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Pastimes : The Truth about Waco -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (25)	8/27/1999 9:08:00 AM
From: BillCh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1449

Meanwhile, as new questions arose yesterday over the role of the Army's secret anti-terrorist Delta Force during the siege, the Pentagon reiterated its long-standing position that all military personnel were lawfully deployed at Waco and acted only as observers or advisers. Any direct military involvement in a civilian law enforcement operation would have required a presidential waiver of the law barring such activity. Officials said such an order was not sought because it was not necessary given the military's limited role. In congressional hearings, Defense Department officials have acknowledged providing equipment and personnel to both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- which conducted the initial raid on Koresh's compound -- and the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team, which carried out the final assault. Military documents recently obtained by The Washington Post show that three members of Delta Force watched the tank and tear gas assault by the Hostage Rescue Team. The documents also recount that top-ranking Army officers met with Reno on April 14, 1993, primarily to discuss the use of tear gas to end the standoff. When Reno asked the officers for their analysis, they told her that "some people would panic" and that "mothers may run off and leave their infants," according to the documents. The officers, whose names were deleted from the papers, told Reno that "this was not a military operation and could not be assessed as such." A military operation, they said, would focus on capturing or killing Koresh, "and hope that the situation ended there." Other memos show that the military also provided FBI agents training in the use of 40mm grenade launchers, but say the FBI did not request, and the Defense Department did not supply, "incendiaries such as flame-throwers." The military also lent sophisticated technological support -- including experimental surveillance robots and a television satellite signal jammer. The FBI used the top-secret Air Force jamming device to shut off the Davidians' access to television, including CNN and other newscasts, documents show. The jammer was provided to assist the FBI's psychological warfare operation, designed to get the Davidians to surrender, said a former Pentagon official who asked not to be identified search.washingtonpost.com The FBI were certainly quick learners if they could learn to sue all this equipment that Delta Force advised them to use - like satellite jammers, mini-robots, grenade launchers etc