The Washington Times Opinion
                             August 20. 1997
   EDITORIAL
   That's no Justice

   If one private citizen had set up another on weapons-possession
   charges, sent him the wrong court date to appear, shot his 14-year-old
   son in the back and killed him, and gunned down his wife as she stood
   in the doorway holding a baby, one would expect law-enforcement
   officials to take it pretty seriously. And so, no doubt, they would.
   When the feds themselves pull the trigger, however, it's a whole other
   story.
   . . . . Last week, the Justice Department announced it was dropping
   its investigation into the shooting deaths of a Ruby Ridge, Idaho,
   woman and her 14-year-old son without filing any charges against the
   federal agents who took part in the fatal siege. U.S. Attorney Michael
   Stiles, who led a 2-year inquiry into the 1992 shootings, said in a
   statement there was insufficient evidence to warrant criminal or civil
   charges in the case. The announcement was carefully timed for a
   late-summer Friday afternoon when no one was around to hear it, which
   is one measure of the agency's confidence in it.
   . . . . The Justice Department hastened to add that subjects of the
   investigation would still be exposed to internal "discipline," as if
   to show that the rule of law somehow still applies to the people
   entrusted to enforce it. Please. The family members who died hadn't
   been charged, much less convicted of any crime. Could anyone but a
   government sniper acting on government orders get away with killing
   them and face only "discipline?"
   . . . . The trouble started when federal officials tried to turn a man
   named Randall Weaver into an informant on a fringe political group
   with which they thought he had some connection. They pressed him
   repeatedly to sell them an illegal, sawed-off shotgun, and when
   finally he did, they charged him with federal gun crimes. The feds
   thought Mr. Weaver would cooperate with their undercover campaign and
   turn informant, but he refused and was charged.
   . . . . Problem was that the feds sent him the wrong court date. When
   Mr. Weaver didn't show up, they spent the next year and a half
   preparing for an assault on his Idaho cabin. Approaching the Weaver
   family cabin in August 1992, U.S. marshals stumbled on 14-year-old
   Sammy Weaver's dog and killed it. Sammy, not realizing who the
   marshals were, fired in their direction and ran. In the ensuing gun
   fight, one of the marshals shot Sammy in the back, killing him. A
   Weaver family friend returned fire, killing Marshal William Degan.
   . . . . In came the FBI, which promptly shot Randy Weaver as he went
   to see his son's body. Operating on illegal and unconstitutional
   "shoot-on-sight" orders, an FBI sniper, Lon Horiuchi, then shot Mrs.
   Weaver in the head as she stood in the doorway holding her infant
   child.
   . . . . Since that time, Randy Weaver and friend Kevin Harris have
   been acquitted on all federal murder charges. The federal judge
   presiding over the Weaver case blasted the FBI for its "callous
   disregard for the rights of the defendants and the interests of
   justice." The federal government has also settled a civil suit filed
   by Randy Weaver and his daughters by paying them $3.1 million. To date
   the only federal official prosecuted for what happened is FBI official
   Michael Kahoe, who pleaded guilty to obstructing justice after the
   fact by destroying key documents. That's it.
   . . . . FBI Director Louis Freeh has acknowledged that the Weaver case
   was a waste of time and resources from the beginning. Ultimately, of
   course, it turned out to be much worse. Some may downplay what
   happened to the Weavers because the reclusive family allegedly had odd
   political and religious ideas. But odd ideas are not a capital offense
   or crime here. Not yet anyway.
   . . . . The more serious concern is that there is a two-tiered system
   of justice evolving in this country -- one for the governed and
   another for their governors. That's an idea more repellent than
   anything Randy Weaver could have imagined. By its inaction, the
   Justice Department is making that idea a reality.