(Source: Wikipedia)

John C. Danforth's Report

Senator John Danforth's Final Report to the Deputy Attorney General Concerning the 1993 Confrontation at the Mt. Carmel Complex was published on November 8, 2000 (cached).  According to the Report, "the investigation lasted 14 months, employed 74 personnel, and cost approximately $17 million." (Pg. 4)

Opinion leaders from the far left and to the far right criticized the Danforth Report, calling it a whitewash.

As might be expected, Danforth found the government did nothing wrong at Mt. Carmel.  Of all the nothing wrongs, Danforth's Report found nothing wrong with these facts:

  1. The ATF "served" a search and/or arrest warrant with armed helicopters and 80 paramilitary agents.
  2. Photographs show extensive damage to the building from government guns, but no damage to the cars and trucks where the agents took shelter. No photos show Davidians using guns.
  3. The agents put hundreds of bullets into a building that housed dozens of children and their mothers. Videos and phtographs show blind fire at the building with no targets.
  4. Four agents were killed with assassin-style wounds in a battle with Bible students.
  5. The agents staged a prolonged and torturous siege, imprisoning the families without adequate food, water, communications, and other basic liberties—all without due process of law
  6. The FBI chose a windy day to use tear gas, then ventilated the building with large breaches
  7. The agents used military tanks to attack a building full of children
  8. The agents used massive quantities of tear gas on the children in a prolonged assault, despite dangers of prolonged exposure to those chemicals
  9. The government claimed "the bunker collapsed" despite dozens of photographs showing the concrete room was still standing
  10. The government accepted the autopsy reports, though every one omitted a determination of the time of death
  11. The observations contained in many of the autopsies are at variance with the narrative of events accepted by Danforth.

Danforth arrived at his conclusions by presuming everything told him by the FBI —and other potentially culpable organizations and individuals—was true … It was hardly an investigation.


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