Ex-Militant Weaver Criticizes U.S. Tactics at Standoff

By KIM MURPHY

April 30, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

JORDAN, Mont. — Federal authorities have repeatedly rejected recommendations from former Army Col. James “Bo” Gritz to end the standoff with anti-government “freemen” here, a posture that has prolonged the six-week-old confrontation, former militant Randy Weaver said Monday.

As Gritz entered the freeman compound for a third day of talks aimed at winning the surrender of the more than 20 people holed up there, Weaver said that Gritz’s appeals to officials to allow food into the ranch--along with various other steps to ease hardships--have been rebuffed.

He said his own offers to help end the standoff were welcomed by local FBI agents, but vetoed by the Justice Department.

“The local feds here say they’re all for it, but then Washington says no. Pride and ego are standing in the way. They figure if I go in there and talk ‘em out, I’ll get the credit. It’s pride, it’s childish, and it’s scary, actually,” Weaver said in an interview.

It was Gritz, accompanied by retired Phoenix Police Officer Jack McLamb, who ended the standoff between Weaver and FBI agents in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 in which Weaver’s wife and teenage son and a federal marshal were killed. The 57-year-old Gritz has a loyal following among right-wing militants and has opened his own survivalist compound, called Almost Heaven, near Kamiah, Idaho.

On Monday, Gritz taped a segment of his weekly radio talk show at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Jordan and then drove out to the 960-acre ranch, accompanied by McLamb.

The negotiations bore some fruit on Saturday, when one of the men holed up at the compound, Stewart Douglas Waterhouse, 37, walked out. Waterhouse, who entered the ranch after the standoff began, made his initial appearance in federal court Monday in Billings on charges stemming from entering the ranch and on a separate count of felony intimidation of jail officials in Muskogee County, Okla. Waterhouse, the leader of a Kansas-based militia, is due to be arraigned Wednesday.

On Sunday, Gritz emerged from the compound with a 26-page document challenging the constitutionality of the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies. He said the freemen have pledged to walk out if the government can disprove the legality of their claims.

Garfield County Atty. Nick Murnion, who has spent years battling the freemen over their common law courts, refusal to pay taxes and challenges to state and federal government agencies, said there was nothing new in the freemen’s legal claims.

“They’re trying to support their contention that they can declare their independence from all of the laws. The question, as Mr. Gritz put it, is what proof would suffice? They, of course, believe there’s a conspiracy that involves all of the media, all of the attorneys, all of the judges and all of the government. So who is it that could speak to this at all, other than Mr. Gritz?” Murnion said.

Still, he added, Gritz’s involvement represents the most positive development in the standoff, which began when the FBI moved in to arrest freeman leaders Leroy Schweitzer and Donald E. Peterson on March 25.

“There’s some hope,” Murnion said. “I think he [Gritz] is of the right political persuasion, and certainly probably has more credibility with these folks than a lot of potential negotiators. So he does seem to offer them the possibility to come out in a more dignified manner.”

Weaver said that Gritz has discussed the possibility of reducing the array of federal charges pending against the freemen, and of offering the services of lawyer Gerry Spence, who successfully defended Weaver in 1992.

But, he said, Gritz repeatedly has run into objections from a small group of hard-core holdouts who do not want to surrender.

“Right now, they’re knocking heads with some of the more hard-headed people,” he said.

Weaver said the FBI has rejected about 20 proposals Gritz offered to make the situation more comfortable for the freemen, including delivery of food supplies into the compound, as a means to improve the tone of the negotiations.

“As long as they’ve got water and grain, they can survive a long time, but it’s more than that. They can get to the point where they could say, ‘Hey, I need a hamburger,’ or, on the other hand, they could just get more frustrated,” Weaver said.

“In my case, they finally got food in there and milk for the baby. It helped in my situation,” he said. “It gave me a better attitude.”

Federal agents outside the ranch on Monday stopped a car that was entering the compound and confiscated three bags of what appeared to be groceries.

“It’s just been a bad dream every day, and all of this is bringing it back,” Weaver said, recalling how his wife was killed by an FBI sharpshooter as she stood at the door of their Ruby Ridge cabin, holding their baby. His 14-year-old son had been killed earlier in the standoff, and a friend lay shot and bleeding in the cabin during much of the confrontation.

“It was just sheer terrorism, a couple family members killed, and sitting up there in a cabin eight or nine days after your wife and son are dead and wondering if you’re going to be the next dead meat,” Weaver said. “These guys [the freemen], let me tell you, there’s a zillion things going through their head. A zillion things, believe me.

“They’re just looking for some hope, and some help. They’re grasping at straws right now.”