October 9, 1999
Web posted at: 1:58 a.m. EDT (0558 GMT)

In this story: Records turned up in latest Waco probe Report: Koresh heard ordering the fires set RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Additional documents have been turned over to Congress showing supervisors in the FBI's standoff with the Branch Davidians asked for permission to shoot unarmed cult members if they approached agents and refused to follow directions, CNN has confirmed.

The FBI said the plans were never enacted during the 1993 incident. But officials acknowledge the issue was raised after agents received information that some cult members Davidians had discussed fleeing their Waco, Texas, compound with explosives strapped to their bodies.

VIDEO Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas reports that new evidence in the Waco probe has brought new criticism about the FBI's handling of the siege Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD Waco revisited

But FBI officials Friday insisted the proposed plan to authorize firing at the Branch Davidians was rejected by executives at headquarters and that such rules were never implemented by agents at Waco. The FBI said it followed standard rules of engagement which permit use of deadly force only in self-defense or defense of another.

The FBI remains adamant that agents never fired shots during the Waco siege.

The latest documents are among tens of thousands of pages from FBI files at Quantico turned over to investigators for congressional committees, the Justice Department and to former Sen. John Danforth, the newly appointed independent counsel investigating Waco.

Sources in Congress told CNN they were very concerned about the revelations in the documents.

The Dallas Morning News on Friday quoted a now-retired Army colonel as saying he heard Davidian leader David Koresh give an order to set the fires through bug transmissions on speakers in the FBI Waco command center's monitoring room.

Col. Rodney L. Rawlings, who retired from the Army in 1997, told the Dallas newspaper that he heard Koresh's order and then the sound of gunshots within five minutes after the FBI began its assault on the compound.

"I heard it. Anyone who says you couldn't at the time is being less than truthful," said Rawlings, explaining he was in an adjacent room in the FBI command center at the time.

FBI officials previously have said transmissions from eavesdropping devices inside the Davidians' compound were too garbled to allow agents to hear the sect's discussions.

Only later, after the fire and the tapes were enhanced, did the FBI learn that the Davidians were spreading fuel and preparing to set a fire, they testified before congressional committees. Had FBI leaders heard that people in the compound were preparing a fire, they would have stopped the assault, they testified.

Deputy FBI Director John Collingwood would not comment on Rawlings' account.

Justice Department Correspondent Pierre Thomas, Producer Terry Frieden and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.