Answers Sought in Waco Reenactment

The government’s credibility will be put to the test this weekend when critical portions of the 1993 assault at Waco are reenacted at a military base with tanks, a helicopter and camouflaged gunmen.

The re-creation could challenge the government’s unequivocal assertion that federal agents fired no shots at the Branch Davidian compound in the final hours of the 51-day siege.

The test is pivotal for the Davidian plaintiffs who are suing the government for wrongful death in a case headed for trial in mid-May. Much of their case is built on their claim that government operatives fired into the compound as flames raced through the wooden building, cutting off the sect members’ only avenue of escape.

Sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers died during the April 19, 1993, inferno that consumed the compound several hours into an FBI tear-gas operation designed to flush them from their holdout. Some of the dead were killed by the blaze, others by gunfire.

The two-hour demonstration, scheduled for Sunday if the weather is favorable, is designed to answer a question central to the investigations being conducted by Congress and special counsel: What caused the dozens of rapid-fire bursts of light that appear on FBI infrared surveillance footage taken during the siege’s final moments?

Infrared experts hired by the plaintiffs, as well as one retained by a House committee, contend the flashes represent gunfire from government positions and a smattering of return fire from the Davidians.

FBI officials are adamant that the Davidians died by their own hands and have suggested that the flashes came from sunlight glinting off pools of water, metal or other debris on the ground.

During the test, aircraft with infrared cameras will fly over Fort Hood--50 miles southwest of Waco--as gunmen in combat garb fire weapons similar to those carried by federal agents and Davidians alike.

Infrared experts will compare the resulting footage with the FBI’s 1993 tape to determine whether the muzzle flashes during the test have thermal signatures similar to those of the bursts of light recorded nearly seven years ago.

Davidian lawyer Michael Caddell predicted results from the test could be known the next day. “I think we’ve got an obligation to release the results, good, bad or indifferent, as soon as possible,” he said.

The re-creation, which will be closed to the media and public, was ordered by the federal judge presiding over the case. It was requested by special counsel John Danforth, the former Republican senator from Missouri who was appointed last fall by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to re-investigate the resurgent Waco controversy.

“At the end of the day, the American people need to feel satisfied that this question has been thoroughly investigated and that it has been resolved one way or the other,” Caddell said. “And I think at the end of this test, we’ll know.”

U.S. Atty. Mike Bradford, one of the government’s lawyers in the case, said: “When you look at those [1993] tapes, you don’t see people. You just see a glint. Our position has been if there were people out there moving around, you’d see them.”

While the government suggests there can be no shots fired without shooters, the plaintiffs argue that the agents weren’t detected because the temperature of their clothing was similar to that of the soil.

Danforth’s office wouldn’t comment on the cost of the demonstration and who will pay it. Congressional sources didn’t know either.

Before the test begins, tanks will disturb the soil and crush glass, aluminum and other debris to help reproduce conditions from 1993.

Two aircraft equipped with infrared cameras will circle over the test site: the FBI Night Stalker plane used at Waco, with its since-upgraded infrared camera; and a Lynx helicopter on loan from the British navy. The helicopter’s infrared camera is much like the one used in 1993.

While the aircraft hover, Danforth’s investigators and military personnel will fire an array of weaponry, including rifles, pistols and grenade launchers.

It was the FBI’s admission last August that potentially incendiary tear gas canisters were fired at the Davidians’ compound--Reno’s orders to the contrary--that revived the controversy and led to Danforth’s appointment and the congressional inquiries. The government has insisted the canisters were fired well before the blaze broke out.