Waco Lies Revisited

"I do not think the United States government is responsible because a bunch of religious fanatics decided to kill themselves…"

"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!

WM: Yeah, tell em’ there’re women and children here and to call ‘em off!

Wayne Martin: Tell em’ to pull back…I have the right to defend myself. They started firing first!

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.

No, I am saying that David Koresh and his followers were responsible for their lives. They could have walked away any time...

I love it when people like you say that only the Branch Davidians were responsible for their actions thereby absolving the misdeeds of the federal agents who set the wheels of justice into motion.

It's a commonly known fact that the ATF agents knowingly lied about several facts to obtain their warrant including the non-existent methamphetamine lab, illegal weapons manufacturing and child abuse allegations.

Exactly what responsibility did the lying ATF agents have in acknowledging their lies and calling off the action before it escalated further? The Branch Davidians didn't swear an oath to uphold the laws of land and protect the Constitution. The ATF agents did.

Why didn't the ATF agents responsible for the raid call off the FBI and come clean about their lies after the raid failed on February 28?

More importantly, why do you hold them to a lesser standard of conduct than you do the Branch Davidians?

dan

No, there is enough blame to go around here. However, you can not absolve the Davidians ultimate responsibility for their own conduct. "The govt made me do it" excuse is getting tiresome. It is getting to be like the twinky defense. Freedom to do whatever the hell you want to do, whatever the consequences has destroyed the idea of personal accountability in this country.

Nice try at misdirection. I said nothing of the sort. Perhaps you should polish up those reading and comprehension skills.

It's illustrative that you still turn a blind eye to the criminal misconduct of government agents in bringing action against the Davidians in the first place. Instead, you blame the Davidians for the criminal misconduct of the ATF agents whom knowingly used an the false statements made in an affadavit as the basis for their warrant.

They knew Mark Breault was blind. They knew that the allegations he leveled had been investigated by both the State of Texas and the FBI and had been dropped due to lack of evidence. They knew that there was no illegal methamphetamine lab. They knew there was no child abuse. They knew there was no illegal weapons being manufactured at Mt. Carmel.

Yet, they still used his affadavit and concealed his background from the federal Magistrate in order to obtain their search warrant. Had they not done this, the raid on February 28 would never have happened. But they lied and the raid occurred anyway.

Now with these facts in mind, I will again ask; what responsibility did they have to tell the truth about their own misconduct after they'd caused the deaths of their fellow agents on February 28th?

IOW, why didn't they uphold their oaths?

dan

This will be the last that I post on this subject. As it is obvious that my opinion is in the micro minority here. I guess that it all comes down to the fact that I really do not care to get all whipped up into a frenzy concerning Waco, the ATF, or the Branch Davidians. There is so much more that is really important going on in the world, that Waco is a footnote in history.

Spare me the lecture on the attack on personal freedoms. People are so free in this country that they do not know what to do with themselves. I also believe that freedom is not taking everything that you can get and then wanting more. It is also about responsibility and giving back something for that freedom. What exactly did David Koresh give back to society?

IMHO, David Koresh was a self proclaimed false prophet. I can't believe that anyone would follow him for any reason. I went to a Church of Scientology meeting once and had major warning bells going off in my head saying that this was just wrong. I was outta there in a flash. I mean who would follow Koresh, and then die for him. 51 days is long enough for anyone to get the hell outta there. They could have plain and simple.

But then again, what do you expect in a world where people drink grape kool aid death cocktails following another false prophet or follow some other prophetic genius and kill themselves in order to follow some comet to meet ET.

Again, I wasn't discussing Koresh's behavior, nor was I discussing the philosophical leanings of the people whom resided at Mt. Carmel. They are free to live their lives as they see fit. Rather, I was discussing the criminal misconduct of the ATF agents that took place in the weeks and months prior to February 28 that resulted in an raid that was based upon a case fabricated out of whole cloth.

When it comes to the criminal misconduct of the federal government, you're in the majority. There aren't many people who are willing to face the truth about which crimes have been perpetrated against US citizens by their government or how the Republicans and democRats sold out the country to the Chinese. Fewer still do anything about it. Most are like you and prefer to bury their heads in the sand and concern themselves with who's on Leno this week, which worn out pop music star is retiring or whom is "rasslin'" whom on the WWF, ad nausem.

It was ever thus.

FRegards,

dan

Not being a smart ass here, just curious. What have you done about it?

No, you're being a smart ass. You don't fool me.

You've gone to great lengths to avoid answering my questions and instead blamed the people at Mt. Carmel for the criminal misconduct of the federal government and you're doing it still.

You've rattled on about how the Davidians were responsible for their actions after February 28, yet have studiously avoided the topic of the responsibilties of the ATF agents for their actions prior to February 28.

You still haven't answered my original question, so I'll ask it again.

The ATF agents lied in order to obtain their search warrant. What obligation did they have as federal law enforcement agents to step forward and admit this fact in order to prevent further loss of life after their failed raid resulted in the deaths of 4 of their fellow agents and the deaths of 6 Branch Davidians?

dan

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