Monster Media 1993 #2/Image.iso/text/waco_tex.zip/WACO_TEX.TXT

Text File | 1993-06-04 | 44KB | 690 lines

[It is a point worthy of mention to note the the Branch Davidian group had
 held the land near Waco since the mid-1930's.]


                              Truth and Cover-up
                         Sorting out the Waco tragedy
                               by Robert W. Lee

    Filtering fact from fiction in the wake of the disastrous confrontation
between federal agents and the Branch Davidian religious sect led by
self-styled "prophet" David Koresh will be quite a task.  Crucial evidence and
key witnesses were consumed by the fire that destroyed the sect's complex near
Waco, Texas on April 19th.  Then on May 12th, government officials, citing a
need to fill holes and cover trash and raw sewage for safety and health
reasons, rolled bulldozers across the burned-out ruins, further depleting the
inventory of evidence.  Moreover, many important aspects of the entire 51-day
standoff have become muddled as federal agencies and officials struggle to
justify their actions.

    On February 28th, more than 100 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
(BATF) agents stormed the complex to execute a search warrant for the
premises.  Four agents were killed and 16 wounded in the resulting shoot-out,
while six members of the sect reportedly died and an unknown number were
injured.  According to the affidavit on which the search warrant was based,
the sect was suspected of harboring illegal weapons and converting some of the
weapons obtained legally to illegal ones.

    The BATF apparently did not attempt (or intend) to serve the warrant in
the usual benign manner.  One agent involved told the "Houston Chronicle", "We
had practiced to where it took seven seconds for us to get out of the
tarp-covered cattle trailers we rolled up in, and 12 seconds to reach the
front door."

PAST COOPERATION
    In the past, the Davidians had cooperated with law enforcement and human
services authorities.  In 1987, for instance, David Koresh (who was then
Vernon Howell -- he legally changed his name in 1990) was involved in a
shoot-out with a rival for control of the 77-acre property.  Koresh and seven
associates were arrested, indicted, and tried for attempted murder.  The seven
associates were acquitted; charges against Koresh were dropped after the jury
deadlocked.

    The prosecutor in the case was then-McLennan County District Attorney Vic
Feazell.  During a March 1st interview with the "Houston Chronicle," he
recalled, "We had no problems" with arresting the Davidians.  The sheriff and
a deputy simply called Koresh and told him that charges were pending and that
he and his associates would have to turn themselves in and surrender their
weapons.  Deputies went to the compound and the suspects readily complied.
"We treated them like human beings, rather than storm-trooping the place,"
Feazell reflects.  "They were extremely polite people.  After the trial --
although we didn't agree with everything they believed or said -- many of the
staff were pretty sympathetic with them."  Feazell describes this year's
incident as a "vulgar display of power on the part of the feds being met with
fear and paranoia on the part of the Davidians.  If they'd called and talked
to them, the Davidians would've given them what they wanted."

    When Henry McMahon and Karen Kilpatrick operated Hewitt's Handguns in
Waco, they sold David Koresh some $50,000 worth of firearms.  During an April
21st interview, McMahon recounted an incident involving himself, Koresh, and
the BATF.  Noting that Koresh was always meticulous in filling out the legal
paperwork for his gun purchases, McMahon recalled that at the end of July
1992, a BATF compliance officer, accompanied by a trainee, visited the gun
shop to check records on the more than 4,000 guns that the store had sold over
the years, including more than 100 sold to Koresh.  As the day wore on, the
officer began asking questions about the Davidian leader and requested (and
was given) a list of the guns that Koresh had purchased.  McMahon then called
Koresh while the BATF functionaries were there.  As recounted by McMahon, he
said to Koresh, "They're here asking about all these guns.  They think it's a
big deal that you've bought so many guns."  And Koresh responded, "If there's
a problem, tell them to come out here."  McMahon offered to take the agents
out to see Koresh, but they declined.

    Could the arrest for Koresh have been executed while he was outside the
compound?  Federal authorities at first claimed that Koresh had been under
constant surveillance for about two months, had not left the compound for five
weeks, and was not expected to do so anytime soon.  But Paul Fatta, a Davidian
who was running errands elsewhere when the raid took place, told reporters
that he, Koresh, and others had gone "jogging down the road, almost three
miles down the road.  Five guys in tennis shoes jogging in shorts.  I want to
know why at that time, if they wanted him to come peacefully or serve the
warrant, why wasn't it done then?  We were off the property several times."

    Brent Moore, manager of the Chelsea Street Pub and Grill which Koresh
frequented, told the "Houston Post" for March 5th, "He was in here three or
four weeks ago."  One music store owner recalled that Koresh had stopped by in
early January.  When numerous other neighbors and merchants claimed that they
also had seen Koresh around town in the weeks preceding the raid, BATF
Associate Director Dan Hartnett admitted that the BATF had NOT been monitoring
the complex on a 24-hour basis, which contradicted the earlier claims and
meant that the agency was NOT certain of Koresh's comings and goings.

WHO FIRED FIRST?
    The crucial question of who fired the first shot during the original BATF
raid remains in doubt.  According to BATF intelligence chief David Troy, the
entire mission (reportedly named Operation Trojan Horse) was videotaped, but
the tapes are being withheld due to the homicide investigation.  The
unexpurgated tapes could confirm who fired first and clarify other key aspects
of the tragedy.  To preclude possible tampering, U.S. District Judge Walter S.
Smith Jr. in Waco has ordered the FBI to preserve all of the government's
audio and videotapes of the February 28th raid.  Unless complete, unedited
tapes can be produced, and soon, the widespread suspicion that the government
is engaged in a cover-up will intensify.

    Did those inside the compound even realize they were being attacked by law
enforcement officials?  Sect member David Thibodeau, who survived the fire,
was interviewed by the television tabloid "A Current Affair" for May 3rd.
Thibodeau claimed that fellow sect member Douglas Wayne Martin, a
Harvard-trained attorney, called 911 to report the assault.  As recounted by
Thibodeau, the "person at 911 put him through to another agency -- I think it
was the sheriff's department, but I'm not 100 percent sure -- and the person
at the other end of the phone said, 'Well hi, boys, how y'all doin' out
there?'  And, you know, Wayne's screaming, 'We're gettin' shot at!  We're
gettin' killed!  We're gettin' killed!'"

    Since tapes of 911 calls are preserved, it should be a simple matter to
verify Thibodeau's account.  But as "A Current Affair" correspondent noted, it
"has become a controversial recording [that] police refuse to release to the
press."

FLAWED AFFIDAVIT
    The search warrant issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis G. Green, dated
February 25th, was based on an affidavit signed that day by BATF Special Agent
Davy Aguilera.  The affidavit is larded with unsubstantiated allegations by
disgruntled former Branch Davidians and with inherently contradictory claims.
Some legal scholars have questioned the legality of the search warrant itself
-- which had to be based on "probable cause" -- in light of the flawed
affidavit.

    At one point, for instance, the affidavit refers to Aguilera's
conversation with a colleague, Special Agent Carlos Torres, who related to
Aguilera the gist of an interview he had conducted on December 4, 1992 with
Ms. Joyce Sparks of the Texas Department of Human Services.

    Responding to a complaint the agency had received from outside the state
that Koresh was operating a commune-type compound and was sexually abusing
young girls, Ms. Sparks had visited the compound on February 27, 1992 and
talked with some of the children.  She did not report that any were abused,
but (in Aguilera's words) had "talked to a young boy about 7 or 8 years old.
The child said he could not wait to grow up and be a man.  When Ms. Sparks
asked him why he was in such a hurry to grow up, he replied that when he grew
up he would get a 'long gun' just like all the other men there.  When Ms.
Sparks pursued the subject, the boy told her that all the adults had guns and
that they were always practicing with them."  Apparently both Ms. Sparks and
Aguilera viewed the episode as sinister, even though the same sort of response
could have been elicited from, say, a young Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, or
Alvin York.

    Ms. Sparks returned to the compound on April 6th and (as recounted by
Aguilera) "said that during her conversation with Koresh, [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.  Koresh stated that it
would be a 'military type operation' and that all the 'non-believers' would
have to suffer."

    That account, which was widely publicized by the media, helped to underpin
the contention that Koresh and his followers may have been plotting a violent
attack on Waco.  Note, however, that this account has Koresh claiming on April
6th that "the riots in Los Angeles would pale in comparison" to events in
Waco, when in fact the LA riots did not begin until April 30th, 24 days later!
Unless Koresh was indeed the prophet he claimed to be, something is obviously
amiss.

    On pages 14-15 of the affidavit, Agent Aguilera claims that a BATF
informant within the compound reported "that he [Koresh] did not pay taxes or
local taxes because he felt he did not have to."  Yet on page three, Aguilera
describes the 1987 shooting incident mentioned earlier and asserts that,
although Koresh's rival "was in jeopardy of losing the property by foreclosure
due to delinquent taxes which had not been paid since 1968," the "taxes owed
on the Mt. Carmel Center [as the compound was known] have been paid by
Howell's [Koresh's] group."

    And at yet another point, Aguilera asserts that a sheriff's department
lieutenant "furnished me with recent aerial photographs of the Mount Carmel
Center which had been taken by Captain Dan Weyenberg of the McLennan County
Sheriff's Department, Waco, Texas.  Among the things noted in the photographs
was a buried bus near the main structure. . ."  During her April 6th visit to
the compound, Ms. Sparks had noticed a trap door in the floor at one end of
the building.  In Aguilera's words, "Koresh allowed her to look into the trap
door.  She could see a ladder leading down into a buried school bus."  How
could an AERIAL photograph show a bus so deeply buried that it must be
accessed via a trap door and ladder?

    Despite such contradictions, Magistrate Judge Green signed off on the
warrant that led to the attempted search that led to the shoot-out that led to
the stand-off that led to the holocaust.

MYSTERIOUS TIP-OFF?
    At first, the BATF told reporters that the raid had failed because the
Davidians were tipped off by a mysterious caller.  It was subsequently
learned, however, that actions by the BATF itself and the other law
enforcement agencies involved may have enabled the sect to realize what was
happening and when.  At least 11 reporters were on the scene before the
assault team struck.  According to the "New York Times" for March 28th,
residents of Waco reported that their radio scanners picked up BATF agents
talking to each other on their walkie-talkies prior to the raid.  Helicopters
were overhead as the first agent set foot on the ground.  A BATF spokesman
acknowledged on March 1st that the local police were talking openly about the
undertaking on an easily overheard radio frequency 45 minutes before the raid,
but claimed that there was "no evidence" that it was a factor in tipping off
the Davidians.

    On March 11, BATF Deputy Associate Director Dan Conroy told reporters, "We
absolutely, categorically deny we contacted the media prior to the raid."  He
subsequently acknowledged, however, that Sharon Wheeler, a BATF spokeswoman in
Dallas, had contacted several Dallas-based news agencies a few hours prior to
the raid and asked for the phone numbers of specific press representatives who
could be reached "in case something happened" over the weekend.  And during
his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on April 28th, BATF
Director Stephen E. Higgins was asked by Representative John Bryant (D-TX):
"Did somebody at the BATF notify the press in advance of the raid?"  Higgins
replied: "Yes, I think there's evidence which indicates that someone did."

    An especially disturbing aspect of this whole affair is the extent to
which the federal authorities have relied on unverified charges by former
Branch Davidians as the basis for their decisions.  The testimony of
disgruntled members of religious organizations, of former employees, or of
embittered family members is notoriously unreliable standing alone.  The most
sensational charges about David Koresh's alleged adulteries, multiple wives,
sex with children, etc., have come from disaffected Davidians such as
Australian musician James Tom, who has received extensive media coverage for
his claim that Koresh once spanked his [Tom's] daughter for some 30 to 40
minutes (or 45 to 50 minutes, depending on the interview), until the child's
bottom was bleeding and bruised, because she would not sit on his lap.  Asked
why he did not intervene, Tom once explained that "I couldn't," because he
might get hurt himself.

    Tom has also charged that Koresh once asked him to surrender one of his
children for a literal human sacrifice, and that on another occasion Koresh
locked his own three-year-old son in a garage as punishment and told the boy
there were rats in the garage who liked to gnaw on children.

    Tom has said, "When I first saw him [Koresh], I thought this guy is the
spitting image of Charles Manson."  Why, then, did he join the sect in the
first place?  Why would he bring his children into a compound run by someone
he perceived as a Charles Manson clone?

    Tom could conceivably be telling the truth, as could the other disaffected
Davidians who have made similar sensational allegations against Koresh, but
there is simply no independent verification of their charges.  In any event,
even if these charges are true, they do not justify the federal intervention
that occurred.  Child abusers should certainly be brought to justice, but
child abuse is a local or state matter, not a federal matter.

DEMONIZING KORESH
    David Koresh was no angel (nor prophet, nor Jesus for that matter).  He
also headed a sect that most people would call a cult.  But how do these facts
explain the wild exaggerations by his critics?  During a "MacNeil/Lehrer
NewsHour" interview on April 20th, for example, terrorism expert Frank McGuire
claimed that "David Koresh left a trail of criminal behavior going back to at
least 1987," when the most that can be said is that he left a trail of ALLEGED
criminality.  FBI spokesman Bob Ricks labeled Koresh "a classical sociopath,"
Attorney General Janet Reno branded him "a dangerous criminal," "Fort Worth
Star-Telegram" columnist Bill Thompson described him as "one of the vilest
mass murderers of our time," and President Clinton said he was "dangerous,
irrational, and probably insane."  Such unsubstantiated statements have served
primarily to condition the public to accept the calamitous federal response as
justified, no matter how unconstitutional and brutal, since the target was
characterized as being a monster who had to be brought down by any means.

    At one point during the standoff it was rumored that Koresh was planning
to destroy a dam in the Waco area, presumably to initiate a Noachian-type
flood.  The charge, it turned out, was predicated on a letter Koresh had
written in mid-April claiming that he had been shown (presumably by God) "a
fault line running throughout [the] Lake Waco area," and that an "earthquake
in Waco is something not to be taken lightly."  Even the FBI interpreted the
letter to mean that the Davidians intended to destroy a dam, but the agency
was assuaged after Koresh lieutenant Steve Schneider explained, in the words
of FBI spokesman Bob Ricks, that Koresh was merely "predicting a natural
disaster, and there is no criminal intent of his part nor is he requesting
anyone else take action on the part of David to fulfill their property."

    But even after the fire, the rumor persisted, and "Inside Edition" for
April 21st somberly claimed that authorities had told the publication "that
there is concern that surviving cult members will try to fulfill that prophecy
by vandalizing the dam."  Needless to say, such an act would NOT fulfill the
prophecy, which entailed destruction by earthquake, not vandalism.

CHARGES OF CHILD ABUSE
    As we have already indicated, child abuse falls outside the constitutional
purview of the federal government.  Yet concern that children within the
compound were being physically and sexually abused has been cited by President
Clinton.  Attorney General Reno, and other officials as a justification for
federal intervention.  White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos told
reporters on April 21st that there "is absolutely no question that there's
overwhelming evidence of child abuse in the Waco compound."

    Indeed, as the ashes smoldered, Attorney General Reno claimed on April
19th that it was concern for the children that had first brought federal
attention to the Davidians, that suspected sexual abuse of children was a
basis for the original raid, and that the decision to punch holes in the
compound and insert chemical irritant was based in part on "information that
infants were being slapped around and beaten."  She subsequently admitted,
though, that "we can't prove it [child abuse] in terms of a criminal case."

    Moreover, the Justice Department acknowledged on April 21st that there was
no hard evidence of any recent child abuse, but instead only speculation by
psychiatrists who had studied Koresh, analyzed his writings, and interviewed
former members of the sect.  On that basis, the "experts" had concluded, and
advised federal authorities, that abuse had occurred and was probably
continuing.  Also on April 21st, 1,100 pages of unsealed documents were
released in Waco.  They contained only two allegations of child abuse, both of
which emanated from disgruntled former members of the sect.

    On April 28th, FBI Deputy Director Floyd Clarke told the House Judiciary
Committee that the Branch Davidians had used their own children as human
shields.  He asserted that sect members "would appear in the windows and hold
the children up" and would even refer to the children as "Kevlar Kids."
Kevlar is a bulletproof material.

    Clarke's account is evidently based on an indictment that occurred one
month earlier when federal agents used an M1-A1 Abrams battle tank to clear
vehicles, brush, and other debris from the front of the compound property.
Some sect members lifted children to windows, apparently to satiate their
curiosity about what was taking place.  There were no other indications of
evil intent, no display of weapons, no acts of aggression.  FBI spokesman
Richard Swensen acknowledged that the children may have been hoisted up simply
to satisfy their curiosity about the tank, but added that it was a dangerous
maneuver which "raised the anxiety level of everyone."  The FBI's concern was
understandable, but so was the Davidians' deportment, and the episode hardly
merited the self-serving spin given it by Deputy Director Clarke.

    In the wake of the tragic fire, FBI spokesman Bob Ricks told reporters on
April 19th that one of the surviving sect members reported that the children
had been safely placed in a bunker before flames swept the compound.  "It
appears that this was one final lie on David's part to assure the people that
the children had been taken care of," Ricks asserted.  But on May 14th, the
Associated Press revealed, "As it turned out, it was no lie:  Most of the
children were found huddled in the concrete bunker, enveloped in the
protective embraces of their mothers."

    During the standoff itself, the tactics employed by the FBI seemed to show
little disregard for the welfare of the children.  The bizarre psychological
operations (psy-ops) to deprive Davidians of sleep included recordings of
dental drills and rabbits being slaughtered, which was hardly conducive to the
children's welfare.  Indeed, if officials actually believed that adult members
of the sect were prone to child abuse, making them more high-strung and
emotionally exasperated could only make matters worse.

    On March 5th, FBI spokesman Ricks had said that the goal of the
negotiations was to make Koresh feel comfortable with the federal officials
and to convince him that authorities act in a humane fashion.  The "Houston
Chronicle" had claimed earlier in the week that psy-ops were being planned,
but on March 6th reported that FBI officials "deny that they have any plans to
use 'psychological warfare' techniques such as the loud rock music" used
against Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega in 1989.

PSY-OP EFFECT
    After the fire, FBI spokesman Jeff Jamar told "Nightline"'s Ted Koppell
that the goal of the psy-ops was to keep the Davidians "from being able to
sleep" and to "distract them and at least hopefully break down some of
[Koresh's] control over them."  Yet it is a well-established principle of
psychological warfare that sleep deprivation makes individuals more likely to
believe what they are told by those with influence over them.  Rather than
"break down" the sect leader's control, the psy-ops approach may have enhanced
it.

    Actually, though, the loud-sound, bright-light histrionics appeared to
have little impact on the Davidians.  They may have done more to unnerve
federal agents, and probably contributed to the "fatigue" cited by Attorney
General Reno as another reason for giving the go ahead for the April 19th
assault.  "Newsweek" for May 3rd noted that, according to Steve Schneider's
attorney Jack Zimmerman, the spotlights shining through windows all night
simply provided "more illumination for Bible study" and was "especially
welcome since the electricity had been cut off."  And FBI spokesman Bob Ricks
admitted on April 8th that if "we were to say psy-ops were to have the least
effect on almost anyone, it probably would be Mr. Koresh."  Its greatest
impact, in all likelihood, was on the children.

    The Texas Department of Human Services had on at least three prior
occasions investigated allegations of child abuse at the compound.  Both
children and adults were interviewed, but investigators were unable to gain
any hard or credible evidence of abuse.  Similarly, 12 children were released
during the early days of the standoff, and authorities could find no evidence
of abuse.  Janice M. Caldwell, executive director of the Texas Department of
Protective and Regulatory Services, told reporters on March 5th, "They're in
remarkably good shape considering what they have been through.  No signs of
physical abuse have been found."  The next day's "Houston Post" reported that
authorities had found that "all the youths appear to be in good condition
psychologically and physically," and that only one child required even "minor
medical attention."  Social worker Joyce Sparks, according to the "Post,"
"said the children are remarkably well-educated and they're fascinated by the
books in the residence where they're staying."

PSYCHOBABBLE
    But while authorities who checked the children could find no evidence of
abuse, a team of therapists led by Dr. Bruce D. Perry announced on May 4th
that the kids were afflicted with all sorts of problems.  Dr. Perry, chief of
psychiatry at Texas Children's hospital and vice chairman for research of the
department of psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, spent
two months working with 19 of the 21 children (the others were too young).
While his team's report did not claim that the children had been physically or
sexually abused (he specifically said that the team had found no evidence to
support President Clinton's and Attorney General Reno's contention that the
children had been abused), Dr. Perry told reporters that the children had been
subjected to harsh physical discipline for minor infractions, that round
lesions that might have been caused by paddling were found on the buttocks of
some of the girls, that there had been gym classes that included marching and
drilling POSSIBLY with firearms, that Koresh had told the children to call
their parents "dogs," that only he was to be referred to as their father, that
girls as young as 11 were given a plastic Star of David signifying that they
were ready to have sex with Koresh, etc.  Dr. Perry also claimed that the
children feared Koresh, even though he acknowledged that nearly all of them
talked about their love for him.  "Fear is what it was," he said during an
interview.  "They learned to substitute the word 'love' for fear."

    The credibility of much of what the children told the Perry team is
questionable.  As "Newsweek" for May 17th observed, "Some of the children's
more fantastic stories may not be true.  In his report, Perry mentions that
several children said dead babies were kept in the freezer until they could be
burned or buried.  Perry says that there's no way to determine the accuracy of
these stories."  Nor is there a way to determine the accuracy of the stories
Dr. Perry does appear to believe.

    In one of the most dramatic segments of his May 4th news conference, Dr.
Perry displayed pictures drawn by the children.  In one instance a girl had
depicted her "home" and when Dr. Perry asked if there was anything else, the
youngster took the crayon and pounded a number of marks at the top of the
structure.  When Dr. Perry asked what it meant, she replied, "bullets."  This
was viewed as an indication that the sect's alleged obsession with guns and
shooting had scarred the youngster emotionally.  But the possibility that the
youngster was emotionally affected by the government's raid on the compound
was ignored.  It is no exaggeration to state that that event must have been
traumatic for the children.  As the "Houston Chronicle" for March 2nd had
reported:

            Children trapped inside the Mount Carmel cult compound
        during Sunday's deadly gunbattle cowered under their beds,
        horrified, while federal agents pumped a barrage of bullets
        into their quarters.

            Six of the children were released Sunday, joined by four
        others Monday afternoon.  The first group told social workers
        and therapists Monday that bullets were whizzing through
        windows and walls and they feared they would be killed with
        their families.

DETERIORATING CONDITIONS
    Deteriorating sanitary conditions within the compound, due to the presence
of dead bodies and the buildup of raw sewage, were cited as another
justification for the tragic April 19th assault.  Attorney General Reno
asserted on CNN's "Larry King Live" that her "horrible fear" was that "if I
delayed, without sanitation or toilets there. . .I could go in there in two
months and find children dead from any number of things."  But as explained on
"Nightline" for April 28th by former Pentagon official Noel Koch, whose
specialty was counter-terrorism and internal security, deteriorating
conditions within the compound were actually "good problems for the
negotiators.  They buy you time.  If you think things are getting bad inside,
that's just a signal to you to continue to let them get worse and not try to
interrupt the process."  After all, "it's better to have a terrible situation
than be dead."

THE DRUG CONNECTION
    For weeks, officials insisted to reporters that there was no suspicion of
illegal drugs at the compound.  But the BATF enticed Texas officials to allow
the use of three National Guard helicopters in the raid by claiming that
illegal drugs were indeed suspected.  Only in late March, when the governor's
office maintained that it had been misled, did the BATF for the first time
publicly state that the compound may have harbored a methamphetamine
laboratory.  The "Houston Chronicle" for March 25th reported that "a review of
federal guidelines by the governor's staff indicated that the only way the
Guard could have assisted the ATF investigation was that evidence indicated
illegal drugs were involved."

    A BATF source "confirmed that the Texas Guard was told of the possibility
of an illegal drug lab at the compound," but at the same time "the source said
the agency was uncertain whether a lab actually was in operation at the time
of the raid."  Indeed, as revealed by the "Waco Tribune-Herald" for March
28th, the BATF's "evidence" that the sect was making and selling illegal
methamphetamines consisted of nothing more than that 11 members had been
involved in prior drug activity.

    Just as it is not known with certainty who fired the first shot at the
beginning of the 51-day standoff, so it is unclear how the fire started at the
end.  The government claims that the Davidians ignited the blaze in an act of
religiously-motivated mass suicide.  On the other hand, a number of surviving
Davidians contend that the fire began after a tank bashed a hole in the
compound and tipped over a kerosene lamp.

    On April 19th, FBI spokesman Bob Ricks claimed that one of the survivors
had heard someone inside the compound yell: "The fire's been lit.  The fire's
been lit."  But when sect member Renos Avraam, the source for Ricks' comment,
was queried on camera by reporters, he declared the opposite:  "One of the
tanks knocked over a gas lantern, and it started a fire under some bales of
hay that were lying around. . . The fire wasn't started by us."

FORTRESS OR FIRETRAP?
    The possibility of fire, accidental or otherwise, should have been
apparent to the federal agents all along.  Electricity to the compound had
been cut off on March 12th, forcing the Davidians to rely on gasoline-powered
generators, kerosene lamps, and propane.  The building (on occasion described
as a "fortress" by authorities) was a veritable tinderbox constructed of used
lumber, plywood, and sheet rock tacked together with tar paper.  All of its
floors were littered with linens, cardboard, and bales of hay pushed against
windows to parry bullets.

    The FBI claims that heat sensors detected fires at a number of points
simultaneously; some accounts say that fires began in two places, others say
three, and still others say four.  A team of "independent" arson investigators
announced on April 26th that, in its opinion, the fire was set by persons
inside the building in at least two separate locations at about the same time.
Since the 30-mile-per-hour wind blowing through the many flue like holes
punched by the tanks could have up-ended other ignition sources throughout the
building, while rapidly spreading the fire, the government's position depends
in large part on the SIMULTANEOUS setting of the fires at multiple points.

    But "U.S. News & World Report" for May 3rd reported that "FBI officials
say their aerial surveillance of the area picked up with infrared imaging
flames breaking out at three different points WITHIN 50 SECONDS" (emphasis
added).  And "Newsweek" for May 3rd asserted that "Justice Department
spokesman Carl Stern says three separate sources reported fires starting in
three different locations WITHIN 120 SECONDS."  An interval of 50 seconds to
two minutes is hardly "simultaneous" when we are talking about a wind-driven
conflagration in a tinderbox that burned to the ground in under 45 minutes.

    The arson investigation team led by Paul Gray, assistant chief
investigator for the Houston Fire Department, discounted Davidian claims that
a tank knocked over a can of fuel.  Gray claimed during a news briefing on
April 26th that it was impossible because, as captured by the videotape, the
last assault by the tank was at least four minutes before the fire actually
broke out.  But NBC News reported later in the day that it had videotaped a
tank "tearing away the corner of one building only 2 minutes 50 seconds before
the first signs of fire."  Those first indications of fire emanated from a
window almost directly above the point where the tank ripped the hole.

    On April 28th, CBS News correspondent Sarah Hughes reported that the
supposedly "independent" arson investigation team "has close ties with the
FBI."   In response Mr. Gray groused that to "even suggest that any
information we may be getting from the FBI is somehow tainted is absolutely
ridiculous."  During an ABC News "Nightline" interview that evening, attorney
Jack Zimmerman asked, referring to Gray, "Why in the world did they bring in
as chief of this investigating team looking into the fire, a fellow who had
been on an ATF task force for eight to ten years, out of the Houston office of
the ATF, the office that planned and executed the raid?"  Good question!

    The government's position also depends heavily on whether members of the
sect actually intended to commit mass suicide.  If so, then the possibility
that they torched the compound to fulfill their role in apocalyptic prophecy
becomes plausible.  If not, however, then the likelihood that they purposely
set the fire dwindles.

    In 1992, former sect members in Australia charged that Koresh was
contemplating a mass suicide.  The State Department relayed the information to
authorities in the U.S., Koresh denied it, and it obviously never happened.
Nevertheless, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen told reporters on March 3rd
that concern that the Davidians would commit mass suicide had guided federal
actions since the initial raid.

    As with child abuse, keeping people from killing themselves is a state and
local concern, not a federal government concern.  In any event, the
preponderance of evidence, including that gleaned by federal authorities
themselves, indicates that suicide was not only alien to Davidian religious
tenets, but that Koresh and others were making plans for the future.

    On the day of the fire, for the first time, the FBI's Bob Ricks told
reporters that on March 2nd Koresh intended to emerge from the compound with
"hand grenades attached to himself."  Ricks continued: "When the FBI
approached him, he was going to pull the grenades and was going to kill
himself. . . Everybody knew this was the plan.  They all reconvened back in
the chapel.  David Koresh kissed the kids good-bye and was going to go outside
and was going to commit suicide in front of all the TV cameras.  At the last
second, he chickened out."

    If this indeed was Koresh's intention (and we only have Ricks' word), it
would have been a clear indication of suicidal tendencies on Koresh's part.
But according to FBI Director William Sessions, the agency had no such
indication at all that Koresh was suicidal.  During an April 20th
"MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour" interview, Sessions asserted that "every single
analysis made of his writing, of what he had said, of what he had said to his
lawyers, of what the behavioral science people said, what the psychologists
thought, the psycholinguists thought, what the psychiatrists believed, was
that this man was not suicidal, that he would not take his life."  Which makes
Agent Ricks' version of events seem somewhat apocryphal.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
    One of the experts that the FBI consulted was Syracuse University
psychologist Dr. Murray Miron, a linguistics expert.  On April 20th, Dr. Miron
told NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw that, regarding the five letters by Koresh
that the FBI had asked him to analyze, "All of his communications were
future-oriented.  He claimed to be working on a manuscript.  He was talking
about the publication rights to that manuscript through his lawyer.  He was
intent upon furthering his cause."  Koresh had reportedly retained New York
literary attorney Ken Burrows to negotiate the sale of his story.  He had asked
his local attorney, Richard DeGuerin, to prepare a will protecting sect
property rights and establishing a trust fund for his children to safeguard
any money made from movie or book deals.  When armored vehicles moved his
black Camaro from the front of the compound, he reportedly became enraged,
indicating that he had hopes of driving it again someday.

    There are also indications that other sect members were not contemplating
suicide.  According to "Newsweek" for May 3rd, Steve Schneider, who always
tried to be well-groomed, asked his attorney, Jack Zimmerman, "Should I get
one of our people in here to cut my hair before I come out or let the people
at the jail cut it?"  And FBI spokesman Ricks told reporters on March 15th
that "occupants of the compound. . .are very interested in how the judicial
process might work" should they surrender.

    In these and other ways, David Koresh and other sect members were sending
signals that seriously conflict with the government's contention that they had
a tropism toward self-immolation.  The location of the bodies that were
discovered after the fire also challenges the suicide hypothesis.  In the
words of arson investigator Paul Gray, the bodies were "generally distributed
throughout the rubble," not huddled close together as one might expect in a
pre-planned mass suicide.

    As we write, 78 bodies have been recovered, including 22 that reportedly
died from gunshot wounds.  It has not been (and may never be) established if
those gunshot wounds were the result of willful suicide, murder while tying to
escape, or an expedient alternative to the excruciating pain and suffering of
burning to death.

    According to Attorney General Janet Reno, nobody high up in government
said "don't do it" as she considered the disastrous plan.  But it is not mere
hindsight to say that someone should have.  On March 10th, the "Houston
Chronicle" reported that former Houston police SWAT commander Lieutenant Jim
Gunn had advised that, considering the variety and firepower of weapons Koresh
and his followers were alleged to have.  "About the only thing you could do is
go in there with M-1 tanks and start knocking down walls, and they are not
going to do that with the children in there."  And use of tear gas was not a
feasible alternative, according to Gunn, because "tear gas can get into a
child's lungs and cause congestion and kill them."

USE OF TEAR GAS
    Lieutenant Gunn was proven wrong, but only because our new attorney
general and President were so terribly wrong.  The tear gas that was inserted
into the compound--a white, crystalline powder called CS (O-chlorobenzylidene
malinitrile)--is scheduled to be banned for military use by the Chemical
Weapons Convention signed in Paris in January by the U.S. and some 130 other
nations.  There is an exception in the treaty, however, for its use in
domestic law enforcement.  Used during the Vietnam War to flush the Vietcong
from hidden tunnels, the gas causes dizziness, disorientation, shortness of
breath, chest tightness, nausea, burning of the skin, intense tearing,
coughing and vomiting.

    Benjamin C. Garrett, executive director of the Chemical and Biological
Arms Control Institute in Alexandria, Virginia, told the "Washington Times"
for April 23rd that CS would have most harshly affected the children in the
compound.  "The reaction would have intensified for the children," he noted,
since "the smaller you are, the sooner you would feel response."  The FBI
claimed that it hoped mothers, anxious to protect their children, would run
outside when the chemical irritant was inserted into the building.  At a news
conference, White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos declined to explain
why, if that were the case, a substance that temporarily blinds and disables a
person was selected.

    The tragedy near Waco has predictably spawned new calls for additional gun
controls to close alleged "loopholes" in existing federal laws and further
erode the Second Amendment guarantee of law-abiding Americans.  On May 5th,
for instance, Senator John Chafee (R-RI) announced that he would seek a new
law requiring handgun owners, with few exceptions, to surrender their firearms
for $25, or the market value of each firearm, as part of a nationwide ban on
handgun ownership.  He also seeks to prohibit the sale, purchase, transfer,
manufacture, possession, transportation, and import and export of handguns and
handgun ammunition.

KILLER GUN LAWS
    Assuming (it has yet to be confirmed) that the Davidians obtained some of
their weapons illegally, they did so despite the plethora of already-existing
gun control statutes.  A waiting period for gun ownership would not have
precluded them from collecting an arsenal over many months or years.  Neither
would a one-gun-per-month restriction have affected them, since more than 100
persons were involved.  On May 5th, the Associated Press reported that the
Texas Rangers leading the investigation into the standoff and its aftermath
had collected 1,916 pieces of evidence from the charred ruins, including "200
recognizable firearms," or about two per adult Davidian.  (David Koresh, by
the way, was a licensed firearms dealer.)

    Make no mistake about it: Gun control laws increase the power of
government and the criminal element over the average citizen, and serve no
other purpose.  As syndicated columnist Paul Craig Roberts has noted, the
tragedy near Waco "happened precisely because of federal laws regulating gun
ownership.  The Branch Davidians hadn't assaulted anyone.  They lived
peacefully in the community.  Except for federal gun laws, they would all
still be alive."  It is, Roberts continues, the liberal premise "that gun
ownership should be illegal, or at least heavily regulated," that "has created
the atmosphere in which the ATF, like an unthinking bully, feels compelled to
increasingly and brazenly show its presence."

                                    * * *

    During an April 20th ABC News special on the tragedy, FBI Director William
Sessions asserted that "the American public expects that law enforcement will
deal with those people who have broken the law."  He is right, and that
expectation includes -- indeed should begin with -- those federal officials
who violate both the spirit and the substance of the Constitution they are
sworn to uphold.


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