Dallas Morning News - August 26, 1999
More questions for FBI DPS OFFICIAL SAYS ARMY FORCE PRESENT AT WACO SIEGE By Lee Hancock
A congressional committee chairman vowed a "thorough investigation" Wednesday as the FBI began its own inquiry and formally conceded that its agents "may have fired" pyrotechnic devices on the last day of the 1993 Branch Davidian siege.
In Texas, the chairman of the Department of Public Safety said that federal authorities also need to investigate and explain why members of the U.S. Army's secret Delta Force anti-terrorist unit were present the day the compound burned.
"Everyone involved knows they were there. If there is an issue, it was what was their role at the time," said James B. Francis Jr. of Dallas. "Some of the evidence that I have reviewed and been made aware of is very problematical as to the role of Delta Force at the siege."
A Department of Defense document released under the federal Freedom of Information Act confirmed that members of a classified Army Special Forces unit were in the area when the FBI's hostage rescue team used tanks to assault the compound with tear gas.
The document, written by one of two U.S. Army officers who met with Attorney General Janet Reno to help the FBI persuade her to approve their tear gas assault, stated that three Special Forces personnel observed "the assault . . . and were cautioned not to video the operation."
A Justice Department spokesman said late Wednesday that he could not comment on the matter. FBI officials could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Francis said Wednesday evening that Ms. Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh need to expand their new inquiry on the FBI's use of military pyrotechnic tear gas to address "what the Delta Force did on April 19 and whether their role was advisory or operational."
The Special Forces document, dated May 1993, states that the military personnel sent did not give any technical advice and were warned about the legal restrictions prohibiting U.S. military personnel from engaging in civilian law-enforcement operations.
The four-page document was provided to The Dallas Morning News by a Tucson, Ariz., lawyer who has filed federal lawsuits and lengthy Freedom of Information Act requests to gather information on the siege.
Defense Department officials blacked out the names of the soldiers and their unit before releasing the document because they said that information was a military secret.
Not surprised
Danny O. Coulson, a former FBI official who served as founding commander of the bureau's hostage rescue team, said Wednesday night that he had no independent recollection of the Army Delta operators' presence but would not be surprised if they were there.
"There's a possibility they may have come as observers, and they may have put on FBI raid jackets so they could keep their cover," he said. "There was a Delta team at the Atlanta prison riot. There was a military commando team at the prison riot in Oakdale, La. They were used primarily for breaching operations and as observers and advisers."
He said the deployment of the special operations units in both 1987 prison riots required a formal presidential waiver of the federal Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of military personnel in domestic incidents.
Mr. Coulson, who was deputy assistant FBI director during the siege and helped supervise operations from Washington, was the FBI's tactical commander at the Atlanta prison riot.
"I would be surprised if they did anything wrong," he said. "They come, frankly, to learn. They come to watch us and learn in case they have to operate in a similar environment or if, for some reason, they have to operate here in the United States."
The FBI's hostage rescue team has regularly trained with Delta Force in the past, Mr. Coulson and other officials have said.
Delayed admission
The bureau's acknowledgment that the FBI used military tear gas capable of sparking fires came after two days of wrangling between FBI and Justice Department officials.
Officials said Justice Department lawyers delayed the statement for several days because of concerns about how such an admission might affect a wrongful-death suit filed against the government by surviving Branch Davidians.
The FBI's statement also came only days after Justice Department officials flatly denied statements made by Mr. Coulson to The News that FBI agents fired two pyrotechnic tear-gas grenades on April 19, 1993, the day that the Branch Davidian compound burned with more than 80 sect members inside.
Mr. Coulson's statement to The News marked the first time a current or former federal law enforcement official publicly acknowledged the use of pyrotechnic devices as FBI agents launched a tear-gas assault the final morning of the siege.
He said the two devices were used with permission of FBI commanders and played no role in the fire that erupted hours later.
Late Wednesday afternoon, FBI headquarters released a statement acknowledging that "the FBI may have used a very limited number of military-type tear-gas canisters on the morning of April 19."
While re-emphasizing the government's long-held assertion that law enforcement had nothing to do with the compound fire, Mr. Freeh and Ms. Reno ordered a full review of how and why the devices were used.
FBI officials said Mr. Freeh had ordered the bureau's inspection division to interview every FBI employee who was at the compound on April 19, and he also called House governmental affairs committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., to pledge a full report.
Mr. Burton, whose committee co-sponsored lengthy 1995 hearings into the incident, issued a statement Wednesday announcing that his committee investigators had already begun an inquiry.
"I'm deeply concerned by these inconsistencies," Mr. Burton said, referring to the Justice Department's denial that pyrotechnic devices were used. "This new information requires a thorough investigation of whether the Justice Department has misled the American people and the Congress about what happened at Waco."
Briefing from Rangers
Committee investigators received a lengthy briefing in Austin on Tuesday from the Texas Rangers, who began an investigation to try to identify the nature of a number of projectiles collected from the compound ruins.
The Rangers were brought in to investigate when the Branch Davidian incident began in 1993, and they have been custodians of the key physical evidence collected by state and federal investigators.
On Wednesday, officials in Texas acknowledged that Mr. Burton's investigators have asked the Rangers to submit a formal report to Congress.
Mr. Francis said Wednesday night that his agency's "goal is to tender the evidence to the court, and our only wish is for the truth and the facts to be fully aired and let the chips fall where they may."
A House Government Reform Committee member who was among federal law enforcement's harshest critics during the 1995 hearings said Wednesday that the FBI's admission calls into question all of the government's statements about its actions in the siege.
"If federal officials have been lying about these elements of the siege, their testimony on other matters should also be examined," said Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga. "New evidence indicates the government fired into the compound and that military forces may have been involved in the assault."
The use of pyrotechnics by the FBI and the allegation that U.S. soldiers participated in a violent assault on the compound are major charges in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the federal government by surviving Branch Davidians. The lawsuit alleges that the tragedy was the direct result of government wrongdoing and negligence, which the government has denied.
Collecting evidence
Earlier this month, DPS officials became so concerned about what their evidence vaults might hold that they asked federal Judge Walter Smith of Waco to take control of all the evidence in the case to ensure its safekeeping and proper evaluation.
Judge Smith issued an unprecedented order Aug. 8 instructing every agency of the U.S. government to turn over every document, photograph and piece of physical evidence in any way related to the incident.
Officials in Texas said the Rangers' investigation then confirmed that a shell casing in DPS custody had come from an M651 CS pyrotechnic grenade and the device had been fired by the FBI on April 19. Officials said the Rangers' inquiry should be completed within the next few weeks.
On Monday, officials with the Department of Justice responded to Mr. Coulson's statement with a flat denial that the FBI had used any pyrotechnic devices. But a department spokesman withdrew that denial Tuesday, saying the matter was under review.
FBI and Justice Department officials privately acknowledged late Tuesday that they had learned that members of the hostage rescue team had used the devices early on April 19, hours before the compound burned.
In the statement finally released Wednesday evening, FBI officials said that a preliminary inquiry had determined that the devices may have been fired at the roof of an "underground bunker" and away from the Davidian compound.
"Although some questions about the use of military tear gas rounds remain unanswered at this time, all available indications are that those rounds were not directed at the main wooden compound, they did not land near the wooden compound, and they were discharged several hours before the fire started," FBI officials said.
Staff writers Robert Dodge, Richard Whittle and G. Robert Hillman in Washington contributed to this report.