The Latest, Greatest Waco Whitewash
Bovard, James
fter the FBI finally admitted last August that it had fired pyroteelmie rounds on April 19, 1993, at Waco before a fire broke out that killed scores of women and children, Attorney General Janet...
...According to Mike McNul~, one of the masterminds of the prize-winning 1997 fihn Waco: Rules of Engagement (see "Waco: The Documentau" by James Bowman, TAS, August 1997) , six flash-bang devices were found in the rubble after the fire-- including three found at or near the locations where the fire started...
...Yet Danforth laments in the report's preface: "Sensational films construct dark theories out of little evidence and gain ready audiences for their message...
...Its commanders in early April decided that, if a fire did break out, the feds would make no effort to douse it...
...A few days later, the ATF informed military officials that they suspected the Davidians had a methamphetamine lab in their basement...
...PBS "NewsHour" host Jim Lehrer went so far as to congratulate Danforth on national television: "You did tremendous investigating...
...A month later, Vector reported that the tapes ofthc reenactment, like its analysis of the tapes from April 1% 1993, showcd zero guufirc...
...On releasing his report, Danforth-known in Senate days as Saint Jack-showed his hand one last time: "! think when people arc intent ou burning themsdves ~p, there's not much you can do about it...
...ATF agents then received training in dosequarters combat and called in military helicopters from the Texas National Guard to assist in the assault...
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...As Danforth explained to the Senate: "What happened in this case was that this fairly young lawyer simply goofed, simply failed to do an adequate job...
...Apparently he assumes that, regardless of how fast the fire spread, the fanatical Davidians would have stayed inside to be toasted for the greater g]o U of God and David Koresh...
...government officials have been wrongfully victimized by public distrust...
...In his report and in subsequent interviews Danforth has insisted that he has "loo percent terrainS" that ]his couchlsious vindicating federal actions are correct...
...But according to Mike McNulF, the Danforth report "is silent that there were othcr 4 ~ mm projectiles [i.e., pyrotechnie roundsl] that were passed through the building and werc rccovercd" outside tile building after the fire...
...He told Danforth's investigators that he wasn't paying attention and didn't notice when the issue of pyrotechnics was raised...
...McNul b" also uotes that "if any other rounds of 4o ran1 ordnance were fired into the building that day--we believe there was evidence [of such firings] on the lqJP, if they rcnlained iusidc the buildiug, they wonld have ulelted into an nnidentifiable blob of metal...
...Danforth's report also concedes that the openings created by the tanks resulted in a "consequent accelerated spread of the fire...
...Was the FBI assuming that, instead of jumping out of a window, people gasping from tear gas would prefer to claw through jagged rubble and debris-and perhaps be crushed by a tank's next intrusion...
...A Fitchburg, Massachusetts SWAT tealn raided an apartment building in 1996 and used flash-bang grenades to terri~ and disorient people inside...
...It notes instead that "Koresh and his followers harbored strong anti-government views, that he expected confrontation with the federal government, and that he and his followers viewed such confrontation as a means to religious salvation"--as if that justified the government assault that followed...
...It doesn't matter, because by definition every federal official acted with the best of intentions-even those who lied to get military aid, those who led an unnecessary military-style no-knock assault on the Davidians' home, those who tear-gassed the children, those who accidentally' crushed much of the building after many occupants may have been semi-paralyzed from the gassing, and those who subsequently lied and obstructed justice...
...The FBI withheld this memo from Congress in 1995...
...In his comments on the ~995 hearings, Danforth says nothing about the Clinton administratio~'s orchestrated efforts to smear congressional critics as enemies of law enforcement and dangers to the republic...
...Edward Allard, a former Pentagon expert on FLIR, concluded that the tape definitely indicated fire from the government side toward the Davidians, as did an independent investigation by "60 Minutes...
...Danforth finds the culprit: An FBI lawyer had it on her "to do" list in 1996 to inform higher-ups about the pyrotechnics but, for some reason or other, never got around to it...
...This report brings great solace to them in that its findings reaffirm that which we have always believed--they did their best and for all the right reasons...
...Yet, on the day after the Waco fire, the FBI's Larry Ports, who supervised the standoff from the FBI's Washington headquarters, explained the rationale for the final onslaught: "Those people thumbed their nose at law enforcement...
...But when David Koresh took over the group in the late 198o's , he personally asked the local sheriffto haul away all the meth-related equipment...
...fter the FBI finally admitted last August that it had fired pyroteelmie rounds on April 19, 1993, at Waco before a fire broke out that killed scores of women and children, Attorney General Janet Reno scrambled to dcfnse public outrage by hand-picking former Sen...
...Making no attempt to determine which side shot first--that was "a matter outside the scope of the Attorney General's Order to the Special Counsel"--the report instead states, "There is no dispute that the Davidians were prepared for a gun battle and had ATF significantly outgunned...
...None of this interests Danforth...
...it came out late last year...
...It is an important distinction...
...But Koresh could easily have been arrested while target shooting...
...Methamphetamine labs are very dangerous to disassemble...
...THE FBI's "FIRECanCKERS" lOanforth repeatedly minimizes or conlically misrepresents the amount of force the feds used against the Davidians...
...A flash-bang started an apartment fire in Minneapolis this past March and set a house on fire ill Nlentown, Pennsylvania in 1997...
...Reno swore to a congressional committee in 1995 that the FBI used no pyrotechnic devices at Waco...
...FBI commanders, in a June 24, 1993 memo, recommended that the two agents in the tank who did the most to destroy the building receive the FBI Shield of Bravery...
...But there is ample evidence the ATF started the gun battle...
...Rhythlnic patterns on Forward Looking Infrared ("I~'LtR") tapes strongly suggested autoinatic weapons fire came froln positions near the FBI tanks...
...Richard Rogers, the FBI operations commander who gave the order to use the weapons, sat right behind her at the hearing...
...His Senate testimou...
...After the raid the same ATF insisted that Koresh never went outside the "compound"--and thus the agency needed to launch a fullscale attack to get him...
...Despite all tl-fis evidence, Danforth concludes that FBI agents never intended to demolish the building...
...Later in the report, Danforth asserts: "The FLIR video does not show a 'deliberate and surgical...dismantling of the gymnasium,' and the agents in [the tank] were fully credible in stating that they were not given the mission to dismantle the gymnasium...
...The sentimcnt was eerilv similar to that expressed by President Clinton a few days after the fatal fire: "I do not think file United States government is responsible for tint t:aet that a bunch of fanatics decided to kill themselves...
...As early as 36 hours after the initial raid, the reds abandoned routine law enforcement procedure to avoid gathering potentially embarrassing evidence of their conduct early in the raid...
...28 O c t o b e r 2 o o o _9 The American Spectator Waco and their families as well," FBI Director Louis Freeh declared...
...As FBI Deputy Director Floyd Clarke admitted in 1995 congressional testimony, "the destruction of fl~e building was part of the ultimate plan" to bring the siege to an end...
...ATF agent Roland Ballesteros, one of the first agents out of the cattle trailer during the raid, later told the Texas Rangers that he believed federal agents fired the first shots--perhaps to kill five dogs that could have bitten the agents...
...The plan was for one group of agents to break through the front door while a second took ladders and smashed through the windows on the second floor...
...While admitting that "the Office of Special Counsel did not extensively investigate the basis for ATF's assertion that there was a drug nexus," the report nonetheless concludes "there is some evidence prior to February 28, 1993, connecting 'drug activity' with the complex which could form the basis of a drug nexus...
...Danforth is interested in none of this...
...Danforth vehemently opposed prosecuting the FBI lawyer for her alleged obstruction of justice...
...An FBI official complained about the 'us against them" atmosphere...
...While assigning the best of intentions to the tank drivers, Danforth does admit, "There is evidence that structural debris, which resulted from an FBI vehicle breaching the complex, interfered with a potential escape route by blocking the trapdoor leading to an underground bus which was located on the west end of the complex...
...COVER-UPS WITH Danforth's instructions included the following: "Did any employee of the United States make or allow others to make false or misleading statements, or withhold evidence or information from any individual or enti~ entitled to receive it, or destroy, alter, or suppress evidence or information relative to the events occurring at the Branch Davidian complex on April 19, 19937" An examination of the evidence makes it well nigh impossible to conclude anything other than that plenb~ of federal employees did withhold information or make false statements (although sometimes not intentionally...
...Several Department of Justice personne] told Office of Special Counsel investigators that they viewed the 1995 Congressional hearings as a partisan effort to attack Attorney General Reno...
...Said Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder: "We join Senator Danforth in wishing that this report begins the process of restoring the faith of the people in their government...
...Danforth himself dismisses the building as a "firetrap...
...Ignoring the 1993 memo, Danforth accepts at face value 1995 testimony of FBI on-scene commanders Jeffrey Jamar and Richard Rogers, who insisted that the tanks were not attempting to bring the building down...
...Danforth performs contortions to justify dismissing stark bureaucratic guilty pleas...
...Louis Post-Dispatch perfectly summarized his report: "Officials Had Nothing to Hide--But Hid Some Things Anyway...
...As the report states, the burden is on "all of us" to "be more skeptical of those who make sensational accusations of evil acts by government...
...Danforth defends Reno, the mastermind of the Justice Department's first Waco investigation in 1993 which even a New York Times editorial denounced as a "whitewash...
...But even by the standard of recent Washington whitewashes, the report is a disgrace...
...But as noted by former federal attorney David Hardy, author of a forthcoming book on Waco, the Davidians' residence had roughly "seven doors, 69 windows, and an underground tunnel...
...Dinner is additional...
...It doesn't matter to Danforth that the FBI decided not to prepare for any fire that might result from the raid...
...It's unlikely that anyone not on the federal payroll would reach that conclusion from watching the tape...
...Alan Keyes Rabbi Daniel Lapin Judge Roy Moore Peggv Noonan Bob Novak Barbara Olson PJ...
...Martin's Press...
...THE ~JNDEPENDENT" REENACTMENT Akey isstle for Danforth was whether FBI agents fired on Davidians during the final attack on April 19...
...At least he doesn't demand that critics now send a personal apology to Janet Reno...
...For instance, Danforth asserted that the FBI did not use flash-bang grenades during tile final day's action at \Vaco...
...The ATF also scoffed at a lnenlo prepared by the military on the risks involved in raiding a lneth lab...
...it was a human thing...
...Just to be safe, Danforth's report even questions the authenticity of the 1993 memo: "lit] was submitted by Jamar and Rogers, although the investigation has not yet determined whether either of them or someone else prepared the document...
...At Dalfforth's request, tile public and tile news media were balmcd from the reenactment last March 19 at Fort Hood, Texas...
...yet, as a 1996 report on Waco by two committees of the House of Representatives noted, the ATF had declined an offer from the Drug Enforcement Administration "of direct assistance The American Spectator _9 O c t o b c r 2 o o o 29 from a DEA Clandcstiuc Certified I,aboratory Team...
...Flash-bangs also have a histoD ~ of starting fires...
...In other words, whatever the latest version of the Absolute Truth might be, citizens must heartily accept it--at least until government changes the story again...
...Confidential FBI documcuts made public last fall reveal that during tile sl-day siege, FBI agents repeatedly threw flasM)ang grenades at Davidiaus who tried to leave the rcsidcnce...
...This was pcculiar--since the FBI had clailned that tim Branch Davidians had been firing at tile tanks throughout the nlorniug of the final assault...
...Danforth's is probably the first investigation into a cover-up that justifies the cover-up...
...Danforth is dismissive not only of written evidence but of convincing visual evidence...
...As the St...
...Yet FBI Deplll3 Director Floyd Clarke told Congress nine days after the assault that the FBI's plan was to "immediately and totally iinmerse tile place ill gas, and fl~row in flash-bangs which would disorient them...
...The fact that she blundered in not turning over the information was a little thing...
...the memo stated, "At mid-morning...
...In the most revealing passage of the entire report, Danforth in its preface expresses the hope that his findings will "begin the process of restoring the faith of the people in their government and the faith of the government in the people...
...Despite such extensive preparations, the drug charge vanished immediately after the raid, and federal prosecutors never raised the issue at the surviving Davidians' 1994 trial...
...Perhaps that's what the FBI believed as well...
...With attendance at any conJbrence event...
...The House report concluded that "the ATF intentionally misled Defense Department and military persolmel" regarding the existence of the meth lab...
...0 c t o b e r 2 o o o _9 The American Spectator Gary Aldrich Matt Drudge Dr: Jerry Falwell Frank Ga{~Tqy Bill Gertz John Grisham Nat Hentoff Christopher Hitchens Brit Hume Dr...
...The FBI's reversal and adlnission that it used pyrotechnic devices to inject tear gas on the final day was the key factor in re-igniting Waco last year...
...THE ACCIDENTAL Some of the section headings in Danforth's report make it appear that Waco was a huge law enforcement success-- such as the description of the origins of the FBI tank-gas assault: "The FBI Develops a Tactical Solution to the Standoff...
...Entirely ignored is the planned violence behind the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms' initial raid...
...At the civil trial in Waco, 17-yea> old Misty Ferguson, who was burned so badly in the fire that her fingers had to be amputated, testified that the FBI tank attack caused the floor in her second-story bedroom to buckle...
...OANFORTH AS ~,ATR2NAL I"IIERAP(S[ As he made clear at the outset, Danforth said Ire would look primarily at the intentions of federal officials--to see whether "agents engaged in bad acts, not whether they exercised bad judgment...
...To justify military help the ATF relied almost solely on dated, unsubstantiated charges from one former Davidian who had left Texas three years before and was working with a "cult-buster" group...
...But this deletion occurred after the start of the murder trial of the surviving Davidians--someone in the FB1 perhaps realized that the original would be an embarrassment if it then became public...
...Yet Danforth told the Senate that "the use of tile pyrotechnies, itself, under these circumstances was not a big thing...
...Ib settle the question of whether the images on the FLIR tapes were actual gunfire, Danforth persuaded federal Judge Walter Smith to conduct a reenactlnent of the final day's action...
...And they don't cause injury, as a geileral rnle...
...None of this troubles Danforth...
...It happens to detail how Danforth had to contact Freeh personally to gain the cooperation of FBI officials who refused to disclose information to his investigators...
...In Vanconver, Washington, two years ago a flash-bang blew the hand offofa 13-year-old girl, and b.vo apartinent residents in Minneapolis were killed bv a flasM)ang in 1989...
...On-scene commander Jamar prohibited fire trucks from getting within halfa mile of the burning building until it was too late to hope for sun.'ivors...
...The report later claims that the tanks were also trying to create "exit routes" to allow the Davidians to leave their residence peacefully...
...THE IRRELEVANT FIRST STRIKE Danforth masterfully dredges up and reprints any possible exculpatory material for the reds-- and ignores key issues on which the government has no defense...
...Not only is it more pro-FBI than the FBI itself, it ends up reviving discredited Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms charges that the Justice Department abandoned six years ago...
...For hotel reservations, call the Hilton Washington at 202/797-5820 and ask for the Judicial Watch special discount rate of $165 (September 20 deadline...
...According to a confidential September 17, 1993 Treasury Department memo, the ATF had initiated a shooting review on March i and "immediately determined that these stories [of agents involved] did not add up...
...But Vector is hardly an independent testing organization...
...If, as Danforth insists, the tanks weren't intent on destroying the building, what were they doing...
...This bus was the primary refuge for people inside-and the FBI intentionally blocked access to it early on to prevent an escape from the gas...
...THE RIGHT TO LIE ABOUT DRUGS Before the February 28 raid, ATF officials were told that it would be illegal for the U.S...
...In the next hour, tanks smashed into the residence eight times and collapsed at least one-quarter of the Davidians' home...
...Nor does Danforth ever criticize the FBI or the Justice Department for ignoring subpoenas and withholding vital evidence from those hearings...
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...the two agents] were given the mission of slowly and methodically beginning dismantling...the gymnasium...
...In his Senate testimony, Danforth claimed that the five-year statute of limitations for possible prosecution of Rogers had expired...
...military to assist them unless there was a "drug nexus" to the ease...
...When Sell...
...Eventually she escaped the fire by jumping out a window...
...however, contained glaring factual errors...
...Nowhere does Danforth distort reality more than in discussing whether the FBI intentionally destroyed much of the Davidians' home while the women and children were still inside, possibly incapacitated by tear gas...
...On February 28,1993, more than 7 ~ agents rolled up to the Davidians' home in two cattle ears and jumped out shouting"Showtime...
...The premise is that the Davidians had wrongfully killed and wounded dozens of federal agents--and thus deserved whatever treatment they subsequently received...
...O'Rourke William Satire David Schippers Phyllis Schlafly Judge Stanley Sporkin Ben Stein Justice Clarence Thomas Armstrong Williams and many more...
...After the FBI had gassed the Davidians for more than four hours and exhausted almost its entire gas supply, FBI tank drivers were ordered to demolish the building...
...The ATF told the military it had records of large deliveries of precursory chemicals for meth to the Davidian residence-but could never produce any such evidence...
...Any misstep yields howls of indignation, calls for resignations, and still more investigations...
...Actually, it had not at the time Danforth's report was released, though it has by now...
...Danforth's claims to file coutra~', flash-bangs are not harmless firecrackers...
...Charles Grasslev asked Danforth about this at a post-report hearing (attcnded by OlllV three senators), Danforth replied that flash-bangs are "in the nature, as I understand it, of, you know, firecrackers...
...John Danforth to conduct an "independent" investigation to finally get the truth on Waco...
...30 O c ~ o F; e r 2 o o o _9 The American Spectator Danforth does not ask what the FBI was doing with militarystyle rounds during its final assault, and he doesn't care that the FBI and Janet Reno deceived Congress on this issue...
...It is actually owned by Anteon, a large Ainerican corporation that on its Web page boasts of contracts with 50 federal agencies, inchlding the White House Communications Agcncy...
...Danforth is so unfamiliar with the record that he insists that Reno testified on this issue in 1993, not 1995...
...one flash-bang set fire to a couch, which led to the building burning down...
...Danforth also assured the senators: "I don't think that there's been anybody that I know of connected with the govermnent who has ever believed that the nsc of pyrotechnics, in this case, had anything to do with the fire...
...tile congressional report coneluded that this reaction inade "clear that the ATF believed that a methanlphetaminc lab did not exist...
...SAINT JACK SLAYS THE TRUTH AND SAVES THE FEDS9 The report never discusses the excellent relations Koresh had with local law enforcement...
...Indeed, there had been some "meth" activity at the Davidian residence-- in the mid-198o's...
...Jim Brannon, a lawyer for Davidian survivors, complained: "Vector was either iucolnpetent or they willfiflly sabotaged the test...
...In the report's preface, Danforth goes to great lengths to defend dissembling federal officials: "In today's world, it is perhaps understandable that government officials are reluctant to make full disclosures of information for fear that the result of candor will be personal or professional ruin...
...They makc a flash and thev nlake a bang...
...It was a curious choice...
...In his view...
...military assistance, and to evaluate the results...
...None of this is surprising, given that Danforth's main goal throughout was not to determine what government did so much as to correct the public bad attitude toward the use of tanks against civilians...
...In late July, after word spread that Danfc~rth was a finalist for the Bush campaig~q's vice-presidential slot, he rushed out his repork even though his investigation was not finished...
...As TAS warned ("Waco Retnms," December 1999/Janua13: 2ooo), Danforth from the start made clear he would limit the scope of his work...
...The American Spectator - October 2000 Yet it insists that the FBI action "did not contribute to the deaths of the Davidians...
...To even raise the drug nexus issue at this stage reveals the lengths Danforth was willing to go to defend federal behavior...
...In his view, "the theory that the government deliberately shot or otherwise harmed the Davidians runs contrary to the overwhelming evidence, before, during, and after the fire, that the government officials occupied themselves with resolving the standoffin a peaceful manner that would preserve life if at all possible...
...The report examines why information about the FBI's use of pyrotechnic devices-which, according to News~veek, was known by "as many as loo FBI agents and officials"-hadn't been disclosed in previous investigations...
...The report continues: "While the [19931 document contradicts the [1995] testimony of Jamar and Rogers...on March 3, 1994, Jamar resubmitted a revised Recommendation in which the above-quoted language was deleted...
...In the report's stunningly convenient words, the Office of Special Counsel "is confident the quoted language [in the 1993 memo] is simply incorrect...
...32...
...In shrugging off Rogers's response, Danforth said it's difficult to prosecute anyone for not paying attention...
...The powers that be immediately hailed Dauforth's report as the final word on \u "Seven };ears of absorbing unproven allegations and unfounded criticisms has levied a heavv burden or1 the agents who were at Jail,s BOVARD is a~lthor of the just-published "Feeling Your Pain": The Explosion & Abuse of Govcrn~r~ent Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (St...
...The problem is that Danforth apparently made up his mind about the feds' motives even before he began his investigation...
...Waco: Rules of Engagement, which won an Emmy and was nominated for an Academy Award, shows lengthy footage of FBI tanks repeatedly and systematically demolishing much of the building...
...he also appointed as chief investigator a federal attorney who himself was being investigated by the Justice Department...
...Why did Rogers fail to speak up...
...Danforth doesn't mention that only nine days before the ATF attack David Koresh had gone target shooting with three undercover ATF agents (whom he recognized as G-men...
...According to television footage, once the fire started, the building quickly became an inferno...
...The ATF never attempted to present the search warrant...
...The ATF also requested the military to supply "loo gas masks, 5oo sandbags, 9 ~ sleeping bags, 15 night-vision goggles, a water tank buck, ten tents (including one for WIP sleeping'), along with electric generators and smoke generators 'to cover two square kilometers with concealment smoke,'" as the Dallas Morning News reported...
...Danforth personally chose Vector Data Systems to carD~ out the tests, with U.S...
...At its base was a concrete room where officials believed the 'hostiles' were hiding, records show...
...Danforth and the Justice Department have repeatedly identifed Vector as an independent British company...
...In his press release praising Danforth's report, FBI chief Louis Freeh states: "All of us in the FBI welcomed the appointment of a Special Counsel in the Waco matter in hopes of once and for all answering what Senator Danforth labeled the 'dark questions.'" Perhaps Freeh forgot to read the report...
...According to Reno, Rogers was there to correct any mistakes that might inadvertently be made...
...His report conchldes that the FBI fircd only three pyrotechnic rounds in the final assault--and that thcv were fired at a coustruction pit some distance away, fonr hours before the fire broke out--and that they were irrelevaut to amthing unforttmate flint happened that day...
...His report begins by stating that Koresh and the Davidians "shot and killed four [ATF] agents" and "wounded 2o others...
...On the other hand, Freeh can only delight in the way Danforth excuses the bureau's egregious mistakes...
...Danforth, aided by a crack team ofzo postal inspectors and other federal officials, spent $12 million and ten months investigating \Vaco...
...The Dallas Morning News summarized government documents released late last year on the tank assault: ")ust before noon, [FBI on-scene commander Richard] Rogers ordered tanks in front to drive deep [into the building] toward the compound tower...
...They just wanted "to make a path to the base of tile tower," to make it easier to gas the Davidians...
Vol. 33 • October 2000 • No. 8
