[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 113 (Thursday, July 13, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9833-S9834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE RUBY RIDGE INCIDENT

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought this special order for 
recognition this morning to renew my urging that the Senate conduct 
oversight hearings into the incident at Ruby Ridge, a subject that I 
have spoken on at length on the Senate floor--on May 9, 10, 11, 18 and 
26--and on those occasions urged that hearings be conducted before the 
August recess because of what I view to be the urgency of the 
situation.
  I renew that request in light of the release by the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation yesterday, and the extensive publicity in the news media 
today, reporting on the suspension of a ranking FBI agent involved in 
the Ruby Ridge incident, the suspension occurring ``after authorities 
allege that he destroyed a document that could have altered the 
official account of what happened at the standoff on August 22, 1992.''
  Mr. President, it has been my judgment for some considerable period 
of time that the Congress has been derelict in failing to have 
oversight hearings on very serious matters involving Federal law 
enforcement operations in the United States, and that it is up to the 
Congress as a matter of congressional oversight to make sure that there 
is accountability at all levels of the Federal Government.
  I have considered very carefully the very heavy responsibility of law 
enforcement officials, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and 
Firearms, and others, agencies that I have worked with extensively over 
my whole career of public service--since I was district attorney of 
Philadelphia--and have a full appreciation of the very high risks that 
law enforcement officers at all levels undertake. But there is great 
concern in America today about excessive Federal authority, and about 
the incidents which have occurred not only at Waco but also at Ruby 
Ridge.
  This is in line with the concern in this country, which is as old as 
the Declaration of Independence itself, in challenging the legitimacy 
of government.
  That brought the revolution and the founding of the United States of 
America. Our history is full of challenges to be sure that the Bill of 
Rights is respected. It is no coincidence that the United States has 
had the longest record in world history for stable government, no 
coincidence that record is the result of having a Bill of Rights which 
has been meticulously enforced, and one of the agencies of enforcement 
is the constitutional prerogative and responsibility of the Congress of 
the United States to conduct oversight.
  Mr. President, it is a matter of the utmost gravity when there are 
allegations that there has been the destruction of a document which 
could shed light on what happened at Ruby Ridge, and this is only 
another step along the way on matters which already were in the public 
record suggesting substantial impropriety.
  In my statement on the Senate floor on May 26, I referred to a letter 
from FBI Special Agent Eugene Glenn, who was on the scene at Ruby 
Ridge, and who was disciplined, and Mr. Glenn had this to say on page 6 
of an extensive letter which he wrote to Mr. Michael Shaheen of the 
Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility:

       On August 22, 1992, then Assistant Director Potts advised 
     during a telephonic conversation with the special agent in 
     charge that he had approved the rules of engagement and that 
     he articulated his reasons for his adjustments to the Bureau 
     standard shooting policy.

  At that time, I called the attention of my colleagues to the fact 
that in my personal conversation with Mr. Potts on May 17, he said to 
me categorically, ``There was never a change in the rules of 
engagement.'' And Mr. Potts advised me further that there was ``no 
authorization to change the deadly force policy.''
  Mr. President, as I have said previously in this Chamber, I have 
talked extensively to people who have participated, been involved in 
the incident at Ruby Ridge. I talked to Mr. Randy Weaver at some length 
back on May 13, 1995, and got his account of what was truly a tragic 
incident which resulted in the killing of a deputy U.S. marshal, the 
killing of Mr. Weaver's young son, Sam, who was shot in the back, and 
the killing of Mr. Weaver's wife, who was holding their infant 
daughter.
  The entire incident involving Mr. Weaver occurred, according to Mr. 
Weaver, when he was approached by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco and Firearms asking if he could sell them sawed-off shotguns, 
which apparently he later did in a context where a court found it to be 
entrapment. I questioned Mr. John Magaw, the Director of the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and he conceded to me that there was 
what he called borderline entrapment in the Weaver case.
  So that you have a sequence of events of Mr. Weaver living in 
Boundary County, ID, right next to the Canadian border, really wanting 
to be left alone, an incident with this issue of entrapment, and later 
the marshals coming to the premises of the Weaver household. And then 
you have an incident, tragic, the killing of a deputy U.S. marshal, two 
members of the Weaver family, and then a dispute as to whether the FBI 
acted properly under the rules of engagement; and then yesterday the 
disclosure that in fact there had been some indication of further 
wrongdoing.
  This is a matter, Mr. President, in which it seems to me it is 
imperative that the Congress of the United States exercise its 
oversight responsibilities.
  We have had on the record for some time glaring conflicts which need 
to be investigated, inquired into by the Congress--the disparity 
between Special Agent Glenn, who is in charge of the FBI office in Salt 
Lake City, and the account of Mr. Potts, who has since been promoted to 
the position of Deputy Director of the FBI.
  As noted in this morning's Washington Post:

       Last year, a Justice Department task force sharply 
     criticized the FBI action during the incident.

  Referring to Ruby Ridge.

       The task force concluded that the Bureau's conduct 
     ``contravened the Constitution'' and that criminal charges 
     should be considered against the responsible agents. The task 
     force report was forwarded for comment to the Justice 
     Department's Office of Professional Responsibility and the 
     Civil Rights Division. Those offices in their evaluations 
     held that no criminal conduct took place.

  Now, Mr. President, I submit that in the context of a task force 
report saying the Constitution has been violated and suggesting 
criminal prosecution, and a disagreement within the Department of 
Justice itself, that we have is the quintessential circumstance where 
the Congress of the United States has oversight responsibilities. And 
yet we sit by idly and do nothing.
  I have said on the Senate floor that in my judgment Congress has been 
derelict in its duties. I think it is a matter of nonfeasance, the 
failure to perform a positive obligation and a positive duty. And for 
the Congress, the Senate, the Judiciary Committee to continue to turn 
its back would amount to more than nonfeasance, perhaps misfeasance, 
perhaps malfeasance.
  There is great unrest in America today, Mr. President, as we all 
know, with the development of extensive militia around the country and 
a vivid, active distrust for what goes on in Washington. I can 
understand that distrust in the face of what I see personally as a 
Member of the Senate and as a Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 
I not only understand that distrust and skepticism, but I share it in 
the absence of any oversight having been undertaken by the Congress, 
the Senate, and the Judiciary Committee on these important matters.
  I made an effort to hold these hearings with the Subcommittee on 
Terrorism, the subcommittee which has jurisdiction over these matters, 
and I was thwarted in that attempt to do so. And I took the highly 
unusual step of bringing the matter to the floor of the Senate in a 
resolution calling for hearings on Ruby Ridge, among other things, in 
advance of the August 4 recess.
  I had no doubt, Mr. President, no naivete that that resolution was 
not going to be adopted in the face of our standards as to prerogatives 
of chairmen, but it seemed to me sufficiently serious to bring it to 
the floor of the Senate and to bring it to a head.
  In my capacity as chairman of the Terrorism Subcommittee, I have had 
a 

[[Page S 9834]]
series of hearings, four hearings on the subject, one of which involved 
the militia where law enforcement officials from the FBI, the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the State police chief from Missouri, 
and prosecuting attorneys from Phoenix, AZ, and Musselshell County, MT, 
came forward and testified about the dangers of the militia and at the 
same time, same hearing, a second panel testified about the reasons why 
the militia are growing in the United States, members of the militia 
talking about the distrust of what goes on in Washington,
 accusing the committee, accusing the Senate, accusing this Senator of 
corruption, and a very heated exchange followed in which I did not take 
that accusation lightly. And I do not. But I must say, Mr. President, 
that I worry about our country when this kind of information is open 
and notorious and there is no response from this body, from the 
Judiciary Committee, to have these oversight hearings.

  I think that when you now have, beyond the issues which I have 
raised, where you now have the lead story in this morning's Washington 
Post, under the banner headline, ``Probe of FBI's Idaho Siege 
Reopened,'' detailing the destruction of documents on top of the 
contradictions and problems in this investigation, that this is highly 
likely to produce the kind of public pressure which it appears is the 
only way to get any results on a matter of this sort.
  Mr. President, I think it is a matter of the utmost gravity and the 
utmost seriousness, and we sit really on a powder keg with a lot of 
distrust and anxiety and anger welling up across the country as to 
excessive action by the Federal Government. Accountability at the 
highest levels is absolutely mandated, and it is the responsibility of 
the Congress and the Senate and the Judiciary Committee to conduct 
these oversight hearings and, in addition to having discussed these 
matters privately with the appropriate authorities within our own body, 
I think it absolutely necessary to make the statement as forcefully as 
I can to urge that these hearings be conducted, conducted promptly and, 
in any event, before we adjourn for the August recess.

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