Atf’s Future Under The Gun Ruby Ridge Report Done; Probe Of Bureau Next

Addressing the bureaucratic blunders at Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas, two U.S. senators Thursday questioned whether the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should continue to exist - at least in its current form.

Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said new hearings would be held early next year to dissect the ATF’s mission and whether it’s working.

“ATF has always been a problem child, ever since the abolition of Prohibition,” Craig said in a telephone interview. “They were revenue agents to begin with. Now they’re always searching for something to do.

“It’s time Congress do very thorough oversight to see if they can justify their existence.”

The Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, chaired by Specter, released 156 pages of findings Thursday from Ruby Ridge oversight hearings held last fall.

The bipartisan panel, of which Craig was a non-voting member, heard from 62 witnesses over 14 days in September and October.

“It is important that there be accountability at the highest levels of government,” Specter told reporters Thursday.

The panel determined ATF helped ignite the Ruby Ridge firefight by passing on to the U.S. Marshals Service a fabricated and exaggerated criminal profile of white separatist Randy Weaver.

The August 1992 siege of Weaver’s remote mountaintop cabin near Naples resulted in the deaths of Weaver’s wife, their 14-year-old son and a deputy U.S. marshal.

Weaver could have prevented the entire tragedy, the report states, merely by showing up for trial. But “mistakes and misinformation promulgated by ATF were a substantial contributing factor to the Ruby Ridge tragedy.”

The ATF falsely linked Weaver to bank robberies when his only crime was selling two illegally sawed-off shotguns to an informant, the report states.

Craig suggested ATF might need a reduced role under the FBI or at least be placed under the Justice Department, like the FBI and the Marshals Service. ATF reports to the Treasury Department.

Idaho’s senior senator said the ATF entrapped Weaver, toppling the first in a series of dominoes that ultimately led to tragedy through missteps by the Marshals Service and the FBI.

On Aug. 21, 1992, six deputy marshals scouting the Weaver property were discovered by the family’s dog. The resulting firefight killed both 14-year-old Sam Weaver and decorated deputy U.S. Marshal Bill Degan.

The next day, a sniper with the FBI’s elite hostage rescue team killed Vicki Weaver as she stood in the cabin doorway holding her 10-month-old daughter.

The Justice Department last August settled a $200 million lawsuit by awarding the Weaver survivors $3.1 million.

The subcommittee report criticizes ATF top brass for failing to acknowledge “obvious shortcomings” in the Weaver case.

“The failure of the ATF to own up to its mistakes is going to cause us to launch an oversight investigation,” Craig said. “ATF’s wrong. They did things wrong at Waco, Ruby Ridge and in the past.”

ATF conducted the raid at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco that sparked a lengthy standoff that ended with dozens of deaths.

Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said the report “reminds us again of the essential facts: The events were a tragedy, they never would have occurred had Randall Weaver appeared in court, ATF arrested him lawfully, and in the three intervening years, the agency has engaged in important reforms.”

Even so, the Senate panel has asked Rubin to review ATF conduct in the Weaver case and see if institutional reforms are warranted.

FBI Director Louis Freeh called the Senate report “instructive” and said he will “carefully consider the findings and recommendations.”

Every panel member except Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., agreed the sniper shot that killed Vicki Weaver was unconstitutional. It did not address whether sniper Lon Horiuchi should be prosecuted.

“We are not prosecutors,” Craig said. “At best, we can be fact-finders and change public policy.”

But Craig said Boundary County Prosecutor Randall Day still has the option of prosecuting federal agents. Day is still investigating the Weaver standoff after three years.

Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, applauded his colleague Craig in pushing for the hearings and shining light on Ruby Ridge.

“We must be diligent to prevent something like this from ever happening again,” Kempthorne said. “I hope the agencies involved take the report seriously and safeguard against future loss of life.”

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = J. Todd Foster Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.