-Caveat Lector-
June 1, 2001 08:07 p.m. EDT
Simulation of Waco shoot-out used different rifle, official says
By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (June 1, 2001 08:07 p.m. EDT) - The simulation that concluded
government agents did not fire their guns during the Waco siege did not
test the type of assault rifle the FBI had at the scene, according to an
official who helped run the test.
The simulation last year used a standard M-16 military rifle with a
20-inch barrel, said Robert Stewart, a U.S. Postal Service inspector who
helped coordinate the simulation.
The FBI does not use standard M-16s, and members of its Hostage Rescue
Team who were at Waco, Texas, in 1993 carried a version with just a
14-inch barrel, an FBI spokeswoman said.
Firearms experts say the longer gun has less muzzle flash, a term for
the briefly visible fire that escapes the end of the barrel.
Lawyers for the Branch Davidians who survived the fiery end of the siege
in April 1993 are now questioning whether the test really proved that
FBI agents never fired their guns at the Davidian compound.
"I think it completely undermines the test results," attorney Michael
Caddell said. Caddell said he plans to use the test as evidence if the
lawsuit his clients filed against the government is restored on appeal.
Former Sen. John Danforth, who led the independent Waco review, said he
did not know specifics about the test gun. He said it would not change
his conclusion that the FBI did not fire upon the Davidians at the end
of the siege. Eighty Davidians died.
"I don't know what weapons were tested myself," Danforth said Friday.
"But all of this was part of the agreement, and all of it was pronounced
fair at the end of the test."
An FBI official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the
agency provided one of the shorter rifles to Danforth's office and that
the ground rules for the test called for the smaller rifle to be used.
Danforth said Friday he thought he received "something less than total
cooperation" from the FBI, although he said that did not change his
findings that absolved the FBI of blame for the Davidians' deaths.
"Do I think there's anything out there hidden in some drawer that would
affect the outcome? I don't think there's any chance of that," Danforth
said.
John Collingwood, the FBI spokesman, cited Danforth's final report on
Waco, which said problems with the FBI's performance in turning over
documentary evidence were eventually settled to Danforth's satisfaction.
Stewart said the military's M-16 rifle that testers used had a 20-inch
barrel, not the 14-inch carbine that the FBI had at Waco. He provided
documentary filmmaker Mike McNulty with a photograph of the gun tested.
"We tested a standard military issue M-16, not a carbine," Stewart said.
The Davidian lawyers sought the simulation on March 19, 2000, because
they believed flashes of light that appeared on infrared video from the
final moments of the siege could be muzzle flashes from FBI guns.
Experts from British contractor Vector Data Systems concluded the
flashes on the April 19, 1993, tape were glint from the sun, not
gunfire.
Danforth and U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. relied in part on
that information to conclude that FBI agents did not fire their guns at
the Davidian compound.
Firearms experts say the difference in barrel lengths could have
affected the test. Guns with longer barrels produce smaller muzzle
flashes than those with shorter barrels because the hot gases released
by firing have longer to dissipate and cool, they said.
"From my experience, it's intuitive that with a shorter barrel, you're
going to get a longer muzzle flash," said Don Bassett, a retired FBI
agent who helped create the Hostage Rescue Team.
Caddell said he repeatedly insisted that the test include the smaller
M-16, and said that Danforth's office kept him from inspecting the
weapons used in the simulation. Caddell said the test protocol called
for using the shorter assault rifle.
"We were either suckered by the Office of Special Counsel or we were
suckered by the FBI, or both," Caddell said.
Danforth denied any wrongdoing.
"The weapons that were used and the way the test was conducted was
something that was agreed on by everyone," Danforth said.
Ten days before the test, Brad Swenson of Danforth's office wrote
Caddell to say that on the FBI's recommendation, testers would only use
one type of M-16.
Swenson said the FBI would provide a gun "which is representative of all
the M-16 style weapons the HRT had at Waco." Swenson referred to that
gun as an M-16A2, the standard rifle with a 20-inch barrel. Swenson also
wrote that the test gun would have a 14-inch barrel.
Caddell learned of the weapons discrepancy from McNulty, a filmmaker who
has made several documentaries about Waco that accuse the government of
a cover-up.
The government has maintained that the Davidians led by David Koresh
died by their own hand, shooting themselves and setting fire to their
compound.
Copyright © 2001 Nando Media
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