Never Again, Says Freeh Of Ruby Ridge Fbi Director Bans Shoot-On-Sight Orders

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh says bureau snipers never again will get a shooting order like the one they received during the deadly 1992 siege at the Idaho home of white separatist Randy Weaver.

“Hereafter, the only deadly force policy that will apply will be the standard deadly force policy, which follows the Supreme Court’s ruling that deadly force can be used only when the danger and the necessity require action to prevent death or grievous bodily harm,” Freeh said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“We’ll have only one rule of engagement,” he said. “I think that will be much less confusing and much less amenable to error.”

Controversy over the siege has focused on the departure from that long-standing FBI shooting rule to one that Freeh said was widely viewed as a “shoot-on-sight” policy at Weaver’s cabin on remote Ruby Ridge.

On Aug. 22, 1992, an FBI sniper killed Weaver’s wife, Vicki, as she stood behind a door holding a baby. The sniper said he did not see her and was aiming at Randy Weaver’s friend, Kevin Harris, who was armed and retreating to the cabin.

The snipers had been told they “could and should” use deadly force on any armed adult male in the open.

Freeh, who left a federal judgeship to become FBI director in September 1993, decided earlier this year that the sniper believed he had complied with the long-standing rule, not the one devised for the Idaho situation.

Freeh primarily blamed Eugene Glenn, FBI field commander at the scene, and Richard Rogers, FBI hostage rescue team chief, for the faulty rule. But they have sworn that it was approved by then-Assistant FBI Director Larry Potts at headquarters. Potts denies that.

Neither field nor headquarters officials intended to write a “shoot-on-sight” rule, said Freeh, himself a former FBI agent and federal prosecutor. But except for the 11 snipers, he said, “Law enforcement personnel at the scene, including FBI agents, were not fully briefed and many thought the rule was a shoot-on-sight policy.”

The longstanding rule required that an agent make two decisions before shooting: that life was endangered and that deadly force was necessary to remove the danger. In revising the rule, Freeh said, FBI officials intended to make only the danger judgment in advance, leaving the agents to decide when deadly force was necessary to avert harm.

From now on, Freeh said, “We are not going to use the deadly force rule to convey the danger. We’ll do that separately in a threat advisory.”

During the interview late Wednesday, Freeh admitted he misjudged how the public would react last January when he recommended Potts for promotion to the bureau’s No. 2 job while simultaneously censuring him for poorly overseeing the shooting rule at Ruby Ridge.

“The perception outside the FBI was that it was not a serious censure, because at the same time I was talking about promoting him,” Freeh said. “I should have been more sensitive to that perception.”

Since demoted, Potts and four other managers at FBI headquarters have been suspended with pay. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into whether they covered up their approval of the revised rule.

Two of the five suspended FBI managers have admitted destroying FBI documents during internal Ruby Ridge investigations; a third has admitted knowing of their destruction, according to a senior Justice official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity. Potts’ attorney has denied any misconduct on his part.

As Freeh awaits results of the Justice Department probe and Senate hearings next month, he said the allegations “go to the heart of what we do, the single most essential part of our mission, which is to fairly and properly develop all of the facts.”

Noting that FBI officials are alleged to have “interfered with an investigation, obstructed justice or made false statements,” Freeh said, “I can’t think of a more serious charge to make against an FBI agent than one that goes to the honesty of his or her investigations. There’s nothing more shocking.”