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- A former CIA officer tells Friday's DALLAS MORNING NEWS
that he learned from Delta Force commandos that members of the secret Army
unit were "present, up front and close" in helping the FBI in
the final tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound.
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- The former officer, Gene Cullen, tells the paper that
heard detailed accounts of the military's active involvement from "three
or four" anti-terrorist Delta commandos as he worked with them on
an overseas assignment in 1993.
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- The paper reports evidence in the hands of Texas law
enforcement personnel may support the account given to Cullen.
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- "I'm advised there is some evidence that may corroborate"
the allegation that Delta Force participated in the assault, said James
B. Francis Jr., chair of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
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- A Pentagon spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity
denied Thursday that any U.S. military units were involved in the assault,
"as far as I know."
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- [Pentagon policy barred him from any public discussion
of Delta Force, even the possibility of its existence.]
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- Meanwhile, any U.S. military assistance at the April
1993 Waco siege was jusified, according to the General Accounting Office.
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- The ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION is reporting on Friday:
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- The GAO, which acts as Congress' investigative arm, states
in a new report that the military's direct involvement in Waco -- which
included the use of Army, Air Force, Texas and Alabama National personnel
and equipment -- was lawful due to federal antidrug laws.
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- Early reports from local law enforcement claimed that
the Davidians were running a methamphetamine laboratory from their Mt.
Carmel compound.
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- AJC's Julia Malone quotes GAO's Carol Schuster, who was
in charge of the report: "The drug connection legitimizes providing
military assistance without reimbursement."
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- Writes Malone: "The report said no formal standard
exists for justifying a military role in drug investigations, giving military
officials 'considerable discretion' in deciding whether to assist law enforcement
agencies."
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- The report concludes that $982,400 of military dollars
were spent on helicopters, tanks, a grenade launcher, as well as "Army
Special Operations observers".
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- No evidence of drug manufacturing was ever found at the
Davidian compound.
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- MORE...
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- Military memos obtained by the WASHINGTON POST show the
military provided training to FBI agents in the use of the 40mm grenade
launchers during Waco, along with 200 training rounds and 50 illumination
rounds [flares].
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- The military also lent "sophisticated technological
support, including experimental surveillance robots and a television satellite
signal jammer."
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- By Lee Hancock The Dallas Morning News
© 1999, The Dallas Morning News 8-28-99
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- A former CIA officer said Thursday that he learned from
Delta Force commandos that members of the secret Army unit were "present,
up front and close" in helping the FBI in the final tear-gas assault
on the Branch Davidian compound.
-
- The former officer, Gene Cullen, told The Dallas Morning
News that he heard the detailed accounts of the military's active involvement
from "three or four" anti-terrorist Delta commandos as he worked
with them on an overseas assignment in 1993.
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- "Whether it's the macho-bravo-type talk of guys
in the field, I don't know," he said, declining to identify the individuals
involved. "I have no reason to suspect that they lied. And it didn't
just come from one of them. There were three or four guys that confirmed
that, who were from Delta."
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- In the months after the Waco tragedy, Mr. Cullen said,
he heard from associates in Delta Force that the secret unit's involvement
there amounted to far more than observation or tactical discussions.
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- While he was deployed overseas on an assignment, Mr.
Cullen said, Delta operators told him that the unit "had 10 operators
down there, that they were involved in the advanced forward stages of [the
FBI's April 19] operations."
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- "When they explained to me the depth to which they
were involved down in Waco, I was quite surprised. They said basically
they were out there in the vehicles, the Bradley [fighting vehicles], the
CEV [tanks]," he said. "They were active."
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- The chairman of the Texas Department of Public Safety
on Thursday told The News that evidence in the hands of Texas law enforcement
personnel may support the account given to Mr. Cullen.
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- "I'm advised there is some evidence that may corroborate"
the allegation that Delta Force participated in the assault, said James
B. Francis Jr., the DPS official.
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- A Pentagon spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity
denied Thursday that any U.S. military units were involved in the assault,
"as far as I know."
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- Use of active military personnel against civilians without
a specific presidential decree is a violation of federal law.
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- The spokesman confirmed that three Defense Department
"observers" whom he declined to identify were in Waco on April
19, 1993, the day that an FBI tear-gas assault ended in a fire that consumed
the compound. Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and more than 80 followers
died in the fire, which arson investigators ruled was deliberately set
by sect members.
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- The spokesman said Pentagon policy barred him from any
public discussion of Delta Force, even the possibility of its existence.
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- A once-classified memo written to the Army Special Forces
command, which includes Delta Force, indicated that three of its personnel
watched the final tragedy unfold. The May 1993 memo stated that the observers
did not participate and were warned not to videotape anything that happened.
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- Mr. Francis said evidence in the hands of Texas law enforcement
suggests that more than three Delta Force personnel were at the compound
on April 19 and involved in the assault.
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- "I have been advised that there are some police
officers who have developed some evidence that needs looking into with
regard to what the role of Delta Force was at the Branch Davidian compound,"
he said, declining to elaborate.
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- "I think it's a subject that the FBI director and
the attorney general need to look into," Mr. Francis said. "The
$64 question is whether they were advisory or operational, and I think
some of the evidence is problematical."
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- An FBI spokesman in Washington said he had been instructed
by the Department of Justice to refer all questions on the presence of
Delta Force to the Pentagon.
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- Tron Brekke, FBI spokesman, added that he could not say
whether Delta Force might have been actively assisting the FBI in any way
in Waco "because I don't think anybody knows."
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- "That's part of the reason that the attorney general
and the director are, in a very expeditious manner, going to have 40 assistant
inspectors and whoever is chosen to lead them come down and find out definitively
what did happen," he said. "I don't know what was done or wasn't
done down there."
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- On Wednesday, the FBI announced that a full inquiry was
being launched to explain the use of pyrotechnic tear-gas canisters by
the FBI hostage rescue team during the final assault.
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- The bureau's admission that such devices "may have
been used" marked an abrupt reversal of a longstanding denial that
its agents used anything capable of sparking a fire at the compound.
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- Bureau and Justice Department officials have maintained
that the devices could not have played a role in the fire because they
were used hours before the blaze and were fired at an underground bunker
adjacent to the wooden compound.
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- A pending wrongful-death suit filed by surviving Davidians
and families of the dead has alleged that agents launched pyrotechnic devices
into the compound and fired into the building. The government vehemently
denies those charges.
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- Federal officials from President Clinton down have staunchly
maintained in the six years since the tragedy that FBI agents did not fire
a single shot during the entire 51-day siege.
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- Mr. Cullen, who said he worked as a CIA case officer
from the 1980s to 1995, said Special Forces experts watched events near
Waco with interest immediately after four agents from the federal Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms died trying to serve search warrants on
the Branch Davidian compound.
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- At the time, he said, he was a supervisor in the CIA's
special operations group and had frequent contact with members of Delta
Force, the U.S. Navy Seals and civilian tactical experts such as the FBI's
hostage rescue team.
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- Before joining the CIA, he said, he had worked as a deputy
U.S. marshal, so he was particularly interested in exploring the problems
faced by civilian law enforcement near Waco.
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- A CIA spokesman on Thursday refused to confirm or deny
whether Mr. Cullen ever worked for the agency, in accordance with policy.
The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed that he worked for that agency in the
early 1980s. Mr. Cullen said he left the CIA to take over his family's
construction firm.
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- Since he resigned, Mr. Cullen has appeared on the PBS
documentary program Frontline to discuss his involvement in the Special
Forces' operations in Somalia, a deployment that ended in tragedy when
U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters were downed and Special Forces soldiers
died in a Mogadishu gunbattle.
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- Immediately after the Branch Davidian standoff began,
Mr. Cullen said, he learned from associates within the CIA and Special
Forces that the FBI had called in Delta Force personnel "as observers."
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- "The bureau was very concerned. They weren't quite
sure what David Koresh had inside that building anyway," Mr. Cullen
said. "They were leaning on Delta. If there was something that blew
up in their faces, they were interested in having Delta on the scene to
respond and be fully equipped, operational and ready to go on a moment's
notice."
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- In mid-March 1993, Mr. Cullen said, officials with his
group called a meeting of about 20 special operations experts, including
FBI and Delta personnel, to discuss Waco because it represented a useful
case study on how tactical experts might respond to hostage situations.
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- He said he attended no other formal meetings on Waco,
but he later learned in conversations with special operations colleagues
that authorities had ruled out any operation that involved sending personnel
into the compound.
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- "It was more 'contain 'em. We're going to get em
out.' There wasn't any type of talk about trying any type of rescue,"
he said.
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- Documents released under the Federal Freedom of Information
Act to a Tuscon, Ariz., lawyer indicate that the military's Special Forces
Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida was heavily involved
in helping the FBI in Waco. Military personnel provided technical and equipment
support, the defense records indicate.
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- The command oversees Delta Force, U.S. Navy Seals, and
other units.
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- A May 1993 Special Forces memo stressed that the military
in Waco played only "a supporting role." It was written by an
officer who helped the FBI persuade the attorney general to approve the
tear-gas assault.
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- The officer, whose name was blacked out, stated that
the discussions with Ms. Reno before the assault did not include any mention
of "the use of the military."
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- The memo stated that Special Forces observers who stayed
in Waco through April 19 understood the legal restrictions on their activities.
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- Other defense documents indicate that some Special Forces
officials feared that even watching law enforcement activities in Waco
might violate federal prohibitions on domestic military activity.
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- Special Forces soldiers who trained ATF agents before
they raided the compound on Feb. 28, 1993, were specifically barred from
watching the raid or offering medical support, the documents indicate.
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- "I felt as if my hands were tied," one Special
Forces soldier said in a report after the compound burned.
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