[The subtext of Danforth's report was that if the Waco episode had any valuable lesson, it was that government should come clean about what it knows. When federal authorities refused to admit early on that three pyrotechnic rounds had been fired at the Mount Carmel compound, it tainted their credibility.] We want them to learn from this experience the importance of candor, even about very small things, ... Yet government officials were not open enough then: They weren't candid enough, they didn't tell, they knew things and they didn't disclose those things, and the result of that is that those who want to believe the worst about government say, 'Aha, this is something that is really bad.' And if government lies about one thing, it will lie about everything, so everything is suspicious. I think the lesson is that government has to be open.
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