"Brian and Steve had been energetic questioners of Coleman. IT was easy to tell that they are both very much in favor of Kofi going. So, the first question they asked Danforth was if he agreed with Coleman's statement."
"Now, he'd been sitting in the green room, watching Coleman's segment. He had to know the question was coming, and had ample time to prepare his response. He's surely been asked the question before, privately at the very least, by other countries at the UN. He gave a completely weak, insipid, non response...along the lines of " we shall have to see"..etc, etc, but then for no apparent reason, he started comparing the "difficulties of investigating the UN to the problems that he, Danforth had, in investigating Waco."
"He repeated this several times, that his Waco investigation was very, very "difficult, very hard" He used those words several times over. It took me by surprise, and it also stunned the hosts, Brian and Steve. They didn't know what to make of it."
"Danforth is also, at best, not an exciting speaker. He has an especially dull, monotonal voice, and he seemed, well, out of it, to an extent..He sat somewhat hunched in his chair, stared straight ahead, vacant look on his face. It was very painful to watch."
"Something is obviously not right with him. Then this afternoon, the surprise announcement that he's resigning. Ask yourself, who goes on national TV in the morning to talk about the UN..then quits that same afternoon?"
"Nope, the WH did a rapid assessment, and IMHO, Danforth was told to resign immediately. Even more telling was the statement from the WH that he is NOT being considered for any other position."
"I hope he's OK...that he's being well taken care of. He's served his country well and ably for these many years, and his presence at President Reagan's national funeral service was commensurate with the dignity of the occasion.:
"But also not how fast the WH was on top of it, and how quickly they acted. This episode, while sad for Danforth, speaks well for the second term of the Bush Administration. They're at the top of their game."
*******
Strange......... any thoughts?
Cato Blasts Danforth Waco Report This story was originally found at Virtual New York. Tuesday, 10 April 2001 17:05 (ET) All rights reserved.
Cato Blasts Danforth Waco Report
By DANIEL KAGAN, Managing Editor, UPI Think Tank Desk
WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- A new study by the Cato Institute says that
the final official government report on the 1993 Branch Davidian disaster in
Waco, Tex.-- which exonerated federal officials from wrongdoing-- is "not
supported by the factual evidence."
In "No Confidence: An Unofficial Account of the Waco Incident," criminal
justice scholar Timothy Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato's Project on
Criminal Justice, analyzes the legal implications of certain undisputed
events and concludes that the official investigation into the incident --
led by special prosecutor former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri -- was "soft
and incomplete." According to Lynch, many obvious crimes have gone
unprosecuted.
For example, says Lynch, ATF agents were caught on tape assaulting a local
television cameraman after he had filmed their retreat from the initial raid
on the Branch Davidian complex. Lynch says that ATF agents also lied to
federal investigators -- a federal offense -- but were never prosecuted
despite recommendations by U.S. Marshals.
More seriously, he says, FBI agents exhibited a gross disregard for human
life when they indiscriminately fired "ferret" rounds at the Davidian
residence and used tanks to ram its walls. "Since at least one child was
struck by a ferret round, second-degree murder charges may be appropriate,"
Lynch writes.
Also, the involvement of certain FBI officials in the Waco operation
"should have set off alarm bells with Special Prosecutor Danforth's
investigators," Lynch writes. Those officials were suspended by the
Department of Justice for their involvement in the controversial "Ruby
Ridge" incident, in which the wife of white separatist survivalist Randy
Weaver was killed by an FBI sniper during a nine-day standoff with agents in
Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992. One of these officials was eventually sentenced
to 18 months in prison for destroying evidence and lying to investigators
about his role in that cover-up.
Lynch points out that the involvement of those officials in supervisory
positions at Waco was not even mentioned in the special prosecutor's report.
"Danforth should have hauled those individuals before a grand jury and
questioned them about missing Waco evidence," Lynch says. "He did not."
If the crimes chronicled in his study go unpunished, Lynch concludes, "the
Waco incident will leave an odious precedent-that federal agents can use the
"color of their office" to commit crimes against citizens."
The report is available as Policy Analysis no. 395 at the Cato Institute
website:
.
--
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.