Date: Sun, 23 Jul 1995 04:23:20 -0400 From: "Christopher W. Knox" To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: FCO 7-21-95 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ======================================================================== Online Report to the F I R E A R M S C O A L I T I O N Box 6537, Silver Spring, MD 20916 ======================================================================== July 21, 1995 Vol. 2, No. 6 ======================================================================== In this issue: Telephone Log -- (301) 871-3006 July 18 -- BATF's Air Force Stories Confirmed -- "Good Ol' Boys" in a Heap of Trouble July 15 -- Potts Hangs Out to Dry -- NRA Finances in Washington Post and Boston Globe July 4 -- Happy Independence Day -- Calm Before the Storm June 26 -- NRA Finances Shotgun News Columns July 1 and 13 ======================================================================== A note from Chris In the Waco hearings Wednesday a 14-year-old girl rendered a horrifying account of how she was sexually molested at the age of ten by Vernon Howell a.k.a. David Koresh. Her testimony did bring an air of seriousness to the proceedings. That is as it should be. But no matter how despicable the false prophet David Koresh was, he is not the issue of these hearings, much as some would like to change the subject. The issue at hand is government abuse of power. The children in that building bore no taint of David Koresh's evil. But agents of the law, sworn to support and defend the Constitution betrayed that oath. Flooding an enclosed space with CS tear gas is not an acceptable exercise of police power no matter who is inside that space. On the basis of the tear gas alone somebody needs to go to jail. --- A second red herring that Treasury and its friends have thrown into the hearings is the claim that because NRA paid for investigators who worked with Congressional staff, whatever those investigators find is tainted. The investigation firm, Failure Analysis, is one of the most respected engineering consulting companies in the country. Their job is to report the facts they discover, regardless of what the client would prefer be found. The allegations coming from Schumer and company that Failure Analysis would tilt its findings to suit its client are either naive or a vicious slander against a respected name in American engineering. --- Internet junkies will remember posts in news groups and some of the mailing lists around the end of last year about the OV-10 Bronco attack aircraft in BATF's budget. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time. BATF ownership of an air force has been confirmed. Congratulations to whoever spotted it first. I'd be interested in seeing the first post referring to the BATF's Broncos. Maybe we ought to have a contest. If you posted it first, send me a copy of the original posting with headers intact and the ftp address of the archive site. --- If you've called the Legislative Update line recently, you've probably heard talk of a 900 line. It will be more than a standard long-distance call, but certainly within reason -- less than a buck a minute. And with over 2500 incoming lines, there will be no busy signals. --- ======================================================================== Telephone Log -- Call (301) 871-3006 for Legislative updates July 18 Tonight's ABC News reported the facts on the hazards of the CS gas used at Waco, and what it can do to little children, particularly indoors. Further, they presented evidence that those dangers were known to the Justice Department. The FBI's logbook of the Randy Weaver standoff reports that they considered and rejected the use of CS gas because of the danger to Vicki Weaver's 10-month old baby. That was a half-year before Waco -- with the same Hostage Rescue Team and the same commander, Larry Potts. NBC gave us a sneak preview of BATF's defense: a never-before heard tape of a machine gun being fired, supposedly at Waco. They also showed videotapes of circling helicopters, which they said were too far away from the building to hit it. Right. Remember the Army helicopter that had to land because it had been hit? How come it was close enough to be hit, but not close enough to shoot into a building? --- BATF's Air Force Stories Confirmed On the eve of the hearings into Waco, Jerry Seper of the Washington Times reported that BATF has obtained 22 twin-engine Marine Corps ground attack aircraft. BATF's warbirds are OV-10D Broncos, two-place twin boom turboprops with 1,040 horses per side. The three that have been inspected are equipped with the latest version Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR), ground-mapping radar, and other gee-whiz equipment. Their guns have been stripped, but they have removable fuel tanks on standard hard points on which gun or rocket pods can be mounted. And strangely, at least one of the birds still has the static lines for five or six paratroopers. I know this sounds implausible, but I have personally talked with three pilots who saw and photographed them -- and I've known two of those guys for years. And besides, BATF's press office acknowledges they have them. Nine of these planes are operational, BATF says. The Forest Service also got some, they say. That's true, but those were OV- 10A's with far less horsepower and no fancy electronics. While BATF claims their birds are used for "law enforcement," there's nothing in BATF's mission description that would justify such equipment -- unless they're planning more Waco raids. If BATF's OV-10's are so innocuous, why is their ownership hidden? The planes were transferred from the Defense Department to an airplane salvage company, and the same day transferred to their supposed current owner: American Warbirds Inc. The address for American Warbirds Inc. is an industrial park in Gaithersburg, MD, with no sign on the door and no listed telephone. According to neighbors, it's a BATF electronic service shop. What's going on here? --- "Good Ol' Boys" in a Heap of Trouble The lead story in this morning's Washington Post was the Treasury investigation of the racist Good Old Boys' annual picnic, unofficially organized by BATF. It ran alongside an unusually accurate, balanced and detailed 3- page article on Waco. The article stressed the CS gas's warning against releasing it in a confined area -- like the FBI did to the Davidian women and children, many of whom died from asphyxiation, probably from the CS. Of course, another Post article said NRA was subverting the hearings by hiring credentialed researchers to determine facts and give it to the joint committees holding the hearings. Fact is, there is absolutely nothing wrong or unusual about what NRA has done, but Chuck Schumer is sure upset about what those professional researchers are learning. ======================================================================== July 15 update Potts Hangs Out to Dry The House Waco hearings won't begin until Wednesday but they already have taken their first scalp -- yesterday's demotion of Deputy FBI Director Larry Potts. He was the D.C.-based commander of the Ruby Ridge attack on the Randy Weaver family and played a key role in the tank and gas attack at Waco. This hasn't been a good week for either FBI or BATF. ABC TV started out Monday night talking about the extensive military involvement in the planning and conduct of the Waco BATF raid, then Nightline hammered them. Then the local ABC station, WJLA, and the Washington Times exposed the extremely racist, whites only, "Good Old Boys" annual campout organized for 15 years by BATF agents in South Carolina and Tennessee. Sen. Orrin Hatch plans a hearing for next Friday. He said on the floor that the 350 participants included agents from BATF, FBI, Secret Service, DEA, local law enforcement and even members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Wednesday night WJLA interviewed Texas Rangers, who revealed that the Branch Davidians were willing to surrender to them, but not the FBI -- but that the FBI arrogantly refused to accept any help or assistance. And ABC Turning Point presented a surprisingly balanced report on Waco. The Justice Department reopened its hearings on Ruby Ridge after the on-ground commander refused to be made the scapegoat for that tragedy. This week FBI suspended a senior official who had shredded a document showing that Potts had approved the FBI's unconstitutional shoot on sight orders. The charge that Potts had lied about those orders was pending when FBI Director Louis Freeh and Janet Reno promoted him to Deputy Director in an "in your face" rebuff to the critics of FBI. Now they're going to try to make him the scapegoat. But the fault for Ruby Ridge and Waco reaches above Potts. In another development, the story broke that House investigators went to Austin June 26 to inspect the alleged converted machine guns recovered at Waco. The Justice Department was totally cooperative until they learned the investigators were accompanied by researchers from Failure Analysis Associates, which had brought portable X-ray equipment to determine if they had been converted. No pictures were allowed. Rep. Schumer was petrified when he learned that NRA had contracted with the highly respected Failure Analysis firm, and got Co-chairman Bill Zeliff of New Hampshire to agree not to let Failure assist or inform committee investigators about their independent research. The last thing Schumer wants is the truth about Waco, Ruby Ridge, FBI or BATF -- but the cover-up is beginning to unravel. And many more revelations are yet to come -- some from the hearings, some from elsewhere. I love it. --- NRA Finances in _Post_ and _Globe_ I haven't loved the hammering that NRA and Neal Knox have been taking from the press in recent weeks. Both the Washington Post and Boston Globe blasted me this week, claiming the NRA leadership is trying to bankrupt NRA and feather our own nests. It certainly isn't true. But if the Post or Globe ever says anything nice about me or NRA, we're not doing our job. And if they quit attacking us, we're not doing our job. ======================================================================== July 4 -- Happy Independence Day! Calm Before the Storm Things will be calm around here this week, for Congress is out of town. They'll be back next week -- and if the schedule holds, hearings on Waco will begin in the House the following week. The Justice Department still says they have nothing to hide, but according to Capitol Hill gossip, committee investigators went to Texas last week to inspect the charred guns that came out of the Davidian compound. According to the rumor mill, the Attorney General's was a model of cooperation until he found out the committee staffers had brought a portable X-ray machine to look inside the guns -- to see how many had been converted to full automatic. Incredibly, the committee staff wasn't allowed to take any pictures; they came back to Washington empty-handed -- and very unhappy. Or so I've heard. Bill Clinton formally opened his re-election campaign last week with three major anti-gun, anti-NRA speeches this week; called for BATF to be able to ban any bullet or ammo capable of penetrating a Kevlar vest; and launched a $2.4 million, 11-state re-election advertising campaign saying how tough he is on crime because he passed the semi-auto ban. But he claims they aren't campaign ads -- though paid for by his re-election committee. The bullet ban may reveal more than he intended for he cracked that he had "never seen a deer or a duck wearing a Kevlar vest." Relatively few of us hunt deer with handguns, and none of us use them on ducks. So when Clinton says "any ammunition" that will penetrate a Kevlar vest -- as all center-fire rifle and some shotgun loads will -- I think that's precisely what he means. Eleven years ago this weekend I formed the Firearms Coalition and began my Shotgun News column. Ten years ago today Tanya Metaksa kicked off her computer Bullet 'N Board, which carried those columns and much more. This phone hotline started seven years ago. [Meanwhile, this upstart Internet service has been around for only eighteen months. Prior to that bulletins and Shotgun News columns were posted samizdat-style by various friends before Neal Knox even knew what an Internet was. -- CWK] It's been an interesting 11 years. We're less independent -- less- free -- today, but the pieces have been moved into place to restore many of those lost rights, and we're working on it. For those of you who have supported our efforts, many thanks. ======================================================================== June 26 More NRA Finances This morning's New York Times, in a story picked up by the Associated Press, claims that NRA is in severe financial difficulty. That's wishful thinking on their part. As has been gleefully reported by the press -- from documents provided by rule-or-ruin directors defeated by the members -- NRA did spend more money than it took in from 1991 to 1993. That was because Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre had to use reserve funds to rebuild NRA's neglected infrastructure and turn around the falling membership. But that's old news. By 1994, NRA's membership had reached an all-time record 3.4 million; NRA had moved into a beautiful new building with modern equipment; and, most importantly, had been so successful in last fall's elections that President Bill Clinton publicly blamed NRA for causing the Republican Congress. Last year, NRA operated on a balanced budget except for $3 million in capital expenditures. This morning Wayne released a statement saying: "By any measure, whether it be membership, programs, political successes or its infrastructure, the NRA has never been stronger. The NRA of 1995 is operating on a balanced budget and is more capable than ever of fulfilling its mission in support of the Second Amendment and firearms freedoms for America's gunowners." And that's the truth. But if the New York Times wants to get HCI's hopes up, and wants to tell the anti-gun rights crowd that NRA is about to dry up and blow away, that's okay with me. ======================================================================== Shotgun News Columns - ----------------- NEAL KNOX REPORT BATF, FBI Reeling By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 13) -- The whitewashed house of cards that the BATF and FBI have built to hide their Waco outrages is coming apart - -- even before next week's House hearings begin. The Joint Crime and Government Reform subcommittees are threatening to subpoena documents which White House Counsel Abner Mikva says are "innocuous" but which might show who really issued the orders at Waco. Mikva, incidentally, was the leading anti- gunner in the Congress in the 1970's. And the Justice Department has reopened its investigation of the assault on Randy Weaver's family at Ruby Ridge, Idaho -- the already scheduled second phase of the joint hearings. One high-ranking FBI official, E. Michael Kahoe, has again been suspended after allegations that he had shredded documents which revealed whether the Washington supervisor of the Weaver attack, Larry Potts, had approved "shoot on sight" orders to FBI snipers. Kahoe was suspended for 15 days last year as punishment for an "incomplete review" of the death of Vicki Weaver; he now heads the Jacksonville, Fla., office. Potts, who was also a key player in the Waco standoff, had been reprimanded for his improper supervision of Ruby Ridge -- and promptly promoted to Deputy Director of FBI. The Washington Post sighed "The new investigation could not come at a worse time for the bureau." Another "worst possible time" revelation -- that BATF agents have held an annual "whites-only" campout and rafting party in Tennessee -- exploded on the local ABC television station, WJLA, and in the Washington Times. When confronted by videotapes showing overtly racist signs, T- shirts and "Nigger Hunting Licenses," a BATF spokesman muttered that the agency had no control over what agents did on their own time -- though the arrangements for the party were handled out of the Greenville, S.C. BATF office. More Waco and BATF revelations are coming this week from WJLA and ABC network programs -- including an issue I've been investigating for weeks: why the BATF has a squadron of 22 OV- 10D twin-turboprop ground attack aircraft which formerly belonged to the U.S. Marines. BATF's planes -- reluctantly acknowledged by an official spokesman but listed in FAA records in a seemingly private name - - are equipped with the latest type Forward Looking Infrared television, ground-mapping radar, hard points capable of accepting guns or rocket pods, and even static lines for five paratroopers. Last week, ABC Nightline had two segments that cut up BATF for the way they planned and carried out the commando attack on the Branch Davidians. Ted Koppel took a few soft swings at the Justice Department but didn't touch the biggest single issue: why Justice pumped in and shot in hundreds of pounds of CS gas, when the stuff is known to be lethal in such heavy concentrations, particularly to little kids who had no gas masks, and couldn't use them if they had. This week, stand-in Nightline host Forrest Sawyer said that while the Administration is fuming that the hearings are unnecessary because all the questions have been answered, "that appears not to be true." Sawyer hammered former BATF Director Steve Higgins for the previously hidden depth of military involvement in the raid, authorized only because BATF falsely claimed that a drug lab was being operated in the church. Joint Committee Co-chairman Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) said the hearings will probe a wide range of questions beyond the possibly illegal military involvement. Most significantly, Rep. McCollum said he hadn't seen a shred of evidence that the Davidians were a threat to the community. The White House -- with Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin as spear-carriers -- are doing their best to block the hearings, or divert them into an investigation of militias and the Oklahoma City bombing. Schumer, who held widely ignored militia "forum" Tuesday, is screaming about NRA having hired a large, highly respected firm, Failure Analysis Associates, to investigate Waco and share their findings with the Joint Committee. FAA's experts accompanied members of the committee to Austin June 26 to look at the supposedly converted machine guns which triggered the Davidian raid. The Justice representative was totally cooperative until he found they had brought portable X- ray equipment to look inside the 46 recovered guns, to determine if they had been converted and when. Rubin sent an unprecedented four-page letter to the press warning that the hearings could discredit BATF and erode support for firearms laws. I think he's right. --- NEAL KNOX REPORT Clinton's Gun Ban Campaign By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 1) -- President Bill Clinton delivered three anti-gun, anti-NRA speeches this week, again denounced so-called "assault weapons," called for a new "cop- killer bullet" ban, and began a $2.4 million, 11-state re- election advertising campaign on the same theme. Though paid for by his re-election committee, he claims they aren't campaign ads -- an unprecedented 17 months prior to the election. Bill Clinton rarely does anything not strongly supported by the polls -- and he never sticks solidly to an issue unless he believes it is a political winner. So his pollster is undoubtedly egging him on. I'm reminded of Mary Sue Terry, the popular former attorney general of Virginia, who -- like Clinton -- had plenty of campaign money; and who -- like Clinton -- began heavy television advertising unusually early in the Virginia governor's election in 1993; and who -- like Clinton -- made "gun control" the theme of her entire campaign. Unlike Clinton, she was 29 points ahead of her opponent, former Congressman George Allen. She was assured by her pollsters that, as "The Wall Street Journal" and many other publications claimed, it had become advantageous for politicians like Ms. Terry and New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio "to take on the gun lobby." Instead, Ms. Terry's unusually early "gun control" TV ads (unanswered because Allen had very little campaign money) caused her popularity to nose-dive, and by early September the race was neck and neck -- solely because of her own advertising. On election day, the pro-gun rights Allen won by 17 points. It's amazing that President Clinton should have gone this week to New Jersey and claimed that just as former Gov. Jim Florio had given up his governorship to ban "assault weapons," he was willing to give up the White House to protect the Federal ban. As much as I'd like to see gunowners take the credit, it was taxes, primarily, which had Florio far down in the polls in 1993. But Florio (undoubtedly egged on by his pollsters) tried to use the gun issue to retain his governorship -- precisely like Clinton is attempting to use it to retain his presidency. It didn't work for Florio, and it won't work for Clinton. Long ago it became evident -- by comparing polls to election results -- that there are two issues about which people never tell pollsters the truth: race and guns. Apparently, the public gives pollsters the "politically correct" answer to such questions, then vote their conscience. Clinton revealed his hand, and should have shaken awake more hunters and gunowners, with this week's announcement of a new bill to "make history" any bullet capable of penetrating a policeman's bullet- resistant vest. However that yet-to-be-introduced bill may read, he didn't limit his rhetoric to handgun ammo -- and specifically cracked that he had "never seen a deer or a duck wearing a Kevlar vest." Relatively few of us hunt deer with handguns, and none of us use them on ducks. So when Clinton says "any ammunition" that will penetrate a Kevlar vest -- as all center-fire rifle and some shotgun loads will -- I think that's precisely what he means. Based on a White House spokesman's comments, I suspect the "out" will be to allow the Treasury Department to exempt any bullet suitable for a "sporting purpose" -- but not a self- defense purpose. That "ammunition screening" not only would give BATF total control over ammo, it could achieve their long-desired goal of eliminating handloading -- which they hate because they can't control. If, like Mary Sue Terry, Bill Clinton wants to make "gun control" the centerpiece of his campaign, so be it. It didn't work for her, didn't work for Jim Florio, and won't work for him. - --- Eleven years ago this Independence Day weekend, I wrote the first of these almost-400 columns, announced that I was registering as an independent Second Amendment lobbyist, beginning a newsletter, and asked for your financial support. Much has happened in those eleven years; NRA is now far larger and stronger, is blamed by Clinton for the Republican Congress, and amazingly I'm now 2nd V.P. -- which is an unpaid, volunteer job. This progress wouldn't have happened without the help of those who kept me in the front lines. If you've enjoyed these columns, learned from our legislative hotline [(301) 871-3006], and would like to receive the bi-monthly "Hard Corps Report," please send a contribution to the Firearms Coalition, Box 6537, Silver Spring, MD 20906. ======================================================================== Copyright 1995 by Neal Knox Associates P.O. Box 6537 Rockville, MD 20916. Reproduction and distribution of this bulletin by any means is encouraged so long as this statement is retained. ======================================================================== Do not put your credit card number in e-mail. ======================================================================== Dear Neal, I use the information you provide to protect my gun rights. Enclosed is my contribution so that you can continue your work: $500 [ ] $250 [ ] $50 [ ] $25 [ ] Other:____ [ ] Bill my MasterCard [ ] Visa [ ] Quarterly [ ] Monthly [ ] Card No. ______________________ Expiration Date _____ Once [ ] Mr. [ ] Mrs.[ ] Miss [ ] Ms. [ ]______________________________ Signature ______________________________________ Address ________________________________________ Address ________________________________________ City ________________________________________ State ____ Zip_______ Phone _______________ Email Address ______________________ Print and mail to: Firearms Coalition Box 6537 Silver Spring, MD 20916 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMBHeJyGz4I2lBJDFAQGYeQP+PQeqYN5ANjU4jeHzvUyOAg+9+CWGLFLx gaa1kiRFQeGLYXU+aYndMX2fXT00DStdUHYtKoGlcjilgAy6zaxSxHk+LmJraOEh eSEURvdC0znAMGX7QfVNhywxl+0Ok7hPH3kF4CBFepAWGr9awFdOi4uAi3SwFMzk Kk3TckSQfZE= =MzCi -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To receive the Online Firearms Coalition Bulletin send mail to listproc@mainstream.com containing in the message body: subscribe fco