-Caveat Lector-
Oh, come now ... Our political hypocrites are headed for an ELECTION
YEAR and no one wants to risk encouraging "suspicion of The Government" among
voters ...
Waco Probe Stalls in Congress
By LAURIE KELLMAN
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional Republicans are losing their zeal for fresh
hearings into the 1993 Waco siege, the initial urgency dampened by internal
bickering and concerns about the GOP's credibility in another White House
investigation.
``I don't know that we will see any compelling need'' for hearings, House
Majority Leader Dick Armey told reporters Thursday, expressing confidence in
independent prosecutor John Danforth.
``There's a basic attitude among the leadership guys ... to be patient,''
said Armey, R-Texas.
Only last month, party leaders seized on new revelations about the
government's use of force against the Branch Davidians, seeking in-depth
congressional hearings and Attorney General Janet Reno's resignation.
In the House, where Democrats only need to pick up six seats to win control
in next year's election, some Republicans grew nervous that another
investigation of the Clinton administration might backfire with voters.
``There's Waco fatigue,'' said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., a member of the
House panel investigating Waco.
He prefers postponing hearings until spring. ``There's a feeling that the
political risk may be higher than the political gain of pursuing this subject
at this time.''
There is more enthusiasm in the Senate for new investigations of Reno's
department. But the focus on Waco has been diluted by other complaints
against Justice - such as its investigation of Chinese espionage charges -
and muddied by Republican infighting.
The chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, Rep. Dan Burton, has
promised to move aggressively with hearings. His investigators expect to
receive more than a million Waco-related documents from the Justice and
Defense departments within a week in response to a subpoena.
Burton, R-Ind., did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The revelations that sparked the furor include the FBI's admission that its
agents fired potentially flammable tear gas canisters at the compound April
19, 1993, which the agency long denied. The FBI says the canisters, launched
hours before the start of the fire that consumed the compound, bounced
harmlessly off the roof of a nearby bunker and did not contribute to that
fire. About 80 Davidians died that day.
The Dallas Morning News quoted a now retired Army colonel in today's editions
as saying he heard Davidian leader David Koresh give the order to set the
fires through bug transmissions on speakers in the FBI Waco command center's
monitoring room.
Col. Rodney L. Rawlings, who retired from the Army in 1997, told the Dallas
newspaper that he heard Koresh's order and then the sound of gunshots within
five minutes after the FBI began its assault on the compound.
``I heard it. Anyone who says you couldn't at the time is being less than
truthful,'' said Rawlings, explaining he was in an adjacent room in the FBI
command center at the time.
FBI officials have said transmissions from eavesdropping devices inside the
Davidians' compound were too garbled to allow agents to hear the sect's
discussions.
Only later, after the fire and the tapes were enhanced, did the FBI learn
that the Davidians were spreading fuel and preparing to set a fire, they
testified before congressional committees. Had FBI leaders heard that people
in the compound were preparing a fire, they would have stopped the assault,
they testified.
Deputy FBI Director John Collingwood would not comment on Rawlings' account.
``We have appropriately relinquished all of these issues to Senator Danforth
and are confident he will get to the bottom of this,'' he told the Morning
News.
On Sept. 9, the day after Reno announced Danforth's appointment, Armey said
he wanted the House probe to be more sweeping than the independent
prosecutor's: ``I want to know it all.''
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., agreed that congressional
investigators should ``do it in the broadest possible way.'' He said the
revelations made him doubt the conclusion that the Branch Davidians, and not
the FBI, started the fire.
Since then, Senate Republicans have been feuding among themselves over the
investigation's scope and proper venue.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wanted his panel to
handle it. Instead, Lott last month announced a task force led by Sen. Arlen
Specter, R-Pa., a Judiciary Committee member, that would investigate the
espionage charges as a first priority. Waco would be secondary, along with
charges of Democratic campaign fund-raising abuses.
Hatch has made another pitch to take over the investigation. In an Oct. 5
letter to Specter obtained by The Associated Press, Hatch said the probe
would have more credibility if it were done by a Judiciary Committee panel
with the Democrats' participation.
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