-Caveat Lector-
From http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story75609.html
-
Wednesday, September 08, 1999
Restoring credibility
Don't limit Waco probe to FBI's tear-gas use
By ROWLAND NETHAWAY
WACO, TEXAS -- A lot more needs to be answered than simply why it took
FBI officials and Attorney General Janet Reno six years to report that
agents fired flammable tear gas canisters during the deadly final assault on
the Branch Davidians' compound in 1993.
If that's the only question that this new investigation attempts to
answer, the exercise will be another waste of paper and will make Americans
even more cynical about their government.
It's obvious why it took until now for Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh
to talk about the need to investigate the firing of incendiary military
tear-gas rounds the morning that the compound was engulfed in flames. They
had no choice.
Right up until physical evidence to the contrary was dropped in their
laps, they denied for six years that FBI agents fired pyrotechnic devices.
Assuming the leaders of the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation were misled by their own people, then they both are in charge
of such slipshod operations that some of the nation's top law-enforcement
officials are not above misleading their bosses, Congress and the American
people. That's the charitable assessment.
A recently discovered videotape shot from a surveillance aircraft that
morning contains a soundtrack that clearly contains discussions among FBI
Hostage Rescue Team members in which a team member asks a superior for
permission to fire military tear-gas cartridges that release gas by burning.
An FBI superior grants permission to fire the incendiary tear-gas
cartridges.
The radio traffic among assault-team members was monitored in real time
throughout the FBI chain of command at the scene and by FBI officials in
Washington, D.C., either simultaneously or with a slight time delay,
according to an FBI official.
After it was clear that the assault and subsequent inferno resulted in a
historic tragedy, FBI officials in Waco held a press conference to make
their first unequivocal denial that FBI agents fired incendiary or
pyrotechnic devices during the assault.
An outside investigation needs to answer a lot more than why Reno and
FBI officials misled Congress and the American people about the pyrotechnic
tear gas for the past six years.
The purpose of a new probe should be to ensure American citizens that
they can respect the fairness and honesty of their government. Another
piecemeal investigation can never accomplish this goal. A new investigation
into ""what happened in Waco'' should encompass the entire gamut of
government involvement from beginning to end.
Was there probable cause for the search warrant, for instance? Was
military involvement in the raid, siege and final assault out of bounds?
Were military officials misled? Why did the FBI refuse to cooperate with the
Texas Rangers during the siege and go out of its way to destroy crucial
crime-scene evidence? Why was an arson investigator hired with close ties to
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms?
For the sake of the credibility of the federal government, there should
be an outside investigation of the entire Branch Davidian debacle.
Malefactors should be held accountable.
ROWLAND NETHAWAY is senior editor of the Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald.
COX NEWSPAPERS
--
Dan S
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