Reno offers Danforth independent inquiry post in Waco siege
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Janet Reno is negotiating<br>with former Republican Sen. John Danforth to head an independent<br>inquiry into the fiery end of the FBI's standoff with the Branch<br>Davidian
Wednesday, September 8th 1999, 12:00 am
By: News On 6
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Janet Reno is negotiating with former Republican Sen. John Danforth to head an independent inquiry into the fiery end of the FBI's standoff with the Branch Davidian cult. The Senate's top Republican said today he now has doubts about who started the fire.
"There are doubts because questions have been raised," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told reporters.
"I am beginning to think she (Reno) should resign," added the Mississippi senator, a frequent critic of the attorney general.
The exchange came during final talks between the Justice Department and Danforth over the details of the independent inquiry and an announcement could come as early as today.
Congressional officials who spoke with the Justice Department Tuesday said they understood Danforth was willing to take the job. According to government lawyers and congressional officials, the Justice Department was considering appointing a second person to assist Danforth in the investigation and help to manage the day-to-day operations.
Danforth, 63, would bring solid Republican credentials as well as a background in law enforcement. Before entering the Senate, he served as attorney general in Missouri for eight years. He retired from the Senate in 1995.
Danforth also is an Episcopal priest, and both admirers and detractors have noted his moral integrity and his stubborn independence.
He did not return a call seeking comment.
Final touches were being put on the scope and nature of the investigation, said the sources, who include Republicans on Capitol Hill who had discussions Tuesday with Justice Department officials.
Reno's decision comes as congressional Republicans have increased pressure on her and on FBI Director Louis Freeh to explain how evidence about the siege, including videotapes, was withheld from the public for years.
Some Republican lawmakers want to know whether the FBI lied about using incendiary tear gas canisters during the final raid on the compound on April 19, 1993.
The Dallas Morning News reported today that Texas Rangers had found flares that were apparently fired by federal officials. The newspaper said the Rangers discovered the expended military illumination flares amid tons of evidence recovered Friday from a storage facility near Waco. Evidence logs showed more flares were recovered in the weeks after the Davidian compound burned following the FBI siege.
More than 80 sect members died, some of them children, in a fire that the government contends was set by sect members.
None of the committees looking into the raid has found evidence that the government was responsible for starting the fire, according to several aides familiar with the investigations.
Several GOP-led committees in Congress have begun reinvestigating the Waco matter. Democrats on Capitol Hill have asked the GOP to let the independent investigation sought by Reno take place before congressional hearings.
At issue are recent revelations by the FBI that it fired several potentially flammable tear gas canisters at a storm shelter near the main Branch Davidian building hours before the main building went up in flames. The FBI and the Justice Department had previously denied use of any incendiary devices, and investigations will focus on whether this misinformation was the result of a bureaucratic slip-up or a cover-up.
The Justice Department insists there is no change in conclusions that it was David Koresh and his followers who started the fatal fire. The department also stresses that military special operations officers were on the scene only as observers and advisers, and not in an illegal capacity as participants in the operation.
Republicans have used the revelations to attack the credibility of Reno and the Justice Department. The White House has stood behind Reno, but President Clinton has declined to give a similar vote of confidence to Freeh.
Those who know Danforth say he would bring instant credibility to the investigation.
"He calls them like he sees them," former Sen. Thomas Eagleton, a Missouri Democrat who served 10 years with Danforth, has said. "Members of the Senate or House will have full faith in his finding."
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