WACO WON'T GO AWAY
              Coverup Of Federal Atrocity Crumbling

By Edward Zehr


Burning, burning, burning. The embers of Waco flared up again  in
late  August as the carefully crafted government coverup, bearing
the imprimatur of the mainstream press, continued to  crumble  in
the  light of disclosures from a soon-to-be-released film by Mike
McNulty, "Waco: A New Revelation." The (literal) bombshell  is  a
40  millimeter  CS gas projectile that shows up clearly in one of
the scenes. The  FBI  subsequently  acknowledged  that  two  such
rounds  had  been  fired, but insisted that they didn't start the
fire which destroyed the Branch Davidian compound at Waco,  Texas
on April 19, 1993, killing 86 people, two dozen of themchildren.

McNulty told Matt Drudge, "We never said they started  the  fire.
But  what  they haven't answered is questions about other devices
that were found in the rubble at the points of origin of the fire
like this."

Survivors of the Waco conflagration have told of  seeing  "Ferret
rounds"  embedded  in the walls emitting smoke, or darting around
on the floor. But this is not what a "Ferret round"  does.  David
T.   Hardy,  a  civil rights attorney who, together with McNulty,
helped initiate the events that have broken through the  coverup,
and  has  assembled  a  vast  amount  of  information on the Waco
holocaust, wrote in a paper titled "Use of CS Gas at Waco":

  "It is descriptive of the Federal Laboratories'  "Flite-Rite"
  and  other  pyrotechnic  CS  rounds.  These  spray  CS by the
  burning of their contents, spewing the result  out  the  tail
  and  through  side  ports,  and  are  designed to heat up and
  skitter in order to make it difficult to  pick  them  up  and
  hurl  them  back.  If  they were  used,  the  fact  would be
  extremely significant.  Pyrotechnic CS rounds are banned  for
  use against buildings precisely because they cause fires."

McNulty told Drudge that "what they haven't answered is questions
about  other  devices that were found in the rubble at the points
of origin of the fire like this."

A number of such expended pyrotechnic rounds were  found  in  the
debris  of  the  burned-out compound near the locations where the
fires are said to have started. The official explanation is  that
they  had been there since the initial assault on the compound by
the BATF, some 50  days  previous.  If  so,  it  seems  quite  an
extraordinary  coincidence,  but  this  sort  of  thing has never
troubled the mainstream press in past coverups. During the Foster
coverup  they  swallowed  dozens  of  such  "coincidences" whole,
without once triggering the old gag reflex.

The Justice Department has, for the past six years, categorically
denied  that  the  FBI  fired pyrotechnic devices into the Branch
Davidian  compound  on  the  day  the  fire  occurred.  Now  that
explanation  is  no longer "operative," to use the terminology of
the Nixon White House. The day  after  the  FBI  admitted  firing
pyrotechnic  tear  gas rounds into the compound, Attorney General
Janet Reno acknowledged it as well, saying:

  "I am very, very troubled by the information I received  this
  week  suggesting  that pyrotechnic devices may have been used
  in the early morning hours on April 19, 1993, at Waco.

  At this time all available indications are that  the  devices
  were  directed  at  the main wooden compound, were discharged
  several hours before the fire started and were not the  cause
  of the fire."

Unless the expended pyrotechnic rounds  found  in  the  locations
where  the  fires  started were fired on April 19, and not in the
initial assault on the compound. But who is  going  to  determine
that?  And  why were government agents firing pyrotechnic devices
at the flimsy, tinder dry, wooden structure at all?  Did  it  not
occur  to  any of them that this could be a fire hazard -- or did
they just not care?  The  problem  is,  this  government  has  so
completely compromised its credibility that its denials no longer
carry much weight, even with its normally docile lapdogs  in  the
mainstream  press,  although  they  continue  to  go  through the
motions of reporting the government's spin on the story as though
they find it believable.

Nor is this the worst of the federal  government's  problems.  On
Otober  18  a $100 million wrongful death suit brought on behalf
of more than 200 relatives of  Waco  holocaust  victims  goes  to
trial.   One  of  the  plaintiff's  attorneys,  Michael  Caddell,
believes that the government's credibility has been undermined by
the  recent  disclosures. "We have been saying for six years that
the government used pyrotechnic  devices  and  they  have  denied
using  pyrotechnic  devices," said Caddell. "It turns out that we
were right and they were wrong."

The attorney also  indicated  that  a  preliminary  investigation
conducted  on  behalf of the plaintiffs suggests that the federal
officers used more than the two  pyrotechnic  devices  they  have
admitted  to firing thus far. "Further exploration will show that
the government used other pyrotechnic devices on the final  day,"
Caddell  said,  adding  that  "infra-red video tapes taken on the
final day show that weapons were shot into  Mount  Carmel  in  an
effort to keep the members in the compound."

More specifically, a "former Defense Department  expert"  asserts
in  McNulty's film that flashes of light visible on videotapes of
the assault "are gunfire directed at the  Branch  Davidians  from
FBI  helicopters  and  government personnel," in the words of the
Dallas Morning News. The film alleges that the firing was done by
"Delta  force  personnel  deployed alongside members of the FBI's
hostage rescue team."

This has an ominous ring to it. Were the federal "Einsatzgruppen"
determined  to  effect  an  "Endloesung"  (final solution) to the
Davidian "problem"? If not, why were they so determined to  "keep
the  members  in  the  compound?" They story they told us is that
they wanted them to come  out.  Also,  the  presence  of  certain
"specialists" in their entourage that day is suggestive.

Although mainstream media  spin-mongrels  are  still  keeping  it
under  their hats, a cameo appearance is expected at the trial of
the Davidian lawsuit by professional assassin Lon  Horiuchi,  the
big,  brave  "fibbie" who blasted Mrs. Randal Weaver's brains out
at Ruby Ridge as she crouched beside  the  doorway  of  her  home
holding  a  baby  in  her  arms. Oh yes, Lon was at Waco as well,
along with the Ninja warriors of Delta Force and the British SAS.
The  government  has  "vehemently"  denied  that  the FBI fired a
single shot during the siege. So why did they need Horiuchi?  One
skeptic  has suggested that the FBI needed a hit-man on the scene
who wouldn't flinch at shooting women.

Horiuchi is the only individual  named  as  a  defenant  in  the
lawsuit.  Whacking  people  for fun and profit is not without its
downside. Mr. Horiuchi was indicted by the  State  of  Idaho  for
slaughtering  Mrs. Weaver, but the courts ruled that the feds had
jurisdiction in the case. It's the Supremacy  Clause,  you  know.
Under  Article  VI of the Constitution the federal government has
dibs on trying federal employees who slaughter its  citizens,  or
so  the courts would have us believe. Needless to say, Lon walked
soon after the case was transferred to the federal courts.  When,
under the Clinton administration, has the federal government ever
gone after wrong-doers? It's always the whistle-blowers  who  get
burned, isn't that right, Mr. Trulock?

When the government lies to us about most everything as a  matter
of  standard  procedure  and  attempts to cover up all wrongdoing
within its ranks, it is inevitable that we should speculate about
its  true  intentions. The spin-dizzy quislings of the mainstream
press attempt to discourage  all  such  speculation  by  snarling
epithets  such  as "conspiracy-theorist" at "militia types" whose
knees fail to jerk in unison with those of the thought-controlled
masses.  Joseph  Campbell,  in the third volume of his monumental
work, "The Masks of God," speaks of "the  new  idol,  the  state,
with  its  scientific  brainwash  and  its awesome, gruesome mass
product, the non-individual doll of living flesh, moved not  from
within but by remote control and signal from without, like one of
Pavlov's dogs."

In the marionette  theater  that  our  society  has  become,  the
federal  government  plays  the  role  of  puppet-master, and the
mainstream media pull the strings. But  what  of  the  individual
journalists?  Is that all they aspire to? In a New York Times hit
piece, thinly disguised as a news  report,  Jim  Yardley  showers
McNulty  and  Hardy  with  gratuitous insults. It seems that they
espouse views that are "popular  with  many  right-wing  groups."
This is considered a very serious offense by the cliche-prattlin
PC-pinheads who still believe that the Times prints  "the  news."
It also appears that, according to Yardley, "many critics" regard
McNulty's and Hardy's position as "anti-government propaganda."

That's good -- that's really good. In an article whose ostensible
purpose is to report on the fact that the government has lied for
six  years  about  using  incendiary  devices  on  a   tinder-dry
structure  in  which  86  people  burned  to  death,  who  do the
"propagandists" turn out to be? You guessed it -- the people  who
exposed  the lie. Good going, Yardley -- you should go far at the
Times.

The  reverberations  from  that  pyrotechnic  gas   canister   in
McNulty's   film   continue   to   spread  outward,  setting  off
sympathetic vibrations in their wake. The  foreman  of  the  jury
that  convicted  eight  members  of  the  Branch Davidian sect on
charges resulting from the federal siege at Waco recently said in
an  interview with WOAI radio in San Antonio that they should all
get new trials in light of the admissions by federal authorities.
Sarah  Bain  told  the  radio  audience,  "The question never was
settled in our minds during the trial as to exactly  who  started
that  fire.  Most of us had some doubts that the Branch Davidians
were responsible for mass suicide."

Although the FBI still maintains that the firing  of  pyrotechnic
devices  into  the  compound  was unrelated to the conflagration,
Bain observed that, "Some of the allegations were  that  the  FBI
may have done something to start the fie, but prosecutors at our
trial spent a lot of time  trying  to  prove  that  the  FBI  was
innocent, so the truth never did come out."

The FBI released transcripts of tapes on which they claim several
Davidians  can  be heard calling for fires to be set, but defense
attorneys who listened to the actual tapes claim that the  voices
on  the  tapes  were  unintelligible and that the transcripts are
merely a wild guess as to what was actually said.

Bain concluded: "All the evidence that was gathered  that  caused
them  to  be  put in prison was gathered after the fire. Since it
now appears that some of the evidence may have been misidentified
and  mislabeled,  and  possibly the origin of that fire is now in
question, it seems that they might rightly ask for a new trial."

During the long siege of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco the
mainstream  press  dutifully parroted the government's propaganda
line. It wasn't until the trial of the Davidians that they  began
to  sense  that  something  was  terribly wrong with the official
version of the story. Nevertheless they continued to spin it  the
government's way, with a few notable exceptions, and indeed, many
of them are still doing so to the present day. For this there can
be  no  excuse.  It  is  becoming increasingly apparent that what
happened at Waco is an atrocity with Nazi-like characteristics, a
sort  of home-spun version of the demolition of the Warsaw Ghetto
and the annihilation of its inhabitants.

Several congressional committees have stated their  intention  to
investigate  --  shouldn't  that  be  re-investigate? -- the Waco
holocaust.  (The  previous   pretense   by   Congress   to   have
investigated  this  government  atrocity  was  utterly dishonest,
shameful and beneath contempt).  The  right  honorable  gentlemen
would  be  well  advised  to  make an honest effort to get at the
truth this time.  Outrage over  Waco  has  already  provoked  the
murderous  attack  on a government building in Oklahoma City with
further loss of life.  Many have begun to question the legitimacy
of  the  federal government because of its apparent unwillingness
to ferret out criminal behavior within its own ranks. Our  ruling
class appear to believe that honesty in such matters would be too
risky. It is time they were made to understand that in  the  long
run covering up criminality will entail far greater risk.


THE SEEDS OF DISASTER

How did it  all  begin?  Most  accounts  start  with  the  Branch
Davidians,   depicting   them  either  as  a  messianic  cult  of
borderline psychotics, or as "a group of ordinary people  and  as
helpful,  friendly,  and  kind,"  as  Gary  Null  wrote in a 1995
Penthouse article. The latter description appears to be closer to
the  truth,  although  the  sect  did  seem  to entertain certain
apocalyptic notions and its leader, David Koresh appears to  have
been  mentally  disturbed. Nevertheless, the Branch Davidians had
lived peacefully in the Waco area  since  the  mid-1930s  without
bothering anybody.

What happened to bring about so disastrous a denouement? In order
to  understand  this it is necessary to grasp the extent to which
political correctness has taken hold of  our  educational  system
and  then  rapidly spread through our political institutions.  PC
is an ideologically bigoted, intolerant political philosophy that
fosters hate and hypocrisy.

Many an academic career has been destroyed by the howling tyrants
of  the  swaggering  PC-elite  that  is dominant nowadays at most
large American  universities.  One  is  reminded  of  the  "Dread
McCarthy  Era",  the  difference  being that most of the supposed
McCarthyite persecution was imaginary, growing ever more dire  in
the  minds  of  its non-victims as the years wear on, whereas PC-
persecution is real.

Our insolent academic  autocrats  openly  practice  intimidation,
gross intellectual dishonesty and the suppression of free speech.
They  are  almost  completely  immune  to  criticism   from   the
mainstream  press,  which  has  been  thoroughly  infiltrated and
colonized by J-school graduates fobbed off on  them  by  academe.
Journalism is an occupation to which many are called, but few are
chosen.  Considering that there are about ten graduates for every
opening  in  the field, a recommendation from a faculty member is
essential to getting placed in an actual news  organization.  The
other  grads go into advertising or other areas of communication,
if they are lucky enough to be placed at all.

Under the circumstances it is not too surprising  that  political
correctness  gets  a  pass rom most journalists. After all, they
were the J-students who learned to lick boots big time --  that's
why they were recommended. Most of them are shameless conformists
to whatever agenda is being pushed this week by the power  elite.
Should they decide that they don't like the party-line, there are
plenty of others ready, eager and hungry to  take  their  places.
The  upshot  of  it  all  is  that  we  no  longer  have anything
identifiable  as  a  free  press  in  this  country.   Even   the
journalists  who  play  conservatives  on TV are reluctant to pan
political correctness. It just isn't  considered  quite  nice  to
talk about it.

The Davidians planted the seeds of  their  own  destruction  when
they  began  acquiring  a  cache of firearms as a result of their
inclination to see things in apocalyptic terms.  They  felt  that
they  would  one day need them for self-defense. This placed them
on  a  collision  course  with  the  PC  fanatics  who  share  an
irrational,  hysterical  aversion  to firearms and consider self-
defense to be  somehow  subversive  of  the  New  Order  as  they
envision   it.   Add   to  this  a  cynical,  scheming  cabal  of
bureaucratic mediocrities, armed to the teeth and vested with the
authority  of the federal government, i.e. the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms, and the result is an irrepressible conflict
between two self-fulfilling prophecies.

The PC power-elite were convinced -- as  a  matter  of  immutable
dogma  --  that  the  Davidians  represented  a menace to "public
safety" and the Davidians were equally convinced that  they  were
the  potential  victims  of  official  repression.  In  time, the
assumption of the Davidians was to prove completely accurate.

Once  the  conflict  was  joined,  most  mainstream   journalists
hastened  to trumpet the official government propaganda line that
the Davidians were, to use the words of Gary Null:

  "a Jonestown-like suicide cult down  in  Texas  headed  by  a
  psychopathic  megalomaniac,  David Koresh, a modern-day self-
  proclaimed messiah... He had a tremendous arms cache...   His
  Branch  Davidian cult abused children... They were willing to
  take over the town of Waco... They were defiant of the Bureau
  of  Alcohol,  Tobacco  and  Firearms, and of the FBI...  They
  were planning to commit mass suicide..."

Naturally the public believed it implicitly. There was  no  other
information to compare it with. In modern, imperial Amerika there
never  is  --  unless  you  are   one   of   those   net-surfing,
conspiratorial  weirdos  who want to overthrow the government and
are probably into all manner of unsavory practices as well.

Thus the black-shirted BATF Gestapo was given  carte  blanche  to
use  the  Branch  Davidians  as  lab  rats in their little public
relations  experiment  --  they  staged  an  ultra-violent  armed
assault on the Davidians, who had harmed no one and, in fact, had
broken no laws.  The press had been alerted by the agency to make
sure  that  they would capture on video the BATF's fearless deeds
of derring-do for the entertainment  and  indoctrination  of  the
slavering,  brainwashed masses. The object of the exercise was to
garner public support for  an  agency  that  had  often  been  in
trouble  for  the  low  quality of its performance. In pursuit of
this agenda the BATF shamelessly pandered to the pet hates of the
PC  crowd  --  child abuse, gun ownership, religion (except as an
ineffectual anachronism), and the holding of unfashionable social
views.   The   PC  zombies  in  the  mainstream  press  responded
enthusiastically,  knees  a-jerking,  and  dutifully  whipped  up
public  hysteria  to a fever pitch, shrieking every lie and smear
against the Davidians provided them by the forces of "order."  It
was  nothing  less  than a government-sponsored hate-crime -- the
most egregious official atrocity since Wounded Knee.

Being the hopelessly incompetent sad-sacks  they  are,  the  BATF
made  a  complete  hash of the raid, getting four of their agents
killed and 20 injured in the  process.  There  were  angry  calls
throughout the country for the agency to be disbanded, but in the
natural course of events they were copiously rewarded  for  their
brutish  idiocy.  For one thing, no other agency wanted to absorb
their no-talent  personnel.  For  another,  that's  the  way  our
government   functions   --  gross  incompetence  and  gratuitous
viciousness are invariably and lavishly recompensed.

The assault video, that made the evening news  from  Canarsey  to
Calcutta,  shows  four BATF agents climbing up on the roof of the
single-story part of the building, whereupon one of them  lobs  a
smoke  grenade into a second-story window in an adjoining part of
the structure and three of them enter the  building  through  the
window.  The  fourth man throws another (smoke?) grenade into the
room and fires a machine gun through the window.  The  voice-over
informs  us  that  the three agents seen entering the window were
killed. Why am I not surprised?  Firing  a  machine  gun  into  a
smoke-filled  room  that  three  agents  have  only just entered?
Bullet holes appeared in the wall and the fourth man was hit. Did
any  of the three agents in the building return fire? If so, they
could hardly be blamed. This is surely one of  the  most  bizarre
bits of "police work" ever filmed.


MILICOPS

Another result of the Waco holocaust was  to  give  a  whole  new
meaning  to the term "military police." But, of course the proper
term should be militarized police --  the  intimidating  fascist-
black  uniforms,  the nazi-tyle coal-scuttle helmets -- suitable
wear for  massacres  and  pogroms  --  the  special  weapons  and
tactics.  These  are  but  external symbols of the New Order. Far
more  threatening  to  the  average  citizen  is  the  aggressive
military-style  training  these new era cops have been getting of
late from the feds. The results can be seen in news items such as
the following:

  "COMPTON, Calif. (AP) -  The  family  of  a  65-year-old  man
  killed  by El Monte police during a search for drugs plans to
  file a lawsuit, the family's lawyer says. Mario Paz was  shot
  twice in the back in front of his wife in their bedroom after
  SWAT officers raided the house in the Los Angeles suburb.  No
  drugs were found."

A law-abiding citizen shot twice  in  the  back  by  black-suited
milicops  in  his  own  bedroom -- while his wife looked on, yet.
Shooting victims in the back  is  a  widely-used  procedure  with
milicops.  The  BATF shot Randal Weaver's teenage son in the back
at Ruby Ridge as he attempted to flee. This is in tune  with  the
new  military  doctrine of avoiding casualties at all costs. Thus
the over-armed, over-trained, armored SWAT-team crouched  outside
Columbine  high school for hours -- long after the perps had died
-- while shooting victims slowly bled to death within. In the bad
old  days  the  under-armed, under-trained, un-armored cops would
have barged in, whacked the bad-guys and pulled  the  victims  to
safety.  Sure, some of them might have gotten hurt, but that used
to be considered part of the job.

Doesn't it just make yuh kinda proud tuh be a loyal subject of  a
New  World  Order such as this? Although the journalist who wrote
the piece repeated all the details that could be used to demonize
the  victim  --  "officers said they seized three pistols, a .22-
caliber rifle and $10,000  in  cash"  --  the  bottom  line  was,
"Family  members  said the guns were for protection and the money
was Paz' life savings. Nobody at the home was arrested. .  .  The
Compton  home  was targeted in a search warrant because mail with
its address was found in other raids, [a police spokesman] said."

Mario Paz, summarily executed at age 65 by the militarized police
for  crimes  against the state: his mail was found at the "wrong"
address. (Besides, his name sounds kinda funny).

Writing for Salon, Jeff Stein reported that U.S. Army Delta  team
commando   officers   attended   a  March  1993  meeting  at  CIA
Headquarters with FBI personnel  "to  discuss  the  ongoing  Waco
hostage situation . . ."

"Hostage situation"? And who were the "hostages," pray? Now, Gene
Cullen, a "former CIA officer" told Salon News that shucks, Delta
just went along to watch, but then sort  of  spoiled  the  effect
when he mentioned that "they were prepared to step in and help if
any more federal agents were killed."

They were  just  being  neighborly,  see?  What's  a  Delta-spook
supposed  to  do  when  a milicop rings the doorbell at his safe-
house and asks if he can borrow a cup of gelignite? And then,  as
he turns to leave, casualy inquires if he'd like to tag along to
the ambush?

"So we called this meeting [at CIA] during the  Waco  crisis  ...
to  see  how  the [FBI's hostage rescue team] would respond if it
was one of  our  buildings  in  this  country,  and  if  it  were
overseas, how Delta would respond," he added helpfully.

How's that again? They put the "hostage crisis" on hold so's they
could   sit   around  and  gab  with  the  Delta  doughboys  over
hypotheticals such as, what if Waco were in Western Samoa instead
of Texas? I can dig it. Sounds like a very productive use of time
-- in a "hostage situation" I mean.

"We  had  no  operational  involvement  in  this   activity,   or
planning,"  said  a  Defense  Department  official. Now there's a
wide-awake bureaucrat. See, the  catch  is,  as  "a  senior  Army
Special  Forces  lawyer"  informed  Salon, "aid to federal police
forces could violate the so-called posse comitatus  provision  of
U.S.  law  barring  the  use  of U.S. military forces in domestic
operations, except for  training,  maintenance  of  equipment  or
"expert advice."

But, no fear, there is an exception to the  statute  that  allows
military  personnel  to be used in "drug operations" any old time
an "agency head" wants them. Presumably that is why the BATF went
to   the   trouble   of   falsely   alleging   that   an  illegal
methamphetamine-lab was operating in  the  Davidian  compound.  I
discussed this months ago in another column. The phoniness of the
allegation is compellingly obvious.

The BATF was accused "in  public  documents"  of  misleading  the
Defense  Department  in  1995  with  false  accusations  that the
Davidians had been dealing in illegal drugs so  that  the  agency
could  qualify  for  free training and support from the military,
according to an article by Jerry Seper that appeared last week in
the   Washington  Times.  "Few  news  agencies  reported  on  the
documents," noted Seper.

House investigators are now said to be zeroing in on attempts  by
the agency to involve the military "as early as November 1992" in
its plans to raid the Davidian compound. In  December  1992,  the
BATF  requested  that  Army  Special  Forces  provide them "close
quarter  combat"  training,  Seper  reported.  The  agency   also
requested  aid  from the Texas National Guard in providing aerial
surveillance  of  the  compound.  Seper  writes   that   it   was
forthcoming   on  Jan.  6,  1993,  and  that  "five  more  aerial
surveillance missions took place over the next six weeks."

The requested training was also provided by Special Forces troops
of Joint Task Force 6. The Texas ANG continued to provide support
for the agency as well, staging "aerial diversions"  on  the  day
the initial raid took place and giving "post-raid support," using
three helicopters and 10 personnel.  The  Defense  Department  is
looking  into  the  role played by the military in the operation.
"There is an intensive review going on. Within special operations
command  and  in agencies within the Pentagon, we will review all
the documents both classified and unclassified . . . and look for
anything  that  would give any credence to any of the allegations
that have been made," said a DOD spokesman.

The Washington Bureau of Cox News Service reported  just  over  a
week  ago  that  "Army anti-terrorism specialists," including the
Army officer who  commands  Delta  Force,  Col.  William  Boykin,
attended  a  meeting with Attorney General Reno in 1993, at which
she "approved use of tear  gas  against  members  of  the  Branch
Davidian group near Waco, Texas."

Thus, Delta Force was present at the holocaust scene  not  merely
in  the  role of "observers" but took part in the actual planning
of the operation. According to a document, dated  May  13,  1993,
Brig.   Gen.   Peter  Schoomaker,  then  the  assistant  division
commander of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort  Hood,  Texas,  was
also  present,  as  was then-FBI Director William Sessions, then-
Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, two  additional  Army
officer  and  several FBI agents. Gen. Schoomaker and Col. Boykin
told Reno that use of CS gas inside the compound  would  make  it
"untenable."

In early February 1993, several weeks  before  the  siege  began,
Col.    Philip   W.  Lindley,  judge  advocate  general  for  the
Pentagon's Joint Special Operations  Command,  wrote  a  memo  in
which he pointed out that before military forces could be used at
Waco, "an exception under federal law would have to be found."

"Since there are point targets with identified civilin  subjects
this  falls  outside the scope of JTF mission approval and cannot
be  accomplished"  [legally],  Lindley  explained.  If  the  drug
allegations  were fraudulent -- as they obviously are -- the BATF
violated the posse comitatus provisions of the law  by  involving
the  military in the Branch Davidian raid -- unless the president
issued a waiver.  Nobody in the press has yet asked the president
whether  he  issued  a  waiver  --  perhaps  they are preoccupied
dreaming up new hypotheticals to ask Gorge Dubya, e.g. "Were any
of  your  lawyers  ever  found  dead in a park after having had a
lengthy affair with your wife?"


LEAKING LIKE A SIEVE

Danny Coulson, the former FBI official who had  Attorney  General
Reno  bouncing off the ceiling with his casual admission that the
FBI  had  fired  pyrotechnic  rounds  into  the  Branch  Davidian
compound,  and  his further speculation that this might even have
started the fire, initiated the current round  of  telling  tales
out of school.

But then Gene Cullen, the former  CIA  officer  mentioned  above,
went  to  the  Dallas  Morning  News  and  blabbed  with apparent
insouciance about being told of  the  Waco  operation  by  "Delta
operatives"  with  whom  he  had met in Bangkok: "They said there
were about 10 guys, fully armed,  fully  operational,  they  were
ready  for war," he said.  Cullen added that the Delta types were
"present, up front and close" giving a hand to the FBI  in  their
massive tear-gassing of the Branch Davidian compound.

"I was surprised at the amount of involvement they  had,"  Cullen
guilelessly  remarked.  They  apparently told him that one of the
Delta commandos "was helping drive a Bradley Fighting Vehicle" at
Waco.  In  point  of fact, Cullen told of hearing the "same basic
story" independently on "three or four  occasions"  --  all  from
different Delta operatives in various overseas locations.

Cullen's story seems to be supported by  James  B.  Francis  Jr.,
chairman  of  the Texas Department of Public Safety, who told the
Dalas newspaper, "'I'm advised there is some evidence  that  may
corroborate'  the allegation that Delta Force participated in the
assault." That wasn't the half of it.

A May 1993  memo  to  the  Army  Special  Forces  command,  which
includes  Delta Force, said that three Delta Force personnel were
present "as observers" at Waco when the final assault  was  made.
But  Mr.  Francis  says that Texas law enforcement officials have
evidence  that  there  were  more  than  three  Delta  operatives
present.

"I have been advised that there are some police officers who have
developed  some  evidence  that needs looking into with regard to
what  the  role  of  Delta  Force  was  at  the  Branch  Davidian
compound," said Francis, adding that "I think it's a subject that
the FBI director and the attorney general need to look into.  The
$64 question is whether they were advisory or  operational, and I
think some of the evidence is problematical."

But Mr. Francis had  already  carried  matters  a  step  farther.
Without advance notice, te TDPS had appeared in federal court in
July and told Judge Walter Smith that the Texas Rangers have Waco
evidence  sufficient to fill two large rooms -- evidence that has
yet to be seen by the public. The department explained that  when
filmmaker  Mike McNulty and civil rights attorney David Hardy had
requested copies  of  documents,  the  department  had  at  first
offered  to  provide  them,  but  were  forbidden to do so by the
federal agencies involved.  But when McNulty and  Hardy  went  to
these   same   federal  agencies  and  requested  copies  of  the
documents, they were told that they could not comply because  the
Texas Rangers had control of the available evidence.

Telling the court that it did not wish to bear responsibility for
withholding evidence, the TDPS asked the judge to take custody of
the evidence, offering to file  the  entire  two  rooms  full  of
documents  and  other items, weighing 12 tons, with the court. In
addition  to  documents,  Mr.  Francis  explained,  the  evidence
included  projectiles  that  had  been fired by government agents
into the Branch Davidian compound  from  M-79  grenade  launchers
used  by  the  FBI. These include pyrotechnic CS gas rounds which
expel the tear gas by burning a gas-producing substance. Warnings
are prominently displayed on the tear gas canisters that they are
flammable and must not be used  inside  buildings.  Francis  said
that  he  had told the Rangers not to allow the FBI access to the
evidence rooms until the evidence is seured by the  court.  TDPS
officials  said  they  wanted the evidence to be taken from their
custody because they suspected that the  Justice  Department  was
using  their  possession  of  the  evidence as a pretext to avoid
giving the public access to it under federal public records laws,
according to the Dallas newspaper.

Judge Smith  immediately  issued  a  court  order  accepting  the
evidence  from  the  TDPS.  Then,  on August 9, he issued another
order requiring the federal authorities to make available to  the
court  all evidence that is "in any way relevant to the events at
Mt. Carmel [the Davidian building]."

Last  Tuesday  that  guardian  of  public  probity,  the  Justice
Department,  challenged Judge Smith's authority to take charge of
the evidence. It's against the rules,  blustered  the  government
attorneys  in  a  19-page  motion  that pulled out all the stops,
claiming that the judge's order "threatens a wholesale intrusion"
into  the  Executive  Branch  and an "unwarranted and substantial
burden" on the entire federal government.  Fancy  that,  at  long
last  after  six years of brazen lying, stonewalling and coverup,
the feds might actually be required to obey their own laws for  a
change. How unwarranted and substantially burdensome can you get?

On Thursday Judge Smith dismissed  the  motion  and  ordered  the
government  to  produce  all  of  the  evidence  relating  to the
Davidian  lawsuit  or  they  would  be  cited  for  contempt.  He
described  the government's arguments as "disingeuous," pointing
out that they had "been aware since 1994, when  the  civil  suits
were  originally  filed  that  this  material  could very well be
subject to discovery."

On the very same Tuesday, federal prosecutor Bill  Johnston  told
The  Dallas  Morning  News  he felt an irresistible compulsion to
publicly warn  Attorney  General  Reno  that  Justice  Department
lawyers  had  for  a  long  time  been  withholding evidence that
federal agents had fired pyrotechnic tear  gas  rounds  into  the
Branch Davidian compound at Waco. He told the newspaper that this
compulsion had become irresistible after he had been given  a  5-
year-old  document  on  the  uses of "military gas" by the FBI at
Waco on April 19, 1993.

He became concerned,  said  Johnston,  after  noticing  that  the
document, which summarized an interview with members of the FBI's
hostage rescue team, "included handwritten  notations  suggesting
that  it  be  kept  from  anyone  outside  the department's legal
staff," according to the Dallas newspaper.

Johnston identified the source of the notations  as  the  Justice
Department's  civil  torts section, the very organization that is
defending the government  in  the  $100  million  wrongful  death
lawsuit  brought on behalf of survivors of the Waco holocaust. He
elaborated:

  "I have evidence that these notes were in the  possession  of
  the  torts  branch. I know that the lawsuit began to focus on
  these issues of whether pyrotechnics were used several  years
  ago,  and  the plaintiff's attorneys, who were alleging their
  use, specifically requested any documents the government  had
  like this."

It is an elementary point of federal law that when a plaintiff in
a  lawsuit  requests the disclosure of pertinent evidence such as
this, the defendant's lawyers must make it available. Not  to  do
so is considered a gross breach of legal ethics (simply not done,
old boy) and calls for disciplinary action from  the  court.  But
Johnston goes on to say:

  "I know that the plaintiffs never got the documen  once  its
  full  importance  was  known.  And  I  now wonder whether the
  attorney general had knowledge of these. I'll  bet  Ms.  Reno
  would  have  liked  to have known long ago what this document
  contained."

If this seems outrageous, consider the following:  Johnston  says
the  document indicates that he was present at the interview when
agents told of using "military gas rounds." Although  the  Dallas
Morning   News   never   quite  gets  around  to  explaining  the
implication  of  this  terminology,   military   gas   rounds   =
pyrotechnic   rounds,   because  military  tear  gas  rounds  use
pyrotechnics to expel the gas. Okay?

Thus, Johnston says, the document was "a  shot  across  the  bow,
some  attempt  to warn me," because he had recently been involved
in an investigation by the Texas Rangers that produced conclusive
evidence  that  the  feds  had  fired munitions into the Davidian
compound that were capable of starting the fire. Or,  to  put  is
succinctly, the Justice Department atempted to secure Johnston's
silence by using blackmail.

Reno bounced off the ceiling once again  on  Wednesday  when  she
learned  that  the  FBI have been sitting on a "tape recording of
voice communications between  FBI  commanders  and  field  agents
during  the tear-gas assault at the Branch Davidian compound," as
the New York Times described it. In actual fact, they  are  heard
authorizing the use of pyrotechnic rounds on a structure adjacent
to the compound.

"Outraged", the AG ordered United States Marshals to trog on over
to  FBI HQ and seize the heretofore undisclosed recording. Do you
want me to run through the voluminous accounts in the  mainstream
press  describing  how "furious" Reno was when she learned of the
existence of "a tape that had remained in FBI files for more than
six  years"? Never mind -- we've heard it all before. Besides, by
the following day the AG was puzzling over the  true  meaning  of
the word "incendiary" and questioning whether such a device could
actually start fires.

Golly, gee, what's an AG to do when she learns that the "fibbies"
have  been fibbing to her all this time? Well, she announces that
there will be a "thorough" investigation -- an  independent  one.
See,  she  really MEANS it this time. Pardon me if I am unable to
bestir myself to leap up and down with enthusiasm. If  only  Reno
had  taken up Net-surfing early on she would have known about all
of this years ago.  Of  course  she  wouldn't  have  believed  it
because  the  story  was  told by us "anti-government right wing-
nuts," (to quote from the Establishment playbook).

The fact that we were right and they were wrong will no doubt  be
taken  by mainstream journalists and other Establishment flunkies
as conclusive proof that life is relentlessly unfair. (After all,
they're  the  good-guys).  Mind you, all of this presupposes that
the newsies really were dumb enough  to  believe  the  FBI  cover
stories  and that Reno is preternaturally incompetent rather than
corrupt.  But hey -- I'm  easy.  So  long  as  they  continue  to
pretend that they are brain-dead, I will continue to pretend that
I believe that they believed.

So,  you  see,  the  situation  is  far  more  serious  than  the
superficial  news soundbites provided by the mainstream broadcast
media would seem to suggest. It represents nothing  less  than  a
major   ethics  meltdown  within  the  Justice  Department  --  a
concerted, long-term effort to deceive  the  court  and  obstruct
justice  by  attorneys  representing  the  U.S.  government.  The
victims of  gross  government  misconduct  go  to  court  seeking
redress  for  the grievous harm done to them by public officials,
only to be subjected  to  the  same  sort  of  lies,  deceit  and
treachery  that  precipitated  the harm done to them in the first
place. If this is the way they play the game, how can  anyone  be
expected  to  trust  this government? What kind of people have we
entrusted to conduct our  public  business?  They  appear  to  be
utterly  warped  and  twisted,  without  any  sense of decency or
morality. This is what happens  when  government  malfeasance  is
covered up and condoned -- it becomes endemic.



Edward Zehr can be reached at ezehr@capaccess.org



  Published in the Sep.  6, 1999 issue of The Washington Weekly
  Copyright 1999 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com)
          Reposting permitted with this message intact


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Mike Dugger                            When in doubt, vote 'em out
Armed and SAFE!              Legalize Freedom - ELECT Libertarians
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