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This Man Found Waco FactsBy Tim Crews BURBANK — As the 1993 Mount Carmel inferno in Waco recedes into history, time itself proves that veteran newsman Dan Gifford's instincts about the catastrophe were correct. His 1997 film "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" is a 136-minute monument to research, to journalism and to the benefits of a skeptical point of view. As executive producer, a writer, narrator and the spine that holds this book together, Mr. Gifford brought great credentials to the task. He toiled in print journalism as well as working years as a reporter for ABC News, The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour and CNN. The former television newsman's film on the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian sect documents FBI lies about its assault in Waco, the fire, the use of firearms, the search warrant. A full-scale investigation by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno resulted from the film, many observers believe. The film, available by request through AMH/Opus locally, is a painstakingly woven examination of evidence of the siege, from questions about what the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms public relations people were doing gathering reporters before the raid to the validity of the search warrant. Mr. Gifford, a southern-born moderate who lives with his wife and business partner in Los Angeles, sardonically refers to himself as a right-wing nut, recalling the time NBC tried to marginalize his Emmy winning and Oscar-nominated film by demanding he appear alone. "They wanted to characterize me as an angry white guy who made an anti-government film." He sent his wife instead and would not relent. It was her or no one. He laughs in a relaxed, quiet way. But when he talks about the film, even as he eats and drinks, there is always a sense of alertness. Perhaps it is the reporter in him; perhaps it is surviving writing the most incisive attack on government mendacity since the "Pentagon Papers" in the N.Y. Times. Dan Gifford chuckles as he says his wife is a "New York Jew" who didn't fit with the networks right wing stereotype. There is a sadness to Mr. Gifford common to veteran Vietnam War newsmen, a sadness that is easily heard in his voice: Here is man with deep, patriotic roots, who still wants to believe in his government, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He reports the news and this Waco film is news. It is investigative journalism at its best. The film documents: * Firing on the compound from helicopters, with the government first denying it, then saying they meant there were no fixed weapons on the choppers, and finally admitting firing from the air; * Agents believed that "maternal instincts would take over," forcing women from the building in the face of lethal doses of CS gas; * Officers dropped their trousers and underwear during the siege, making remarks, "mooning" the Davidian women, apparently as part of a psychological warfare scheme; * Infighting among government agents and undercutting of the negotiators; * The peaceful relationship of the Branch Davidians and the local community with a lengthy interview with the local sheriff, who was frozen out; * Communications and planning were so poor that the federal agents need to have news people call 911 when the raid first went sour; * The evidence that agents fired into the building through the front door; * Photographic and other evidence of pyrotechnic devices used by the government, showing government claims to the contrary to be lies; * Evidence that despite claims to the contrary, government agents fired into the building on several occasions, including during the final assault; * Strong suggestions that mortally wounded Davidians were run over by armored vehicles, the impact carving a huge slice out one man's chest and severing anther's ann. An armored vehicle's track was apparently derailed by the severed arm. * The F.B.I. seized a medical examiner's videotape and then "lost it," refusing to give it back. * Evidence has been withheld and secreted away. * Many of the decisions about the raid and the participation of the attorney general were political; * Finally, testimony from Texas Rangers under special commission as US. Marshals that F.B.I. agents lied during the investigation. "Janet Reno was raped by the FBI," Mr. Gifford has said, adding "She just acted on the facts she had at the time." But as time goes on, Mr. Gifford seems less convinced of her being misled. Asked about the film now, after the years spent unearthing evidence and enduring continuing blockages and the ongoing vilification, Mr. Gifford looks into one's eyes, one eye open just a little wider than the other. It is a look of wise astonishment. It is a gaze the government will see again in his new film on child protective services, "The Jaundiced Eye."
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