John Kiriakou described the Ruby Ridge incident as a case where the federal government killed a civilian woman for an offense that, even if proven, was minor: the sale of a shotgun whose barrel was two inches too short.[1]
FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shot Vicki Weaver while she stood in the doorway of the family’s cabin holding her infant. She died. Horiuchi faced no criminal punishment for the killing. Kiriakou named Horiuchi explicitly and described the absence of accountability as characteristic of how federal law enforcement polices itself.[2]
Kiriakou stated that before going to prison he had generally accepted the government’s framing of incidents like Ruby Ridge. After his own experience with the FBI and the Justice Department, he said, he looked back at Ruby Ridge and Waco and concluded the official accounts could not be trusted.[3]