Fbi Displaying Laudable Restraint

It must be nice to be a law onto yourself.

You set the rules. Then you set yourself above the rules. You decide who walks free, who goes to jail. You threaten to arrest or kill judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officials and even sympathizers who cross you.

You and your followers seize a courthouse or two. You steal with impunity. You teach others how to defraud the government, credit-card companies, mortgage institutions and neighbors by passing worthless checks.

Most call your way anarchy.

You call it “Justus Township.”

Once again, a group of anti-government zealots has drawn a line in the sand, hiding behind women and children and daring federal agents to come and get them. Once again, sympathizers and the media have descended. Once again, all the elements are in place for another bloody shootout - except for one big difference.

The FBI, to its credit, appears in no hurry to force a violent showdown with freemen near Jordan, Mont. Congressional grillings, widespread criticism of federal law enforcement and high-profile demotions after the Waco and Ruby Ridge fiascos have made the agency wiser.

So far, the FBI’s approach to the Jordan standoff is significantly different from - significantly better than - the way it acted at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

First, FBI agents waited patiently to capture freemen leaders LeRoy Schweitzer and Daniel E. Petersen peacefully - rather than wade in through a deadly hail of bullets. They caught the freemen by infiltrating the encampment and luring them away from it. Then agents launched negotiations with some dozen freemen, still huddled on a 960-acre Jordan compound, through relatives and friends, many of whom are baffled by the anti-government cult.

This time, negotiators and behavioral science experts carry as much clout as tactical agents. The FBI’s willingness to entertain an offer of help from separatist Randy Weaver indicates how much it wants to end this standoff without bloodshed. (The offer, of course, should be dismissed. Weaver has had his 15 minutes of shame.)

Unlike the Waco and Ruby Ridge fiascos, agents aren’t preening about in military-style garb with high-powered weaponry. They haven’t established a perimeter around the freemen’s hide-out. They’re keeping their distance. The FBI knows the freemen have imprisoned themselves. Eventually, they will surrender.

Of course, a long delay won’t help the farmers who want to plant on the freemen’s foreclosed property. But that’s a small price to pay for a peaceful settlement.

The FBI can’t chance creating any more self-deluded martyrs.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board