From the Radio Free Michigan archives ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu. ------------------------------------------------ Senators, Hatch, Craig, and Gramm are looking for support to open investigations of the deadly abuse of illegitimate power by the BATF and FBI. Will you raise your voice? ************************************************************************* * Edgar A. Suter, MD suter@crl.com * * Chair, DIRPP Doctors for Integrity in Research & Public Policy * ************************************************************************* March 6, 1995 Sen. Orrin Hatch Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee Senate Office Bldg. Washington DC 20515 Re: Waco, Ruby Ridge, and other FBI/BATF misconduct a call for investigation Dear Senator Hatch, Our national think tank of medical school professors, researchers, and clinicians urges you to open a public investigation into the Waco, Ruby Ridge, and other misconduct by the FBI and BATF. The indoors use of CS gas against children first drew our attention to Waco and, in turn, other incidents of arrogant and deadly abuse of power by those who, in name only, are the servants of the American people. CS gas reaches lethal and explosive concentrations indoors and, by convention, our military forbids its use even outdoors against adult enemy soldiers. From its inception and planning, a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, to its literal execution, the Waco massacre bespeaks of federal agencies so intoxicated by power, so distanced from the American people, and so removed from the guarantees of the Bill of Rights that the death of innocent Americans was inevitable. Though the grossest misconduct was revealed at trial, investigation is incomplete and the known pepetrators have been rewarded with paid vacations and reinstatement. Those targeted by renegade agencies lay moldering in their graves or languishing in prison, victims of a venal publicity stunt to enhance perceptions at budget time . Perhaps Congressional investigation would conclude otherwise, but our study of the materials available [recognizing that the FBI defiantly refuses even to release to Congress the results of its investigation] suggests that the Ruby Ridge incident began with the entrapment of Mr. Weaver by the BATF following his refusal to become an informant and culminated in the death of his teen age son, shot in the back, and the death of his wife, shot unarmed while holding her 10-month old daughter. There is evidence that, after her brutal death, FBI agents and US Marshals knowingly taunted Mrs. Weaver's surviving family. The FBI's fabrication of evidence was revealed at trial. Instead of open investigation and punishment, the perpetrators have received vindication and, as in the case of newly appointed Assistant FBI Director Potter, even received reward. That the victims held unpopular religious and political views is no excuse for their persecution and deaths. FBI Director Freeh's response to Mr. Bovard's summaries published in the Wall Street Journal are unconvincing and at variance with our review of the facts. If the names of Horiuchi, Potter, Sarabyn, Chojnacki, Aguilera, and Reno deserve vindication let it be so, but, if they are villains, let them answer for their crimes, crimes made more heinous by violation of the people's trust. Let Congress not endorse secrecy, whitewash, defiance, or villainy. The initial investigation should not lose sharp focus, but should be followed by extensive reform of law and public policy regarding law enforcement in this nation. These reforms must be guided and constrained by the original intent and letter of the US Constitution, not perverted by expediency, revisionist interpretations of the Constitution, or fear-mongering about "national security" or drug kingpins. We conclude that the federal government's arrogant and illegitimate usurpation of powers not granted by the Constitution is the _greatest_ threat to this nation, our people, our property, and our liberty. To protect ourselves , our families, and our innocent neighbors, we call for the disarmament of the FBI, BATF, and other federal agencies (except for the bona fide employment of the US armed forces against foreign invaders). Even the inception of the FBI as an investigatory agency in 1906 was opposed by Congress, but, circumventing the will of Congress, executive "slush-funding" was obtained under Theodore Roosevelt's administration [reminiscent of Mr. Clinton's circumvention of the will of the American people and Congress with the $20 billion Wall Street bailout from Mexican losses]. The arming of the FBI was opposed initially and the questionable wisdom of succumbing to the pressure to arm the FBI was evident almost immediately with the FBI abuses of the 1916 Atlantic City draft registration raids. The FBI became a cult of personality and a tool of personal power under J. Edgar Hoover. For decades J. Edgar Hoover influenced national policy through the illegal application of his power. To this day, the recent FBI Directors have unabashedly flaunted the law, violating United States Code to illegally lobby for gun control, and continue, under Director Freeh, to destroy other sacred civil rights, such as promoting warrantless electronic eavesdropping. It has been estimated that there are at least 54 federal agencies armed and trained like military units. If the most trained agencies, like the FBI, DEA, the US Marshals, and BATF, are guilty of deadly incompetence and villainy, how much more risk of becoming renegade do lesser agencies represent? Do the IRS, FDA, FAA, US Post Office, and innumerable other bureaucracies really have constitutional or other legitimate authority to have masked, machine-gun-toting minions? We think not. We find no convincing reason for _any_ of these agencies to be armed. The danger to the American people is not theoretical; the danger is, plain and simply, evident in history and in current events. We affirmatively state that it is _not_ the consolidation of armed agencies that we seek, it is the disarmament of these agencies that we seek. It is only through cooperation with local authorities who may remain armed that armed intervention should be obtained. In the rare event that the investigatory activities of federal agencies require potential armed and deadly force, they may be temporarily, on a case-by-case basis, deputized by local authorities. We ponder the age old question, "Quis custodiet custodes?" The federal "keepers" have shown that they do not honestly "keep" themselves. The perverse and unconstitutional alliance of military power with renegade federal agencies, through the Department of Justice's Operation Alliance, allowed, if not caused, the deaths of innocents at Mount Carmel, Waco. No nation may remain proud and free when its military forces are arrayed against the people in domestic law enforcement. The internal "protections" against misuse of Operation Alliance have failed. With a "wink and a nod," a knowing subterfuge, a false claim that demon drugs were involved, the lives of men, women, and children were forfeit in Waco. We call for strengthening the protections of the Posse Comitatus Act, ending the drug law exceptions to that act, and eliminating Operation Alliance and any similar nexus of the military with domestic law enforcement. We have fallen far down the slippery slope. Our servant has become our master regulating every aspect of our lives, "eating our substance," "sending its agents amongst us," deploying masked, machine-gun-toting enforcers. The federal government has strayed so far from the US Constitution as to be unrecognizable to the Founders. We beg you to investigate these matters, to prosecute any and all offenders, and to respond with sound law consistent with the letter and spirit of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. The future of the American people is in your hands. We pray for success in your righteous duty. With deepest respect, Edgar A. Suter, MD National Chair Doctors for Integrity in Research & Public Policy ------------------------------------------------ (This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the Radio Free Michigan archives by the archive maintainer. All files are ZIP archives for fast download. E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)