Fbi Agents Played Their Cards Right

Federal agents this week gave us one more reason to believe they learned important lessons at Ruby Ridge and Waco.

In arresting three Bonner County men suspected in Spokane Valley bombings and bank robberies earlier this year, authorities avoided gun play and possibly thwarted a third bank robbery.

That’s good police work - no, make that great police work.

FBI regional chief Burdena Pasenelli had a right to blow her agency’s horn after the arrests: “We took those people … at the safest place that we could with the least chance of danger to the public, or any FBI agent on the scene. We did it the way it’s supposed to go down.”

As a result, we Inland Northwesterners are breathing easier, particularly those who work for the U.S. Bank, Planned Parenthood and The Spokesman-Review, which were targets of the cowardly bomb attacks. We’ll be more relieved when other suspects are rounded up.

Still, it’s disturbing that far-right hatred and paranoia may have produced another wellspring for terrorism in our back yard.

The chastened FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Marshals service showed us Tuesday why they’re needed here.

If FBI agents hadn’t alerted bank managers, a U.S. Bank in Portland might have been bombed and robbed on Tuesday, as was a Spokane Valley bank earlier this year. But the Portland bank was locked and its employees out of danger’s way when Jay Merrill, Charles H. Barbee and Robert S. Berry tried to enter it hours later.

If federal agents hadn’t acted quickly and professionally, innocent people also might have been hurt when the three suspects were arrested at a Union Gap, Wash., convenience store. The agents patiently followed the trio for some 200 miles before catching them. They were prepared to wait hundreds of miles more.

If the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms had gotten impatient or sloppy during the months of investigation and Tuesday’s arrests, much could have gone wrong. Remember: Randy Weaver’s dog triggered the shootout and siege at Ruby Ridge by catching the scent of a U.S. marshals reconnaissance team.

Federal agents modeled patience while outwaiting the freemen in eastern Montana. Now, they’ve shown us thorough investigation skills and precision teamwork.

We’re glad again to have them around.

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