Cold-Blooded Murder At Waco? by Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid

Cold-Blooded Murder At Waco?

by Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid on September 20, 1999

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Before the revelations about possible Army involvement at Waco broke out into the mainstream press, Jack Kelly of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had written a column entitled, “Power Trip,” on
Clinton?s record of using the military for law enforcement. “Military equipment was supplied for the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993,” he wrote. “Soldiers from Delta Force, the Army?s elite anti-terrorist unit, were on the scene.”
After the Waco scandal broke into the press again, the role of the FBI and Delta Force has come under more scrutiny. The FBI has been caught in blatant lies about military grenades they used on the compound. But is the Pentagon lying about Delta Force?
The movie, ?Waco: The Rules of Engagement,? points out that as many as 27 members of the Branch Davidians were found to have died in the compound of bullet wounds. Senator Charles Schumer, then a member of Congress who was part of the Congressional inquiry into Waco, had claimed that these Branch Davidians either killed themselves or shot one another. He came to this conclusion, in part, based on FBI assurances that the bureau did not fire one bullet into the compound.
If the FBI is telling the truth on this matter, that leaves open the distinct possibility that the members of Delta Force had fired into the compound. Yet the Pentagon says they were only there as observers. The first Waco film featured images from a FLIR video made of the final assault by a plane that passed overhead. FLIR, which stands for Forward Looking Infrared Radar, picks up flashes of light from weapons and tanks surrounding the compound. It was interpreted by Dr. Edward Allard, a retired night-vision specialist for the Defense Department.
As the building blazed, Allard asks, “Why didn?t the Davidians come out once they saw the place was on fire?” He pointed to flashes at the rear of the building that he said were caused by automatic weapons fire. He said the fire was apparently directed toward a single exit door in a storage area where many women and children had taken refuge. If the FBI didn?t fire into the compound, that leaves Delta Force as the culprit.
To that, attorney David Kopel responds, “It is possible the FBI did fire bullets and they just lied about it.” This is one of the critical issues, he points out, because this might constitute homicide and require prosecution. If the Army did it, a presidential order authorizing Army involvement at Waco would not get the military off the hook. Kopel says, “In terms of who can shoot who, if you?ve got a bunch of unarmed Branch Davidians who are running out with their hands up, saying ?we surrender, we don?t want to burn to death,? clearly you can?t shoot them.” On the other hand, if the Branch Davidians were firing weapons as they tried to leave the compound and the FBI or Delta Force fired in response, then government officials have committed perjury by denying that they fired their own weapons. One way or another, federal officials are in deep trouble. How high does the cover-up go?