St. Louis Post Dispatch
Published: 11-7-99 Author: William H. Freivogel and Terry Ganey

In a darkened theater in Washington last week, former FBI agent Frederic
Whitehurst told an audience that Americans have never been told the
complete truth about the government's siege of the Branch Davidian complex
at Waco, Texas.

Whitehurst's appearance as the narrator of a new documentary film on Waco
shows that those raising questions are not radical fringe elements or
conspiracy fanatics. Whitehurst, a former chemist who blew the whistle on
shoddy practices in the FBI crime lab, is one of a group of former
government scientists, retired intelligence officials and military men who
lend some weight to the film's dark claims.

Nevertheless, the film -- "Waco: A New Revelation" -- had few revelations.
It contained no incontrovertible physical evidence or eyewitness accounts
of illegal acts by government agents. Some of the more sensational claims
-- that a high-explosive charge blew a hole in the roof of a bunker with
children inside, that Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed for the final assault
and that Waco contributed to the suicide of former White House lawyer
Vincent Foster -- have previously been discounted.

About 80 Branch Davidians died -- some by fire and some by gunshots --
during the FBI's assault on the complex April 19, 1993. The fire broke out
six hours after tanks fired tear gas into the complex in an attempt to
roust people out. The assault ended a 51-day siege that had begun Feb. 28,
when more than 70 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
raided the complex to execute a search warrant for a cache of illegal
weapons. Four agents and six Branch Davidians were killed in the ensuing
gunfight.

Tear gas prompts inquiry

Filmmaker Mike McNulty's biggest discovery while making the film was that
the FBI had used pyrotechnic tear gas during the last day of the siege.
That discovery last summer prompted Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint
John C. Danforth as special counsel to conduct a new investigation.

But the discovery of the pyrotechnic rounds, which can cause fire, has not
led to proof that the government started the fire. The rounds were fired
four hours before the compound burned. They were directed at a concrete
bunker about 50 yards away from the complex. There is no evidence that the
government fired pyrotechnic rounds at the complex itself, and the film
appears to concede that the Branch Davidians started the fire.

One new allegation in the film concerned involvement by the military's
anti-terrorism Delta Force.

Gene Cullen, a former CIA officer, says he was told on an overseas mission
in 1993 that Delta commandos had exchanged gunfire with Branch Davidians.
That went beyond statements he had made last summer to the Dallas Morning
News when he said he had been told that Delta soldiers at Waco had been
actively involved and had ridden in armored vehicles.

The newspaper reported after the movie screening that Cullen had made no
mention of gunfire in his interview with the paper, and it quoted unnamed
government officials who discredited times and places in Cullen's account.

Infrared analysis

Edward Allard, an infrared imaging expert, reprises for the film his
earlier analysis of infrared videotapes that he says show government
gunfire. The FBI made the tapes from an airplane circling 9,000 feet above
the complex. Allard's allegations were the most sensational part of
McNulty's 1997 documentary, "Waco: The Rules of Engagement." In the new
film, Allard adds the allegation that shots were fired at a Branch Davidian
from a machine gun mounted on a pedestal in a helicopter overhead.

Allard, who got his doctorate in physics from the University of Missouri at
Rolla and read infrared tape at the Pentagon's night vision laboratory
before retirement, identifies flashes on the tapes as gunshots. He says he
can identify bursts of fire from government forces in the direction of
Branch Davidians in the complex dining room just after the fire started.

"I stopped counting after 62 individual shots," Allard said.

The government's experts say it is impossible to see gunfire on infrared
tapes, and Allard acknowledges that he has never before identified
small-arms fire on an infrared tape shot from an airplane. The Maryland
Advanced Development Laboratory, using a computer program that detects
gunfire in an infrared scene, has concluded that the flashes are not
gunfire.

The FBI continues to stand by its claim that no government agent fired. It
doesn't make sense, the agency says, for one set of government agents to be
firing into the complex at a time that other agents were abandoning the
safety of their armored vehicles to save a few Branch Davidians from the
flames.

An attitude of "arrogance"

Whitehurst, the former FBI lab chemist, said in an interview after the
movie that the crime scene at Waco had been mishandled and that ballistics
tests were rudimentary. He said that no thorough crime scene investigation
was undertaken because the FBI expected its version of events to be
accepted.

"The FBI has an attitude of supreme arrogance," he said. "It's an attitude
of, 'We need to know, and you don't. We will advise you of what you have to
know. You really couldn't handle the complete truth.'"

The film's claim that the government used a high-explosive "shaped charge"
to blow in the top of a concrete bunker housing children has previously
been discounted. One of those making the charge on the film, retired Air
Force Gen. Benjamin Partin, has told militia groups that the government
used this kind of shaped charge to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma
City -- a claim disproved in court.

Also, U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. discounted the shaped-charge
theory in an opinion last year in a wrongful death suit filed by the Branch
Davidians against the government. He said the explosion of a propane tank
probably accounted for the hole in the bunker.

The film's allegation that Hillary Clinton pushed for an end to the siege
was backed up by T. March Bell, who had been a Republican attorney on a
House committee that investigated Waco in 1995. Bell said at the movie
premiere that telephone logs show calls between the White House and former
Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell.

"Here was a new president faced with his first crisis," Bell said. "It was
during the honeymoon period. She wanted to get it wrapped up."

However, Mrs. Clinton and Hubbell were friends and former law partners who
spoke frequently about a number of things. There is no evidence that she
pushed for an end to the siege. Justice Department files show clearly that
the FBI Hostage Rescue Team was the primary force pressing Reno to
authorize the final tear gas assault -- not the White House.

Bell said the House committee investigation into Waco in 1995 was a failure
partly because Republicans, in charge for the first time in years, were
unaccustomed to running congressional hearings.

"The hearings began before all the evidence was collected," Bell said.

And there was no independent analysis of the infrared tapes.

"Congress is not equipped to evaluate evidence like that," he said.

Bell himself caused some controversy during the committee hearings by using
a National Rifle Association consultant for the committee, a move that led
to allegations of bias. The panel's GOP chairman said the NRA involvement
had been a mistake.

The film maintains that Foster, the former White House lawyer, committed
suicide because he thought he could have done something to prevent what
happened at Waco. The film relates an FBI interview in which Foster's wife,
Lisa, said her husband was upset about Waco. But it leaves out Lisa
Foster's assessment that her husband killed himself because of his clinical
depression rather than because of Waco or the Whitewater investigation.

McNulty, the chief researcher on the first Waco film, is the producer of
the new one. He predicted last week that Danforth would run into political
conflict if his investigation turned up the official wrongdoing that
McNulty believes occurred.

"I am taking Mr. Danforth at face value. He's an honorable man," McNulty
said. "And history tells us that if he is the man I hope he is, he's likely
to be fired. His career on this job will be terminated by the Justice
Department the moment he comes to certain conclusions."

********

Allegation

Government agents fired into the Branch Davidian complex while it burned on
April 19, 1993.

Support

* Some technical experts say flashes on infrared film are gunshots directed
at the complex.

* Branch Davidian survivors say there was incoming gunfire.

Contradictions

* Government infrared experts say the flashes are not gunfire.

* There are no eyewitness accounts of government agents firing into the
complex.

Allegation

Commandos of the military's Delta Force fired into the complex April 19.

Support

* A former CIA analyst says Delta Force soldiers told about the use of
weapons in the assault.

* A former Green Beret trainer says he heard Delta Force soldiers talk
about active involvement.

Contradictions

* The Pentagon acknowledges that it had Delta Force observers on the scene
and that Delta Force officers advised Attorney General Janet Reno on the
tear gas assault. But it denies active Delta Force involvement.

* There are no eyewitness accounts of a Delta Force soldier actively
involved.

Allegation

The government used a powerful "shaped charge" to blow a hole in a bunker
in which women and children had taken refuge.

Support

* Video footage of a hole shows that steel reinforcing rods were bent
inward.

Contradictions

* U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. has discounted the claim,
pointing instead to the explosion of the complex's propane tank.

* A retired general who makes the claim also claimed shaped charges were
used to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Allegation

Hillary Rodham Clinton pressed to bring the siege to a quick end.

Support

* Telephone logs show calls between the White House and Associate Attorney
General Webster Hubbell.

Contradiction

* By all accounts, pressure to go forward with the April 19 assault came
from the FBI, not the White House.