-Caveat Lector-
Report: Clinton, Reno deceived public about Waco tragedy
10/19/2000
By Lee Hancock and Michelle Mittelstadt
The Dallas Morning News
A Congressional report released Thursday alleges that President
Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno misled the public for
years with claims that U.S. military experts endorsed the
"flawed" FBI tear gas attack that ended the Branch Davidian
siege.
"President Clinton and Attorney General Reno have deceived the
American people for over seven years by misrepresenting that the
military endorsed, sanctioned or otherwise approvingly evaluated
the plan," stated the report by the House Government Reform
Committee.
The 99-page report also vigorously criticizes that Justice
Department's response in the aftermath of the tragedy, contending
that all of the agency's actions "were consistent with an
organization that was not eager to learn the full truth about
what happened on April 19, 1993."
Officials at the Justice Department and the White House did not
immediately return calls for comment Thursday.
But an opposing report by the committee's Democratic minority
disputed the Republican majority's criticism of Ms. Reno.
Committee Democrats contended that the attorney general acted
properly during the siege and its aftermath and that the
committee had wasted more than a year of investigative resources
on the Waco tragedy.
The Democrats' 25-page response contended that the Republican
majority findings were duplications of earlier investigative
efforts or "unsupported allegations of wrongdoing."
"The committee's 13-month investigation was unnecessary,
expensive and fruitless," the Democrats charged. "It contributes
virtually nothing to the public's understanding of Waco."
Both reports released Thursday follow a year-long investigation
by the same House committee that conducted two weeks of
contentious and highly partisan hearings in 1995 on the Waco
tragedy.
The committee renewed its Waco inquiry in September 1999 after
FBI and Justice Department officials were forced to reverse years
of public denials and acknowledge that some pyrotechnic tear gas
grenades had been used during their final Waco operation.
That admission and a Waco federal prosecutor's public warnings to
the attorney general last fall that some of her subordinates may
have covered up the use of pyrotechnic tear gas grenades also led
to the appointment of Waco Special Prosecutor John C. Danforth.
Mr. Danforth issued a preliminary report in July exonerating the
government of "bad acts" in Waco and clearing Ms. Reno of any
wrongdoing or effort to mislead Congress or the public in the
aftermath of the worst law enforcement tragedy in U.S. history.
About 80 Davidians died on April 19, 1993, when their compound
burned. The fire broke out about six hours after FBI agents began
ramming the building with tanks and spraying in tear gas to try
to force and end to a 51-day standoff.
The incident began when a gunfight broke out as agents from the
federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tried to search
the Davidian complex and arrest leader David Koresh on weapons
charges. Four ATF agents and six Davidians died.
The committee inquiry that led to Thursday's report began with
intense partisan sniping. Ranking minority member Henry Waxman,
D.-Calif., angrily chastised committee chair Dan Burton,
R-Indiana, last September after the chairman accused Justice
Department officials of withholding parts of an FBI lab report
from Congress that identified at least one tear gas round used at
Waco as a military device.
Mr. Waxman's staff discovered last fall that several copies of
the report, including the reference to the military rounds, were
given to the congressional committee before its 1995 hearings.
On Thursday, Democrats renewed their criticism of Mr. Burton,
charging that his committee's entire report and investigation was
flawed because of its beginnings with that "false accusation."
But the committee's majority noted in its report that those
documents were "dumped" on the committee only three days before
the start of the 1995 Waco hearings "in an apparent hope that
...no one would have the opportunity to find these documents and
ask relevant questions."
"Justice Department officials were more concerned in 1995 with
their own political self preservation than their duty of full
disclosure to the American people and the Congress," the report
released Thursday charged.
The report issued by the committee's Republican majority includes
accounts from an Army general and colonel of how they refused Ms.
Reno's request to evaluate an FBI plan to assault the Davidian
compound when FBI officials were seeking her approval for the
tear-gas operation carried out on April 19, 1993. The two
special forces officers said they told Ms. Reno that federal
limits on involvement by U.S. military in domestic law
enforcement actions prohibited them from offering any critique or
suggestion about the Waco plan.
At one point in discussing the operation plan, then deputy
attorney general Webster Hubbell even asked one of the officers
"is this legal," the report stated. "The army colonel did not
answer when Hubbell looked at him, but stated during his
interview with committee staff that his private thought at the
time was, 'that's your job; not mine.'"
The report adds that both officers told Congressional
investigators that they were stunned when they later learned that
the tear-gassing plan had been allowed to go forward, but were
never contacted by Justice officials assigned to review what
happened after the siege.
"When they left the April 14, 1993, meeting, they were convinced
the FBI would never execute the proposed operations plan as it
was briefed at the meeting. The Army Colonel stated he believed
the Attorney General 'didn't buy the plan being proposed by the
FBI.' ...His impression from the meeting was that no one thought
it was a smart way to proceed. He went on to state that he was
astonished when he saw the fire on TV on April 19, 1993.
"General (Peter) Schoomacher ... wondered why anyone would make
the decision to follow through with the FBI's proposed operations
plan as it had been described at the meeting," the report stated.
"His thought at the time of the meeting with Attorney General
Reno was that [the Hostage Rescue Team] should have put a fence
around the compound and waited until the Branch Davidians came
out from hunger, but he did not state this thought openly at the
meeting."
Ms. Reno told Congress after the operation ended in tragedy that
the military officers she had consulted before approving the plan
had concluded it was "excellent," and "sound." President Clinton
told reporters immediately after the incident that he was told by
Ms. Reno that military officers consulted before the operation
"were in basic agreement" with the FBI's operation.
Committee Democrats contended in their minority response that the
officers' statements about their meeting with Ms. Reno had been
misinterpreted and that Ms. Reno's account of what happened was
supported by three other Justice Department officials.
"In short, the majority grossly exaggerates the significance of
what is largely a difference in semantics and subjective
impressions," the Democrats' response stated.
While the committee report released Thursday diverges from the
Danforth report in its repeated and intense criticism of the
attorney general, its conclusions mirror several of the key
findings by the Waco special counsel.
Like Mr. Danforth and a federal court in Waco that recently
threw out a wrongful death lawsuit filed by surviving Davidians,
the congressional committee found no evidence that any government
agents fired guns at the sect in the last hours of the siege.
One analyst retained by the committee's investigators stated
publicly last fall that he had found evidence on an FBI infrared
video to support the government gunfire charge. But the
Congressional report states that the analyst, Carlos Ghigliotty,
died of heart disease in March before preparing or submitting a
scientific report to support his gunfire claim.
A second analyst retained to evaluate the infrared videotape
recorded from an FBI airplane filed a report in September stating
that none of four segments of the infrared video that he examined
for committee investigators depicted gunfire.
"It is extremely unlikely that anyone will ever be able to prove,
scientifically, that no government agent ever fired a shot at the
Davidians on April 19, 1993. The Committee, however, has not
found sufficient evidence to support the allegations that law
enforcement or military personnel directed gunfire towards the
Branch Davidians on April 19, 1993."
The report also criticizes Justice Department lawyers who
prosecuted surviving Davidians after the siege, contending that
lead prosecutors Ray and LeRoy Jahn of San Antonio and former
prosecutor Bill Johnston of Waco were told in 1993 that the FBI
had used pyrotechnic tear gas against the sect.
Ray Jahn, the lead prosecutor, told Congress in 1995 that only
non-pyrotechnic gas was used in Waco, and his wife, LeRoy, signed
pleadings during the criminal case that offered similar
statements to a federal court and lawyers defending members of
the sect. Records made public for the first time last fall
included handwritten notes in which Jahn wrote in 1993 describing
the FBI's use of military, pyrotechnic rounds.
The Congressional report notes that recent government admissions
about the use of pyrotechnic gas were due in large part to Mr.
Johnston's public criticism of the Justice Department and
warnings to Ms. Reno of a possible coverup.
But it noted that Mr. Johnston, who resigned his prosecutor's
post earlier this year, also withheld notes from the committee
that showed he was told in the fall of 1993 that several "incind"
or incendiary military gas rounds were fired at a bunker adjacent
to the compound.
"While Johnston deserves credit for his role in bringing to light
the use of pyrotechnic devices on April 19, 1993, a secret that
lasted four seven years, his record in this matter is a mixed
one," the report stated. "Johnston performed a public service
for which he suffered undeserved reprisals from the Department of
Justice. On the other hand, Johnston's apparent decision to
withhold his handwritten notes ...cannot be overlooked or
excused."
A lawyer for the former prosecutor said last month that he has
been notified by the Waco special prosecutor that he is being
targeted for prosecution for withholding the notes. The lawyer,
Michael Kennedy of New York, also has said that Mr. Danforth's
office tried to convince Mr. Johnston to plead guilty and testify
against the Jahns but Mr. Johnston has repeatedly refused.
Neither Mr. Kennedy nor Gerald Goldstein, a San Antonio lawyer
representing the Jahns, could be reached for comment Thursday.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
