Posted on 08/19/2002 11:18:23 PM PDT by Selmo
Randy Weaver, still wiry after 10 years out of the limelight, his dark hair turned silver, was signing autographs for fellow survivalists at an Independent American Party convention in Elko, Nev., in April when someone asked if he would act differently if he could relive the horrible 11-day siege at Ruby Ridge.
"I would have put on my full camo," Weaver said, looking at his questioner, "and shoot them in the back. As many as I could."
It has been a decade since Weaver, waiting for Armageddon while holed up in a crude cabin in the Selkirk Mountains of Northern Idaho just 40 miles south of the Canadian border, engaged in a firefight with federal law enforcement agents.
The Aug. 21, 1992, shoot-out resulted in the deaths of three people - Weaver's wife, Vicki, holding an infant daughter when she was shot through the head by an FBI sniper; their 13-year-old son, Sammy; and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan. It also raised serious questions about the use of force and abuse of police powers by FBI agents and other law enforcement officials.
Weaver surrendered to authorities and, in July 1993, was acquitted of murder charges related to Degan's death. The FBI wasn't as fortunate. Subsequent investigations were critical of law enforcement's methods - gunfire occurred before the Weavers were afforded an opportunity to surrender - and the federal government in 1995 settled damage claims by paying Weaver and three surviving daughters $3.1 million.
The incident helped spawn an American militia movement that continues today, although its popularity appears to have waned. It also served, in the view of many, as a prime example of the abuse of federal law enforcement powers. The bombing of the federal government building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh in April 1995, leaving more than 150 dead, reportedly was motivated, at least in part, by revenge for what is known as the Shootout at Ruby Ridge.
Gerry Spence, the legendary attorney who successfully represented Weaver at trial, said the Idaho standoff and similar incidents, like the deaths of David Koresh and his followers in Waco, Texas, show what can occur when police powers are not properly checked.
"Where there is excess of power there will always be abuse of power," Spence said. "The people of this country are more and more acceding to the intervention of government into their lives. They look to the government for protection and more and more are willing to give up their rights in exchange for promises by the government for protection.
"The question then, of course, is who protects them from the government?" he said.
Spence said he and Weaver are "worlds apart philosophically" but he felt compelled to represent a man who believes in racial separation with ties to the Aryan nation because he was victimized by governmental abuse of power.
"We can expect increasingly more of it," he said.
Weaver and his family moved to Ruby Ridge in late 1983 to escape what they viewed as a sinful world. The home Weaver built with his own hands had neither electricity nor running water. Family members settled in and waited for the second coming.
According to a Justice Department report, Weaver first came to the attention of federal law enforcement personnel in 1985 after reportedly making threats against then-President Ronald Reagan and Idaho Gov. John Evans. A Secret Service investigation showed that Weaver mingled with members of the Aryan Nation, a white supremacist group, and had a cache of weapons including handguns and rifles and access to explosives and "an unlimited amount of ammunition."
Weaver denied making the threats and told agents he had "no time for Aryan Nation's preachers." But in July 1989, Weaver appeared as a speaker at the World Aryan Congress and met up with Kenneth Fadeley, an undercover informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. In October, after several conversations, Weaver sold Fadeley a pair of sawed-off shotguns for $300.
It was this incident, and Weaver's subsequent indictment on weapons charges, that led to the shootout. Federal agents initially tried to use the gun charge as leverage to get Weaver to inform on the Aryan nation. He refused. On Aug. 21, 1992, three deputy U.S. marshals were on Weaver's Ruby Ridge property trying to determine how best to bring him into custody when the shootout occurred, leaving Degan and Sammy Weaver dead. An FBI sniper killed Vicki Weaver the next day.
John Trochmann, a Weaver family friend and co-founder of the Militia of Montana, witnessed the standoff and described it as "a sad time in our lives when certain federal agencies exercised their might over the people."
Like Spence, Trochmann believes an incident like Ruby Ridge can occur again, noting that, "it happened again in Waco, Texas."
For a time, Trochmann said, it appeared the FBI and other agencies were using more subtle tactics. In 1996, for instance, the FBI was engaged in an 81-day siege involving about two-dozen heavily armed members of the Freemen group, hunkered down in a Montana ranch. The Freemen, who reject governmental authority, were wanted for passing bogus checks amounting to about $15 billion. The incident ended without violence.
But Trochmann said in the wake of 9/11, the federal government's attitude might be changing again.
"Based on past performance, I believe a mission creep is in progress," Trochmann said. "There is a homeland defense force being created that can do much the same thing."
I have spoken to Randy Weaver several times, and I have a lot of trouble believing that he actually said the words about shooting FBI agents in the back, that was attributed to him.
Also, Weaver went to ONE meeting of the Ayran Nation group and then would have nothing to do with them due to their philosophy. Weaver was/is a seperatist not a supremacist. Big difference.
The context of the selling of the sawed off shotguns is also not correct.
Really? I always thought that the sawed off shotgun was teh reason. Mine enlightening us as to what the real reason was?
This could possibly be the reason these unconstitutional powers are being enacted. The test of a republic is the will for people to govern themselves. If not the republic goes and the man on the big White Horse rides in. With the apathy of the public and the lawlessness and disrespect for our laws, the conditions are favorable for a change of government.
The informant badgered Weaver for nearly three years to make the guns. Weaver refused many times, but money started getting tight and he did the job. The above implies that Weaver made them soon after being requested to - not for someone he had known for years.
Randy Weaver, a former survivalist who wanted to separate from what he saw as a race-mixing nation and its predatory government, lost his wife and son at Ruby Ridge.
Asked about McVeigh's impending execution he was quoted in the Washington Post as saying: "There should be a bunch of federal agents lying right beside him on the gurney."
 Randy Weaver: A folk hero to right-wing extremists
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To the right-wing movement, Mr Weaver continues to be a folk hero, but to organisations that monitor militia groups, he is a fading figure in a waning movement.
To some, McVeigh will similarly appear as a martyr to his beliefs, orchestrating his own execution in an attempt to make it "his greatest moment" and embracing it as a "state-assisted suicide".
Bravo Sierra Alert!
This sounds nothing like the man from anything I've read about him. Methinks Scripps Howard is trying to paint him as a dangerous right-wing loony.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
How does one "hole up" in your own home? There was no "shootout". What is it about reporters, that they're so friggin' ignorant?
And many WHACKED-OUT government hating KOOKS on this site support this animal! Disgusting!
Here's a hint Randy...When you're served with a warrent, or simply asked to cooperate with authorities, DO IT! Maybe next time your family won't suffer because you think you live by different rules than the rest of us...IDIOT!
Or that a layperson given the shotgun barrel and a tape measure would likely come up with a measurement greater than 18" [the BATF standard is that an 18" dowel must fit entirely within the barrel with the action closed. Since some shotguns have the bolt extend 1/4" or more into the barrel, such a barrel could be cut so that a layperson would measure it as 18.1" but the BATF measure it as 17.85". Since Weaver was acquitted of the shotgun charge, I would not be surprised if such definitional trickery was involved here.
Yeah...Let's praise this FREAK! Trying to make a point by KILLING BABIES???
The same people who praise this racist are the first one's to howl about "Nuking Mecca" when the disgusting Palistinians kill babies with suicide bombings.
I don't think this CRAP belongs on Free Republic. It ONLY makes us look like lunatics and racists. Take it to Stormfront.org where it BELONGS!
There's a lot you don't know about what the Fedzis do when they think no one is looking.
So you think his wife and son deserved to be killed by the Feds? Exactly what "rules" are you referring to that you feel Weaver wasn't living by?
The real IDIOT is the one who makes stupid statements.
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