Branch Davidian tragedy sparked government suspicion that still haunts us 25 years later

https://www.dallasnews.com/ ^ | 4/19/18 | Lee Hancock

[BBell]

WACO — The fire rose above the Texas prairie like a portent, an inferno consuming David Koresh and more than 70 of his followers in the Branch Davidian compound.

Koresh's personal apocalypse was televised live worldwide just after noon on April 19, 1993. Questions about what went wrong began to mount before the ashes were cool. How could a 33-year-old ninth-grade dropout convince so many people that he was the Lamb and God had willed this terrible end - nurses and teachers, a postman and a Harvard-educated lawyer, Australians and Brits, New Zealanders and an Argentinian-born Israeli Jew? Above all, why didn't FBI commanders realize they were fulfilling Koresh's doomsday prophecies?

"It was a mess, and we played right into it -- into a prophetic, apocalyptic ministry that David Koresh had been preaching for 7 ½ years," said retired FBI agent and negotiator Byron Sage. "There were no good options. It was damned if you do, you're damned if you don't."

After the fire came the fault-finding; something had to account for so much death. Four agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and five sect members had died in a firefight that broke out as ATF raided the Davidians' compound. It burned fifty-one days later, as the FBI sprayed in tear gas to try to force the sect to surrender.

The federal government blamed Koresh. Justice and Treasury Department reviews, a federal wrongful death trial and a $17 million special counsel's investigation concluded that Koresh led followers in torching their building and immolating themselves.

But federal inquiries also conceded that official accounts of the tragedy were marred by omissions and lies.

First, ATF leaders misled the public about why their raid failed, denying they went in after learning Koresh knew they were coming.

[kingattax]

totally accurate observation about a horrific act.

[mabarker1]

Yes, I’m sure that You are correct.

The more I think back the higher My BP gets...

Stupid fedz

[hal ogen]

Being suspicious of any government agent is a good thing.