-Caveat Lector- Time for a mass e-mail to all the Thugs to demand and force her resignation. Bard -----Original Message----- From: NSNet [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, September 02, 1999 7:35 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Murdering Bull Dyke Covers Her Ass Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/waco-inquiry.html September 2, 1999 Marshals Acting on Reno's Orders Seize F.B.I. Tape By DAVID JOHNSTON and NEIL A. LEWIS WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Janet Reno Wednesday ordered United States marshals to the F.B.I.'s headquarters to seize a previously undisclosed tape recording of voice communications between F.B.I. commanders and field agents during the 1993 tear gas assault at the Branch Davidian compound, Justice Department officials said. The recording, officials said, contains the voices of agents asking for and receiving authorization from their operational commanders at Waco, Tex., to fire inflammable military tear-gas rounds at a covered bunker not far from the main Branch Davidian compound several hours before a deadly fire ignited, leaving about 80 people dead, including many children. The disclosure a week ago that agents had used the military tear gas rounds infuriated Ms. Reno, forced her to acknowledge that her credibility had been damaged and led her to decide today to form an independent inquiry into the matter, Justice Department officials said. The officials said the extraordinary order for marshals to seize the tapes from the F.B.I. was intended as a harsh rebuke for the bureau's failure to hand over information related to the central issue of who started the deadly fire. Ms. Reno was said by subordinates to be furious when she was told of the existence of a tape that had remained in F.B.I. files for more than six years. It was discovered on Saturday at the F.B.I.'s training academy in Quantico, Va., in the offices of the Hostage Rescue Team, the unit that was heavily criticized for its tactics in carrying out the Waco assault, law-enforcement officials said. Later, the tape was transferred to F.B.I. headquarters here. Myron Marlin, a Justice Department spokesman, said tonight that the Justice Department did not learn of the tape's existence until today. "The F.B.I. informed the department that it had come across the material in Quantico, Va.," he said. "On learning of the discovery of the material, senior officials of the Justice Department immediately directed the marshals to take possession of and inventory the materials at the F.B.I.'s headquarters." Even before the latest disclosure, Ms. Reno had decided to open an independent investigation of the 1993 siege, and officials said today that she planned to name a prominent figure to head the inquiry, making her choice from a short list that included Republicans, among them former senators, law-enforcement officials said today. Ms. Reno's list of people under consideration does not include any present or former officials of the Justice Department or F.B.I. The officials said that Ms. Reno had added and subtracted names in recent days from a list that has at times included former Republican Senators John C. Danforth of Missouri and Warren B. Rudman of New Hampshire. Another candidate is Dan K. Webb, a prominent Chicago lawyer who was a highly successful Republican-appointed Federal prosecutor. The disclosure of the tape represents another deeply wounding blow to the credibility of Ms. Reno and F.B.I. officials who had said repeatedly in the years since the operation that they had unearthed all relevant information about the assault before concluding that there was no possibility that the F.B.I. had caused the fire. The recording is on the audio track of an infrared videotape that picked up heat images from inside the compound. The tape was made by an aircraft flying over the site at the time the tear-gas canisters were launched at the bunker. Law-enforcement officials said the tape supports their account that the inflammable canisters bounced harmlessly off the bunker's roof and could not have ignited the fire. Arson investigators had found evidence that gasoline, charcoal lighter fluid and camp-stove fuel had been poured inside the wooden structure, and they said that the fire appeared to have started in three places. The F.B.I. also cited evidence from listening devices that recorded ambiguous conversation of Davidians discussing possible plans for a fire just hours before the blaze. But last week, the disclosure of the use of two incendiary military tear-gas rounds prompted an uproar that has forced Ms. Reno to announce that she would reopen a long-closed internal inquiry into the operation. In an unusual scene this afternoon at F.B.I. headquarters, agents from the marshal's service arrived at the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, the F.B.I.'s headquarters across the street from the Justice Department, to take the tape and related materials. Ms. Reno's action seemed almost certain to further strain the increasingly uneasy relationship between Ms. Reno and Director Louis J. Freeh of the F.B.I. Earlier in Ms. Reno's tenure, the two were close allies, but their relationship, while publicly cordial, has privately soured over several issues, most recently this week after Freeh's aides announced his desire for an independent inquiry into Waco before Ms. Reno announced her own support for it. At the F.B.I., officials said that they were embarrassed by the discovery, but did not try to conceal it. They said it had been unearthed during a thorough search of the offices of the Hostage Rescue Unit, which is now part of a larger group called the Critical Incident Response Group. The search by F.B.I. agents had been ordered by Freeh last week after the disclosure that the tear-gas canisters had been used. "The F.B.I. located important items and brought them to the attention the Justice Department," said John Collingwood, an F.B.I. spokesman. "We are cooperating fully with the effort to identify and preserve anything that may bear on the firing of the military-gas rounds." Collingwood said the F.B.I. did not object to the marshal service action. "We are in full agreement that the F.B.I. not maintain possession of anything located that may bear on the issue," he said. At the same time, senior Republicans in Congress are considering a separate, exhaustive investigation that would examine the Government's conduct during the entire Waco episode, and not be limited to the final day of the siege at the Branch Davidian compound. Representative Henry J. Hyde, the Illinois Republican who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would soon introduce legislation to establish a wide-ranging investigation of the events at Waco. Hyde's legislation would establish a five-member commission to conduct the inquiry. The commission could take more than a year to complete its work, which would be aimed, in the words of a Hyde assistant, "at insuring that this matter is put to rest once and for all." The aide, Sam Stratman, said that the commission would try to "find out everything that happened, everything. We would want to get the definitive answers so that we are not having to deal with new conspiracy theories in years to come based on newly emerging facts." The Congressionally authorized commission would likely have subpoena power and a generous budget. The Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and the Senate would each choose a member. Those four, in turn, would select the fifth member who would be the chairman. But Democratic officials in Congress today said that they might not support the commission that Hyde is contemplating if Ms. Reno's investigation appears to be credible and sufficient. Julian Epstein, the Democratic staff director of the House Judiciary Committee, said that there would be no need for two competing investigations and the Reno effort should take precedence over any by Congress. "We should have an outside independent investigation by individuals who have unquestioned credentials and expertise," said Epstein, who is a top aide to Representative John Conyers Jr., the Michigan Democrat who is the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. The recent revelations that some incendiary devices were used on the day of the siege, despite years of denials, has also spawned a third likely investigation, by Representative Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican, that could lead to public hearings as early as next month, his spokesman said today. Burton, chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, today sent committee subpoenas to the White House, F.B.I. and Justice Department demanding all records, phone logs, faxes and any communications those agencies had with the siege headquarters at Waco at the time of the incident. Burton had on Tuesday subpoenaed the same information from the Defense Department and a Federal prosecutor in Texas long involved in Waco matters. A major problem for any new inquiry into Waco, senior law-enforcement officials agree, is that most of the major players are locked into sworn testimony about what happened. There is, however, at least one unanswered question: Which officials at what level decided to play down and thereby effectively conceal the use of the incendiary tear-gas devices? Some bureau officials have said that they believe no one deliberately concealed anything but rather thought the use of the pyrotechnic devices was not material to the assault on the compound and was in no way related to the fatal fire. The devices were fired six hours before the fire started and were directed not at the residence that burned, but at a nearby bunker. No official, not even Ms. Reno, has suggested that they now believe that the tear-gas devices contributed to the fire. Arson investigators found evidence that gasoline, charcoal lighter fluid and camp stove fuel had been poured inside the wooden structure, and they said that the fire appeared to have started in three places. The F.B.I. also cited evidence from listening devices that included recordings of Davidians discussing plans for a fire just hours before the blaze. The expiration of the independent counsel law in June would have no impact on the effort to mount an independent review of Waco, officials said, because the Justice Department inquiry would not be a prosecutor's task but more akin to a special investigative panel. If anyone were to be found to have committed a possible crime of concealment or anything else, that person could then be prosecuted by the Justice Department. Burton said through a spokesman today that his inquiry was needed to determine "whether the Justice Department misled the American people and Congress." 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