Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 15, 1995 TAG: 9507170061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
That public debate, fanned by a continuing Justice Department investigation and impending congressional hearings, had left Potts ``unable to effectively perform his duties as deputy director,'' Freeh concluded.
Freeh acted just before two House subcommittees open joint hearings Wednesday into another deadly FBI siege, in 1993 at the Branch Davidian cult compound near Waco, Texas. Both operations were managed from headquarters by Potts while he was an assistant director of the FBI.
The action also came the same week that Freeh put another senior FBI official, E. Michael Kahoe, on administrative leave from his job as chief of the FBI's Jacksonville, Fla., office.
Kahoe was placed on leave after admitting he destroyed the after-action report on the Idaho incident, according to administration and congressional officials, who demanded anonymity. He was chief of the shooting review team.
That report might have shed light on whether Potts approved much-criticized ``shoot on sight'' orders issued to FBI snipers during the standoff in Idaho with white separatist Randy Weaver. An FBI sniper shot and killed Weaver's unarmed wife, Vicki, as she stood behind a door at the couple's remote Ruby Ridge, Idaho, cabin. The government says the sniper was aiming at an armed associate of Weaver's who was running into the cabin.
Freeh went door-to-door in Congress this week providing individual briefings about Kahoe to key members on committees that oversee the FBI. Two congressional aides said Freeh heard calls for Potts' removal from both Democrats and Republicans who thought his promotion last May was a bad move and that the latest revelations about Ruby Ridge only worsened Potts' position.
Republicans and Democrats hailed Freeh's move Friday.
``Freeh did the right thing,'' said Rep. Charles Schumer of New York, ranking Democrat on the crime subcommittee holding the Waco hearings. ``Larry Potts' removal takes a sword away from those who believe that Waco and Ruby Ridge were a grand government conspiracy.''
by CNB