A draft report by a Senate subcommittee criticizes all federal agencies involved in the deadly 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff but praises some corrective actions taken by the FBI, a congressional source said Wednesday.
"All the agencies were sharply criticized," said this official, who requested anonymity. A final version of the report is not expected until next week.The draft questioned "what business the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had dealing with an informant" who helped build the original firearms case against white separatist Randy Weaver, the official said.
The staff draft did not address the calls by some observers to fold Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms into the FBI, this official said.
FBI Director Louis Freeh "was given a hard going over" for promoting his friend, Larry Potts, to deputy FBI director at the same time he disciplined Potts for poorly managing the Idaho siege. Potts has since been demoted and suspended, and Freeh has admitted the promotion was a mistake.
"The draft also praised Freeh for admitting error, being forthright and taking corrective action," the official said. Freeh has said the FBI will never again use shooting rules like those in force when an FBI sniper shot and killed Weaver's wife, Vicki, as she held an infant in her arms.
The draft is highly critical of the shot by FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi that killed Vicki Weaver, but the draft "did not address whether to prosecute him," this official said.
Last year, the Justice Department decided against prosecuting Horiuchi based on his account that he did not see Vicki Weaver as she held open a door for Kevin Harris, an armed Weaver associate. Horiuchi said he was aiming at Harris.
Horiuchi was operating under altered rules of engagement that allowed him to shoot at any armed adult male in the open. Standard FBI rules allow deadly force only when necessary to head off imminent danger to human life.
The draft was written in the last two weeks by staff members of the Senate terrorism subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., which held hearing on the case this year.
Since the staff report was finished the senators on the committee have discussed it in a private meeting and may have made changes, this official said.