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Letters to the Editor
The Washington Times
3600 New York Ave., N.E.
Washington D.C. 20002


The Washington Times
October 9, 1993
page A9

             FBI still probing video of tank at Waco

By Jerry Seper

  A Justice Department official who helped  write a report on the
role of the  department and the FBI  in the Branch  Davidian raid
says a video  purporting to show a tank shooting  flames into the
compound is under review.
  Richard Scruggs, an  assistant to Attorney General  Janet Reno,
said  the  video     by  Indianapolis  lawyer  Linda  Thompson
"raised our  eyebrows and  caused the  same concern"  others have
expressed.
  Distributed to news organizations around the country, the video
purports to show one of the FBI tanks at the Waco compound firing
flames into the building before the start of the fire.
  Miss Thompson has claimed  it proves the FBI started  the blaze
that killed 85 persons, including 24 children.
  Mr. Scruggs said that Justice officials submitted the video  to
the  University  of   Maryland  for  expert  analysis   and  that
preliminary results have not been conclusive.
  He said that the  armored vehicle used by  federal authorities,
on loan  from the  military, was  not equipped with  any type  of
flame-throwing capability  and that  the only way  a flame  could
have come  from it would have  been through some type  of "busted
hydraulic line or something like that."
  He said Justice officials had examined the vehicle and found no
evidence of broken parts.  Another analysis of the tape  has been
ordered, he said.
  Mr. Scruggs noted that a preliminary assessment of the video is
that what appears to be a flame shooting out of the vehicle was a
flash from the dispersant     carbon monoxixde    used  to propel
the chemical agent CS into the compound.
  A second  possibility, he  said, was  a defect in  the way  the
video was shot.
  "I  don't know what  it is," he  said. "I'll have  to be honest
with you."
  He noted  that the fire  at the compound  did not erupt  for at
least 35  to 40 minutes after the light  flash is observed in the
video.
  An inquiry into the video was continuing, Mr. Scruggs said.

                              [end]
