Sara Weaver, tears running down her cheeks, at the Senate testimony of her father Randy Weaver, as he told of the tragic events against their family by government agents. Photo courtesy Yahoo.
“I’m coming, Dad.” —- Last words spoken by 11 year old Samuel Weaver in August 1992, just before US government agents shot him in the back and murdered him in cold blood.
Ruby Ridge will forever be remembered as the place where government agents made an ill fated siege on US citizens. An attack on an American family who only wished to be left alone. An American family who was drawn into a saga of entrapment, deception and outright lies by government agents because the family patriarch refused to go along with their ploy for him to serve as their stooge. The incident took place over 11 days in August of 1992, where US government agents murdered several innocent people, some of whom were armed.
Following the incident the US Senate held an inquiry at to exactly what happened. Part of that testimony is included below. The entire testimony has a link you may follow for more information.
In Randy Weaver’s testimony and Senatorial questioning some of the prevalent myths pushed by the dominant media were uncovered and seen more clearly how they were taken out of context and used to demonize him, in what could be called a smear job against someone by the press. That demonization calling Weaver a “white separatist” and “racist” are exposed as hype and propaganda taken out of context in the hearings. Also exposed is illegal governmental entrapment which led to illegal and unconstitutional actions, as well as murder, on the part of government agencies who had a “death warrant” out for Weaver. Unfortunately, that “death warrant” led to bizarre events and the deaths of the innocent.
Which brings to mind our current state of affairs in the United States, where the US Congress has just appropriated over $80 billion dollars to a branch of the US government—-and armed them—-to come after what they think is their money in the form of government imposed slavery through tax collection. Considering what happened to the Weaver family and the track record of “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” mentality, we can only surmise what could happen, and perhaps go wrong.
Until Media barons and their news agencies decide to start acting like the Watch Dogs they are supposed to be, instead of the Lap Dogs they have become, we all must be diligent in searching out the truth of any reported events. That’s why small news groups like The Standard exist—-to expose truth and wrong doing.
Randy Weaver testified on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 6, 1995, before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. Weaver appealed to the subcommittee saying he wanted “accountability for the killings of my wife and son.”
The following US Senate testimony of Randy Weaver is from a Transcript from University of Missouri Law School at Kansas City:
Senator SPECTER. You may be seated, Mr. Weaver, and you may proceed.
Mr. Weaver, you have a prepared statement that will be made a part of the record fully, and you are invited to proceed as you choose and to take your time. As noted, we have a mockup of the Ruby Creek area. We have the door of your house, so to the extent you find it convenient, appropriate to make references to that physical evidence, you may do so.
TESTIMONY OF RANDY WEAVER, ACCOMPANIED BY GARRY GUMAN, COUNSEL, AND GERRY SPENCE, COUNSEL
Mr. WEAVER. Thank you, sir.
Chairman Specter and honored Senators, I would like to introduce you to my daughter, Sara. Two of my daughters are back home. Two of my family members are dead: my son Samuel, and my beloved wife, Vicki.
On August 21, 1992, Federal marshals shot my son Samuel in the back and killed him. He was running home to me. His last words were, “I’m coming, Dad.” They shot his little arm almost off and they killed him by shooting him in the back with a 9-millimeter submachine gun. The gun had a silencer on it. He was not wanted for any crime. He did not commit any crime. The marshals killed his dog right at his feet. He only tried to defend himself and his dog.
“I can think of no reason surrounding this matter that would have justified the rules of engagement followed at Ruby Ridge by the FBI.” —- SC Senator Strom Thurmond
Sammy was just 14 years old. He did not yet weigh 80 pounds. He was not yet 5 feet tall. The marshals who killed Sammy were grown men. They were in combat gear. They had their faces painted with camouflage. They were wearing full camouflage suits with black ninja-type hoods. They were carrying machineguns and large caliber semiautomatic pistols. They were trained to kill. Two of them were hiding behind trees and rocks in the woods where they could not be seen. The third was around a bend in the trail in thick forest. They were under direct orders from Washington to do nothing to injure the children. They were to have no contact or confrontation with me or my family. They killed him anyway in violation of their orders.
On August 22, 1992, completely without warning of any kind, an FBI sniper shot and killed my wife, Vicki. He was using a .308 caliber sniper rifle with a specially weighted barrel and a 10-power scope. He was using match grade ammunition. He had years of training to kill. I heard him testify at the trial that he wanted to kill. He shot my wife in the head and killed her. She was not wanted for any crime. There were no warrants for her arrest. At the time she was gunned down, she was helpless. She was standing in the doorway of her home. She was holding the door open for me and Sara and for Kevin Harris. She was holding Elishe a our 10-month-old baby girl, in her arms. As the bullet crashed through her head, she slumped to her knees, holding Elisheba tightly so she would not drop her. We took the baby from her as she lay dead and bleeding on our kitchen floor.
Senator SPECTER. Take whatever time you need, Mr. Weaver.
Mr. WEAVER. Thank you.
I am not without fault in this matter. I was convicted of failure to appear for trial on charges I had sold a sawed-off shotgun to an ATF informant named Gus Magisano. He testified at trial under a different name—Kenneth Fadeley. That was probably not his real name either. I was found not guilty of the original weapons charge, and I was found not guilty of every other crime I was charged with, including murder and assault on Federal officers. I was charged with conspiring against the Government, and I was found not guilty of that charge. I was in jail for about a year before and during the trial. I have served time after the trial and am now on unsupervised probation. I faced my accusers at a trial. I faced the FBI, the Marshals Service, the U.S. attorney, a Federal judge and a jury of my peers. I faced the death penalty. I have been accountable for my actions. I now face you Senators to ask that those responsible for the killings of my wife and my son be brought to account for their actions.
If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, I would make different choices. I would come down from the mountain for the court appearance. I would not have allowed a deceitful, lying con man working for ATF to push me for almost 3 years to make a sawed-off shotgun for him. I would not allow myself to be tempted in a weak moment when my family needed money. I would not let my fears and the fears of my family keep me from coming down. But my wrongs did not cause Federal agents to commit crimes. Nothing I did caused Federal agents to violate the Constitution of the United States. I did not cause Federal agents to violate the oath of their office. My actions did not cause Federal agents to violate direct orders from Washington. My choices did not cause Federal agents to violate State and Federal law. My behavior did not cause Federal agents to violate their own agency policies. Federal agents have admitted to illegal acts. Judge Freeh, the head of the FBI, has made statements to the press that the so-called rules of engagement were unconstitutional. Federal agents have tried to cover up their illegal actions. That was their choice, not mine. I have been accountable for my choices. They should be held accountable for their wrongs. But no Federal agent has been brought to justice for the killings of Sam and Vicki Weaver.
In fact, agents of the FBI have been part of the coverup of what really happened. One, after flunking a lie detector test, has admitted shredding documents that might clear up who authorized the death warrants on my family. I feel I have a right to know. Whether it was officials of the FBI or Department of Justice, the citizens should know who gave the shoot-on-sight orders and who approved them.
The Department of Justice has covered up what really happened by delaying, even now, the official release of two 500-page reports concerning the conduct of Federal agents at Ruby Ridge. What we know about those reports was leaked to the media, but even as we speak, Attorney General Reno and the Department of Justice have still not officially released a single in-depth report about FBI and Marshals Service conduct.
The coverup has its roots in Ruby Ridge, where Federal agents lied by telling Washington officials that the Weavers had ambushed Federal marshals and had pinned the marshals down by firing hundreds of rounds at them. According to their own testimony at my trial it was hiding in the trees when my boy came walking down the trail following his dog. The FBI testified of numerous grid searches of the Y using metal detectors and even using a person who was supposed to have powers as a ‘dowser” to find bullets with a forked stick. In all of their many searches, they found only 19 rounds fired: 3 by Kevin Harris, 2 bySam, for a total of 5 by the boys; l byMarshal Roderick, 6 by Marshal Cooper, and 7 by Marshal Degan, making 14 fired by the marshals.
Larry Cooper continued the coverup by testifying at my trial that the first shot was fired by Kevin Harris. He claimed Kevin killed Marshal Degan with a 30.06. Marshal Frank Norris, who was further up the mountain on that day, testified that the first shots were the distinctive sound of a .223, not a 30.06. Cooper testified that Mr. Degan fell over as he was shot and never got up again. That testimony was false. Evidence showed that Marshal Degan traveled over 22 feet, firing his weapon 7 times, before he was killed.
The coverup continued during the trial. My lawyers sought records of the FBI investigation of Lon Horiuchi’s shooting of my wife, myself, and Kevin Harris. They sought the records long before the trial began and continued requesting them during the trial. The FBI and the U.S. attorney did not furnish the records until after Horiuchi’s testimony was completed and he had returned to Washington. Among the papers given to us late was a drawing made by Horiuchi s owing that he could see people behind the door when he shot my wife. Judge Lodge was outraged and ordered that Horiuchi return for further cross-examination. In a rare move, he also ordered the Government to pay a fine for their conduct in delaying disclosure of that information.
Lon Horiuchi, the FBI sniper who killed my wife, said in a statement given to FBI officials on September 1, 1992, 10 days after he killed my wife, that he went through the rules of engagement in his mind just before the shooting. He decided to shoot to kill be-cause Kevin Harris had a weapon in the vicinity of the cabin. He decided to neutralize Kevin, but the crosshairs of his sight were on the window of the door where my wife was standing. No other sniper fired. To my knowledge, Lon Horiuchi has never been disciplined in any way for killing my wife.
Some say that all of this could have been avoided if I had simply come down from the mountain and gone to trial. When I chose not to come down, I knew that I would be set up at court, just as I had been set up by the ATF. In fact, the ATF spy appeared at trial and admitted to 31 lies while he was on the stand and admitted that he was going to get a monetary settlement from ATF if I were convicted, but he would not get paid if I was acquitted. I was told at my arraignment by Steven Ayers, a Federal magistrate, that I would probably have to forfeit a $10,000 bond if I lost my case. He said it was to pay the Government back for the cost of my court-appointed attorney. That meant that if I were convicted, my family would be left destitute, penniless, and homeless. The only asset we had to pay such a debt was our home on Ruby Ridge. Judge Ayers admitted at my trial that he misstated the law to me. There really was no law that I had to pay the Government back for my lawyer if I lost my case. When ATF officers arrested me for selling the shotgun, they did so by pretending to be a family with car trouble. They knew I was the kind of person who would try to help someone in trouble. It was a cold and snowy day. . They were stopped on a bridge. When I walked up to try to help, several agents jumped me and threw me to the ground. A female agent, posing to be the stranded wife, threw Vicki to the ground with her face in the snow. Vicki had done nothing wrong.
Court officers confused me about the court dates. I was first told my court date would be February 19, 1991. The judge later changed that to February 20 because he did not want court staff to have to travel on a holiday. Another court official named Karl Richins, a probation officer, wrote me on February 7 and told me that my court date was on March 20. When I did not appear on February 19, an article appeared in a local paper quoting Chief Probation Officer Hummel saying that no letter had been sent telling me of the March 20 court date. I provided the Senators a copy of the letter telling me the court date was on March 20.
Even though they understood my confusion and mistrust of the court system, including the mix-up over the court date, Deputy U.S. Attorney Ron Howen obtained an indictment charging me with failure to appear, and a Federal judge issued a warrant for my arrest. There was testimony at my trial that Mr. Howen obtained that indictment knowing that he would most likely have to dismiss the case because of the confusion caused by the Richins letter. Howen admitted that to the marshals, who wrote it out in a memo. The Marshals Service requested that they be allowed to contact me and try to clear up the confusion before any warrant had to be served. Both the judge and Mr. Howen refused.
I wanted reassurance that I would get a fair trial, without all the deception and trickery. I wanted to know that the Government was not going to take away my home, leaving Vicki and my children homeless. I needed to know that the Government would not take our children away from Vicki if’ I were sent to jail. I needed to know that my wife and my children were not going to be prosecuted for any crimes. At my trial, I learned from the testimony of Marshal David Hunt that he wanted to give me assurances on all those points, but was prevented from doing so by Mr. Howen. Mr. Howen told him in a letter dated October 17, 1991, that Marshal Hunt could not discuss these issues with me and that these issues were not proper to address unless I agreed to plead guilty to the charges.
Because of our confusion and fear and mistrust, my family made a decision that I would not come down. That decision brought the marshals to my home on the mountain on August 21, 1992. But that decision did not cause the marshals to kill my son and the FBI to kill my wife. That decision did not cause Federal agents to lie and coverup what they had done, leading to further tragedy. That decision did not cause the FBI to send snipers to the mountain with orders to kill my family, to shoot them on sight without investigating what had happened the previous day. When the sniper killed my wife, he had not witnessed any one in my family commit a crime. No sniper or FBI agent on the mountain had witnessed any of my family commit a crime. No FBI agent had even with the marshals that had been involved in the shooting the previous day. The FBI sniper was executing suspects and witnesses. The FBI sniper was judge, jury, and executioner.
I am here today to do all in my power to avoid such tragedies in the future. I want the citizens of this country to learn from our tragedy so that no one else will have to suffer as my girls and I have had to suffer. I am here today to do all in my power to see that all citizens, including law enforcement officer, obey the law. I am here today because there must be accountability for the killings of my wife and son. When high-ranking FBI officials issue death warrants and coverup their involvement, the message they send to police officers all over the country is: It is OK if you can get away with it. Citizens who cannot trust their Government band together in fear. If people in positions of power commit unlawful acts and are not held accountable, then the citizens’ fear of the Government is justified.
I ask you to uncover the truth about the Federal agents who have committed wrongs. I ask you to bring them to account before you. I ask you to see to it that those persons who killed my wife and my little 14-year-old son are brought to justice. I ask it for me. I ask it for my family. I ask it for my country.
Senator SPECTER. Thank you very much, Mr. Weaver.
Mr. WEAVER. Thank you.
Senator SPECTER. Mr. Weaver, you have been consistently referred to as a white separatist. When we met back on May 13 of this year, I asked you what that reference meant, to the best of your knowledge, and I think it is an appropriate starting point for a response today.
Were you a white separatist? What does that mean as you understand it?
Mr. WEAVER. Mr. Chairman, what to me separatist means is a couple different things. No. 1, I am not a hateful racist the way most people understand that, but I believe that if there is separation of the races, scripturally speaking, that is what I believe is right. It sounds like an impossible task and most likely is, but I believe that people of every race should be proud of who they are and what they are. There are good people in every race; there are bad people in every race.
And I have to say that as far as this meeting today is concerned, I am almost totally emotionally overwhelmed that it is even taking place.
And another thing about separation is, when we moved from Iowa to Idaho, we wanted to separate into a remote area to give the children a good area to grow up, and we had had beliefs that, you know, if there ever was a natural disaster or downfall of the Government or whatever, we wanted to be separated from the rest of the world. We did not want to be a part of it. Survival, you might call it. We wanted to separate out and be able to survive, you know, in bad times ahead if there were going to be.
Senator SPECTER.. Beyond that being your own personal view, did you ever take any specific action? Not that you are not entitled to take lawful action, but did you ever take any action to try to implement those views aside from holding those views as your own personal belief?
Mr. WEAVER. Never.
Senator SPECTER. Now, there has been considerable reference made to the Aryan Nations as a possible basis for the action from the Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco Bureau. Would you tell the subcommittee what contacts, if any, you ever had with the organization known as the Aryan Nations? Start, if you would, by describing what you understood the Aryan Nations organization to be with respect to its purpose.
Mr. WEAVER. To this day I am not sure what their total purpose is. We attended—or I should say I had been to Aryan Nations three, maybe four times over a 4-year period, and I was originally invited to go down there by some guy who had claimed to be a friend of mine, and I found out later he was not.
Senator SPECTER. When you say to go down there, what do you mean by that?
Mr. WEAVER. To go down to Aryan Nations to—they have a yearly conference in the summer. They call it their World Congress or something like that. But he said that–
Senator SPECTER. And where do they hold that meeting?
Mr. WEAVER. Where do they have it?
Senator SPECTER. Yes.
Mr. WEAVER. At Hayden Lake, ID. And I went down there to exchange ideas with people, talk to people, and usually ended up arguing with people that attended regularly. But I never joined, did not want to join. I am not a joiner of anything. I have not for a long time.
Senator SPECTER. How many meetings of the Aryan Nations did you attend?
Mr. WEAVER. Four—between three and five over a 4-year period. I did not actually—you know, it was not like Sunday services and all that. It was an annual conference thing.
Senator SPECTER. Mr. Weaver, there was a very extended effort made by Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco to secure your services as an informant. Can you shed any light for this subcommittee on why the Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco unit made such an extended effort to bring you on as an informant?
Mr. WEAVER. Actually, I can only speculate on that. We discussed that a little bit before. You would have to ask Mr. Byerle and Gus Magisano, or whatever his real name is, why. Because from what I heard later, they wanted me to infiltrate, inform on this certain person that I did not know very well, but whenever we ran into each other at the Aryan Nations meetings, he would end up starting an argument with me, usually over religious issues, etcetera. So I could not figure out—you know, to this day it does not make any sense to me why they wanted me to try to go buddy up to this guy when we did not get along that great, anyway.
Senator SPECTER. And what specifically did Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearems do to try to bring you into their informant network? Start, if you will an briefly outline the series of events which led to the sale of the sawed-off shotguns for which you were indicted and tried, and as the court records show, you were acquitted after having made a defense of entrapment. Entrapment is a defense in law which exonerates an individual for conduct if the ideas are planted and instigated by law enforcement officials. But exactly what did happen, factually, with respect to the initial contacts and what did you do as to the sale of those sawed-off shotguns?
Mr. WEAVER. OK. The very first meeting that I went to at Aryan Nations was in 1986, if I remember right, and I was introduced to this Gus Magisano by another man, and he became—well, we became acquainted, and he for the next 3 years, you might say, befriended me. Is that the right way to say it? He acted as though he was my friend and made contact with me several times and tried to talk me into doing illegal acts.
Senator SPECTER. What illegal acts did he try to talk you into doing?
Mr. WEAVER. Well, specifically, He claimed to be a gunrunner, making big bucks, had a good business going. And I shied away from him all the time. I kept shying away from him, and about 3 years later, why, he caught me in a weak moment when I needed some money, and by this time I was—I just, biggest mistake of my life, went ahead and did it. I sold two guns. He showed me what he wanted, what he wanted me to do with them, and I said, yeah, I can do that. He offered me more money than has ever come out in testimony, but—
Senator SPECTER. How much money did he offer you?
Mr. WEAVER. He offered me $700 for 2 shotguns, which I had $250 in the guns, and I was going to make a good profit. But even if I would not have made that much profit, just to sell the guns, I would have took it anyway because I needed—you know, $700 is a lot of money out there at that time.
Senator SPECTER. And after you sold him the sawed-off shotguns, what happened next?
Mr. WEAVER. I heard through the grapevine that this guy was an undercover agent or a Federal agent, and I did not know if I could believe the source that came from. But then I became real leery and wary. I had one more meeting with the guy, and I asked him about it, and he denied it vehemently. But after that, apparently he did not trust me and I did not trust him anymore, and I had no more contact with him.
Approximately 6 months later, I was approached by two ATF agents, Mr. Herb Byerley and Mr. Steve Gunderson. They approached me. They were in civilian clothes, in a Forest Service truck, came up; basically what the said was that we are going to take you to court on six or seven firearms violations if you do not join our team.
Senator SPECTER. And did they clarify what they meant by join-our team?
Mr. WEAVER. I knew—and they knew I knew—what they meant. When I said—
Senator SPECTER. What was your understanding as to what they meant by join their team?
Mr. WEAVER. To go undercover for them for—
Senator SPECTER. Why were they so anxious to have you go undercover?
Mr. WEAVER. I can only speculate. You mean why they would want me to or why they had people do it?
Senator SPECTER. Well, either way. As you have described it and as we will have a further factual basis, the Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco unit went to very elaborate lengths to get you to be an informant. And one of the things that this subcommittee wants to find out is what the purpose of that was and what Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco were really doing in the use of the kind of resources they used. We will get into that in some substantial detail regarding these prolonged contacts which resulted in the sale of sawed-off shotguns in what turns out lo be under a judicial decision, entrapment and improper law enforcement activities. But why target Randall Weaver in Boundary County with this kind of an elaborate process? What are they looking for, as you understand it?
Mr. WEAVER. I can only speculate as to that, sir. I wish they would tell me, to be honest with you. I hope that comes out sometime.
I believe that undercover agents like Gus Magisano do not have a lot of courage, and he knew that—you know, he would go pick on someone like me. He knows that I am not going to come back and shoot his head off. He was not afraid of me.
Senator SPECTER. Well, moving ahead, Mr. Weaver, to a central part of this entire matter, as your statement outlines and as we will go into greater detail, you were subsequently arrested. There was an elaborate procedure for your arrest where they pretended to have a breakdown on the road. And when you were trying to help them, they took you into custody, which showed concern of theirs as to using that elaborate ruse, instead of simply coming and serving a warrant of arrest. We will try to find out what it was for law enforcement to undertake that kind of an unusual procedure.
Then you did not respond to the process, as you have described it, which is a fairly common occurrence for people and it is not unusual not to respond to a summons. When I was district attorney of Philadelphia, we had thousands outstanding, and we tried to serve them, and it is important for people to respond. But that raises the next question as to why in this context on this kind of a charge did the Federal law enforcement agencies mount such a substantial law enforcement effort, with people coming to your home to take you into custody. That is a central question this subcommittee will pursue in some depth.
Obviously, the real answers will have to come from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as to why they proceeded as they did and from the FBl as to why it proceeded as it did. But I think it is important for you to tell this subcommittee, to the extent you can, even though it is speculation, why you were the subject of this kind of law enforcement activity.
That is the end of my time, Mr. Weaver. You are on your own time now.
Mr. WEAVER. Why they came after me, like the ATF even to start with the way they did—you know, have you ever seen the bumper sticker, “They will take my gun away from me when they pry it out of my cold dead fingers?” a one of those on at least one rig when I was up there, which a lot of gun advocates put on their bumpers stickers. Most gun advocates out there, law-abiding citizens, do not really mean what that sticker says. If they believe that bumper sticker and that is the way I was thinking mentally, then I can understand why they arrested me the way they did they did, I would really like to find that out myself. I would love to hear that.
End of Senator Specters remarks.
SC Senator Son Thurmond later entered the testimony and gave a brief statement concerning the Weaver situation at Ruby Ridge. His brief remarks are below:
STATEMENT OF HON. STROM THURMOND, A US. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Senator Thurmond. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I want to commend you and Senator Kohl for convening this hearing and for the subsequent hearings scheduled on the tragic events at Ruby Ridge. There are a number of unresolved questions concerning the actions of law enforcement and the policies they followed at Ruby Ridge.
Yesterday I met with FBI Director Freeh and he said he is resolved and determined to restore credibility to the FBI following Ruby Ridge. Even though Judge Freeh was not the FBI Director at the time of the Ruby Ridge incident, he acknowledges responsibility to get to the bottom of this matter, avid has begun to take steps to ensure that there will be no more instance as occurred at Ruby Ridge.
Mr. Chairman, I can think of no reason surrounding this matter that would have justified the rules of engagement followed at Ruby Ridge by the FBI. There is an ongoing criminal probe covering adoption of the rules of engagement and the aftermath. I am hopeful that this probe will bring out all of the facts and that justice will take its due course.
End of Thurmond statement.
Randy Weaver was found not guilty of the charges against him other than not showing up for court. The FBI, US Marshals, BATF, and other government agencies including shooter Lon Horiuchi have not been held accountable to date for their role in the murder of the Weaver family or for their involvement in illegal and unconstitutional acts.
Michael Reed is Publisher of The Standard newspaper, print and online, and TheStandardSC YouTube channel where many video reports may be found. Please share freely and donate to The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.
RSS - Posts