Bovard's Batterings


The Latest Waco Fireball

 by James Bovard

 The Waco ghost may be rising from the grave once more to
 place its ice-cold hand again on the neck of the Washington
 establishment. A new film and a new book by top Waco
 experts achieve the miraculous -- further shredding
 government credibility on the FBI's April 19, 1993 attack on
 the Branch Davidians.

 Back in September 1999, Attorney General Janet Reno
 hand-picked establishment eminence and former U.S.
 Senator John Danforth (R-MO) to put the wooden stake in
 the heart of the Waco issue once and for all. Danforth,
 operating supposedly as an independent counsel, did his
 pious best -- and raced to release his report last summer just
 as rumor had it that he was a top prospect to be Bush's vice
 presidential candidate. Danforth basically exonerated the
 feds, saving his scorn for low-life Americans who dared
 criticize the government tank assault and gassing of the
 women, children, and men in the Davidians' home.

 [b]A key issue in Danforth's investigation was whether FBI
 agents fired on Davidians during the final attack. Rhythmic
 patterns on Forward Looking Infrared ("FLIR") tapes made
 from an FBI plane strongly suggested automatic weapons
 fire came from positions near the FBI tanks. Danforth
 persuaded federal Judge Walter Smith to conduct a
 re-enactment last year of the final day's action. Danforth
 then proclaimed that the film from the re-enactment proved
 beyond a doubt that federal agents did not shoot at
 Davidians -- in large part because the muzzle flashes on the
 re-enactment were much shorter than the shots from the
 April 19, 1993 tape.

 A new film, entitled "The F.L.I.R. Project," produced by
 Mike McNulty (one of the masterminds behind the 1998
 Academy Award finalist documentary, "Waco: Rules of
 Engagement") reveals fatal flaws in Danforth's re-enactment.
 (The film is available at www.flirproject.com)

 On April 19, 1993, FBI agents relied on a commercial,
 off-the-shelf ammo -- the type that would be used by any
 hunter or shooter. For the March 19, 2000 Danforth-FBI
 re-enactment, however, the FBI used military-issue
 ammunition that had a special chemical coating on the
 gunpowder to reduce muzzle flash (helpful in preventing
 soldiers being detected in combat). The military ammo thus
 had a built-in flash suppressant.

 Since a key issue was the length of the muzzle flashes, using
 flash-suppressing ammunition ensured that the re-enactment
 would be a farce.

 The Danforth-FBI re-enactment further biased the test
 results by having the FBI agents use weapons with a 20-inch
 barrel -- instead of weapons with 14-inch barrels which
 agents carried on April 19, 1993. The longer a weapon's
 barrel, the less muzzle flash will be shown from each shot.[/b]

 Again, this is a tricky way to do an accurate re-enactment.
 But the re-enactment produced the result that Reno and
 Danforth sought -- and Danforth proceeded to denounce the
 American people for thinking bad things about their federal
 masters.

 No doubt Danforth, the FBI, and others will continue to
 insist that there was no gunfire by FBI agents on April 19,
 1993. But if the feds are innocent, why have they gone to
 such absurd lengths to fix the jury? The $12 million in tax
 dollars that Danforth spent for his Waco investigation should
 have

Outstanding! We may never really get to the truth about this but as long as McNulty keeps digging it might come out. One just hopes he doesnt have an "accident" somewhere down the road.

BTT

We do need to keep the Waco massacre and subsequent cover-up from "going away". I try to remind people of it every chance I get. It's good to see that McNulty hasn't given up yet either.

Thank you Don.  

BTT