murder
people and engage in an armed stand-off with federal agents, Agent
Byerly stated "he didn't recall whether had told them that or not".  

	6. When Agent Byerly was confronted with a letter from the U.S.
Attorney's office indicating that Ageny Byerly had informed them  that
Weaver was "a suspect in several bank robberies in the states of
Washington and Montana"  he again developed "selective memory loss"
and after several minutes of dodging Senator Specter's asking for a
"yes or no answer", he repeatedly stated that "he may have said that,
but he simply could not recall".

	7.  When agent Vita was repeatedly called upon to "justify" his
opinion that Randy Weaver was a "major arms dealer", agent Vita kept
harping on the fact that since the "confidential informant" had
discussed the transaction of 4 or 5 sawed off shotguns per week with
Weaver that automatically made Weaver match the "profile" of a major
arms dealer.

All in all, two points came to mind as I watched Day 2 of the Ruby
Ridge hearings and those two points were:

	1.  Although I hope Agent Byerly isn't typical of the quality of
agents associated with the ATF, I fear he is, as his testimony clearly
indicates the "frame of mind" that led to another round of disasterous
ATF mistakes at Waco.

	2.  When those sworn to uphold the laws of the land resort to the
methods admitted by Agent Byerly there is little hope for any outcome
other than more Ruby Ridges, Waco's and unfortunately Oklahoma City's.

What we saw today was a  case of one man taking the spoken words of
others WITHOUT verifying their accuracy, embellishing them and then
passing them on as fact to others who also did not verify their
accuracy and then used that information to formulate an approach to
resolving a problem.  Sound familiar?  Seems the same type of thinking
was used in Waco.

Let's face it, most of us WOULD REMEMBER if we said someone was a
suspect in numerous bank roberies.  Likewise most of us WOULD REMEMBER
if we said someone was akin to a man known to be a murder, bank robber
and church bomber.  This would be especially true if we were being
paid by the tax payers to enforce the laws against such acts.  Most of
us would be able to clearly state either "Yes I said that" or "No I
did not say that."  About the only reason I can see that a person
would benefit from "not being able to recall" such important incidents
is if they were trying to avoid telling a lie under oath!

Sure looks like Agent Byerly was bobbing and weaving and suffering a
convient memory loss, doesn't it?

I can't help but wonder about the degree of memory loss that will be
suffered by various FBI agents and officials.  If Agent Byerly is
indicative of the level of memory loss associated with Federal Law
Enforcement officers, we are really in trouble.  Heck, it's a miracle
this guy can remember to show up for work in the morning or collect
his pay check on payday!