Assault on Waco, TX

Newsgroups: info.firearms.politics Subject: Waco Article From: ACUS10@waccvm.sps.mot.com (Mark Fuller) WACO What really happened during the government's   assault on, siege and ultimate destruction of    the Branch Davidians, and who is responsible? by M. Pietrantoni as printed in American Survival 12/93

[Most Americans believe the federal government's actions leading to the deaths of Branch Davidian religious sect leader David Koresh and nearly 100 of his followers at their compound outside Waco, Texas, last spring were justified and necessary to control the illegal activities of religious fanatics. Yet many troubling questions about the government's actions remain unanswered. And as of this writing, it remains unclear whether the Branch Davidians were in fact violating any laws. And critics are asking if the government's heavy handed tactics were justified--The editors.]

Why did the disaster of the destructions of the Branch Davidians in Waco happen? Was it, as the government would have you believe, the inevitable result of a religious fanatic who led those who believed in him to their deaths? Or was it something far worse, a government out of control? Or worse still, a government in control, knowing full well what it was doing?

The media and government played up the supposedly sinister and sensational aspect of "stockpiling" of weapons by the BDs, but in actuality, Texas Rangers recovered about 200 guns from the ashes of the compound, an average of 2 per person. In Texas the average number of guns owned by citiizens is about four per person.

The flaws and lies in the search warrant which the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, BATF, attempted to execute at the Branch Davidian compound are so numerous that it would take a book length article to detail them all. Here are just three of the more glaring examples of the flaws in the warrant:

- Special Agent Davy Aguilera, BATF, was the head investigator of the Branch Davidian probe. An affidavit by Aquilera filed in support of the warrant notes a conversation by another BATF agent, Carlos Torres, with one Joyce Sparks, a child abuse investigator with the Texas Department of Human Services. Ms. Sparks had twice visited the BD residence in Mt. Carmel to investigate reports that BD leader David Koresh (who changed his name from Vernon Howell) had been "sexually abusing young girls," reports, by the way, that Ms. Sparks found to be unsubstantiated. In Aguilera's affidavit he says that Ms. Sparks told agent Torres that during her second visit to the compound on April 6, 1992, "Koresh told her that he was the 'Messenger' from God, that the world was coming to an end, and that when he 'reveals' himself the riots in Los Angeles would pale in comparison to what was going to happen in Waco, Texas." If Ms. Sparks is to be believed then David Koresh may well have had a special link to the Almighty, since the L.A. riots, started on April 27, 1992. [Three weeks afterwards].

- In another part of Aguilera's supporting affidavit he cites the claim by one Marc Breault, a disgruntled former member of the BDs, that Breault, "participated in firearm shooting exercises conducted by Howell (David Koresh)." One can only wonder what kind of shot Marc Breault proved to be during these shooting exercises, since Mr. Breault is blind.

- In his affidavit agent Aguilera told the federal magistrate from whom he was seeking the search warrant, that Koresh was in possession of a "clandestine" firearms publication: The Shotgun News, a well-respected national publication which carries ads by gun retailers and wholesalers, and has a circulation of more than 150,000.

The February 28 raid by the BATF upon the Mt. Carmel compound, was in all senses a disaster. Six Branch Davidians and four BATF agents died and an unknown number of BDs (including Koresh) and 15 agents were wounded. Every aspect of the raid, from its planning to its execution was a case study in how not to conduct such an operation.

From a tactical standpoint dozens of questions about the raid have been raised, for example why were there no ambulances on scene for such a high risk operation? Why did BATF commanders give the go-ahead for the raid even though they knew before it had ever started that the Branch Davidians knew that the raid was imminent? Etc., etc.

There is, however, another category of questions regarding the raid. Questions which call into doubt many of the government assertions. Consider the following.

From the New York Times, March 28, 1993, "Moments before the trailers arrived at the compound, two Scout helicopters and one Apache helicopter from Austin, filled with senior federal agents, circled overhead."

"The helicopters had been supplied by the (Texas) National Guard, which typically lends them to Federal agencies only when the agencies need them for law-enforcement operations involving illegal drugs. Texas officials had been told by the bureau (BATF) that the three helicopters were warranted because of suspicions of illegal drugs in the compound."

"But for weeks after the raid, federal officials insisted to reporters that there was never any suspicion of drugs at Mount Carmel. This week, after the governor's office indicated that it believed it had been misled by the agency, the firearms bureau for the first time said the compound may have held a methamphetamine laboratory." It should be noted that there is no mention of drug activity anywhere in the search warrant. This use of military helicopters by the BATF appears to be a clear vviolation of Title 32, of the U.S. Code, better known as the "Posse Comitatus" act.

The BATF maintains that they were "ambushed" by the Branch Davidians, and that it was the Davidians who opened fire first. There are indications that the first shots may have been fired by BATF. In an article of the June 1993 edition of Soldier of Fortune, author James L. Pate notes that; "In phone calls to Texas news outlets and to CNN Koresh claimed an agent fired the first shot as Koresh opened the compound door to ask why the BATF was there. This is given some credence by one SOF law enforcement source who said an agent had an accidental discharge getting out of ... trailers used to transport and conceal agents--that he wounded himself in the leg and cried out 'I'm hit!'"

"A slightly different version was told by Brad Branch, a cult member who surrendered. On 23 March, Branch used a jailhouse pay phone to call a radio station and say it was the BATF who fired the first shots, wounding Koresh and killing his 2-year-old daughter. This matches information from FBI and Texas Ranger sources whose investigations indicate BATF fired first."

In June the House Appropriations subcommittee began hearings on the performance of the federal agents during the BATF raid. During those hearings, the FBI played for the first time publicly, a 30-minute recording of telephone calls made to 911 during the raid, by David Koresh and another leading Branch Davidian, Harvard educated lawyer Wayne Martin. It turns out that the tapes the FBI gave the committee were heavily edited and portions of the tape were played out of sequence giving a distorted impression of what really happened. Indeed The Dallas Morning News reported that a Waco police communications supervisor, Maria DeMarco, said the 30-minute tape was incomplete and "gives a false impression of how the event occurred."

This author has heard the actual tape, (it is much longer than 30 minutes) in its normal sequence. It is chilling to listen to, as Koresh and later Wayne Martin speak to Lieutenant Larry Lynch of the sheriffs office, amidst a cacophony of gunshots. Two portions of these conversations are particularly interesting. The first is Koresh speaking to Lynch;

Lynch: "What I'm doing is trying to establish some links with you."

Koresh: "No, no, no, no, no, let me tell you something. You see, you brought a bunch of guys out here and you killed some of my children. We told you we wanted to talk." Later in the conversation Koresh says to Lynch: "Now we are willing and we've been willing all this time to sit down with anybody." It turns out that Koresh, many months before had indeed offered to let the BATF come into the compound to check out his weapons.

In another portion of the tape is a conversation between Lynch and Wayne Martin. This conversation is on a speakerphone with Martin across the room trying to take cover from BATF fire:

Lynch: "Wayne, talk to me Wayne. Tell me how you are."

Martin: "I have a right to defend myself. You started firing first."

Lynch: "OK let's resolve it. Let's resolve this Wayne, before someone gets hurt. OK?...I'm trying to make contact with the persons outside (referring to the BATF). OK?"

A few moments later: Martin: "We've ceased fire but they're firing at us."

The Siege--Immediately after the fiasco of the BATF raid the FBI was given control of operations at Mt. Carmel. For 51 days the FBI tried using psychological warfare tactics against those inside. The first thing they did was cut off the electricity, water and sewer service to the compound. Of course this resulted in deteriorating sanitation conditions inside. Even though it was the government that cut off these services, both Attorney General Reno and President Clinton would later cite the sanitary conditions as a prime reason for the FBI assault of April 19. "The sanitation situation within the compound we were told was beginning to deteriorate," said Reno. And from President Clinton; "The children....being forced to live in unsanitary and unsafe conditions,"--Liberty magazine, June 1993.

As the days wore on the government began portraying the siege as a "hostage crises" and brought in the FBI's HRT, Hostage Rescue Team. The simple fact is that this was not a hostage crisis. Those who wanted to leave the compound were permitted to do so very early on, in fact some 37 people including 21 children left the compound voluntarily.

The FBI began ratcheting up the psychological pressure by blasting music and macabre sounds into the compound all night long. These sounds included the screeches of rabbits being slaughtered, as well as Tibetan chants. The sounds were accompanied by high power searchlights that were aimed into the compound as government helicopters flew over the buildings at rooftop level.

By day, government tanks cleared fields of fire, and crushed the cars, trucks, boats, bicycles and tricycles that belonged to the Davidians and their children.

All the while, the FBI was holding daily press conferences, assuring the public that they "would wait as long as necessary" and that "time was on our (the FBI's) side."

The Final Assault--According to Janet Reno, she "was convinced that the passage of time only increased the likelihood of incidents and possible attendant injuries and harm." Yet the FBI's own Hostage Negotiation Training Manual unequivocally states that, "Time is always in our favor."

Despite the manual, and the public statements, the government saw fit in the pre-dawn hours of April 19, to begin an assault against the Branch Davidians. There had been no provocation from those within the compound.

It must be remembered that what the world saw on TV that April morning, the Mt. Carmel compound aflame, was the very end of a more than six-hour-long assault by the government. That assault began with the absurd spectacle of government loudspeakers blaring "this is not an assault" into the compound while tanks were repeatedly ramming the building and collapsing its stairways and hallways.

And why would those inside need or want to escape? Because the government had for six hours or more been pumping a virulent type of teargas known as CS into the building. Yet according to an article entitled "Mass Murder, American-Style" that appeared in the June 1993 issue of Liberty magazine: "We find that a week before the assault, the FBI said that it would not use tear gas on the compound, because it feared for the safety of the children. It had evidence that the adults had gas masks but the children did not.'" However just seven days later, "the FBI's operational plan was to pump in gas until the masks failed -- which would require eight hours of continuous gassing." Also of interest is the fact that CS gas is to be banned for military use as of January 1994 under terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention. According to Benjamin C. Garrett, director of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, CS would have particularly impacted the children: "The reaction would have intensified for the children" since "the smaller you are the sooner you would feel response."

The government maintains that the fire which consumed the compound was deliberately set by those inside. Others theorize that the fire resulted from lighted kerosine lanterns being knocked over as the tanks rammed the building. There is a third possibility. One that is both disturbing to think about and frightening in its implications. That is that the fire was no accident, that it was purposely set by the government.

The American Justice Federation, AJF, headed by attorney Linda Thompson, has released a videotape of the FBI attack against the compound. A lot of the footage has been compiled from satellite feeds to the TV networks from video tape that has not been previously available to the public. Some of the scenes directly contradict government assertions. For example, one scene clearly shows a tank ramming through a wall of the compound two separate times. Each timee the tank backs out a jet of flame coming from a nozzle at the front of the tank and aimed into the building is clearly visible.

It has now been determined that most of the women and all of the children fled to the underground concrete bunker to escape the CS gas. The bunker was located underneath the lawn on the north side of the compound, not underneath the building itself.

Dr. N.S. Pirwani the chief medical investigator has stated that "21 of the BDs died of gunshot wounds but the rest died of smoke inhalation and suffocation due to being buried in debris when the bunker collapsed." What would cause a concrete bunker to collapse? The AJF videotape shows a tank moving backwards and forwards over what is described as the roof of that bunker before the fire in the compound ever started.

Dick DeGuerrin, Koresh's attorney was asked in an interview in SoF if the fire was deliberately set by the government. His answer, "I'm not ready to say that. I don't have any evidence to support it. I heard a rumor that six or eight specially trained [men] were sent in to shoot people...when you look at some of the wounds, they were not suicide wounds."

The End or Just the Beginning-- Waco, coming as it did just months after the government seige of Idaho recluce and racial separatist Randy Weaver, may not be an isolated inci- dent. Are we seeing a pattern established where the government will use the rubric of "gun control," "child abuse" or other allegations to attack law-abiding people it deems undesirable?

After the immolation of the Branch Davidians, President Clinton said: "I hope very much that others who will be tempted to join cults and to become involved with people like David Koresh will be deterred by the horrible scenes they have seen." He also, on the evening of the fire called Attorney General Janet Reno and said to her, "You should sleep well. You did a good job today."

The AJF tape, Waco -- The Big Lie, can be purchased for $20 from the American Justice Federation, 3850 South Emerson Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46203.