 Attorney General Janet Reno on Friday denied that her relations with FBI Director Louis Freeh had been strained by recent revelations about federal agents' actions against the Branch Davidian cult. |
Reno
denies rift with FBI director Text and images courtesy of MSNBC.com WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — Attorney General Janet Reno on Friday denied that the escalating Waco controversy has strained her relations with FBI Director Louis Freeh. Even so, she said she is looking outside the FBI and Justice Department to find “the perfect person” to head an inquiry into the FBI’s 1993 assault against a Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas. ON THURSDAY and Friday, FBI officials released videotapes containing conversations among agents on the final day of the Branch Davidian siege six years ago. The video released Thursday, which runs from the assault’s 6 a.m. start to 8 a.m., captured a radio transmission in which an FBI field commander granted permission for an agent to fire military tear-gas rounds at the bunker. A second tape, released Friday, runs from 7:57 a.m. to just before 9:30 a.m. and includes transmissions of agents saying the incendiary military canisters fired from a Bradley fighting vehicle didn’t get into the bunker. “The military gas did not penetrate that bunker. ... It bounced off,” a male voice says at 8:08 a.m. While confirming that she had ordered agents not to use incendiary devices during the operation, Reno said all evidence she has seen supports the view that federal agents did not start the fire, which began at 12:07 p.m. “The larger issue here is: The facts that we know now indicate that the FBI did not set that fire,” Reno said. “That fire was set by David Koresh and the people in that building.” [TOP] |
