The Return Of Waco

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W

hy use hot rounds? The FBI wanted to prevent the Davidians from taking refuge in a concrete bunker, but a cold round fired shortly after 6 a.m. bounced off the roof. According to a document at the FBI's legal counsel's office dated February 1996--but that officials say they realized only last week was significant--HRT agents asked to use M651 military rounds because the heat they generate produces a vapor that provides greater penetrating power. A yet unidentified FBI official on the ground authorized the plan but did not report it to Washington. The two M651 rounds ricocheted off the bunker and bounced uselessly into a field.

An Administration official told TIME that notes submitted to Congress just months after the debacle described a military gas round used to "shoot gas into the bunker" and "some sort of military round to be used in a concrete bunker." At that time, however, no one knew enough to understand what those notes meant--or the trouble they might later bring.

FBI and Justice officials remain convinced that the Davidians ignited the fires that consumed Mount Carmel. They believe the forensic evidence is overwhelming and is corroborated by transcripts of bugged conversations among the Davidians. But last week's admissions made it seem as if Reno, Justice and the FBI, in bureau parlance, couldn't find a pie in a bakery. FBI director Freeh, who took office 3 1/2 months after Waco, is declining to talk to the press until the Waco incident is reinvestigated. He apparently wants to make certain that nothing he says now will be contradicted by nasty little truths that may still be out there.