I am not surprised that the negatives can't be found. After all, the steel front door of the church, which Waco survivors hold would show that the bullet holes in it were made from the outside (thereby by the ATF), has vanished from the evidence room without a trace. --Lucky Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." - Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography, pg 446 http://www.citizensofamerica.org/missing.ram > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf > Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 18:43 > To: Multiple recipients of list > Subject: Negatives from film shot at Waco are missing, U.S. says > > > Negatives from film shot at Waco are missing, U.S. says > > By WILLIAM H. FREIVOGEL and TERRY GANEY > St. Louis Post-Dispatch > April 18, 2000 > > - The Justice Department admits it can't not find the original > negatives of an important roll of film taken on the last day of > the siege of the Branch Davidians' complex. But it says it hasn't > tampered with those photos or with infrared and electronic > surveillance tapes of the 1993 episode that left about 80 Branch > Davidians dead. > > The government acknowledged in a court filing Monday that it is > missing 30 original negatives from the first of at least seven > rolls of film shot by an FBI photographer who circled 1,000 feet > above the complex in a Cessna surveillance aircraft. > > But the government does have prints of the missing negatives and > the original contact sheet of the negatives. > > This roll of film is important because it appears to show that > there are no government agents standing where flashes show up on > infrared surveillance tape of the incident. The absence of agents > undercuts the Branch Davidians' claim that the flashes are from > the guns of agents firing into the complex. > > One strip of original negatives from that first roll of film has > been turned over to the federal court that is hearing the Branch > Davidians' wrongful death suit against the government. That strip > contains a key photograph that appears to have been taken at > 11:24 a.m., within seconds of flashes on the video. That > photograph shows no agents in the vicinity of the flashes. > > But the other negatives from that roll of film have been missing > since at least 1997 and have not been found despite an extensive > search by the FBI, the Justice Department said. Agents searched > for the negatives at least five times. > > The department said that the strip of original negatives with the > photo from 11:24 a.m. was separated from the missing original > negatives when Congress requested it as part of its 1995 > investigation of Waco. > > A document analyst with the Special Photo Unit of the FBI, > identified only as "ALS," found that the negatives were missing > around April 1997. The FBI then made a duplicate set of the > negatives from photographs and marked them with the notation > "originals lost." > > The Davidians' attorney, Michael Caddell, had claimed that one of > the photos from the replacement negatives had a white scratch > that appeared to obliterate a speck that might be a person. But > the Justice Department said that the contact sheet, made from the > original negative, had no person or speck. > > The Justice Department also disputed Caddell's claim that several > rolls of the film were missing. The photographer taking the film > that said he took about 10 rolls, give or take one or two. The > FBI produced seven rolls. In Monday's court filing, the > department produced logs and records that appear to show that > only seven rolls were shot and developed. > > The government argued in its court filing that it should not be > fined for any discrepancies involving the photos or tapes. > > > (For news and information about St. Louis, visit > http://postnet.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.) > > >
