The Post-Dispatch 3/12/00 William H. Freivogel And Terry Ganey "……Until recently, the government had argued that muzzle blasts from small arms were unlikely to be detected by an airborne infrared camera. But the government now concedes that the Fort Hood test may pick up muzzle flashes. And infrared experts, interviewed by the Post-Dispatch, say the airborne cameras are almost certain to pick up the groundfire as flashes. By comparing the duration, intensity and other physical characteristics of the flashes, Danforth hopes his experts can determine whether the 1993 flashes were gunfire or glint…….. One expert, Edward Friday, is a scientist for System Planning Corp. of Arlington, Va. He conducted two days of tests in 1997 to try to recreate the flashes he saw in the Waco tapes. He admits to being stumped by the mystery of the flashes. Friday's gut instinct is that the flashes are gunfire "because the simplest solution to a problem is often the right one." He is convinced -- like most experts -- that the infrared camera flying above Waco was able to record the muzzle blasts of small arms fire as flashes of heat. He also believes that by analyzing the flashes on the 1993 tape with computer programs, experts can determine the physical characteristics of the flashes. He has not done the work himself, but he finds the results of the Branch Davidians' technical experts persuasive. The flashes repeat with a regularity that is more descriptive of gunfire than glint, he says…….To believe the gunfire scenario, Friday says, it is necessary to believe that the government planned well in advance of the assault to hide the shooters and their weapons from the cameras. This is particularly true in light of the 200 still photographs taken by a second FBI plane on the morning of the raid, none of which shows agents on the ground in the area of the flashes. One of the photos appears to have been shot within seconds of the flashes. The gunfire theory also requires a belief that the FBI has engaged in a massive cover-up that continues to this day. In dozens of statements, sworn and unsworn, over the last seven years, the agents at Waco have said there was no gunfire. Nor has any other witness to gunfire turned up……"

The Post-Dispatch 3/12/00 William H. Freivogel And Terry Ganey "……Another expert -- one who did not want his name used because he works for the federal government -- was suspicious of the use of the FBI Night Stalker. "I think it is a big mistake to involve the FBI Night Stalker FLIR." he said. "The FBI already stated that the Night Stalker FLIR is not the same as used at Waco, and they are not willing to disclose the type of FLIR on board. This camera may be the type of FLIR that is sensitive to solar interference and thus would detect flashes from debris. This could then be used to confuse the jury and cloud the results of the re-enactment. I strongly advise that the Night Stalker not be used during the re-enactment." Friday is also worried about the FBI camera. "The FBI should remove whatever 'upgrade' was performed on the camera to restore it to its original configuration," he said…….."Dallas Morning News 3/12/00 Lee Hancock "…..Sometime next Sunday morning, if the weather is right, a British Navy helicopter and an FBI airplane will circle lazily above a stretch of broken Central Texas ground. Men below in combat garb will charge forward to shoot repeated volleys of gunfire as each aircraft records their actions with a heat-measuring infrared video camera. Bradley fighting vehicles and combat engineering vehicles will lumber over broken glass, crumpled aluminum, and other debris laid out to resemble wreckage from a tank-battered building. …….. On hand to watch the March 19 field test at a closed Fort Hood firing range will be congressional investigators, lawyers and scientific experts from both sides in the Branch Davidian lawsuit. The Texas Rangers also plan to attend - a signal that the state's top lawmen are still working to get to the bottom of the Branch Davidian case seven years after being asked to help investigate it. …….. Attorneys for the sect say they are confident that the test will produce recordings of gun flashes that look so similar to the flashes on the Waco video that the public and the judge hearing their lawsuit will quickly conclude that government agents fired on April 19. "The bottom line is, if we get flashes from gunfire that are at least similar to the flashes on April 19, I don't think that the judge is going to require that it be precise," said Michael Caddell, lead lawyer for the Branch Davidians. "And we're confident that this test is going to show gunfire." ……….

Dallas Morning News 3/12/00 Lee Hancock "…..The government then spent more than a month continuing to fight the test proposal. They argued that it would be impossible to re-create environmental conditions in Waco on the final day of the siege, when the temperature climbed to 85 and winds gusted to 25 miles an hour and skies turned from partly cloudy to clear over a muddy Texas prairie. They also told the court that the test couldn't provide data suitable for comparison with the Waco video because the FBI's infrared camera had been upgraded and nothing else like it was available. They added that even basic information about the camera was classified; even its altitude in Waco was labeled a sensitive government secret. But the government dropped its opposition after Mr. Danforth's office determined that the FBI camera was an off-the-shelf, British-made device still in wide use by the British Royal Navy. ……. Participants say government lawyers fought hard to keep results of the Fort Hood tests secret, but they lost in St. Louis. Despite continued Justice Department lobbying for sealing the test results, Mr. Caddell said that he has been told he will be free to immediately release his copy of the Fort Hood recording to the media and the public. ……. The sect's experts also have persuaded the court's scientist to allow test firings of a "Mark-19" automatic grenade launcher. One of those experts has argued that he believes some of the flashes on the April 19 video match the rapid firing rate of a Mark 19. …….

Dallas Morning News 3/12/00 Lee Hancock "…..A flamboyant New Orleans-based private investigator in the case has announced that he believes the cameras at Fort Hood will be altered in a way to ensure they do not detect gunfire. The investigator, Gordon Novel, has been tied to government conspiracy theories since he was labeled a CIA operative and fugitive witness in late New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation of the Kennedy assassination. Mr. Novel was the first to identify the flashes on the Waco tape as possible gunfire in December 1995 while working on the Branch Davidian case for former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. He said that he partially bases his suspicion on the fact that the British-based company supervising the test is owned by a U.S. defense contractor that has done past work for U.S. intelligence agencies, the defense department and the FBI. …….. "

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2/26/00 William Freivogel "…..The top FBI commander on the scene at Waco says that a government tank unintentionally knocked down the gymnasium of the complex as agents tried to inject tear gas into a room where about 20 Branch Davidians were hiding…….Mike Caddell, the lead lawyer for the Branch Davidians, says Jamar is lying. "Every person who has looked at the pictures of the tank destroying the gym has characterized it as demolition," he said. "Jamar and Dick Rogers are trying to keep themselves out of prison." Rogers was head of the hostage rescue team at Waco, and directed most of the assault. The issue of whether the government intended to knock down the complex is important both to the wrongful death suit that the Branch Davidians have filed against the government and to the investigation of special counsel John C. Danforth……. "

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2/26/00 William Freivogel "…..Jamar told his story to investigators for the House Government Reform Committee in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 16....... Justice Department sources say that Jamar told this story: By 9:30 a.m., more than three hours after the government began squirting tear gas into the complex, listening devices had picked up conversations from a large group of women and children who had gathered in the kitchen, which remained free of tear gas. Rogers and Jamar decided to breach the gym walls so that one of the converted tanks could shoot tear gas into the kitchen. Around 11:20 a.m., the converted tank began knocking into the gym. The idea, Jamar said, was to make a path for the tank equipped with a boom for the tear gas. Jamar said he believed that the successful gassing of the kitchen had led the Branch Davidians to ignite fuel they had spread on the floor of the complex. The fire was the cause of most of the deaths……"

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2/26/00 William Freivogel "…..But Caddell lists these objections:
* At the time he ordered the attack on the gym, Jamar said it was time to go "all out." That account was given by a senior member of the hostage rescue team after the incident.
* Senior FBI officials monitoring from Washington concluded that Jamar and Rogers had deviated from a plan to end the siege when the tanks began ramming the gym. Danny Coulson, the first leader of the hostage rescue team, testified in a deposition last week that the siege plan he helped draft did not provide for knocking into the gym. He said he was surprised when the tank did so.
* An FBI briefing paper prepared before the assault said the gym side of the complex "is not of good quality" - so Jamar had notice that the gym would fall easily.
* After a pass into the gym and toward the kitchen, the first tank moved away from the kitchen and knocked into other portions of the gym wall five or six times.
* The tank with tear gas sent the fumes into the kitchen from the front of the complex, rather than the back, where the first tank had knocked down the gym. So the destruction of the gym was not needed.
Other sources add two other reasons to question Jamar's account. One is that there was room for the tank to approach the kitchen without touching the gym.
More important, at 11:31 a.m., an agent is heard on the radio traffic of the incident to report, "It's coming down." There was no response from Jamar. If Jamar was warned that the gym was coming down and didn't intend for it to collapse, then he should have taken some action, sources said……."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2/26/00 William Freivogel "…..Caddell said drafts of the plan included provisions for creating holes in the structure with tanks. Those tactics were removed from the final plan approved by Reno. …….. According to Caddell, Coulson and others at the FBI were shocked to see the tanks demolishing the building. But other sources say that Caddell left out important parts of Coulson's testimony. Coulson said that he did not consider the tank ramming of the gym to be a speed-up in the destruction of the building. The plan for destroying the building after 48 hours of gassing did not involve the tanks penetrating the building. Instead, one tank was to attach a rail and peel away siding. This operation was to begin in the front of the building. Coulson testified that the reason he was concerned about the tanks ramming into the gym was that he was afraid the Branch Davidians could attack them or that the tanks would drop through the floor. He was not concerned that the Branch Davidians would be hurt……"

Dallasnews.com 2/26/00 David McLemore "…… One of the most painful lessons of the deadly 1993 Branch Davidian standoff is that government secrecy about it continues to corrode public confidence, Waco whistle-blower Bill Johnston said Friday. "When governmental agencies stonewall and deceive the public, they create fertile ground to feed conspiracy theories and let negative perceptions grow," said Mr. Johnston, who resigned as a federal prosecutor in Waco earlier this month. "If they don't open the doors and let people see what happened, how are people supposed to know what is true?" ………. "The [Justice] Department isn't as open as it needs to be," Mr. Johnston said. "Governmental agencies must make more information public as soon as possible and to as many people as possible. I believe it can be done without damaging litigation or legal rights of the accused." ……. "If there had been more openness after Waco, we wouldn't have this mess we have today," Mr. Johnston said. "When the government continues to withhold matters from public scrutiny, it just eats away at the public trust. People feel betrayed. "Another shame is that the tragedy of the deaths of those four ATF agents gets lost amid all the investigations and claims and denials of government cover-up," Mr. Johnston said. ……… "

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "……The Department of Defense has been asked to declassify thousands of secret military documents in anticipation of testimony by Attorney General Janet Reno, and possibly even President Clinton -- in a lawsuit on behalf of three children killed in the 1993 Waco Branch Davidian fire……. The classified documents in question are already in the custody of Judge Walter Smith of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division. Last year the judge ordered all federal agencies to give him all documents related to the Waco incident. But since thousands of pages of the military documents are marked "classified," he cannot make them available to the lawyers involved in this and other cases related to the Waco tragedy. ……"

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "……Attorney James H. Brannon sent a letter to Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and asked for declassification of the documents according to Executive Order 12958, signed by President Clinton on April 17, 1995. Brannon has not asked Smith to declassify the documents by court order because he must first ask the military to do it. He intends to ask for a court order if Cohen fails to grant his request…….. His letter gives a week for Cohen to respond, but he told WorldNetDaily he would stretch that deadline in order to give Cohen time to view the documentary "Waco: A New Revelation." "I'm going to give him a chance to see the film, because the people I'm quoting in (the letter) are people in the film. So let him take a look at them and hear what they've said in the film," Brannon said. …….. Brannon has already taken sworn testimony from dozens of FBI agents and three Special Forces Delta Force soldiers who participated in the government raid at Waco. Brannon said they have an "epidemic of amnesia" and don't remember anything. ….."

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… "They used 48 hours worth of gas in about three hours," Brannon said. He wants to question Reno about what happened and what went wrong. "They didn't have any difficulty saying we're going to try it this way for 48 hours. All of them knew they were going to be squirting it on little children for 48 hours. They had a gas expert, and he said 'oh, it's not going to hurt them.' But that was on the theory that it wouldn't give them (the children) permanent damage if they did it over 48 hours. He didn't say anything about what would happen if a few hours after they start they shoot every bit of gas in there -- 48 hours worth in three hours. As far as we know, he didn't express any opinions that that kind of dosage would be inconsequential as far as children were concerned," explained Brannon. "But all that comes down to: Is it okay to torture them for three hours? Is it okay to torture them for 48 hours? I don't think it's okay to torture them for one minute," said Brannon. ......"

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "……When Reno is deposed, Brannon will ask her about her role in the event, he says. "We want to know what she was told, everything she was told to make her mind up to approve this disastrous assault on the 19th of April. The main thing is, 'what were you told and what reasons did you have for thinking that it was okay to approve this plan that provided for the gassing of innocent and unprotected children?'" ...... When Smith asked the White House for all Waco-related documents, he was told they were covered under executive privilege. Brannon has not ruled out challenging the executive privilege claim, and may attempt to depose Clinton. He said Reno is purposely trying to make her testimony useless to him. ......"

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "……"So, what have they classified? Especially when we hear that the FBI has taken a clear position that they didn't shoot any guns there. And, not only that, at least one of the weapons we think was fired there is strictly a military weapon. The FBI doesn't have one. So if it was fired there we presume it was fired by military people," he said. The letter gives a number of reasons for the need to declassify the military documents, including:

* Admitted involvement of at least 10 active-duty military personnel during the 51-day siege, and three who admit to being present the day of the fire.
* Sources who have informed Brannon that military personnel were observed with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team during the assault.
* The congressional investigation discovered that military personnel admitted involvement with the armored vehicles used in the raid.
* A military source told Brannon that Delta Force soldiers were "pulling triggers."
* A CIA employee reported that a high-level briefing with Reno detailed plans for military involvement a month before the raid.
* The Texas Rangers conducted an investigation and told Brannon there is evidence that there were more Special Forces soldiers present at Waco than the government admits to. The Texas Rangers also believe those soldiers were involved in the assault.
* Government documents indicate there were three Delta Force soldiers in forward locations at Waco. The three Delta Force soldiers who gave testimony to Brannon claimed they were in different locations, and they firmly stated they were the only Delta Force soldiers present.

Brannon also points out in his letter to Cohen that the FBI and Department of Defense have not been as specific in their answers as they should be. When asked about shots fired at the Branch Davidians on April 19, 1993, the FBI responded: "No FBI agent shot, and nobody under FBI supervision/direction/control did either." The Department of Defense responded to the same question in a letter, saying, "No DoD person shot, and nobody under DoD supervision/direction/control did either, based on currently available information." ….."

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "……WorldNetDaily is in receipt of a letter from the United States Special Operations Command in response to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking military documents regarding Waco. The letter explained why the military has classified some of those documents: "Portions of the documents were found to contain information concerning military plans, weapons, or operations; and vulnerabilities or capabilities or systems, installations, projects, or plans relating to the national security, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security." WorldNetDaily asked Cohen by fax whether the statement also applied to the documents Brannon is seeking to declassify. Cohen's office has not responded. ......"

San Antonio Express-News 2/23/00 Dick Reavis "…..For the first time, a Branch Davidian survivor of the Feb. 28, 1993, shootout at Mount Carmel has admitted that he fired at two of the four U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents who were killed during the battle. Livingstone Fagan, who was one of 11 Davidians tried in San Antonio six years ago, said in a deposition that he shot at ATF agents on the roof of Mount Carmel. Fagan gave the deposition in a wrongful death lawsuit Mount Carmel survivors and their families are bringing against the federal government. ……. Fagan is a party to the wrongful death suit because his mother, Doris, 60, and his wife, Evette, 30, died in the April 19, 1993, fire at Mount Carmel…..

San Antonio Express-News 2/23/00 Dick Reavis "…..During the Davidian trial, federal prosecutors claimed that late in the 45-minute battle, Fagan wounded ATF Agent Eric Evers, who took the stand to identify his assailant. "I know that man over there shot me," Evers testified, pointing at Fagan. "It's everything is etched in my brain until the day I die, because of that incident. There's no doubt in my mind that man shot me." But in his Feb. 1 deposition, Fagan says that on the morning of the ATF raid, he wasn't outdoors, as Evers testified. Instead, he was in Mount Carmel's cafeteria, firing on agents who were standing on a roof outside David Koresh's bedroom. Fagan told federal civil attorney Marie Hagen he acted in self-defense. "Your government murdered people who were very dear to me," he declared. Hagen both cajoled and pressed for details, even offering Fagan her coat to ward off a Pennsylvania morning chill….."

San Antonio Express-News 2/23/00 Dick Reavis "…..Two of the ATF agents on the roof, Todd McKeeham, 28, and Conway LeBleu, 34, both from the bureau's New Orleans team, were killed on the spot. A third man on the roof, Kenneth King, was wounded but survived…………..The plaintiff's team decided to make the deposition public, Lyons said, because Mike Caddell, the lead counsel, "believes that we have to get to the truth about what happened, that's all." ……During the trial, a notation made by a Texas Ranger during a pretrial session in which Evers picked Fagan from a photo lineup was introduced into evidence. The notation said, "unsure if ID'd from TV or shooting." Orchowski, in after-action interviews, said he could not identity the assailant who, in the courtroom, he picked out as Fagan. But Rosen's cross-examination of the two agents failed to impress U.S. District Judge Walter Smith Jr., who also will hear the wrongful death suit, which is set for trial in May. During the 1994 sentencing hearing, Smith said: "The evidence from this trial has not faded from my memory. Certain images are clear. I see Livingstone Fagan dressed in combat gear, coldly shooting down Eric Evers with a military rifle as he rounded the corner of the compound and came into view. As Evers tried to get up, Fagan shot him twice more." The man who shot at Evers, Fagan told Hagen, was a British male of African descent, who died in the April 19 fire. Fagan refused to provide the man's name. ......"

San Antonio Express-News 2/23/00 Dick Reavis "…..It is unclear what effect Fagan's remarks might have upon his status as a prisoner. Because of constitutional protections against double jeopardy, "it is unlikely that they will indict him for what he says in the deposition," Lyons said. But George Dix, a University of Texas professor of criminal law, is not so sure. …… Other Davidians who were imprisoned as a result of the 1994 proceedings are appealing their sentences, and the U.S. Supreme Court has set a hearing on their case for April. But Fagan refused to join the appeal, he says in a recent letter to the San Antonio Express-News, because "when Judge Smith did what he did, he took the matter out of the realm of the judicial"- a phrase that in the argot of the Davidians, means the Mount Carmel gunman has placed his future in God's hands. …."

Freeper Ed Wolfe 2/19/00 from the Internet "…..According to the St. Louis Dispatch, John Danforth recommended to Judge Smith that a "British" company called Vector Data Systems should be the one to conduct the test and to interpret the results. VDS is reported to have former Royal Air Force pilots in it's employ, to be experts at interpreting infrared images, and most significantly, to be an "independent" expert that both the government and the Davidian lawyers can count on for impartial analysis. This is where something stinks in St. Louis…….Vector Data Systems is not a British company, and as far as this writer can determine, never was. Although it may have RAF pilots in it's employ, that would probably be due to the fact that VDS has branches in the United Kingdom, Australia and Korea in addition to it's headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The company was purchased in 1997 as one of the first in a string of information technology acquisitions by the Anteon Corporation. ……… Anteon Corporation, head-quartered in Fairfax, VA is not a British company either. Although it's possible that Anteon will be using it's British subsidiary of Vector Data Systems to conduct the test and interpret it's results, it is misleading to simply state that the independent expert is "a British company." ……"

Freeper Ed Wolfe 2/19/00 from the Internet "…..Even more interesting is the fact that Danforth who is supposed to be seeking the truth, picked an unusual company to serve as the "impartial" arbiter of the test results. The Anteon Corporation is a very high tech, multi-million dollar company that gets a large share of it's profits from federal government contracts…….. And we're not talking about the British government either. Just last month Anteon signed a 2.2 million dollar deal with the General Services Administration to provide program management analyses and assessments for the United States submarine force…….In December of last year, Anteon scored another $10 mil from the government till in a deal with the Veterans Health Administration. Two months before that, Anteon signed a 7.8 million dollar contract with the U.S. Coast Guard. September was another lucrative month resulting in a $43 million dollar contract with the U.S. Navy. Finally, topping the list is a $250 million dollar Blanket Purchase Agreement with the GSA to provide the federal government with critical infrastructure service as ordered in Presidential Decision Directive #63, penned by Bill Clinton on May 28, 1998……."

Dallas Morning News 2/25/00 Lee Hancock "……Efforts by federal prosecutors to access files from the government computer once used by a Waco whistle-blower prompted angry complaints to the Justice Department this week from a congressional committee investigating the Branch Davidian siege. House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton sent a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno late Tuesday demanding a full explanation for the search, which occurred days after that committee's investigators conducted lengthy interviews with the whistle-blower, former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston……. "

Dallas Morning News 2/25/00 Lee Hancock "……Mr. Johnston said he learned about the effort to search his computer after going to his old office late last week to fill out paperwork and being met by nervous staff and an Austin-based computer technician. He said a staffer from the Waco office told him on Tuesday that the computer technician had been sent by Mr. Blagg, the U.S. attorney, to remove the hard drive of the computer he had used. "The staffer told me that they've had a number of meetings in San Antonio about how to get into my computer and have tried to access it remotely to access information from it. They pulled what they could out of it that way, and then had to come up and get the hard drive," Mr. Johnston said. "The computer person told the Waco staff that she needed to do it in response to congressional subpoenas." He said the staffer who contacted him was particularly concerned because the computer technician did not want to tell Mr. Johnston what she was doing and even ran hurriedly from his former office to hide what she was doing after he unexpectedly dropped by. ……"

Dallas Morning News 2/25/00 Lee Hancock "……Mr. Johnston said he contacted Mr. Burton's committee on Tuesday to question why he had not been told about such a subpoena when both Republican and Democratic committee investigators interviewed him in Austin early last week. He had previously turned over information from his files after the committee issued an exhaustive subpoena seeking Justice Department records on the Branch Davidian case last September. "I wouldn't expect to get a straight answer from the people who ordered this search, so I decided to go straight to the horse's mouth. I called and asked if the congressional committees had issued a new subpoena. They hadn't," Mr. Johnston said. "That's just their [the U.S. attorney's] excuse. It's juvenile. If it weren't the government behaving this way, it would almost be comical." ……… The letter from Mr. Burton, R-Ind., asked for a complete explanation for the search by next Thursday. He wants to know who authorized the computer search, why it was undertaken and whether anyone else involved in the Branch Davidian case was being subjected to similar scrutiny. "It was my understanding that the Justice Department had already identified all documents responsive to our subpoena," Mr. Burton wrote. "Is the Department searching or reconstructing the hard drives of other Department employees in this matter? If so, please provide a list." ….."

Dallas Morning News 2/25/00 Lee Hancock "……Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the House Government Reform Committee, said Wednesday that the chairman lodged the formal demand because of Mr. Johnston's high profile and the "perception" that Justice Department officials might be seeking information to discredit or retaliate against him. "Bill Johnston is someone we've spoken to who has cooperated with Congress," Mr. Corallo said. "We'd love an explanation as to why they felt it necessary to go through his computer. "The committee has had great concern with retaliation. . . . We even held a hearing about retaliation against whistle-blowers," Mr. Corallo said. "While a witness with the Department of Defense was testifying before the committee that day, his superior was trying to gain access to his computer illegally. So we do have a great concern when things like this happen." ……"

Dallas Morning News 2/25/00 Lee Hancock "……One federal official in Washington familiar with the matter said the search conducted last week "is not unique" to Mr. Johnston. "There are lots of people asking questions, so steps are being taken to preserve records." Mr. Johnston said the search was puzzling because it was not conducted until after he left, and his former office knew of no similar searches in the Davidian case……."

Dallas Morning News 2/25/00 Lee Hancock "……As that inquiry progressed, Mr. Johnston sent increasingly alarmed e-mails to his boss, U.S. Attorney Blagg. Those messages warned that the Rangers were developing compelling evidence that challenged the federal government's long claim that no pyrotechnic gas canisters or devices of any kind were used on April 19. Mr. Johnston said he learned Tuesday that his e-mail traffic had been downloaded from the computer earlier this month, and his remaining old files had somehow been removed last week. "The staffer tried to log on, just out of curiosity, and all my stuff was gone," he said……."

Freeper aristeides "….. Bill had live coverage in the WH Situation Room and he invited the fat cat Chinese contributors in for a look-see as it was going on. And Bill went in the evening to a celebration of Shelia Lawrence's birthday at a restaurant in Georgetown, where he was persuaded to eat crabcakes. And he spent two hours "late" on that day being given a private tour of the new Holocaust Museum. …."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 2/24/00 William Freivogel and Terry Ganey "….. Press advocates argue that opening the test could inspire public trust. But Danforth says the piecemeal release of information would undermine confidence in his investigation.. …….. Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, concedes that the courts have never recognized the right of the public or the press to be present during the "discovery" phase of a civil suit, when both sides gather evidence in advance of a trial. The re-enactment is part of that evidence-gathering in the Branch Davidians' wrongful death suit against the government. But from a policy point of view, Dalglish thinks Danforth's decision is a mistake. "By cloaking this whole thing in secrecy, the public gets suspicious about what they were not allowed to see. If they can see what is going on, there is going to be less of a Roswell flying-saucer element," she said. …….. . Dalglish says Danforth's attempt to close the test could have unintended consequences. "Sometimes investigators don't use their heads on this. If television and news reporters cannot view what happens by standing in a viewing area, they are going to have to rely on leaks. If they have visuals and can watch the test occur, that will probably be what they run." …… Danforth has most of the law on his side, the experts say. Peter Joy, a Washington University law professor, noted that Danforth's memo cited several previous court decisions upholding secrecy in similar matters, while the news organizations had little legal support. Over the past two decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has broadened the First Amendment right of the press and public to attend trials and pretrial proceedings. But in Seattle Times Co. vs. Rhinehart in 1982, the court said there was no First Amendment right to disseminate information obtained during pretrial discovery. …….. McNulty has long said the press must shoulder part of the blame for the 1993 Waco tragedy because it allowed the FBI to push it back away from the complex before the final assault, making press scrutiny impossible. …….. "

Dallas Morning News 2/24/00 Lee Hancock "… A former top FBI official has acknowledged that sending tanks into the Branch Davidian compound was inconsistent with the Washington-approved plan for ending the 51-day siege, the sect's lead lawyer said Wednesday. Former deputy assistant FBI director Danny Coulson also testified in a deposition on Tuesday that he and other senior FBI leaders were stunned when they saw live network TV images of FBI tanks ramming deep into the sect's compound on April 19, 1993, said Houston attorney Michael Caddell. Mr. Coulson is the first top FBI official involved in the 1993 incident to be questioned under oath in the Branch Davidians' wrongful-death lawsuit….."

Dallas Morning News 2/24/00 Lee Hancock "… The founding commander of the FBI's hostage rescue team and one of its most experienced tactical experts, Mr. Coulson was one of the bureau's key decision-makers in drafting the detailed gassing-operation plan that Attorney General Janet Reno ultimately approved……… But early proposals that called for using tanks in the initial stages of the operation to demolish the building were removed from the final plan approved in Washington, FBI and Justice Department records show. ……. "Mr. Coulson made it clear that the penetrations of the tanks into the building were deviations, were inconsistent with the plan approved by the attorney general," Mr. Caddell said. …… ….. "It's completely understandable from Mr. Coulson's testimony that on April 19, Rogers and Jamar decided to jettison the plans that had been approved in Washington," Mr. Caddell said….."

Dallas Morning News 2/24/00 Lee Hancock "… One Justice Department official said that Mr. Coulson's testimony may be of limited importance because he acknowledged that he was not in the FBI command center that kept direct communications with FBI leaders in Waco. "He wasn't in a position to know if there were authorized modifications to the plan," the official said. "He also said that it was his experience that the people on the ground have some discretion." ……..

Dallas Morning News 2/24/00 Lee Hancock "… The FBI pleading stated that the Branch Davidians have offered no evidence that either commander ordered agents to shoot. But it added that "if government officials were to have fired into the compound, such gunfire would not be 'unprovoked,' nor inconsistent with the FBI's deadly force policy." ......,Mr. Caddell said the government's latest argument appears to be a retreat from the FBI's long-standing assertion that none of its agents fired during the standoff.... "Government lawyers are moving away from an absolute position that there was no government gunfire on April 19," he said. "Those are the first cracks in the stone wall." ..."

Dallas Morning News 2/24/00 Lee Hancock "… Local firefighters were kept away for almost 45 minutes after they responded to the blaze. Mr. Jamar later said he could not let them near the compound sooner for fear that sect members could have shot them. But Mr. Caddell said Wednesday that Mr. Coulson's testimony could strengthen the sect's claims about government negligence in failing to prepare adequately for a fire. "He acknowledged that the attorney general had instructed them to ensure that adequate firefighting equipment was there and told them that cost was not an issue," Mr. Caddell said. "The FBI had acknowledged investigating the use of armored firefighting equipment, but for reasons unknown to Mr. Coulson, they didn't have any." Instead, draft plans for the tear-gassing indicate, FBI officials decided to rely on the closest nearby civilian fire department. That largely volunteer department then had only three paid employees, FBI records indicate……"

Dallas Morning News 2/24/00 Lee Hancock "… Other FBI documents show that senior bureau negotiators and behavioral experts warned that sending in tanks guaranteed violence and loss of life. Mr. Coulson has previously said that he did not know of another FBI operation in which armored vehicles were used to assault a barricaded building. He vetoed use of tanks in the 1992 standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, when Mr. Rogers asked to use armored vehicles to demolish the building where white supremacist Randy Weaver was holed up. Mr. Coulson told Congress that he rejected that proposal because tanks would cause panic and loss of life……."

Freeper aristeides 2/24/00 remarks "…..But weren't people in Washington following events in the FBI command center (and, I believe, also in the White House)? Even if they didn't give the critical orders, they could countermand orders that, for example, authorized the use of tanks. Reno was in the FBI command center until -- allegedly, according to the current story -- shortly after 10 AM. Hubbell says he was going back and forth between the FBI building and the Department of Justice. I think one can assume high-ranking people were in the White House Situation Room, which we know was on full alert……"

Dallas Morning News 2/24/00 Lee Hancock "… One Justice Department official said that Mr. Coulson's testimony may be of limited importance because he acknowledged that he was not in the FBI command center that kept direct communications with FBI leaders in Waco. But, according to Coulson's book "No Heroes", he was following events in the FBI building. This from pp. 452-3 of "No Heroes": I was in the submarine [the Strategic Intelligence and Operations Center in the FBI building], watching the whole thing on the bank of television sets and following the actions of Sage, Rogers, and the others via telephone linkup with the command post……" I paced about the big room -- the small command center where I usually sat was occupied by Reno, Clarke, Potts, and a few other big shots. Reno left shortly after 10 A.M. to make a speech. I stayed in the big room -- more pacing space. ….."

Freeper archy "…..They don't even get ourt of the first paragraf befoire the lies begin. The British Anteon is a subsidiary of an American defense and intelligence community contractor, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. More cover-up coming:
Anteon Corp. launches acquisition campaign, buys Vector BY JOHN MOORE (john_moore@fcw.com)
Anteon Corp. has embarked on an acquisition strategy that the company believes will make the Fairfax, Va.-based integrator a $500 million company in less than three years.
Anteon launched its acquisition foray two weeks ago, purchasing Vector Data Systems Inc., a $30 million Alexandria, Va.-based company specializing in command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) systems. Now Anteon is setting its sights on companies in the $50 million to $100 million range and above, according to Noreen Centracchio, vice president of corporate development at Anteon. ….."

Times/UK 2/19/00 Damian Whitworth "…… A BRITISH company is to stage a re-enactment of the final day of the Waco siege, with Royal Navy helicopter pilots being given the key role in unravelling the mysteries of how up to 80 people died. …….. Vector Data Systems, a Peterborough-based company that often works with the Ministry of Defence and specialises in infra-red imaging, will organise the re-enactment, which is expected to take place next month near Fort Hood, Texas. ……."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2/19/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "….. Special counsel John C. Danforth has asked a federal judge to keep the public and the press out of next month's test to determine whether government agents fired at the Branch Davidians during the 1993 Waco siege. The former senator argues that "piecemeal" disclosure of his investigation "would be a profound disservice to the cause of justice." ……Danforth signed a memo to Judge Smith in response to motions by news organizations seeking to open the test. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the San Antonio Express-News have joined The Associated Press and the Dallas Morning News in seeking access. They claim that closing the test impairs their First Amendment right to gather news and undermines the test's credibility with the public. ……"

Freeper Carry_Okie "….. The glass of a mirror is adsoprptive of some frequencies and others not. It depends upon the spectral adsorption/transmittance of the material as you are clearly aware. The sheetstock of the blind could adsorb IR radiation and convective heat from all that gunfire in excess of the amount from people on the inside of the material, rise in temperature, conduct the heat, and change its radiative energy on the outside. Because the emissivity is high it might be a good radiator. The paint adsorbing the radiation nearby might do the same. These surfaces would integrate the adsorption of the incident energy and increase their thermal radiation. ……… These distinctions would probably not be visible to humans watching the video tape. One would have to perform a digital analysis on the pixels but the data might be there. If, on a cold day you stood in front of a mirror, and you had a very sensitive detector like a FLIR, you could eventually get a change in the radiative power off the surface, but you would probably need a computer to see it. …… Other surfaces would reflect some of the light based upon their poorer emissivities. Hence my comments about the spectral detection frequencies of the sensor in the FLIR and the nature of the materials in the area. One could know the materials measure the differences and do the math. I do not know what they are but it might be worth a look. But there is one more distinction. ……As I recall (and this is deep memory), the signal off the detector array in a FLIR is continuous. Unlike a cryostatic IR camera for example, FLIR is called a "staring array". It is thus particularly good at detecting changes in energy and cannot as easily measure absolute energy. This makes it particularly suited to seeing something like a flash from a gun. To get an image off a mirrror you thus might have to dither the camera to get the image. (I have never done image analysis off FLIR, but it sounds like a hoot.) ….FLIR works in aircraft because it is moving. I just don't know if the post processing could be done. It is perhaps worth a look….."

Associated Press 2/17/00 Michelle Mittelstadt "…..Government officials now say a type of infrared camera used by the FBI during a siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993 is capable of detecting gunfire - an about-face. Lawyers for Branch Davidian plaintiffs who have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the government called the acknowledgment a "stunning reversal" from prior claims the camera could not capture images of gunfire. ……… "

Washington Post 2/18/00 David Vise Lorraine Adams "…. Eight gunmen firing submachine guns and pistols. Grenades exploding near a debris field of broken glass, aluminum and tubs of water. Men with painted faces running from place to place in camouflage fatigues alongside three tanks. And pilots from the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom flying Lynx helicopters overhead carrying special infrared cameras to record the entire event……. No one knows precisely how high expenses will run, but one official said it will cost about $300,000 just to transport the British equipment and personnel across the Atlantic Ocean to Texas. A government official has said the entire demonstration will cost an estimated $750,000……"If the judge lifted the order requiring the joint demonstration, the FBI and the Justice Department would back out of this in a minute," Caddell said yesterday. "The bottom line is this is something they are being dragged into kicking and screaming and they are gritting their teeth." ……"

St. Louis Post Dispatch 2/17/00 Terry Ganey William Freivogel "….The 21-page blueprint was drawn up during a five-hour, closed-door meeting in the offices of Special Counsel John C. Danforth. Attorneys for the Justice Department and the Branch Davidian survivors signed a document outlining the rules of the test, which may take place as soon as March 18 at Fort Hood, Texas. …… The test will involve six people firing an array of weapons in single shots, short bursts and on full automatic. The shooters will fire from various positions - prone, kneeling and standing. They will wear various combinations of protective clothing such as body armor, flight suits, fire retardant suits and camouflage sniper garb. ……. Weapons and ammunition to be tested

* Heckler & Koch 9mm MP5 submachine gun (suppressed)
9mm 147 grain Hydroshock hollowpoint
* Remington Automatic shotgun M870 12 g
Magnum 00 Buck, 1 oz. Rifled slug
* Heckler & Koch 9mm MP5 submachine gun
9mm 147 grain Hydroshock hollowpoint
* Rifle M-16 rifle with M203 grenade launcher
.223 standard military issue and flashbangs
* CAR-15 rifle
.223 standard military issue
* M-79 launcher
M-79 Ferret, M651 and Flashbang rounds
* Browning 88 9mm pistol
9mm 147 grain Hydroshock hollowpoint
* M60 machine gun
7.62 belt-fed standard military issue
* Mk-19
40mm flashbangs

The Dallas Morning News 2/18/00 Lee Hancock "….. British experts say data not considered classified in their country The release of full plans for a potentially pivotal infrared field test in the Branch Davidian case came after FBI officials were forced to abandon their claim that even basic information about the camera used in Waco was classified, an infrared expert said Thursday. ……. Justice Department and FBI officials had contended for months, to both a federal court and to congressional investigators, that revealing even the manufacturer of the camera or basic data about how high it operated in Waco would jeopardize law enforcement secrets and classified national security information. They offered that argument to U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. of Waco in November when they tried to convince him to reject the recommendation of the Waco special counsel's office for a field test. Not only would such a test be confusing and scientifically invalid, they wrote in the November pleading, it also could compromise government secrets. "Disclosure of even the most fundamental information would permit identification of the aircraft and provide notice to those who seek to avoid detection by federal law enforcement," the pleading said. ............A British Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday that the loan was contingent on U.S. agreement that there would be no public access to sensitive operational information about the aircraft and its camera. But in Wednesday's meeting to finalize the March tests, the court's British-based scientific experts and British defense ministry representative said none of the information that the FBI and the Justice Department had tried to withhold was considered secret or sensitive in their country, said Edward Allard, a retired infrared expert who attended the briefing on behalf of the sect's lawyers. ......"

2/18/00 Freeper Ol’Dan Tucker "…..Somehow I think their fallback story may be that it was some Delta Force member who accidentally fired off a few rounds. Maybe. But I think the cover story is already in place. I seem to remember reading that either the Davidian lawyers or McNulty said there's FLIR footage that shows gunfire coming from the building that's firing to the outside. (I wonder why that wasn't included in WANR?) According to the FIB's "Rules of Engagement" for the gas attack, if the feds came under fire from the people in the building, they were allowed to shoot back. And that'll be the end of the discussion about the what the FLIR shows……."

AP Newsday 2/18/00 "……An attorney for Branch Davidians suing the government asked the Department of Defense on Friday to declassify 5,000 pages of documents that he says could help show whether soldiers fired at the burning compound. ``Public interest demands the public be informed of the military activities undertaken against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil,'' Jim Brannon wrote Defense Secretary William Cohen. Brannon said he will ask a federal judge to grant access to the documents if Cohen declines his request. The Defense Department did not return telephone calls seeking comment. …….. Last month, the Defense Department, which acknowledges members of its elite Delta Force were on the scene during the siege in an observational role, denied gunfire by personnel in their agencies -- ``based on currently available information.'' ……"

AP Newsday 2/18/00 "……In another development Friday, Special Counsel John Danforth filed a motion in federal court opposing media access to a re-enactment next month at Fort Hood. …… But Danforth told U.S. District Judge Walter Smith that ``the quickest way to discredit an investigation is to provide the media with selective information during its course.'' ….."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 2/18/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "….. Everyone agrees now how to re-enact the conditions of the 1993 Waco siege, but the test next month may not conclusively determine if the FBI fired at the Branch Davidians. "It will still be subject to expert interpretation," said J. Michael Bradford, the U.S. attorney from Beaumont, Texas. …….. After five months of mostly secret work, the field-test agreement is the biggest public development so far in Danforth's investigation. Without the involvement of his office, it's doubtful that a joint test involving the Branch Davidians and the government would be conducted…… The Branch Davidians and the government will likely have different interpretations of the test results when the two sides face each other in a trial in May on a wrongful death suit. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith Jr., who will preside over the trial, could rule for the government or the Branch Davidians based on the evidence he hears. Later, Danforth could reach a different conclusion in his final report, to be released sometime after the trial. That's because the independent expert -- Vector Data Systems -- will make a separate report to Danforth......."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 2/18/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "….. Caddell says that if the flashes are gunfire, Danforth probably would want to call back FBI agents who have been questioned before and ask them more questions, this time under oath. Some may be given a lie-detector test. Edward Allard, the Branch Davidians' expert on infrared systems, suggested that Danforth might use his power to call a grand jury to deepen his Waco investigation. "Some people could be facing the loss of their pensions -- and prison," Allard said. ……."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 2/18/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "….. A last-minute change in plans for the Foot Hood test makes it more likely a flash will turn up on the tape. Allard, the Branch Davidians' expert, persuaded Danforth's infrared expert to include an exotic gun that emits a big flash -- the Mark-19 grenade launcher. Allard wanted the gun included because it can fire 375 repetitions a minute. He believes he sees flashes on the 1993 tape that repeat at that rate and he thinks grenades from the launcher started the fire that destroyed the complex. The draft plan for the test, drawn up by the British firm Vector Data Systems, did not include the Mark-19. The government at first objected to its inclusion because there is no record that any government agents had been issued the weapon at Waco, although FBI agents have trained with it. Pentagon officials also questioned whether the Mark-19 could safely fire the 40 mm flashbangs that Allard wants to test. Allard dismissed this question, citing the government's own specifications. In the end, it was included in the test plan……"

St. Louis Post Dispatch 2/18/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "….. In addition, the Fort Hood test could show that the shooters firing the test weapons are visible on the tape and that their gun barrels heat up during firing -- findings that would indicate the 1993 flashes were not gunfire because shooters are not visible and there is no sign of hot barrels. Publicly and privately, the lawyers for the Branch Davidians exude confidence that the test will prove their case. This confidence is based partly on their cast of three reputable infrared experts who say they believe the flashes are gunfire, a cast that includes Allard. In addition, Allard believes that the former Royal Air Force men at Vector Data, the Danforth experts conducting the test, think it is quite possible the flashes are gunfire. The Justice Department is uneasy with Vector Data's role in the test. The people from Vector Data are experts at interpreting infrared tape but are not scientists. For this reason, the Justice Department sought at Wednesday's meeting to have its own scientists sign off on the scientific validity of the test when it is conducted. Judge Smith ruled against the government. ….."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 2/18/00 "…… Danforth told U.S. District Walter S. Smith that "piecemeal disclosure" of his investigation "would be a profound disservice to the cause of justice" and discredit his investigation in the same way that leaks discredited the investigations of other special prosecutors. …… Danforth personally signed the memo to Judge Smith in response to motions by news organizations seeking to open the test. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and San Antonio Express-News have joined the Associated Press and Dallas Morning News in seeking accesst. They claim that closing the test impairs their First Amendment right to gather news and undermines the test's credibility with the public. …….. Danforth told Judge Smith that he had vowed from the day he was appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno not to provide an "inning by inning" report. Piecemeal disclosure is "misleading, incomplete, and creates a feeding frenzy of speculation and rumor" that can damage the investigation" and erode public confidence, wrote Danforth. The "recent history of the Independent Counsel law" demonstrates the problems of "engaging in running banter with the media," said Danforth. Danforth did not name names, but independent counsels Kenneth W. Starr and Lawrence Walsh were criticized for leaks. …….In a remark directed at the press, Danforth added, "The Special Counsel would note that those who, in the past, have condemned leaks from investigators now demand piecemeal access to fragments of this investigation." ……"

The Dallas Morning News 2/18/00 Lee Hancock "… The release of full plans for a potentially pivotal infrared field test in the Branch Davidian case came after FBI officials were forced to abandon their claim that even basic information about the camera used in Waco was classified, an infrared expert said Thursday....... Justice Department and FBI officials had contended for months, to both a federal court and to congressional investigators, that revealing even the manufacturer of the camera or basic data about how high it operated in Waco would jeopardize law enforcement secrets and classified national security information. They offered that argument to U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. of Waco in November when they tried to convince him to reject the recommendation of the Waco special counsel's office for a field test. Not only would such a test be confusing and scientifically invalid, they wrote in the November pleading, it also could compromise government secrets. "Disclosure of even the most fundamental information would permit identification of the aircraft and provide notice to those who seek to avoid detection by federal law enforcement," the pleading said. ......:

The Dallas Morning News 2/18/00 Lee Hancock "…But in Wednesday's meeting to finalize the March tests, the court's British-based scientific experts and British defense ministry representative said none of the information that the FBI and the Justice Department had tried to withhold was considered secret or sensitive in their country, said Edward Allard, a retired infrared expert who attended the briefing on behalf of the sect's lawyers. …….. "The FBI had thought originally that the height of the aircraft, how high it was flying in operation, should be classified, and the British said, 'We don't care,' " Dr. Allard said. "So finally, someone said, 'Is there anything here that is classified?' " FBI officials in Washington did not return phone calls Thursday. U.S. Attorney Mike Bradford of Beaumont, one of the lead lawyers in the government's Waco trial team, also did not return telephone calls. On Wednesday evening, he said that the information was released "by the Defense Department - not by us." Pentagon officials said Thursday that they had no involvement because the information came from the FBI…..".

The Dallas Morning News 2/18/00 Lee Hancock "…FBI officials have said that the flashes that appeared on the back side of the building during the last hour of the siege were caused by sunlight glints or electronic glitches in their camera. Experts hired by the government have also contended that the camera was too far away and not sensitive enough to record ground gunfire. But after Wednesday's meeting at the office of special counsel John C. Danforth in St. Louis, Mr. Bradford told reporters that the camera used in Waco was capable of detecting some types of gunfire and might record some gun flashes during the March test. But he said the government remains confident that proper scientific analysis of data from the Fort Hood experiment will show that any gun flashes recorded are different from the flashes on the 1993 Waco infrared video. On Thursday, however, the Davidians' lead lawyer said that he believes that the test will provide clear evidence that the flashes were gunshots. "What the government is trying to do is set an impossible standard to give themselves an out," said the lawyer, Mike Caddell of Houston. "If we get flashes from gunfire that are at least similar to the flashes on April 19, I don't think anyone will be fooled." ….."

The Dallas Morning News 2/18/00 Lee Hancock "…The protocol also calls for no news media or public access to the test. After Wednesday's meeting, both sides in the case said they would not oppose some news media presence at Fort Hood. But on Thursday, Mr. Danforth filed a pleading with Judge Smith arguing that he should deny a motion for media access filed earlier this week by The Dallas Morning News and The Associated Press. Mr. Danforth's four-page argument noted that no one from the special counsel's office has released information about their ongoing inquiry, and allowing journalists to be present for any part of it - including the infrared test - "would be a profound disservice to the cause of justice." ….. "The test and its results will not be 'shrouded in secrecy' but will be completely disclosed at trial (if not before) and in the final report of the special counsel." ......"

Waco Tribune-Herald 2/19/00 Mark England "……If shots were fired, where are the shooters? That's the question asked Friday by Bradford, who attended the St. Louis meeting where protocol was adopted for a test to determine whether an infrared video taken on the final day at Mount Carmel picked up evidence of FBI agents firing at the Davidians. ...... The Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) video from Mount Carmel shows repeated flashes, but no people are visible. "If there's a flash in the testing, you can't just conclude that means there was gunfire on April 19th," Bradford said. "To me, that would mean the opposite. It would indicate it's not a gun flash because you can't see a person there. There's more to be analyzed than just the flashes.". …."

Waco Tribune-Herald 2/19/00 Mark England "…… Since a FLIR camera creates video images by registering temperature differences between objects, Houston attorney Mike Caddell contends that a person lying on the ground would gradually disappear from a FLIR video as his body temperature adjusted to the environment. "No one has suggested the FBI was so stupid as to run around Mount Carmel firing weapons in an exposed, standing position," said Caddell, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. "The protocol will start out with guys in a prone position on the ground. If those people disappear from the thermal imaging after a few minutes, I think the government's got no case. What's Michael Bradford going to say then?" ……Caddell also has questioned whether the clothing worn by government agents shielded them from detection. That's why the protocol for the test calls for those firing weapons to wear Nomex flight suits, fire retardant suits and camouflage sniper garb - clothing worn by government agents on the final day at Mount Carmel. "As I understand the plaintiffs' position, the reason we don't see a person holding a gun is that the people were wearing FLIR-resistant clothing," Bradford said. "During the test, we'll have people moving around wearing clothing that the plaintiffs requested, clothing they contend is FLIR-resistant. If we can see them walking around, that will be significant. We will clearly have a different situation from one tape to another." …… "I think the test results will be clear to any objective observer," Caddell said. "Everyone but the FBI will be convinced of what happened at Mount Carmel. The only reason the FBI won't be convinced is because they're in denial. I don't think this is going to be a close call." ….."

DallasNews 2/28/00 Lee Hancock "…..A key FBI decision-maker wrote in late March 1993 that he feared bureau officials in Waco were lobbying to gas the Branch Davidians because the officials were tired, frustrated and under pressure from the FBI's hostage rescue team commander, documents show. Congressional officials said that memo is particularly disturbing because they have never seen it or several other internal FBI records detailing the contentious decision-making process that lead to the tear-gassing of the Branch Davidian compound. Some of those documents, which The Dallas Morning News recently obtained, show that senior FBI officials were initially deeply skeptical of their on-scene commander's insistence that tear gas was the only safe way to end the Waco standoff....... "A lot of pressure is coming from Rogers," deputy assistant FBI director Danny O. Coulson wrote in an internal FBI memo during the Waco siege on March 23, 1993. "We had similar problems in Idaho with him and he argued and convinced the SACs [local FBI special agents in charge of the incident] that Weaver would not come out. That proved to be wrong. I believe he is a significant part of the problem here." ….."

DallasNews 2/28/00 Lee Hancock "…..Tens of thousands of pages of documents on Waco have been turned over to U.S. House and Senate investigating committees. But investigators say they've received far less than half of the records requested. Senate staffers said last week that their efforts to obtain what may be key FBI records from the Branch Davidian siege, including files of the bureau's senior leaders, have been stymied…... More than five months after the subpoena was issued, House officials say, they have also been told that thousands of pages of records have been withheld because they are still under review. "We've had a subpoena out there for all relevant documents - all documents - since Sept. 7, 1999," said Mark Corallo, spokesman for the House Government Reform Committee. "Is the Department of Justice withholding only embarrassing documents from us? It makes you wonder." ……"

DallasNews 2/28/00 Lee Hancock "…..FBI officials in Waco started pushing to use tear gas to end the standoff soon after it began, records indicate. And on March 22, three weeks into the siege, FBI negotiators recommended that in writing……. The day after the negotiators' recommendation went to Washington, Mr. Coulson wrote superiors saying that he believed the request was driven by fatigue and frustration of Waco personnel and by pressure from Mr. Rogers. "All of their intelligence indicates that [sect leader] David [Koresh] does not intend suicide and that he will come out eventually," stated Mr. Coulson's memo, which congressional investigators said they have never been given by Justice or FBI officials. ….. Mr. Coulson, founder of the FBI's hostage rescue team, wrote that negotiations were being hurt by an inconsistent tactical strategy, including repeated punishment of the sect just when they appeared to be cooperating. Mr. Coulson wrote that the bureau's lead negotiators had told him personally that "in the short term we will continue to get out very small numbers, [but] in the long term we will get them all out. "Bottom line, I suggest that it is not time to ask the AG or the president for permission to assault the compound with gas," he wrote. "Progress is still being made." ……. "

DallasNews 2/28/00 Lee Hancock "…..Three days later, Mr. Jamar told FBI headquarters to that he wanted to bash the compound with 60-ton tanks. That operation and related efforts to bulldoze the sect's cars away from the area just outside the building would be part of an escalating effort to punish the Branch Davidians for not meeting surrender demands, a March 26 outline of Mr. Jamar's proposal indicated. Mr. Coulson responded with another memo, addressed to deputy FBI director Larry Potts. "Jeff wasn't sure that we had to go outside the FBI to get approval to 'nick' the building. Ha, Ha," Mr. Coulson wrote. Although the Branch Davidians' cars were moved by FBI tanks, plans to cut away siding on the front and bash two feet into the compound's gym were not carried out. ….."

DallasNews 2/28/00 Lee Hancock "…..Despite statements in FBI memos that the cars were moved to punish the Davidians, Mr. Jamar told the public, FBI negotiators and other law enforcement agencies that it was done for his agents' safety. Texas Rangers investigating the shootout that began the standoff were irate. They believed that moving the cars ruined evidence that might prove who killed four agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms during their initial Feb. 28 raid on the compound. "The Rangers thought. . . . that this had become a training exercise for the FBI and they would try almost anything that came to mind," Ranger Capt. David Byrnes said in a July 1993 FBI interview. Justice Department records show that negotiators were also outraged. The bureau's lead negotiator later characterized it as "the worst decision he's seen in 21 years with the FBI." ……"

DallasNews 2/28/00 Lee Hancock "…..FBI records show that on March 28, Mr. Jamar sent a more aggressive proposal to FBI Deputy Director Potts: he wanted full "discretion" to carry out a "mass" tear-gas assault any time in the next week because of the approach of Easter and Passover - key dates to Mr. Koresh's doomsday prophecies. But Mr. Jamar included an explicit warning: Any effort to introduce tear gas would be met by the same kind of massive gunfire that started the standoff. "It is almost certain that we will be met with violent retaliation," he wrote. Mr. Jamar apparently expected controversy. When he faxed his proposal to Washington, he included a personal note to Mr. Potts stating that some of bureau officials already "had a problem with this total approach because it doesn't give much room for the bad guys to do anything else besides 'fight.' " …… . It also challenged Mr. Jamar's argument that an all-out gassing was needed because of the danger of Branch Davidian gunfire. The memo noted that the tanks that would gas the compound could withstand even the sect's .50-caliber rifles. ….. FBI leaders said after the siege that they had to escalate the gas assault because of sect gunfire. ….."

DallasNews 2/28/00 Lee Hancock "…..In an apparent response to Mr. Jamar's request for full discretion on carrying out the plan, the notes stated that the FBI's Waco command had authority to launch an emergency operation - using gas and tanks - only if the FBI got wind that the sect was about to commit mass suicide. "[The] only thing left to the discretion of on-scene commander is the emergency response," the notes stated…….. FBI leaders, including Mr. Potts, told Congress in 1995 that Mr. Jamar acted properly when he ordered tanks to tear into the building on April 19 - even though the tear-gas plan approved by Ms. Reno called for starting the demolition of the compound only after 48 hours of gassing. Mr. Potts, who could not be reached for comment, also told Congress that he had no idea that Mr. Jamar felt certain that any use of tear gas would provoke Branch Davidian gunfire. Under the operational plan, Waco FBI commanders were allowed to escalate from a gradual gassing to an all-out gas attack only if they detected compound gunfire. Mr. Jamar testified in 1995 that he was always "99 percent certain" that any gassing would provoke gunfire, making escalation of the FBI's assault inevitable. But Mr. Potts told Congress that he "certainly didn't understand" that. "If you'd known Mr. Jamar felt that way, would you have had different advice for the attorney general?" one congressman demanded. The deputy FBI director responded: "I would've conveyed it up the line, and I think the decision-makers would have - would have had to significantly consider that." ….."

NationalPost 2/26/00 Jan Cienski "….But over the past year, the government's case has been slowly unravelling. Now there is evidence that the FBI lied about using military-issue tear gas, lied about a U.S. military presence at the siege, may have violated its procedures when it stormed the compound and may have fired at the Davidians as they tried to escape the burning compound. …… At the time, much of the United States was firmly behind the FBI. A Gallup poll found that 83% of Americans approved of the agency's actions. For most of the siege, the hundreds of reporters gathered beyond the FBI cordon were forced to rely on the agency's version of what was going on inside. Federal authorities worked hard to demonize the Davidians, admittedly not a very difficult task for a strange little group obsessed with the wilder sections of the Book of Revelation.......Any positive information, such as the videotape of Mr. Koresh playing with his family in the compound, was not released by the FBI……"

NationalPost 2/26/00 Jan Cienski "….From the first, the siege was seen by many Americans as a botched and ill-planned operation. But suspicions over the truthfulness of the FBI's version of events was limited to a militant fringe….. The Oklahoma City bombing took the air out of the militia movement and made anyone who suspected an FBI conspiracy at Waco look like a nut.. ..But the quiet consensus over what happened at Waco began to break down under the attack of two renegade researchers, Michael McNulty and David Hardy, who disbelieved the government's story…… As information about the evidence in the case began to circulate, the FBI's case began to fray….."

NationalPost 2/26/00 Jan Cienski "….The first big break was the FBI's admission last year that it had lied to Ms. Reno about the use of military issue incendiary tear gas on the final day of the siege. A grainy videotape showed agents asking for permission to use the gas and then firing canisters at a bunker on the compound grounds. The agency continues to insist that the gas had nothing to do with the fire that broke out hours later, but its credibility was weakened….. In the last couple of months, the government has suffered even more embarrassments. Documents revealed that three members of the military's elite Delta Force were on hand when the FBI stormed the compound. There is no proof that the soldiers took an active role in the operation, but again it undercuts years of FBI statements……"

NationalPost 2/26/00 Jan Cienski "….The most pressing issue now revolves around just what happened when the FBI attacked Mount Carmel. The agency has always insisted that its agents never fired into the burning compound. But an infrared videotape made by an FBI surveillance plane on the day of the attack captured what some experts say appear to be muzzle flashes. The FBI insists that the flashes are simply sunlight glinting off a metal roof. ……. If the new tape picks up traces of gunfire, the sect's contention that agents fired on them will get a big boost. As the test day neared, government lawyers acknowledged that the infrared camera the FBI used during the 1993 Waco siege can detect gunfire, a reversal of the agency's long-held position. ......"

NationalPost 2/26/00 Jan Cienski "….In yet another chink in the government case, Danny Coulson, former deputy assistant director of the FBI, acknowledged this week that sending tanks into the Branch Davidian compound was inconsistent with the Washington-approved plan for ending the siege…… "Only in the last six months are we finally getting at the truth," said Michael Caddell, a lawyer for the Branch Davidians. "Only when we got to the civil lawsuit and started taking depositions has the truth come out."…."

Freeper Ol’Dan Tucker from Carol Valentine's Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum, A Death Cult Wears Black page: "…..We now come to another practice of the US military and especially Special Operations: Body laundering, sometimes called "body washing." When Special Ops personnel die on secret and illegal missions, a problem is created for the military bureaucracy. The military cannot tell the families how the serviceman died, so the body is "laundered." That is, a cover story is invented to explain the death, and the body of the dead soldier is mutilated in such a way to corroborate the cover story. ……..Journalists Frank Greve and Ellen Warren wrote of the practice in their series which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on December 16 & 17, 1984 (cited above). According to the article, during the Vietnam War, soldiers were killed while on CIA secret missions in Laos and Cambodia. "If a guy was killed on a mission, and if it was sensitive politically, we'd ship the body back home and have a jeep roll over on him at Fort Huachuca," one former officer told the two Knight-Ridder writers. Ft. Huachuca is a covert operations base in Arizona. ……"Or," the former officer said, "we'd arrange a chopper crash, or wait until one happened and insert a body or two into the wreckage later. It's not that difficult." …….. "If I'm on one of these missions that's deep, deep black, you can safely bet few, if any, in Congress--maybe not even the secretary of defense--knows about what the hell I'm doing," says a black operative. "And if I get killed and my body's fortunate enough to be recovered, you can also bet I'll turn up dead in a car wreck in some place like Munich or Berlin." (Insight Magazine, January 29, 1996, Secrecy Shrouds Spy Deaths.)……"

newsmax.com 3/10/00 "……[David] Keys, a 17-year veteran of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that about 4 p.m. on April 19, over an hour before Texas Rangers took possession of the Mt. Carmel site, his superiors ordered him to permit a white van to enter the area "to pick up a body," according to James Brannon, an attorney for the plaintiffs. The trooper said he saw an empty body bag inside the van. …. When the white van left the compound, Keys said he saw the body bag containing what looked like the shape of a corpse, Brannon said. "The van that Keys saw could only have been kept secret, at that level, by the military," Brannon told reporters. "If somebody was killed, they could just say that he was killed in a training accident. It's a mystery who it was and we're waiting for somebody in the government to tell us." ……"Keys also says that he saw something as big as a door being loaded into a U-Haul truck. One of the doors from Mount Carmel has been missing since the day of the fire - the door that might prove that during the Feb. 28 raid, the ATF fired first," Brannon added. …..Keys also testified that earlier on April 19, 1993, while he was at the DPS Waco commando center, he overheard an FBI agent say that a "firefight" was under way at the back of the Mount Carmel compound, Brannon said. …."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 3/11/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "…..A federal judge has closed the March 19 re-enactment of the conditions of the Waco siege, stating that the press has no First Amendment right to access to such pretrial scientific tests. U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. rejected attempts by the Post-Dispatch, New York Times, Dallas Morning News and The Associated Press to obtain access to the test at Fort Hood, Texas……..The news organizations maintained that closing the test interfered with their First Amendment right to gather news and undermined the credibility of Danforth's investigation by "shrouding" it in secrecy. They also pointed out that the test was being conducted as part of the wrongful death suit filed by the Branch Davidians against the government and that neither of those parties objected to the presence of a press pool. Judge Smith said he was denying the media request for "legal and practical" reasons. The practical reasons were security and safety. He said the viewing area for the test is small and that military should not be "responsible for assuring the safety of more civilians than necessary." The parties to the lawsuit, Danforth's staff and members of Congress will be allowed to attend. The judge likened the re-enactment to other pretrial tests that are closed to the press and public, such as autopsies, DNA tests and lie detectors. He also likened the test to a "crime scene" and said denying the press access would reduce the "likelihood of any type of spurious test results." ……"

San Antonio Express-News 3/8/00 Dick Reavis "……A Texas state trooper who stood guard as the flames were subsiding April 19, 1993, at Mount Carmel, told lawyers Wednesday that he saw a cargo van enter the property and leave carrying a body bag, that a rental truck spirited debris away from the scene and that he heard FBI agents discussing a gunfight. Sgt. David Keys, a 17-year veteran of the Texas Department of Public Safety, provided details of his observations in a Waco deposition for attorneys in a wrongful death suit that Davidian survivors have filed against the federal government. Keys told the lawyers that, at about 4 p.m. on April 19, some two hours before Texas Rangers took custody of Mount Carmel from FBI agents, he was told by Texas DPS personnel he should allow a white mini-cargo van to enter Mount Carmel "to pick up a body," plaintiff's attorney James Brannon reported. ….."

San Antonio Express-News 3/8/00 Dick Reavis "……Keys also said that when the van left the site, he looked inside and saw a body bag with a shape that could have been that of a corpse. "The van that Keys saw could only have been kept secret, at that level, by the military," Brannon declared following the testimony. "If somebody was killed, they could just say that he was killed in a training accident. It's a mystery who it was and we're waiting for somebody in the government to tell us." The van, Brannon said, never has been mentioned in hearings and inquiries into Mount Carmel. ….."

San Antonio Express-News 3/8/00 Dick Reavis "…"Keys also says that he also saw something as big as a door being loaded into a U-Haul truck. One of the doors from Mount Carmel has been missing since the day of the fire - the door that might prove that during the Feb. 28 raid, the ATF fired first," Brannon said. Testimony in the 1994 San Antonio trial of 11 Branch Davidians established that one of Mount Carmel's twin front doors was missing; the other was entered into evidence in the trial. The missing door, defense lawyers insisted, would show agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had fired at unseen targets during the raid….."

San Antonio Express-News 3/8/00 Dick Reavis "…According to Brannon, Keys also testified that earlier on April 19, 1993, while Keys was at the DPS Waco commando center, he overhead an FBI agent who said that a "firefight" was under way at the back of the Mount Carmel compound. …….. Keys, who has not testified in the Waco matter before, told Brannon and government attorneys that he observed the van and the rental truck between 3 and 5 p.m., more than an hour before Rangers took custody of the scene….."

Freeper yaya123 3/9/00 "…..Is this Dick Reavis the same as author: "The Ashes of Waco : An Investigation by Dick J. Reavis "About the Author DICK J. REAVIS was a 1990 Nieman Fellow in Journalism. He has been a Senior Editor of Texas Monthly, a reporter for the Dallas Observer, and a Business Correspondent for the San Antonio Light, and has written for numerous other publications. He is also the author of several books, including Conversations with Moctezuma and Fodor's Texas. He lives in Dallas. " Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Book Description …….This is the story the daily press didn't give us, the definitive book about what happened at Mt. Carmel, near Waco, Texas, examined from both sides-the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the FBI on one hand, and David Koresh and his followers on the other. Dick J. Reavis points out that the government had little reason to investigate Koresh and even less to raid the compound at Mt. Carmel. The government lied to the public about most of what happened - about who fired the first shots, about drug allegations, about child abuse. The FBI was duplicitous and negligent in gassing Mt. Cannel - and that alone could have started the fire that killed seventy-six people…….Drawing on interviews with survivors of Koresh's movement (which dates back to 1935, long before Koresh was born), on published accounts, on trial transcripts, on esoteric religious tracts and audiotapes that tell us who Koresh was and why people followed him, and most of all on secret documents that the government has not released to the public yet, Reavis has uncovered the real story from beginning to end, including the trial that followed. It is a story about the very American, nineteenth-century roots of Koresh's theology, and it includes previously unpublished biographical details. Reavis quotes from Koresh himself at great length to create an extraordinary portrait of a movement, an assault, and an avoidable tragedy." …."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 3/10/00 Terry Ganey And William H . Freivogel "…..When Mike Caddell agreed to represent survivors of the government siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, few thought he had much of a chance to win his suit. But the Houston lawyer has managed to punch holes in the goverment's defense as the case approaches trial. His motive? Finding the truth, he says……. he was a big campaign contributor to President Bill Clinton. And didn't the Clinton administration supervise the siege that left about 80 Branch Davidians dead? Wasn't it Clinton's Justice Department that blocked attempts to get information about Waco? If there were doubters -- and Caddell says there were -- they have been silenced by the fact that he has taken the Branch Davidians' wrongful death case further than any of his colleagues thought possible when it was filed six years ago. Last July 1, he cleared a big obstacle when U.S. District Judge Walter Smith Jr. agreed to let some parts of the case proceed………"

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 3/10/00 Terry Ganey And William H . Freivogel "…..In December, Texas Lawyer magazine named Caddell as the lawyer with the most impact in Texas last year. The magazine said Caddell's persistence in the Branch Davidian case had done what a criminal trial and congressional hearings had not: punched a hole in the government's defense of its actions at Waco. Caddell stands about 5 feet 8 inches in his black boots. His brown hair is trimmed just above the collar. Boyish, but not cowboyish, he's passionate when he talks about his clients, who these days are the Branch Davidians. "People take him at his word, and they don't do that with a lot of lawyers in Texas," said one observer of the Texas legal scene. ……."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 3/10/00 Terry Ganey And William H . Freivogel "…..Caddell got the wrongful death civil case with the help of Richard DeGuerin, Koresh's lawyer. When Caddell picked up the civil case, 11 of the sect's survivors faced murder and conspiracy charges in a federal criminal case. Seven were convicted of lesser charges ranging from voluntary manslaughter to weapons violations. Representing the Davidians against the government was not popular in Texas. When the case against the government was filed in 1994, the public's perception of what happened at Waco reflected the government's explanations. "The general public believed the Davidians were nothing but a bunch of religious nuts and child molesters who needed killing," DeGuerin said. "It wasn't easy to find a lawyer . . . "

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 3/10/00 Terry Ganey And William H . Freivogel "…..Caddell thinks he will recover money for his clients but acknowledges that "there will be significant liability allocated to the Branch Davidian leadership for what happened at Mount Carmel. "Not everything you do can be about money," he says. "We take cases we believe in." The suit alleges that government wrongdoing and recklessness contributed to the loss of lives at Waco. Caddell said a guiding principle he has tried to follow since getting the case has been to put to rest as many conspiracy theories as possible. He said he suspected the Branch Davidians may have started the fire, "but the government could be culpable in precipitating or accelerating the fire or failing to take steps to stop the fire or impeding the escape from the fire." He said he first found it hard to believe that government agents fired guns but was convinced by flashes on the infrared tape recorded on the last day of the siege. "At the end of the day we are going to convince Judge Smith of that," Caddell predicted……"

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 3/10/00 Terry Ganey And William H . Freivogel "….."This case, by its nature, has drawn a lot of people who we might characterize as being on the fringe," Caddell said. "I wanted Danforth to know that here was someone who had some credibility. I didn't want him to come in and think this is someone who is a conspiracy theorist." Caddell says credibility is a lawyer's most valuable asset. He believes the government's credibility has slipped with Judge Smith and the public due to shifts in its positions………Caddell has a photo of himself with Clinton, who is wearing a University of Virginia T-shirt Caddell had given him. On the back of the shirt is a statement by the school's founder, Thomas Jefferson: "For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it will lead nor to any error so long as reason is left free to combat it." Records show that since Clinton first ran for president in 1991, Caddell has contributed more than $150,000 to his campaigns or to the Democratic National Committee, a source for soft money for all Democratic candidates. In 1997, the National Center for Responsive Politics ranked Caddell's law firm at 106 among the nation's top 400 contributors to Democrats. Caddell has been a guest for coffee at the White House. ….."

Dallas Morning News 3/9/00 Lee Hancock "…..Former FBI hostage rescue team commander Dick Rogers said in a recent deposition that he probably would've brought in armored firefighting equipment to the Branch Davidian siege if he'd known it existed, a court pleading stated Wednesday. ……. The deposition excerpts in Wednesday's court pleading focused on Mr. Rogers' recollections about deciding not to respond to any fire at the Davidian compound. The filing included none of his testimony about whether his agents fired guns on April 19. Under court rules, the deposition transcript will remain under court seal until early next month……. Ms. Reno told Congress after the siege that she directed FBI officials to have adequate emergency equipment lined up before the April 19 assault. A plaintiff's pleading filed last week noted that a deputy assistant FBI director said in a recent deposition that he understood that the attorney general's order included fire equipment. ...... In Wednesday's filing, Mr. Caddell stated that Mr. Rogers confirmed that he and Mr. Jamar decided "there would be no plan to fight a fire should one develop." But the former hostage rescue team commander said "he would have acted 'differently' if he had understood" that Ms. Reno's order included making adequate provision for fire equipment. Mr. Rogers said inquiries were made about armored firefighting equipment, but he was told "there was no such thing." The pleading stated that Mr. Rogers said he " 'probably would have had it brought out' if he'd known it had existed." …….. "

Dallas Morning News 3/9/00 Lee Hancock "…..The Branch Davidians' Wednesday pleading also argued that another FBI agent's recent deposition supported the sect's contention that the government's actions could have sparked some of the fires. Plaintiff's attorneys said that a hostage rescue team member testified last week that his armored vehicle and another Bradley fighting vehicle were each stocked with 10 pyrotechnic military gas rounds that day. Agents in the vehicles repeatedly fired tear gas canisters at the compound during the final assault…….. But Wednesday's motion by the sect's lawyers noted that the hostage rescue team member testified that he heard a colleague tell an FBI lawyer earlier this year that he had fired three rounds into the kitchen of the compound just before the building caught fire. The HRT member testified that his colleague also told the lawyer with the FBI's Congressional Affairs Office that he saw puffs of white smoke rise from that same area about 30 seconds after he fired. Military gas rounds used by the FBI burn for about 20 to 30 seconds after being fired to expel tear gas in a cloud of white smoke. ……"

Dallas Morning News 3/9/00 Lee Hancock "…..Also Wednesday, Mr. Caddell asked U.S. District Judge Walter Smith to fine the Justice Department $50,000 for violating his Jan. 15 deadline for handing over all government documents in the wrongful-death lawsuit. That motion noted that 80 percent of the 163,500 pages of records that have been turned over by the government did not come until after the court's discovery deadlines, and some have continued to arrive as late as March 3. ......"

Dallas News 3/6/00 Lee Hancock "…..Retired FBI Agent Peter Smerick, whose psychological profiles were termed the best predictors of the Waco tragedy by experts and negotiators involved in the siege, told FBI interviewers that he believed "the FBI misled the attorney general by giving her 'a slanted view of the operation' in Waco." A 1995 report obtained by The Dallas Morning News says that Mr. Smerick blamed FBI headquarters for convincing the attorney general that using tear gas was the only way to end the standoff peacefully. …… He said that he and one of the FBI's top negotiators had by then "concluded that the best strategy would have been to convert the Branch Davidian compound into a prison and simply announce to [sect leader David] Koresh that he was in the custody of the United States. This idea was not endorsed, however." "Smerick speculated that FBI headquarters viewed this option as one which would have caused them to 'lose face' and therefore was unacceptable," the report said…….The 15-page FBI report of Mr. Smerick's interview, written by the FBI general counsel's office, is labeled "attorney-client privileged and confidential." It has never before been made public, and lawyers representing the Branch Davidians in a federal wrongful-death lawsuit say they have never seen the document despite repeated requests for such information. ….. "

Dallas News 3/6/00 Lee Hancock "…..The report states that Mr. Smerick based his allegation that Ms. Reno was misled on the fact that his five Waco profiling memos were not in the "briefing book" that FBI leaders gave her when they began lobbying her on April 12 to approve using tear gas. Those memos warned that using force against the Branch Davidians would intensify a "bunker mentality" in which "they would rather die than surrender." Mr. Smerick's memos also warned that the sect considered its home "sacred ground" and would "fight back to the death" if the authorities tried to go in. "The bottom line is that we can always resort to tactical pressure, but it should be the absolute last option we should consider," one memo said. Two of the most experienced negotiators in Waco, including the current head of FBI negotiations and crisis management, said in recent depositions that they agreed with Mr. Smerick's assessments and recommendations in Waco. Both testified that they shared his belief that punitive FBI tactics and impatience killed negotiations and kept many Branch Davidians from leaving before the final day. ….."

Dallas News 3/6/00 Lee Hancock "…..Mr. Smerick's memos were so adamant about the danger of using force that they drew intense criticism from FBI leaders in Waco and Washington who favored tactical options, FBI records show. An administrative notebook kept by the hostage rescue team in Waco belittled his profiling of Mr. Koresh. One unsigned note in the notebook outlined Mr. Smerick's recommendations for ensuring "safety of children who are victims," and "facilitat[ing] peaceful surrender." It concluded: "psychological profile of a . . . [expletive] by jerks." …….. On March 9, Mr. Smerick told FBI interviewers, he was called by his boss in Washington and told that his future memos must go to Washington before being read by commanders in Waco. …… Although no one plainly stated that he would be censored, Mr. Smerick said in 1995, he felt unmistakable pressure to change his advice. He added in the confidential interview that he believed that "the traditionally independent process of FBI criminal analysis . . . was compromised at Waco." ……"

Dallas News 3/6/00 Lee Hancock "…..Mr. Smerick told interviewers that he quit writing after submitting an "acquiescent" final memo that omitted previous cautions against pushing the sect and incorporated suggestions from his Washington boss for tactical pressure……… Ms. Reno initially balked at the tear-gas plan. On April 16, she asked senior FBI and Justice officials to prepare an annotated report explaining the situation in Waco and the need for a tactical resolution. FBI headquarters immediately sent a detailed request to Texas seeking "specific documentation to support our position" that tear gas was the only option. The request outlined how the information would be used to argue against waiting out the sect. The request also stated the FBI's plan for addressing questions about negotiations in the report to the attorney general: "The universal assessment of all involved - including FBI and outside consultants: that negotiation would not work," the internal memo says. …….. The resulting report, presented to Ms. Reno on the evening of April 17, does not mention Mr. Smerick's behavioral memos. The report said nothing about repeated complaints from him and top negotiators that their efforts to coax sect members out were working until negotiations were derailed by intimidating FBI tactics. The report also said nothing about their warnings that using tanks or other force against the Branch Davidians would cause violence and death. Instead, the final report to Ms. Reno offered a terse assessment of the Waco negotiations: "Since negotiations began on Feb. 28, 1993, despite 51 days of efforts, the negotiators have concluded that they have not been able to successfully negotiate a single item with Koresh." ……"

Dallas News 3/6/00 Lee Hancock "…..After seeing the briefing book presented to the attorney general, the report on Mr. Smerick's 1995 FBI interview said, "Smerick speculated that the preparers selectively incorporated memoranda and evidence from the case which selectively supported the tactical step of tear-gas insertion." "He feels compelled to present the foregoing information for the Bureau's consideration and deliberation in an attempt to prevent similar outcomes in future hostage situations," the report said. "Smerick explained that if he is called to testify at any official public hearings regarding this matter, he will present the facts in a fashion as favorable to the FBI as possible." Two months after his confidential FBI interview, Mr. Smerick was a witness in congressional Waco hearings. He discussed his memos briefly but offered none of the intense criticisms that he voiced in his FBI interview……."

Dallas News 3/6/00 Lee Hancock "…..Mr. Smerick and some top negotiators did offer highly critical statements to Justice interviewers after the siege, but most details of those complaints were omitted from the review, internal Justice memos show. Internal FBI records show that reports from other interviews conducted by the FBI for the 1993 review, including earlier interviews with Mr. Smerick, were edited to remove critical or controversial statements that might reflect negatively on the FBI's efforts in Waco. In his 1995 FBI interview, Mr. Smerick voiced concerns about the objectivity and accuracy of the Justice review. He complained that he had been shut out of presentations to a panel of outside experts that the Justice Department asked to help with the review in the summer of 1993. Mr. Smerick said he was excluded from initial meetings with the panel and talked with them only because he barged in uninvited to a final meeting. "He walked into the meeting room unannounced and requested to speak to the panel . . . and gave them copies of the memoranda he had authored," the 1995 FBI report said. Mr. Smerick added that the agents there were so displeased "that they would not speak to him afterwards." ……"

Dallas News 3/6/00 Lee Hancock "…..The panel of experts recommended that select FBI regional leaders receive intensive training in crisis management, including behavioral-science training. The recommendation prompted a new FBI crisis-training program. But Mr. Smerick told FBI lawyers in 1995 that he and other Waco behavioral experts and negotiators were excluded from classes detailing what happened in the Branch Davidian standoff. Instead, he noted in his 1995 interview, only the two FBI commanders who led the operation in Waco - both vocal advocates of aggressive tactics against the sect - were asked to brief the FBI classes. "Smerick explained that he finds this very troubling because these [leaders] should have been advised as to what actually happened at Waco from a behavioral-science perspective," the report on the interview said. "Smerick concluded the interview by noting that he has always been loyal to the FBI and will continue to be loyal. He advised that he is providing the foregoing information for in-house edification, not to publicly criticize the FBI." ......"

CBSNEWS.com 3/6/00 "….. The FBI gained Attorney General Janet Reno's approval to use tear gas at the Branch Davidian siege by providing misleading or incomplete data, according to The Dallas Morning News. …….. Peter Smerick, a retired agent whose psychological profiles were termed the best predictors of the 1993 Branch Davidians' deaths by negotiators involved in the 51-day siege, told agency interviewers that he believed "the FBI misled the attorney general by giving her 'a slanted view of the operation' in Waco." Smerick, in the 1995 report obtained by the newspaper, blamed FBI headquarters for convincing the attorney general that using tear gas was the only means to peacefully end the standoff....... Lawyers representing the Branch Davidians in a federal wrongful death lawsuit said they have not seen the 15-page FBI report, written by the agency's general counsel's office, and labeled "attorney-client privileged and confidential." Five profiling memos, warning that using force against the sect would intensify a "bunker mentality" in which "they would rather die than surrender," were not in the briefing book that FBI leaders gave Reno when they started lobbying her on April 12, 1993 to approve using tear gas. Seven days later, Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and about 80 of his followers died as the compound burned……"

Dallas Morning News 3/5/00 Lee Hancock "….. Crime-scene records, videos and photographs from the Branch Davidian siege call into question the FBI's account of where, when and how many pyrotechnic tear gas rounds were fired by its hostage rescue team at the end of the 1993 standoff, investigators say. The Texas Rangers completed a lengthy final report last month on efforts to identify questioned evidence from the standoff and locate a pyrotechnic tear gas projectile that disappeared in 1993 after it was photographed by a Department of Public Safety photographer. The photographer's field notes show the projectile was "located about 200 yards northwest of the [compound water] tower," the Rangers report states. That means the device probably was fired from behind the building, and not from the area where FBI officials have previously said that only two such devices were launched that day, said investigators involved in the ongoing inquiries. ….."

Dallas Morning News 3/5/00 Lee Hancock "….. Based on the accounts from some FBI agents involved in the Waco operation and commercial television footage of the April 19 tear gas assault, investigators say they are also questioning whether hostage rescue team members may have fired pyrotechnic gas rounds on April 19, 1993, at a time far later than previously acknowledged. One investigator also says the appearance of distinctive white smoke characteristic of M-651 pyrotechnic tear gas grenades on video shot by a Waco television station about 12:09 p.m. suggests that one of the rounds might have been fired as the sect's compound began burning. "With all that we are seeing, it seems quite probable that the HRT fired more pyrotechnic rounds than they've ever fessed up to," said the investigator. "You have to remember: They were running out of tear gas that day." …..Congressional committees and the office of Waco special counsel John C. Danforth are looking into the matter with the Rangers' help……"

Dallas Morning News 3/5/00 Lee Hancock "….. M-651 grenades burn a 20- to 30-second pyrotechnic charge to release a cloud of CS tear gas. The devices emit a distinctive white smoke while burning and are described in U.S. military manuals as being capable of sparking fires. …….. Texas Rangers began their own inquiry early last summer. They were brought in to help investigate the Waco case just after it began and were asked by the Justice Department to retain custody of all key physical evidence after a 1994 criminal trial. After years of denying all public requests for access to that evidence, federal authorities told the Rangers in 1998 that it could be viewed by an independent filmmaker. That filmmaker, Mike McNulty of Fort Collins, Colo., told Rangers after being shown the evidence that one key item was missing: a spent gray projectile with a shiny brass top and a red stripe. The item had been photographed by a DPS photographer, but it was never turned in or entered into the Rangers' computerized evidence logs. The Rangers launched an investigation to learn what the projectile in the picture might be and what happened to it. They also began trying to identify a 40-mm casing that was found in their collection of Waco evidence. They were nearing a conclusion last August that the photo showed a spent M-651 pyrotechnic round and that the casing was also from a M-651 grenade when the former FBI official publicly admitted that several of the devices had been fired. The Rangers searched through tons of stored evidence in Waco late last fall but never found the missing round. "It's the only item that any one can think of that was photographed and not entered into evidence," one investigator said. "You can't help but think that somebody pocketed it." ….."

Dallas Morning News 3/5/00 Lee Hancock "….. But the Rangers were able to determine more about where the missing projectile was photographed after a federal judge in Waco told the FBI last September that all Waco negatives and accompanying field notes from DPS photographers must be returned to Texas. The bureau had previously responded to DPS requests by sending a partial set of prints of the DPS crime scene photographs to Austin, officials in Texas said. After gaining access to their DPS field notes, the Rangers' February report states, their photographer determined that he photographed the projectile on April 30, 1993, in an area in front of the compound. Investigators say that location suggests that the device was fired from the back side of the compound toward the building. They say they have doubts about the FBI's claims that M-651s were shot only twice at the underground bunker and were aimed away from the compound because the spent M-651 photographed by DPS was found well behind where bureau officials said their agent fired. ……."

Dallas Morning News 3/5/00 Lee Hancock "….. By that time, FBI agents in the Bradleys had fired almost all of the 400-round supply of non-flammable ferret rounds brought to Waco for the assault, records show. Notes found last fall at the hostage rescue team's headquarters in Quantico, Va., state that each of the Bradleys used by the FBI in Waco was stocked with M-651 rounds. Notes from a prosecutor's interviews with hostage rescue team agents in the fall of 1993 stated that one agent stationed behind the compound saw "white smoke" coming from the compound kitchen just after noon, and it appeared less than 30 seconds after another agent fired three rounds of gas into the kitchen. The interview notes indicate that the agent who fired those three rounds was the same team member who fired several M-651 rounds at the underground bunker. Video footage recorded by Waco television station KWTX at about 12:09 p.m., just after the compound fire began, shows wisps of white smoke moving low to the ground from the side to the front of the compound. That smoke is similar to the white plumes that appeared in an area where FBI agents fired pyrotechnic tear gas grenades at that area earlier in the day. A CBS television crew recorded video footage of the agents opening a Bradley hatch to fire that M-651 and the appearance of billowing white smoke where that device landed. One investigator said the appearance of similar white smoke after noon raises concerns because it is strikingly different from the black smoke rising from the burning building. He said it is also being looked at closely because it appeared well before the fire became hot and big enough to spread to the ground surrounding the building. ......"

Dallas Morning News 3/5/00 Lee Hancock "….. The discovery of a melted mass of bluish plastic among the evidence inventoried last November by the Rangers and investigators from Mr. Danforth's office fuels additional uncertainty about how the FBI deployed tear gas on April 19, an investigator said. The plastic is about the size and weight of one of the non-pyrotechnic ferret rounds used by the FBI. Those rounds have blue tips on milky white bodies, and the blob of plastic is an identical shade of blue, the investigator said. It was recovered from the bunker deep within the compound where many Branch Davidian women and children went for shelter from the gas attack and later died. If the plastic came from a ferret round, the investigator said, the device either had to be fired at relatively close range into the bunker or carried in by a Branch Davidian. The investigator called the second prospect unlikely because the ferret round would have been coated by the same CS powder that it had expelled on impact, and picking up anything contaminated with that powder would have would caused intense skin irritation. "It needs to be analyzed to see if the plastic matches the plastic used in manufacture of ferret rounds," the investigator said. The February report by the Texas Rangers noted that the one roll of DPS crime scene film that was not returned last fall by the FBI was a roll taken inside the bunker. "With the magnitude of what was pulled out of there, you'd expect maybe to see something like a bullet might turn up missing. But a big projectile? That's unusual," another investigator in Texas said. "A roll of film? That's weird. Remember that was taken where all the bodies were, inside the bunker. Who knows what it means, but having it come up missing? It doesn't make sense." …."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 3/5/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "……No government agents are visible in the approximately 200 aerial photographs that the FBI shot of the April 19, 1993, siege of the Branch Davidian complex near Waco, Texas, according to a Post-Dispatch review of the photos. That finding lends support to the government position that none of its agents fired at the complex. The photos show no one standing in the places where the Branch Davidians claim that agents opened fire. The Branch Davidians base their gunfire claim on about 100 flashes visible on a separate, infrared surveillance tape that recorded the same area. But the photos do not answer the question definitively….. The still photos were shot by an FBI photographer in one aircraft, while the infrared tape was shot from a second FBI aircraft. ……"

St. Louis Post Dispatch 3/5/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "……The photos are attracting quite a bit of attention among all parties. Caddell said he plans to file a memo in court this week challenging their value as evidence. He said he had found a five- or six-minute gap between photos around 11:30 a.m. and another 10-minute gap from 11:45 a.m. to 11.55 a.m. That means that there are no photos for some key periods when flashes appear on the infrared tape. Agents could have been firing at the complex during those intervals and still not show up in the 200 FBI photos, Caddell said. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has hired a lab to compare the still photos to the infrared tape to look for matches to prove that no one was present to cause the flash, one source said. ….."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 3/5/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "……The still photos do not have a time signature, but the infrared tape does. A technician can estimate the time of a still photo by comparing the appearance of the complex in a photo to the appearance on the infrared tape. This comparison is easiest in the key minutes before the fire, when a converted tank was knocking down the complex's gym. Technicians can time the photo by matching the damage to the gym in the photo to the damage visible on the infrared tape. The batch of still photos came to light in January when the Post-Dispatch published one of them. That photo had been timed as having been shot either one second before or 35 seconds after a burst of flashes that appeared on the infrared film at 11:24 a.m. For that reason, it appeared to show that the flashes did not come from gunfire. Caddell says he has carefully timed that photo and that his analysis of the damage to the gym indicates it was shot more than five minutes later. Justice Department sources say, however, that they have performed their own tests and that there is no question about the 11:24 time. ….."

St. Louis Post Dispatch 3/5/00 William Freivogel Terry Ganey "……The government argues that the still photos and the infrared tapes are consistent on one important point -- just as there are no agents in the still photos, there are no shapes of bodies visible on the infrared tape. The government notes that people are visible in other parts of the 1993 infrared tapes and should show up near the flashes if there are agents firing weapons. But the Branch Davidians say the agents may have been wearing camouflage clothing that prevented their being detected. ……Caddell, the lawyer for the Branch Davidians, questions the authenticity of the still photos. He says records indicate that the original negatives of the photos may have been lost. He says that the negatives he has seen are made on the kind of paper that is used to make negatives from photos. The Justice Department denies Caddell's claim. It says that the original negatives are in the custody of the federal court in Waco, where the wrongful death trial will begin in May. ….."

Fox News 3/2/00 AP "….. Ten days before the deadly inferno at the Branch Davidian compound, the FBI told prosecutors it had no plans to battle any blazes, the Dallas Morning News reported Thursday…. In a two-page FBI summary of an April 9, 1993, briefing, Assistant U.S. Attorney LeRoy Jahn asked FBI leaders in Waco "if there was a fire truck available in case the Davidians attempted to torch the compound." A second document, described as a telephone report filed at the FBI's Washington headquarters that evening, said "there would be no plan to fight a fire should one develop in the Davidian compound," according to the News. ……."

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… The Department of Defense has been asked to declassify thousands of secret military documents in anticipation of testimony by Attorney General Janet Reno, and possibly even President Clinton -- in a lawsuit on behalf of three children killed in the 1993 Waco Branch Davidian fire…….. The classified documents in question are already in the custody of Judge Walter Smith of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division. Last year the judge ordered all federal agencies to give him all documents related to the Waco incident. But since thousands of pages of the military documents are marked "classified," he cannot make them available to the lawyers involved in this and other cases related to the Waco tragedy…….. Attorney James H. Brannon sent a letter to Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and asked for declassification of the documents according to Executive Order 12958, signed by President Clinton on April 17, 1995. ……Brannon has not asked Smith to declassify the documents by court order because he must first ask the military to do it. He intends to ask for a court order if Cohen fails to grant his request…….."

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… Brannon has already taken sworn testimony from dozens of FBI agents and three Special Forces Delta Force soldiers who participated in the government raid at Waco. Brannon said they have an "epidemic of amnesia" and don't remember anything. Additional depositions will continue until the end of March. Reno is scheduled to testify March 28, despite the fact that Brannon wanted to question her sooner. Brannon said his depositions and investigation of unclassified documents have thus far determined that FBI agents in charge deviated from the plan approved by Reno for the final assault on Mt. Carmel……"

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… "They used 48 hours worth of gas in about three hours," Brannon said. He wants to question Reno about what happened and what went wrong. "They didn't have any difficulty saying we're going to try it this way for 48 hours. All of them knew they were going to be squirting it on little children for 48 hours. They had a gas expert, and he said 'oh, it's not going to hurt them.' But that was on the theory that it wouldn't give them (the children) permanent damage if they did it over 48 hours. He didn't say anything about what would happen if a few hours after they start they shoot every bit of gas in there -- 48 hours worth in three hours. As far as we know, he didn't express any opinions that that kind of dosage would be inconsequential as far as children were concerned," explained Brannon. "But all that comes down to: Is it okay to torture them for three hours? Is it okay to torture them for 48 hours? I don't think it's okay to torture them for one minute," said Brannon. …."

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… "We'll ask Janet Reno for all of her contacts with the White House, with the president, and what he said, and what he did, and what he signed -- all that stuff. We'll see what we get from it. What came from the White House and why is it secret? What does it have to do with the military?" explained Brannon of his plans. When Smith asked the White House for all Waco-related documents, he was told they were covered under executive privilege. Brannon has not ruled out challenging the executive privilege claim, and may attempt to depose Clinton. ……"

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… Brannon said there are many questions about what has been classified in the documents, but he particularly wants to know about weapons used in the assault. "So, what have they classified? Especially when we hear that the FBI has taken a clear position that they didn't shoot any guns there. And, not only that, at least one of the weapons we think was fired there is strictly a military weapon. The FBI doesn't have one. So if it was fired there we presume it was fired by military people," he said.
The letter gives a number of reasons for the need to declassify the military documents, including:
* Admitted involvement of at least 10 active-duty military personnel during the 51-day siege, and three who admit to being present the day of the fire.
* Sources who have informed Brannon that military personnel were observed with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team during the assault.
* The congressional investigation discovered that military personnel admitted involvement with the armored vehicles used in the raid.
* A military source told Brannon that Delta Force soldiers were "pulling triggers."
* A CIA employee reported that a high-level briefing with Reno detailed plans for military involvement a month before the raid.
* The Texas Rangers conducted an investigation and told Brannon there is evidence that there were more Special Forces soldiers present at Waco than the government admits to. The Texas Rangers also believe those soldiers were involved in the assault.
* Government documents indicate there were three Delta Force soldiers in forward locations at Waco. The three Delta Force soldiers who gave testimony to Brannon claimed they were in different locations, and they firmly stated they were the only Delta Force soldiers present. ….."

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… Brannon also points out in his letter to Cohen that the FBI and Department of Defense have not been as specific in their answers as they should be. When asked about shots fired at the Branch Davidians on April 19, 1993, the FBI responded: "No FBI agent shot, and nobody under FBI supervision/direction/control did either." The Department of Defense responded to the same question in a letter, saying, "No DoD person shot, and nobody under DoD supervision/direction/control did either, based on currently available information." Brannon pointed out to Cohen that both answers left the question open to other possibilities, raising the question about what information is not currently available...."

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… "The number of documents dealing with the 10 admitted military personnel amounted to no more than maybe a hundred pages. The 5,000 + pages the government has CLASSIFIED certainly don't deal with these 10 soldiers. What other soldiers and activities are hidden behind that wall of secrecy?" he wrote…….. "

WorldNetDaily.com 2/26/00 David Bresnahan "…… WorldNetDaily is in receipt of a letter from the United States Special Operations Command in response to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking military documents regarding Waco. The letter explained why the military has classified some of those documents: "Portions of the documents were found to contain information concerning military plans, weapons, or operations; and vulnerabilities or capabilities or systems, installations, projects, or plans relating to the national security, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security." ….."

Associated Press 2/29/00 "……Documents obtained by a Dallas newspaper show the Federal Bureau of Investigation was concerned about its on-scene commander at the 1993 Waco siege, which turned into a fiery disaster in which dozens died. The Dallas Morning News obtained documents that show senior FBI officials at first were skeptical of the insistence by Richard Rogers, the hostage rescue-team commander, that tear gas was the only safe way to end the siege. A March, 1993, memo from the FBI's most experienced tactical expert said Mr. Rogers had prompted similar concerns in the deadly 1992 standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. In that incident, an FBI sniper, under the command of Mr. Rogers, killed the wife of white supremacist Randy Weaver after Mr. Rogers relaxed bureau rules of engagement and pushed for an all-out tank and tear-gas assault on the Weavers' cabin. ……"We've had a subpoena out there for all relevant documents -- all documents -- since Sept. 7, 1999," said Mark Corallo, spokesman for the House Government Reform Committee. "Is the Department of Justice withholding only embarrassing documents from us? It makes you wonder." Mr. Coulson did not comment yesterday, while Mr. Rogers and Jeffrey Jamar, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Waco operation, have declined interview requests. ……"

The Dallas Morning News 3/2/00 Lee Hancok "….. Hours after a federal prosecutor cautioned the FBI about the need for firetrucks at the Branch Davidian compound, the bureau's Waco commanders sent a message to Washington saying they wouldn't even try to fight any blaze that broke out. FBI records show that the two exchanges occurred on April 9, 1993, as FBI leaders were finalizing plans to assault the sect's compound with tanks and tear gas....... "If the fire had been extinguished in its early stages, there probably would have been little, if any, loss of life," Mr. Kennedy's [Davidian expert] report stated. A document filed with the Branch Davidians' Wednesday motion, a two-page FBI summary of an April 9 briefing, indicated that Assistant U.S. Attorney LeRoy Jahn asked FBI leaders in Waco "if there was a firetruck available in case the Davidians attempted to torch the compound." A second document, described in the sect's motion as a phone report filed at FBI headquarters at 7:30 that evening, reported that Waco FBI leaders were sending Washington their plan for emergency medical treatment during the proposed tear gas assault. But that report added, "per . . . Rogers, there would be no plan to fight a fire should one develop in the Davidian compound." ……"

The Dallas Morning News 3/2/00 Lee Hancok "…..The one-page document detailing his April 9 report to FBI headquarters was filed under court seal. Justice Department lawyers turned that document over to the Branch Davidians' lawyers on condition that it be kept confidential and not released to the public, Wednesday's court pleading indicated. ……… The Davidians' pleadings and expert reports released Wednesday contend: The failure to obtain adequate fire fighting equipment before launching a tear gas assault violated a specific directive from the attorney general to spare no expense or effort in ensuring "an adequate emergency response." A senior FBI official recently acknowledged that Ms. Reno asked the FBI to assure that it could address fire threats at the compound. That official, retired FBI agent Danny O. Coulson, said the availability of armored fire-fighting equipnment was investigated, but it was never obtained. …… Mr. Coulson, who helped supervise the Waco siege from FBI headquarters, said the decision to send tanks into the building, which experts on both sides said contributed to the rapid spread of the fire, was inconsistent with the plan approved by Ms. Reno. ...... "

The Dallas Morning News 3/2/00 Lee Hancok "….. Mr. Kennedy's report concluded that the government's investigation, which ruled Davidians set the compound fire, was "fatally flawed." He noted it failed to follow nationalstandards, overlooked the government's possible role in the blaze and hinged on evidence "that has never been used in such fire investigations before or since." That evidence, an infrared videotape shot by an FBI airplane above the compound on April 19, does not prove "with any certainty the origin of the fire." ......"

The Dallas Morning News 3/2/00 Lee Hancok "….. Federal prosecutor's notes stated that one agent reported firing "three rounds into kitchen & at same time less than 30 sec later he saw white smoke." That agent fired military pyrotechnic tear gas rounds at a bunker near the compound in the first hours of the gas assault. Ms. Reno banned the use of any devices capable of sparking fires that day. Mr. Kennedy's report disputed conclusions of government investigators that the propellant used by FBI tanks to spray in gas was nonflammable and incapable of contributing to