Posted on 11/26/2001 9:33:39 AM PST by Aerial
Waco Lies Revisited
"I do not think the United States government is responsible because a bunch of religious fanatics decided to kill themselves…"
~ Bill Clinton, April 20, 1993
"It all goes back to Waco" has become a frequent rejoinder in Libertarian circles and there is much merit to this profound sentiment. To many, the 1993 FBI-Delta Force assault on Mt. Carmel has come to symbolize the malign potential of the lawless state. Further, the February BATF raid and its deadly aftermath graphically articulated the worst fears of those who oppose the lethal convergence of police and military. Yet in a recent National Review On-Line (NRO) essay penned by Libertarian scholars Paul H. Blackman and David Kopel, the historical significance of this tragic event is inexplicably discarded.
Entitled "Waco Lessons for War," the November 6th editorial ostensibly urges Pentagon strategists to taken into account the strident Islamic beliefs which characterize Muslim terror groups. However, in the process of dispensing this advice, the two authors inadvertently rely on some of the more spurious government claims about the Branch Davidian religious sect.
While the discriminating researcher would be hard-pressed to equate a largely pacifistic spiritual community with Afghanistan’s ruthless Taliban fighters, Blackman and Kopel make little distinction between the two. Indeed, the essay draws a parallel between the battle-hardened Afghan rebels and the Davidians who are described as yet another group "sincerely devoted to do evil." With this sweeping generalization, a diverse congregation which included musicians, Biblical scholars, Harvard graduates, religious seekers, mothers, children, and senior citizens is transformed into a malevolent band of religious warriors.
In fact, readers are informed that the February 28 BATF raid on Mt. Carmel was repulsed because the Branch Davidians allegedly "fought with the zeal of martyrs" causing the most "humiliating defeat" in the agency’s history.
Not only does this grossly mischaracterize the nature of the February raid, but the use of the term "defeat" is highly disingenuous. This wasn’t a confrontation between two equal military forces, but an agency of the federal government seeking to search a private residence and arrest one individual: David Koresh. Nevertheless, Blackman and Kopel portray the religious group as a unique military entity with its own faith-based esprit de corps.
The fact that Koresh and his followers were tipped off to the impending the raid and failed to give themselves up is submitted as further evidence that the allegedly "evil" Davidians "fully expected to be massacred at the hands of ‘Babylon’ (the American government)." Kopel and Blackman substantiate this by citing the testimony of "apostate Branch Davidians" and ATF agents.
However, the vindictive opinions of disaffected church members and self-serving ATF agents cannot be considered credible sources of information and it’s surprising that Blackman and Kopel would even entertain such a notion – especially in light of their extensive knowledge of this particular topic.
A cursory examination of the evidence indicates that if anyone was preparing for a violent confrontation it was ATF. In the weeks leading up to the blundered raid, agency officials were openly soliciting the assistance of military officials and the use of the Army Urban Terrain facility at Ft. Hood, TX. It is now known that these tactical preparations directly contradicted the express wishes of then US Attorney William Johnston who, according to the Treasury Department report "informed ATF early in the investigation that he would not authorize a search warrant" for the Davidian property "if it was to be executed through a siege-style operation."
Without debating the question of whether or nor the arrest of Koresh was warranted, it is certainly not difficult to surmise that his apprehension by federal law enforcement needn’t have cost any lives. Texas firearms dealer Henry McMahon has repeatedly testified that the sectarian leader was well aware he was under investigation for violating federal firearms statutes and willingly offered to cooperate with ATF agents. Moreover, federal officials have yet to make a good faith explanation as to why Koresh wasn’t taken into custody during his daily jogging sessions or frequent trips into town.
His conciliatory relationship with local law enforcement provides further proof that the dynamic-entry raid was largely unwarranted. Indeed, even as helicopters buzzed the sky in the tension-filled moments before the ATF arrived, Davidian Survivor Clive Doyle has testified that Koresh remained committed to resolving the matter peacefully. "He wanted everybody to remain calm, go back to their rooms, just stay cool" as "he would go down to the front door and talk" Doyle recalls. 911 transcripts of deceased Davdian Wayne Martin’s repeated requests for government agents to cease hostilities certainly undermine Kopel and Blackman’s assertion that the "Davidians intended to become martyrs and enter heaven":
Wayne Martin (WM): "Yeah there’s 75 men around our building and they’re shootin’ at us at Mt. Carmel!
911 Operator: Mt. Carmel?
WM: Yeah, tell em’ there’re women and children here and to call ‘em off!
911 Operator: I hear gunfire who is this?
WM: It’s Wayne!
911 Operator: Wayne…tell me what’s happening Wayne.
WM: We got women and children in danger.
911 Operator: Wayne?
WM: I’m under fire…tell ‘em to call if off!
911 Operator: What?
Wayne Martin: Tell em’ to pull back…I have the right to defend myself. They started firing first!
~ Excerpted from Waco: The Rules of Engagement,
1997, COPS Productions
As the 911 tape suggests, bringing an end to the shooting and protecting lives was a primary concern among members of the controversial religious community. This is reinforced by the testimony of Ken Fawcett a video technician who obtained an unedited feed of the one-sided gun battle which reportedly captured images of an "unidentified Davidian" who was seen "repeatedly calling for peace" from a lower story doorway only to be met by a "hail of gunfire." Fawcett also viewed footage showing wounded agents "being assisted by Branch Davidians in the stabilization and evacuation of wounded officers" – behavior he finds "inconsistent with persons having murderous intent." ("Why Waco?," Secret and Suppressed, Feral House, 1993).
Although Davidians fired back at ATF agents in self-defense, they were hardly prepared to ambush anyone much less engage in a sustained gun-battle with trained federal agents. "People were running around everywhere asking if anybody had any guns. Nobody had any handy. Most of what we had was new, still in the box" recounted a Davidian survivor to James L. Pate. ("What the Feds Don’t Want you to Know About Waco," Soldier of Fortune, October 1993). In the 1994 murder trial of 11 surviving Davidians, even the most compliant prosecution witnesses who agreed to testify against their co-religionists would not contradict defense arguments that the inhabitants of Mt. Carmel "were terrified of the raid and acted in self-defense."(Carol Moore, The Davidian Massacre, Legacy, 1995).
As the standoff ensued and the remaining Davidians were subjected to various methods of psychological warfare in order to force them out of their media-dubbed "compound," Kopel and Blackman glibly assert that the close-knit group "grew all the more convinced of the truth of Koresh’s prophecies." While religion certainly played a role in the lives of the desperate worshippers, this analysis fails to take into account the duplicitous role of corrupt FBI officials.
"Davidian’s were suspicious of the government’s intentions" writes Moore who points out that FBI promises to obtain medical assistance, allow the Davidians to retrieve the bodies of their dead, and send their children to relatives instead of Foster homes were all subsequently broken. Others feared that evidence of ATF malfeasance would be destroyed. The disappearance of the front door which would solve the controversy over who fired the first shot shows there was a great deal of validity to these concerns.
Addressing the final raid of April 19th, 1993, Kopel and Blackman allege that Davidians "faced a choice: a few final hours of suffering on earth, followed by an eternity in Heaven – or an eternity in Hell, for deserting their prophet in the moment of greatest crisis." The implication of this statement is clear: the Davidians had the means to escape but opted to remain inside in order to fulfill the wishes of their crazed spiritual leader. While the two authors correctly note that the injection of a lethal cocktail of CS gas and methylene chloride inadvertently killed several Davidians, they fail to mention other life-threatening hazards which may have blocked others from fleeing the smoke-filled building.
"The FBI’s use of tanks on April 19, 1993 evinced an extreme indifference to human life" remarks CATO Institute Legal Analyst Timothy Lynch. (No Confidence: An Unofficial Account of the Waco Incident, Cato Institute, April 9, 2001). It is now believed that six children and three women perished due to these ill-advised demolition efforts. The trial testimony of Tarrant County Medical Examiner Dr. Nizaam Peerwani reveals that the nine corpses had no smoke in their lungs leading him to speculate that at least five of the children suffocated prior to the fire when a concrete ceiling caved in on them. Obviously many more were likely injured or possibly killed by these mountains of falling debris. Moreover, the tank destruction eliminated stairways, hallways, and ceilings in other rooms sowing mass confusion, stranding many, and blocking a number of once-viable exits with impenetrable chunks of fallen rubble.
The few who possessed the ability to escape from the deadly fire were further deterred by lethal FBI "ferret" rounds which were fired at Davidians by the hundreds. In fact, "newly released documents from the FBI show that agents asked for permission to shoot any unarmed Branch Davidians who left Mt. Carmel and approached their armored vehicles" notes Lynch. Although the request was denied no one can be sure these actions did not occur as the documents "outlined seven instances in which FBI agents threw or launched ‘flash bang’ grenades at Davidians who were exiting Mt. Carmel earlier in the standoff."
FBI Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) footage also provides documentary evidence that government forces were spraying the building with automatic weapon fire as the structure became engulfed in flames. Although the Bureau have repeatedly denied that its agents fired so much as a single shot during the stand off and its culmination, several examinations of the contested tape by no less than a half-dozen highly-credible experts dispute this contention.
In light of this contradictory information, it seems all the more unfathomable that two esteemed Libertarian thinkers like Kopel and Blackman would seek to resurrect the government’s indefensible "mass suicide" theory much less ATF claims that they were ambushed by trigger-happy religious fanatics. Nevertheless, these views cannot be reconciled with the facts as we know them. To the contrary, they stand in denial of all that we’ve learned.
Oops! I forgot to mention this.
Who was the young girl who testified before congress? Why, none other than Keri Jewell, herself.
Do you still believe everthing the ATF, FBI and the Media say? (rhetorical question)
dan
Good point. I always wondered why they had to "investigate" anything. I saw all I needed to see right on tv live when it happened. Before ATF: Peaceful citizens living on their private property for 90 years. After ATF: 80 dead people. Accident? Didn't look like it to me. It's usually not a coincidence when an army travels to and assaults someone's home with machine guns, tanks, flammable gas, and incendiary devices and someone in the home ends up dead.
I would refer you, Mike Manske, and MJM59 to previous threads on Waco and the rather excellent rebuttals already posted on this thread to refute the idiotic assertions which prompted my comments. Come back and ask me if you need help with the hard parts.
I disagree. The FLIR offers incontrovertible evidence to anyone who views it that the FBI fired into the building. It makes a firsthand witness out of everyone who sees it.
Guilty? Who said anything about guilty?
Waco was handled "by the book" according to Danforth's final report. Thanks to the report's being issued under cover of "election crisis" on November 8, 2000 and Bush's studiously avoiding all mention of Waco lest it "politicize" the presidential election campaign (oh, the horror!).
Perhaps you need to reconsider the PATRIOT Act and other measures of increased powers and profiling of innocent citizens given the fact that -- clearly -- neither Bush nor the GOP had any problems with Clinton and Reno's handling of Waco.
... folks like you consider it "case closed" when -- to borrow a Brzerzinsky phrase re: Kosovo -- it's "a microcosm of what the world is about to be" ... even in the land of the "Prairie Chapel" ranch.
And therein lies the rub. Exactly what are you "seeing" on this FLIR that originally came from the FBI?
The truth is that you are "seeing" exactly what the FBI wants you to "see." It's a diversion.(Waco: A New Revelation)
You can't see the "shooter" and you can't see the "shootee".
More importantly, examining the photos of the back of the building just prior to the time when the fire broke out shows that the "shooters" couldn't see the "shootees" because there were wooden and concrete walls between the two. Look at where the bodies of those whom died from gunshot wounds were recovered.
None were found near any of the exits located at the rear of the building. All were found either inside, in front of or on top of the concrete pantry.
Those bullets must be made of a substance that's more magical than the one used to kill Kennedy because they are able to pass right through poured concrete walls without leaving a single mark.
Look at the forensic evidence. All of the peoples' bodies whom were killed on February 28 still contained the round that killed them. Of those whom the government claims were shot and killed on April 19, not a single one was recovered with a projectile that caused their deaths still inside their bodies . Talk about magic bullets!
The reality of the situation was that the Davidians were probably killed in the days leading up to April 19.
Look at the widely varying states of decomposition of the bodies. Look at the fact that the FBI allowed the bodies to liquify to prevent any detailed examination of the causes of death. No effort was made during the time of recovery to determine the cause or more importantly, the time of death, only the manner of death. Sure, they died from gunshot wounds. But the real question is how and when?
An excellent example is the circumstances surrounding Jimmy Riddle's and Phillip Henry's deaths. Both were shot to death. Both were found in the kitchen area in front of the concrete pantry. Neither had any trace of either Carbon Monoxide or Cyanide in their blood. A recent forensic examination came to the conclusion that Jimmy Riddle's body had been mutilated by being run over by a tank.
When CS particles are burned, they form cyanide. When Methylene Chloride is inhaled and metabolized, it forms carbon monoxide in the bloodstream. Given the fact that news video shows a tank driving into the front of the building to deliver CS gas into the kitchen area throughout the morning of April 19 points to one inescapable conclusion. These two were already shot dead long before the fire broke out. But these weren't the only two. Look at the forensic evidence.
According to Waco: A New Revelation, (WANR) Riddle's body was recovered from the back of the gym. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is yet more diversion. The feds want you to look at the back of the building where no gunshot wound victims' bodies were found and ignore the front of the building where all of these bodies were found.
No offense, but you have been duped by government propaganda. You are arguing the evidence they want you to argue.
dan
Ann Richards.
What exactly is the "socialist libertarian" movement?
TJ, I have NO idea. But I understand they have their own website. Seems oxymoronic to me. I've never checked them out. Peace and love, George.
There is no documentation that Koresh ever claimed to be Jesus Christ.
Besides, none of you want to say that Koresh was insane. Under our laws, that would mean Koresh was NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS ACTIONS, and that there was a higher degree of responsibility that fell upon the representatives of the law as they would have been dealing with someone mentally ill. You do not deal with the mentally ill by imposing sleep deprivation upon them. You do not deal with the mentally ill by demanding they "come out," but when some of them try, you throw flash bang grenades at them. You do not deal with the mentally ill by breaking your promises to them. You do not deal with the mentally ill by charging at their building with Bradley fighting vehicles, stopping just short of hitting it.
If the mentally ill have control of innocent children, the rescue of the children, without endangering them, takes precedence over everything else, provided of course that you, as a representative of the law, are not mentally ill yourself. You certainly do not protect children and infants by firing over 400 CS ferret rounds into an enclosed space, when your training manuals, and the manuals published by the manufacturers of CS warn not to use the chemical in enclosed spaces, and NEVER on children. You do not protect children by BLINDLY driving tanks into the dwelling where they reside, unless you are a tank driver for a Waffen SS armored infantry unit driving through a Jewish section of a European city in 1940.
This thread has brought out some bigots to make rotten comments. Opinion polls indicate that most of our people understand that the Waco people were murdered.
Someday we'll educate children to know exactly what happened at Waco. At that time we will find out if the government will allow us to do that or whether fascism will really rule us.
Ok, what law did he break? Looney? Or just different from say you?
I realize minds are made up on both sides of this issue and for some time now. You can't change mine nor me yours. But just to be sure you know what you are talking about, what laws did Koresh break?
You mean with the cooperation of the FBI? Didn't the FBI take over after the BATF failed to take out Koresh in the initial raid?
No need to patronize me, you Democrat-loving blatherskite you.
Still planning to vote a straight Donkey ticket in 2002, or were you just throwing a hissy fit when you made this stupid statement?
Forgot what you have learned about Koresh, whether correctly or incorrectly, because it is irrelevant.
The Feds massacred men, women, and children.
Hope I don't offend you, but you know nobody called the Branch Davidians a cult until mid-february, 1993. At that time a couple of newspaper articles did refer to them as a cult. For 70 years those people lived in Waco and nobody called them a cult. Then all of a sudden they were a cult. And then the federal government attacked them according to all evidence. Then people justified the killings by saying that they were a cult or that Koresh was weird.
I was hoping to pass that one by without you seeing it, I'll have to be careful.
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