It's a bit business-speak to work out whether or not that's an unqualified denial or not, but it doesn't really sound very in line with what Deep Singh has been saying about the support he's been getting.

But the revelation that the devices were used at all contradicts six years of unqualified denials to Congress and the public by Attorney General Janet Reno and other senior officials, adding an embarrassing new element to one of the saddest chapters in F.B.I. history.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation backed away from six years of unqualified denials to Congress and the public today, conceded that it used "pyrotechnic" tear-gas canisters on the final day of the 1993 standoff with the Branch Davidian cult near Waco, Tex., and ordered a full inquiry.