"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is
a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
WACO LINKS :
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Mount Carmel
WACO: 10th ANNIVERSARY 2003
ARTICLES:
Six Years Later, Waco's Horror Hazy
Military Unit Responsible at Waco
Members of Military Present at Waco Die
By JERRY SCHWARTZ
AP National Writer
What happened at Waco?
Why did Todd McKeehan, a 28-year-old Marine veteran of the Gulf
War, die in a firefight on American soil? Why did Melissa Morrison,
a 6-year-old with a charming smile, perish 51 days later in an
inferno?
What explanation is there for some 90 deaths on a 77-acre spread
in central Texas?
And why, after 6 years, are we still asking these questions?
The facts seem simple. On Feb. 28, 1993, agents of the federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tried to serve members of
the Branch Davidians, an apocalyptic sect, with search and arrest
warrants. A furious gunfight ensued; four agents and six Davidians
died that day.
The standoff began. On one side, the Davidians and their leader,
David Koresh. On the other, the FBI.
On April 19, an FBI tank rammed the Davidian headquarters,
knocking down walls and breaking open holes and then pouring tear
gas inside. At around noon, fires broke out _ ignited, the
government says, by the Davidians _ and the compound burned to the
ground. Koresh died, along with about 80 of his followers.
Seventeen of them were children. End of story. But it
wasn't.
Since the moment the ATF sent 76 agents to storm David Koresh's
home, there have been those who have accused the government of
abuse of power, lying and even murder in Waco. Some are extremists,
like Timothy McVeigh, who is said to have timed the bombing of the
Oklahoma federal building to coincide with the anniversary of the
Waco fire.
But others are less easily dismissed, and they were buoyed by
the FBI's admission this month that it had, in fact, fired two
pyrotechnic tear gas grenades at the Davidian compound, despite
previously denying it used anything that might have
sparked a fire.
The FBI insisted the grenades were fired hours before the fire,
and bounced harmlessly off a concrete bunker. And it turned out the
Justice Department had revealed the information to Congress in
1995, but it was buried in 100,000 documents, and even Attorney
General Janet Reno appeared unaware of it.
Reno appointed former Missouri Sen. John Danforth to examine the
FBI's conduct at Waco _ to answer, he said, ``the dark questions''
of Waco.
But where Waco is concerned, there are nothing but dark
questions.
For one: Was the government justified in its campaign against
David Koresh _ rock 'n' roller, polygamist and self-proclaimed
Christ.
Born Vernon Wayne Howell, the illegitimate son of a 15-year-old
girl, Koresh took full control of the Branch Davidians in 1988. The
Davidians, an offshoot of the Seventh-Day Adventists, have
repeatedly predicted the end of the world from Waco, where they
have lived since 1935.
It is widely known that Koresh had wives as young as 14, and had
sex with others even younger. He had appropriated the wives of all
the Davidian men; his children, he claimed, would rule
the world.
But the ATF said Koresh was depraved in other ways. It alleged
that he was running a methamphetamine lab. None was ever found.
David B. Kopel and Paul H. Blackman, in their book ``No More
Wacos,'' say the drug allegations were a ruse _ the only legal
pretext whereby the ATF could seek the military's help.
The military helped train ATF agents for the first assault on
Mount Carmel, as the Davidian compound was known; it was revealed
this month that three Army special operations officers were there
on April 19, though the Pentagon insisted they were merely passive
observers.
The main charges against Koresh and his followers were that he
was breaking firearms laws _ more specifically, converting guns
into machine guns. The ATF said Koresh had spent $199,715 in the
previous year to buy guns, gun parts and other components, enough
to build a fearsome arsenal.
There were many guns at Mount Carmel, but Koresh's supporters
and lawyers argue that most were made or bought for profit.
``All gun dealers stockpile weapons,'' Dick Reavis, author of
``The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation,'' told a congressional
hearing.
Warrants in hand, the ATF decided to arrest Koresh at Mount
Carmel with a major flourish. The reason, agents said, was that he
was a recluse, rarely seen outside of the compound. But local
newspapers and others reported that he had been seen at an auto
repair shop, at two local bars, at a junkyard and jogging down the
road.
At 9:48 a.m. on Feb. 28, ATF agent Roland Ballesteros approached
Mount Carmel's door and shouted ``Police! Lay down!''
But the Davidians knew they were coming.
Earlier that day, a KWTX-TV cameraman James Peeler encountered a
postman and asked for directions to the Branch Davidians' place.
Reportedly, Peeler told the mailman he'd ``better get out of here
because ... they're going to have a big shootout with the religious
nuts.''
Peeler did not know that he was speaking to a Branch Davidian _
David Jones, Koresh's brother-in-law.
An ATF agent who had infiltrated the Davidians, realizing that
the secret was out, excused himself and reported that the ATF had
lost the element of surprise.
Nonetheless, field commander Charles Sarabyn pressed forward,
and would insist later that he was not aware that the secret was
blown.
``I do not know what went on in the man's mind when he made the
decision'' that was ``in absolute violation of the instructions,''
Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen later said, after his department,
which runs ATF, issued its report on the raid.
Todd McKeehan and three other agents _ Conway LeBleu, Robert
Williams and Steven Willis _ were killed in a 45-minute gun battle.
Six Branch Davidians died. Twenty eight agents were injured, along
with an unknown number of Davidians, including Koresh
himself.
Who started the shooting?
The government has always insisted that the Davidians did.
``They were throwing everything at us,'' ATF agent Jim Cavanaugh
told Congress. ``Their guns sounded like cannons and our guns
sounded like pop guns.''
Koresh certainly was willing to tangle. ``I don't care who they
are,'' he said in a taped conversation with a lawyer. ``Nobody is
going to come into my home, with my babies around, shaking guns
around, without a gun back in their face. That's just the American
way.''
But during the shootout, members of Koresh's group called 911.
``We ain't firing. That's not us. That's them,'' cried Steve
Schneider, Koresh's top aide. Wayne Martin, another member, made
the first call: ``Tell them there's women and children in here and
to call it off.''
(Nearly a year later, a jury would acquit 11 Branch Davidians of
murder in the shootout, convicting five of voluntary manslaughter,
instead. ``The federal government was absolutely out of control
there,'' forewoman Sarah Bain said. ``We spoke in the jury room
about the fact that the wrong people were on trial, that it should
have been the ones who planned the raid and orchestrated it and
insisted on carrying out the plan who should have been on trial.'')
After the shooting, the FBI took the lead role for the
government. Actually, there were two FBI presences: the hostage
negotiators, who tried to calm Koresh and make deals with him, and
the elite Hostage Rescue Team, which was intent on ratcheting up
the pressure.
Koresh frustrated the negotiators. He would bend their ears for
hours with what they called his ``Bible babble.'' He promised an
end to the siege, and then changed his mind _ or rather, he said
God had changed his mind.
The rescue team, meanwhile, was hitting the compound with bright
lights and noise: the squeal of rabbits being slaughtered, the
high-pitched tone of a phone off the hook, dentist's drills,
helicopters. They turned off the Davidians' electricity and refused
to deliver milk for the children.
Some argue that these may not have been the best tactics to use
against a group programmed to embrace the apocalypse. And the good
cop-bad cop conflicts convinced the Davidians ``that the
negotiators had no influence over the decision makers and that the
FBI was not trustworthy,'' said Edward S.G. Dennis Jr., who led a
government investigation into the FBI's actions.
Twenty-three Davidians left the compound in the first week. More
might have left, but the government rejected Koresh's conditions.
He offered to send out 6-year-old Melissa Morrison, if he could
talk to Robert Rodriguez, the undercover agent who had warned the
ATF of the lost element of surprise; the FBI refused, and Melissa
died with her mother, Rosemary, on April 19.
April 19 gives rise to the darkest questions of all.
Koresh's attorneys are convinced that they had a deal; Koresh
would finish his magnum opus _ an explanation of the Book of
Revelations' Seven Seals _ and then surrender.
But the FBI believed Koresh was stalling, and would backpedal
once more. The bureau convinced Janet Reno that more must be done.
Her reasons: Koresh was becoming more erratic. There were
reports that the children were being beaten (though these reports
were never substantiated). There was concern that the FBI's hostage
rescue team was getting fatigued.
Reno and the FBI insisted the plan was not to end the standoff
then and there. The action was ``not an indication that our
patience has run out,'' said bureau spokesman Bob Ricks. It was
instead ``the next logical step in a series of actions to bring
this episode to a conclusion.''
Reno authorized the use of CS gas _ actually a fine powder that
burns the eyes and skin. It was known that the Davidians did not
have children's gas masks; it was hoped that the ``maternal
instinct'' would lead mothers to bring their children out.
Reno says she was assured that CS was safe and not flammable.
Critics argue that it is neither, that it could harm or even kill
children in high concentrations, that it could feed a
conflagration, and that when it burns, it gives off deadly cyanide.
``Obviously, if I had thought that the chances were great for
mass suicide, I never would have approved the plan,'' Reno said.
The nine Davidians who escaped the fire denied any such suicide
took place. They claimed the FBI's tank squashed containers of
propane and other fuels. Perhaps, they say now, the pyrotechnic
grenade or some other projectile set off the fire. The FBI says its snipers saw a Davidian start a fire, and that
an infrared camera in a plane overhead detected three fires
beginning in three separate parts of the compound, almost
simultaneously.
Not all of the Davidians burned to death, however. Twenty-three,
including Koresh, died of gunshot wounds. Investigators said they
killed themselves or each other or both.
``The FBI never fired one shot at the Davidians,'' said Dick
Rogers, head of the hostage rescue team.
But Michael McNulty, maker of the Oscar-nominated documentary
``Waco: Rules of Engagement,'' says the same overhead infrared
footage that showed the fires igniting shows something else:
automatic weapons fire into the compound, out of journalists' view.
And the Texas Rangers say 12 .308-caliber rifle shell casings
and 24 .223 caliber casings were found in a house used by the
Hostage Rescue Team.
The FBI says the shell casings could have come from ATF agents
who used the house during the Feb. 28 shootout. It has been noted
that the FBI agent in charge of the post was Lon Horiuchi, who
killed the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver at a 1992 standoff
in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Dr. Nizam Peerwani, the Tarrant County medical examiner, would
like to revisit his autopsies of the Davidians. ``The focus at the
time was not whether the FBI was doing the shooting.''
The corpses themselves will be of little use. Weeks after they
were autopsied, the morgue's refrigeration failed. The bodies
liquefied.
There are other concerns about the investigation and the
evidence.
There were no independent ballistics tests. The Texas Rangers
complained that the FBI confiscated their photographs, and returned
just a few. Spent illumination flares have turned up in the store
of government evidence _ again, devices that could set off a fire,
though the government says they were used long before, to
illuminate the compound.
Mount Carmel's door, which the Davidians believe would prove the
ATF was the aggressor, has vanished. Cars and tracks at the scene
were destroyed by FBI armored vehicles. A cap worn by one of the
Davidians who died that day disappeared and has only recently been
found; it may show that he was executed, shot point blank, the
Davidians say.
Nearly six in 10 Americans now say they believe the FBI lied
about Waco, according to a ABC News poll _ an indication of the
skepticism that Danforth will encounter as he tries to answer
Waco's dark questions, 6 years after these sad events.
But that morning, FBI surveillance picked up troubling
conversations at Mount Carmel: ``I already poured it. ... It's
already poured.'' ``Don't pour it all out, we might need some
later.'' ``So we only light 'em at first if they come in with that
tank, right?''
An elite U.S. Army military unit was responsible for the massacre
of 76 Branch Davidians after a 51-day siege by federal officers of
their compound at Waco, Tex., in 1993.
EXCLUSIVE TO THE SPOTLIGHT
(September, 1999)
By Mike Blair
Orders were given to the top secret Combat Applications Group of Fort Bragg, N.C. (known as the Delta Force), by President William Jefferson Clinton because the seemingly endless stand-off between the FBI and members of the religious sect had become an embarrassment to his administration, according to a former Army Special Forces member. Also involved in the final days of decision-making that brought "closure" to the siege was first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, currently the U.S. media poster girl as a result of her venture into Senate politics in New York.
Reports have been received by The SPOTLIGHT that Gene Cullen, a former CIA agent, has asked a Senate committee for "protection" in return for his testimony regarding Delta Force activity at Waco. Cullen is requesting "protection," according to reports, because he has been threatened with prosecution for violating national security if he talks.
WHITE HOUSE BRIEFED
The recent release of documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveals that Army officials, and in particular those from Delta Force, met with White House and Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Janet Re-no and her then second-in-command and former Hillary Clinton law partner, Webster Hubbell, to discuss a resolution to the Waco standoff. However, information obtained by The SPOTLIGHT reveals that Delta Force played far more than an advisory role in ending the siege. In fact Delta Force had a direct, operational role in the attack on the Branch Davidian compound that resulted in the holocaust that took the lives of 76 residents of the religious community, including dozens of women and children.
Steve Barry, a retired long-time mem-ber of Army Special Forces and a
top expert in the field of military special operations, said a team of about
10 members of Delta Force was involved in the Waco massacre.
Barry's military career included training with Delta Force.
On April 19, according to Barry, "two bricks," or four-man teams, were
involved in the actual attack.
In recently released FBI infra-red video tapes of the crucial minutes of the
April 19 assault on the compound, fully-automatic gunfire is seen being
directed into an area of the structure, which Branch Davidians were
attempting to use to escape from flames, fanned by high winds, consuming
the wooden buildings.
The FBI has consistently maintained that it did not fire into the com-pound
during the April 19 as-sault.
Barry told The SPOTLIGHT that there was a team of "as many as 10" Delta Force troopers assigned to Waco, including, as he describes them, "a commander, a sergeant major, two to three communications guys, two to three intel [intelligence] guys, a medic and two to three operations guys." He said assigned to them, supposedly in an advisory capacity, were members of the British SAS (Special Air Service), an elite British special operations force. The Delta Force, Barry explained, shared a Tactical Operations Center (TOC) at Waco with an FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) force. Since the 1993 tragedy, the American people have been led to believe that the HRT force alone conducted the assault on the compound. Barry said the Delta Force receives its orders from what is known as the National Command Authority, which then included Clinton, Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Colin Powell. The ultimate decision to send Delta Force into action rests with the president, Barry said. 'It can be no other way,' he added.
FAMILIAR FACE
Adding to the controversy, it has been confirmed that Lon Horiuchi was in charge of a sniper post where Texas Rangers recovered spent .223 and .308 shell casings. Horiuchi was the FBI sniper who fatally shot the wife of Randy Weaver, while wounding both Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris, during the federal standoff at Ruby Ridge in Idaho. The recovered shell casings would be consistent with government-issued sniper rifles. Horiuchi has denied that he or any members of his "team" fired any shots at Waco.
The retired special operations expert said that during the siege at Waco, first lady Hillary Clinton operated a "crisis center" at the White House, put together on her own initiative. Serving with her was another former member of her Little Rock law firm, White House Deputy Counsel Vincent M. Foster Jr. Foster was later found dead under mysterious circumstances in a Virginia park across the river from D.C. According to Barry, it was from this "crisis center" that word went out that there was "child abuse" by adult members of the sect, including leader David Koresh, at the Waco religious facility. This revelation about the part Foster played in the Waco tragedy has been confirmed by Mike McNulty, a producer of a documentary film on the siege. McNulty said he was told by Foster's widow, Lisa, that the White House attorney's depression at the time of his death "was fueled by horror at the carnage at Waco for which the White House had given the ultimate green light." McNulty also said that Foster was preparing a Waco report when he died. This has been confirmed by veteran British journalist, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in his book, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton.
Pritchard wrote:
The Branch Davidian siege was clearly on Foster's mind. He was "drafting
a letter involving Waco" on the day of his death, surely a point of some
significance. He kept a Waco file in the locked cabinet that was off limits
to everybody, including his secretary. His widow mentions Waco twice in
her statement to the FBI. Toward the end of his life, Foster had no sense
of joy or elation at work. The Branch Davidian incident near Waco, Tex.,
was also causing him a great deal of stress. Lisa Foster believes that he
was horrified when the Branch Davidian complex burned. Foster believed
that everything was his fault.*
BREAKING THE LAW
When asked about how the Delta Force action jibes with the Posse Comitatus Act, which outlaws the use of Army forces to enforce civilian law, Barry said: "That's just it. It doesn't jibe with Posse Comitatus." A violation of Posse Comitatus is in-deed "a high crime or misdemea-nor," which would be an impeachable felony offense. And if Clinton's reasons for ordering the Delta Force attack at Waco are murky, the reasons for directing a cover-up are obviously not. Posse Comitatus clearly states that "Whoever . . . willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a Posse Comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years." (18 U.S. Code, Section 1385)
*The Secret Life of Bill Clinton is available from Liberty Library for $27
(Hardback, 416 pages). Send payment to Liberty Library, 300
Independence Avenue SE, Washington, D.C.
Four members of the U.S. Army's special forces, believed to have been involved in the siege at Waco, died in purported accidents in the past few weeks. The military says it's a coincidence.
Exclusive to The SPOTLIGHT
By Christopher J. Petherick
Four members of the elite U.S. Army Special Operations with possible links to the siege at the Branch Davidian church near Waco, Tex., died during training exercises, according to news reports received by an Austin, Tex., radio talk show host. Alex Jones, a radio talk show host for KJFK-FM, said he has confirmed that at least three of the four members were part of the elite Combat Applications Group at Fort Bragg, N.C., known as "Delta Force," and were at Mt. Carmel during the siege. Last week, The SPOTLIGHT reported that Delta Force was involved in the assault on the church that left nearly 80 Branch Davidians, including children, dead.
The Fayetteville Times-Observer in North Carolina reported on the deaths of the four special forces members. According to the report, two soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Special Forces Group are supposed to have "died when they were swept away during a water training exercise in the Savannah River in Georgia." Officials identified the bodies of 40-year-old Lt. Col. Timothy A. Boyles and Sgt. Eric Ellingson as the two killed in the river accident. The third special forces member to die was 36-year-old Master Sgt. Gaetano Cutino. Cutino supposedly died during a helicopter exercise at Fort Bragg. Military officials told a reporter for the North Carolina newspaper that Cutino died while "exiting from an MH-6 'Little Bird' helicopter." Cutino was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. The fourth victim was 26-year-old Sgt. Jamey Dimase of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga. Military officials said Dimase was participating in marksmanship training at the time of his death at Fort Benning.
Jones told The SPOTLIGHT that the three dead Delta Force soldiers who
were confirmed to have been at Waco were Boyles, Ellingson and Cutino.
Cutino and Boyles reportedly served in Squadron II of Delta Force.
Jones has been unable to confirm the presence of Dimase at the assault on the
compound.
Jones also told The SPOTLIGHT that he had spoken with an anonymous
serviceman who loaded the military helicopters at Waco. Jones said the enlistee
were concerned for their own safety.
Lt. Gen. William Tangney, commander of the United States Army Special
Operations Command, has ordered a comprehensive safety review as a result
of the deaths.
Military officials rebutted Jones' claims, telling the Fayetteville newspaper that
the accidents were flukes and occurred as a result of the hazardous training the
soldiers undertook on a daily basis.
"It's just a coincidence," Jimmy Dean, a spokesman for the Special Forces
Association in Fayetteville, told the newspaper. "There might not be another
[death] in five years."
Truth is the absence of all secrets...
Recipients: David T. Hardy, referenced below, is a attorney from Tuscon, Arizona who has been investigating government complicity in Waco.
CCW
~!Waco Tragedy News Exclusive!~
4-28-00 6:15:42 PM US Mountain Standard Time
Folks, sit back in your chair and get ready to have your socks blown off. As I sit here I have tears in my eyes, because it appears another great American has been needlessly slaughtered... we'll have to wait for more word about his demise. The path to truth was never going to be pretty... it's very sad it has turned even bloodier. I pray for everyone left who speaks out about this, and is looking for truth. The below information comes from Dave Hardy and is VERY incredible. DO NOT skim over, reach each thing very carefully. The aces up Dave's sleeve were well worth the wait. You will be reading this in the news very soon, but we are privileged to see it here first. Thank you Dave... truly amazing. Bless you all and stay safe, PLEASE. ~Sharlene~
Attorney David T. Hardy writes:
What follows is something I have not been able to reveal prior to this point. As I mention at the end, I am now released from my promise of secrecy. Please forgive the length--I think you'll find it worthwhile. This covers many months of evidence and conversations, which I've had to keep
quiet.
The House Gov't Reform Committee had retained an infrared expert named Carlos Ghigliotti, of Laurel, Md. Carlos had been working on the FLIR for months, and shared a lot of his results with me. I'd pass him data when he needed it, and he knew he could count on me to keep my mouth shut. Carlos had done a lot of IR work -- including using it to spot polluters contaminating Chesapeake Bay, and diagnosing electronic errors (a bad connection or phase mismatch heats up). He loved his work, and was proud of some electronic inventions which enabled him to link together visual and IR imaging into a single image. He got into some courtroom work--chiefly determining if FLIR used to justify a drug search warrant was properly used or not. He had two principles: (1) if retained, he would tell the absolute truth as to everything and (2) he would never accept a second retainer from a drug suspect. No matter how egregious the misuse a second time around, he wasn't interested in being of assistance to a man who violated the law a second time.
He'd just had a case where an attorney tried to grill him... but the more questions the guy asked, the deeper he got into the hole, until the courtroom security guards were all wandering in and sitting in the back, amusing themselves at the attorney's expense. Carlos knew his stuff, and he laid it right on the line. I talked with Carlos over the phone a lot, and visited him in his lab a couple of times. I now forget the first one, but the second visit was the day Mike McNulty previewed his latest film in DC.
Thru the committee, Carlos was able to obtain a much better quality tape than any anyone else had. He discovered that, when FBI gave out "first generation copies," it was in fact giving out copies of a digitized "master," not of the original analog tape. Digitization compresses the image, and loses some of its quality. He demanded and got, thru the Committee, a copy of the original tape, on Super VHS, with some other tweakings to make it the most perfect copy possible. He said they brought out the envelope with the original--it had about twenty chain-of-custody signatures on it. He figured that his copy was as close to identical to the original tape as it was possible to have--whereas the ones everyone else has been using are a few generations down.
Then he imported the video into his lab equipment (which I've seen--VERY impressive--four big monitors, Super VHS decks, two computers with more speed, RAM, and hard drive than I ever thought possible.). He was thorough, refusing to make a finding until he had it pinned down from every angle. In one case, he told me last month, he'd finally managed to link by time and location an image of a person shouldering a weapon, shown on the regular media videotapes made from the media locations, with a flash on the FLIR.
He found nearly 200 suspected gunshots, and had done the work necessary to verify that many of these were genuine. Understand that his idea of "verify" wasn't just to see the image. He wanted to find the shooters, as well, and to plot their movement from one flash location to another. And he wanted to correlate the FLIR images to every possible ordinary video image, to see if he could link up what the media filmed from the side with what the FLIR registered from overhead. He was really hot on getting some footage shot by DPS from a site behind the building, so that he could tie that in as well. This man was thorough--no rushing to judgment on anything. His normal standard was to study everything from every possible angle or potential critique, until he could lay all the cards on the table, be absolutely clear, and defend his conclusions against any criticism. And he knew this was no normal case... as he once said, the Waco FLIR was probably going to be the next Zapuder film, and he wasn't going to say something that he couldn't prove against any criticism.
On the side (and I have no idea why he was analyzing this) he said it had been determined that almost the entire Waco operation, not only 2/28 but the siege, had been improperly financed from money that law enforcement was supposed to use only in the war on drugs. He said there was plenty of documentation here, showing flow of money. In the 2/28 videotape, the ATF agents are all trying on new uniforms, new equipment -- everything down to the computers in the media area of the raid HQ were bought out of money supposed to be used only in drug enforcement. He said that much or all of the siege had been financed the same way. There were written standards in the gov't for when the drug enforcement money could be used, and these could be shown to have been violated in black and white terms. A considerable amount of money had been, well, embezzled, to support the effort.
Carlos also told me, last month, that he'd seen FLIRs from nights before 4/19, and that it was apparent that the FLIR aircraft was being used to monitor the Davidians' water supply. The water was stored in those big plastic tanks at the rear of the building, and the coolness of the water inside showed up as a darker area. It was apparent that the water supply was shrinking, and by 4/19 was almost gone. He had heard the aircraft crew talking about it, and noting that the level was going down. So, essentially, they knew that thirst would force an end to the siege within a few days of 4/19.
While I was in his lab, he showed me some footage where it was clear, beyond any doubt, that a man was moving in the wreckage of the gym. The guy gets up from behind one pile of cover and races to another. In between, you see a very long flash that exists only for an instant -- much longer in terms of physical length than could be attributed to a gunshot. He said that was a bullet imaged in flight--he'd imaged them before, while flying past shooting ranges. (Shooters know that a bullet after firing is too hot to pick up in the hand, a product of being rammed down a barrel ahead of burning powder, and then of air resistance as it travels at Mach 2-3 thru the air. I'd never suspected that one would show up on IR.). These scenes I saw with my own eyes, on his equipment--it was clear there was a person there.
He'd done a preliminary report for the House committee before they had a falling out--he wanted to do a really throrough job, which he said would take months, and they wanted him to do a final report quickly. (He also mentioned that they'd been slow in payment, and he'd needed their check to buy some more equipment that he wanted to devote to the final analysis.). He said that someone (I think he said Rep. Burton himself) had called and threatened that they'd sue him for what he'd already been paid, and he decided he wouldn't take that guff from anyone. He would finalize his report, brief everyone, and that would be it. The prelim report I have here (he wanted to keep it secret for the time being, and faxed me a copy with instructions to keep my mouth shut. As will be set out below, I think I have been released from that promise.).
To summarize:
11:24:16 to 36: shots from two locations into hole made by CEV in gym.
11:24:50 to 11:25:04 apparent return fire from inside of gym.
11:26:13 to 11:26:27 additional return fire. If the dark objects behind the tank are indeed shooters, this may have pinned them down. Following this, the tank backs over the dark spots.
11:26:39 "One of the two unknown subjects is clearly visible exiting out of the hole in the front wall of the gym which the tank previously made. The unknown subject turns to the right into the courtyard."
11:28:04 to 11:28:14: gunfire from this person's approximate position, directed toward building.
11:28:18 to 11:28:22: return fire from structure.
11:30:09 to 11:30:15: gunfire from shooter in courtyard, toward building.
11:33:51: gunfire between gym wall and swimming pool, into the structure. The infrared signature of these shots differs from those seen earlier in courtyard area.
11:34:32: one shot at unknown subject that is running and hiding between gym and swimming pool. [This may be the one he showed me]
11:38:34: unknown subject is seen hiding in front of tank.
11:43:36 to 11:59:03: gunshots from 2d story of building directed at tank (I believe he is here referring to the tank penetrating the front).
12:03:59: An unknown subject appears next to the tank in rear of structure.
12:07:42: fire is visible in 2nd story tower.
12:08:12: Unknown subject comes out of tank and shows up at 12:08:51 shooting at another unknown subject that appears at 12:08:34.
12:08:31 to 12:08:32: "A cluster of thermal anomalies appears at the corner of the gym."
12:08:34 and 12:08:44: unknown subject runs from the area where the thermal anomalies were seen, hops over rubble, and hides in gym.
12:08:51: automatic gunfire into area where previous subject hides.
12:10:41 to 12:11:15 numerous rounds shot from center of courtyard, directed at structure.
Past this point, nothing of importance since fire overloads FLIR, but visible media and the soundtrack of FLIR indicates that gunfire did continue. He notes that events at 11:24:31, 11:24:35 and 11:28:14 may have involved more than one shot. He notes that a pattern was apparent: Davidian return fire only occurred following penetration of the building by an armored vehicle. "Total number of events that occurred between 10:41:57 and 12:16:13: 198."
He told me, in late March, that he'd met with both the majority and the minority of the committee (after they sorta broke off relations) and shown them his results. Each briefing was in detail and consumed several hours. I forget the exact numbers, but somewhere around 3-8 people, mostly attorneys for the committee, were present at each briefing. He was still working on a final report when last I spoke with him. He was rather miffed that they had not given him time to analyze everything, and said he intended to insert a final section outlining all the things he had wanted to analyze when relations were broken off. He added that the minority staff had been rather surprised to see the data, since apparently the majority had been informing them only of a minimal amount of his results.
Some of them suggested that maybe both the Demos and Republicans could hire him on jointly, to do a really thorough piece of work. He was rather flattered at the idea (if Carlos had any politics, I never heard of it) altho he said he was suffering from "Waco fatigue" and wanted to get back to his regular work, or even a long overdue vacation. My memory may be imperfect here, but as I recall he talked about the scene at the rear, where there is that big flash near the "dog house." His interpretation: The flash appeared to be multiple flash-bangs. It was possible they were actually thrown by a Davidian, altho not certain. But right after it, a person can be see running back into the building.
A hatch opens on the CEV. When it opens, the cooler, darker interior of the vehicle is visible. A person exits the hatch. This is not totally clear, and some people agreed with his interpretation and others did not. But the person who dismounts then fires, the shots going toward the last location where the suspected Davidian is seen. He added that the Committee knew exactly who was under that hatch, so they could actually name the guy who did it.
He could afterward track at least two suspected FBI shooters. He could spot their location--one stayed in the gym wreckage, and the other moved out into the courtyard, where he shoots. Ian Goddard had spotted what he thought was a structure, alongside the gym, and from which some shots come. I checked a color photo, and the structure is actually a big chunk of gym wall that the tank has knocked over and falls outward into the courtyard. I mentioned that to Carlos, and Carlos said it was more complex than that. The shooter had been in the courtyard to begin with, and the tank knocked the wall segment atop him. If there hadn't been other wreckage to catch it and hold it up a bit, he would have been squashed. I believe Carlos said that the gunshot images from that location were a little distorted, probably because the wall segment was cutting off part of the image at times.
Carlos also found indications that shots were being fired into the underground storm shelter after the fire began. On one of the regular media videotapes, you could see a long, bright flash going down into the pit, from in front of one of the armored vehicles. He said it was no sunlight flash, he'd imaged it on three different media tapes from slightly different angles. His best assessment was that it was the fuse on a pyrotechnic round. I saw this tape, also, with my own eyes. His view was that they were gassing the underground vault to pin Davidians in place during the fire.
Carlos was about as credible as they come. He'd done work for the FBI in the past, in fact, and often worked with gov't agencies. He had no particular ax to grind with regard to Waco: he once told me "the only thing that makes me mad about this is when I can see government officials making statements, and know for an absolute fact that they are lying." He also told me that that the House Gov't Reform Committee had even more data than he did, that he knew only part of it and couldn't talk about it, but that it was really shocking.
He said that the big problem the Committee seemed to see was the question of how they could get the information out, while at the same time preventing another Oklahoma City type reprisal--it was that shocking. This conversation came shortly after Carlos' name had first been mentioned in the press, and the Committee rather played down his statements, saying they were based on visual video rather than FLIR (which was true only in small part). I asked about that--was the Committee getting cold feet over his evidence, or just playing their cards close to the chest. He said it was the latter -- they just hadn't figured out how to let the info out yet. (He was then meeting with the majority on a weekly basis, to brief them on his latest results.)
I talked to him after the recreation, and his assessment was that it was pure junk -- the aircraft wasn't even at the right altitude, they didn't have the right procedures to verify that the sensor was functioning comparable to the one of 4/19, etc. The best thing that could be done with any resulting tape (and this is BEFORE the results were known) was to drop it in the wastecan. Whether it showed gunshots or did not, it'd be useless for proving anything, whether for the Davidians or the FBI.
I remember talking to him outside his office, after the first visit, standing there in the parking lot after dark. He'd mentioned that the guy with Infraspection Institute, who had analyzed the FLIR for 60 Minutes back in '95 or '96, and found FBI gunshots and shooters on it, had been terrified. In fact, he'd sent copies of the tape to Carlos and to several others in the IR field, with notes saying "If anything happens to me, you'll know why." (The same guy later called me, said he didn't want his name used, that "there are too many people already in their graves over this." I wrote him off as him being rather nervous.)
I asked Carlos, there in the parking lot, if he'd ever been fearful. He said only for a while, between the time he made his findings and the time he reported them to the Committee. Then he had been worried, because he was looking at clear evidence that would nail a LOT of FBI agents on perjury, and perhaps much worse. But once he told others of his results, he figured the cat was out of the bag.
This is a rather long post, but there is a reason. It's in part a memorial for a feisty and totally honest guy I came to like a good deal. On April 19 of this year, from the hotel room in Waco, I called Carlos to report a minor discovery (the roof of the storm shelter, which glows bright white on the FLIR, wasn't just plywood--it was covered in black asphalt, which explained why it got so hot in the sun.). I got his answering machine, but when it came time to leave a message, the tape just said "tape finished. Thank you for calling." I thought he'd run out of tape--never happened before, but who knows? I tried again from time to time -- same result. I sent email asking him to call. Well, maybe he was out of town. Early today I tried again, and this time nothing picked up, the phone just rang off the hook.
Then this afternoon I received a call. Carlos was found dead in his apartment. Perhaps the guy with Infraspection was right. I've got a call in to Laurel PD to tell them what little I know.... my phone records show calls to him up thru 3/30, after that he must have called me but there's no record, and I was unable to reach him on 4/19 and thereafter. Too damn bad. He was a good man, and I'd come rather to like him. He was rigorously honest -- his own man, and no one elses'. Since the Committee has his results (and has had information on it for months now), I guess we'll soon know how serious they are about investigating Waco.
Sharlene's note:
Carlos Ghigliotti was the owner of Infrared Technologies Corp. in Laurel, Maryland. Washington Post reports that from 1991 to 1995, Ghigliotti, 42, was paid by the FBI as a thermal imaging expert on an array of environmental dumping cases, according to an FBI document. Ghigliotti "performed reliable work for the FBI," the 1995 document states.
http://www.waco93.com/washingtonpost10_6_99.htm
I am scouring the news for any word of his death and as of yet have found nothing. Keep posted for updates.
UPDATE-4-29-00-UPDATE April 29, 2000 4:20 am Arizona Time
I just called the Laurel Police Department and got this statement:
"At 1:27 PM officers were called to 608 Washington Blvd., Laurel, Maryland, in response to a phone call about a man who had been missing for several weeks. When officers arrived they found no signs of forced entry. Inside the apartment they found a badly decomposed body of a male, appearing to be in his 40's. No sign of a struggle was observed at that time. The body was processed and sent to the chief medical examiner in Baltimore. The body was of Carlos Ghigliotti, 42 yrs. of age, who resided at the same address where he was found."
Public Relations Officer Jim Collins 350 Municipal Square Laurel, MD 20707 Phone: 301-498-0092
This is all I have for now... there should be a full story from Dallas Morning News and The Washington Post in a few hours.
NOW is the time to speak out about the massacre of Waco! Upcoming trials, appeal hearings, and the investigation make this more IMPORTANT than ever before!
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Tucson, Arizona attorney and Waco researcher David T. Hardy filed a Freedom of Information action on the ATF, requesting documents, photographs, and videotapes taken on February 28, 1993. In response, the ATF said they had few if any of the documents requested, and none of the videotapes. They said they had given the material, without making copies, to the Texas Rangers (a state agency investigating the local murder of ATF agents). When Hardy asked the Rangers for the material, the Rangers wrote to Hardy
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