PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Monday, July 28, 1997

Documentary raises new questions about Waco siege

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) - A new documentary uses the government's own infrared imagery to try to prove that government armored vehicles fired into the Branch Davidian complex moments before a fire erupted, killing 75 people inside.

The film "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" raises new questions about the federal government's account of the 1993 siege of the compound near Waco. It challenges the official version that portrayed the fire as a mass suicide by Davidian leader David Koresh and his followers.

Mike McNulty of Fort Collins, who spent nearly four years investigating Waco, was the principal writer for the documentary, directed by Emmy-winning director William Gazecki.

Dan Gifford of Cable News Network and his wife, Amy, produced the movie with McNulty.

"Rules of Engagement" has had only limited showings, including the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. It will be screened at the Denver Film Festival in October.

The film is the first of the Waco documentaries to use the government's own infrared imagery in attempts to prove that the government's armored vehicles and agents fired into the rear of the complex.

Waco was a focal point of the trial of Timothy McVeigh, convicted of and sentenced to death for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Prosecutors said McVeigh blew up the building and killed 168 people in revenge for Waco.

The defense said McVeigh, a decorated Gulf War veteran who turned against the government, sympathized with the Davidians and was profoundly affected by their deaths.

For McNulty, Waco wasn't so much about politics as the deaths of members of a religious minority. He is a Mormon, and in 1838 a group of Mormons was massacred in Hauns Mill, Mo., under orders from that state's governor.

When McNulty saw CNN television coverage of the Branch Davidian complex going up in flames, "that was the first thought I had: Was this another Hauns Mill?'

McNulty stressed that Waco is no justification for Oklahoma City, but said he hopes his film opens a new investigation of the Texas siege.

The film notes the Davidians, an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventists, had been around for decades. It says their views weren't far from the mainstream.

But, it charges, after the first raid on the compound in February 1993 left four Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and six Davidians dead, the government tried to demonize Koresh.

Edward Allard, former supervisor of the Department of Defense's night vision laboratory in Fort Belvoir, Va., offers his conclusion, after a frame-by-frame analysis of forward-looking infrared imagery, that an armored vehicle fired its cannon into the back of the compound just before fire engulfed it.

Allard also claims to have detected flashes from small arms being fired into Mount Carmel.

FBI spokesman Bill Carter said the bureau cannot comment on the documentary because of a pending civil lawsuit in Texas over Waco.

Bob Ricks, a now-retired FBI spokesman who was at Waco during the siege, said he hasn't seen "Rules of Engagement," but said it "sounds like the same garbage" as other Waco films.

Ricks denied that the federal agencies conducted a military operation at Waco. "We had military vehicles, but they were for our own protection. We were all trying to get the people out as peacefully as we could. It could have ended any day if Koresh decided to have them surrender, but he decided to have them all die," he said. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: