Oklahoman
Published in Washington, D.C.

09/01/1999

WHAT NOW, MS. RENO?
By Editorial

FOR years the federal government denied responsibility for starting the horrific fire that ended the 1993 standoff with Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas. Specifically, officials denied incendiary tear gas devices were shot into the Davidians' camp.

Last week Attorney General Janet Reno ordered an internal investigation after FBI officials admitted pyrotechnic tear gas grenades were used against the Davidians. Reno's concern is justified, but amid indications of lying and a possible government cover-up, an internal probe has little chance of achieving credibility.

The rapidly spreading fire consumed the Davidians' camp. Cult leader David Koresh and 86 followers, 24 of them children, perished. The FBI says it used pyrotechnics hours before the fire started but maintains the devices didn't cause the conflagration.

Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News reported that a federal prosecutor in Waco sent a letter to Reno alerting her that elements in her department may have withheld evidence about the use of pyrotechnics -- a key issue in a pending wrongful death suit filed by surviving Branch Davidians and families of the victims.

Evidence is a five-year-old memo detailing after-action interviews with members of the FBI's hostage rescue team. The document bore handwritten notes in the margin suggesting the memo be kept from anyone outside the Justice Department's legal staff.

"The credibility of the federal agents was extremely important to the government's case in many issues, not just this," Tim Evans, a lawyer for one of the surviving Branch Davidians, told the Morning News. "Their lies have infected this case like maggots. Yet incredibly they still want us to pick out the maggots and swallow the rest of their story. I think America is about to choke."

Indeed, the government's hands are not clean in this case, and Reno should have realized that her department shouldn't be investigating its own conduct. © Oklahoman, Inc.