by: F.R. Duplantier

As a former federal agent with 25 years' experience, Michael Levine is quick to recognize "the real legal and historical issues involved in the massacre of 80 American citizens at the hands of government agents at Waco." There are three questions to be answered, says Levine: "Did the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms act in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal and state law in the first place in taking any potentially deadly action against David Koresh and his followers? Were (what is commonly referred to as) 'The Rules of Engagement' violated? And, has evidence of the violation of those rules been illegally destroyed or hidden?"

Levine, the author of the best-selling book Deep Cover and host of "The Expert Witness" radio show, broadcast Tuesday nights on WBAI in New York City (http://www.wbaifree.org), offers a summary of the rules of engagement. "Before a U.S. law enforcement officer is permitted to resort to the use of deadly force," he notes, "the following conditions must exist:

The officer must be in fear for his own life or the life of others; and the use of deadly force must be the last and only recourse."

Levine recalls that top BATF officials testified during congressional hearings "that the Davidians 'ambushed' the raiding agents by firing at them first through two steel doors and that the agents returned fire to defend themselves, thus placing their actions clearly within the parameters of the rules of engagement. They said that the opening barrage fired by the Davidians was so forceful that the doors actually 'bowed outward.'" Levine concedes that, "if this powerful testimony was true, all use of deadly force that followed was, albeit arguably, justified. . . . On the other hand," he counters, "if this assertion was false, every potentially deadly act the agents took was clearly both a federal and Texas state felony."

Levine points to "two pieces of evidence that should have proved that the government agents acted, as they claimed, within the rules of engagement in resorting to deadly force. The BATF officers claimed that they had actually videotaped the Davidians firing first through the double steel entrance doors," he observes. "Since the doors themselves were not destroyed by the fire . . . they, along with the BATF videotapes, would have put to rest most of the fears now expressed about federal law enforcement and the present administration's actions."

Levine explains why those fears were not put to rest. He reports that BATF agents testified before Congress "that the videotapes were 'missing' and that only one of the two steel doors was recovered." Levine notes that "the recovered door showed evidence of only the inward path of BATF bullets. There was no evidence that the Davidians, at that point, had even returned fire. The other door, the one that is allegedly 'bowed outward' from the force of the Davidians' ambush bullets, was and still is 'missing.'"