
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 12, 1995                   TAG: 9508140068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                  LENGTH: Medium

FBI IDAHO COVER-UP PROBED

A federal criminal investigation was opened Friday into whether senior FBI officials covered up their approval of ``shoot-on-sight'' orders during a deadly 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Four more top bureau officials, including recently demoted Deputy Director Larry Potts, were suspended.

At least one of the four has admitted destroying FBI documents about the attack on white separatist Randy Weaver and at least one other has admitted knowing about such destruction, said a Justice Department official, who demanded anonymity. Potts has made no such admission, the official said.

Potts' attorney, Dan Webb, said, ``There is absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Larry Potts.'' Webb called the suspension unwarranted and predicted Potts' speedy exoneration.

The latest developments result from an interim report completed a few days ago by Michael Shaheen, head of the Justice Department's internal watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility.

The suspensions Friday by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh bring to five the number of bureau officials now on administrative leave with pay. Freeh said all five officials will remain suspended until Shaheen's investigation is complete. On July 11, E. Michael Kahoe, who headed an early review team, was suspended for lack of candor. after he admitted destroying the bureau's after-action analysis of the standoff, Justice officials have said.

Congressional response to Freeh's moves was mixed. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, called the suspensions ``an appropriate step in the right direction.'' But Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, called them ``nothing more than another baby step in the right direction. Larry Potts should be fired.''

Shaheen has been investigating charges by a senior FBI official, Eugene Glenn, the former FBI chief in Salt Lake City. Glenn was FBI field commander during the siege and alleged that headquarters executives later concealed from previous internal investigators that Potts approved the controversial order to FBI snipers.

The FBI's hostage rescue team had surrounded Weaver's remote cabin during an attempt to arrest him on weapons charges. An FBI sniper shot and killed Weaver's unarmed wife, Vicki, as she stood behind the cabin's door. The government says the sniper was aiming at an armed Weaver associate who was running into the cabin.

The special rules of engagement said FBI snipers ``could and should'' use deadly force against armed men spotted in the open at the Weaver compound. Long-standing FBI policy bars the use of lethal force except in self-defense.

by CNB