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.
Nice. I needed to hear that tonight.
And the feds still haven’t learned a thing.
they learned they can get away with murder.
Maybe in this life.
Not in the next.
I wonder how Lon Horiuchi’s soul is these days.
Possibly clean and pure.
More likely, darker than a bat’s crotch at midnight.
No mention of the many atrocities committed by the federal agents or of the civil suit they lost.
Oh and the FBI sniper was the also at Waco. He was proclaimed a hero by Janet Reno.
Randy weaver isnt the best person but what the feds did to him and his family was murder.
Hell, Lon Horiuchi is probably going to be appointed the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the 2nd term of the 0bama regime, as Janet Incompetentano is probably viewed as “not aggressive enough”.
Dispicable.
"white separatists"...code for its ok for the gumint to go after you
no mention that the assassins shot the boy's dog first, which initiated the slaughter
that would ultimately end in bloodshed...gee, no mention that the feds started the whole thing when DEA/FBI/ATF (or some other 3 letter jackbooted thug federal agency) entrapped Randy Weaver.
No mention that the locals were protesting at the roadblocks the egregious behavior of the feds
No mention a local grand jury indicted federal agents for murder
No mention that Lon Horiuchi was the FBI assassin that murdered randy weaver's wife
No, just your typical stupid liberal urinalist puff piece which omits inconvenient facts.
The author is a coward and a fool.
I recall Diane Feinstein, very sympathetically of course, implying that Horiuchi really couldn’t see through those ‘calico curtains’ he shot through when he blew off Vicki’s head.
They've been known about for millenia ~ executioner is one of the jobs they give these guys.
I knew Lon Horiuchi and his father. This whole situation was extremely devastating to the father, his friends, family, associates and all the people who knew Lon Sr.
The federales should be prohibited from using sociopaths to serve as snipers for use against civilian targets. Violation of that rule should be punishable by death.
From a North Idaho resident that has read much about thsi incident, in addition to having read press accounts and TV news reports whilst this tragic incident was playing out, there was a heap of grossly misleading crammed into that article. Vicki Weaver, her son (abt 12) and her babe in arms were simply murdered, killed without cause.
That was the worst they had on Randy Weaver, and they make sure that every mention of his name has "white separatist" attached to it. I suspect that they are hoping that inattentive readers will remember it as "white supremacist", which, of course, would make it all ok.
He has no soul. I met her dad Randy Weaver and Sara at the Great Western Gun Show at the Los Angles County Fair Grounds, 10/31/98. They were selling Randy’s book “The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge”. They both inscribed and signed the book for me. One of my proudest and valued possession. Everytime I read the book my blood boils. I recommend that all Freepers buy and read the book (available online at many places) I can’t wait to get a copy of Sara’s book -— signed!
He has no soul. I met her dad Randy Weaver and Sara at the Great Western Gun Show at the Los Angles County Fair Grounds, 10/31/98. They were selling Randy’s book “The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge”. They both inscribed and signed the book for me. One of my proudest and valued possession. Everytime I read the book my blood boils. I recommend that all Freepers buy and read the book (available online at many places) I can’t wait to get a copy of Sara’s book -— signed!
He has no soul. I met her dad Randy Weaver and Sara at the Great Western Gun Show at the Los Angles County Fair Grounds, 10/31/98. They were selling Randy’s book “The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge”. They both inscribed and signed the book for me. One of my proudest and valued possession. Everytime I read the book my blood boils. I recommend that all Freepers buy and read the book (available online at many places) I can’t wait to get a copy of Sara’s book -— signed!
if they had even apologized...
you know, they could have had Randy Weaver any day in town....what did they want him for...a rifle that had a too long barrel as I remember...
same with Waco...if they wanted him, they could have picked him up in Waco...no harm, no foul.....
They left out a big part of the story:
A chopper laden with a huge underslung fuel bladder came to a hover directly above the shack, clearly with the intent to burn them out.
They established that there was a reporter in the area with a powerful lens, and that stopped them (they beat up the reporter and put him in jail for nothing).
Ruby was also to be ended by the flame, similar to Waco.
In view of the monstrous truth of F&F, who is to say McVeigh was not a gov’t agent who was burned when the sting went bad?
Because that is clearly what they intended to do to all the dealers who were recruited to help the BATF with F&F.
Would the gov’t itself set into motion a chain of events that would blow up their OWN building...? I’d never have thought that b4, but in view of F&F now I think YES.
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.
You didn’t read what I said did you. Go back and very carefully analyze who I said it about and the conditions applicable.
My son and I were talking today about violent and abusive police, and their shooting dogs. My son said it was only a matter of time before someone shot back, and I remembered the Weaver boy. He shot at the feds because they shot his dog.
Stupid, stupid federal agents. Set up the father in a sting, couldn’t arrest him in a normal way, killed a 14 y.o. boy and a mother holding a baby.
All because they are so damn gun-ho.
“Most Americans are still sleeping.”
Or locked into backing bogus candidates from bogus parties. The real struggle is not left versus right so much as it is the Washington Lords versus the subjects. The fight is vertical, not horizontal.
Yes, small world.
And along with those who you would rather not know, there are the Giants that you meet that make you proud you know them.
I know more than a few. Those are the ones that make life an experience to relish. Every taste.
That would make it a Republican President George H. W. Bush operation? Hmmm...
I have never been able to locate the applicable information but I am convinced that the psychological tests that they administer to prospective LEOs try to determine the applicants' tendency to want to be a bully. And that's the kind of individual they want to recruit.
“The guys the federales (and everybody else) use as snipers are, for all practical purposes, sociopaths ~ not the kind who are trying to cheat everybody and his brother, or killing their wives and kids, but otherwise controllable guys who will kill on command.”
Yes, I read what you wrote, which is why I asked the question. “Everbody else” would include EVERYBODY else, which would include the military of my country, which would make you wrong. Correct your statement. Admit you were wrong and move on.
Soul? I wonder if he still is in possession of it or if something else owns it now.
Cut the barrels off some shotguns.
Cept Randy cut them over 18” long
where they got him was the stocks were
cut to where the overall length was still
too short.
A total screw up and the feds paid no price.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.