Ruby Ridge in a Nuts hell
The bombing was a work of art, like a Rembrandt.” The famous American popular Patriot and Presidential Candidate Bo Gritz on the Oklahoma bombing.
The Weavers – Randall Weaver and his wife Vikki were hard core racists, extreme anti-Semites, wonked out Christian Identity fundamentalists and paranoid gun nuts who instilled all that Christian hatred, racism, paranoia, gun lunacy and religious intolerance upon their children. Neighbors of the Weavers recall the swastika wearing armed children taunting them and firing rounds over their homes.
Randy Weaver admits to have been to at least four Aryan Nations national jamborees. In his appearance before the Senate Committee he refused to speak of his racism and antisemitism other than saying he was a White separatist rather than a White supremacist (the difference between horsecrap and cowcrap]. He said his racist and anti-Semitic views came from his study of the Bible that he had read “about seventeen times.”
To briefly get the gist of his religious beliefs, Weaver built a small building behind his home with dirt floors and no power, he called it the birthing shed and required both his wife and his oldest daughter Sarah be kept there for the duration of their menstrual cycles each month so not to foul his living area. And yes, as an American citizen Weaver has the right to hold those views and corrupt his children as he sees fit so long as he does not physically harm them or anyone else, or break the law.
The Crime – Federal ATF agents had suspected Weaver of being in tighter than he was with the Aryan Nations and that he was possibly involved in some bank robberies. They approached him to become an informer, which he refused to do. Subsequently they went undercover to entrap him in an illegal weapons deal. After a time he decided he needed money and sold two illegal weapons to the Federal agents. They were sawed off shotguns with the stocks reworked into pistol grips. He was arrested, arraigned and released on a minimal bond. The entrapment process stinks, but there is virtually no squawking about hundreds of instances of it per day when it concerns sex or drugs rather than guns.
Bond & Beyond – After Randy Weaver appeared in court and was released on his own recognizance came what are called the Babylon Letters. Mostly from Vikki, but many signed by Randall and the children. These letters were filled with threatening, apocalyptic, racist and anti-Semitic crap the gist of which was “we will never surrender to your lawless government.”
Weaver was arraigned in January ‘91. He failed to appear in March. When contacted by the US Marshalls wanting to resolve the matter, he refused to acknowledge them. A few months later they asked him to release the children. Weaver then did reply, “If my children can’t live on this mountain in peace they do not want to live at all.” In July once again they tried. Vikki again sent her hate mail repeating Weaver’s position that they would all rather shoot it out and die than go to court and pay a few hundred-dollar fine. In September again they got no response. In October agents asked for dialog and received a reply. “NO!” They tried once again in November with no results. U.S. Marshalls then left them alone until the spring of ‘92. In March they tried to negotiate once more and got a “stay off my mountain” reply. Surveillance began in April and the incident ended on August 21 1992. [Note this is all under the auspices of George the Father and before Janet Reno and the Clintons, who many conservatives, including Rush Limbaugh, like to blame for it.]
This anti-Semitic Christian racist criminal yellow coward scumball hid behind women and children for a year and a half. They gave him a year and a half! They would have given some Islamic or Black dude about 10 minutes. Where were all these conservative crazies with their complaints in 1984 during the M.O.V.E. bombing in Philadelphia? Cheering! That’s where they were.
The “Y” in the Road – Randy Weaver went down one road, armed with a 9mm handgun and a shotgun, and then into the cover of the woods. Kevin Harris (racist friend of the Weavers) and 14-year-old Sammy Weaver (with his dog) went down the other road, both armed. The US Marshalls were undercover off the side of the “Y” in the road doing surveillance. Harris and Sammy soon came within 20 feet of US Marshall Mike Degan who was closer to the “Y” than was his partner Marshall Cooper. With his cover about to be blown at that close range, Degan stood with weapon down and hand up to shout “STOP! US MARSHALLS, BACK OFF.”
Kevin Harris shot Degan who fell and returned fire, as did Marshall Cooper still in cover. Down the road a few hundred feet Marshall Roderick came from his position onto the road to see what happened. He heard Degan yell he was hit. Roderick jumped in the dirt and received fire with at least one bullet passing through his clothing. He shot the approaching dog and returned fire toward Kevin Harris. Randy Weaver fired from his position in the woods on one side, the agents on the other side and Harris and Sammy in the middle. The first shot from Degan hit Sammy in the elbow and gun stock, proof that Sammy had his weapon raised at his shoulder in firing position. Sammy was subsequently shot again in the back and killed by a 9mm round. Whether the round came mistakenly from his father or from Cooper who had the only 9mm on the Marshall’s side was not resolved. US Marshall Mike Degan died within minutes and both Roderick and Cooper held cover with the body for about 12 hours before they felt safe enough to come in. The area was not on Weaver’s property.
Rules of Engagement – The central issue here regards rules of engagement. Only after Marshall Degan was shot and killed by Kevin Harris did the orders come down to pick targets of opportunity and shoot to kill. It is what police in most venues do when one of their own is killed. It isn’t a game, and it isn’t nice, but to single out the federal government for such orders when it is standard procedure for police in general, is just a crap political game to play the conservative hate the government game.
The Front Door – The next day the Weaver gang had retrieved Sammy’s body, put him in the birthing shed and decided to make a run for the house after both Randy and Harris had been wounded in yet another firefight earlier in the day. Randy Weaver, Sarah Weaver and Kevin Harris, all with weapons in hand, ran as fast as they could from behind the shed to the front door which was being held open by Vikki Weaver who had her 9mm automatic pistol holstered and a baby in her arms. Five people, four of whom were perhaps moving at 10mph were all packed together in that doorway for less than a second when FBI agent Lon Horiuchi, under target of opportunity orders, shot from 220 yards with the bullet hitting Vikki Weaver, killing her instantly.
Weaver’s argument is that Horiuchi and the FBI purposely singled out his wife to murder. One of the strange coincidences here is that Lon Horiuchi was a West Point graduate, a rabid pro-life Catholic, a Pat Buchanan for President fan and no advocate of gun controls. His overall Right-wing politics are much the same as Weaver’s. Even so, his own political allies began pushing Horiuchi’s home address and the names of his immediate family members across the Internet that successfully facilitated the incoming assassination threats.
The Court – Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris were found innocent of murder and Weaver was slapped on the wrist and put on probation for the original offense of selling sawed off shotguns. The trial was lost by the government because master lawyer Gerry Spence took the case pro bono, there was no physical evidence, a lack of outside witnesses and the trial took place with a judge and jury in a Western, gunloon, Right-wing/Libertarian area. It culminated a few years later in a civil suit where Randy Weaver won $3.1 million from the Federal government.
The Lesson – What a lesson in conservatively correct family values. Bring up your children to hate Blacks and Jews, give them little swastikas and ZOG T-shirts to wear, arm them to the hilt, break federal weapons laws, jump bond, use children as shields against police, kill a cop and not only walk, but get a $3.1 million bonus for it. What a deal! We must make sure our children understand the profit margin in racism, hate, guns and cop killing. Hey kids! You want to be rich? Easily done! Choose the politics of conservative racism and anti-Semitism, deal in illegal weapons, thumb your nose at the law, kill cops, hide behind women and children and you become not only a hero in America gaining the kudos of a Republican led congress, but a rich hero as well. Remember though, the open season is only on Federal Law Enforcement.
Conclusion – This one is about it being okay to kill Federal Marshalls who are required by law to retrieve bond jumpers. The initial raid in Waco was about it being okay to kill ATF agents serving legal warrants, both instances with the FBI and Justice in charge and responsible, not the ATF.
It is simply amazing that so many people refuse – or are unable to see – the conservative politics driving these issues and where it leads. I watched now Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown doing the evil government and the poor Randy Weaver crap not long ago, more recently I watched the president of the ACLU do the same and the coup de grace, Austin’s Jewish C&W band leader Kinky Freidman compared Randy Weaver to Henry David Thoreau for Christ sake!
The big game in America today is to destroy not only all confidence in the Federal government, but government itself, to then divide that power up between the States and the corporations. And we pile on from every direction. I don’t know what to say, all I can come up with is an old cliché: Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.
Jesus of Waco
Conservatively incorrect joke: Why did the Branch Davidians commit mass suicide? To keep up with the Joneses.
The information here was gathered from watching the Congressional hearings. As the less publicized Ruby Ridge hearings, this one too was designed by the GOP to accomplish three things:
1) To demonize the federal government and attach it to Democrats and Bill Clinton.
2) To give a platform to the NRA’s paid congressional agents to whip up as much gun waving madness as possible.
3) To destroy or gain the resignation of who they define as the stinking, drunken, liberal, child-gassing, murdering dyke, Janet Reno.
In the late 80’s Vernon Howell, a sometimes musician and always religious lunatic conducted and won a shooting war (with assault rifles) to takeover a Texas cult, the Branch Davidians. Vernon changed his name to David Koresh and held iron hand control over a hundred insane cult members who believed him to be God. Koresh beat babies till they bled, raped pubescent girls, held members wives as sex hostages, threatened to kill federal agents, planned “an apocalyptic war with rivers of blood” to blow himself and his followers to Kingdom Come in a suicidal explosion, all well before the incident began.
The Reason for the Initial Raid – The local sheriff asked the ATF to come into the case because of evidence that Koresh was receiving grenade housings (reported by a UPS man who dropped a box and out fell the housings) and the accompanying chemical explosives to fill them. After weeks of investigation the ATF had more than enough evidence for the search and arrest warrant concerning manufacture of machine guns and explosives. NON ISSUE
Arresting Koresh Outside the Compound – ATF intelligence was that Koresh had not left the compound for three weeks prior to the initial raid. There is evidence that he had, though it is beside the point, for the ATF’s job was to search the premises for illegal weapons and arrest Koresh. Arresting him in town would lead to suppression of evidence inside and left a hundred armed to the teeth lunatics loose to seek vengeance for their martyr. The ATF declined a weeks earlier offer by Koresh to allow an agent to come in to inspect. They declined because evidence would have been suppressed, and they knew he was nutty enough to take an agent hostage or kill him. ISSUE – Poor intelligence.
Element of Surprise – Koresh knew they were coming 45 minutes beforehand and set up an ambush, but that fact never made it to the field unit. ISSUE – Faulty communication.
Meany Clothes (Believe it or Not) – The ATF did not wear ski masks or Ninja hoods, they wore standard dark kevlar helmets, goggles and black identifying armored vests. Even had they gone in clothless it would have had nothing to do with it. This is the issue of “Make my Day”, “It’s SHOWTIME” hotshot police mentality. It is no different than what police do every day. It’s the way they deal with putting their lives on the line. NON ISSUE.
Who Shot First – In a legal sense, this cannot be proved in the absolute, but come on, about 50 law enforcement witnesses including three National Guard air surveillance units have said that the ATF was fired upon first. A handful of surviving cult members say it was the ATF. Would they lie? Hell, they hated the ATF so much they murdered agents, shot children, committed mass suicide and lying to the government was a major part of their lives. Also there was no motive for the ATF to start shooting. It was being filmed by the press, the agents were out gunned and the crazies held children as hostage. Also take into account that Koresh’s oft-stated plan was to create a battle to die in. ISSUE – No hard evidence of who shot first.
Credibility – The NRA’s best witness was Koresh’s lawyer, Dick DeGurin, but at the end of his testimony Rep. Schumer got him mad. DeGurin had kept saying the recovered hand grenades were not from the Davidians but from the ATF. Schumer asked if he meant flash-bangs (non-lethal flash bombs used to detract attention), DeGurien would not budge, he called them hand grenades no matter what name Schumer wanted to give them. His credibility was lost which he never recovered. NON ISSUE
Final Assault – The Davidians killed four policemen, wounded 16 others and fired upon National Guard helicopters. From that point forward, as in the Weaver case, the FBI took charge and were within their rights to push those cop-killers out as best they could. Koresh hid behind the women and children for 51 days, 50 days longer than I would have given him. He had no intention of ever coming out, and they had to go in sometime. Concern that the children were being hurt and sexually abused, water and food running out and with sanitation failing, three weeks on the job Janet Reno gave the FBI the go ahead to use non-lethal means (tear gas) to bring them out. NON ISSUE
CS gas – (a sinister name for the standard tear gas used by over 80% of enforcement agencies in the U.S. and around the world) was used to bring the Davidians out. Koresh and his cult lieutenants, rather than do so, forced themselves and the children to suffer the pain of that gas, though highly diluted by 40 mph wind, for five hours. That form of child abuse is the responsibility of those not allowing the children to walk out the door. Koresh then ordered the compound soaked in fuel oil and started fires in three separate locations, and while it burned, he and his gang of gunloons shot more than a dozen people in the head, including several children. NON ISSUE.
2nd Amendment – This is the false constitutional interpretation the GOP uses in both the Weaver and the Koresh cases. In each case, these were not regular people, average Americans, normal homeowners or even that growing group of guys wearing propeller hats playing gun-gun in the woods on weekends. These people were committing felonies, converting legal weapons into illegal ones, which is a federal crime. Conservatives may want to believe that Second Amendment covers sawed off shotguns, machine guns and hand grenades, but it doesn’t.
Here lies the politics of all this. The GOP playing to the delusional paranoia that the government (liberals and Democrats) want to disarm every American so they can install a totalitarian socialist state. It gets them votes. NON ISSUE.
4th Amendment – The hypocrisy here is astonishing. The chairman of the Committee hearing all this, Congressman Bill McCollum, was the author of HR 666, which passed the House and Senate with almost unanimous GOP support. The bill changed the aspect of the somewhat objective term “probable cause” regarding the 4th Amendment, to the far more subjective “good faith”(of the police) to conduct searches and seizures. Though the GOP/NRA committee members did their best to lay abuse of this amendment on the ATF, only their choir sang. In the Weaver case both good faith and probable cause were present; after all, he had jumped bond. In the Koresh case there was more good faith and probable cause than FDR had 60 years ago declaring war on Japan. NON ISSUE.
Posse Comitatus Act – One of the biggest issues at the hearings concerned the Posse Comitatus Act related to the Fourth Amendment. Briefly put, it keeps the military out of most civil law enforcement matters. ATF used in their warrant request evidence to suspect a methamphetamine lab (a drug related exempt clause in the Act). Thus, the National Guard under the control of not the Federal government but the State of Texas, entered the raid with three helicopters as observers and possible back up (those evil black Texas helicopters). No National Guard unit fired a shot but one helicopter received at least three hits from the Davidians. After the initial raid – because of kidnapping, hostage taking, murder of federal agents and firing on National Guard units – tanks and helicopters under US Army control from nearby Fort Hood were used (in no lethal context) as the Posse Comitatus Act no longer applied. ISSUE – Exaggeration of warrant criteria to gain air support not otherwise available in the boondocks.
Suppression of Evidence – Immediately after the final conflagration, the FBI removed itself, and gave the post investigation duties to the Texas Rangers. The Rangers recovered 48 illegal fully automatic weapons, some with makeshift silencers (another 30 assumed to be full automatic but too torn up to be proved) and real hand grenades (not the cute little paperweights they are so often described as). The Texas Rangers, not the Federal government bulldozed the grounds for health reasons. NO ISSUE.
Cover Up – The ATF operated out of Treasury and the FBI out of Justice. Both used bureaubabble reports to cover themselves along with the bottom tier blaming the top and the top blaming the bottom. What’s new? NO ISSUE.
Waco Hardware – The Texas Rangers recovered 199 Rifles, including:
48 illegally converted to full automatic
20 AK-47 assault rifles
24 AR-15 assault rifles
3 MP-5s
1 MP-11
13 shotguns
75 pistols/handguns
4 Live grenades
6 Grenade Launchers
Rallying Cry – I am hearing the comparison that the Weaver and Koresh cases are the same as Kent State. Unarmed demonstrators are not the same as armed-to-the-teeth gunrunners who murdered policemen. PERIOD.
The Result – The hearings seemed to go awry for the GOP/NRA from the start when Kiri Jewel, a fourteen year old girl told of being sexual molested by Jesus of Waco, and her testimony that Koresh was also having sex with other girls even younger. Next came the revelation that the NRA had their nose in the overall planning and the witness selection process of the hearing. The politics played by NRA paid Congressmen Zeliff, Mica, Barr and Chabot didn’t help. And lastly, to their chagrin, Janet Reno held up superbly under questioning with her reasonable no nonsense testimony. So this multimillion dollar witch hunt turned up a mistake in surveillance, a 45 minute failure in communication, an exaggerated warrant to get air support and a few agencies blaming each other.
Conclusion – What went on in both the Koresh and Weaver hearings was pure conservative NRA propaganda, with a huge amount of Monday morning quarterbacking. A lot of police in all venues are far more racist, abusive of individual rights and suffer the same degree of hotshot militarism as the ATF or the FBI. In fact, city, state and county law enforcement abuses, just by simple math alone, are in magnitudes worse than all Federal agencies put together. The only difference is the ATF’s job is to seek out and arrest gun nuts who cross into criminal activity.
I am very disappointed that so many of my fellows feel it necessary to do their public righteous libertarian chest pounding over this when there are many better issues to cry freedom over than vilifying the Federal government for going after gun running, child molesting, anti-Semitic, racist, cop killing cult members. And no, in this case the slippery slope does not bother me, I don’t really care the politics of it, whoever is dealing in weapons to ply their paranoia and hate should hear from my government no matter Left, Right or otherwise. The people blaming the government instead of David Koresh for the Waco incident are:
Those who stand to profit by it.
Those who stand to be tried concerning it.
Insane cultists.
Libertarian and NRA extremists who think the stockpiling of automatic weapons, hand grenades and explosives is what everyone should do.
Conservatives who are using the situations to attack the executive branch of the government because they hate Bill Clinton, Janet Reno and Liberals so much their brains leak.
The ignorant and uniformed.