Replies

The Army lawfully provided support in the form of equipment and training to civil authorities as required and in accordance with standing procedures.

So it was made to seem. The only way military equipment and support could have been used legally was in the event of drug interdiction.

It came out in the hearings that exactly none of the personnel in the raid team had taken either the OSHA course in the hazardous chemicals involved in drug-lab seizure, nor had ANY of them taken the course offered by the DEA on how to sieze a Meth lab without having it blow up in your face. It has only been in the last few years that Meth production has utilized pseudoepehdrine and ephedrine containing cold remedies in a different process to produce Meth, the older processes were much more chemically involved and the labs had only a couple of places in the procedure where things could be safely stopped. Otherwise, the evidence would destroy itself. The chemicals involved are dangerous/hazardous/toxic, and the types of releases possible in uncontrolled conditions, especially with gunfire, dangerous also.

The lack of training of anyone on the raid team simply indicates that there was not only no 'Meth lab' as early reports stated, but no possibility of finding one. Keep in mind that the ATF had a snitch in the compound right up until an hour or so before the raid (Koresh let him go), and the picture snaps into focus.

There was no justification for the use of military hardware on either the initial raid or during the seige, in fact, it was illegal.