-Caveat Lector- NewsMax.com reports (below) a little about the findings of an "independent" FLIR test conducted by Davidian-legal- team experts. Findings in this new test may contradict findings of a FLIR test conducted for the Davidian legal team on July 20, 2000. Davidian attorney David Hardy sent me a CD with video clips of that preliminary FLIR test. The Davidian-legal team's preliminary FLIR test found (a) no gun-muzzle flashes lasted longer than one video frame, (b) people were always visible, even in clothing designed to block the IR signature of the body, and (c) specular solar reflections on glass produced a bright flash... everything that the Vector-Data test found. It sounds as if a new test may have got new results. Unfortunately the following NewsMax.com report gives rather vague and unspecific information about the new FLIR test. I have not been sent anything on this new test, but here's a quick review of what's available: The NewsMax.com report indicates the new test found gunshots lasting over 4 times longer than 8 milliseconds, which would be about 32 milliseconds, which is still one video frame per shot and thus is not inconsistent with what the VDS test found. All the ballistic studies I can find on the duration of a gun-muzzle thermal flash find upper durations to be slightly over 2 milliseconds. Some Waco FLIR flashes last 500 times longer than that! The findings of this new FLIR test appear to contradict the database available to ballistic-science researchers. Notably absent from the NewsMax report on the new FLIR test is any mention about what was found regarding solar reflections. A central argument for why the Waco FLIR flashes are gunshots is that solar reflections on glass shards cannot be detected by a FLIR. Both the VDS test and the preliminary Davidian legal-team test proved that that key claim was false -- specular solar reflections on glass ARE visible on FLIR as a bright-white flash. I believe that people need to know that a major basis for the Waco FLIR gunshot claim -- that you cannot see solar reflections on FLIR -- has been proven to be 100% false. The no-solar-reflection claim was a major reason I'd initially signed onto the gunshot claim. But proving that you CAN see solar reflections causes a profound shift in the underlying logic for the gunshot claim -- what was a given (if they can't be reflections the next best option is gunshots) suddenly has to stand on its own feet and as a result must prove on a flash-by-flash basis that each is not a solar reflection. Knowing this fact is essential to coming to a truthful conclusion about this matter and yet it has been totally ignored by the alternative media. It seems the only real new finding in this new FLIR test is that people on FLIR "ranged from invisible to barely visible." In the VDS test last March, people are some- times invisible IF you freeze the frame at one point, but as they move from one location to another they are detectable. So what is said in the NewsMax.com report is not necessarily very different than the VDS-test results. The main problem here is that more people are telling you what they see and you do not see. It's best to see things for yourself, which is why I've done all that I can and, to toot my horn a little, more anyone else on Earth to make raw Waco FLIR images available to all for free over the Internet: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/wacoflir.htm I'd not invest anything in the "new evidence" suggested in the following NewsMax.com report until the raw data is made available to others, particularly to everyone. It's my belief that the Branch Davidians are being subjected to malpractice that has wasted enormous time and resources barking up an empty tree and will probably continue to undermine the Davidian's future legal efforts and saturate alternative media with provably false claims. =========================================================== FROM: http://www.NewsMax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/26/190545 =========================================================== NEWSMAX.COM New Evidence in Waco Case Stephan Archer Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 A week ago today, a U.S. District Court upheld the government's behavior at Waco in the Branch Davidians' $675 million wrongful-death lawsuit, but a new motion for reconsideration loaded with "smoking gun" evidence could influence appeals and keep the saga alive. Michael McNulty, a reporter and documentary film producer who has brought to light serious questions regarding the Waco siege, told NewsMax.com there was little chance Judge Walter Smith Jr. would seriously consider the evidence in the motion. The point of the motion is to make sure all the evidence is in the record before the case moves to the appellate level, he said. "It ain't over 'til it's over," McNulty said in referring to evidence he believes indicts the FBI. According to McNulty, the newly presented evidence revolves around two main claims of the government. In its first claim, the government argued the flashes on the Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) tapes could not be gunfire because they lasted longer than 8 milliseconds on the tape. Its second claim points to the fact that people can't be seen in the tapes firing a weapon. A Sept. 6 FLIR imagery field test conducted by experts for the Branch Davidians, however, indicates the government's FLIR conclusions were shaky at best and deceptive. According to the independent test at Fort Collins, Colo., gunfire flashes can occur on the tapes without any visible presence of people. Gunfire flashes can also last more than four times as long on the tapes as the government claims. These findings aren't short of extraordinary in light of the fact that similar tests conducted by the government at Fort Hood, Texas, didn't uncover any of this information. A reason for this discrepancy could be that the temperature during the test at Fort Hood was about 20 degrees cooler than the temperature during the test at Fort Collins, which more accurately assimilated the temperature in Waco during the 1993 siege. Another reason for the different test results could be that Fort Hood used a different video format for recording while Fort Collins used the same format as that used at Waco. In the motion to reconsider are a number of affidavits including that of Ferdinand H. Zegel, a physicist with more than 30 years' experience in thermal imaging and related fields. He is a project manager and staff engineer for Radian Inc., involved in missile target thermal signature recognition. He observed the Fort Collins test and concluded that people moving outside the Davidian compound would have been difficult to see on the FLIR tapes. "The Fort Collins test demonstrates that under ambient conditions approximating those of April 19, 1993, individuals are not readily visible in FLIR imagery," Zegel said in his affidavit. Zegel further explained in his affidavit that a human image from the Fort Collins test should be more discernible than a similar human image recorded at Waco or Fort Hood because the images were larger. The reason for this is the camera was closer to the "action" at Fort Collins. The camera was also more stable and at a better angle making any pictures just that much more clear. Yet, human images still ranged from invisible to barely visible. McNulty added that after the test at Fort Collins, it was also discovered that standard military issue uniforms, such as the ones worn by FBI agents during the Waco siege, are chemically treated to reduce or eliminate thermal image. Commenting on government claims that gunfire flashes on FLIR tapes would last no longer than about 8 milliseconds, Zegel said in his affidavit, "The Ft. Collins test demonstrates that bursts of gunshots generate much longer duration flash signatures than values claimed possible by defense experts." Experts for the Davidians contend that these findings show that the government's arguments need to be re-evaluated. Carroll Lucas, who has experience interpreting aerial and satellite photography, had previously spent 25 years with the CIA in what was then known as its National Photographic Interpretation Center. In a written affidavit that was submitted along with the motion to reconsider, he said individuals could be seen near locations of the flashes on the FLIR tapes. "Based on the digital image analysis, I conclude that individuals are visible in the courtyard near locations and at times associated with FLIR imagery flashes," Lucas said. With this whirlwind of information coming in at a time in which the end of the Waco case seemed to be at hand, will Judge Smith reconsider the case? "I don't think (he) will," said McNulty. "I think the judge has got his mind made up, and he doesn't want to be disturbed by the facts." (c) 2000 NEWSMAX.COM =================================================== http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/26/190545 =================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------ GODDARD'S JOURNAL: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/journal.htm ____________________________________________________________ Asking the "wrong questions," challenging the Official Story <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. 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