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 DALLAS -
Evidence about the FBI's use of potentially flammable tear gas grenades
during the fatal 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas,
may have been withheld from U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, the Dallas
Morning News reported Tuesday.
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- The newspaper said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston
has written to Reno to say evidence that the FBI used pyrotechnic CS tear
gas grenades the morning of the April 19, 1993 siege may have been kept
under wraps by "individuals or components within the Department of
Justice.''
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- The FBI last week reversed six years of denials and acknowledged
its agents had used the potentially flammable tear gas grenades just hours
before a fire erupted, killing 80 people in the central Texas religious
compound. Previously the government had said no such devices were used
at Waco.
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- Reno has said she was angry to learn at such a late date
that the devices were used and pledged to investigate the siege. But she
continued to maintain the FBI's actions did not cause the fatal blaze.
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- Johnston told the Dallas Morning News he felt compelled
to warn Reno after he was given a 5-year-old document last week that discusses
the use of "military gas'' by the FBI on the last day of the 51-day
standoff at Waco.
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- The newspaper said the reference appeared to be shorthand
for pyrotechnic tear gas grenades.
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- Johnston said he was concerned because the document,
a three-page set of notes detailing an interview with members of the FBI's
hostage rescue team, included handwritten notations suggesting that it
be kept from anyone outside the department's legal staff.
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- "There are handwritten notes on the documents discussing
whether or not they should be disclosed, and, obviously, they have not
been,'' Johnston said.
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- "I am very concerned,'' Johnston told the Morning
News. "I would rather not discuss the details of my letter to the
AG, but I can certainly tell you that I'm very concerned that information
which should've been made known to her and to the public has not been.''
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- Johnston was not immediately available to comment on
the newspaper story.
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- Johnston, with the U.S. Attorney General's Western District
of Texas office in Waco, has been involved in an inventory since June of
evidence collected after the siege by Texas Rangers probing how the blaze
started.
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- Johnston and the Rangers have been subpoenaed by the
U.S. House Government Reform Committee, which has launched a new investigation
into the Branch Davidian siege, to present all their records concerning
the use of pyrotechnic tear gas by the FBI.
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- According to the Morning News, Johnston said the document
in question was a three-page set of notes taken by a paralegal working
for the U.S. attorney's office in preparation for the 1994 federal prosecution
of surviving Branch Davidians.
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- The paralegal was interviewing members of the FBI's hostage
rescue team, which was involved in the final assault on the Branch Davidian
compound.
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- Johnston told the newspaper the notes also indicate that
he may have been present during the interviews. He said he did not recall
the interviews and said the term "military gas'' did not register
with him.
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- "While I don't recall it, I can say the term 'military
gas round' meant little or nothing to me, because I am unfamiliar with
military ordnance,'' he said.
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- The Waco standoff began on Feb. 28, 1993, when federal
agents trying to search the compound and arrest Davidian leader David Koresh
on weapons charges engaged in a shootout with sect members. Four federal
agents were killed.
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- Agents set up outside the compound for weeks, until April
19, when the structure burst into flames after government tanks moved in
to break down its walls.
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- Investigators determined that the fire began simultaneously
in three separate spots, after Davidians spread gasoline and other accelerants
inside the compound.
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