The Unsorted BBS Collection/thegreatunsorted.tar/thegreatunsorted/texts/txtfiles_misc/news95

Text File | 1993-02-28 | 4KB | 66 lines

02/28/1993 Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
   WACO, Texas (AP) -- Gunfire broke out Sunday when federal agents
attempted to arrest the leader of a heavily armed religious cult.
One person was killed and at least two agents were wounded,
authorities said.
   Authorities had a warrant to search the Branch Davidians'
compound for guns and explosive devices and an arrest warrant for
its leader, Vernon Howell, said Les Stanford of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Washington, D.C.
   The more than 100 officers came under sustained fire from the
fortified compound for about 45 minutes Sunday morning. Authorities
were unable to get to the wounded agents for fear of further
gunfire.
   Cult members told authorities by phone that one person was
killed, but it was immediately clear if the victim was a law officer
or a cult member, Stanford said.
   The sect, an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, moved
its base from Los Angeles in 1935. The 77-acre compound is situated
about 10 miles east of Waco.
   In a lengthy report on the group Saturday, The Waco
Tribune-Herald said that it known to have a large arsenal of
high-powered weapons. Howell acknowledged having guns but said they
were all legal.
   The article quoted investigators as saying Howell, 33, may have
abused children of group members and claimed to have at least 15
wives.
   Howell denies the accusations of abuse said he has had only two
children. He and his wife, Rachel, were married in 1984 when he was
24 and she was 14.
   "If the Bible is true, then I'm Christ," Howell told the
newspaper. "But so what? Look at 2,000 years ago. What's so great
about being Christ? A man nailed to the cross. A man of sorrow
acquainted with grief. You know, being Christ ain't nothing. Know
what I mean?"
   Howell told The Associated Press on Saturday that his group has
"regular, legally bought" guns. "Do we not have right to bear arms?"
he said in a telephone interview.
   "I claim my father sits on the throne. Doesn't yours? Isn't your
father God? I claim my father gave me a book. The reason God gave me
the book is he wants me to show it to you," Howell said.
   The Waco Tribune-Herald said it spent eight months investigating
the cult, including talking to more than 20 former members.
   It said the group has military-type assault weapons -- one
unidentified former cult member said it has .50-caliber weapons,
AK-47s, AR-15s, Israeli assault rifles and 9mm handguns.
   The cult's fortress, called Mount Carmel, is dominated by a tower
with lookout windows facing in all directions. Guards reportedly
patrol the grounds at night, the paper said.
   Authorities had studied the group but found insufficient evidence
of child abuse, the paper said. But authorities had said they were
worried.
   "To tell you the truth, the thing that went through my mind is
you've got a cult like Jonestown," said Ralph Strother, an aide in
the district attorney's office.
   Jonestown was a settlement of American cultists in South
America's Guyana led by the Rev. Jim Jones. On Nov. 18, 1978, more
than 900 people there killed themselves by drinking cyanide or were
murdered.
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Notice the consistent efforts to portray these people as "nuts" and
comparisons to Jonestown and calling them a "cult", as if it is
somehow suspicious or illegal to have a group of any kind, notice
the reference to their guns as "assault weapons" (oh yes, how
sinister!) in order to justify the use of force against them, solely
to get their guns.  LT