Ambush at Ruby Ridge; How government agents set Randy Weaver up and took his family down

327 Pages·1995·56.81 MB·English

by  Alan Bock

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How Government Agents
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Set Randy Weaver Up and
Took His Family Down
Foreword by Dean Koontz
BY ALAN BOCK
W.
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$22.00U.S.
$27.00Canada
A,
.UGUST 21, 1992: A SIX-MAN TEAM FROM
the Special Operations Group of the U.S.
Marshals Service, dressed in full
camouflage regalia and armed with
silenced automatic weapons, moved onto
Randy Weaver's 20-acre property known
as Ruby Ridge. In less than 36 hours they
had killed his son and an FBI sniper had
shot his wife as she stood in the door of
the cabin holding her 10-month-old baby
Almost immediately the agents declared a
hostage situation and a massive
paramilitary buildup began, which
eventually reached more than 400 heavily
armed agents, including most of the FBI
Hostage Rescue Team, and a large array of
assault vehicles and weaponry.
Ambush at Ruby Ridge: How Government
Agents Set Randy Weaver Up and Took His Family
Down chronicles the U.S. Marshals Service
elaborate, multi-million-dollar 18-month
surveillance of Weaver, an Idaho
backwoods resident known as a white
separatist, indicted on a minor firearms
charge many claim was a government act
of hatred and blackmail. The resultant 11-
day standoff in Weaver's small family cabin
and the paramilitary attack that ensued are
described through graphic and closely
documented accounts: from the details
surrounding the initial siege to the shoot-
to-kill orders given by FBI headquarters.
Through court transcripts, private
testimonies, and interviews with insiders,
local residents, and friends of the Weaver
family, journalist Alan Bock debunks the
myth that government agencies are
beyond the realm of entrapment, cover-
ups, and even the killing of innocent
people. He overturns the hypocrisies and
contradictions of the FBI, and takes you
—
straight to the scene first, to the tragedy
(continuedon backflap)
AMBUSH AT RUBY RIDGE
How
Government Agents
Set Randy Weaver Up and
Took His Family Down
by Alan W. Bock
Foreword by Dean Koontz
Dickens Press
Irvine, California
Copyright 1995 by Alan W. Bock. Published by Dickens Press, P.O. Box 4289, Irvine,
California 92716. [phone]. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
used or reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or other, without written permission from the publisher except in trie case ofbrief
quotations foruse in articles and reviews.
All information in this book is given without guarantees on the part ofthe author
or publisher, and the author and publisher disclaim all liability in connection with
the implementation of this information. Every effort has been made to make this
book as authentic and accurate as possible. With regard to all documents and
letters, most spelling and punctuation has been retained closest to the original
version. Some minorediting has been done to improve readability.
The authorand publishergreatly acknowledge the following publishing houses who
havegranted permission to reproduce portions oftheirbooKs:
Excerpts from The Politics ofRighteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism and This Thing of
Darkness: A Sociology of the Enemy reprinted by permission from University of
Washington Press.
Excerpts from TlieArroganceofPowerreprinted by permission from Random House.
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bock, AlanW., 1943-
andAmtbooukshhisatfaRmuiblyydRiodwgne/: hboywAlgaonveWrnmBoecnkt afgeonrteswosretdRbaynDdeyaWneaverup
:
Koontz.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-880741-48-2
1. Criminaljustice. Administration of—U—nited States. 2. Weaver,
Randy, 1948- . 3. Political persecution United States.
4. Politicalcorrectness—United States. I. Title.
HV8141.B63 1995
979.6' 98—dc20 95-21471
CIP
Distributed to the tradebyNational BookNetwork, Inc.
ISBN: 1-880741-48-2
Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper
98765432
10 1
First printing 1995
Interiorand coverdesign © 1995 Michele Lanci-Altomare
To Jennifer
Who
understands
TABLE CONTENTS
OF
Foreword byDean Koontz ix
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxv
Cast ofCharacters xxix
Maps xxxvi-xxxvii
1. AUGUST 21-AUGUST 22, 1992: THE SIEGE 1
2. THE WEAVERS' ROAD TO RUBY RIDGE 21
3. HOW THE GOVERNMENT GOT TO RUBY RIDGE 53
4. THE STANDOFF 67
5. THE FEDERAL VERSION AND MEDIA REPORTS 99
6. PRETRIAL HEARINGS AND MANEUVERS 117
THE TRIAL BEGINS 135
7.
8. THE LAWYERS CLOSE, THE JURY DECIDES 181
9. THE AFTERMATH 207
10. A GOVERNMENT OUT OF CONTROL? 241
Afterword 271
Bibliography 275
Index 277
FOBEWORD
I DO NOT HAVE MUCH IN COMMON WITH RANDY WEAVER. I'M SURE THAT
we would disagree on most issues; and certainly one of the biggest
differences between us would be his apparent belief that the races
should live separately and my faith in America as a great equalizer
and an agent ofunderstanding. No doubt each ofus would find the
other to be stubborn, opinionated, and frustrating. It would never
occur to me, however, that I should shoot Mr. Weaver solelybecauseoj
what he believes. In spite of our differences, we are both, after all,
Americans; therefore, we share a history and a bond that is, if not
sacred, at least profound. In a sane and democratic society, one
neighbor doesn't shoot another over political disagreements.
Judging by all the available evidence, the government of the
United States dealt with Mr. Weaver and his family neither in a
sane nor democratic fashion. Repeated attempts were made to
entrap him in criminal activity; apparently, trickery was used to
ensure that he would be unaware of the correct date of a court
appearance and would therefore be cited for failure to appear; his
fourteen-year-old son was shot in the back and killed; and, while
holding a baby, Weaver's unarmed wife was shot in the head and
killed. To those familiar with the case, no credible evidence has yet
been presented to counter the alarming impression that the
— —
Weavers were targeted largely and perhaps solely because the
government (or elements within it) found their beliefs to be
politically incorrect and wished to make examples ofthem.
The United States of America has become the brightest
beacon for freedom in history expressly because it tolerates diverse
opinion to an extent unequaled elsewhere. During the past decade,
—
Foreword
however, many institutions that traditionally supported the never-
ending struggle to maintain freedom of speech have come down
squarely on the side of repression and thought control. Numerous
universities have instituted speech codes that forbid the use oflong
lists of words deemed to be offensive for one reason or another,
and students have been expelled for violations. Many newspapers
have developed codes oftheir own, even restricting the use of such
honorable words as "indian" in favor of "Native Americans." Toni
Morrison, Nobel laureate in literature, has said that hurtful speech
is the same as a hurtful act, equating hateful words with violence
without ever apparently realizing that this position puts her in the
camp of the Iranian ayatollahs who have sentenced Salman
Rushdie to death for what he wrote about Islam.
—
We should be terrified ofthe notion now endorsed in circles
—
that were once staunchly supportive of all civil rights that some
beliefs and opinions are beyond the pale and should be silenced in
the pursuit ofcompassion and a just society. Though the beliefs we
are demonizing and repressing are antithetical to our own, we
should realize that even well-meaning repression like this opens
the door to forces far more destructive than those in Pandora's box.
When the political tide turns, as it always does eventually, those
with whom we disagree will use the laws and enforcement
mechanisms that we created to repress us, and we can blame only
ourselves for establishing the precedent that ensures our inevitable
misery as we take our turn on the rack.
For example, our society includes various black religious
groups whose members are separatists or supremacists and who
— — —
have disdain and no trust for whites. Those who excuse or
—
remain undisturbed by the government's assault on the Weaver
family would either have to admit to hypocrisy or enthusiastically
endorse raids on those black churches equal to the assault on the
Weavers or on the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. And what of
the Amish? They live apart from the rest of society, reclusive and
strange by some standards. Although they are pacifists, they
consider their beliefs and customs superior to those of people who
aren't Amish. It may seem far-fetched to suppose that a
OKI WORD
I
government policy against political incorrectness would eventually
target a group as peaceable as the Amish; however, when a
government routinely resorts to violence to repress unapproved
—
beliefs, it loses its legitimacy and comes to fear those groups who,
by their quiet exhibition of moral conscience, expose the
hollowness and rot at the core of corrupted authority. No group in
pre-war Germany was as respectful ofthe law and as nonviolent as
the Jews, who were rounded up not merely because Hitler was
virulently anti-Semitic but because he needed to delegitimatize the
voices ofthose who might, by both their speech and their example,
provide arguments against his regime.
When I was researching my recent novel, Dark Rivers oj the
Heart, which concerns an out-of-control government agency, I built
a large file of clippings about assaults against citizens similar to
those on the Weavers and the Branch Davidians, although none in
which the injustice was so egregious as in Idaho. In the final
chapters of Ambush at Ruby Ridge, Alan Bock makes reference to
several of the more well-known cases. The number of such
incidents seems to argue that the Department of Justice, as
currently constituted, is either blind to the need for visible justice
for all citizens regardless of the unpleasantness of their beliefs or is
so preoccupied with avoiding the political fallout that comes with
the admission of mistakes that it risks creating the widespread
impression ofbias and conspiracy.
Personally, I have little patience with conspiracy theories and
talk ofsecret webs ofelitists bent on one-world government. I tend
to distrust most politicians, regardless ofwhich end ofthe spectrum
they occupy, not because I think they're all totalitarians, which I
don't, but because I think they are generally incompetent, or in
pursuit ofpetty advantages for themselves, or both.
Unfortunately, when the Attorney General, as the highest law
enforcement official in the country, does not vigorously pursue
justice in cases where the government clearly employed improper
force, a cancerous suspicion metastasizes in the body of society
with potentially devastating effects. Not least of all, it encourages
dangerous extremists like those in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Foreword
Over a sufficient length of time and after a critical mass of cases
that feed this suspicion, various elements in society sink into a
grudge fight with the government. No thinking American could
want to see this country descend into the endless animosity of
Northern Ireland or ofLebanon during the 1980s, which is why it is
incumbent upon the Attorney General to establish bipartisan
commissions to investigate all controversial cases, seek justice even
when the political fallout will be detrimental to the party in power,
and institute new rules ofprocedure for all federal law enforcement
agencies to ensure that the likelihood of similar outrages is
drastically diminished.
I am an ardent believer in America, so I am confident that
the particular federal police agencies that have generated distrust in
some quarters in recent years will become more responsive to
public concerns and more responsible in their procedures. This will
happen, unfortunately, not because politicians and their appointees
will suddenly develop guilty consciences or even common sense,
but because investigative reporting combined with public opinion
will build irresistible pressure for change. Until recently, much of
the press has been shamefully indifferent to the Weaver case and
others like it, but these days one sees more and more references to
the events on Ruby Ridge and to other similar violations of civil
liberties. Likewise, for the better part of two years, one could have
read the major newspapers without ever discovering that David
Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, left his
compound virtually every day and might have been arrested
peacefully, without any need of the SWAT team raid and the
subsequent tragedy in which so many innocent children died; but
recently the Los Angeles Times, which for so long seemed to do little
more than repeat government press releases on that incident,
produced a long in-depth piece raising serious questions about the
conduct ofthat operation.
In this book, journalist Alan Bock serves his country
admirably by presenting the well-researched facts of the Weaver
case in a highly readable and balanced account Mr. Bock shows
Randy Weaver with all his warts and avoids glossing over any