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New Waco film says agents used explosive to blast bunkerBy Michael D. Towle WASHINGTON -- A new documentary on the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco in 1993 contends that federal agents used an explosive device to blast a gaping hole in a bunker holding women and children. The two-hour film, previewed yesterday for the media and Washington officials, also asserts that government agents fired bullets at the back of Mount Carmel as it burned on the last day of the siege, making it impossible for followers of cult leader David Koresh to escape. That has been asserted in the past by various people associated with the siege. Koresh and about 80 followers perished during the blaze, some from the flames, others from gunshot wounds. The FBI and other federal agencies have denied that they had any role in the Davidians' deaths. "I'm sure that there are people that are going to present this as something about right and left," said Michael McNulty, the chief researcher for the film, Waco: A New Revelation. "I would simply like to say that it is not about right and left. It is absolutely about right and wrong. I hope some of the people in Congress will be able to discern that -- on both sides of the aisle -- and act accordingly and responsibly." The film is McNulty's second on Waco. His first was the 1997 documentary, Waco: The Rules of Engagement. That film earned an Emmy recently for investigative journalism and an Academy Award nomination for best documentary. The latest film, produced by MGA Entertainment in Colorado, contains footage shot after the siege, showing a large hole in the roof of a bunker. The steel rods that had reinforced the roof are bent inward, something the filmmakers say could have been accomplished only by a large explosive. The federal government has said for six years that it played no role in starting the fire at the compound or in the deaths of any Davidians inside. "Our position has not changed," FBI spokesman Bill Carter said. Carter said he has not heard the allegation that a "shape charge" explosive device was detonated on the roof of the concrete bunker. He also declined to comment about the documentary. But new information has raised questions about whether the government may have used pyrotechnic devices April 19, the day Koresh and his followers, including 20 children, died at Mount Carmel. In fact, it was McNulty who discovered a potentially incendiary tear gas canister amid the thousands of pounds of Waco evidence. The filmmakers interviewed former FBI agents, CIA agents, and military personnel. They also talked to surviving Branch Davidians. "I think there are some very real questions that need to be answered," said Frederic Whitehurst, a former FBI scientist who worked with McNulty on the film. "If somebody said there were no pyrotechnic rounds, that is just an outright lie." Whitehurst's complaints about shoddy practices in the FBI crime lab once led to a scathing inspector general assessment. The documentary also suggests, as some have in the past, that: * Electronic bugs in the compound gave agents advance knowledge that Koresh and his followers planned to burn Mount Carmel if attacked. The government has denied that it knew of those intentions. * Agents fired from helicopters at a Branch Davidian just hours before the final raid began. * Former White House aide Vince Foster kept first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton informed of events at Waco. * Two people rolled out from under a tank during the final raid and fired shots at the compound. The filmmakers used infrared surveillance videotape analyzed by an expert, Edward Allard, a former Army night vision lab supervisor, to reach that conclusion. Allard said the two people fired at least 62 rounds. The film is expected to be released on video this month.
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