Copsproductions Blog # 4

   “Waco – A New Revelation” Turns Washington Upside Down!

    And look who is appointed to protect the establishment!   

 

                                                                                                        

"Waco- A New Revelation" Video Sleeve Art 1999 Premier

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Hey! What are you guys looking at? FBI HRT agents Mt Carmel S-2 sniper post, March 1993.

                                                                                                                 

Back Side of Mt Carmel from S-2 , some time in March of 1993

                                                                                                                  

FBI snipers with heavy equipment , .50 cal Barret rifle, Mt Carmel March 1993.

                                                                                                                 

                        

New Film born out of chaos…

Late summer of 1999 was just insane.  Jason Van Vleet, our esteemed Director and Editor, was trying desperately to retrieve the final cut of the new film from the editing computer that we called the “Beast.” What he didn’t know at the time was that he had “stacked” dozens to hundreds of different cuts of different scenes on the hard drive, and simply choked the life out of the poor thing. This unknown malady caused untold grief for Jason and all of us for a very long and critical time.  Meanwhile, Jason’s Dad, Rick Van Vleet, our Executive Producer, and I began setting up the premier for the film to be shown at a theater in Union Station in Washington DC, just steps away from the Capital.  At that time we weren’t aware of the extent of Jason’s problem with the computer, so we were full steam ahead, heading for a huge potential train wreck – a full theater and no film! With the help of two great friends, Col. Roger Charles and Scott Malone, we had managed to set up two screenings with huge invite lists including all the Federal players all the way up to Mrs. Clinton and the President. There were to be two separate screenings. Right before the Press screening the VIP’s would be leaving their event and the press could ask them how they liked it on the way into their screening. Col. Charles knew most of the military Washington crowd and Scot Malone know all the political players and some of the high-ranking military folks we wanted to receive personal invitations to the screening.  There were many interesting steps that we did to insure that these folks got their personal invitations. For example, making sure that an invitation was placed on the main entre plate at a high-class, exclusive restaurant where a well-known Senator was about to take his mistress for a romantic, little soiree. Our pal Scotty tracked down a three star general in command of CAG while he was out jogging and handed him his invitation with a polite tip of the hat. The General’s security detail was not amused, but the General had a big grin on his face when he saw what it was. Heard they changed the leadership of the detail after that encounter. They should have hired ol’ Scotty.

 In the mean time we “leaked” a bit of news to a friendly reporter and after showing her some of the films footage, she broke the story of the pyrotechnics used by the FBI just before the scheduled premier in Washington! That worked beautifully.  Attorney General Reno was, unbeknownst to us, ambushed in her weekly news conference and the pyrotechnics questions were embarrassing. The press again covered the “dead” Waco story twenty-four-seven. We were getting more than 600 calls from the press, a day! We were ready for a great launch of our second film…small problem. Jason was finding out just how deep the issue was regarding the running of the computer to get a final cut – it wasn’t running, at all. So Jason and a bunch of computer geeks worked on the damn thing 24-seven. The rest of us prayed and worked on the set up in Washington. Eventually, Jason got the computer working – sort of.  Rick, God love him, stepped up and said the show must go on! And it did. Rick paid to have this monster computer set up 8 feet tall and four feet square at the base, a huge computer rack. In fact it amounted to a couple of master computers with dozens of sub-hard drives all linked together. It weighed almost a thousand pounds and the wheels it was mounted on were always breaking.  Rick had the whole shebang flown to Washington.

 The thing worked fine for the first showing. Well it went to digital, broken image, a couple of times, but who’s counting? Then it broke down and stopped during the press second screening for about ten minutes. By then poor Jason was convinced that the FBI had planted some bugs in the equipment and I wasn’t so sure he wasn’t right. There had been several BATF and FBI personnel at the first screening. But what the heck, we played it, the folks were amazed and it gave us what we had hoped for in a premier – Lots of exposure.  Then the only problem was how to get the darned thing to give us our final master copy so we could release the film!

                                                                                                                                      

Mike McNulty Premier of "Waco- A New Revelation", Washington, DC November 1999

                                                                                                                 

Congressman Cliff Stearns, Fla R ( right), MGA Films Staff in back ground, Mr Rick Van Vleet, Executive Producer, MGA Films, ( center) and Mike McNulty ( Left) at Premier.

                                                              

                                                                                                                  

Mr March Bell, Chief Congressional Investigator, Republican Staff, (right) MGA Films staff in back ground and Mike McNulty, (left)

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                  

Dr. Fred Whitehurst, FBI Crime Lab Ret. (left) Mike McNulty (Center), Rick Van Vleet (right) at premier Nov 1999.

The long and the short of it was that the computer didn’t reveal its secrets for six more very long months. We lost the momentum of the premier opening and that screwed the up the roll out of the film to the general Public.

The press went on without us, of course, and our initial release was late. This gave Reno the opportunity to take the stage and so she appointed former Senator Jack Danforth (R-Mo) as the Special counsel to investigate our allegations about the FBI’s conduct at Waco. Reno recused herself and appointed her own deputy AG as the person directing the Danforth efforts from the Justice Department. This person became the Master Cover-up Deputy AG in-charge.

                              

                                                                                                                              

Reno introduces Danforth to the Press Dec. 1999'.

“Undertaker Jack” and the burial of the Waco story

 

One of the key issues of “Waco- A New Revelation” had been the use of the pyrotechnic rounds at Mt Carmel on April 19^th.  Reno handled the “Big Lie” on that score and the Corporate Media didn’t know any better so as to question on that issue, so the AG got a free ride, but she had other issues that she wanted dealt with like the allegation that the FBI engaged in a gun fight with the Davidians the morning of the fire. The plan was to pretty much “brush off” other things like the explosion on the roof of the bunker and the setting of the fire while the media’s attention was absorbed in the rigged, so-called, “re-creation “ of the alleged shooting incident. It was handled like a ‘circus’ at Ft hood Texas, much like the old Circus Maximus in the days of the failing Roman Empire. Keep the mob (the press) distracted with the gladiators and slaughter in the Coliseum, while the Politicians finish the work of destroying the underpinnings (the truth) of the Republic. And so it was that the “re-creation” became the mechanism for the “the new reality” of the outcome of Danforth’s so-called investigation. So we decided to do our own re-creation of the shooting events at Mt Carmel on April the 19^th, and we called it “The F.L.I.R. Project.”     

                                                                                              

                                                                                   

FBI FLIR image of Mt Carmel showing damage to Gymnasium and tank going into front doors on April 19th, 1993.

                             

The premise of the FLIR Project was our contention that the FBI Forward Looking Infra-Red video tape, made by the FBI from the air on April the 19^th actually showed a gun battle going on up to and during the fire that day at Mt Carmel. The fight was between the FBI-HRT/Delta teams outside the building and the Davidians inside the building that was under assault by the tanks.

We had met with the Danforth representatives on several occasions and found the whole affair to be very tedious and one way. They wanted all of our information and were willing to share nothing. So we learned how to pick their brains while we had access and it seems they either didn’t know what we were doing or the folks we worked with sub-rosa, functioned with a wink and a nod. But we got the stuff we needed to prove that good old Republican Jack and the folks he was working for, The AG and her deputy, were rigging the game and we could show exactly how he/they did it. Now we needed to set up a righteous “re-creation” that accurately duplicated conditions, equipment and circumstances of that day in 1993. This was going to be fun, hard work and expensive, but fun.

The making of the “F.L.I.R. Project” and the surprises we found along the way…

                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                               

The man who made the FLIR Project work, Bob Ford, Owner of Rocky Mountain Arms. Head Gun Guy.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

The FLIR Camera was 100 feet in the air above the action on the range in Tucson, Arizona.

Chief shooter, US Marshal Ret. David Heart testing some ammo with a member of the shooting staff.

Mike McNulty (left) discusses next shot with Official Observer Barbara Grant (right) while staff member prepares FLIR devise.

"Your going to put us where...?! asks Barbara Grant, Note of concern in her voice...she hated heights. But she was a trooper!

Reviewing shooting procedure for M-79 grenade Launcher with Dave Heart.

My favorite shot of Dave Hardy, Munchkin -in-charge of everything.

A more composed shot of Mr Hardy, attorney at Law in his offices.

Munchkin Dave helping out in the firing Line...Ah Dave, the firing line is HOT! Dave...?!

The Shooting and Atmospheric Team, Dave Heart(left), Mike McNulty (center) and Chuck Byers (right.)

Two members of the FLIR Team, Gen. Ben Parton USAF Ret, (left), and Richard Rochfort, FLIR Operator with the FLIR equipment, (center) and Mike McNulty, (right)

Dr. Fred Zegal, our FLIR scientist and Mike McNulty. Fred passed away not long after our film was released. He mysteriously contracted Blood Poisoning.

The heart of our Tucson group, the shooting support Team, Greg Taylor,Milton Schick, Rick Batory, Phil Murphy, Peter Hills, Walter Puczkowsky, and not in picture David Lee.

The first thing we did was gather a crack team of Forward Looking Infra- Red scientists. We decided to use a different scientist then we had used in the film, Dr. Edward Allard. We wanted to have a diverse opinion and so we obtained the services of a colleague of Dr. Allard’s from the Night Vision Laboratory in Maryland.  We also assembled a team of fire arms experts and a fine collection of the different weapons used at Waco by the government forces. Then we found a FLIR technician with the same type of FLIR device the FBI had used at Waco on the 19^th.

  It took two sessions to do all the work we had and we were helped by my old friend David Hardy, attorney at law, in putting all this together. Our first shoot was done north of Ft. Collins, Colorado where we covered the basic issues, but we found that session posed more questions than it answered. So off to Tucson, Arizona, David’s home town and that’s were inspiration and effort came together to give us the answers we were looking for. The central problem was the size and duration of the muzzle flashes we saw on the video tape. We found through our investigations of Danforth’s “re-creation” circus, that the folks at Fort Hood had done a number of things to mitigate certain elements of the test. They watered down the testing grounds and covered them with tarps the night before the test, substantially altering the background temperature of the testing area and more importantly, eliminating all dust in the atmosphere. They used longer barreled weapons than used by the FBI at Waco and they used specially treated ammo (Military ammo) that substantially reduced the muzzle flash, instead of the standard commercial ammo used by the FBI at Waco. Still and all the muzzle flashes we were recording did not duplicate the size and duration of the flashes seen on the FLIR tape of April 19^th. 

We tried a number of combinations and finally settled on a barrel length, atmospheric temperature, ammunition type and a secret ingredient – Dust in the air! Bingo. We duplicated the flashes on the FBI FLIR tape! You see the day of April 19^th, 1993, was the windiest day of the year. I remembered seeing video on the ground where power lines and poles were blotted out by the dust in the air that day churned up by the tanks raging around the building all morning. And you recall that we said that the folks at the Ft Hood re-creation had watered down the test site the night before, and they didn’t let any of the vehicles move on the test site and there was no wind at Ft Hood, well, that put the truth to Danforth’s lie about gunfire from the FBI and Delta.

                                                                                                           

We threw dirt and dust into the air column in front of the M-16 as it fired to create dust in the atmosphere.

                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                  

The heavy amounts of dirt showed as black or cold on the FLIR...

                                                                                                                  

But, as the dirt dispersed in the air it became fine dust and that amplified the muzzle flash in both size and duration as the particulate heated up from hot muzzle gases from each of the rounds fired. And they matched the flashes on the FLIR video!

 There had been a gunfight and it was recorded on the FBI FLIR and we had a group of photo interpreters review the color photos made from the air by the FBI that day. We “borrowed“ these fellows from the CIA. One of them had been the fellow who had discovered the Russian missiles during the Cuban Missile Crises in the 60’s. They found the bodies of the Delta/HRT players in the rubble, in the firing positions that correlated with the FLIR gun fire images. We went a few steps further and proved conclusively that the muzzle flashes seen on the film could not be what the government claimed a “solar reflections.” What we had here in the government’s own footage was gun fire from Federal agents being directed at the Davidians in the building. But then there was something else we did in Tucson that wasn’t included in the “FLIR Project” film. It had to do with the fire on April 19^th.

On April 19^th the FBI had inserted what they called CS Gas, Actually CS is a dry powder compound and the FBI had mixed it with what is called a carrier agent. This material had a quality of rapid evaporation so the liquid would “carry” the CS dust particulate into a room for example and the liquid would evaporate very rapidly and leave the irritating particles suspended in the air to hopefully drive the occupants out of the building.  Although the government experts at the Congressional hearings claimed that the liquid used was not flammable, (they said you could put a lit match out in a cup of this material) – they had lied. The Federal Materials Safety Data Sheet, put out by DOW Chemical, on the liquid used said that it developed flammable fumes or vapors. The material used was Methylene Chloride – or paint stripper. We didn’t know how caustic that stuff was until we put some in a plastic spray bottle to spray some of it into the air column in front of a firing M-16 rifle.

                                                                                                                      

Dow Material Safety Data Sheet on Methylene Chloride.

                                                                                                                                

Methylene Chloride used by FBI as "Carrier Agent" for CS Dust Particulate as tested at FLIR Project Tucson facilities Fall of 1999'

After two or three sprays it ate the guts out of the spray mechanism and wouldn’t pump anymore! Once we got a number of bottles to work long enough the stuff lit up and produced a large muzzle flash-ignition on regular video tape, still cameras didn’t capture it, but it produced a thirty foot muzzle flash on the FLIR camera! The ignition of the Methylene Chloride was very hot and burned much like alcohol used in racing cars. You generally don’t see it burning with the naked eye, however, our video and FLIR did capture it.  Answer – yes Methylene Chloride Vapors are very flammable!

 

                                                                                                                    

The man spaying the Methylene Chloride can be seen behind the shooter, man with the ground video camera can be seen extreme left and the FLIR camera is up at the top of the crane /boom. The MC could not be seen with the naked eye or the still camera. We did capture the ignition on the aerial video both regular and FLIR.

The FBI had pumped in gallons of this stuff over the course of the 6 hours before the fire started. I reviewed the FBI 302 reports from Agents who had been stationed around the building that morning.  Three or four of them had observed a Davidian inside the second story SE corner of the building wearing a black ninja suit. He had an AK-47 and when the CEV tank had torn out the corner of the wall and inserted the last charge of CS directly into the room they all had seen and heard the Davidian fire his weapon at the retreating tank. Within a minute the observers had reported a fire had started at that location. We contend that the fire was accidentally ignited by the discharge of the Davidian’s weapon in the heavily laden atmosphere of Methylene Chloride vapors in the room from the immediately preceding insertion of the material by the FBI CEV at that location.

 That was the first fire seen that morning at the front of the building. We also contend that some of the other fires started in the building thereafter were advanced by the heavy presence of the Methylene Chloride vapors in the building that day. And in conclusion, we believe that the use of that material by the FBI at Mt Carmel constitutes an act of arson by the Government. It should also be noted that the Danforth investigation never conducted any tests regarding the flammability of the CS gas and its carrier agent, Methylene Chloride. The Danforth investigators simply took the word of the Federal Fire Investigators retained by the BATF, that, ‘… the CS and Methylene Chloride were NOT flammable, and therefore safe to use in the way the FBI used it.’ They lied during the Congressional investigations and they lied again when questioned by the Danforth investigators. One should note. When CS is burned it produces Hydrogen Cyanide Gas, the lethal gas used in execution chambers to kill convicted murderers. A number of the Davidian dead had very high levels of Cyanide in their blood streams during the autopsies.

                                                                     

 

                                                                                                   

Visible Light video of Methylene Chloride Ignition by gunfire.

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FLIR Video of Methylene Chloride Vapor Ignition by Gunfire.

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VHS Sleeve Art for "The FLIR Project" Feb. 2000'

                                                    

                                                                                                             

  ( CAUTION – DISTURBING PICTURE BELOW !)

                                                                                              

                                                                                               

  

                                                                                                           

The twisted body of a ten-year old child recovered from the 'Bunker' that suffered the bone breaking muscle contractions from Hydrogen cyanide poisining generated by the burning CS gas., April 19, 1993.

Lest we forget the true “victims ” of the Waco tragedy…

By the time the “F.L.I.R. Project” came out the Justice Department had also released its ‘preliminary’ Danforth report.  In that document all responsibility was laid on David Koresh. The apparent gun fight between the FBI and Davidians was denied – it never happened. The Davidians started the fire.

In a related controversy, the hole in the roof of the “bunker” was linked to an alleged box of ‘home-made’ black powder hand grenades going off (simultaneously?) on the roof of the bunker. Our explosives experts said that, even if they somehow exploded at the same time, they simply wouldn’t have had enough energy to blast a 24” hole through 8 inches of steel reinforced concrete, what was used was a high order shape charge designed to breach that kind of structure. It was of military origin.

Danforth submitted his final report on the events that transpired between March first (he refused to deal with the BATF raid on Feb 28) and April 19^th. COPS Productions sent copies of the “FLIR Project” by certified mail to John C. Danforth and his boss, the Deputy Attorney General. Never the less, Danforth insisted it was all Koresh’s fault, the business about the “box of grenades was left out of the final report and the hole in the roof was not dealt with. The “gun fight” appearing on the FBI FLIR tape did not happen, the flashes seen were “solar flares or reflections”, and the fire was started solely by the Davidans on David Koresh’s orders. The FBI was innocent of all our allegations and Danforth passed this document onto the man who created and supervised this charade, the Deputy Attorney General, Eric H. Holder.

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                

Cover Letter from Jack Danforth to Deputy AG Erick Holder from Danforth's Waco Investigation Budget document dated 12, 03,1999.

 

 In the next COPS Productions Blog # 5

What’s next for COPS Productions? More Citizen Journalism…

What is Mr. Holder up to now? Who the heck is Mike Vanderboegh and what is “Operation Fast and Furious” aka ‘Operation Gunwalker’?                     

COPS Productions Blog # 3.5

FBI Agent Dick Rogers, Leader of HRT, observes burn down from his M1 Abrams Tank.

A Davidian thought Waco was first time US Gov used tanks on Civilians - First time was 1932 under President Hoover against the Bonus Marchers.

 

“Who the hell was in charge of this mess…?”

A confused member of Congress during the Waco hearings, June 1995.

 

 

 

The haunting truth of who was in charge of the Waco Mess.

After the wild and crazy days of early June, 1995 and our baptism by fire into the politics of Waco at the Congressional hearings, we jump forward to 1999 and dive into the ongoing aftermath of manipulation and deceit, often referred to as “Ass Covering.”

No one was held accountable after the ’95 Congressional hearings, per the desire of the Democratic minority to protect their new, young President. The Democrat’s response to the question of “Who was in charge of this mess…?” was – incredibly…  “David Koresh, the maniacal leader of the Branch Davidian cult!”  The problem was that even though he claimed to be God-like, Koresh didn’t control the FBI Hostage Rescue Team,.  He also didn’t control the fourteen special operators from the Combat Applications Group, ‘B’ squadron, AKA ‘Delta Force’ that joined the tank supported assault that was brought down upon the Davidian’s at 6 AM, April 19, 1993. The persons in charge were to be found at the White House and the Justice Department offices in Washington, DC, not on the central Texas plains.

 The truth of this statement starts with the words of the Captain of the Texas Rangers who lead the Ranger Waco investigation once the crime scene was transferred to them by the FBI the afternoon of the day of the fire. His name is Capt. Maurice Cook. Maurice is now retired from the Rangers, but in his day he was one hell of a law enforcement officer. In many ways he was the end-all, be all of the legend of the Texas Rangers. They truly are a unique breed of men.

                                                                                                                 

Texas Ranger Captian Maurice Cook, (Center) Mike McNulty, (left) and "Waco- A New Revelation" Director, Jason Van Vleet, (right) enjoying Fajitas and intersting stories in Austin.

 

It was Cook that told us over a sizzling platter of fresh beef fajitas that some of the BATF and FBI agents were about to be indicted on charges brought by the state of Texas for their roles in events between Feb 28 and April 19th 1993. So why weren’t they brought up on charges? There was a phone call made to Governor Anne Richards. The call came from the White House; Cook inferred it was from the First Lady, Hillary Rodam Clinton. This was substantiated by other sources in the FBI and Congress. Apparently, the First Lady was very concerned about the impact the whole Waco tragedy was having on the beginning of the President’s first term in office. Governor Richards told the Rangers to drop the investigation, they followed orders, and it went away. Cook and his boss, Senior Captain David Byrnes, both retired from the Rangers shortly after the Governor “had her way with them.”

Captain Cook told us that night that he had ‘almost’ told the Congressional hearings folks in 1995 the whole story, but they didn’t seem interested. The story that night over fajitas was that the FBI agents had been very uncooperative during the Ranger’s investigation and Maurice and David had a little chat with the “SOB’s,” sort of man to man, and the FBI gave them a business card with a name and a phone number on the back of it. The FBI men said if you have any problems with your investigation you should call that number and talk to the man whose name was written on the card. It was a number in Washington and the name on the back of the card was Vincent Foster, Counsel to the President, William Jefferson Clinton.

 Fosters name kept coming up over and over again during the Senate hearings investigating Foster’s suicide in July of 1993. Seems there was a document referred to as his “resignation letter” that dealt with his role in the end game at Waco. It also seems that file and others regarding several different matters Foster was handling at the time for the President and First Lady were surreptitiously removed from Foster’s office in the middle of the night of Foster’s death by Mrs. Clinton’s Chief of Staff, Maggie Williams. Later, the box of documents was taken by Foster’s intern with Williams in tow to the First Lady in her personal White House quarters and handed to her. From that point, the documents were never seen again by anyone. The First Lady was not called upon to produce the documents or to testify about them before Congress.

 

                                                                                                                                   

"I've got a secret... file..." Former First Lady Hillary Rodem Clinton

 

 This whole business raised a serious specter of something more than just ‘suicide’ regarding Foster’s death and it lead us to another interesting conversation with yet another FBI agent in the Washington, DC area. This was a FBI agent who was the Bureau’s Liaison to the White House. FBI Agent Dennis Scullambrine had several interesting stories to tell about Mr. Foster and the First Lady and the upshot was that Foster was the ‘ear’ in which the First Lady/ “Coe-President,” whispered the directions for dealing with the Waco problem.

                               

                                                                                                                            

FBI agent Dennis Scullumbrine, Ret. (right), Mrs Scullumbrine, (center) Mike McNulty, (left) at the Scullumbrine home near Washington, DC.

 

Foster put that information in play through the White House’s official “mouth” at the Justice department, Webster Hubble. He then passed the word to the acting director of the FBI, Floyd Clark, who communicated directly with the folks on the ground at Waco, SAC Jeff Jamar and the agent in charge of the HRT, Dick Rogers. Foster was the go-to guy for the Clintons back in the Arkansas days. We were told that Hillary would complain to Foster, “…just fix it Vince…!” And Foster would tell Webb Hubble, “…Just fix it Webb…” And it would get done. The problem this time was that when you whisper “…just fix it Floyd…” in FBI Deputy Director Floyd Clark’s ear, he doesn’t hear the words implied by the Clinton crew. He has a hammer, (The HRT and Delta) in his bag of tricks; his options were limited and did not include a “political fix.” The Davidians had to pay the price and according to Fosters wife, it was the deaths of all the children at Waco that pushed Vince over the edge, “…he felt responsible.”

 Foster’s death and the Waco connection led us to other areas of interest: Who authorized the operational presence of the Combat Applications Group, (CAG) or “Delta Force,” (the United States military) at Waco? Only one person could, the President of the United States, and we weren’t going to get an interview with him.

Years later we would discover that President Clinton, at the urging of the First Lady and Vincent Foster, did, in fact, issue a Presidential Directive or PD, ordering the Combat Applications Group (Delta Force), to Waco to deal with the Branch Davidans and end the 51 day siege. That order was established on a precedent established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s use of the Marine Corps to put down a riot of prisoners at Alcatraz in the late thirties and the use by President Ronald Reagan of Delta Force at the riots of the Cuban Muriel Boat People at the Federal Prison at Talladega, Florida in the late 80’s. On a Historical note. There was one additional occurrence of the use of Federal troops on American citizens. President Hoover had ordered the Chief of Staff of the US Army, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, to remove by force of arms what was referred to as the WWI Veteran ‘Bonus Marchers.’ Their encampment was near Washington DC. MacArthur and Major George S. Patton and Major Dwight D. Eisenhower led a contingent of armed troops with fixed bayonets and a column of Horse mounted Cavalry with drawn sabers followed by a column of combat tanks against the Marchers on the morning of July 28, 1932. Nine Marchers were killed, hundreds were injured and their encampment was burned to the ground.  

                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                              

In a familiar scene Army burns down Bonus Marchers camp near Federal Capital , Washington, DC,1932

 

An interesting side note supplied by our Military sources may have had bearing on the President’s decision to send Delta to Waco. The reason for sending Delta to Talladega was because of the disastrous failure of the FBI HRT in a breaching operation, earlier at the scene. The same man who altered Col Jack Frosts’ 40 mm flash bang devices had attempted to do a wall breech using explosives to gain access to the rioters. This FBI explosives “expert” had overdone it, and blown up a pair of FBI black suburbans and injured some of his HRT team members. So it was that President Reagan had decided to send in the pros at Talladega and Mr. Clinton was convinced to send the CAG folks in to end the Waco standoff and win the perceived battle for dominance and control between Koresh and the US government.

 It should be noted that President Clinton’s Presidential Directive was never repealed by President George W. Bush or President Obama. In light of new laws on the books like the Patriot Act, the National Defense Allocations Act and the actions of organizations like the Office of Homeland Security and the TSA, one wonders where Mr. Clinton’s Executive Order and the precedent it sets will be employed next. Or, has it been used since?

 

Hunting ‘Delta Force.’

Further twists and turns took place and we found ourselves hunting Delta Force! More documents from the Davidian Civil attorneys provided some interesting clues about Delta. It seems that the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) trained with the ‘D’ Boys (as they were referred to in the military) on a regular basis. The relationship was even ‘cozier’ than that. The HRT practiced the Delta tactics and shared some weapons systems with the Boys of Delta. So, when the FBI found themselves in a bit of a sticky problem, a long-term siege at Mt Carmel, they called on the Commanders of Delta, Brig. General Pete Schumacher and COL Gerald Boykin to take a look at the situation and give their expert opinion on how to deal with it.

Delta patroling the scene looking for survivors through heavy smoke. 4-19-93

 

At this point the “Posse Comitatus Act,” (An 1878, post civil war law, forbidding the US Military from acting upon civilians) had been violated at least twice before, and now President Clinton had established legal precedents. The military was still a bit dubious of the efficacy of such an act. Additionally, there were more mitigating problems that caused the Army folks to be a bit “gun shy.” In the end, the concept of Due Process was over looked by President Clinton, and in spite all of these ‘caution signs,’ the Davidians were deemed some sort of threat to National Security, and frankly to President Clinton’s re-election! There by Delta reluctantly came in and their commanders offered an opinion that was couched in careful language that said, “… This isn’t our fight, but if it were, we would simply cut the head off the snake, (Kill Koresh and his lieutenants) and the other folks would just come out…” General Schumacher appears on video tape during his visit to Mt. Carmel in March of 1993 to observe the conditions at Mt Carmel. Delta was “ordered” to Waco by the President and that seemed to satisfy the General. In today’s Army, we are told that the General should have declined the order as “illegal.” He did not take that action and “Cutting the head off the snake…” was exactly the tactic used by the combined FBI/HRT/Delta forces on April 19^th.

 

The Plan goes terribly wrong…

 

Early in the morning Koresh and his “Lieutenants” were in the church vault as the gassing increased. Koresh can be heard on the audio tapes from the FBI “over-hears” placed in the walls of the “Bunker” the night before by a Delta operative to be saying that the air was much better in the bunker. He noted this with his gas mask off. . David Koresh, that “evil SOB” then subverted the FBI’s plan. Shortly after his appearance in the “Bunker,” he and his “Lieutenant”, Steve Schneider, went upstairs to where the women and children were seeking relief from the CS gas that was lobbed and sprayed in all morning. Koresh directed them to the church records vault for some protection from the gas.

The folks listening saw Koresh’s presence in the vault as their chance to take him out with his men. A Tank can be seen entering the building at about 10:20 AM at the exact location of the only door into the Bunker, through the front exterior wall of the building. It stayed inside for about eight minutes and then pulled out and waited for about six minutes and then went back inside. Our tactical people tell us this was the insertion and extraction of the explosives team that placed the breeching device on the roof of the bunker, right over the location where the children now huddled with their mothers, trying to escape the CS gas and flames of the fire. As the fire started to burn, it spread to the area of the court-yard just outside of the “Bunker.” There were several 100 gallon propane bottles stored there, one exploded, producing a large gas explosion that was very prominent in all the videography and photographs made that day. However, the sharp eyes of one of our explosives experts, Brig General Ben Parton,USAF Ret, noted that there was a high explosive detonation just below the location and fractions of a second before the Gas fireball formed on the roof of the now exposed “Bunker.”  Photographs showed a 24”  hole in the 8” thick steel reinforced concrete roof of the now decimated “bunker” with its collection of shredded human beings. When we were searching the second warehouse at the Texas ranger facility we found the 100 gallon propane bottle and the top of the bottle, neatly sheared off by a cutting charge, (probably a couple wraps of det-cord detonated with a radio controlled device), in the evidence locker. So at about nine minutes into the fire the breeching device was detonated a fraction of a second before the propane bottle blossomed into a ball of fire, covering the high explosives detonation on the roof of the bunker This was the moment that Delta and/or HRT killed the children of Waco thinking the occupants were the Davidian leadership and hoping to end the siege. David Koresh had lost the battle and won his war with the United States Government, (Babylon, as he saw it) at a terrible cost.

                                                                                    

                                                                                                                   

The Bunker. Red flags mark bodies

 

                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                  

24" Blast hole in 8" thick concret steel reinforced roof of bunker.

     

 

We don’t know if the “over-hears” heard the women and children enter the “Bunker.” We do know that the tank driver who took the team into the building to place the device on the roof did see “some people enter the bunker…,” as he drove his tank to, “… the front door of the bunker.” 

The propane tank didn’t go off by accident! The breeching charge did not belong to the Davidans. The FBI had its way with the innocent Davidian children! No matter what one thought of their parents and David Koresh, the children were truly innocent and didn’t deserve to die, especially the way they did.

A further note on the Delta Boys: We confirmed the Delta role with a CIA field officer and a former Delta operator and they told their stories on film in “Waco- A New revelation.” The Delta operators were at Mt Carmel on April 19^th and did engage in a gun fight with the Davidians. They participated in the end game that day that ended the lives of almost one hundred innocent men, women and children.

After doing an interview with an incarcerated Davidian, Gram Cradock, in a Federal Prison in Mississippi, we were returning to the small rural airport a hundred miles from nowhere. As we entered the waiting area, I saw a familiar figure; one of the squadron leaders of the Delta boys we had seen on film in the aftermath of the fire at Mt Carmel! There was no mistaking him, he was a tall striking figure and he was there with a crew of his Delta colleagues. They were waiting to board the same small twin-engine flight back to the Savannah, Georgia airport that we were boarding! I sat down next to the Delta team leader and I started up a conversation by telling him to say hi to his boss, COL Boykin, when he got back to base after their ‘training mission. Although he was dying to ask me how I knew his boss, he never did acknowledge my questions about who he and his mates were. He did acknowledge Boykin as being of his acquaintance, however. The plane was bucking all over the place in a serious thunderstorm and gave the whole experience a surreal feeling. That was one heck of a long “short” flight. We all left the plane, said good-by and that was that. We often wondered after that contact if it was “coincidental.”  If it wasn’t, we pondered what their orders might have been. I guess we’ll never know for sure.

A few months later, COL Boykin led some of these kids into an ambush in Mogadishu, Somalia in the “Black Hawk Down” episode. Boykin was the “Colonel” character in the film that leads his troops into an ambush and then reversed course and drove through it again. Our understanding was that good old Gerry was given a lengthy R&R (Rest and Relaxation or leave), at a rehab unit just outside of Washington DC for about a year after the Mogadishu fiasco. Then he was promoted to a Brigadier General. He later went on to embarrass the Army by preaching at a couple of Mega Churches in uniform and talking about the Mogadishu episodes as “God’s will” that they kill the ‘Islamic warriors’. Boykin has kept a low profile since then. I wonder if it was “God’s will” that his boys take out the Davidians…?

I don’t think so.

"Black Hawk Down" Theatrical poster art - Sony Pictures. Great film. One of my favorites!

 

The war between the FBI factions.

The FBI negotiators, for the most part, wanted the Davidians to come out peaceably and surrender. The tactical folks, HRT and others wanted something else – revenge for their dead Federal brethren. The lead negotiator, contrary to certain opinions, was a man named Gary Nosner. Although a good man, in the end he wasn’t strong enough to overcome the duplicity of the tactical people and some of the negotiator staff.  There were two people who didn’t see things regarding the negotiations the same way Nosner did. One of these negotiators would be coerced and the other would just change sides.

A psychological profiler named Pete Semeric had written three reports in support of the Negotiators after analyzing the Koresh recordings during negotiating sessions. Regarding a raid on the building, his reports all said to wait Koresh out, and that pressing him could result in unintended consequences with violent results. The fourth memo was faxed back to headquarters in DC. It opposed the much discussed tactical raid plan because Semeric felt it would generate a violent conclusion played out by the Davidians. He felt that the government should simply put a tall fence around the building and wait the occupants out. When the report was faxed back to Semeric for his signature, it was already signed, not by him, but appearing as his signature and supporting the new raid plan!  In addition, another of the negotiators became the Lead negotiator and this man supported the CS gas Raid plan. His name was Byron Sage.  At that point, Semeric saw the handwriting on the wall; he packed his bag and left the Waco operation with not so much as a word to anyone. Years later, he testified before Congress that the 4^th memo in the series was his memo, in spite of a statement to the contrary to COPS Productions. He had successfully saved his FBI retirement. The Branch Davidians died after Pete had turned them over to the “Tender Mercies” of Delta Force -SAC Jeff Jamar, Dick Rogers and Byron Sage, FBI stalwarts all.

 

     The spirit of the FBI HRT during the Waco experiance can be seen in the following pictures of three of the “Snipers” posing in these “trophy” shots.

                                                                                                                         

Chared remains of 71 year old Davidan Grand Father that "HRT "shooters" posed for trophy shots with.

          

                                                                                                           

Poser # 1

                                                                 

                                                                                                                  

Poser # 2

 

                                                                                                                 

Poser #3 ......unfortunately there are several photos like these - brave men all - not.

 

 

Next Installment COPS Productions Blog # 4

“Waco- A New Revelation” is released and starts a firestorm at AG Reno’s weekly Press Conference

Reno appoints a Special Counsel and COPS responds with another film – “The FLIR Project.”  And the Cover up is on! And wait until you see who’s leading it!

 

COPS Productions Blog #3

Once again into the breach, dear friends, into the very ‘Lion’s Den.’

The entry to the Texas Ranger Evidence Locker at Austin, Texas.

                               

And behind door #2...

     

It started off with an official FOIA (Freedom of Information Request) request. COPS asked the assistant US Attorney in Waco for a document. The Davidan criminal trial had been completed and appeals were done.  The Civil trial had begun, but that was not legally connected to the government criminal proceedings. So COPS took a shot in the dark and McNulty placed a call to USAS Bill Johnston. This single act opened a door that lead to amazing opportunity. Meanwhile, MGA Films had decided that there was, indeed, more to the Waco story, and after lengthy discussions with McNulty, they agreed to back a second film effort on the subject. So we were off to the races, once again! Although a bit reticent at first, Mr. Johnston wanted to talk about the horror called Waco. He had some things on his mind, and as McNulty and Johnston got to know each other, McNulty offered a couple of insights into the business that seemed to let Johnston know that he understood that something went terribly wrong, especially that the events on April 19th were not exactly as the FBI had stated in their endless press statements. “The FBI had not fired a single shot in response to the Davidan broadsides fired at the FBI tanks. The FBI had not started the fire – David Koresh and the Davidians had set the fire!” And so on. So began a long series of phone conversations and letters that led to the Texas Ranger evidence locker located in Austin, Texas. This was the location where most of the Branch Davidian case evidence was kept and no one other than law enforcement had ever been inside.  

A warren of rooms and boxes and...

And a Gold Mine of Government video tapes!

And a week and a half later - our copies of the Tapes- as promised!

In the Lion’s Den with Bill Johnston

As the relationship grew with Johnston, certain photos were shared with him that COPS had obtained from the Branch Davidian Criminal defense and Civil litigation attorneys. They were pictures of three or four different kinds of pyrotechnic devices, recovered by the FBI from the scene of the fire at Mt Carmel, that had belonged to the Government, not the Davidians. Had these several types of devices started the fires that burned the place down? Mr. Johnston had the same question. He was genuinely concerned and wanted to get to the bottom of this strange development. How did these dangerous devices, known to be fire starters, come to be in the evidence recovered from Mt Carmel? They were never mentioned, much less presented as evidence, by either side in the criminal trial. And so it was that COPS Productions team of film makers and advisory experts found themselves at the Texas Ranger Headquarters in Austin with cameras in hand and no idea what we would find inside the bunker-like complex.

USAS Bill Johnston reviewing evidence - Hey, what's that behind you, Bill?

Why it's the long-missing front door, complete with tread marks and bullet holes!

Although we didn’t know it at the time, this was about to be the greatest part of a seventeen year adventure chasing the “Waco” story. As Bill (Johnston) opened the double steel doors of the complex and the two Texas Rangers with him cleared the way for us.  I stumbled, literally, over a cut –down Corona Beer case full of Super VHS tapes of all the action at Mt Carmel during the 51 day siege. I took a photo to document the find and noted their content labels. I casually asked Bill if I could have Beta Cam copies of all of the cassettes if I supplied the raw tape, rather expensive stuff. He said “Sure” and to write him a FOIA request before we left and he’d get it done. Sure enough, he did it! A few weeks later the tapes arrived. The cache of tapes was the single most important find of the trip along with the various kinds of pyrotechnic devices that had been misidentified by the FBI evidence team.  They were portrayed as being almost anything besides what they were – hand thrown ‘Flash Bang’ devices called Dev Tech 25’s, military CS gas 40mm munitions as well as FBI 40mm PSM’s (Penetrating Stun Munitions- a flash bang device fired through walls and windows to detonate on the other side). One of our explosives experts, Col. Jack frost, had designed, manufactured and sold these devices to the FBI Hostage Rescue team that was operating at Waco! It became apparent upon closer examination that the FBI had monkeyed with them and had a much larger explosive charge put into the nose opening than the amount used by Col Frost. This increased charge capacity made them much more dangerous when fired blindly through a wall or door to explode on the other side amidst a group of unsuspecting women and children.

FBI 40mm Penetrating Stun Munition- Flash Bang

                                  

Lab Pic of recovered FBI 40mm PSM - Flash Bang round

Dev Tec #25 found at point of origin of 2nd fire

      

Lab pic of recovered Dev Tec #25

US Army CS Gas 40mm round - only aknowlegd Pyrotectnic round fired at Mt Carmel.

COPS Productions explosives team, Dr. Fred Whitehurst FBI Ret (left), Col. Jack Frost USAF Ret, (sitting) with Mike McNulty (right)

Pyrotechnic devices

Dozens of pyrotechnic devices were found in the rubble, and most significantly, several were found at the points of origin of the fires started that day inside the building.The evidence we found that day in the Texas Ranger evidence locker eventually showed that there were not only multiple types of pyrotechnic devices, there were in some cases, dozens of them used against the folks inside Mt Carmel that day. And it seems that our friendly local military commander, General Wesley Clarke, at Ft. Hood, Texas, had been kind enough to supply the FBI HRT with 200 rounds of 40mm HE, (High Explosive) fragmentation grenades and two 40mm, Mark 19 automatic grenade launchers. All of which the FBI had consistently denied was in their possession , much less “used” by them against the Davidians…but FBI/US Army documents and photos don’t lie! The Attorney General sure knew how to twist the Cats tail! When confronted by a dim-witted media during Reno’s once-a-week press conference, she was very careful to direct the press’s attention to one pyrotechnic Military CS gas device. She misled them into thinking this was the “only” device used and “it was fired long before the fire started and away from the building.” What a crock! But the lame-brained media knew no better and swallowed it whole, without question. So all of the other devices were ignored because Reno didn’t own up to them.  Even though multiple devices implied something much more sinister, the FBI wouldn’t do something like that, especially when they said they didn’t do it, Right? And on a special note – As a result of this embarrassing moment, (and several others later) for Ms. Reno, she appointed a Special Counsel to investigate our allegations. In each and every case, the Special Counsel used the same technique and ignored the obvious, multiple types of devices that the FBI had used. “It didn’t happen”, in spite of the physical evidence to the contrary- “if we say it didn’t happen.” The Special Counsel’s action turned into a very expensive and extensive whitewash in preparation for the final burial of the truth about Waco. We always referred to the Special Counsel, Sen. Jack Danforth, as “Undertaker Jack,” a title befitting his focus on burying this case. For the record, we also found a number of additional “interesting” items like used gas masks and personal items like Bibles, clothing, etc. We also found the “missing” watch cap worn by Davidan Michael Schroder when he was gunned down by the BATF on the perimeter of the scene the day after the Feb 28th gun fight. Seems it was important because the Davidians with Michael said that after the initial shooting, they heard two more shots. There were two bullets fired into the back of Michael’s head and they allegedly had been fired at close range, execution style. There was the cap, and there were the holes that aligned with the two wounds in the back side of his head.  Lo and behold, there were powder burns around the holes and flakes of burned gun powder in the melted fibers of the material – he had been shot at point blank range. I showed it to Bill and he was visibly upset with what he saw. This kind of insight was repeated on several occasions during the day and several subsequent visits that we were allowed to make to the locker and another storage facility where larger materials were kept involving the Waco case. As we progressed, additional revelations began to emerge. “Why is there a large hole in the top of the ‘bunker’? It looks like a breaching explosive was used…” said COPS Productions explosives experts- Dr. Fred Whitehurst, Col. Jack Frost and others.

Post-fire picture of "bunker" where women and children sought shelter from the CS Gas and fire.

24" hole in top of the "Bunker - note ballooning crack going away from hole.

Blast hole in roof from inside the "Bunker." - roof was 8" thick.

A stainless steel refrigerator in the "Bunker" just off-set of the blast hole, blown and melted down indicating force and heat involved with blast.

We also discovered a large number of heretofore unseen photographs of the aftermath of the fire. A mass of new detail came into play. One of the most important items was the picture of the burned out church records vault referred to by the FBI as “the Bunker.” After several days in Austin, we made our way to Mt Carmel in search of some physical evidence of the explosive breeching charge that made the hole in the roof and killed the children and their mothers on April 19th. We gained permission to excavate and began digging for a 2 day search for the remains of the bunker, specifically the roof portion that surrounded the blast hole in hopes of taking samples that might reveal the nature of the explosives. Our explosives experts, Dr. Fred Whitehurst and Col. Jack Frost visited the Ranger evidence locker and the warehouse where the materials of the trial were kept, they also went with us to the site of Mt. Carmel when we excavated the remains of the so-called “Bunker.” It seems after the bunker had been cleared of evidence it was deemed unsafe and was demolished in place. Even the foundation was uprooted. When we excavated the rubble remains,we could roughly reassemble all of the structure except the right side of the roof where the hole had been. That portion was missing and we could not test for the traces of the device that was used to blow the hole on April 19th. It had to be a very specialized shape charge involving a copper directional cone used to shape the blast. Interestingly, that was the only part of the entire structure missing.

The "Bunker" was declared "Unsafe"...

And was immediately...

Demolished with all trace evidence of the explosion that killed the children - Or was it?

Seven Years Later…

Seven years later, Dr. Whitehurst searching the "Bunker" rubble with the equipment operator, looking for trace evidence of the explosion that killed the children.

Although the search was unsuccessful in locating the roof section with the hole in it- it was interesting to note that it had apparently been removed, the only part of the "bunker" that was missing.

Dr. Whitehurst paying his respects at the Mt Carmel memorial to all the Waco dead.

Two year old Mt. Carmel child killed in the "Bunker" with her mother and 16 other children.

(Caution disturbing pictures below)

The following photographs illustrate why we worked so hard to find the evidence that would identify the persons who placed the device on the roof of the bunker.

This is the ugly ‘Truth’ of Waco.

These were just two of 17 children found with their mothers at this location in Mt Carmel. There were also two trauma borne, full term infants and their mothers located here as well.

 

 

 

Disarticulated remains of a 2 year old child found under the blast hole in the "Bunker."

                                                                     

The partial remains of an 8 year old child found in the "Bunker" with her mother.

 

 

 

Next installment COPS Productions Blog 3.5
The rest of the revelations that came out of the Texas Ranger evidence locker…

 

COPS Productions Blog #2

 

1. April 19, 1993 dawned as a beautiful Spring morning at Mount Carmel…

 

                      2.   It ended in an unimaginable nightmare a few short hours later.

 

The birthing of COPS Productions and the creation of “Waco-The Rules of Engagement…

Through the course of the morning of April 19, 1993 Mike McNulty was one of millions of Americans captivated by the drama being played out at Mt. Carmel near Waco, Texas, live on national television.

A siege of the “compound,” conducted by agents of the FBI had entered its 51^st day.  The Federal agents were using heavy battle tanks called Construction Engineering Vehicles or CEVs to insert CS Gas into the rickety wooden structure, and still the occupants, some eighty plus, men, women and seventeen children, would not come out and surrender to the authorities.

As the morning progressed, the CEV’s had begun tearing the building down. They drove the huge armored vehicles directly into the interior, collapsing large portions of the walls and roof into rubble. One got the impression that the drivers of the vehicles and their bosses were really angry about something.

Fifty-one days earlier, the BATF had attempted to conduct a raid at the Davidian’s residence so as to serve arrest warrants on two of the one hundred and forty current residences. The BATF had almost one hundred, heavily armed agents dressed in black raid suits, carrying M-16 and MP-5 machine guns, and 12 gage shotguns. There were snipers with .308 rifles on the perimeters.  Although heavily armed, the BATF wasn’t expecting the kind of reaction to their massive presence they received when they approached the Davidians home to serve their warrants. The fatal flaw in the BATF’s plan was that they had lost the element of surprise and the leaders of the raid decided to go for it anyway. After all, who would be foolish enough to resist such a sizable force?

That morning, February 28, 1993 when the BATF approached the front door screaming and yelling, the leader of the Davidians , David Koresh, came to the door, unarmed – holding his empty hands up for all to see and said, “Hey wait a minute, there’s women and children inside – Let’s talk!” At that moment the Davidian’s half dozen young Malamute dogs kept next to the front porch, saw their owner at the door and made a show of aggression against the interlopers. The agents were fending them off with CO2 fire extinguishers. The dogs were backing the agents away from their objective so an agent leading the team drew his side arm and began shooting the dogs. At the first shot, everyone, BATF agents, and defending Davidians heard the shots and the fight was on! Gun fire erupted everywhere.  Koresh was wounded in the hand and side for his attempt to prevent the shoot-out that followed. It lasted more than two hours and became the longest shoot-out in Federal Law enforcement history.  When a cease-fire was finally established there were six dead Davidians, four dead federal agents, several wounded Davidans and twenty-one wounded BATF personnel. It was one big mess and the Davidians watched as the BATF people eventually withdrew, carrying their dead and wounded with them.  The FBI took over that afternoon and secured the perimeter with one hundred and forty Davidians, men, women and   children, still inside Mt. Carmel. Later that day, a Davidian who heard about the shoot-out while he was away at work was shot and killed as he attempted to return to home and family, while penetrating  the BATF perimeter on foot.

During the ensuing fifty-one days the Davidians sent out several children at the FBI negotiators request.  However, there was a battle going on between the conciliatory negotiators and the more aggressive and vengeful, tactical people. The Hostage Rescue Team or HRT were keeping the remaining Davidians hold up in their “compound,” as they called it. Eventually, through devious means, the Tactical folks won the debate and convinced the Attorney General, Janet Reno, that the only way to save the remaining children was to endanger them in a tactical raid designed to force their parents and the others still inside to come out and submit to arrest.

Mt Carmel, the late morning of April 19, 1993 being demolished, only minutes before the fire starts.

Michael McNulty and millions of other Americans were witnessing that “raid” on the morning of April 19^th. Finally, after much of the structure had been turned into kindling by the tanks, at a little before noon, a wisp of smoke and flame was seen coming from a second story window at the south-east corner of the remains of the building.  A fire began that eventually consumed the entire building, killing all but nine of the 80 plus persons still inside. Who started the fires became the most important question for the Government forces. There were other issues working their way to the top of the list of open questions: Why the demolition? The FBI stated repeatedly that the Davidians fired on the tanks as they injected gas and demolished the place – Did the Davidians fire back in self-defense? How were the fires started? How many Davidians survived? And, where were the children?  Why hadn’t the Agents tried to rescue the people inside? All of these questions were flying around the country like so much shrapnel from a hand grenade detonation.

The lack of answers to these and other questions was the motivating force that brought McNulty to begin an extensive independent investigation of the Waco incident. People wanted to know what had really happened because we all saw our ‘National police’ force act in a way that was certainly counter to what we expected from the professional police man on the street corner. What kind of ‘country’ did we have here? Those men represented us, and that wasn’t the way we wanted them to behave!

 At this moment, COPS Productions was born out of the necessity of the “need to know” and the failure of the Main Line Media to do its job – inform the Public of the truth, became the organizational ‘mid-wife.’

McNulty then attempted to interest the major TV networks and national print media in the story he had developed. They’re reaction was underwhelming to say the least. As one National TV host put it, “The story ended when the building burned down and the Davidians died…” (Ted Koppel, ABC Night Line) McNulty and COPS Productions didn’t think so, actually, they thought the story had just begun!  (A few weeks after Mr.  Koppel made his –‘it’s over’ – comment, McNulty won a National Emmy award for ‘Best Investigative Journalism,’ for his film “Waco-The Rules of Engagement,” while competing with Ted for the Emmy honor.)

(Left)  Photo of FBI agents and others inspecting their handy work, searching for possible survivors.

At this point it seems no one was interested in the story, so McNulty started a yearlong search for someone to back an independent film effort.  Things looked pretty bleak until one day a friend who had been helping McNulty look for an investment ‘Angel’ decided to just go ahead and put the money up himself.  Although this was a financial risk there was a good deal of personal risk involved as well for all involved. The merry band of citizen journalists suffered a number of intimidating contacts with the FBI. There never was anything ‘official’, of course, always on a ‘casual’ basis. Well, except maybe the time they kicked in McNulty’s front door in the middle of the night, but never a court order to cease and desist, or anything like that. It seems they really didn’t know what to do with us or about us. Like the time our director, William Gazecki and I were filming near Waco and this “plain vanilla rental car” came hauling down the road in front of where we were shooting some ‘B’ roll and did a high-speed reversal of direction just like in the movies, very skillfully done. Then two well dressed men jumped out and started questioning us, no introductions, no ID’s just started this rapid fire line of questions . And when we told them we were making a film about the Waco incident, one of them started yelling at us getting real red in the face – we couldn’t possibly make a film about “that!” We didn’t know what we were talking about…blah, blah, blah. I gave William the high sign and we dashed for the car with our gear and William, smart ass that he is, yelled back over his shoulder as he got into the car to spell our names right in their reports. We left and proceeded to Dallas international air port for a flight to Boston the next day, and low and behold there were the same two morons trying to blend into the wood work. We went to board our flight and I peeked out of the jet way to see these two clowns rushing over to the boarding desk, flashing their FBI credentials! That was the last time we saw those two.

Director William Gazecki (left) and Mike McNulty Manchester, England filimg interviews with Davidian survivors, 1995 Were we ever that young?

Two and a half years from the start of filming on the project it was taken to the Sundance film festival and became the “talk” of the event.  At this point there was a serious dispute going on between the backer and McNulty. Fortunately, it didn’t prevent the film from going forward and was eventually settled. The new film, “Waco- The Rules of Engagement,” went on to win the International Documentary Film Makers Association ‘Doc Week’ festival’s Best Film of the Fest award that September. Later that Fall, McNulty got word that the film had received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary feature Film. Truly exciting times! And it got even better. As a result of all the notoriety COPS Productions first film effort was picked up by HBO for a television screening on its “Signature Series” and from their it garnered a National Emmy for Best Investigative Journalism, all because one person didn’t give up when told it wasn’t a “story” and with the help of a number of brave people, Citizen Journalism had made an indelible mark on the pages of History.

(Photo above) Mike McNulty and in-laws, Donna and Duane Grubb, sharing some Emmy “Joy.”

During the time just before the Oscar awards, after completing and screening the first Waco film, another ‘Angel’ approached  McNulty and asked the magic question: “Is there anything more to this story?”  And, it just so happened, there was!

Next Time…

Many new revelations are about to emerg…

And “Waco-A New Revelation” was Born…

Introducing COPS Productions and Producer Mike McNulty

Mike McNulty producing "Waco- The Rules of Engagement" at Gazeckie Studios, 1996.

 

 

 

 

A Special note: This reference was previously published under the “About” tag. It deserves special attention :
The Photo, above with no caption, is of the only Federal “hero,” and that belatedly, of the post Waco fire era. You’ll learn more about him later in the Waco time line.  His name is Bill Johnston. His is the story of the man who ‘almost’ did nothing and thereby allowing evil to rule the day. His is a story of redemption, to a degree that allowed the making of our second film, “Waco- A New Revelation.” For that single act of courage, we are grateful. Mr. Johnston paid dearly for that moment of truth, and for that, we respect him.

                                                                                                                         

Original Theatrical Poster for "Waco-The rules of Engagement" 1996

                                                                                                                            

A little background…and how this all started…

Mike McNulty was borne just as WW II ended to goodly parents in San Francisco , California. Mom and dad were high school sweet hearts and dad worked for the telephone company as a line man.

He was raised in his early years in Lancaster, California and then his family moved to Anaheim California where he spent four years attending a college prep school called Servite High school.

Graduating in 1964, Mike attended college at Fullerton Community College as a pre-med student. After a summer of high adventure charter boat fishing before school started, Mike got a taste of wanderlust and at the end of his first semester, he joined the Navy. He spent a year in a Navy tech school in his home town, San Francisco and then moved on to the Pacific Fleet where he spent three additional years as a Photograper’s mate on board an aircraft carrier, where he developed an abiding love for photography and film making. This experience became a major feature in Michael’s future life.

A series of different career paths then developed after being Honorably discharged from the Navy in 1969. Michael married his wife, Julie Ann Grubb, in December of 1978 and began a career as a commercial insurance broker in Anaheim, California.

Eleven years and a few children later, Michael was deeply impressed by a gross political injustice involving the distortion of the facts by the Media and the California State Legislature regarding a tragic school yard shooting by a deranged young man who was under the care of the State Department of mental health. He was supposed to be taking medications and the people at the Health Services office did not check up on him. In his psychotic state he bought a semi-automatic rifle and shot and killed a number of Vietnamese school children and some of their teachers on the school play ground. This act of insanity became known as the Stockton school yard massacre. In true “Punch and Judy” fashion, some of the politicians decided to “blame” gun owners in the state and banned so called “Assault Weapons”, instead of acknowledging the failure of the State mental Health system and seeking it’s overhaul. This purely political act of blame placing was accomplished with the aid and misdirection of the news media and the people were sold a “bill of Goods” that this act of government confiscation would somehow insure that this kind of insanity would “never happen again.” Well, it did happen again, and again, because the politicians didn’t deal with the real problem – the young man and the thousands like him in a failing state mental health system.

As a result of this compounded tragedy, Michael established a new Citizens Journalism group called the “Citizens Organization for Public Safety” or C.O.P.S.

By February of 1993 COPS had investigated and written reports on a number of public safety issues such as Workmen’s Compensation fraud, and NEST teams, Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams, where members of a residential neighborhood were trained by local Fire, police and emergency services agencies in first responder skills in the event of a natural disaster like an earth quake or wild fire, until the professional first responders could arrive.

In April of 1993 a new tragedy took place at the hands of the Federal government, at a place called Mt. Carmel, near Waco, Texas. The whole world changed that day when almost 100 men, women and children were burned alive in their home. At that moment COPS Productions was born amidst the worst shootout in federal Law enforcement history, and Citizen Journalism became focused like a laser.

Next Time: COPS’ produces it’s first feature length Documentary – “Waco- The Rules of Engagement” and has it’s first encounter with the BATF, FBI and Justice Department.