But did this dangerous talk justify locking the Vipers up? An early indication came a week after the arrests, during hearings to determine whether the 12 would be freed on bail or remain in jail pending trial. This is usually a relatively quick and straightforward procedure, but the hearings dragged on for four days. The government had originally planned to present several witnesses, but in the end the prosecution didn't call the BATF agent most familiar with the case, Jose Wall, who had sworn out the affidavit seeking search and arrest warrants. Instead, his boss, nine-year BATF veteran and group supervisor Steven Ott, was the only prosecution witness. Defense attorneys questioned him aggressively.
Referring to the alleged bomb plot, attorney Jeffrey Ross, representing Scott Shero, asked Ott, "Isn't it a fact that this wasn't true?"
"That's correct," Ott replied. The undercover informants had learned about a two-year-old videotape showing several buildings in Phoenix that might be potential targets in the event of a takeover by the New World Order, with a narrator discussing their vulnerabilities. But Ott testified that the Vipers were far from implementing a bomb plot and did not represent an immediate danger. Ross pressed on: "In referring to the ATF affidavit [for a search warrant], it was claimed that all members participated in making explosives. Isn't it a fact that this isn't true? And that the targets were to be considered only in the event of a 'New World Order' takeover? Isn't that correct?" "Yes, that's correct," replied Ott. "We felt our undercover agent knew what they were planning, and [they] had no plans to conduct bombings of these buildings at that time." He also admitted he had no clear evidence that the group had created a big crater in the desert with explosives, as reported in the BATF affidavit.
Ultimately, U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll ruled that six of the defendants--Knight, Shero, Williams, Sanville, Overturf, and Floyd--could be released without bail, on their own recognizance, until the trial. Fitted with electronic ankle bracelets (for which each had to pay $4.97 a day), they were required to report daily to court and confer weekly with their lawyers. They were forbidden to contact each other or have anything to do with firearms or destructive devices. The judge would not have approved such an arrangement if he thought these six represented a clear and present danger to public safety. Their release seemed to contradict the notion that "the Feds had no real choice but to move sooner rather than later." Henry Overturf turned himself back into jail, saying he lost his job and couldn't find new work because of his notoriety and thus couldn't afford to live on the outside. Donna Williams also lost her job within days of her release, and can't find another.
The trial is likely to produce further embarrassments. Defense attorneys will be eager to talk about Shooter's World, a gun store in Phoenix where both of the BATF's undercover agents worked during the Viper investigation. According to The Arizona Republic, inspectors from the bureau's regulatory branch found discrepancies in more than 5,000 weapons transactions processed by the store, and the store was still unable to account for at least 369 weapons. The inspectors concluded that Shooter's World usually failed to report stolen weapons as required by law, and the owners' attitude toward federal regulations was so lackadaisical that local BATF officials recommended pulling the store's license. They were overruled by the Dallas regional office, which ordered the license renewed. BATF spokesmen say the renewal and the Viper undercover operation are unrelated, that the bureau's regulatory and criminal divisions operate independently of one another. But defense attorneys plan to ask whether providing jobs for the undercover agents conducting the Viper investigation was the price for renewing the store's license. If the allegation seems plausible in court, it will raise the question of whether the BATF, as critics allege, routinely pressures people caught violating firearms laws into assisting undercover operations of dubious value.
Then there's the crater in the desert, six feet deep by at least 12 feet across, supposedly made by the Vipers and their dangerous fixation with explosives. The crater was described repeatedly in the affidavit backing up the search and arrest warrants. It turns out, however, that it was made by local sheriffs, who found some two dozen 50-pound bags of old explosives in a shed near an abandoned mine. Rather than leaving them there for some fool to stumble across, they detonated them--making the crater the Vipers were supposed to have made--and filed a report. Did the BATF not take the trouble to check with local agencies before completing its affidavit, or was it aware all along that the Vipers hadn't made the crater? Neither explanation is flattering.
Another question is whether the bureau's undercover agents operated simply as informants or more as provocateurs, urging the Vipers to escalate their activities. Defense attorneys have already alleged that the two undercover operatives urged the Vipers to distribute anti-Semitic and racist literature produced by the Aryan Nations, but were voted down. Ott admitted under oath that the undercover agents strongly suggested the group start robbing banks to finance its activities, another idea the Vipers rejected. When the Vipers decided to stop experimenting with explosives, say the defense attorneys, the informants convinced them to continue, and they may even have supplied some of the explosives.
The BATF and U.S. Attorney Janet Napolitano may have overlooked the weaknesses in the case against the Vipers because both were eager for some good press. Napolitano, a Clinton appointee, last January 1996 declined to seek search warrants requested by U.S. postal inspectors who were finishing a two-year child pornography sting operation. The inspectors, who had received 106 warrants with the help of other federal officials during the investigation, were surprised. They turned to Maricopa County officials, who obtained the warrants and made the arrests. A search of the prime Phoenix suspect's house yielded numerous photos and videotapes of children having sex with men, plus a confession that the suspect had sodomized numerous boys. The case became a public issue in May when a postal inspector appeared on ABC's 20/20 with a letter from Napolitano stating that she had refused to take the child pornography case because it unfairly targeted homosexual men. Perhaps she was right, but the case has generated local criticism and a Senate investigation.
The BATF's troubles have been widely publicized, although so far the bureau's blunders seem to have led mainly to budget increases. Within the past year, the agency has had to account for its actions before a House subcommittee on the Waco tragedy and a Senate subcommittee looking into the shootings at Ruby Ridge. In both cases, the BATF came under the heaviest criticism of any federal agency for its initial actions and for the inadequacy of internal review procedures, which seemed aimed more at justifying or covering up than getting at the truth. In its report on Ruby Ridge, the Senate terrorism subcommittee cited the bureau's "unwillingness to acknowledge obvious shortcomings, such as misstatements of [Randy] Weaver's background.
This kind of refusal to admit mistakes may have a tendency to encourage similar behavior by ATF agents in the future." The Senate subcommittee promised hearings on the issue of "whether the ATF should continue as a separate agency." The question of the ATF's continued existence has arisen several times since the early days of the Reagan administration, most recently when Vice President Al Gore's "reinventing government" commission considered the possibility of merging the agency with the FBI. For the BATF, a public relations coup could hardly have been unwelcome.
The bureau may still get that image boost, whatever the outcome of the Viper trial. Although the local press offered good follow-up reporting on the weaknesses in the case, the national media have shown little interest in recent developments. If that pattern continues, most Americans will remember a heroic arrest of domestic terrorists by a beleaguered agency that finally seemed to be getting its act together. But if the national media cover the trial and its outcome with anything like the attention they gave the arrests, the BATF could find that another operation intended to burnish its image has tarnished it still further.
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
nfl jerseys|11.16.10 @ 8:24PM|#
vhjmj