Fbi Stamina Wins Over Time, Critics

Sat., June 15, 1996

By D.F. Oliveria daveo@spokesman.com (509) 319-0354

In the end, the FBI won a no-win situation.

When 16 anti-government freemen surrendered peacefully Thursday after an 81-day standoff at an eastern Montana farm, they’d long lost public support - even from militia sympathizers. No one could say that the freemen had been treated unfairly. No one could say the government had failed to negotiate with them.

In fact, by outwaiting the freemen, the FBI won grudging praise from militia and patriot movement leaders - some of whom, such as Militia of Montana’s Randy Trochmann and Colorado state Sen. Charles Duke, aimed their barbs instead at the defiant extremists.

Earlier this month, Trochmann said, “People in contact with them understand now that what they were doing was fraud.” After negotiating with them, a frustrated Duke described the freemen as a half-dozen true believers and the rest “nothing but criminals trying to escape prosecution.” Even the founder of the original Freemen Institute denounced the Montana freemen as “a bunch of outlaws.”

By opting for patience over armed confrontation, the FBI defused a militia powder keg and reduced chances that the freemen would become the next ultra-right-wing martyrs. The agency proved it had learned from mistakes at Ruby Ridge and Waco.

No one expected the standoff to end with the freemen walking out on their own, tails between their legs. In the early weeks of the siege, headlines predicted: “It’s going to be worse than Waco” and “Montana senator fears another Jonestown.”

Armchair quarterbacks, including this newspaper, called for the FBI to use force to end the siege. A slight majority of Montanans thought the FBI should have moved to arrest the other freemen quickly after an initial confrontation on March 25.

There were good arguments for the use of force.

Hiding behind women and children, the freemen had denied the rightful owner of so-called “Justus Township” the opportunity to sow a crop and reap today’s high wheat prices. Before that, the rebels flouted the law, allegedly committing crimes ranging from financial fraud to threatening public officials.

They didn’t deserve special treatment.

Yet, the FBI knew its agency not we second-guessers - would be ridiculed if another blood bath occurred. So, agents crossed their fingers, waited and negotiated.

And succeeded.

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

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