FBI Actions at Ruby Ridge ‘Terribly Flawed,’ Freeh Says

In an extraordinary display of contrition, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said Thursday that the 1992 Ruby Ridge, Ida., siege was “a series of terribly flawed law enforcement operations with tragic consequences” and vowed to ensure that something similar will “never happen again.”

Although Freeh did not head the FBI when an anti-government fugitive’s wife, their 14-year-old-son and a deputy U.S. marshal were killed in the siege, he expressed regret for overreaction by law enforcement officials involved in the case and for later promoting an official who had a major role in the episode.

During testimony before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism, Freeh said it had been a “mistake” to elevate Larry A. Potts to deputy director soon after censuring him for a management failure connected to the standoff.

“It was a grave error on my part,” Freeh said. “I’m paying a price for it.”

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the panel, said the blame for the Potts promotion goes even higher than Freeh, citing Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, who approved the appointment.

“The attorney general of the United States is in a position to say ‘no,’ ” Specter said as the subcommittee wound up its hearings into the case. “The attorney general is not supposed to be a rubber stamp.” Reno has defended her decision to elevate Potts, saying that she has long followed a policy of approving personnel recommendations made by agency heads under her jurisdiction.

Freeh’s admission of mistakes would have been “unthinkable” years ago, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) told the FBI chief, referring to the years that J. Edgar Hoover headed the bureau.

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Freeh, a highly popular FBI chief, drew praise for his candor, and Specter, who dominated the questioning, said outside the hearing: “I’m not prepared to say he’s been tarnished.”

The hearing also shed new light on the grounds for a U.S. attorney’s office investigation of Potts and four other FBI officials on allegations of document shredding and obstruction of justice after the Ruby Ridge tragedy.

Potts has denied such actions in testimony before the subcommittee.

But Freeh said Michael E. Shaheen Jr., the Justice Department’s counsel for professional responsibility, had given him a memo setting forth all the allegations against the five officials. Freeh said Shaheen, the department’s top internal watchdog, told him the allegations were “supported by inference, some evidence and conclusions.”

Freeh said the cover-up allegations “if proven, shake the very foundation of integrity upon which the FBI is built.” They “go to the very heart of what FBI special agents do--seek the truth. There is nothing more grievous and shocking than an allegation that an FBI agent has committed perjury or obstruction of justice.

“The subcommittee and the American people should have no doubt that I will swiftly and decisively address any misconduct which was committed by any FBI employees,” he said.

Specter, estimating that the panel’s investigation could require another eight months to conclude, asked Freeh what impact he thought it was having on Potts. “Every day that it goes on is another nail in a coffin that can’t be taken out,” Freeh answered.

In pressing for Potts’ elevation to deputy director, Freeh said, he “was not trying to minimize or downplay the significance of the punishment that I had imposed upon him.” He denied that he named Potts “simply because he is a friend.”

Freeh, while citing the “great trust and confidence” that he and numerous officials had in Potts, said: “I was not sufficiently sensitive to the appearance created by my decision to discipline and simultaneously promote Mr. Potts. Thus, I made a mistake in promoting Mr. Potts. I take full responsibility for that decision and I alone should be held accountable for it.”

In addition to admitting error, Freeh was sharply critical of some FBI tactics at Ruby Ridge.

When Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked, for example, about the FBI plan to attempt to communicate with fugitive Randy Weaver in his remote cabin with a mechanical robot, carrying a telephone and a shotgun, Freeh said: “It was the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of. I can’t think of a dumber idea.”

Freeh would not go along with Specter’s conclusion that, based on information available to the FBI sniper at the time of the standoff, the shot that killed Weaver’s wife, Vicki, did not meet the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of what constitutes legitimate use of deadly force.

But under persistent questioning by Specter, Freeh said that based on “everything we know now,” the shot would not meet the Supreme Court standard.

At issue is the second shot fired by FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi.

At the Idaho trial of Weaver and his friend, Kevin Harris, who were both acquitted of charges of murdering Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan, Horiuchi testified that he first shot at a man he saw raising his rifle. The man, later determined to be Weaver, “was trying to get a shot off” at a law enforcement helicopter flying overhead, Horiuchi contended.

That first shot was determined to be in line with the FBI’s deadly-force policy, which permits agents to fire to save themselves or others from death or serious injury. Seconds later, Horiuchi fired his second shot at what he thought was the same man running toward the Weaver cabin.

His second bullet struck both Harris and Vicki Weaver as she stood hidden by the open front door of the cabin.

Disagreeing with a Justice Department task force, the department’s civil rights division and its Office of Professional Responsibility determined that the second shot was not unconstitutional.

Freeh stressed that he was not saying he approved of the second shot or that he would have taken it, but that based on what Horiuchi knew at the time he fired the shot, it met the Supreme Court standards.

“I am certainly not saying that in a future similar set of circumstances FBI agents or law enforcement officers should take such a shot,” Freeh said. “The FBI will strive and train to avoid such tragic results, whenever humanly possible.”