A. - Sbt. \ ci% How Government Agents *- Set Randy Weaver Up and Took His Family Down Foreword by Dean Koontz BY ALAN BOCK W. I $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. (800) 230-8158. 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