The producer of three documentaries critical of the FBI's actions during the April 19, 1993, raid on the Branch Davidian community in Waco, Texas, has repeated his earlier claim that key weapons were not involved in testing by an independent counsel but were instead misidentified in a final report.
Mike McNulty, whose latest Waco-related documentary is entitled, "The F.L.I.R. Project," told WND that a special counsel's report, released last November, appears to refute his earlier claims that M-16 carbine-type weapons were not test-fired in an exercise to determine if FBI agents fired at Davidians as they fled buildings during the fire that engulfed the complex.
McNulty, a small-arms expert, said photos identifying shooters as firing CAR-15 carbines during a test set up by then-Special Counsel John Danforth's office were misidentified, since the weapons actually being fired were standard-sized M-16 A2 rifles, not the shorter-barreled carbine model FBI agents carried on the day of the raid.
Not only were those key weapons misidentified, he said, but that incorrect data was then forwarded to a federal court that relied exclusively upon it to determine -- as Danforth's office had -- that FBI agents did not fire at fleeing Davidians.
Tom Schweich, then-chief of staff for Danforth's Office of the Special Counsel, or OSC, told WND last week that weapons tests conducted by the OSC's office proved "conclusively" that "glint" which appeared on infrared video shot by the FBI from an aircraft during the raid was not gunfire, as McNulty contends, but reflections of sunlight off of ground debris, primarily glass.
McNulty contends the infrared video clearly shows FBI agents firing automatic weapons at fleeing Branch Davidians, but Schweich said the OSC found that claim "preposterous" after conducting a lengthy investigation and a weapons test March 19, 2000, at Fort Hood, Texas.
Correct weapons sought
To make a final determination about the charge of gunfire on the infrared video, the OSC -- empowered by then-Attorney General Janet Reno to conduct one final examination of all available evidence from the raid on the Branch Davidian complex -- requested a sample of all weapons used by the FBI during the raid so officials could try to recreate the alleged gunfire on the infrared video.
Schweich told WND last week that all weapons finally tested were approved by both sides -- government officials as well as representatives for the Branch Davidians. He added that the OSC reviewed thousands of photos and other evidence during the investigation, including photos that would be helpful in determining which types of weapons needed to be test-fired.
McNulty has questioned that assertion, and said he wonders why the OSC didn't test-fire carbines as it has said it did, because the weapons were visible in photographs and video taken of FBI agents on the day of the raid by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
When pressed about McNulty's specific charges that the correct types of weapons (carbines) and type of ammunition (non-military commercial ammunition, as used by the FBI during the Waco raid) were not tested, Schweich again said the test's results left no doubt that debris, not gunfire, caused the FLIR flashes.
"Anybody that looks at the result of that test is going to know not only that it's debris that is causing those flashes, but even which pieces of debris were causing those flashes," said Schweich.
"We did our best to get the right weapons … but I'm in no position to say why, in an office of 74 people, one weapon was in and one weapon was out, other than to say that we had tremendous input from both sides as to what weapons should be shot," he added.
Schweich also told WND that the OSC reviewed thousands of photos and other evidence during the investigation, including photos that would be helpful in determining which types of weapons needed to be test-fired.
"The Davidians insisted that there be a CAR-15 or short-barreled carbine included in this test" during the protocol meetings to determine which weapons would be fired, McNulty said in his most recent WND interview. "And, much to the chagrin of the FBI, a carbine - a CAR-15 - was finally agreed on to be tested."
McNulty said that an OSC document -- the Operations Plan for the weapons test, dated the day of the Fort Hood test -- says the FBI would supply the correct ammunition for the test while noting that "a CAR-15 has [also] been requested. …"
"'Attachment A' of that document, 'Item 6,' lists a CAR-15" as a weapon to be tested, McNulty acknowledged.
"But then it says something curious," he pointed out. "In parentheses, it also said 'Actual M-16 A1,' and then on the FLIR [infrared test] Test Course of Fire Commands" -- a page from the original operations plan -- "it lists 'Item D' as 'Shooter No. 4 -- M-16,' and 'Shooter No. 5 -- CAR-15 -- Military.'"
"So that's the operation plan that was supposed to be implemented," he said, noting that all parties agreed in February 2000 on which weapons would be tested, as Schweich said, during the protocol meetings to work out the test's overall details and plans.
And though representatives for the Davidians had requested that a CAR-15 be tested, McNulty said, "They didn't have any weapons experts at the protocol meeting, only FLIR experts."
Vector Data Systems, the firm chosen by the OSC to conduct the test and review the findings and conclusions, issued its final testing report April 14, 2000, which was sent to U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, who was presiding over a lawsuit brought against the federal government and the FBI for wrongful death by surviving Davidians.
"The judge ultimately relied exclusively on the Vector Data Systems report and the attorneys' rebuttal to it," McNulty said. "He did not conduct a trial on this issue, so anything in this report is now gospel."
The VDS report, McNulty said, also contained infrared photos taken by a helicopter that was flying overhead at Fort Hood during the time the weapons were test fired. Each shooting lane was marked, documented, and described, he said, including the type of weapon allegedly being fired and the type of combat dress worn by the shooter.
The VDS report listed several CAR-15s being tested, but, McNulty said, "here's the problem: We subsequently, through the special counsel's office, confirmed, with a photograph, that the only weapon tested at Fort Hood of the M-16 family was an M-16 A2, with a 20-inch barrel."
"No carbines were tested at all," he added, even though the VDS final report listed CAR-15s -- which have 14-inch barrels or less -- as being fired on several occasions during the test.
"They fired the M-16 A2 but mislabeled them as CAR-15s," he said. "There was no CAR-15s tested. And in the report to the judge, they said there was and showed pictures -- but they were pictures of the longer M-16 standard rifle."
FBI did not supply correct rifle
"There's also a memo that some of my colleagues have" from the FBI, McNulty said, "that says that the FBI could not or would not provide a CAR-15 for testing, so they were going to substitute an M-16."
He went on to point out that the FBI's refusal to provide the correct weapon "was referenced in the Operations Plan, when a 'CAR-15' was listed for testing but in parentheses next to it was listed an 'M-16' instead."
"At the point at which they actually did the test, the FBI had not produced the requested CAR-15," he said, "but they labeled them as such in the documents that went to the judge."
McNulty said he has brought this to the attention of attorneys for the Davidians. "They're looking at it on the basis of new evidence for a new trial."
"In the earlier protocol meetings, everybody agreed that Vector Data Systems and the OSC would test a CAR-15," McNulty said. "Then VDS tried to acquire one from the FBI, but the agency turned them down, so they substituted a full-size M-16 rifle.
"Mr. Danforth had a duty to ensure that the weapons were absolutely representative of the weapons carried on April 19, 1993," he said. "Mr. Schweich was correct when he said all weapons tested were agreed upon by both parties, but that's as far as it went."