{"id":8060,"date":"2015-02-25T21:50:16","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T02:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=8060"},"modified":"2018-04-19T20:07:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T00:07:19","slug":"mike-mcnulty-waco-hero-r-i-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/25\/mike-mcnulty-waco-hero-r-i-p\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike McNulty, Waco Hero, R.I.P."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mcnulty<\/a>One of the heroes of the Waco fights of the 1990s has passed away.\u00a0 Mike McNulty<\/strong> did more than any other single person to doggedly pursue the truth about Waco.\u00a0 And he produced or co-produced a number of superb films that vividly and compelling explained why the feds were lying about the carnage they unleashed in Texas.\u00a0 And he fed great information to me and other journalists – as well as sometimes impatiently pushing us forward, urging us to turn over more rocks. (I think\u00a0my sense of humor puzzled or irked him at times during our phone calls, but I came out on the right side of the issue, so he usually tolerated me pretty well.) \u00a0Mike was never cowed by official bullshit or by the strutting and intimidation attempts by lawmen or political appointee poohbahs.\u00a0 Mike helped Janet Reno<\/a> get the legacy she deserved.<\/p>\n

I quoted Mike at length on an article on the Waco coverup that came out in the Washington Times on the morning of the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19, 1995:<\/p>\n

Other investigators are also raising questions about the government’s possible role in killing the Davidians. Michael McNulty, chairman of the Citizens Organization for Public Safety, of Fort Collins, Colo., has conducted an extensive analysis of videotapes on the final assault, as well as interviews with forensic scientists and Davidian survivors.<\/p>\n

Mr. McNulty believes FBI snipers shot Davidians on the morning of April 19 as they were running out of the back of the compound to escape the CS gas. (During the FBI-Randy Weaver confrontation a few months before the Waco conflict, one FBI SWAT team member summarized the rules of engagement as “if you see ’em, shoot ’em,” according to a confidential Justice Department report). Mr. McNulty argues that infrared videotape indicates that the tanks may have pushed the bodies of the slain Davidians back into the building before the fire began. (Mr. McNulty has portions of the tape, but there are significant gaps that the government has refused to release).<\/p>\n

Mr. McNulty also believes the FBI intentionally ignited two fires in the compound the final day with pyrotechnic devices. He says that FBI pyrotechnic devices were fired into areas inundated with CS gas particulates at precisely the same time that fireballs exploded from the back of the gymnasium. According to Army manuals, there is a significant risk of flammability from CS gas particulates. For instance, Army field manual FM-21-27 states on page 21: “Warning: When using the dry agent CS-1, do not discharge indoors. Accumulating dust may explode when exposed to spark or open flame.”<\/p>\n

Here’s my thumbnail on first meeting Mike from Public Policy Hooligan<\/strong> <\/a>during the congressional hearings on Waco in July 1995:<\/p>\n

“Hanging around the\u00a0hearing room, I met activists who were doing a great job of raising Cain on Waco. Mike McNulty, a stalwart Mormon and gun rights zealot, was taping the proceedings for possible use in a future movie. I had quoted Mike in Lost Rights and in a few articles.\u00a0 Along with Dan Gifford and William Gazecki, Mike was one of the masterminds behind the film \u201cWaco: Rules of Engagement,\u201d would later win an Emmy and was an Oscar finalist for best documentary. I also met David Hardy, a genial, ceiling-tall, bald-headed lawyer who used the Freedom of Information Act to demolish the ATF\u2019s and FBI\u2019s official narratives. I had lunch a time or two with Jim Pate, a jolly 30-something reporter from North Carolina who was working as a consultant for ABC News. Pate would be summoned to testify at the Timothy McVeigh trial because McVeigh had several Soldier of Fortune magazines with Pate\u2019s Waco articles in his car when he was arrested.”<\/p>\n

Mike did not stop digging after Congress washed its hands of Waco:\u00a0 “In late summer 1999, Waco re-exploded on the nation\u2019s political radar. Mike McNulty, trolling in the Texas Rangers\u2019 warehouse of Waco evidence, discovered several military-style pyrotechnic rounds the FBI had fired into the Davidians\u2019 home during the final assault. Janet Reno and the FBI had previously denied using the type of devices practically designed to incinerate their targets. A former high-ranking CIA official reported that the Pentagon\u2019s elite Delta Force troops were on the scene and participating in the final day\u2019s conflict.”<\/p>\n

Janet Reno siderailed that controversy by appointing a former senator and kowtowing preacher John Danforth to lead an independent investigation to prove that the FBI had done nothing wrong at Waco.\u00a0 Mike counterpunched Danforth’s whitewash with another film – “the FLIR. Project” – discussed in the 2001 Washington Times op-ed posted at the bottom of this remembrance blog.<\/p>\n

The full version of the 1997 film, “Rules of Engagement,” which Mike is viewable on Youtube & below –<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-4scgRAJxWc<\/p>\n

The second Waco film that Mike helped produced is also online in full and viewable below –<\/p>\n