CULTURAL REVOLUTIONSrnT H E F B I / B A T F RAID on the DavidrnKoresh home (not compound) has beenrnthe subject of controversy since the firstrnda’ the BATF zealots tried to storm thernhouse. All along, the FBI and the JusticernDepartment have fabricated stories andrninformation with an effrontery thatrnwould astonish even the Clintons: Koreshrnwas stockpiling illegal arms, theyrnsaid (he was a legal dealer accused of arnminor licensing infraction); he was abusingrnthe children, said Reno (no, claimedrnthe FBI, they never made such a charge);rnthe Branch Davidians committed suicidernrather than submit to arrest (there is goodrnevidence not only that the FBI used incendiar’rndevices but also that their tanksrnfired into the house in the finalrnfirestorm).rnNow Miss Reno wants us to trust a careerrnRepublican polihcian whom she selectedrnto lead the investigation. Anyonernwho has watched the tapes of the congressionalrnhearings (captured well in therndocumentary, Waco: The Rules of Engagement)rnknows that the Republicansrnlet the Democrats get away (perhaps literally)rnwith murder. Tom Lantos andrnChuck Schumer—the two most sinisterrnfigures ever to sit in Congress —bulliedrnand abused decent and patriotic witnesses,rnignored the evidence, and misrepresentedrnfacts that were on the record,rnwhile the Republican members wererncontented with whining or making, fromrntime to time, fine-sounding patrioticrnstatements. Thev never stood up to thernlying and hate-mongering of their opposition.rnThe Republicans had their chance.rnThe most likely explanation for the impendingrninestigation is simple: There isrntoo much information out there in booksrnand films and on the Internet. Independent-rnminded people on the left and rightrndo not hesitate to accuse Reno and compau}’rnof murder. What to do? Why notrnleak some damaging hints, set up a mockrninvestigation that ends up in the disgracernof one or two agents who only followedrnorders, and proclaim to the world thatrn”the system works”? It is a technique thatrngot Bill Clinton off the hook, and it willrncertainly work for his attorney general.rnWe may never know what really happenedrnat Waco. One thing is certain: Nornrepresentahve of either part)’ can be trustedrnto head the investigadon. Whv not setrnup a blue-ribbon commission with GerryrnSpence, Ross Perot, Alex Cockburn,rn)esse Ventura, Noam Chomsky, and PatrnBuchanan? They are all mavericks withrna taste for plain talk. They agree on veryrnfew things and might just have therncourage to find out the truth and tell it tornthe American people. Which is whyrnnone of them will ever be trusted b’ thernattorney general of the United States.rn— Thomas FlemingrnTANET RENO fears that her credibilitv’rnhas been damaged. Imagine that! Justrnbecause the federal government usedrn”pyrotechnic devices” against the BranchrnDavidian compound?rnThat might do it, gien the Reno JusticernDepartment’s insistence over sornmany years that no such devices werernused: Except, well, it now seems thatrnmaybe that wasn’t quite 100-percent accurate.rnYes, the government did use pyrotechnics,rnthe Dallas Morning News revealedrnin late August, and great has beenrnReno’s discombobulation since then.rnInvestigations, internal and congressional,rnwere pending just before LaborrnDay. Re-inestigations, you might callrnthem. We’e been down this trail before.rnSubsequent to the Branch Davidianrncalamity, in which more than 80 Koreshiansrndied (not to mention four goernmentrnagents), Reno commissioned an internalrninvestigation.rnIt was not what everybody and his dogrnwould call a penetrating inquiry. FormerrnWatergate prosecutor Henry Ruth, Jr.,rnwho helped with the Treasury Department’srnreview of the disaster, said of thernreport that Justice eventually produced:rn”People at the time thought the JusticernDepartment evaluation was a whitewashrnin the sense that it didn’t tell the full factsrnabout what was known. It clearly wasrnvritten to vindicate the attorney generalrn. . . ” Ruth says the investigators “didn’trnuse the proper types of investigatory techniquesrnnecessary to explore the facts.”rnHence various facts did not get explored.rnAnd that was just the start—a grisly,rnbut in retrospect hardl) surprising, previewrnof the Clinton administration’s fa-rnorite indoor sport, fact management.rnReno is distressed to see her credibilityrnin tatters? Wlio knew tlie dear lady hadrnany credibility left after seven years ofrnhelping Bill Clinton keep the lid on hisrnprivate embarrassments, like the case ofrntlie FBI files that wound up in the WhiternHouse?rnThe truth is, of course, that no one inrnthe administration, at this point, is longerrnin the credibilit’ deparhuent than is she.rnMa’be that thought will cheer her up.rnThe tone of an administration comesrnfrom the top—the Wliite House. No administration,rnit should go without saying,rnwill be more honest than the chief executiverndirects it to be.rnEven before Monica, Clinton made itrnabundantly plain that the only facts hernwanted laid out in the sunshine for impartialrninspection were those that embarrassedrnRepublicans, spiffed up his ownrnimage, or, preferably, both. A federalrnjudge in Arkansas—an ex-student of thernPresident’s —recently fined her formerrnprofessor $90,000 for lying under oath.rnThat modest figure was not enough,rnprobably, but it made official what eer-rnone has known for a long time: Bill Clintonrnis a liar.rnWhat torments his disregard for truthrnmay have caused Janet Reno, no one willrnever know. What is clear is that, with thisrnadministration, nothing is ever clear. Everj’tiiingrnis murk’. The sun never penetratesrnto dark corners of deed and motie;rnthe moral cobvebs block it out.rnWith the attorney general’s “credibility”rnat stake, and her critics pressing hard,rnwe may find out in due course what reallyrnwent on at the Davidian compound:rnwhat the pyrotechnics were for, why thernArmy’s Delta Force was on hand, whatrnthe hell the federal go’ernment thouglitrnit was doing anvway, emploing militar-rnstyJe measures against nutty but not noticeablyrnviolent people.rnIt seems obvious that, considering howrnthe siege worked out, those who laid it,rnapproved it, executed it would give anythingrnto be able to take back eyer)’thing.rnWhat were they thinking, though, in thernfirst place? That all they had to do wasrndemonstrate the power of the U.S. government?rnCount on the Koreshians’ patrioticrninstincts? Wiat?rnThe whole misconceived, misbegottenrnenterprise speaks strong words aboutrnthe arrogance of unchecked power. Thisrnsame arrogance blocks the channels ofrnconscience, feeds the arrogant assumptionrnthat as for the voters, those boobs,rnwe’ll tell ’em what they need to know,rnwhen and if they need to know it.rnDid Janet Reno sense what she wasrngetting in for when she signed on for thernNOVEMBER 1999/5rnrnrn