msnbc.com
FBI knew in ?93 of tear gas at Waco
Final page of lab report had not been given to Congress MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 ? A lab document that the Justice Department failed to give Congress discloses that the FBI knew within eight months of the fiery end of the Branch Davidian siege that military tear gas projectiles were used, The Associated Press has learned.
A KEY final page from a 49-page FBI lab report was turned over to the House Government Reform Committee this week, along with an internal Justice Department memo acknowledging it ?was not produced to Congress? during the 1995 investigations into the tragedy near Waco, Texas.
The first 48 pages of the lab report, dated Dec. 6, 1993, had been turned over to lawmakers years ago, absent the mention of the military-style tear gas that government officials for years had denied using.
The 49th page, obtained Friday by AP, discloses that FBI investigators who examined the scene at Waco found a
?fired US military 40 mm shell casing which originally contained a CS gas round,? and two ?expended 40mm tear gas projectiles.?
KEY PIECE OF EVIDENCE
The report is likely to become a key piece of evidence in the independent inquiry ordered by Attorney General Janet Reno and separate congressional investigations into whether government officials tried to cover up the use of potentially incendiary tear gas on the final day of the siege.
Justice Department and FBI officials denied for years that such tear gas grenades were used on April 19, 1993, the day the Davidian compound went up in flames. They abruptly reversed course earlier this month and acknowledged a ?very limited number? of such devices were fired hours before the fatal fire. |
