Attorney General Janet Reno came under heavy Republican fire yesterday for the sudden discovery of new evidence about the final fiery day that ended the 1993 Branch Davidian siege, but Democrats asked why no one was demanding the resignation of FBI Director Louis J. Freeh. Reversing itself after six years of denials, the FBI acknowledged Aug. 25 that its agents fired "a very limited number" of potentially incendiary tear gas cartridges on the last morning of the 51-day siege near Waco, Tex. Reno, who had been repeatedly assured no such weapons had been used, has announced that she will appoint an independent investigator to determine whether the FBI tried to cover up its use of the devices.

Two Republican presidential candidates, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and businessman Steve Forbes, said they would have fired Reno if they had been in the White House.

"The Waco thing is simply the latest of a long string of very serious political abuses," Forbes said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Speaking on the same program, Hatch said he would not have chosen Reno to begin with but in any case "would have fired [her] by now."

Hatch said there were several memos, one of them prepared by the FBI and made available to the Justice Department around 1996, that stated that "military canisters" were used on the last day of the siege, which left about 75 people dead. Hatch said "anybody with brains" would have realized "that that meant those were explosive canisters."

Asked about Hatch's assertions, Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin said, "These are allegations that will have to be looked at, and that is why the attorney general has said she is looking for an outside investigator."

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) scolded Hatch for blaming Reno for what the FBI belatedly discovered in its files: two videotapes that also recorded ground radio traffic among FBI agents and that confirmed the use of potentially flammable tear gas cartridges in an early morning effort to penetrate an underground storm shelter.

"Janet Reno is now being blamed for what the FBI didn't do," Conyers protested on "Meet the Press." Withholding of evidence by the FBI deserves to be independently investigated, Conyers said, but he predicted that any new inquiry would still conclude that it was the Branch Davidians who started the fatal fires hours after the tear gas usage.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on ABC's "This Week" that "sort of a double standard" was at work in demands that Reno resign while Freeh should not. What was important now, he said, was to find out whether only the information about the tear gas was withheld and how far up the chain of command that information got.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) said he still faulted Reno because the Waco discovery was just one of "a long series of cases where the attorney general seems to be always the last person to know."

"I'm not questioning her intentions," Gramm said on ABC, "but I think she's given good intentions a bad name."

A filmmaker who has challenged the conclusion that the Branch Davidians set the fires, Michael McNulty, said on "Fox News Sunday" that he has come up with film that "clearly shows" a gunfight between cult members and federal operatives at the back of the only exit of the Branch Davidian building that had been unmolested by tanks. He said this left the women and children inside the building with "no way out."

"They had a choice of being shot to death or burning to death," McNulty said. He said 17 people were found "shot to death in that immediate vicinity." How many died by their own hand and "how many died by the hands of the government is an issue that needs to be clarified," McNulty said.

Former FBI agent Richard Schwein, who was in charge of one of the shifts at Waco, said charges of government gunfire being directed at the one open exit were "absolutely false."

"No FBI agent fired any rounds from their weapons at Waco," Schwein said on "Fox News Sunday." He added that "there were no Delta Forces or special operations soldiers in an operational capacity at Waco" either. He said the Army had what he recalled as "three observers" there "but they took absolutely no part in the operation," which would have been a violation of federal law.

"Everyone on our side, and the FBI's side, were in armored vehicles, so I don't know how you'd have films of anybody firing into the back of the building," Schwein said. "No one was on foot because we had no body armor that would stop the rounds they were firing."

Attorney General Janet Reno came under heavy Republican fire yesterday for the sudden discovery of new evidence about the final fiery day that ended the 1993 Branch Davidian siege, but Democrats asked why no one was demanding the resignation of FBI Director Louis J. Freeh. Reversing itself after six years of denials, the FBI acknowledged Aug. 25 that its agents fired "a very limited number" of potentially incendiary tear gas cartridges on the last morning of the 51-day siege near Waco, Tex. Reno, who had been repeatedly assured no such weapons had been used, has announced that she will appoint an independent investigator to determine whether the FBI tried to cover up its use of the devices.

Two Republican presidential candidates, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and businessman Steve Forbes, said they would have fired Reno if they had been in the White House.

"The Waco thing is simply the latest of a long string of very serious political abuses," Forbes said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Speaking on the same program, Hatch said he would not have chosen Reno to begin with but in any case "would have fired [her] by now."

Hatch said there were several memos, one of them prepared by the FBI and made available to the Justice Department around 1996, that stated that "military canisters" were used on the last day of the siege, which left about 75 people dead. Hatch said "anybody with brains" would have realized "that that meant those were explosive canisters."

Asked about Hatch's assertions, Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin said, "These are allegations that will have to be looked at, and that is why the attorney general has said she is looking for an outside investigator."

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) scolded Hatch for blaming Reno for what the FBI belatedly discovered in its files: two videotapes that also recorded ground radio traffic among FBI agents and that confirmed the use of potentially flammable tear gas cartridges in an early morning effort to penetrate an underground storm shelter.

"Janet Reno is now being blamed for what the FBI didn't do," Conyers protested on "Meet the Press." Withholding of evidence by the FBI deserves to be independently investigated, Conyers said, but he predicted that any new inquiry would still conclude that it was the Branch Davidians who started the fatal fires hours after the tear gas usage.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on ABC's "This Week" that "sort of a double standard" was at work in demands that Reno resign while Freeh should not. What was important now, he said, was to find out whether only the information about the tear gas was withheld and how far up the chain of command that information got.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) said he still faulted Reno because the Waco discovery was just one of "a long series of cases where the attorney general seems to be always the last person to know."

"I'm not questioning her intentions," Gramm said on ABC, "but I think she's given good intentions a bad name."

A filmmaker who has challenged the conclusion that the Branch Davidians set the fires, Michael McNulty, said on "Fox News Sunday" that he has come up with film that "clearly shows" a gunfight between cult members and federal operatives at the back of the only exit of the Branch Davidian building that had been unmolested by tanks. He said this left the women and children inside the building with "no way out."

"They had a choice of being shot to death or burning to death," McNulty said. He said 17 people were found "shot to death in that immediate vicinity." How many died by their own hand and "how many died by the hands of the government is an issue that needs to be clarified," McNulty said.

Former FBI agent Richard Schwein, who was in charge of one of the shifts at Waco, said charges of government gunfire being directed at the one open exit were "absolutely false."

"No FBI agent fired any rounds from their weapons at Waco," Schwein said on "Fox News Sunday." He added that "there were no Delta Forces or special operations soldiers in an operational capacity at Waco" either. He said the Army had what he recalled as "three observers" there "but they took absolutely no part in the operation," which would have been a violation of federal law.

"Everyone on our side, and the FBI's side, were in armored vehicles, so I don't know how you'd have films of anybody firing into the back of the building," Schwein said. "No one was on foot because we had no body armor that would stop the rounds they were firing."

Women and children among the 86 dead in the FBI siege at Waco, Texas, faced the choice of being burned alive in an inferno or shot to death by FBI agents blocking their escape, a chief critic said yesterday. Michael McNulty, producer of a new film on the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, told "Fox News Sunday" he had evidence that FBI sharpshooters were blocking the only exit from the burning building. "Once that building caught on fire, the women and the children and the adults inside that building had no way out. They had a choice of being shot to death or burning to death," Mr. McNulty said. He said he had footage of "individuals at the back of the building engaged in a gunfight" who were blocking the only escape route unmolested by tanks. Mr. McNulty's first film --"Waco: Rules of Engagement" --was nominated for an Academy Award in 1998 for best documentary. In his new film -- "Waco: A New Revelation" -- Mr. McNulty said he obtained infrared film, taken by an FBI surveillance aircraft at about 9,000 feet, that indicates the Army's secretive Delta Force and FBI agents fired at least 60 rounds into sect leader David Koresh's compound 51 days after the siege started. A tank is seen driving up to the compound and two figures rolling out. Three quick flashes follow.

Several other light bursts, all in quick succession, are shown further away from the Davidians' building. Heat signatures picked up by the camera also indicate that Davidians are shooting back, Mr. McNulty said. The clips will appear in his new film, due out later this month. Former FBI Special Agent Richard Schwein, one of those in charge of the siege, denied the exit was blocked. "Absolutely false. No FBI agent fired a round from their weapons at Waco," he said. He also denied that Army Delta Force or special services agents had used weapons. "Everyone on our side, and the FBI side, were in armored vehicles, so I don't know how you would have film of anyone firing into the back of the building," he said. "Not one round was fired by an FBI agent during that tragic day." New controversy has flared in recent days over the siege, which led to the destruction of the compound and the deaths of 86 persons, including 24 children. The FBI admitted last week for the first time that it had used incendiary rounds during the siege, a fact denied by the bureau and the Justice Department for six years. Critics of the FBI siege suggest that the flammable projectiles caused the inferno that resulted in the massive loss of life at the compound. "I think by the end of the day, there is a good chance that [the] FBI was getting desperate," said David Hardy, an Arizona lawyer investigating the siege. "They had exceeded the orders that they had been given by the attorney general. No one had come out of the building yet. They were going to look like the laughingstocks of the world. "And I think there is a good chance that some people decided to add a few pyrotechnic projectiles into the building to see if fire wouldn't move them out when tear gas had failed." The swirling controversy was issue No. 1 on the Sunday TV talk shows. Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican and chairman of the Government Reform Committee, was among legislators demanding an inquiry. Asked whether he now doubted that the fire had been set by sect leader Koresh himself, as investigators had reported, he told CBS' "Face the Nation": "That's a question that needs to be answered." "I think everyone has to question what went on down there," he added. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas Republican and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said no evidence existed to suggest that anyone other than Koresh set the fire. "But that is the ultimate fact-finding mission, and we have to reaffirm the previous findings," he told CBS. Two Republican presidential candidates, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, and businessman Steve Forbes, said that if they were in the White House, they would fire Attorney General Janet Reno for her handling of Waco and other Justice Department matters. Mr. Hatch, on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CNN's "Late Edition," said the Justice Department, which has authority over the FBI, is "in a shambles" because of poor management. Said Sen. Phil Gramm, Texas Republican: "There's a long series of cases where the attorney general seems to be always the last person to know." But Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said he saw a double standard in Republican attacks on Miss Reno, long a target of GOP criticism, while no one is demanding the resignation of FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, whose organization is at the center of the latest controversy. President Clinton, asked by reporters Saturday if he had confidence in Miss Reno and Mr. Freeh, pointedly supported Miss Reno but not Mr. Freeh. Concerning Mr. Freeh, he said there wasn't "any purpose to assign blame until the investigation is concluded." The leading Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, also noted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "we have an incident here in which Janet Reno is now being blamed for what the FBI didn't do." Mr. Conyers said he was a "little bit shaken by the fact that an FBI director should second-guess an attorney general," and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. said he felt "overwhelming disappointment" that the FBI had misled Miss Reno on Waco. Miss Reno announced plans Friday for an independent investigation to "get to the truth" of what happened at Waco. According to media reports, former Sen. John Danforth has agreed to head up an independent inquiry into the FBI's Waco raid. Mr. Danforth, a Republican who served in the Senate for 18 years before retiring in 1994, is pursuing a private law practice in St. Louis.