Ruby Ridge

back in 1992, they hadn’t yet formed. A firefight between six US marshals and two boys and a dog, changed all that.

On 21 August that year, the marshals went to a location that became known as Ruby Ridge, near Naples, to scout a location where they might ambush a fugitive, Randy Weaver. Weaver had been holed up for a year and half with his family in his cabin, having failed to attend his trial on firearms charges.

The marshals aroused the attention of Weaver’s dogs. Alarmed, they retreated to a small clearing to the west of the house. Weaver ventured out, looking for the source of the disturbance. His 14-year-old son, Sammy, and his young friend Kevin Harris did the same on a separate route, following on the heels of a dog, Striker.

Weaver met the marshals first, they challenged him, and then he retreated into the brush. A minute later, the two boys and the dog came out of the woods. There was an exchange of fire. The exact order of events has been disputed for a quarter of a century, but the end result was that Sammy Weaver, deputy marshal Bill Degan and Striker were all dead.

The Weavers retreated to their cabin and laid Sammy’s body in a shed. Over the next day, federal and local officers – now under the command of the FBI – began to arrive in their hundreds to join the siege.

The next day, 22 August, operating under rules of engagement that allowed deadly force, an FBI sniper wounded Randy Weaver as he checked on Sammy’s corpse. The same sniper then shot Randy’s wife, Vicki, dead and wounded Kevin Harris.

The siege dragged on to the end of August, and the scene became a circus.

Neo-Nazis from the nearby Aryan Nations compound at Hayden Lake showed up to protest.

Other far-right groups poured in from all over the country to stand against what they saw as the persecution of an innocent family by a tyrannical federal government.

Ruby Ridge was resolved, in the end, not by agents, but by civilian negotiators including Bo Gritz, a former green beret, prolific conspiracy theorist, and the Populist party’s presidential candidate, who was briefly on a ticket with the ex-Klansman David Duke.

Along with the botched Waco siege the next year, during which 76 besieged members of the religious group the Branch Davidians died, Ruby Ridge badly damaged the credibility of the Clinton-era FBI (Bill Clinton became US president on 20 January, 1993), and boosted some emerging narratives on the far right: that the feds were coming for the guns and property of those, like Weaver, who wanted no further contact with a country they saw as irredeemably corrupt.

Mike German, a former FBI officer who at the time of Ruby Ridge was working undercover in white supremacist groups, and now Fellow at NYU’s Brennan School for Law and Justice, says that while the FBI “inherited a mess” when it took on the badly handled case, the bureau “ultimately saw it as a mistake, and an escalation that had caused significant harm, including to children”.

They made it worse, he says, by “engaging in a cover-up to hide their mistakes”. In 1997, E Michael Kahoe, who had helped supervise the FBI’s response, was sentenced to 18 months in a federal prison for burying documents critical of the agency’s approach to the siege ahead of the prosecution of Weaver and Harris.

Waco Siege

In May 1992, ATF began an extensive investigation of David Koresh (a.k.a. Vernon Wayne Howell) and the Branch Davidians, a cult group residing on a large and rural property near Waco, Texas. ATF's investigation centered on Koresh and the Davidians being involved in the illegal manufacture and possession of machineguns and the illegal manufacture and possession of destructive devices, including bombs and grenades. ATF's investigation showed that the group acquired:

136 firearms, including assault rifles and handguns
700+ magazines for those firearms
200,000+ rounds of ammunition
110 upper and lower receivers for AR15/M16 rifles
Grenade-launcher attachments for AR15/M16 rifles
400+ empty M31 rifle grenades, along with black powder and other explosive chemicals

The investigation included: interviews with former cult members; inspection and interview of a federal firearms dealer; review of documentation showing the purchase of large quantities of AR-15 rifles, ammunition and inert grenades (which can be converted to live grenades); and records from interstate shippers. An ATF undercover agent became an associate member of the Davidians, although with limited access to their compound. Sufficient evidence was gathered to allow for the issuance of federal arrest and search warrants in February 1993, to arrest Koresh and search the compound.

ATF special agents from the Dallas, Houston and New Orleans Field Divisions were assigned to execute federal warrants at the Branch Davidian compound on February 28, 1993.

The Davidians were alerted to the impending raid by a local postman, who was also a cult member. The heavily armed, cult members were waiting in ambush as the agents unloaded from their vehicles. Koresh was outside on the porch, as the agents approached telling him they had a search warrant and instructing him to "get down," he retreated inside the house. Gunfire burst through the door, as the agents approached, one agent was wounded.

As a result of the 2 1/2 hour long gunfight, four ATF agents were killed; 20 ATF agents wounded from gunshots or shrapnel and eight agents suffered other injuries. A cease-fire followed and Koresh released 24 members (mostly children, but none of his own) from the compound. A 51-day stand-off ended when the Davidian Compound erupted in fire(s) set by cult members, as law enforcement attempted to force them out by introducing tear gas into the building on April 19. The fire destroyed the compound and more than 70 residents were killed, many from gunshot wounds apparently inflicted by fellow cult members. Nine cult members escaped the fire and were arrested, while eight of those members were later convicted in federal court on various firearms and/or other charges; and all were sentenced to various lengths of imprisonment.

Image of the Branch Davidian on fire.A subsequent investigation by the Departments of Treasury and Justice regarding the actions of law enforcement agents during the siege determined that some tactics and decisions were poorly executed; and certain actions by ATF were criticized. However, the September 1993 U.S. Department of Treasury Administrative Review concluded: "...the agency is made up of dedicated, committed and experienced professionals, who have regularly demonstrated sound judgment and remarkable courage in enforcing the law. ATF has a history of success in conducting complex investigations and executing dangerous and challenging law enforcement missions. That fine tradition, together with the line agents' commitment to the truth and their courage and determination has enabled ATF to provide our country with a safer and more secure nation under law."

AMOGUS'D