Gathered deep inside the nation’s largest military base, about 20 government officials, special investigators and private lawyers on Sunday watched an unusual and controversial simulation intended to help determine whether the FBI has been truthful about its role in the fatal 1993 Branch Davidian standoff.
The exercise, ordered by a federal judge and carried out at Ft. Hood, was designed to examine unproven allegations that FBI agents fired into the Branch Davidians’ compound before it burned to the ground on April 19, 1993. In all, about 80 men, women and children died that day, including the leader of the religious sect, David Koresh.
Initially, the infrared video taken of the simulation was supposed to be made public. But Sunday morning, U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, who is presiding over a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the government by survivors and descendants of the Branch Davidians, unexpectedly sealed the videos, precluding any public viewing.
FBI officials said agency experts who conducted a preliminary review Sunday evening had said that the videos vindicated their long-held position that they had never fired on April 19. The lack of public access creates the possibility that both sides in the case would release conflicting opinions without any public review of the videos. “That was the court’s decision,” said U.S. Atty. Mike Bradford, one of the main lawyers for the government in the civil case. “I don’t think either side really solicited it.” For years, controversy has surrounded aerial infrared videos taken by the FBI on the day of the fire. The video shows unexplained “flashes.”
Michael Caddell, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, and other government critics contend that the flashes are from FBI agents firing into the compound. The simulation Sunday was designed to capture gunfire on a similar infrared video and then determine if similar flashes result.
The exercise lasted about three hours. In addition to Smith and special U.S. counsel John Danforth, a former senator, the observers included representatives from the Department of Justice, the FBI, Texas Rangers and private lawyers representing the plaintiffs. They watched a series of drills performed by six postal inspectors and two Army soldiers dressed in uniforms similar to those worn by FBI agents on the day of the fire.
First, the eight participants fired different weapons from prone and kneeling positions. Then, they slowly advanced to a prescribed firing line, where they fired a series of single shots followed by shorts bursts and long bursts of automatic gunfire. They repeated the exercise four times as the FBI Nightstalker airplane and a British navy helicopter took turns filming from different altitudes.
In addition, an armored vehicle was driven alongside a field littered with debris such as twisted aluminum, broken glass and pools of water. Each aspect of the exercise–the gunfire and the armored vehicle–was intended to test the conflicting theories about the flashes.
Caddell said he thought the staged gunfire would create identical flashes on the FLIR tape put forth by the plaintiffs and by the government. Caddell has contended that the flashes represent gunfire, while the government had said the flashes, or “glints,” were merely reflections from debris scattered around the compound.
Caddell said secrecy and security were at a premium. The observers were driven by bus for nearly an hour to a location within Ft. Hood. For security, he said, several military vehicles were positioned nearby. Smith denied a motion by several news media organizations to witness the test. “We’re all pleased,” Caddell said of the test. “When you think about coordinating weather, equipment and personnel, we’re all pleased that we got it done.”
In December, Smith granted a plaintiff’s motion to hold the demonstration and ordered that Danforth’s staff supervise the exercise. Initially, government lawyers fought the motion, contending that similar FLIR technology no longer existed. But when Danforth’s staff located such a camera in Britain, and when it became clear that both the judge and Danforth favored the exercise, the government reversed itself and consented.
Before the test, Caddell signaled his likely approach to the civil trial when he said he did not believe the deaths of the Branch Davidians resulted from an overarching government conspiracy but rather from the improper actions of supervisory agents at the scene.
