Word: atf
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
MURPHY, North Carolina: They?re calling off some of the bloodhounds in the woods up in the Smoky Mountains, as the FBI and ATF scale down their search for Alabama abortion-clinic bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph. The reason is that in its fourth week, the nature of the manhunt is changing: ?As much as they like to talk about how vast and dense those woods are, chances are that if Rudolph were hiding in a cave or behind some trees they would have found him by now,? says TIME correspondent Greg Fulton...
...that while there is a "psychological connection," it is still too early to draw any firm parallels. The bombs used in the two Atlanta attacks were pipe bombs packed with nails, and their resemblance could possibly indicate a single perpetrator. There is still no word from the FBI or ATF on the type of device used in Birmingham...
With the exception of the treatment of media affairs, the documentary best indicts the ATF through indirect questions for which it has no concrete answers. Waco picks apart disparate bits of information and uses them to bring about logical conclusions. For example, why didn't the Davidians, despite their mass of weapons and knowledge of the raid, immediately bomb the ATF's forces? If the Davidians were the aggressors, why were most of the bullet holes inverted, suggesting the contrary...
...film uses a variety of sources, even bringing in disturbing autopsy footage to suggest other breaches by the ATF. The film becomes jarring and shocking at these points, usually credits for a film. Yet this shock value obscures some of the facts of the case. The mass suicide by the Branch Davidians is insufficiently covered. The gratuitous use of graphic images disgusts the viewer, implying that the ATF was automatically complicit simply because the Davidians died so gruesomely...
However, the major flaw of Waco: The Rules of Engagement is its failure to extend its blame past the ATF. The film concentrates on the ATF to the almost complete exclusion of any other influences. There are few glimpses or references to Attorney General Janet Reno, and even fewer to President Clinton. What role, positive or negative, did these figures have in the conflict? The film fails to provide an adequate answer...