-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- .............................................................. >From the New Paradigms Project [Not Necessarily Endorsed]: Conspiracy Shopping Cart: http://a-albionic.com/shopping.htmlFrom: Ian Goddard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Waco Tests: Public KEEP OUT! Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 3:11 PM The make & model of the FLIR used is already known. What it does is already seen on the released FLIR video, so why are they keeping the FLIR test top-secret in order to protect "national security" secrets about the FLIR camera?! When does the public's right to know become a national security priority? The People are on the bottom of the "food chain." ============================================================== ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH - Monday, February 14, 2000 Waco infrared simulation closed to public, press By William H. Freivogel and Terry Ganey Of the Post-Dispatch The public and the press will be barred from next month's test to determine whether the FBI fired on the Branch Davidians during the 1993 siege near Waco, Texas. The public will also be barred from Wednesday's meeting to plan the test. U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. told the Post-Dispatch Monday that reporters would not be able to attend the test. "For national security and safety reasons, access will be strictly limited," he wrote. "Neither the media nor the public will be permitted to attend." In a brief interview Monday, Smith said the decision was not his. "You have two governments here, and the British government is the one with the national security concerns," he said. A British helicopter and infrared camera are being used in the re-enactment to determine whether they record groundfire as flashes. Flashes appear on an infrared videotape taken of the complex on the day of the assault, April, 19, 1993. Smith is on his way to St. Louis Tuesday to prepare for Wednesday's meeting where participants will iron out how the test will be conducted. Special Counsel John C. Danforth refused to say why the meeting is closed. "He is telling me that our response is 'No response,' " said Jan Diltz, Danforth's spokewoman. The decisions to close the test and the meeting about the test ran into strong criticism on Monday from legal and constitutional experts and from lawyers for those Branch Davidians who survived the 1993 siege and are suing the government. Paul McMasters, the First Amendment ombudsman at the Freedom Forum in Arlington, Va., noted that the government had pushed back the press before the ill-fated assault on the complex in 1993. "If the press had been allowed to cover the actual event, we might not be having to go through a court case and a government investigation seven years later," said McMasters, the former managing editor of the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. "It seems to me that to keep the press away from a test ordered by the court and the Office of Special Counsel is just replicating one of the more dangerous aspects of the original tragedy, and that is to assume that the press can't play a vital role just by observing. "Not only does the public have a real vested interest in the full matter, it may well be that there are people with knowledge who can contribute to the success of the test but won't know about it or won't know how it is being conducted." McMasters said that relying on the use of British equipment to explain why the test is closed seems to be more of a "cover story" than a good reason for keeping the press out. Bruce LaPierre, a constitutional law expert at Washington University, said the "First Amendment presumption is that the government is open to public scrutiny. There ought to be a reason before the government restricts access. But no one has told you what the reason is." The Supreme Court has ruled that the press has a First Amendment right to attend legal proceedings unless the government states an overriding interest in secrecy. Legal issues aside, LaPierre said that closing the Wednesday session was a political blunder. "Wouldn't it promote public confidence if there were public scrutiny, particularly where some people think that the government is involved in a conspiracy?" he said. "Why would you play into the hands of the people who think this is a conspiracy? It is counterproductive." LaPierre said Danforth and the court could probably come up with national security reasons to close the portion of the Wednesday meeting that deals with classified information about the type of infrared camera to be used. But it would be harder for the government to justify closing the unclassified portion of the meeting, he added. Ronald Levin, a Washington University law professor and an expert on court procedures, said the Wednesday meeting is unusual because it is being held in Danforth's office instead of the judge's. Attorney General Janet Reno appointed Danforth last summer to investigate the Waco incident. He has the power to file criminal charges. But he intervened in the civil lawsuit between the Branch Davidian survivors and the government to ask Judge Smith to order the Waco re-enactment. The judge complied. As a result, the meeting on Wednesday has both the trappings of a meeting of a prosecutor's staff and a pretrial hearing in court. A meeting of a prosecutor's staff can be kept secret, but pretrial proceedings are generally open. Levin said that judges have broad discretion to keep information confidential but that such power is limited by the First Amendment. Michael Caddell, the lawyer for the Branch Davidians, blamed the Justice Department for the secrecy. "I know that obviously the government was admantly opposed to having anyone present," he said. "I think the judge probably erred on the side of caution. When you raise the specter of national security, it's kind of hard for a judge to say no to that. It's a trump card that gets pulled out, and frankly, there is little he can do. It would be beneficial for the press . . . to observe the test. People will be comforted by the fact that we have gone to great lengths to conduct a fair and thorough demonstration." 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