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

To: gao seng who wrote (761)	9/6/1999 10:36:00 PM
From: gao seng	Respond to of 1449

Waco: the Blame Game Continues By Beverley Lumpkin ABCNEWS.com WASHINGTON — Justice officials are variously stunned, aghast, and furious at the virtually daily revelations about the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound. They cannot understand why with each new revelation about something the FBI knew and didn't pass on, the screams rise for Attorney General Janet Reno's head. Senior officials bitterly wonder if there is any point at which FBI Director Louie Freeh will “stand up like a man” and say, “stop picking on Janet, it's my agency, my responsibility, my watch.” Yes, it's true that Freeh was not director at the time of Waco, but he was sworn in in September of that year and presided over the agency during all the testimony, hearings, and delivery (or non-delivery) of evidence ever since. One mortified FBI agent “feels horrible for” Reno; “They tricked her on the kids being abused and now they tricked her” on the use of pyrotechnics. But from all inclinations on Capitol Hill, lawmakers seem bent on blaming Reno and allowing Freeh to keep his Teflon coat. A Logical Conclusion? Regarding the tape released Thursday, one former senior official thinks it's possible Dick Rogers, who was Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Hostage Rescue Team in Waco, did not know he was giving permission to use pyrotechnic rounds when he OK'd his subordinate's request to fire “military rounds” of tear gas at the concrete bunker or pit. I thought it was quite interesting that Rogers replies, “Of course, if there's water underneath that's just going to extinguish them but you can try it.” That suggested to me that Rogers understood the rounds were pyrotechnic, but a current FBI official declined to draw the same conclusion, noting he may have just been saying they would be ineffective. Danny Coulson, the former FBI official who finally let this cat out of the bag, says that various people, including some working with the Branch Davidians, had been calling him recently telling him to check out the possibility that pyrotechnic rounds had been used. So he made a few phonecalls and finally learned the truth. He says he had to go public because “I'm the one who told the story that wasn't true. I was out there for six years, I sold books, I had an obligation to say I was wrong.” He added pointedly that for the past six years, “somebody knew I was in error, somebody knew the Attorney General was in error, and let us drive into that brick wall.” FBI officials have been at pains in the past two weeks to make the distinction that the pyrotechnic rounds were fired at a concrete bunker or pit several dozen yards from the main wooden structure in which the Branch Davidians were holed up. But on Friday, Reno told reporters, “... What I asked for were assurances — and I received assurances — that we would not use incendiary devices or pyrotechnic means of delivering incendiary devices. And I made no distinction between any part of the compound.” Scandal Spoils FBI's Big Day The unveiling of the new FBI lab should have been a great day for the bureau, but it was marred by the continuing controversy over Waco. In a public relations disaster, Freeh was hustled out of the reach of shoving cameras and shouting reporters in a manner reminiscent of a mob boss running for cover from the media. Freeh of course has yet to say anything publicly about the scandal enveloping his agency. The $130 million new lab facility in Quantico, Va., will replace the overcrowded lab at FBI headquarters in early 2002. The multi-building complex will include a 463,000-square-foot lab building, parking garage and utilities plant. Donald Kerr, the Assistant Director in charge of the lab, says the new building is designed for scientific work, as opposed to the headquarters building made for office workers. He said the lab “will provide the first modern opportunity to bring together casework, research and development, and training [to apply] science and engineering to law enforcement problems.” Of course, the FBI lab was severely criticized two years ago for its abject failure to carefully follow scientific principles.