The 90-minute tape was recorded from an FBI surveillance plane 191K/19 sec. AIFF or WAV sound (tape released September 3) VIDEO FBI video of conversation stating a tear gas canister bounced off the concrete bunker (tape released September 3) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K FBI Surveillance Tape April 19, 1993 Unidentified agents in Bradley armored vehicles talk with Richard M. Rogers, the assistant special agent in charge of the hostage rescue team. This FBI-released transcript records only a portion of the exchange. Tape released September 3 Charlie 1: Charlie TOC (Tactical Operations Center) to HR 1 (Special Agent Richard M. Rogers). Charlie 1: Yeah, the military gas did not penetrate that, uh, bunker, where the bus was. Copy. Charlie 1: It bounced off. Charlie 1: That's a possibility. If [unintelligible] CEVs to push this fence back here, we can get in there and get a good angle. Charlie 1: I don't think so, but if you took it slow -- Charlie 1: The walls to this thing are, uh, poured concrete. Charlie 1: Yeah, the wall to the, uh, around the bus are poured concrete. Echo 1: Echo 1 to Charlie 1. Charlie 1: Go ahead, Echo 1. Echo 1: Yeah, if you come to the, uh, green/black side of the structure, I think there's an opening there that you may be able to shoot through, a doorway. Charlie 1: Is it an underground bus? Echo 1: Uh, it's just the green side of the, uh, big water tower. Charlie 1: Ten-nine, HR 1. Echo 1: If you come just to the green side of the big, tall water tower and look toward the white side from there, you should be able to see a -- Charlie 1: Ten-four. Echo 1: -- a doorway in the unconstructed part.  ALSO: Militia groups quick to use Waco tapes for own ends First FBI tape shows approval of 'military rounds' (released September 2) MESSAGE BOARD: Waco revisited

September 3, 1999
Web posted at: 10:00 p.m. EDT (0200 GMT)

In this story: 'Did not penetrate the bunker' Outsider to investigate RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A potentially flammable tear gas canister, fired on the final day of the 1993 Waco siege, "bounced off" a concrete bunker near the main Branch Davidian compound, according to an FBI videotape released on Friday.

For a second straight day, the FBI made public previously undisclosed tapes, recorded from an FBI surveillance plane. The recordings contain voice communication of FBI agents on the ground.

In recordings released on Thursday, a conversation between two FBI officials on the final morning of the 51-day siege ends with approval to use the military-style pyrotechnic grenades. (Click here for recording and transcript.)

The tape released on Friday covers a 90-minute period just after that, including the moment when the pyrotechnic devices are fired.

At 8:08 a.m. -- about four hours before the main Davidian compound caught fire during an FBI assault -- an unidentified member of the FBI hostage rescue team (called "Charlie 1" on an FBI transcript) reports from a Bradley Armored Vehicle that "the military gas did not penetrate" the bunker.

"It bounced off," the same voice says, according to the transcript.

Another agent, identified on the FBI transcript as "Echo 1," then suggests an alternate firing position that might produce better results.

"If you come to the, uh, green/black side of that structure, I think there's an opening there that you may be able to shoot through -- a doorway," Echo 1 says.

The results of that repositioning are not on the tape.

The two voices heard on the earlier tape are those of Richard Rogers, on-scene agent in charge of the FBI hostage rescue unit, and Stephen McGavin, a subordinate from the rescue team.

The FBI acknowledged last week that it used the military-style tear gas, an admission that came after six years of denials and prompted an angry Attorney General Janet Reno to say she would "get to the bottom" of what happened on April 19, 1993.

She said Friday she would soon name an outside investigator -- someone not in the Justice Department or FBI -- to study the Waco standoff.

The videotapes, which FBI officials say were recently discovered at the Hostage Rescue Team's offices in Quantico, Virginia, were taken into custody Wednesday by federal marshals at the Justice Department's instruction.

The Hostage Rescue Team was in charge of operations during the siege.

The 51-day Waco siege ended when a massive fire destroyed the headquarters of the Branch Davidian religious cult. The bodies of leader David Koresh and some 80 of his followers were found inside. Most died from the fire; a few were killed by gunshot wounds.

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