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Associated Press
September 13, 1999
Justice Said Disclosed Tear Gas
Use
By Michelle Mittelstadt
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The congressional Republican leading an inquiry
into the 1993 Waco siege overlooked evidence the Justice Department sent
his committee four years ago showing federal agents used potentially incendiary
tear gas near the fiery end of the Branch Davidian standoff, a House Democrat
said Monday.
Releasing documents that describe the FBI's use of military tear gas
rounds on the standoff's final day -- April 19, 1993 -- Rep. Henry Waxman
asked why the House Government Reform Committee's chairman is accusing
the Justice Department of a cover-up when his own investigators missed
the same evidence that has suddenly revived the Waco debate.
"Contrary to the allegations of cover-up, substantial evidence of
the use of military tear gas rounds was, in fact, provided to Congress
in 1995," said Waxman, D-Calif., the committee's top Democrat.
Separately, the Texas Rangers issued a report Monday indicating a
house near the Davidians' compound occupied by federal agents before
and during the siege contained a dozen spent rifle cartridges preferred
by sharpshooters --as well as by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms.
The FBI has long denied firing a single shot during the standoff.
ATF was involved in a deadly shootout with the Davidians on Feb. 28,
1993, that launched the 51-day confrontation.
The records Waxman cited, discovered among more than 40 boxes of material
compiled during the House's 1995 hearings, include an FBI pilot's 1993
statement recalling a radio transmission in which agents had a conversation
"relative to the utilization of some sort of military round ... on a
concrete bunker." And post-raid interview summaries include an unnamed
FBI agent's explanation that smoke captured on film "came from (an)
attempt to penetrate bunker with one military and two (non-incendiary)
rounds."
In a letter to the special counsel investigating the controversy,
Waxman wrote: "There is no indication that Chairman Burton or his staff
thought to review these documents before accusing the attorney general
of a cover-up."
Burton said the Justice Department buried the committee in an avalanche
of documents shortly before the 1995 hearings began, and panel investigators
depended on a Justice summary to guide them.
"The Justice Department dumped 100,000 documents on the committee
three days before the hearings, knowing that they (committee aides)
couldn't possibly go through them," Burton said in an interview. Although
Burton was on the Government Reform Committee in 1995, he was not on
the subcommittee that led the investigation.
Last week, the Justice Department was forced to acknowledge that it
failed in 1995 to give Congress the key page from a 1993 FBI lab report
mentioning the use of military tear gas. The final page of that 49-page
report, with the key tear gas mention, was missing, Burton noted. "I
don't think that's a coincidence," he said.
Until the FBI's recent admission that a "very limited number" of pyrotechnic
rounds were fired, Justice and FBI officials had publicly denied the
use of potentially incendiary tear gas. That about-face sparked congressional
outrage and led Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an outside investigator,
former Sen. John Danforth.
Almost six out of 10 Americans believe the FBI has been intentionally
trying to cover up its actions at Waco, an ABC News poll released Monday
indicated. Only one out of five polled said they thought Reno should
resign, based on what they now know. The poll of 1,008 adults was taken
Sept. 8-12 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Waxman's presentation came as the Texas Rangers released a report
that cited the discovery of .308-caliber and .223-caliber shell casings
in a house the federal agents used.
Both the FBI and ATF use ammunition matching those casings, said ATF
spokesman Jeff Roehm and FBI spokesman Tron Brekke.
Whether the casings in the Rangers' report are from the ATF agents'
rounds, "We do not know," Roehm said. The ATF's attempt to serve weapons
warrants on the well-armed Davidians -- who had been tipped off about
the raid turned into a gun battle that launched the siege.
Brekke, meanwhile, said, "Our position is the same as it's always
been: We didn't fire any rounds at Waco."
In an account the FBI has since said was wrong, an FBI agent initially
reported hearing shots fired from that house on the siege's final day.
Danforth, the Missouri Republican appointed last week by Reno to head
an independent inquiry, said determining whether FBI agents fired shots
that day will be among the "dark questions" his investigation will cover.
The Rangers' report also includes a federal prosecutor's Aug. 30 letter
to Reno saying Justice Department officials may have withheld facts
from her regarding use of the pyrotechnic tear gas.
"I have formed the belief that facts may have been kept from you --
and quite possibly are being kept from you even now, by components of
the department," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston in Waco.
The Rangers' study, begun in June amid new questions about the use
of pyrotechnic rounds, indicates that a 40mm shell casing found at the
scene was an M651 military tear gas round that "burns at 500 to 700
degrees Fahrenheit, and is capable of igniting flammable items."
Military experts advised the Rangers that "they had not explored the
fire hazard of the M651 because it was known to cause fires," the report
said.
The FBI and Reno maintain that Davidians deliberately set the fire
that raced through the compound. They have said the pyrotechnic tear
gas canisters bounced off the roof of a concrete bunker and rolled harmlessly
into a field hours before the fire began.
Davidian leader David Koresh and some 80 followers perished during
the inferno, some from fire, others from gunshot wounds.
Copyright © 1999 The Associated Press
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