Posted on 05/12/2012 6:25:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
One of the darkest times in our region's history ended with the deaths of a U.S. Marshal, a 14-year-old boy and a mother.
In August 1992, a white separatist family in northern Idaho ended up in a days-long siege with federal agents that would ultimately end in bloodshed. | Read more about the siege from Tru TV
Now almost 20 years later, Sara Weaver, who lived through it as a teenager is sharing her memories of Ruby Ridge.
The devoutly religious Weaver family had come to Ruby Ridge prepared for the End Times and they were armed. Federal agents believed Randy Weaver was dangerous, so when they showed up with arrest warrants, they came prepared for trouble.
It went bad from the start. As shots started flying, marshals shot 14-year-old Sam Weaver in the back, and a marshal was shot dead.
The government brought in reinforcements setting up their barricade at the bridge, and Weaver supporters showed up in force.
On day two, an FBI sniper shot into the Weaver cabin, shooting Sara's mom Vicki Weaver in the face. She was holding her 10-month-old daughter Elisheda in her arms, with 16-year-old Sara just steps away.
"It was very hard. I felt very hopeless. Scared. Lost," Sara Weaver said in an interview with KXLY-TV in Spokane, Wash. "The most important thing to me had been ripped away."
Instant family caretaker
Eleven tense days later, it was over. Randy went to jail, charged with the murder of a federal agent.
Sara Weaver, 10-year-old Rachel, and baby Elisheba left their home and went to live with family in Iowa.
"I instantly became the caretaker of my family," she said. "I was in the mind frame that, if I'm taking care of everyone else, no one can tell me what to do. I was very rebellious, very angry."
Sara Weaver went through the motions, graduated from high school and moved back to the mountains she loved. She settled in Montana, got married, had a son. But the scars of Ruby Ridge remained.
"I was miserable all the time, just sad and depressed," she said. "I had never dealt with all the feelings and emotions that came from the trauma I experienced. I just stuffed them and ran away from them."
But then Sara Weaver found comfort in something she'd abandoned years before: a Bible verse, one she'd memorized all those years ago.
" 'For God so love the world he gave his only begotten son, So that whomever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.' That moment, I felt God's love pour out from heaven," she said. "I started bawling, I knew Jesus was real. That he loved me."
'Not the legacy I wanted to leave my son'
Sara's life changed completely. She had a new reason to live, and a new challenge before her.
"Three or four years ago, I Googled my name and what was tied to that was not the legacy I wanted to leave my son," she said.
Hate groups and anti-government conspiracy theorists like to invoke the Weaver name. When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he said he did it with the Weavers in mind.
"I didn't want my name tied to - to give anyone reason to act out in any kind of violence in my name," Sara Weaver said.
Sara says she's still a work in progress, still close to her family who live nearby. And dad Randy, now a grandfather and cleared of the most serious criminal charges, is a frequent babysitter.
Sara Weaver speaks publicly at churches and other organizations about her experience. Her book "From Ruby Ridge to Freedom" will be published this summer.
They wanted Randy because they paid him to cut the barrels off some shotguns.
Federal agents believed Randy Weaver was dangerous, so when they showed up with arrest warrants, they came prepared for trouble.
It went bad from the start. As shots started flying, marshals shot 14-year-old Sam Weaver in the back, and a marshal was shot dead.
The writer is way off on the details.
Another Ruby detail they left out:
After the seige began at the shack the FBI complained Randy Weaver went incommunicato, right? They said they’d tried repeatedly without success to deliver a cell phone to him, in order to speak to him.
That is correct, but:
Right behind the grabber arm holding that cell phone there was a SHOT-GUN...!
OK so...your son is dead, and your wife has been shot in the head, she’s dead and rotting, there in the cabin:
Would YOU pick up that phone, with a police shot-gun behind it?
There were 244 federal agents there. They were approaching the cabin through the trees when they came upon the two boys and their dog. The boys were out hunting.
The dog started barking and the agents shot it. The agents never identified themselves and the boys shot back thinking someone was trying to kill them. Then the agents shot the boy as he ran away.
At least thats what I recall.
Ruby Ridge and Waco still enrage me. Most Americans are still sleeping.
-——The article is typical government propaganda.-——
Was thinking the same thing while reading it....
Basically, the article is full of BS and massive amounts of omissions....
Everytime someone says the military and police won’t follow immoral orders I think of these two events.
bump
That’s correct:
1. Stiker the dog detected the agents, began barking
2. Agents shoot dog
3. Sam and a family friend (a male of 20 years or so) were shocked with fear, shot some rounds, turned and ran
4. Agent kills Sam by shooting him in the back as he ran away (never ID’ed themselves)
5. Family friend brings weapon to bear on that agent, kills him
VERY DISHONEST WRITING BY THAT PRESSTITUTE.
However I recall hearing the same words from the same retired military officer Lieutenant Colonel James "Bo" Gritz, one-time member of the Green Berets.
I heard Col. Gritz on KSFO San Francisco in the days when they were mostly local hosts, I would say that most likely the KSFO host was Geoff Metcalf in the late 1990s.
Here's what Col. Gritz reported about a man he knows as the man observed a helicopter near the Weaver "compound" from a place he stood overlooking the Weaver "compound".
"First of all on the fuel tank, this was most interesting--a man named Jack, owns a higher terrain uh, a mountain right beside Randy; you can look down on Randy's home. He had some media up there with him and they had a video camera. On second day of the seize uh, a helicopter came up, and it had a uh, a fuel bladder uh, that they--the helicopter came up and was hovering over the cabin. The concern was, that they [Government] were going to dump the fuel on the cabin, and then simply uh, incinerate it. Uh, Jack who owns the land up there, said he started jumping up and down, and waving arms. The pilot noticed them, they had a video camera, and so the pilot pointed that out to authorities, and the, the mission was aborted. Now, they might say they were delivering the fuel up to top of the hill to be used by generators or whatever by the Federal Forces. But if that was so, why did the aircraft abort and go on back and land down in the valley? Kind of interesting."
BTW during the real Congressional hearings on Ruby Ridge the federal agents were careful to refer to the Weaver home as a "compound;" even quickly correcting themselves if they slipped up and referred to it as what it was, a cabin.
———I wonder how Lon Horiuchi’s soul is these days.-——
Interesting question as time has passed....I wonder how he can justify to himself shooting unarmed innocent people in cold blood at both RR and Waco....American citizens ....
Yeah, I know he was “following orders” but in the deep of the night in his dark dreams of scoping Vicki Weaver and pulling the trigger....
I can only hope he wakes up screaming in wave of remorse and guilt knowing he will have to stand before his maker one day...
OK? I cannot say that, but have found myself being familiar with others who I later would prefer not to know.
We are speaking of a dark time in US politics. Because of the current mess we face, we could again face darker times. I pray daily that will not be the case, but know it is possible.
Are you saying that out U.S. military snipers are sociopaths? If so, you are wrong.
Just can't let it go, can they. Randy Weaver was not a white separatist. He knew some of them, but was never one of them.
Someone asked him to cut down a barrel that was 1/2" shorter than legal, and it just so happened that the requester was a federal agent.
That's interesting. I watched the hearings. The real hearings that is, the ones Congress was forced by public pressure to hold.
I recall the Senator Feinstein comments mentioned above.. I also recall -- and I cannot find a transcript to prove it
-- a federal agent telling the committee members that federal agents had the authority to kill a suspect prior to a criminal act being committed if they had the necessary proof. Not sure of the exact wording.
Also based upon those who appeared before the committee, Randy Weaver, his family, and his guest were the only ones in Idaho who were not government undercover agents or informers. :)
Its not hard to figure out.
Bob Garwood, more or less the most famous US turncoat in the Nam lived for a while about two streets West of me in Indianapolis. I worked with one of his cousins at USPS headquarters. Really really really small world ~ total koinkydink.
The really bad guys who end up killing their wives and kids are the ones who torture the animals. The useful ones don’t do that.
The really bad guys who end up killing their wives and kids are the ones who torture the animals. The useful ones don’t do that.
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