Potts Denies Easing Shooting Rules in Siege : Senate: Ex-deputy FBI director tells panel he did not approve provision that ‘deadly force can and should be employed’ in the Ruby Ridge, Ida., standoff.

WASHINGTON —  Former FBI Deputy Director Larry A. Potts on Thursday denied approving rules that FBI snipers “can and should” fire on any armed adult male during the 1992 Ruby Ridge, Ida., siege, adding that “recently discovered” contemporaneous notes support his testimony.

But Potts--ignoring his lawyers’ advice against testifying before a Senate panel while criminal inquiries are under way into the Idaho siege--said that the Justice Department has refused to make the notes available to him. A deputy U.S. marshal and the wife and son of Randy Weaver, who had failed to appear in court to answer gun law violations, were shot to death during the siege.

Potts’ testimony appears to conflict with earlier accounts given before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism. Critics contend that the eased rules of engagement contributed to the killing by an FBI sniper of Vicki Weaver as she stood behind a door at the remote Idaho cabin on Aug. 22, 1992. The FBI’s standard deadly force rules permit an agent to fire only to protect himself or others from death or grievous bodily harm.

Potts was removed as deputy by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and then suspended along with four other FBI officials while the Justice Department is conducting a criminal inquiry into whether they lied about events surrounding the Ruby Ridge tragedy. Potts said Thursday that his “world has been turned upside down” by “unfair” events.

“None of these adverse actions was based on any evidence of wrongdoing on my part,” Potts said. He was flanked by attorney Dan K. Webb and his former deputy, Danny O. Coulson, who also has been suspended while the criminal inquiry is conducted.

Coulson, backing up Potts’ account, introduced a new element into the controversy when he said that he had rejected the initial operations plan for the siege that had been faxed to him at FBI headquarters. He said it was rejected because it provided that if the Weavers did not surrender, an armored vehicle would destroy part of their compound and tear gas would be inserted into their cabin.

“I have never before seen an operations plan like that,” Coulson said. “I was shocked.” He said that the plan “escalated an already violent situation and did not contemplate a negotiated settlement.”

The FBI’s use of tear gas eight months later at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Tex., during a siege in which more than 80 people died, has drawn substantial criticism.

Potts said that he approved the Ruby Ridge rules of engagement in a telephone conversation with Richard Rogers, commander of the FBI’s hostage rescue team, as Rogers flew to Idaho. The rules provided that “any adult with a weapon who was observed in the vicinity of Randy Weaver’s cabin should be considered an immediate threat and deadly force can be used,” Potts said.

The operations plan for the siege, however, included these rules of engagement: “If any adult male is observed with a weapon prior to the [surrender] announcement, deadly force can and should be employed, if the shot can be taken without endangering any children.”

Potts testified that he did not see a copy of that operations plan with the “can and should” language until he was being interviewed by FBI inspectors on Nov. 5, 1993, more than 14 months after the shooting. He said that he was told then that the rules had been sent by facsimile from Ruby Ridge to FBI headquarters on the day Vicki Weaver was killed.

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“At no time did I ever approve the ‘can and should’ language that appears in the proposed operations plan,” Potts said.

“The evidence makes clear that there is absolutely no dispute about the fact that this change was made at the crisis site by on-scene officials after I had approved the earlier formulation,” Potts said.

He described making notes at the time of the rules that he had approved and said he is confident that they “will fully corroborate my testimony.”

A Justice Department spokesman, declining to speak about the specific notes, said that subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) had agreed not to seek material that “could damage or taint our criminal investigation.”

Eugene F. Glenn, the FBI’s commander at Ruby Ridge, testified Tuesday that Potts had approved a rule providing that snipers “could and should” fire at any armed male adult outside the cabin.

On Thursday, Potts cited a sworn statement to a Justice Department task force by Stephen P. McGavin, Rogers’ deputy in command of the hostage rescue team. In the statement, Potts testified, McGavin said that Rogers ordered him to scratch out the rules he had written based on the Potts-Rogers airborne telephone conversation.

“Rogers instructed him to insert the ‘and should’ language into the rules,” Potts said.

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Both Rogers and McGavin invoked their 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in refusing to testify Tuesday.

“The word ‘can’ leaves the individual sniper/observer with the ultimate discretion as to whether and when to use deadly force,” Potts said. “It was my intention that the rules of engagement were to be followed in a manner that was consistent with and ultimately controlled by the FBI’s deadly force policy. The rules were designed to alert the hostage rescue team members of the threatening circumstance in which they were being placed.”

The testimony by Potts and Coulson left the subcommittee apparently unconvinced.

Specter cited an effort “by witnesses to justify what was done in accordance with the Constitution and laws. I believe the rules of engagement were unconstitutional. . . . Under these rules, snipers were more likely to employ deadly force. This does not square with what you are saying. The rules of engagement created a different atmosphere.”

The hearing also shed new light on Freeh’s decision to limit Potts’ original punishment over the shootout to censuring him for failing to exert proper management oversight over the shooting rules.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Jamie S. Gorelick had “preliminarily” favored increasing the discipline to suspending Potts for 30 days, according to a Freeh-Gorelick memo dated March 7 and released by the panel Thursday. But Freeh, citing the “personal effect” the suspension would have on Potts and on his own credibility as FBI director, prevailed and the censure stood.