WASHINGTON – The FBI, a congressional committee and the Department of Justice will soon be asked to reopen the Waco tragedy. Evidence of four "misrepresentations" will be placed before authorities, perhaps within hours.
The flawed reports in a previous special investigation shielded the fact that the FBI did fire on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, in April 1993, contrary to denials. That information is in the hands of an Emmy-winning filmmaker.
Michael McNulty, whose latest documentary is "The F.L.I.R. Project," told NewsMax.com Wednesday night that what happens next will depend on the integrity and the willingness of the investigating authorities to upset some volatile apple carts.
The "misrepresentations" concern weapons and ammunition used in a March 2000 "re-creation" in Fort Hood, Texas. He says they were not the same as those used at the Davidian compound in Mount Carmel on April 19, 1993.
Special Counsel John Danforth issued his report last year based on "the wrong weapons and the wrong ammunition at the Fort Hood re-creation," according to McNulty.
The filmmaker expressed frustration that "the engines of integrity" in government "were in reverse the last eight [Clinton] years" and that President Bush just "wants to move on."
"When Bush jumped into that shiny new hot rod known as the federal government, he forgot that it had been put in reverse" by Clinton.
"He’s put his pedal to the metal" on a badly misused "engine of integrity," McNulty believes.
It was on the Clinton administration’s watch that the lengthy standoff near Waco ended with the Branch Davidian compound burning to the ground.
Danforth’s report was issued last year to Janet Reno, then attorney general.
The four "misrepresentations," McNulty said, clearly show that the story at Mount Carmel has not been told.
"I don’t want to leave these people [the authorities] without some wiggle room," McNulty added, indicating he was holding back on making accusations of any deliberate cover-up in the belief that people are more likely to correct their mistakes if you give them the chance to do so without finger pointing.
He has confidence that Chairman Mark Souder, R-Ind., of the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, wants to get to the bottom of the charges.
The Justice Department and Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, deserve some "wiggle room," he declared. It may be difficult for Attorney General John Ashcroft, who is an old and close friend of Danforth, his political mentor and immediate predecessor in the Senate. Ashcroft replaced Danforth in 1995. He served one term.
"Perhaps a little less wiggle room for the FBI," McNulty added, indicating that agency has more tough questions to answer. But he quickly added even the bureau should have a chance to right the wrongs in the case.
If the authorities follow the evidence, the whole Waco investigation will be right back on the front burner, McNulty told NewsMax.com.
The entire Waco case is one of many missteps by the FBI that are causing the Bush administration to take its time in picking an FBI director to replace Louis Freeh, who retires next month.
A source close to the selection process told NewsMax.com with some frustration, "We are absolutely determined to see to it that things that have happened that we don’t want to have happen don’t happen again.
"We will make this a catalytic time for the bureau," he added.