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.
I think you are rephrasing the fact that he was, probably, guilty of statutory rape. Anything else?
It is difficult to comprehend why you think that a military style raid was necessary to apprehend this guy for statutory rape.
Oh and by the way, that wasn't the reason for the raid in the first place. The reason for the raid had nothing whatsoever to do with your allegation that he "abused men, women and children". The charges were weapons violations; in particular, a firearms tax, if I recall correctly.
He repeatedly broke the law (does the rule of law mean anything anymore?) and needed to be stopped.
I speak only for myself, I suppose, but yes, the "rule of law" means something to me. From what I have read it may indeed be true that he broke the law - by failing to pay a certain firearms tax. I don't know what you mean by "repeatedly", in this context. I guess each day you fail to pay a firearms tax constitutes a "repeat" of the initial law-breaking? Let me know.
In any event, I still can't figure out why you think a military style raid was necessary to apprehend a guy for an (allegedly) unpaid tax bill. Why didn't they just arrest him on his jog, if he was so dangerous?
Aren't you even curious?
Also, if you care about the "rule of law" so much, presumably you are equally upset by the use of military equipment in a raid on domestic territory. That, my rule-of-law-loving friend, is against the law.
As terrible as the Waco events where, I firmly believe that where the entire fault of Koresh and his adult followers.
Is this Belief of yours based on any actual facts? Just curious.
Further, while what happened was very unfortunate, something had to be done.
Why, exactly? Be precise. Who, exactly, were those evil Davidians threatening? Who were they bothering? Whose rights were they violating or whose property were they stealing or vandalizing?
Why did "something have to be done", so urgently?
Because of a three hundred dollar tax bill?
I am all for free gun ownership, but through legal means.
As far as I know Koresh wasn't accused of having guns through "illegal means" in the first place - whatever that might mean.
He was accused of neglecting to pay a firearms tax.
Why was a military style raid necessary? If you answer no other question, please answer this one.
Your continued defense of this crazed, armed, meglomaniac pedophile undermines your positions (unless, of course, you are apologists for crazed, armed, meglomaniac pedophiles.)
I certainly don't want to be counted among Apologists For Crazed, Armed, Megalomaniacal Pedophiles, but why don't you take a step back for a second.
We are discussing whether, and why, it was OK for the government to conduct a military-style raid on a home full of dozens of citizens.
What exactly are you saying here -
The only remaining charge you have against him is "pedophile", which (I assume) is a charge you make because he seems to have slept with one or more fourteen-year-old girls.
This is called "statutory rape", there are laws against it, it does not call for sending tanks to the suspect's home, and that's not even WHY they raided the place in the first place.
Which makes it a completely bogus argument.
So tell me again, this time using facts, and without relying on irrelevant charges such as "pedophile" (which was not among the reasons or justifications for the warrant or raid):
Why was it necessary to conduct a military style raid on that home full of people?
Prove it. The government couldn't.
SCARY!
There is a huge amount of evidence indicating that those people were murdered. This evidence even includes video shot by the Alabama Air Guard from 5 miles away in the air and the video actually shows government soldiers shooting at these people.
A big problem for you perhaps, you have to be willing to actually look at the evidence, perhaps you're too much of a bigot to do that.
Did you know that a Baylor Univ religious professor said that in his memory he never once heard anyone refer to the Branch Davidians as a 'cult' until mid-february, 1993 which was in a newspaper article just 2 weeks before the seige began. In other words for 70 years these people lived in Waco, the local college religious professor accepted them as normal, newspaper articles didn't refer to them as a cult and neither did anyone else. Then all of a sudden they were a cult and then dead.
Prove it. The government couldn't.
Vernon Howell thought he was Jesus Christ, and said as much on numerous occasions.
Is that looney enought fer ya?
Does that mean he should have been gassed and burned to death?
Ooops, I guess he just should have been crucified.....
L
That's silly. If they'd had a rock solid Anonymous Tip on the guy, they coulda had all those kids in foster care and Koresh in Criminal court (if not jail) rather than go to all this fuss over ... what, a matter of taxes, wasn't it?
Only the testimony of a couple of the kids who left and some of the mothers of kids who left.
As I recall, most of this was revealed in Congressional testimony, under oath.
Howell didn't need to be killed; he needed to be laughed at and humiliated.
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