From: hal@finney.org
Date: Thu Oct 21 1999 - 19:37:20 MDT
An interesting story about Waco and the question of whether gunfire
was directed at the compound is available from the Dallas Morning News
web site:
http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/waco/1021waco1lawyer.htm
A lawyer for the Branch Davidians challenged the federal government
Wednesday to join in scientific infrared field tests that he says
will prove his experts' contention that agents fired guns at the
group's compound on the last day of a 1993 standoff near Waco.
"The results of this demonstration will prove conclusively that the only
possible explanation for the flashes seen on FBI FLIR [infrared video]
tapes from April 19, 1993, is gunfire," Michael Caddell of Houston
wrote in a four-page letter to the Department of Justice. "The refusal
of the FBI to participate will certainly be interpreted as an admission
of liability."
[...]
A Maryland scientist retained by the Justice Department to help defend
the government in the pending Branch Davidian case said his company
has found no recorded evidence of gunfire.
"According to our analysis, it isn't gunfire," said Norris Krone, an
aeronautical engineer whose Maryland Advanced Development Laboratory
has used computer programs developed for a sniper-detection project
to study the FBI infrared tapes. "It doesn't have a signature that
resembles gunfire"
He declined to detail his lab's analysis, noting only that it
determined that the FBI camera was too far away to record muzzle
flashes from weapons on the ground and that white blips on the infrared
videotape last too long to be from gunfire. He declined to say what
might have caused the flashes.
[...]
Mr. Caddell has said that he believes that government agents involved
in the April 19 assault began firing guns at the Davidians to defend
the government's tanks.
He noted in his Wednesday letter that his assessment has been supported
by scientific experts hired by outside media and the House Government
Reform Committee, which recently began a new investigation of the
Davidian incident.
An expert for the House committee said last month that his preliminary
evaluation of the infrared tape indicated that it did capture the
thermal images of government gunfire. He was allowed on Friday to study
the FBI's original copy of the tape for the first time and is still
working on his final analysis, said committee spokesman Mark Carollo.
[...]
The test would be staged at a Dallas-area gun club using an airborne
camera similar to the one used by the FBI in Waco. It would record
gunshots on the ground from firearms similar to those deployed by
both government agents and the Davidians.
Mr. Carollo said the committee "would welcome" such a test, adding
that a "side-by-side analysis," of the FBI's recording and a test
recording might help resolve the gunfire issue.
See http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/waco/ for more articles on Waco,
including a claim that the FBI had the site ringed with video cameras and
has a lot of footage of the final assault which it has never released,
claiming national security (apparently they used secret military robot
technology to place some of the video cameras).
Hal
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