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UNDECLARED WAR AGAINST CHRISTIAN AMERICANS, By: Jack McLamb


                UNDECLARED WAR AGAINST CHRISTIAN AMERICANS
                             By: Jack McLamb

    Jack McLamb, a retired lawman from Phoenix, Arizona, was on the
scene at the bloody siege of the Randy Weaver household in northern
Idaho. He arrived with Lt. Col. James "Bo" Gritz, who together with
McLamb established contact with the Weavers and defused a situation
that would have turned even more bloody had they not intervened. This
is McLamb's dramatic account, told here in the first person, drawn
from his interview on the September 2 broadcast of Radio Free
America. McLamb has been investigating a similar incident resulting
in the death by incineration of Gordon Kahl in Arkansas at the hands
of federal officers. He begins his narrative account on the day of
the first shootings. The transcript follows:

          ------------------------------------------

    On Friday, August 21, six federal officers were conducting
surveillance on Randy Weaver's cabin. They were on the property, and
they had no legal reason to be there. They were not there to serve a
warrant of any kind.
    What happened was that the Weavers' dogs picked up their scent.
These gentlemen were in full camouflage uniforms, meaning that you
could walk right by them in the forest and never see them. However,
the dogs began chasing them.
    When Randy, Samuel [his 14-year-old son] and Kevin Harris
[a young friend who had been living with the Weaver family since his
early teens] heard the dogs barking, they did what mountain men do:
Tney grabbed their guns, thinking that there might be an antelope, an
elk, game of some kind, in the vicinity.
    Kevin and Samuel went to the forest. Randy took the road. They
expected to encircle the animal. Kevin and Samuel ran into the
camouflaged men. The dogs, of course, were going after these
strangers on the property. The marshals turned around and killed one
of the family dogs, in fact, Samuel's favorite dog which he had
raised and trained from a pup. It was trained to carry water from the
creek up to the home on a sled during the heavy winters up there in
the mountain.
    Young Sam, not knowing who these men were, yelled, "You're
killing my dog," and opened fire on them. Sam was then shot in the
shoulder, and as he turned around to run to the cabin he took a bullet
in the middle of his back, and it killed him instantly.
    Kevin went over and took Sam's pulse and found that he was dead
and then opened fire on these men who had killed Sam and who had not
announced what they were doing.
    Randy heard this happening from the road. Just about this time,
two of these camouflage-clothed men came out of the woods and said,
"Randy, you're under arrest."
    Randy started running back to the cabin, fired his gun a number
of times, and yelled to Kevin and Sam to "Get back to the cabin." He
met Kevin at the cabin, who told him that his boy had been killed by
these men. At that point they barricaded themselves in the cabin.
    Now, Randy had called Bo Gritz the month before. They knew each
other from Fort Bragg when Randy was a Special Forces soldier. He
asked Bo to come up and help him since he was afraid that the
government was going to come in and destroy his family. Bo was on the
campaign trail and was extremely busy and could not go.
    Well, Tuesday of last week [August 25], I was sitting at lunch
with Bo when he described to me how bad he felt about not having gone
up there when Randy called. By this time we had heard about the
barricade situation and the loss of the marshal's life in the news.
However, I had no idea that Bo knew him [Randy].
    Bo was quite distraught and kept saying, "I should have
responded. I should have responded." Then he said, "I want to ask you
something. If I were to go up there now, would you go with me as my
backup? I want to go up there and see if I can help Randy and his
family."
    So I agreed to go
    We put everything on hold, and by Wednesday, August 26, we were
there in Idaho. We went straight to the roadblock and announced
ourselves to the 300 or so supporters of the family who were there.
    As a police officer, I've been in riots, and this situation was
very tense. The people were in a very bad mood. And on the other side
of the roadblock were about 1OO Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms [BATF] officers, FBI officers and Idaho State Police
officers. The officers were on edge and ready to go to war against
these people.
    These people were friends and neighbors of the Weavers. They knew
that the Weavers were no bother to anyone. There were witnesses who
told us that they had seen a helicopter hovering around the mountain
top carrying a fuel bladder, to drop on the cabin and set it ablaze.
We didn't see it, but this is what they told us, and shows that the
crowd had good reason to be concerned about the family's safety.
    When Bo got out of the car, it was amazing. They calmed right
down. Bo spoke to them and told them why he was there--to try to save
the rest of the family and get them out of there.
    Then he approached the barricade and told the soldiers that he
wanted to talk to the FBI man in charge. That was Special Agent Gene
Glenn. They sent the message up to the top of the mountain, but Glenn
said he was too busy.
    We stayed there until Friday, and Glenn was still too busy. But I
know that when you've got somebody surrounded in a building and
control the perimeter of the area you've got nothing but time on your
hands. I knew and Bo knew that Glenn just didn't want to have
anything to do with him.
    It was also on Thursday that [radio personality] Paul Harvey--not
knowing either Bo or Randy or their relationship--got on the news and
said, "Randy, if you are listening, do not have anything to do with
the people coming up to see you. They are there for political
ambition. Please pick up the telephone outside your cabin and call me
and talk to me, and I'll make sure you get the best lawyer in the
country."
    He was, of course, talking about Bo.
    However, when Randy looked out the door of the cabin, he saw a
robot that they sent up carrying a telephone and monitoring the cabin
with a camera. Mounted on the other side of the phone was a 12-gauge
shotgun. So Randy would have thought twice about reaching out and
picking up the telephone that Paul Harvey was urging him to pick up.
    Obviously, it was kind of disturbing that Paul had said Bo was
going out there for "political gain."
    In any case, luckily, Randy didn't even hear Paul Harvey. Just
imagine what would have happened had Randy not known Bo that much,
and he might not have communicated with Bo, based upon what Paul
Harvey was saying.
    It was a very serious thing for Paul Harvey to have done. We
didn't understand why.
    On Friday we had been there for 2 1/2 days waiting for Gene
Glenn. The FBI had had no success whatsoever in communicating with
Randy, so by Friday afternoon Bo was getting angry. He knew that he
could have a dialog with Randy, and Randy had asked him to come up.
    At this point, Bo put together citizen's arrest warrants to
arrest the head of the FBI, the head of the U.S. Marshal's Service,
the governor of Idaho, and FBI agent in charge Gene Glenn. At about
1 o'clock on Friday we approached the roadblock and read aloud the
citizen's arrest forms and the indictments and asked the persons to
step forward [to be served].
    Bo had requested that the people in Hawaii who had first
described this citizen's arrest tactic on your show fax him the
information. So they did so, and Bo served those people in the
afternoon on the barricade.
   We did this in a legal fashion, since I, as a police officer, know
how to do it. Bo read the indictment and the charges, and asked the
people or their representatives to step forward. No one did. So then
we placed the papers under a rock and placed them on the other side
of the barricade. Service was complete.
    Then the county attorney came through, read the papers and said
they were of no effect--that they just weren't any good. But within
half an hour, Special Agent Gene Glenn called for Bo, and he was
transported to the top of the mountain on Friday afternoon and made
the first contact with Randy that had been made throughout the
ordeal.
    If the papers were of "no effect," something sure moved Special
Agent Glenn.
    Bo spent the evening up there talking to Randy, and he came back
and reported to those of us at the roadblock. The crowd had calmed
down considerably, and the po]ice at the roadblock told me that they
were very appreciative that Bo had come. They were thinking there was
going to be quite a riot.
    I stood at the front of the roadblock, and because I was a police
officer myself I had good communication with the other officers there.
    This was good for all concerned, because the scene was getting
out of hand. The BATF and FBI officers thanked us for the calming
effect we had on the crowd. These men were not intimidated by the
fact that Bo and I had come.
    Those on the mountain, the higher management people, were not too
pleased that Bo had come, but they were quite amazed that he had
picked up the ball and started talking to Randy, and Randy started
responding. They didn't know that Randy and Bo had a good
relationship.
    Bo came back down about 9:30 that night and told the crowd that
he had good news and bad. The good news was that Kevin was still
alive, although shot and seriously injured. The bad was that Vicki
Weaver was killed last Saturday by a sniper bullet to the head. Now
when Bo told the people what had happened, it was quite a shock, and
even the officers on the gate who had heard this for the first time
were shaken. All of the officers I talked to were very upset that the
special operations unit of the Marshal's Service which was on the
property illegally had really instigated this terrible tragedy. They
were upset and knew this was wrong.
    Vicki was killed the day that she and her family had prepared
their dead son's body for burial. In accordance with the Old
Testament they wrapped his body in white clothing and had taken him
to an outbuilding beside the house. Kevin and Randy went to the
outbuilding to be with the boy's body for prayer, and a sniper shot
Randy through the arm. He told Kevin to run for the cabin, and they
did, not returning fire.
    As they reached the cabin, Vicki had opened the door and was
holding the eight-month-old baby, Elishaba, in her arms. As Randy and
Kevin ran by her, she was shot through the head by a sniper using a
highpowered rifle. She fell dead on the floor, dropping the baby, who
was not injured. Now there were three people who had been wounded.
    Vicki had not yet died. Kevin, however, was struck by shrapnel
and probably bone particles from Vicki's injury. Bo looked at the
hole in the building and realized that it was probably a .300 Magnum
rifle, a very high powered rifle. That kind of rifle could be shot
from about 300 yards without missing the target. We're not sure how
far away the sniper was.
    Randy helped the girls put the mother under the kitchen table,
and that's where she lay for the next 10 days, and they barricaded
themselves in the cabin. They did not come out until the 11th day.
    On Saturday, after Bo had told the crowd that Vicki was dead, Bo
took a local preacher and a friend of the girls named Jackie up to
the cabin. Jackie was able to start a dialog with the girls: Sarah,
16, Rachel, who turned 11 during the time they were up there, and,
there was, of course, eight-month-old Elishaba.
    When Bo came down on Saturday evening, he told me that Randy had
heard on the radio that they were spendirg $1 million a day to tap
his phone. Randy said that they should take the money and "give it to
Jack McLamb to investigate the Gordon Kahl case."
    Neither Bo nor I knew that he even knew of me. Well, Bo told
Randy that I was down at the bottom of the mountain, and Randy said
that he'd love to talk to me. Then I went up and was able to speak
for quite a long time to Randy. It was good to be able to talk to
Randy and the girls.
    The FBI man in charge, Gene Glenn, was happy that we were able to
get Randy talking. They had been there and had been unable to get him
to talk.
    We went back up on Sunday morning, and by around noon, Bo had
talked Kevin into ]eaving the house. He knew he would die if he didn't
get medical assistance. We had called up a National Guard doctor. Now
the young Weaver girls, who were very well trained in medical
treatment and survival by their parents, took his vital signs and
made a list of his injuries. The girls gave this information to the
doctor who made a diagnosis that Kevin needed immediate treatment
because his lung was filling up with blood.
    When I entered that house for the first time, I was shocked. It
looked like a tomb. The air was stale, the windows had been blocked,
and they hadn't seen sunlight for some 10 days. It was macabre. I had
never seen anything like it.
    These young people had been in the house with their dead mother's
body in the kitchen for 10 days. Randy's arm was festering terribly
and smelling very bad. In the meantime, we put Kevin in a rocking
chair on the front porch.
    The minute Bo and I saw the young faces of these beautiful little
girls, tears started running down their faces, and Bo and I just
burst out crying. Sarah put her arms up to me, and I hugged her and
told her I loved her. Rachel put her arms around Bo. Randy started
crying, and we hugged him and told him we loved him. We spent a few
minutes there, just stroking their heads and telling them we would
get them out safely.
    [McLamb's voice breaks, he is momentarily overcome, and then
resumes his narration.]
    You can't imagine what they've been through. One minute they were
a whole family. The next minute the family was pretty much destroyed.
    Now the FBI had promised that Kevin would not be handcuffed and
that I could accompany him all the way to the hospital in Spokane. I
patted him down and made certain that he had no weapons. Then, Bo and
I got Kevin down to a stretcher and carried him down the hill to the
waiting doctors. He and I flew by helicopter to Sacred Heart Hospital
[in Spokane, Washington] where his parents were waiting for him.
    He was just a frightened kid. His eyes looked like he was just
going to die of fright. He, of course, hadn't wanted to shoot anybody.
When they went out thinking they were chasing a deer they had no idea
they were going to be shot at. He wanted me to hold his hand in the
helicopter. I left him with his parents at the hospital and returned
to the mountain top with Bo. I understand he's doing much better.
    While I was gone, Bo had gotten Vicki's body out of the house and
put her in a body bag with Randy's help. A friend of the family named
Jackie came up at this point and began cleaning up all the blood as
Bo walked down the hill with Vicki's body over his shoulder.
    God bless Jackie. We thought she was going to break down--she had
loved Vicki so much.
    We were told by federal officials that Randy would have to come
out of the cabin by Monday and that Bo and I would have to leave the
mountain. Bo and I knew that meant that they were going to storm the
house and that there would be further loss of life.
    Sunday night Bo and I talked about our plan for Monday. We didn't
know what we were going to do. I drafted a letter to Randy and got
some of Randy's friends to rewrite the letter and sign it themselves.
The letter asked Randy to come out and to p]ease fight the battle in
the court.
    However, we didn't know how we were going to talk Randy out. So
we prayed in earnest for some time that night. Now Bo and I knew that
if we were able to get back into the house we might well have to grab
Randy and capture him and bring him out that way. Bo decided that he
would grab Randy, pin his hands to his sides, and I would grab the
two girls, and that way we would get them out of the house.
    The code word for the FBI was "Alaska." If we hollered "Alaska"
that would mean that we would need the FBI's help. The girls were
afraid that the federal agents were going to kill them, and they had
real good reasons to believe that.
    The little infant girl was still there. Bo and I were very
concerned that eight-month-old child would be killed if the house
were stormed. That's why we developed the "Alaska" plan. That was the
last-ditch effort we had in mind.
    On Monday morning we took the letter signed by some of Randy's
friends and shoved it under the door and let them know how Kevin was
doing at the hospital.
    They wouldn't open the door, but Bo and I got down and began
praying as hard as we've ever prayed before, for nearly an hour.
However, by 12:15 that door opened, and Randy gave up.
    We came in and hugged everybody again and prayed together. It was
an unbelievably emotional situation. We walked down the hill hand in
hand and presented the children to their relatives and Randy to the
marshals.

                     It was a glorious day. -*END

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