Forgive the length. Forgive the formatting. I hope you will be appreciative of some Arizona-based insider information. Spread this far and wide. To fellow netters, friendly legiscritters and media types...
-----
The following is being forwarded. It concerns the Waco FLIR investigator
who reported that the
infrared video and ground video clearly show a gun battle being waged
the day of the final siege
at the Branch Davidian church.
The Washington Post just reported that this researcher, who was hired by
the current Congressional
committee investigating the use of pyrotechnic devices, was found dead,
his body badly decomposed.
See
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000429/aponline152431_000.htm
. The link
was good as of 7:30pm on 4/29/2000.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please read this.
Don't skim through it or skip to the end.
This is the most important e-mail you've ever received. Period.
Something has happened.
David T. Hardy, one of the lead investigating attorneys in the Waco
case,
sent this last night. I waited until I received his okay for me to send
it
out far and wide today, April 29, 2000. In Dave's words (which will
again
appear at the end of his original, unedited post below), "As far as you
want, and feel free to name me as the source. I figure this needs to be
*real* public."
Dave Hardy is a man of honor and is enormously well-respected throughout
the US legal community. He presented the brief that led to the Brady Law
being overturned before the United States Supreme Court. I would trust
him
with my life. I think I just have.
The information contained herein is vitally important, but it also
serves
as a particularly terrifying double-edged sword. I am uncomfortable
about
this hitting the Net. There are, as many of you well know, a whole lot
of
nut cases out there who will be "set off" when they read this, but I'm
confident that the more people who know this information -- from the
source
and not second hand -- the better. Although I will contact certain
"friendlies" (like an insider at FOX News) and local media types who
know
Dave and me personally, I wouldn't suggest that you just "drop this off
at
the news desk" somewhere and expect anything positive to happen. There's
not many editors or news directors who would ever want this to go out.
Remember...
Freedom is a scary thing to many people. The alternative scares me far
worse.
Everything which follows my e-signature is exactly as I received it; as
Dave's typed it. I have only dropped his e-mail address from the header
to
avoid having him suffer through the tens of thousands of incoming
e-mails
that will flood in as a result of this post. I also respectfully ask
that
you not flood my mailbox in a similar fashion. Please, for those of you
now
reading this with six or seven "forwarding arrows" attached to its
contents, take on the responsibility of cleaning up the post before
sending
it on. Thank you.
Very truly yours,
Phil Murphy
*************************************
Brassroots, Inc.
9420 E. Golf Links Rd., #246
Tucson, AZ 85730-1340
Phone: (520) 298-4357
http://www.brassroots.org
**************************************
Envelope-to: murphy@myblueheaven.com
X-Sender: dhardy
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 18:27:47 -0700
From: dhardy@ (David Hardy)
Subject: Memorial to an honest man
What follows is something I have not been able to reveal prior to
this
point. As I mention at the end, I am now released from my promise of
secrecy. Please forgive the length--I think you'll find it worthwhile.
This
covers many months of evidence and conversations, which I've had to keep
quiet.
The House Gov't Reform Committee had retained an infrared expert
named
Carlos Ghigliotti, of Laurel, Md. Carlos had been working on the FLIR
for
months, and shared a lot of his results with me. I'd pass him data when
he
needed it, and he knew he could count on me to keep my mouth shut.
Carlos
had done a lot of IR work -- including using it to spot polluters
contaminating Chesapeake Bay, and diagnosing electronic errors (a bad
connection or phase mismatch heats up). He loved his work, and was proud
of
some electronic inventions which enabled him to link together visual and
IR
imaging into a single image. He got into some courtroom work--chiefly
determining if FLIR used to justify a drug search warrant was properly
used
or not. He had two principles: (1) if retained, he would tell the
absolute
truth as to everything and (2) he would never accept a second retainer
from
a drug suspect. No matter how egregious the misuse a second time around,
he
wasn't interested in being of assistance to a man who violated the law a
second time.
He'd just had a case where an attorney tried to grill him... but the
more questions the guy asked, the deeper he got into the hole, until the
courtroom security guards were all wandering in and sitting in the back,
amusing themselves at the attorney's expense. Carlos knew his stuff, and
he
laid it right on the line.
I talked with Carlos over the phone a lot, and visited him in his lab
a
couple of times. I now forget the first one, but the second visit was
the
day Mike McNulty previewed his latest film in DC.
Thru the committee, Carlos was able to obtain a much better quality
tape
than any anyone else had. He discovered that, when FBI gave out "first
generation copies," it was in fact giving out copies of a digitized
"master," not of the original analog tape. Digitization compresses the
image, and loses some of its quality. He demanded and got, thru the
Committee, a copy of the original tape, on Super VHS, with some other
tweakings to make it the most perfect copy possible. He said they
brought
out the envelope with the original--it had about twenty chain-of-custody
signatures on it. He figured that his copy was as close to identical to
the
original tape as it was possible to have--whereas the ones everyone else
has been using are a few generations down.
Then he imported the video into his lab equipment (which I've
seen--VERY impressive--four big monitors, Super VHS decks, two computers
with more speed, RAM, and hard drive than I ever thought possible.). He
was
thorough, refusing to make a finding until he had it pinned down from
every
>angle. In one case, he told me last month, he'd finally managed to link
by
time and location an image of a person shouldering a weapon, shown on
the
regular media videotapes made from the media locations, with a flash on
the
FLIR.
He found nearly 200 suspected gunshots, and had done the work
necessary to verify that many of these were genuine. Understand that his
idea of "verify" wasn't just to see the image. He wanted to find the
shooters, as well, and to plot their movement from one flash location to
another. And he wanted to correlate the FLIR images to every possible
ordinary video image, to see if he could link up what the media filmed
from
the side with what the FLIR registered from overhead. He was really hot
on
getting some footage shot by DPS from a site behind the building, so
that
he could tie that in as well. This man was thorough--no rushing to
judgment
on anything. His normal standard was to study everything from every
possible angle or potential critique, until he could lay all the cards
on
the table, be absolutely clear, and defend his conclusions against any
criticism. And he knew this was no normal case... as he once said, the
Waco
FLIR was probably going to be the next Zapuder film, and he wasn't going
to
say something that he couldn't prove against any criticism.
On the side (and I have no idea why he was analysing this) he said it
had been determined that almost the entire Waco operation, not only 2/28
but the siege, had been improperly financed from money that law
enforcement
was supposed to use only in the war on drugs. He said there was plenty
of
documentation here, showing flow of money. In the 2/28 videotape, the
ATF
agents are all trying on new uniforms, new equipment -- everything down
to
the computers in the media area of the raid HQ were bought out of money
supposed to be used only in drug enforcement. He said that much or all
of
the siege had been financed the same way. There were written standards
in
the gov't for when the drug enforcement money could be used, and these
could be shown to have been violated in black and white terms. A
considerable amount of money had been, well, embezzled, to support the
effort.
Carlos also told me, last month, that he'd seen FLIRs from nights
before
4/19, and that it was apparent that the FLIR aircraft was being used to
monitor the Davidians' water supply. The water was stored in those big
plastic tanks at the rear of the building, and the coolness of the water
inside showed up as a darker area. It was apparent that the water supply
was shrinking, and by 4/19 was almost gone. He had heard the aircraft
crew
talking about it, and noting that the level was going down. So,
essentially, they knew that thirst would force an end to the siege
within a
few days of 4/19.
While I was in his lab, he showed me some footage where it was clear,
beyond any doubt, that a man was moving in the wreckage of the gym. The
guy
gets up from behind one pile of cover and races to another. In between,
you
see a very long flash that exists only for an instant -- much longer in
terms of physical length than could be attributed to a gunshot. He said
that was a bullet imaged in flight--he'd imaged them before, while
flying
past shooting ranges. (Shooters know that a bullet after firing is too
hot
to pick up in the hand, a product of being rammed down a barrel ahead of
burning powder, and then of air resistance as it travels at Mach 2-3
thru
the air. I'd never suspected that one would show up on IR.). These
scenes I
saw with my own eyes, on his equipment--it was clear there was a person
there.
He'd done a preliminary report for the House committee before they
had
a falling out--he wanted to do a really throrough job, which he said
would
take months, and they wanted him to do a final report quickly. (He also
mentioned that they'd been slow in payment, and he'd needed their check
to
buy some more equipment that he wanted to devote to the final
analysis.).
He said that someone (I think he said Rep. Burton himself) had called
and
threatened that they'd sue him for what he'd already been paid, and he
decided he wouldn't take that guff from anyone. He would finalize his
report, brief everyone, and that would be it.
The prelim report I have here (he wanted to keep it secret for the
time
being, and faxed me a copy with instructions to keep my mouth shut. As
will
be set out below, I think I have been released from that promise.). To
summarize:
11:24:16 to 36: shots from two locations into hole made by CEV in
gym.
11:24:50 to 11:25:04 apparent return fire from inside of gym.
11:26:13 to 11:26:27 additional return fire. If the dark objects
behind the tank are indeed shooters, this may have pinned them down.
Following this, the tank backs over the dark spots.
11:26:39 "One of the two unknown subjects is clearly visible
exiting
out of the hole in the front wall of the gym which the tank previously
made. The unknown subject turns to the right into the courtyard."
11:28:04 to 11:28:14: gunfire from this person's approximate
position,
directed toward building.
11:28:18 to 11:28:22: return fire from structure.
11:30:09 to 11:30:15: gunfire from shooter in courtyard, toward
building.
11:33:51: gunfire between gym wall and swimming pool, into the
structure. The infrared signature of these shots differs from those seen
earlier in courtyard area.
11:34:32: one shot at unknown subject that is running and hiding
between gym and swimming pool. [This may be the one he showed me]
11:38:34: unknown subject is seen hiding in front of tank.
11:43:36 to 11:59:03: gunshots from 2d story of building directed at
tank (I believe he is here referring to the tank penetrating the front).
12:03:59: An unknown subject appears next to the tank in rear of
structure.
12:07:42: fire is visible in 2nd story tower.
12:08:12: Unknown subject comes out of tank and shows up at 12:08:51
shooting at another unknown subject that appears at 12:08:34.
12:08:31 to 12:08:32: "A cluster of thermal anomalies appears at the
corner of the gym."
12:08:34 and 12:08:44: unknown subject runs from the area where the
thermal anomalies were seen, hops over rubble, and hides in gym.
12:08:51: automatic gunfire into area where previous subject hides.
12:10:41 to 12:11:15 numerous rounds shot from center of courtyard,
directed at structure.
Past this point, nothing of importance since fire overloads FLIR,
but
visible media and the soundtrack of FLIR indicates that gunfire did
continue.
He notes that events at 11:24:31, 11:24:35 and 11:28:14 may have
involved more than one shot.
He notes that a pattern was apparent: Davidian return fire only
occurred following penetration of the building by an armored vehicle.
"Total number of events that occured between 10:41:57 and 12:16:13:
198."
He told me, in late March, that he'd met with both the majority and
the minority of the committee (after they sorta broke off relations) and
shown them his results. Each briefing was in detail and consumed several
hours. I forget the exact numbers, but somewhere around 3-8 people,
mostly
attorneys for the committee, were present at each briefing. He was still
working on a final report when last I spoke with him. He was rather
miffed
that they had not given him time to analyse everything, and said he
intended to insert a final section outlining all the things he had
wanted
to analyse when relations were broken off. He added that the minority
staff
had been rather surprised to see the data, since apparently the majority
had been informing them only of a minimal amount of his results. Some of
them suggested that maybe both the Demos and Republicans could hire him
on
jointly, to do a really thorough piece of work. He was rather flattered
at
the idea (if Carlos had any politics, I never heard of it) altho he said
he
was suffering from "Waco fatigue" and wanted to get back to his regular
work, or even a long overdue vacation.
My memory may be imperfect here, but as I recall he talked about the
scene at the rear, where there is that big flash near the "dog house."
His
interpretation:
The flash appeared to be multiple flash-bangs. It was possible they
were actually thrown by a Davidian, altho not certain. But right after
it,
a person can be see running back into the building.
A hatch opens on the CEV. When it opens, the cooler, darker
interior
of the vehicle is visible. A person exits the hatch. This is not totally
clear, and some people agreed with his interpretation and others did
not.
But the person who dismounts then fires, the shots going toward the last
location where the suspected Davidian is seen. He added that the
Committee
knew exactly who was under that hatch, so they could actually name the
guy
who did it.
He could afterward track at least two suspected FBI shooters. He
could
spot their location--one stayed in the gym wreckage, and the other moved
out into the courtyard, where he shoots.
Ian Goddard had spotted what he thought was a structure, alongside
the
gym, and from which some shots come. I checked a color photo, and the
structure is actually a big chunk of gym wall that the tank has knocked
over and falls outward into the courtyard. I mentioned that to Carlos,
and
Carlos said it was more complex than that. The shooter had been in the
courtyard to begin with, and the tank knocked the wall segment atop him.
If
there hadn't been other wreckage to catch it and hold it up a bit, he
would
have been squashed. I believe Carlos said that the gunshot images from
that
location were a little distorted, probably because the wall segment was
cutting off part of the image at times.
Carlos also found indications that shots were being fired into the
underground storm shelter after the fire began. On one of the regular
media
videotapes, you could see a long, bright flash going down into the pit,
from in front of one of the armored vehicles. He said it was no sunlight
flash, he'd imaged it on three different media tapes from slightly
different angles. His best assessment was that it was the fuse on a
pyrotechnic round. I saw this tape, also, with my own eyes. His view was
that they were gassing the underground vault to pin Davidians in place
during the fire.
Carlos was about as credible as they come. He'd done work for the
FBI
in the past, in fact, and often worked with gov't agencies. He had no
particular axe to grind with regard to Waco: he once told me "the only
thing that makes me mad about this is when I can see government
officials
making statements, and know for an absolute fact that they are lying."
He also told me that that the House Gov't Reform Committee had even
more data than he did, that he knew only part of it and couldn't talk
about
it, but that it was really shocking.
He said that the big problem the Committee seemed to see was the
question of how they could get the information out, while at the same
time
preventing another Oklahoma City type reprisal--it was that shocking.
This
conversation came shortly after Carlos' name had first been mentioned in
the press, and the Committee rather played down his statements, saying
they
were based on visual video rather than FLIR (which was true only in
small
part). I asked about that--was the Committee getting cold feet over his
evidence, or just playing their cards close to the chest. He said it was
the latter -- they just hadn't figured out how to let the info out yet.
(He
was then meeting with the majority on a weekly basis, to brief them on
his
latest results.).
I talked to him after the recreation, and his assessment was that it
was pure junk -- the aircraft wasn't even at the right altitude, they
didn't have the right procedures to verify that the sensor was
functioning
comparable to the one of 4/19, etc. The best thing that could be done
with
any resulting tape (and this is BEFORE the results were known) was to
drop
it in the wastecan. Whether it showed gunshots or did not, it'd be
useless
for proving anything, whether for the Davidians or the FBI.
I remember talking to him outside his office, after the first visit,
standing there in the parking lot after dark. He'd mentioned that the
guy
with Infraspection Institute, who had analysed the FLIR for 60 Minutes
back
in '95 or '96, and found FBI gunshots and shooters on it, had been
terrified. In fact, he'd sent copies of the tape to Carlos and to
several
others in the IR field, with notes saying "If anything happens to me,
you'll know why." (The same guy later called me, said he didn't want his
name used, that "there are too many people already in their graves over
this." I wrote him off as him being rather nervous.).
I asked Carlos, there in the parking lot, if he'd ever been fearful.
He
said only for a while, between the time he made his findings and the
time
he reported them to the Committee. Then he had been worried, because he
was
looking at clear evidence that would nail a LOT of FBI agents on
perjury,
and perhaps much worse. But once he told others of his results, he
figured
the cat was out of the bag.
This is a rather long post, but there is a reason. It's in part a
memorial for a feisty and totally honest guy I came to likea good deal.
On April 19 of this year, from the hotel room in Waco, I called
Carlos
to report a minor discovery (the roof of the storm shelter, which glows
bright white on the FLIR, wasn't just plywood--it was covered in black
asphalt, which explained why it got so hot in the sun.). I got his
answering machine, but when it came time to leave a message, the tape
just
said "tape finished. Thank you for calling." I thought he'd run out of
tape--never happened before, but who knows? I tried again from time to
time
-- same result. I sent email asking him to call. Well, maybe he was out
of
town. Early today I tried again, and this time nothing picked up, the
phone
just rang off the hook.
Then this afternoon I received a call. Carlos was found dead in his
apartment. Perhaps the guy with Infraspection was right.
I've got a call in to Laurel PD to tell them what little I know....
my
phone records show calls to him up thru 3/30, after that he must have
called me but there's no record, and I was unable to reach him on 4/19
and
thereafter.
Too damn bad. He was a good man, and I'd come rather to like him. He
was rigorously honest -- his own man, and no one elses'.
Since the Committee has his results (and has had information on it
for
months now), I guess we'll soon know how serious they are about
investigating Waco.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Hardy's reply message to Phil Murphy's inquiry:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>To put it mildly: Holy ****.
>
>Dave, may I pass this out -- completely unedited -- far and wide?
>
>I'm speechless.
As far as you want, and feel free to name me as the source. I figure
this
needs to be *real* public.
Police reports indicate he was 42 yrs old. Autopsy is being done in
Baltimore. He is said to have been found dead in his apt., but the
address
given is that of his office, on 3d floor of an office bldg (I've been
there).
Subject:
The Sum of All Fears
Date:
Sat, 29 Apr 2000 15:05:45 -0700
From:
Phil Murphy <murphy@brassroots.org>
To:
(Recipient list suppressed)
Please read this.
Don't skim through it or skip to the end.
This is the most important e-mail you've ever received. Period.
Something has happened.
David T. Hardy, one of the lead investigating attorneys in the Waco case,
sent this last night. I waited until I received his okay for me to send it
out far and wide today, April 29, 2000. In Dave's words (which will again
appear at the end of his original, unedited post below), "As far as you
want, and feel free to name me as the source. I figure this needs to be
*real* public."
Dave Hardy is a man of honor and is enormously well-respected throughout
the US legal community. He presented the brief that led to the Brady Law
being overturned before the United States Supreme Court. I would trust him
with my life. I think I just have.
The information contained herein is vitally important, but it also serves
as a particularly terrifying double-edged sword. I am uncomfortable about
this hitting the Net. There are, as many of you well know, a whole lot of
nut cases out there who will be "set off" when they read this, but I'm
confident that the more people who know this information -- from the source
and not second hand -- the better. Although I will contact certain
"friendlies" (like an insider at FOX News) and local media types who know
Dave and me personally, I wouldn't suggest that you just "drop this off at
the news desk" somewhere and expect anything positive to happen. There's
not many editors or news directors who would ever want this to go out.
Remember...
Freedom is a scary thing to many people. The alternative scares me far worse.
Everything which follows my e-signature is exactly as I received it; as
Dave's typed it. I have only dropped his e-mail address from the header to
avoid having him suffer through the tens of thousands of incoming e-mails
that will flood in as a result of this post. I also respectfully ask that
you not flood my mailbox in a similar fashion. Please, for those of you now
reading this with six or seven "forwarding arrows" attached to its
contents, take on the responsibility of cleaning up the post before sending
it on. Thank you.
Very truly yours,
Phil Murphy
*************************************
Brassroots, Inc.
9420 E. Golf Links Rd., #246
Tucson, AZ 85730-1340
Phone: (520) 298-4357
http://www.brassroots.org
**************************************
Envelope-to: murphy@myblueheaven.com
X-Sender: dhardy
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 18:27:47 -0700
From: dhardy@ (David Hardy)
Subject: Memorial to an honest man
What follows is something I have not been able to reveal prior to this
point. As I mention at the end, I am now released from my promise of
secrecy. Please forgive the length--I think you'll find it worthwhile. This
covers many months of evidence and conversations, which I've had to keep
quiet.
The House Gov't Reform Committee had retained an infrared expert named
Carlos Ghigliotti, of Laurel, Md. Carlos had been working on the FLIR for
months, and shared a lot of his results with me. I'd pass him data when he
needed it, and he knew he could count on me to keep my mouth shut. Carlos
had done a lot of IR work -- including using it to spot polluters
contaminating Chesapeake Bay, and diagnosing electronic errors (a bad
connection or phase mismatch heats up). He loved his work, and was proud of
some electronic inventions which enabled him to link together visual and IR
imaging into a single image. He got into some courtroom work--chiefly
determining if FLIR used to justify a drug search warrant was properly used
or not. He had two principles: (1) if retained, he would tell the absolute
truth as to everything and (2) he would never accept a second retainer from
a drug suspect. No matter how egregious the misuse a second time around, he
wasn't interested in being of assistance to a man who violated the law a
second time.
He'd just had a case where an attorney tried to grill him... but the
more questions the guy asked, the deeper he got into the hole, until the
courtroom security guards were all wandering in and sitting in the back,
amusing themselves at the attorney's expense. Carlos knew his stuff, and he
laid it right on the line.
I talked with Carlos over the phone a lot, and visited him in his lab a
couple of times. I now forget the first one, but the second visit was the
day Mike McNulty previewed his latest film in DC.
Thru the committee, Carlos was able to obtain a much better quality tape
than any anyone else had. He discovered that, when FBI gave out "first
generation copies," it was in fact giving out copies of a digitized
"master," not of the original analog tape. Digitization compresses the
image, and loses some of its quality. He demanded and got, thru the
Committee, a copy of the original tape, on Super VHS, with some other
tweakings to make it the most perfect copy possible. He said they brought
out the envelope with the original--it had about twenty chain-of-custody
signatures on it. He figured that his copy was as close to identical to the
original tape as it was possible to have--whereas the ones everyone else
has been using are a few generations down.
Then he imported the video into his lab equipment (which I've
seen--VERY impressive--four big monitors, Super VHS decks, two computers
with more speed, RAM, and hard drive than I ever thought possible.). He was
thorough, refusing to make a finding until he had it pinned down from every
>angle. In one case, he told me last month, he'd finally managed to link by
time and location an image of a person shouldering a weapon, shown on the
regular media videotapes made from the media locations, with a flash on the
FLIR.
He found nearly 200 suspected gunshots, and had done the work
necessary to verify that many of these were genuine. Understand that his
idea of "verify" wasn't just to see the image. He wanted to find the
shooters, as well, and to plot their movement from one flash location to
another. And he wanted to correlate the FLIR images to every possible
ordinary video image, to see if he could link up what the media filmed from
the side with what the FLIR registered from overhead. He was really hot on
getting some footage shot by DPS from a site behind the building, so that
he could tie that in as well. This man was thorough--no rushing to judgment
on anything. His normal standard was to study everything from every
possible angle or potential critique, until he could lay all the cards on
the table, be absolutely clear, and defend his conclusions against any
criticism. And he knew this was no normal case... as he once said, the Waco
FLIR was probably going to be the next Zapuder film, and he wasn't going to
say something that he couldn't prove against any criticism.
On the side (and I have no idea why he was analysing this) he said it
had been determined that almost the entire Waco operation, not only 2/28
but the siege, had been improperly financed from money that law enforcement
was supposed to use only in the war on drugs. He said there was plenty of
documentation here, showing flow of money. In the 2/28 videotape, the ATF
agents are all trying on new uniforms, new equipment -- everything down to
the computers in the media area of the raid HQ were bought out of money
supposed to be used only in drug enforcement. He said that much or all of
the siege had bee
