Congressional Oversight in the Waco Incident

The Committee on Government Reform and Oversight ("the Committee") was created for the specific purpose of analyzing and evaluating the application and administration of federal laws. To fulfill its purpose, the Committee is authorized to investigate incidents in which the acts of federal agencies may indicate the violation of or need for federal legislation. The 1995 investigation of the Waco incident by the Committee was actually the second investigation of what happened in Texas. This investigation followed the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 persons.

The federal government's investigation of the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City focused the public's attention on militia movements in the United States and the potential threat to public safety presented by some of its adherents. The Oklahoma City bombing occurred on the second anniversary of the Waco fire. The anti-government ravings of its perpetrators encouraged the Committee to re-open the investigation into what happened in Waco. However, the Committee's willingness to link in the public's mind the bombing in Oklahoma City and the actions of federal law enforcement in Waco gave credence to the tenets of patriot-style groups linked to the Oklahoma City bombing and eroded public confidence in federal law enforcement.

Thus, the Waco investigation was based on an investigative assumption that

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an initial peaceful confrontation or any consideration for the particular beliefs of the group. This failure to consider the specific beliefs of the group under attack and the persistent resort to aggression would also play itself out in the subsequent FBI siege and would result in even more deaths. The deaths of the four ATF agents and the resulting 51-day siege were directly caused by the ATF's failure to handle this initial confrontation in a professional, competent matter. The record reflects that the Committee requested voluminous documents from the Treasury Department, which oversees the ATF. The requests included information about personnel records, some dating back forty-five years. Such a broad brush reflects the Committee's statements that a thorough airing and analysis of the Waco events by congressional oversight committees were necessary to the long-term credibility and viability of the Federal law enforcement agencies. However, such an approach can also have the unfortunate effect of burying the significant elements under a mountain of minutia. The Committee's report would indeed sanction the ATF for its incompetence; however, it would not go so far as to question the underlying "war" philosophy that led the a

Category: Government - C