OUR VIEWS: Danforth is good choice for Waco probe

Sun | Opinion

John Danforth, a clergyman, a respected former U.S. senator and a former attorney general of Missouri, is praised for his integrity and is said to be possessed of Washington-savvy. There's no reason he should not do a decent job trying to figure out why the FBI denied for six years a fact it now admits: that it used incendiary tear-gas devices on the day it assaulted a Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

Danforth, appointed by the Justice Department to head a probe, poses two questions that already seem to have tentative answers. One is whether federal agents actually killed people during the assault. At the moment, no credible evidence has been produced that they did. The flammable tear-gas grenades were fired hours before a fire killing some 80 people, although some do think the non-flammable tear gas the FBI used could have been dangerous. The other question is whether there was a cover-up, and it seems there was, at least among some agents concerning the full truth of what happened.

It may be that some of the many other important questions about that assault will have to be settled by probes in Congress. What is unfortunate is that the controlling Republicans have already damaged their own credibility by the way they have attacked Janet Reno, the U.S. attorney general. Her competence is questionable and she has much to answer for, as does the FBI leadership, but Senate Republican leader Trent Lott's call for her resignation was not backed up by the kind of trenchant argument that his stance would seem to demand. It smelled political through and through.

But despite the discomfort of some, it is a definite good that both Danforth and Congress are examining this deadly law-enforcement action by the federal government. The Justice Department's own probe immediately following the incident has been described as a whitewash, and it's crucial to make sure whether the government abided by the strictest possible respect for the rights of American citizens in this incident.