ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: JORDAN, MONT.
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Above
All 16 remaining members of the anti-government Freemen surrendered to the FBI and left their ranch Thursday, ending the 81-day standoff without the bloodshed of Waco and Ruby Ridge.
As two vans and one sedan carrying the Freemen left the compound, an FBI agent in a vehicle that followed leaned out his window and waved an American flag - a seeming gesture of triumph that the longest armed siege in modern U.S. history had ended peacefully.
After the convoy departed, six FBI agents drove to the Freemen's sentry point on the 960-acre ranch in rural eastern Montana. One agent climbed onto a trailer and pulled down the Confederate battle flag that the extremists had hoisted that day after lowering an upside-down American flag, a traditional symbol of distress.
The early-evening surrender capped an excruciatingly tense day. Reporters - who were kept more than a mile away - watched a flurry of activity at the compound with little explanation what was going on. Television cameras showed frequent live shots of vehicles driving around within the compound. Reports had circulated since Tuesday night that a settlement of the crisis was imminent.
``We will all say a little prayer tonight for this peaceful settlement of a difficult situation,'' President Clinton said at a state dinner Thursday night.
FBI Director Louis Freeh lauded the policy of ``patience and resoluteness'' that he credited for the outcome.
``I think the American people can take great comfort that the law was enforced and that it was done in a way that did not do harm to anyone,'' he said at FBI headquarters in Washington.
In Billings, Mont., FBI Agent Thomas T. Kubic said the FBI force at the compound included 633 agents rotated in and out for 12-hour shifts. At any time, there were up to 150 agents in the Jordan area, he said.
After the surrender, the convoy headed for Billings, 175 miles to the southwest, where 14 of the fugitives were to face criminal charges, including circulating millions of dollars in bogus checks and threatening to kill a federal judge.
The two people not facing charges, wives of Freemen members, were free to go but chose to drive with the group to Billings.
U.S. Attorney Sherry Scheel Matteucci in Billings stressed that negotiations with the group had not involved dismissal or reduction of any federal charges.
``That was never a possibility,'' Matteucci said, adding that ``no Montana state charges have been dropped, and no agreement to drop any of those charges has been made.''
Matteucci said the Freemen would be held in jail overnight, with court appearances beginning today.
The formal end to the standoff came after Freemen trucks drove in a convoy from the main part of the compound to the gate and met up with an FBI convoy, which included two large passenger vans. A group of Freemen lingered on the road to the compound, hugging.
At the gate, Freemen members were escorted out of their vehicles one at a time by their leader, Edwin Clark, and into FBI custody. Those waiting to be escorted to the vans gathered near the Freemen motor home, holding hands, their heads bowed as if in prayer.
Federal agents did not handcuff the fugitives, but did check them for weapons before taking them by the arm and leading them to the van.
Clark escorted his son, Casey, 21, from a Freemen motor home to FBI agents. Casey shook his father's hand, then boarded the van.
Earlier, a rental truck entered the ranch and the FBI brought in packing crates, apparently for the Freemen's documents, which the group says contain evidence of government wrongdoing.
Under the agreement, the documents will be safeguarded by Karl Ohs, a state legislator who has acted as a mediator in the standoff, sources said on condition of anonymity. The Freemen feared the FBI would destroy the material otherwise.
``It's a huge amount of stuff,'' a source said of the documents. ``People all over the country have been sending the information they consider evidence.''
The truck was driven off the compound shortly before the surrender. Photographers near the site said Ohs was at the wheel.
Attorney General Janet Reno hailed the peaceful resolution.
``From the first day of the standoff in Montana, the Justice Department and the FBI have worked with steadfast determination to reach today's result,'' she said. ``This episode was the first real test of the reforms the Department of Justice has instituted for resolving crisis situations.''
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. A Freeman places his hands above his head whileby CNBsurrendering to FBI agents (right) as the 81-day siege ends Thursday
evening near Jordan, Mont. color.