  PRESS | Home | Premiere | Showings | FAQ | Gallery | Order | Email | |
|
Waco documentary offers few revelations By William H. Freivogel And
Terry Ganey In a darkened theater in Washington last week, former FBI agent Frederic Whitehurst told an audience that Americans have never been told the complete truth about the government's siege of the Branch Davidian complex at Waco, Texas. Whitehurst's appearance as the narrator of a new documentary film on Waco shows that those raising questions are not radical fringe elements or conspiracy fanatics. Whitehurst, a former chemist who blew the whistle on shoddy practices in the FBI crime lab, is one of a group of former government scientists, retired intelligence officials and military men who lend some weight to the film's dark claims. Nevertheless, the film -- "Waco: A New Revelation" -- had few revelations. It contained no incontrovertible physical evidence or eyewitness accounts of illegal acts by government agents. Some of the more sensational claims -- that a high-explosive charge blew a hole in the roof of a bunker with children inside, that Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed for the final assault and that Waco contributed to the suicide of former White House lawyer Vincent Foster -- have previously been discounted. About 80 Branch Davidians died -- some by fire and some by gunshots -- during the FBI's assault on the complex April 19, 1993. The fire broke out six hours after tanks fired tear gas into the complex in an attempt to roust people out. The assault ended a 51-day siege that had begun Feb. 28, when more than 70 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the complex to execute a search warrant for a cache of illegal weapons. Four agents and six Branch Davidians were killed in the ensuing gunfight. Tear gas prompts inquiry Filmmaker Mike McNulty's biggest discovery while making the film was that the FBI had used pyrotechnic tear gas during the last day of the siege. That discovery last summer prompted Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint John C. Danforth as special counsel to conduct a new investigation. But the discovery of the pyrotechnic rounds, which can cause fire, has not led to proof that the government started the fire. The rounds were fired four hours before the compound burned. They were directed at a concrete bunker about 50 yards away from the complex. There is no evidence that the government fired pyrotechnic rounds at the complex itself, and the film appears to concede that the Branch Davidians started the fire. One new allegation in the film concerned involvement by the military's anti-terrorism Delta Force. Gene Cullen, a former CIA officer, says he was told on an overseas mission in 1993 that Delta commandos had exchanged gunfire with Branch Davidians. That went beyond statements he had made last summer to the Dallas Morning News when he said he had been told that Delta soldiers at Waco had been actively involved and had ridden in armored vehicles. The newspaper reported after the movie screening that Cullen had made no mention of gunfire in his interview with the paper, and it quoted unnamed government officials who discredited times and places in Cullen's account. Infrared analysis Edward Allard, an infrared imaging expert, reprises for the film his earlier analysis of infrared videotapes that he says show government gunfire. The FBI made the tapes from an airplane circling 9,000 feet above the complex. Allard's allegations were the most sensational part of McNulty's 1997 documentary, "Waco: The Rules of Engagement." In the new film, Allard adds the allegation that shots were fired at a Branch Davidian from a machine gun mounted on a pedestal in a helicopter overhead. Allard, who got his doctorate in physics from the University of Missouri at Rolla and read infrared tape at the Pentagon's night vision laboratory before retirement, identifies flashes on the tapes as gunshots. He says he can identify bursts of fire from government forces in the direction of Branch Davidians in the complex dining room just after the fire started. "I stopped counting after 62 individual shots," Allard said. The government's experts say it is impossible to see gunfire on infrared tapes, and Allard acknowledges that he has never before identified small-arms fire on an infrared tape shot from an airplane. The Maryland Advanced Development Laboratory, using a computer program that detects gunfire in an infrared scene, has concluded that the flashes are not gunfire. The FBI continues to stand by its claim that no government agent fired. It doesn't make sense, the agency says, for one set of government agents to be firing into the complex at a time that other agents were abandoning the safety of their armored vehicles to save a few Branch Davidians from the flames. An attitude of "arrogance" Whitehurst, the former FBI lab chemist, said in an interview after the movie that the crime scene at Waco had been mishandled and that ballistics tests were rudimentary. He said that no thorough crime scene investigation was undertaken because the FBI expected its version of events to be accepted. "The FBI has an attitude of supreme arrogance," he said. "It's an attitude of, 'We need to know, and you don't. We will advise you of what you have to know. You really couldn't handle the complete truth.'" The film's claim that the government used a high-explosive "shaped charge" to blow in the top of a concrete bunker housing children has previously been discounted. One of those making the charge on the film, retired Air Force Gen. Benjamin Partin, has told militia groups that the government used this kind of shaped charge to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City -- a claim disproved in court. Also, U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. discounted the shaped-charge theory in an opinion last year in a wrongful death suit filed by the Branch Davidians against the government. He said the explosion of a propane tank probably accounted for the hole in the bunker. The film's allegation that Hillary Clinton pushed for an end to the siege was backed up by T. March Bell, who had been a Republican attorney on a House committee that investigated Waco in 1995. Bell said at the movie premiere that telephone logs show calls between the White House and former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell. "Here was a new president faced with his first crisis," Bell said. "It was during the honeymoon period. She wanted to get it wrapped up." However, Mrs. Clinton and Hubbell were friends and former law partners who spoke frequently about a number of things. There is no evidence that she pushed for an end to the siege. Justice Department files show clearly that the FBI Hostage Rescue Team was the primary force pressing Reno to authorize the final tear gas assault -- not the White House. Bell said the House committee investigation into Waco in 1995 was a failure partly because Republicans, in charge for the first time in years, were unaccustomed to running congressional hearings. "The hearings began before all the evidence was collected," Bell said. And there was no independent analysis of the infrared tapes. "Congress is not equipped to evaluate evidence like that," he said. Bell himself caused some controversy during the committee hearings by using a National Rifle Association consultant for the committee, a move that led to allegations of bias. The panel's GOP chairman said the NRA involvement had been a mistake. The film maintains that Foster, the former White House lawyer, committed suicide because he thought he could have done something to prevent what happened at Waco. The film relates an FBI interview in which Foster's wife, Lisa, said her husband was upset about Waco. But it leaves out Lisa Foster's assessment that her husband killed himself because of his clinical depression rather than because of Waco or the Whitewater investigation. McNulty, the chief researcher on the first Waco film, is the producer of the new one. He predicted last week that Danforth would run into political conflict if his investigation turned up the official wrongdoing that McNulty believes occurred. "I am taking Mr. Danforth at face value. He's an honorable man," McNulty said. "And history tells us that if he is the man I hope he is, he's likely to be fired. His career on this job will be terminated by the Justice Department the moment he comes to certain conclusions." ******** Allegation Government agents fired into the Branch Davidian complex while it burned on April 19, 1993. Support * Some technical experts say flashes on infrared film are gunshots directed at the complex. * Branch Davidian survivors say there was incoming gunfire. Contradictions * Government infrared experts say the flashes are not gunfire. * There are no eyewitness accounts of government agents firing into the complex. Allegation Commandos of the military's Delta Force fired into the complex April 19. Support * A former CIA analyst says Delta Force soldiers told about the use of weapons in the assault. * A former Green Beret trainer says he heard Delta Force soldiers talk about active involvement. Contradictions * The Pentagon acknowledges that it had Delta Force observers on the scene and that Delta Force officers advised Attorney General Janet Reno on the tear gas assault. But it denies active Delta Force involvement. * There are no eyewitness accounts of a Delta Force soldier actively involved. Allegation The government used a powerful "shaped charge" to blow a hole in a bunker in which women and children had taken refuge. Support * Video footage of a hole shows that steel reinforcing rods were bent inward. Contradictions * U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. has discounted the claim, pointing instead to the explosion of the complex's propane tank. * A retired general who makes the claim also claimed shaped charges were used to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City. Allegation Hillary Rodham Clinton pressed to bring the siege to a quick end. Support
* Telephone logs show calls between the White House and Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell. Contradiction * By all accounts, pressure to go forward with the April 19 assault came from the FBI, not the White House.
|
