Waco Massacre and Holocaust Revisited After 28 Years

Twenty eight years ago this April seventy six men, women and children were murdered in a government sanctioned holocaust outside Waco, Texas, at a place called Mt. Carmel. April 19th, 1993, was a day that would indeed “go down in infamy”.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Whether you love the Davidians, hate them, think they were guilty or innocent, wanted revolution or more, they were Americans. As Americans we all should expect certain things in our society that reflect our national cultural values such as being innocent of any civil or criminal charge until proven guilty by a court of law. If charged with a crime that means having your day in court to prove your innocence or not. We should not expect to be charged, tried and executed in the field by agents from the government! These things are commonly expected and are not unreasonable in a nation of laws like the United States, that is the meaning of justice. In fact, that is what this country was built upon, but that is not what happened at Waco.

There are many facts about the Waco Massacre that have been concealed or lost for many years for various reasons. There were many wrongs committed at the Mt. Carmel home of the Branch Davidians by members of the sect and by members of the government agencies. This editor had a news reporter in Waco at that time who reported to me daily in 1993 on what was taking place at the Mt. Carmel complex outside Waco, Texas, at the ranch and at the press conferences. Even more information has come forth since then by other witnesses. in the end the siege became a ‘lightning rod for controversy over religious liberty, personal freedom, and federal overreach.’ — Editor

 

Twenty eight years ago this spring 82 Americans were attacked and murdered (six in February, 76 on April 19, 1993) in a 51 day siege by government agencies along with 80 of their agents. They were Americans of every racial background, from all over the country, both men and women, boys and girls. They were located deep in the heart of Texas on property owned by the same group since the 1950’s. They had named it Mt. Carmel.

The group was a reform movement of the 7th Day Adventist Church called the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians were an offshoot of the Davidians which had been founded in 1935. They eventually separated in 1955 and purchased their own land two years later near Axtell, 13 miles northeast of Waco, Texas. It was eventually led by a man named Vernon Howell. Howell later changed his name to David Koresh to reflect what he believed was his role in church prophecy. Koresh considered himself a prophet of the church, and many of his followers agreed with him.

As a Bible student and a prophet of the Branch Davidians he was aware of a Biblical prophecy that an armed opponent named Babylon would confront the church and God’s people. Koresh and the Mt. Carmel church had made note of the Biblical text and were physically and spiritually preparing to confront the beast.

One of the ways the Davidians began to prepare was by starting to accumulate firearms. They were buying firearms for themselves and created an inventory to make available to have some to sell. There are reports of between 300-305 firearms recovered from the burned ashes of the Mt. Carmel complex, that averages out to about four firearms per person. The dominant media and government agencies labeled their inventory as “stockpiling”. In America there is no limitation on the number of firearms anyone can own. All in all the Davidians owned no more guns per person than the average Texan where 45% of the population—around 9 million people at that time—owned two to five firearms each, and almost 20% owned more than five firearms each. One of the Waco fire survivors was David Thibodeau, he said that many ‘Davidians had their own firearms and that they were regularly joined at their shooting range by local folk and townspeople.’

Koresh was a charismatic yet forceful, headstrong and stringent church leader who was a love him or hate him style leader. Koresh  was accused of firearms violations, child abuse and statutory rape by disgruntled ex-Branch Davidians members who did not agree with his style, behavior, methods of leadership or control within their confines. Some of that may have had to do with Koresh commandeering the wives of other men within the Davidian complex.

Law enforcement authorities including Jack Harwell, Sheriff of McLennan County, said after investigation that they did not have any evidence that would prove he had committed rape or that he had abused children. Regarding the firearms charges, it was found that all the Davidian firearms and parts were legally purchased.

In the first week of the confrontation February 28, 1993, between the Davidians and the BATF there were 21 children released from the compound. In a 2003, ABC News Program Special interview, The Children of Waco, some of the survivors, including one of Koresh’s wives, Dana Okomoto, said she beat her infant child at Koresh’s command.

 

The big question in all this is why?

Why would federal agencies want to lead a full scale attack and raid on a relatively small and unknown religious sect? Isn’t domestic abuse of wives and children under state authority? Why would these federal agencies be so aggressive, standoffish, and militaristic? Why or what caused the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to consider the Branch Davidians a threat to society, themselves or be considered a threat to anyone? If government agencies had proof of illegal activities why didn’t they arrest Koresh when he was in town or when they were with him prior to the assault on the Davidian complex? Why would these agencies come on to their property with guns blazing when Koresh and the people were readily accessible most of the time prior to the raid? And why would the national leadership of several  governmental ABC agencies and the US Attorney General approve of such a raid on US citizens?

 

As much as the dominant media has demonized them, and in some cases flat out lied about them, the Branch Davidians were not a terrorist organization, not drug dealers, not human traffickers, not illegal gun runners, not smugglers, nor were they an attacking army or suicidal, and state law enforcement has said they did not have evidence of any child abuse. This was a small primitive religious group, an offshoot of a major Christian denomination, who kept to themselves for the most part tending to their day to day living activities of religious training. They were like many people in this country: affiliated with a church that may have strong religious convictions, tended to be independent minded, and believed in the freedoms that most people in this country enjoyed at that time, including owning firearms.

While they were similar, they were also different. Perhaps they were different from your family and mine. Maybe they focused on different priorities, looked at the world in a different way, had differing views of the Bible and how those tenets apply and what they mean to all of us today. They had separated themselves from much of the world that most people participate in today, as well as then.

 

How It All Started

Koresh had been accused of several things, among them illegal firearms. The local Sheriff had gotten information from an UPS driver that he suspected illegal arms were being shipped to the Davidians. The Sheriff contacted BATF special agent Bill Buford and asked ATF to investigate possible federal gun violations in May 1992.

In July 1992, Koresh found out he was under investigation by the ATF for illegal arms trafficking. On July 30th he invited ATF agents, through his gun dealer Henry McMahon, to his residence to inspect his firearms. McMahon, who owned a gun store in Waco, stated that, “David Koresh has purchased at least fifty thousand dollars worth of firearms from me. In July of 1992, BATF officers came to my store, asking about Koresh and his gun purchases. I called David Koresh, while the BATF were still in the store. Koresh told me that if there is a problem, tell them to come out here. I offered to take the BATF agents out to the Mount Carmel compound to see the firearms that Koresh had purchased, but the BATF agents declined.”

McMahon gave Congressional testimony that while he was talking with ATF officer Davey Aguilera, he called Koresh on the phone to set up a time to visit. Yet ATF agent Davey Aguilera declined Koresh’s offer, instead motioning for McMahon not to call him when he was already on the phone with Koresh.

Also, in Congressional testimony Editor Stuart Wright of Armageddon at Waco said he had knowledge that Koresh had invited BATF agent on July 30th, 1992, though his gun dealer Henry McMahon to come out and inspect his firearms. Odd behavior for someone who is reported to have been to Mt. Carmel and on the shooting range with Koresh. The BATF set up an observation post across the street from the Davidians in January 1993.

Koresh had gotten word that an ATF raid was about to occur with firearms. He prepared to stop an aggressive federal agency breaking into his home, one whom he had just days before invited to come in through the front door.

The ATF agents were at Ft. Hood, Texas receiving a crash course in “drug interdiction” and preparing to raid the Mt. Carmel home of the Davidians. According to New Mexico Congressman, at that time, Steven Shiff, “in order to get that training they had to misrepresent their mission” at Mt. Carmel.

On February 28, 1993, three military helicopters launched a Sunday morning attack with no warning while the BATF rolled up in front of the Davidian complex in two tarp covered cattle carriers with 70 agents underneath. Suddenly, the tarps flipped back and agents blurted out “Showtime” and began firing. The Libertarian Institute recently wrote “The ATF never attempted to present the search warrant. Several ATF agents said that the feds shot first.”

An unarmed David Koresh was shot by the agents after he stepped onto his front porch. Former Koresh follower Clive Doyle said in an interview April 12, 2018, on CBS News affiliate KWTX TV in Waco, that “The minute David [Koresh] got shot, that is when people started retaliating.”

Mt. Carmel survivor Clive Doyle, told Texas Monthly in 2008 that, “The government tells it as though we were waiting for them in ambush, and then we just opened up and blasted the daylights out of them. That’s not true. If we had been waiting for them, they would never have gotten out of those trailers.”

The American Conservative stated that “Prior to the assault, the ATF alerted several television stations to assure coverage of a raid expected to seize a big cache of weapons.” Richard Powers, in his book, Broken: The Troubled Past and Uncertain Future of the FBI, wrote that “Mike Wallace [of CBS’s 60 Minutes] reported that “almost all the agents we talked to said they believe the initial attack on that cult in Waco was a publicity stunt—the main goal of which was to improve ATF’s tarnished image.”

A 1996 Congressional investigation stated that at almost anytime “David Koresh could have been arrested outside the Davidian compound.” The investigation report went further and stated that the “ATF deliberately chose a “dynamic entry approach. The bias toward the use of force may in large part be explained by a culture within ATF,” including “promotional criteria.”

The report continued that “In making this decision ATF agents exercised extremely poor judgment, made erroneous assumptions, and ignored the foreseeable perils of their course of action.”

The BATF claimed a dynamic attack was necessary because Koresh was a paranoid recluse, who almost never came out of his home. This was later proved to be a lie.

Six years after the attack former federal lawyer David Hardy revealed an ATF memo that showed who federal agents had been with nine days before the raid. The ATF “Report of Investigation” revealed that two undercover ATF agents invited Koresh to go shooting. These agents were known by Koresh and apparently he was not a threat to them as they handed him their firearms.

Koresh, and the two agents, along with two other Davidians went shooting. The agents provided the guns and Koresh provided the ammo. The ATF undercover agents’ official report, filed before the raid, noted: “Mr. Koresh stated that he believed that every person had the right to own firearms and protect their homes.” Hardy wrote in 2018, that “The report was approved all the way up to the special agent in charge, who would command the raid.”

Koresh could have been arrested the day he was shooting with the agents very easily. If the FBI or ATF had a warrant for his arrest why wasn’t he arrested? If Koresh was a person of interest, why wasn’t he brought in for questioning? Koresh had volunteered his cooperation for the ATF to visit the Mt. Carmel complex, but ATF had refused to even speak to him about it when a mutual go between had him on the phone. If Koresh was an extreme danger to the community and he had “illegal machine guns” what prevented the agents from making an arrest that day based on fact?

Lack of a search warrant doesn’t usually stop law enforcement from obtaining one after the fact if they’ve got the goods on someone. Was it the case that arresting him that day would alter prearranged publicity plans that were in the works for a big splash to rescue the scandal ridden agency and revive their budget?

The initial raid in February left six Davidians and four BATF agents dead. This was the beginning of the 51 day standoff between the Davidians and the federal agencies.

 

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.   —  US Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendment IV

 

The public relations department of the BATF and the FBI were hard at work. They had succeeded to create a circus like scene in Waco with the dominant media calling Koresh a “cult leader”. Koresh maintained that he was not, he was greatly disturbed by that moniker. He stated that anyone wanting to leave was free to go, and some did. Those who left the compound were charged by law enforcement with child abuse and put in jail.

Retired BATF Deputy Director Robert Sanders gave Congressional testimony that the ATF agents believed the raid was for “publicity”. Author Stuart Wright wrote in his book Armageddon at Waco that “there is some evidence that the ATF insisted on a dynamic entry because it would create favorable news coverage just prior to budget and appropriations hearings in Washington.” In other words Wright thought the federal agencies were trying to get more federal taxpayer money and increase their budget.

In February 1993, the BATF unsuccessfully attempted to invade the home of the Davidians which had been dubbed a “compound”. The raid was based on a “search warrant relating to alleged sexual abuse charges and illegal weapons violations.” A Congressional hearing later determined that accusations of sexual abuse charges were outside the scope of the BATF.

Also in Congressional testimony after the massacre, BATF Special Agent Chuck Sarabyn, said the primary mission was to serve a search warrant for “machine guns and explosive devices” they suspected were being manufactured and obtain those illegal weapons. Geoffrey Moulton with US Treasury Dept. explained that they were concerned for the Davidian’s safety and that of the community.

Koresh and the Branch Davidians sold guns as firearms dealers to raise money for their church. They bought and sold at gun shows according to testimony given before Congress by Dick Reavis, author, The Ashes of Waco.

 

From early on in their mission to get Koresh to surrender, the ATF and then the FBI used psychological warfare on the Davidians by playing loud noise music at night, strange, bizarre and wicked sounds of animals being slaughtered and people screaming, and other unworldly audio around the clock to disturb the sleep of those inside the living quarters.

Although there were rumors of child abuse and rape the “Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas/Child Abuse” found that “evidence was insufficient to establish probable cause to indict”. A criticism of the ATF and FBI was that Koresh and many members of the Branch Davidian church were frequently in town and could have easily been detained then instead of creating a more complex situation involving many other people.

Because of the absence of communication equipment and the plethora of public relations personnel on hand and the daily press conferences, many in Congress questioned the legitimacy of the mission. In the spring of 1993, this editor had a reporter on hand who reported daily what was taking place. That reporter was eventually restricted from the FBI daily press conferences for asking embarrassing questions the FBI did not want asked.

 

Texas National Guard helicopters fired automatic weapons into the Davidian home from the air. At first a FBI negotiator denied that the helicopters even had weapons and were not firing, as recorded on 911 phone transcripts. Koresh called the negotiator a “damn liar” and asked him several times to recant and admit that weapons were in and being fired from helicopters. The FBI negotiator dissembled that he was talking about “mounted guns”, not that they didn’t have any guns.

FBI snipers were located in front and back of the compound and shot one man about 350 yards from the house where he lay dead for several days. A seventeen year old was also shot on top of a water tower in the complex and the Davidians were prevented by gunfire from retrieving his body for five days.

 

The FBI and ATF decided it was time to take severe action and bring the situation to a close. On April 19th, 1993, Tanks suddenly appeared and started ramming their barrels into the walls and firing CS gas into the buildings, federal agents rushed in with ladders, climbed to the roof tops and quickly smashed windows to enter.

The federal agencies denied that CS gas was used for many years, but that was proven false. For those unfamiliar, CS gas is a lacrimating (tear causing) agent, actually a fine chemical ‘white crystalline powder producing a colorless gas when burned: chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS). “When burned, CS releases a deadly gas, hydrogen cyanide. And when methylene chloride — the dispersing agent of choice — is burned, it releases deadly hydrogen chloride and chlorine. Both chemicals, in turn, release large amounts of carbon monoxide. According to the Failure Analysis report, 44 of the 76 bodies recovered from Mount Carmel tested positive for [hydrogen] cyanide. And according to the coroner’s report, a quarter of the deaths at Mount Carmel were caused by carbon monoxide asphyxiation, while another 27% died of smoke inhalation.” The dust was propelled at the Waco Massacre by an organic solvent dichloromethane (also known as methylene chloride). The solution was dispersed as an aerosol via explosive force and when the highly volatile dichloromethane evaporated, CS crystals precipitated and formed a fine dispersion in the air.

Most of those with David Koresh died at Mt. Carmel when a fire raged across the Davidian complex. It is unknown exactly how the fire started but many believe it was started by federal agents breaching a building wall with a US military tank and injecting the highly flammable CS gas while federal agents climbed atop the roof and penetrating the interior.

A factor that should be noted is that when CS gas is ignited it produces hydrogen cyanide, a very toxic gas that is most often used in execution gas chambers. In a report titled Possible Lethal Effects of CS Tear Gas on Branch Davidians during the FBI Raid on the Mount Carmel Compound Near Waco, Texas by Prof. Dr. Uwe Heinrich, to Office of the Special Counsel John C. Danforth, he stated that the levels of hydrogen cyanide contained in the blood of those at Mt. Carmel were roughly 40 times that of someone who smoked one cigarette and abstained for 2 hours. Dr. Uwe further stated that the average blood cyanide level of Waco were lethal and “are well in the toxic and dangerous range.”

The Christian Science Monitor reported in July 1995 that “the FBI fired 400 football-sized canisters of [CS] gas into the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, in an effort to end the 51-day standoff with the religious group.” The FBI denied they had used CS gas for many years.

In 1999, the FBI finally admitted to using the highly flammable and toxic CS gas in their raid on these US citizens, and then they admitted to only “two” canisters. Even then they claimed that they had done no wrong, insisting in a CNN interview that “The ordnance was fired at the bunker in a direction far away from the compound,” and that the canisters “fell into a puddle.”

US Attorney General Janet Reno was shocked by the sudden turn in their answer and she publicly stated that she was “frustrated” by the fact that she had “consistently been told that no pyrotechnic devices were used“—in other words that no CS gas was used. The question is: Why did the FBI lie, and why did it take the FBI six years to tell the attorney general the truth? Especially since the question had been asked multiple times before.

The Monitor further stated that “The 1993 Chemical Weapons Treaty, which banned CS gas “during wartime,” was signed by the United States in January 1993. That was four months before the FBI’s final raid on the Branch Davidians. Today, experts say the reasons for banning CS gas are “compelling”. Ironically, although CS gas is banned in warfare, it is approved for use in an outside setting by police on civilian crowds today.

Dr. William Lambert of Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) at Pacific State University (PSU) School of Public Health said the impact of CS gas can last for weeks or longer. Lambert said CS gas is a “powerful oxidation agent which burn the mucous membrane so that the eyes, nose, and throat are left with lasting impairment for up to three months to fight viral infections.”

Again, the Monitor quoted The New England Journal of Medicine where it detailed the effects of CS gas in 1966. That study stated CS gas “could prove lethal, especially, with the very young, the very old, and the very sick.”

A public health document produced by Public Health England states that CS gas Is “flammable” and” reacts violently with strong oxidants causing fire and explosion hazard”. In addition the document states that the least amount of CS gas causes “discomfort, pain, lacrimation, blurred vision, periorbital oedema and blepharospasm are common following ocular exposure.” The document continues that “inhalation may cause sneezing, coughing, sore throat, wheeze, shortness of breath, rhinorrhoea, bronchorrhoea and chest tightness” and “may cause a stinging or burning sensation in the mouth with increased salivation, nausea and vomiting…” along with “stinging or burning sensation, pruritus, scaling, erythema and blistering can occur following skin contact.”

The public health document concluded that release of CS gas into the environment is dangerous and should be avoided. Chemical weapons experts say that the canisters come with warnings against using the gas indoors for any reason and that individuals will be incapacitated until “removed to fresh air”.

The effects of CS gas were freshly known to the federal agents and their chemical suppliers and they are multiple. Even so, Attorney General Janet Reno denied knowledge at that time after approving its use on a non-combatant civilian population. Even still, use of CS gas on a combatant military population is prohibited by law.

An interview with retired Dow Chemical Fire Propagation and Chemical Anesthesiology Eric R. Larsen, a Ph.D. chemist, thirty year expert in fire suppression and inhalable anesthetics said that the effects of the gas was likely to have caused “coughing, choking, unconscious, with some probably dead.” He continued that “some may be inert. They may be technically alive, but they’re not going to be doing anything.”

In an interview with The Austin Chronicle he further said there was more than enough evidence to prove that CS gas contributed to the fire. Larsen said following a court hearing where he was not allowed to testify that “methylene chloride, the dispersing agent used with the CS gas, was deadly by itself.” The Chronicle quoted him as saying he had “volunteered to testify for the Davidians at no charge”, and that he had submitted “a sworn statement to the court that was not seen by the five members of the jury”. In that sworn statement Larsen said “CS dust would “pose the risk of a flash fire,” and also that methylene chloride is a “very potent, fast-acting inhalation general anesthesia agent — nearly on par with Halothane, the most potent agent currently used in surgical anesthesia.”

By firing 400, or potentially more, canisters of CS gas into the Branch Davidian housing complex the FBI, BATF, military personnel and any others associated with the raid had created a tinderbox and the potential for a major fire. With the tanks cutting into the structure like a can opener and firing CS gas, which is a pyrotechnic device, the flames soon erupted throughout the building complex.

 

HYDROGEN CYANIDE IS USED FOR EXECUTIONS!

For clarity, the same CS gas that was injected into the Mt. Carmel home of the Branch Davidians produces Hydrogen Cyanide gas when burned and is the same gas used in gas chamber executions. In the gas chamber “the condemned person is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber. Below the chair rests a pail of sulfuric acid. Once everyone has left the chamber, the room is sealed. The warden then gives a signal to the executioner who flicks a lever that releases crystals of sodium cyanide into the pail. This causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide gas. (Weisberg, 1991).”

Those who are executed by cyanide poisoning are strapped in to the execution chair not because they will try to escape, but because the pain, contortions and contractions of the body are so extreme and violent that it would deter witnesses from observing. In fact, just two years following the Waco Massacre U.S. District Court for the Northern District of CA ruled that “the pain experienced by those executed” by cyanide poisoning is so great that it was classified as “unconstitutionally cruel and unusual.” This is what federal agents used on men, women and children claiming this raid was for the sake of the women and children.

When fire trucks arrived on the scene the FBI held them back and would not permit them to get close to the building to extinguish the raging huge flames. The firetrucks were held back by federal agents for what they claimed was “exploding ammunition” and to protect the firefighters against flying bullets. But this is a false argument. Firearms experts like the National Rifle Association and many others say that “Tests and years of experience indicate that there is no appreciable hazard in storing any amount of loaded small arms ammunition in a dwelling” during a fire.

“When small arms ammunition is burned, cartridge cases may burst open and bits of brass may fly about, but not with any great velocity, and usually not with force enough to be dangerous to life. The bullets generally have even less velocity than the brass cartridge cases… The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufactures’ Institute (SAMMI) reported a demonstration made by taking a large quantity of metallic cartridges and shotgun shells and burning them in a fire of oil soaked wood. The cartridges and shells exploded from time to time, but there was no general explosion of throwing off of bullets or shot to any distance. … The test showed that small arms ammunition when subjected to fire will not explode simultaneously but piece by piece, and then the material of which the cartridge and shells are composed will usually not fly more than a few feet.”

My Firefighter Nation magazine says that “Ammunition that is stored in the boxes sold by the manufacturer is not dangerous in a fire. If ignited by intense heat, the brass or plastic cartridge will burst. The particles will not travel very far. The protective clothing that firefighters wear will protect them.”

The magazine continues that under rare conditions a “cook-off” occurs where ammunition can explode when  stored in metal canisters. In that case the Firefighting magazine reported “when a bullet blows up in such a situation, the brass casing that holds the gunpowder generally bursts. That can send fragments flying at high speeds, but the bullet itself doesn’t necessarily go anywhere.” The magazine continued that one firefighting veteran said he’s “dealt with exploding ammunition a handful of times in his 25-year career with the Fire Department.” The firefighter said it’s “not completely uncommon,” but in 25 years they haven’t had “anyone being injured from it before.” One firefighter in this magazine offered his testimony of “I am not that concerned with loose ammunition cooking off. Even if it hits you, it just stings a little.”

Yet, two federal agencies—one whose whole purpose for existence is dealing with firearms and ammunition—held back firefighters. Rather than allowing professionals to stop the fires, the leadership of the FBI prevented firefighters from rescuing the Davidians. Instead the FBI allowed the fires to rage in a modern day holocaust through the screams and howls of the Davidians where the fire burned, tortured, and incinerated 76 men, women and children, some of whom were certainly alive while the fire raged. In a FLIR video of Mt. Carmel taken during the incident, gunfire from outside firing into the complex can be plainly seen as the fires rage. It is surmised that this prevented any Davidians from escaping the fires. The result was that any human life or evidence left in the buildings was destroyed.

 

Miraculously twelve Branch Davidians did survive. Of those surviving 12 Branch Davidians they were charged with murder and conspiracy to murder in the deaths of ATF agents even though the ATF initiated the raid on the Davidian complex. There were five Davidian survivors who received 40-year sentences for allegedly using machine guns.

Following the holocaust, there were 76 bodies recovered. The FBI claimed that the Davidian’s were homicide victims from inside the compound, but no independent investigation or autopsy was ever performed. The FBI refused local forensic medical help insisting that their own people do the work.

 

hol•o•caust hŏl′ə-kôst″
n. Great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life, especially by fire.

 

After seven years of waiting for answers to what really happened at Mt. Carmel there was a terrible frustration and disappointment for justice. Five jurors left the courtroom and about two hours later they had supposedly sent their verdict back to the judge. We can only assume that they sent their answer back because they left the building never to return.

US District Judge Walter Smith, Jr. read that the jury had come to a unanimous decision and found the federal government innocent of any wrongdoing in the Branch Davidian $675 million dollar lawsuit. FBI Director Louis Freeh was elated that now the Bureau was exonerated by the court, yet the public opinion on what they had witnessed was not satisfied because it had been clearly seen on live broadcast daily.

Constitutional lawyer Gerry Spence wrote in his book, From Freedom to Slavery, “If we do not preserve the right of our enemies to worship and to speak as they please, our own preachments of freedom are as empty as empty cans on the beach.” Again in his book he wrote “I found the minions of the law — the special agents of the FBI — to be men who proved themselves not only fully capable, but also utterly willing to manufacture evidence, to conceal crucial evidence and even to change the rules that governed life and death if, in the prosecution of the accused, it seemed expedient to do so.” — Gerry Spence

The Texas calamity left 82 Branch Davidians dead, among them 53 of the 74 Davidians killed were women and children. Four federal agents died, along with 16 wounded agents. A jury acquitted the Davidians of wrong doing in the deaths of the agents by reason of self defense. Nine people escaped with their lives from Mt. Carmel.

According to Congressional testimony, following the fire and retrieval of bodies the FBI totally destroyed the building. This was similar to what was done with other government controlled crime scenes like the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma in 1995, the World trade Center Towers in 2001 and others. No fire fighting was attempted or allowed following cessation of shooting until there was nothing left but ashes. The crime scene was disturbed by moving bodies, vehicles and other evidence that could have given insight on what happened.

Captain David Byrnes of the Texas Rangers gave Congressional testimony that the FBI was not using standard operating procedure by moving evidence. Senior Captain in the Texas Rangers, Maurice Cook, said they were commissioned as US Marshalls to prosecute anyone that lied to them. He said that he was confident that “Captain Byrnes and I were lied to” by the FBI.

 

“Waco did not happen because there were no standards to guide authorities… Waco happened because well-known and well-established arrest, hostage and barricade protocols were ignored.”

— James J. Fyfe, Senior Policy Research Fellow, Temple University, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, October 31, 1995

 

The Waco Massacre is an American tragedy. It’s a tragedy of big government run amok, of unchecked power emanating from Washington, DC, of federal  agencies protecting budgets not people, and of government agents acting as judge, jury and executioner in a heretofore Republic of free men and women.

 

The Waco Massacre was another heavy handed government operation that was instrumental in the rise of militia groups in the mid 1990’s. Waco was also cited by accused Oklahoma City bombing culprit Timothy McVeigh two years later as why he wanted revenge.

Waco was not the only time federal government agencies have assumed the role of judge, jury and executioner all in one. It happened just one year prior to Waco in 1992, at the private property and cabin of Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Some of the same government actors were present at Waco and Ruby Ridge where Weaver, accused of a misdemeanor of having a shotgun 1/4″ too short, was entrapped and stalked by government agents. The government mission to capture Weaver resulted in the ambush and murder of his 14 year old son Samuel Weaver, his dog Striker, and immediately following was the murder of Weaver’s wife Vicki who had her head blown off by sniper fire from FBI agent Lon Horiuchi.

After a ten day standoff Weaver surrendered and was charged with ten counts, including the original charges, illegal firearms sales and murder of a US Marshall. Randy Weaver was acquitted of all charges except the original charge, served time in prison for that and after a lawsuit was then awarded $100,000 for wrongful death of his wife. “The Weaver girls eventually got a $3.2 million settlement from the federal government for the killing of their mother.”

These events created a large movement of militia pushback across the country. In 1995 by Timothy McVeigh was charged with bombing the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City based on what he said was retribution for Waco. At OKC at least 168 people were killed in what many believed was a false flag by government agents to quell increased militia formation. Following the OKC bombing nationwide militia activity did die down.

Writer William Norman Griggs, writing in Lew Rockwell, noted that “Salt Lake attorney Jesse Trentadue explained that the federal jihad against the Weavers was an outgrowth of an FBI initiative called PATCON, or “Patriot Conspiracy.” The campaign was designed “to infiltrate and incite the militia and evangelical Christians to violence so that the Department of Justice could crush them.”

“Ruby Ridge was a PATCON operation,” Trentadue observed. “Waco was a PATCON operation. And so, too, I believe was the Oklahoma City Bombing.” Key in the coverup was Deputy Attorney General at that time Eric Holder. Holder later became AG under the Obama administration.

Many books and video media has been generated following the massacre at Waco. We have tried to bring another view of what really happened just outside Waco in the spring of 1993. Some of the references we used in researching this article may be of interest to those wanting to do more research, many of those are linked throughout the article. There are some that pointed us to deeper information to verify what they were saying was accurate. The information is out there if you’re willing to look for it.

Some resources of particular importance that helped our research outside of our direct sources of a reporter there at Waco and our first hand viewing of footage taken the day the massacre took place, are a well researched documentary named “Rules of Engagement” (ROE) by William Gazecki. ROE is available on YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon Prime and other outlets. It won international fame for exposing what really happened at Waco. Another good resource is a book titled “The Ashes of Waco” by Dick Reavis. Many others exist. These resources show multiple sides of the issues that were present then.

One big caveat in all this is accuracy and point of view, without that understanding the real story can be twisted any way you want. We want the truth, including all the good, bad and ugly, totally unvarnished. An interview with Business Insider said that the producers of a TV miniseries named “Waco” said they learned dominant “media coverage of the event was very one-sided,” and that they didn’t tell the full story. ROE and The Ashes of Waco showed the same distortion of truth was done by the government agencies there. In our opinion there was lots of misinformation that flowed from the government and the dominant media.

The events outside Waco in April 1993 rank as one of the most egregious events in US history highlighting extreme government misconduct. It marked the largest and most deadly raid ever conducted against Americans by its own government. It also marked an extreme failure on the part of the FBI to fulfill their stated mission to rescue the women and children of Mt. Carmel, who according to video testimony didn’t even want to be rescued.

Two hundred and forty five years after Americans declared themselves an independent nation among the nations of the world from the tyrant King George III, Americans in 2021, as well as in 1993, find those liberties guaranteed to all Americans are being challenged by big government and foreign ideologies bent on suppressing and removing those liberties. The ‘usual suspects’ once again think they know better than citizens what is best for the people. In America, according to our founding documents, men and women are free to practice our religious beliefs, have the right to travel unrestricted, exercise our God given rights to own firearms, and be innocent of any crime until proven otherwise in a court of law as free Americans. If someone is found guilty in a court of law, then a jury shall determine whether or not someone receives any sentence, much less a death sentence by the hands of a government agency. That’s the way it was in the America most of us grew up in within twenty years following WWII. That is the America that has been slowly and steadily morphing into the image of a godless nation.

Dee Brown, author of the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, wrote about the battlefield at Wounded Knee, “That ghost-haunted place itself, windswept and lonely, has become a modern symbol of unrequited wrongs.” The same can be said about the massacre of Americans at Waco.

 

Michael Reed is Editor and Publisher of The Standard newspaper, print and online, and TheStandardSC YouTube channel where many video reports may be found. Please share freely and donate to The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.

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