An FBI negotiator now says the key to the peaceful resolution of the 81-day Freeman standoff in Montana was patience and Freemen leader Edwin Clark.
"I didn't believe we'd talk everyone out. . . . That we did was a tribute to teamwork" and support from the very top of government, FBI supervisory agent Dwayne Fuselier said in an interview Friday with The Denver Post.From the outset, the FBI figured it was in for the long haul, said Fuselier, a psychologist and an original member of the FBI's elite Crisis Management Unit.
He also credited the work of Montana legislator Karl Ohs and third-party negotiators from the North Carolina-based CAUSE foundation along with Clark.
He also credited the commitment of FBI Director Louis Freeh and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to fully support the FBI negotiators in a peaceful resolution.
The first break in the standoff came when Fuselier, FBI negotiator Steve Romano and Colorado state Sen. Charles Duke met face-to-face with the Freemen at a negotiating tent.
Those meetings collapsed when the Freemen broke a series of promises to the FBI and Duke.
But Fuselier said it was during those meetings that he discovered that Clark harbored a desire for a peaceful solution while other Freemen were sabotaging the peace process.
"Clark was a reluctant leader," said Fuselier. "And after eight or nine meetings I came to believe that Clark wanted a nonviolent resolution," Fusilier said.
Fuselier said he and Clark reached a quiet understanding on May 21, as Utahn Gloria Ward was throwing a temper tantrum, taunting Duke and the FBI negotiators by saying the FBI would never take action against the complex because Reno wouldn't allow it.
Ward, of Salt Lake City, later left the compound with her common-law husband and two daughters. In exchange, Utah officials agreed to drop felony custodial interference charges against her.
Fuselier said he and Clark stepped away from the negotiating table.
"I could see this falling apart," Fuselier said. "I said to Edwin . . . `Edwin, we're leaving, what's going to happen to these talks?' He said, `I want (the talks) to continue.' "
After the talks collapsed, the FBI decided on a show of force and moved in three armored personnel carriers, two military-style helicopters and cut the electricity to the ranch.
"The intent of increasing the pressure was to bring them to the negotiating table, not to their knees."
Then Clark specifically asked that Fuselier return for talks.
Beginning on June 5, Fuselier and other FBI negotiators met with Edwin Clark and his wife Janet at a church building outside the Freemen compound.
Clark was able to convince his fellow Freemen that they'd end up in court one way or another.