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- WASHINGTON -
The FBI released
Thursday a newly discovered videotape of an agent
obtaining approval from
his boss to fire flammable tear-gas canisters
during a deadly assault on
the Branch Davidian compound near Waco,
Texas, in 1993.
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- Justice Department officials described U.S. Attorney
General
Janet Reno as "furious'' over the FBI's belated discovery
of the
videotape, which contained the agent's request, and his boss's permission,
to use the military rounds hours before the cult compound went up in
flames.
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- The videotape, made by FBI surveillance aircraft using
infrared
radar, and an audio track of simultaneous radio traffic during
the
assault have been taken into custody by U.S. marshals, officials
said.
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- The
disclosure marked the second time in recent days
the FBI found it had
evidence confirming the firing of the combustible
canisters after six
years of denying that incendiary devices were used.
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- The disclosures have created
controversy over why the
FBI only recently found evidence the devices
were used during the fiery
assault, which killed about 80 sect members,
including leader David Koresh.
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- White House spokesman Jake Siewert said President
Clinton
was "deeply concerned that the attorney general appears to
have been
misled and may have been lied to.'' "She has vowed to
get to bottom
of that,'' Siewert added.
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- He told reporters at a briefing
near where Clinton is
vacationing in upstate New York, "The
president has confidence that
the attorney general and the Department
of Justice will get to bottom of
this.'' He said the seizure by the
marshals was ''to protect the integrity
of this material.''
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- The government has
maintained that Koresh and his followers
started the fire, but the FBI
was forced to admit last week that it fired
at least two pyrotechnic
tear-gas canisters at the roof of a concrete bunker
near the compound
several hours before the fire began.
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- The FBI and Reno say the
devices did not ignite the fatal
fire.
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- Reno has been searching for an
outside investigator to
look into the controversy. The officials said
Reno was awaiting a response
from one person, whom they refused to
identify.
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- A transcript of the tape quoted Stephen McGavin, a supervisory
special agent on the FBI's hostage rescue team, as saying, "He thinks
he can get into position with relative safety utilizing the track for
cover,
and attempt to penetrate it with military rounds.''
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- The FBI was
attempting during the assault to penetrate
a concrete underground
bunker close to the compound.
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- Richard Rogers, the assistant special agent in charge
of the FBI's hostage rescue team, replied, "Of course, if there's
water underneath, that's just going to extinguish them, but you can try
it.''
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- McGavin asked, "He can try it?''
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- Rogers said, "Yeah, that's
affirmative.''
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- The officials said the recordings were discovered in
the past
few days at the headquarters of the hostage rescue team in Quantico,
Virginia, and sent to FBI headquarters in Washington.
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- Justice Department officials
were told about the tape
only Wednesday, they said.
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- Last week, Justice
Department officials said a memo about
use of the canisters was
discovered to have been in the files of the FBI
general counsel's
office since 1996.
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- Controversy over Waco " a cause celebre for conspiracy
theorists " resumed last week when the Dallas Morning News uncovered
evidence from a Texas lawsuit that FBI agents had used incendiary
devices.
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- Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, said in a statement
issued in Dallas that Reno should voluntarily remove herself from her job
as the nation's top law-enforcement official.
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- "It is apparent that Janet
Reno and the Justice
Department are not capable of handling the
investigation properly,'' he
said.
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- But Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top
Democrat on the Judiciary
Committee, said Reno "did the right
thing'' in deciding to seize the
videotape.
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- "She clearly is troubled
by the fact that relevant
information was kept from her before and is
determined not to let that
happen again,'' he said.
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- Sen. Chuck Grassley,
an Iowa Republican who has long
criticized the FBI, said, "For six
years, the FBI has been dishonest
with Congress and the American
people.''
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