Hindsight from The New Gun Week September 10, 1999
Waco's Back and Getting Political Again
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
New revelations in late August have thrust the entire Waco incident back into the headlines again, and within days, the issue was becoming politicized-yet again.
Most of the American people have sought answers, if not from the time of the botched Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raid on Feb. 28, 1993, at least since the FBI's final military-style assault on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, TX, on April 19, 1993. Anyone who was near a television set on the final day is unlikely to ever forget the horrifying fire that consumed the whole complex as fire trucks were kept miles away.
Janet Reno, who was brand new to the post of attorney general at that time, was quick to assume "responsibility" and ordered internal investigations. The results of the internal reviews by the ATF, the FBI and the Justice Department were later released to the public and Congress. None of them entirely satisfied anyone.
The Waco incident became the subject of several books, magazine articles, and an Oscar-nominated documentary film, "Waco: Terms of Engagement."
Broad-Based CoalitionThe Waco incident was also one of 10 notorious cases cited by a broad-based coalition of civil rights, national security, law enforcement and gun rights organizations when they called upon the President and Congress to appoint a blue ribbon task force to investigate federal law enforcement practices and policies. The Congress did eventually create such a commission, but so far it has accomplished little. The government did later settle negligence lawsuits filed in two of the 10 cases cited without admitting any guilt; among those was the $3.1 million settlement with Randy Weaver's family.
In 1995, the Government Reform Subcommittee of the House of Representatives held hearings on the government's conduct of the original ATF raid and the final assault on the Branch Davidians in Waco. Unfortunately, some Republican staffers and House members sent signals that the hearings were going to try to pin blame on Bill Clinton and Reno. That sent the Democrats into an attack mode, making even Democrats who had previously criticized the government's actions into government apologists. Apparently those GOP strategists forgot that the Ruby Ridge incident took place in 1992 under a Republican Administration.
The House hearings really shed very little new light, and most journalists and the public got few new answers to many long-standing questions about Waco. In fact, pro-Clinton Administration journalists ended up claiming the GOP had conducted a wasteful witch-hunt and fed the flames of anti-government fanatics.
During the hearings, however, Treasury and Justice Department witnesses, including Reno, gave testimony under oath, testimony which is coming into question only in recent weeks.
If you need other evidence that the Waco story will not go away, consider that the federal judge who presided over an earlier criminal trial of 11 surviving Branch Davidians is now ready to go to trial in October, in a civil suit brought against the government by some surviving Davidians and relatives of some of those who were killed.
In preparation for that trial, attorneys and researchers have been seeking-through Freedom of Information Act requests and other means-access to evidence which has been in the custody of the Texas Rangers and the state's Department of Public Safety.
New Revelations
The Dallas Morning News became aware of much of that evidence and began running a series of reports that were picked up by other newspapers, wire services, television and radio. It didn't take long for Waco to dominate the news and talk shows once again.First, the Dallas paper claimed that contrary to the testimony of Reno and FBI officials, the Bureau had used pyrotechnic CS gas grenades on the day of the final assault. Evidence photos in the possession of the Texas Ranges clearly showed such empty canisters.
At first the FBI again denied that pyrotechnic devices were used. But on Aug. 25, the Bureau reversed itself and admitted that two such devices were used on the morning of the final assault, but hours before the fire broke out, and not against the wooden Mount Carmel structure.
Reno became angry over this new admission that the FBI had lied to her, Congress and the public. She vowed another internal investigation.
But the news that the FBI had lied about the pyrotechnics had hardly set in when the Dallas Morning News disclosed that the US Army Delta Force had an active role at Waco, possibly in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. The News quoted a former CIA officer on Aug. 26 as saying that he learned from Delta Force commandos that members of the secret Army unit were "present, up front and close" in helping the FBI in the final tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound.
The former officer, Gene Cullen, told newspaper that he heard the detailed accounts of the military's active involvement from "three or four" anti-terrorist Delta commandos as he worked with them on an overseas assignment in 1993.
"Whether it's the macho-bravo-type talk of guys in the field, I don't know," he said, declining to identify the individuals involved. "I have no reason to suspect that they lied. And it didn't just come from one of them. There were three or four guys that confirmed that, who were from Delta," he said, according to The News.
"When they explained to me the depth to which they were involved down in Waco, I was quite surprised. They said basically they were out there in the vehicles, the Bradley [fighting vehicles], the CEV [tanks]," he said. "They were active."
Then, the chairman of the Texas Department of Public Safety told The News on Aug. 26 that evidence in the hands of Texas law enforcement personnel might support the account given to Cullen.
"I'm advised there is some evidence that may corroborate" the allegation that Delta Force participated in the assault, said James B. Francis Jr., the DPS official.
A Pentagon spokesman who spoke to the Dallas paper's reporters on condition of anonymity denied that any US military units were involved in the assault, "as far as I know." (Emphasis added by Gun Week.)
Use of active-duty military personnel against civilians without a specific presidential decree is a violation of federal law.
The Defense Department spokesman confirmed that three "observers" whom he declined to identify were in the Waco area on April 19, 1993.
Francis said evidence in the hands of Texas law enforcement suggests that more than three Delta Force members were at the compound on April 19 and involved in the assault.
"I have been advised that there are some police officers who have developed some evidence that needs looking into with regard to what the role of Delta Force was at the Branch Davidian compound," he said, declining to elaborate.
"I think it's a subject that the FBI director and the attorney general need to look into," Francis said. "The $64 question is whether they were advisory or operational, and I think some of the evidence is problematical."
An FBI spokesman in Washington said he had been instructed by the Department of Justice to refer all questions on the presence of Delta Force to the Pentagon.
As we go to press on Aug. 30, a weekend of public affairs TV broadcasts and newspaper editorials on Waco has just ended.
It is apparent that many of the columnists and commentators who first supported Reno, the ATF and FBI are now as eager for a full new probe as anyone. They believed what they had been told by the government and now they know the government lied. The comments of syndicated Philadelphia Daily News columnist Sandy Grady are typical.
'Douse the Fires'"I'm no anti-government militia hothead," he wrote on Aug. 28. "But when 80 people die with M-60 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles blasting the walls, somebody made a terrible mistake. Let Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh and the forgetful FBI guys stop the cover-up. Only the truth will douse the haunting fires of Waco."
Not all of the media people are so eager for another Waco investigation. Some of the TV talking heads on Aug. 29 were turning the issue political again by claiming that Texas DPS' Francis is really a campaign activist for George W. Bush. They suggest that the whole issue has surfaced because of attempts to discredit the Clinton-Gore people in time for the 2000 presidential election.
Partisan politics may again scuttle the search for the truth in the ashes of Waco, but in the meanwhile, House and Senate leaders are promising new and thorough hearings. And Reno, who is putting some 40 agents into the internal review and re-interviewing of all the government personnel involved in Waco, this time is considering putting an outsider in charge of the whole probe.
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com