Senator Ready To Begin Ruby Ridge Hearings

A Senate subcommittee chairman rejected a Justice Department plea Thursday to postpone hearings on the deadly 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Justice officials feared hearings could thwart their criminal investigation of an alleged cover-up by top FBI officials.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s terrorism panel, said a telephone conversation with Attorney General Janet Reno on Thursday left him “convinced we can proceed on Sept. 6 without impeding what the Justice Department is doing.”

Specter said Reno “expressed reservations and wanted to know who we would call as witnesses.”

To alleviate Reno’s concerns, Specter said initial hearings will concentrate on early contacts between white separatist Randy Weaver and federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and on planning by U.S. marshals to arrest Weaver at his mountain cabin on firearms-related charges.

It was not clear whether the hearings also will cover an FBI sniper’s killing of Weaver’s wife, Vicki, and the wounding of Weaver and a friend.

Weaver family members will testify, Specter said.

Reno had no comment. A senior Justice Department official, demanding anonymity, said a compromise is possible along the lines suggested by Specter.

Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, who has been demanding public scrutiny into the siege, said Specter is within his rights to move ahead with the hearing. “We should not waste any more time,” Craig said.

The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation last Friday into whether five top FBI officials, including recently demoted Deputy FBI Director Larry Potts, had covered up their approval of controversial “shoot-on-sight” orders given to FBI snipers.

In a telephone interview from Portsmouth, N.H., where he was campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, Specter said, “Phase 1 is not going to interfere with what Justice is doing.”

“Even in Phase 2 on the shooting incidents themselves, we can accommodate their concerns,” Specter said. “And there is a line between the disagreement over who authorized the new shooting rules for the FBI and Phase 3 which is whether anybody later covered that up.”

Acknowledging that some witnesses might demand immunity before testifying, Specter said, “We’re not about to grant anybody any immunity under any circumstances at this stage.”

In a blunt letter to Specter, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick had said September hearings “could seriously jeopardize any subsequent criminal prosecutions.”

“We strongly urge postponing the hearing and the attendant preparation until the investigations are complete,” she wrote. The letter, written last Friday, was released Thursday.

The siege began as U.S. marshals scouted Weaver’s cabin on Aug. 21, 1992. Samuel Weaver, 14, and deputy U.S. marshal William Degan were killed by gunfire.

The FBI sniper who killed Vicki Weaver the next day said he was aiming at Weaver’s friend, Kevin Harris, who was armed and retreating to the cabin, and did not see Vicki Weaver standing behind the cabin door, holding an infant.

The snipers were told they “could and should” use deadly force on any armed adult male spotted in the open. Long-standing FBI policy restricts the use of lethal force to protecting oneself or others from imminent harm.

Eugene Glenn, FBI field commander, and Richard Rogers, FBI hostage rescue team chief, primarily were blamed for the shooting rules but have sworn Potts approved them. Potts denies it.