Ask any American -- your friends, your co-workers, yourself -- what happened at Waco, and you'll hear a recitation of the following "facts":
David Koresh was a cult leader, a known child molester, and suspected drug dealer, who was stockpiling illegal weapons. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) tried to serve a search warrant on Koresh's compound, but the Davidians had been tipped off. They ambushed the BATF, and when the dust cleared, four BATF agents and two Branch Davidians were dead.
Then the FBI came on the scene and tried for more than a month to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff, but talks proved impossible because Koresh repeatedly agreed to various terms, then broke his word.
Finally, after 51 days of fruitless and frustrating talks, something had to be done. So tanks approached, piercing small holes in the walls of the compound and tear gas was pumped in, in hopes that the Branch Davidians would finally come out with their hands up. Instead, the cultists lit their compound on fire, committing mass suicide.
We know that's what happened because we saw it on TV. But as revealed by this stunning new documentary, almost every word, almost every assertion in the preceding italicized paragraphs is untrue.
What happened is that a group you'd never heard of suddenly erupted into the headlines in February 1993, and by mid-April they'd been obliterated. In that month and a half, they were never permitted to talk to the
press. Until this film, we've only been allowed to hear the Davidians' side of the story through the messages they painted on bedsheets and draped out their windows during the siege:
One thing we do know, shown conclusively in this film, is how the fire started.
It began when pyrotechnic devices -- firebombs, essentially -- were shot into the building by hand-held FBI grenade launchers.
After that, the flames are visible almost instantly.
"Rodney King, we understand."
"FBI broke negotiations. We want press."
President Clinton said Koresh was "dangerous, irrational, and probably insane." Was Koresh crazy? Shown here in home videos, and preaching to his congregation, Koresh seems rarely weird, and not much nuttier than your average evangelical minister. The local sheriff says the Branch Davidians were "good people." They weren't insane, they were Christians. The "compound" was a "church." Their "cult leader" was just a Bible-thumping preacher.
Was Koresh a child molester? He bedded girls as young as 14; there's no dispute about that. But the girls consented, and their parents knew and had given permission. You might say that a grown man having sex with teenaged girls is disgusting, and I'd agree. However, under the circumstances, and under Texas law, it was legal.
There is one girl who says that Koresh raped her. This is the only charge of sexual abuse which could theoretically be brought against Koresh if he had survived. However, while such an allegation must be taken seriously, it is completely irrelevant to everything that happened on and after February 28, 1993. Rape is not alcohol, rape is not tobacco, rape is not firearms -- the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has no jurisdiction over rape and child abuse.
Was Koresh a drug dealer? In a word, no. In order to gain access to a military base for full-scale "dress rehearsals" of the raid, the BATF told Army officials that this would be an anti-drug operation. But there is simply no evidence that Koresh or the Branch Davidians were ever
involved with drugs. In providing false information when seeking permission to use the base, the BATF broke the law. It would not be the last time.
Were the Davidians stockpiling illegal weapons? Koresh was a small-scale gun dealer, buying and selling weapons and ammunition at area gun shows. So there were dozens of weapons on hand -- like any businessman, he had an inventory of merchandise. Some of the guns may have been illegal, but only under complicated technicalities of the law. Long before the initial raid, Koresh invited BATF agents to visit his home and inspect his inventory, to clarify the often-blurry line between what's legal and what's not. When the BATF arrived, however, it was not for purposes of examination and explanation.
Meanwhile, the M-60 tanks, rigged with bulldozer blades, had done much more than merely pierce holes in the walls.
The film shows whole sections of the building being obliterated, stairways and exits destroyed, until only one door remained as the last way out.
That's where two FBI agents were stationed, firing machine guns at anyone trying to flee the building.
On the morning of February 28, 1993, three BATF helicopters hovered behind the church to distract the Davidians as several truckloads of BATF agents arrived at the front of the building. According to agents' testimonies, the Davidians opened fire as the trucks approached.
But in the film, these claims are juxtaposed against BATF public relations photographs of the raid in progress. We see agents with their weapons aimed at the church's doors and windows, while other agents are in the open, only yards from the church. We see agents standing directly outside the church's windows, their backs to the building, holding ladders on which other agents climb up to the roof. These agents are not crouched behind cars or other barriers, in the defensive positions anyone would take after being fired upon. Instead, they're walking around, completely out in the open. The assertion that Davidians fired as BATF trucks approached cannot be true.
Koresh said that BATF opened fire, without provocation, when he came to the door. Koresh's lawyer, who visited the church during the standoff, says the front door was riddled with bullet holes from shots obviously fired through the door from outside. The door, however, cannot be found.
Indeed, in several instances where the Davidians' version of events differs from the government version, crucial evidence has been lost, misplaced, or simply suppressed by the BATF and/or FBI.
After two hours of non-stop firing on the church, BATF agents finally backed away with their hands up -- because they had run out of bullets and grenades. With no ammunition, the BATF agents were completely vulnerable. If Koresh had murderous intent, he and his followers could have slaughtered all of them, then and there. Instead, the BATF agents were allowed to retreat.
It is common knowledge that a written report must be filed any time an American police officer fires his weapon in the line of duty. However, no written reports were filed by any of the BATF agents involved in the initial raid. The film, citing an BATF internal memo, reports that agents were ordered by their superiors not to file reports, because such reports "might tend to show that someone accused of a crime is innocent."
After two hours of non-stop firing on the church, BATF agents finally backed away with their hands up -- because they had run out of bullets and grenades.
With no ammunition, the BATF agents were completely vulnerable.
If Koresh had murderous intent, he and his followers could have slaughtered all of them, then and there.
Instead, the BATF agents were allowed to retreat.
During the standoff, did Koresh repeatedly break his word in negotiations with the FBI, as the FBI asserts? At one point, Koresh agreed that if a tape of his preaching was played on the radio, he would come out. After the tape was played, Koresh said God had told him to wait. But there were not "repeated lies" by Koresh; there was just that one. Careful study of the transcript reveals that Koresh followed through on everything else he promised.
By comparison, returning to the theater to see this film again a few nights later, I counted 35 statements by federal agents during negotiations with Koresh and during Congressional hearings afterwards, which were all plainly lies. One BATF agent in particular, Jim Cavanaugh, is shown telling enough proven and demonstrable lies before Congress that he could certainly be charged with giving false testimony.
On April 19, 1993, huge quantities of CS powder, mixed into an extremely flammable chemical compound, were pumped into the building. It was delivered in a form so concentrated, so strong, that many of the Davidians were probably killed by the gas, not by the fire.
When CS burns it becomes hydrogen cyanide, the same gas used in gas chambers for prison executions. And as fire trucks approached, the FBI ordered them to wait for more then 20 minutes as the building burned.
How many of the Davidians were burned to death? How many were killed by the gas? And how many were killed by gunshots? We'll never know, because the FBI did not allow the local coroner's office to be involved with the autopsies. In fact, crucial evidence was seized from the county coroner's office and never returned. Autopsies were only allowed to be performed by the FBI laboratory, the same facility currently embroiled in scandals involving false evidence in many other cases.
One thing we do know, shown conclusively in this film, is how the fire started. It began when pyrotechnic devices -- firebombs, essentially -- were shot into the building by hand-held FBI grenade launchers. After that, the flames are visible almost instantly.
Meanwhile, the M-60 tanks, rigged with bulldozer blades, had done much more than merely pierce holes in the walls. The film shows whole sections of the building being obliterated,
It is common knowledge that a written report must be filed any time an American police officer fires his weapon in the line of duty.
However, no written reports were filed by any of the BATF agents involved in the initial raid.
The film, citing an BATF internal memo, reports that agents were ordered by their superiors not to file reports, because such reports "might tend to show that someone accused of a crime is innocent."
stairways and exits destroyed, until only one door remained as the last way out. That's where two FBI agents were stationed, firing machine guns at anyone trying to flee the building.
The documentary shows heat-sensitive infra-red film taken during the fire, as Edward Allard, a night vision physicist who holds several patents on this technology, explains what it means:
"Nothing in nature," Allard says, "has the thermal signature of gunshots." His conclusion is that the quick white blips on the screen, several blips per seconds, are gunshots from automatic weapons. Gunfire is shown coming from the tanks and from the positions adjacent to the tanks, into the flames, including a 30-second burst of "almost continuous gunfire" aimed directly at the building's last remaining exit.
If that's not enough, more evidence is presented. Conventional photography, filmed from the air and broadcast live on national television as the flames raged, shows brief but unmistakable glimpses of automatic weapons being fired into the building from the outside. Intercut against this are the repeated lies of the FBI, in press conferences and Congressional hearings, that "our agents didn't fire a single shot."
And the cover-up continues. The Congressional investigation had access to the same infra-red photography shown in the film -- and didn't
even mention it in the hearings. 60 Minutes hired independent experts to analyze the same film, and they concurred that the film shows automatic gunfire -- but CBS never aired the report, "due to the potentially sensitive nature of this material ..."
In Q&A with the filmmakers after the screening, I asked where and how the infra-red footage was obtained. The film's director, Dan Gifford, explained that the infra-red photography was actually shot by the FBI and has been introduced as evidence by the feds, at trial, at Congressional hearings, etc. So it's available to the public. The FBI has also released the tapes and transcripts which form much of the overwhelming evidence here.
The Congressional investigation had access to the same infra-red photography shown in the film -- and didn't even mention it in the hearings.
60 Minutes hired independent experts to analyze the same film, and they concurred that the film shows automatic gunfire -- but CBS never aired the report, "due to the potentially sensitive nature of this material ..."
In my opinion, these records were released not because there's nothing to hide, but because the FBI is simply certain the media won't bother reading the transcripts, listening to the tapes, and watching the infra-red video. Indeed, as far as The New York Times in concerned, this story ended when the Branch Davidians "killed themselves." The American media's mantra is: Ask no questions. Believe what the official press release says.
But the Congressmen and women who saw the infra-red photography know the truth. 60 Minutes knows the truth. Presumably, Janet Reno and Bill Clinton know the truth. And people who see this movie will know the truth. Because nobody could watch this film and not be convinced that federal agents filled the building with flammable gas, ignited it, stationed men at the last exit to machine-gun any survivors, and lied at the Congressional hearings about every detail.
If you have any doubts or curiosity about the official version of these events, you owe it to yourself to see "Waco: The Rules of Engagement." It's a calm, well-reasoned, thoroughly-documented examination of the facts, which proves in the end that there were no rules of engagement whatsoever. The Waco disaster wasn't about law enforcement, it was simply the mass murder of American citizens by their government.
Nobody wants to believe this. But the evidence is plain. As the film's executive producer, Ann Sommer Gifford, said after the screening, "We'd love to hear another interpretation, but until we do, we have to believe the experts, and our own eyes.
We believe in liberty and justice for all, so of course, we oppose many US government policies. This doesn't mean we're anti-American, redneck scum, pinko commies, militia members, or terrorist-sympathizers. It means we believe in freedom, as more than merely a cliché.
We believe you have the right to live your own life as you choose, and others have the equal right to live their lives as they choose. It's not complicated.
We believe freedom leads to peace, progress, and prosperity, while its opposite -- oppression -- leads to war, terrorism, poverty, and misery.
We believe it's preposterously stupid to hate people because of their appearance, their race or nationality, their religion or lack of religion, how they have sex with other consenting adults, etc. There are far more apropos reasons to hate most people.
We believe in questioning ourselves, our assumptions, each other -- and we especially believe in questioning authority (the more authority, the more questions). We believe obedience is a fine quality in dogs and young children, but not in adults.
Like America's right-wingers, we believe in
individual responsibility,
hard work to get ahead,
and stern punishment for serious crimes.
We believe big government should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most right-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like America's left-wingers, we believe in
equal treatment under law,
war as a last (not first) resort,
and sensible stewardship of natural resources.
We believe big business should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most left-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like libertarians, we believe it's wrong and reprehensible to arrest people for what they think, believe, look like, wear, eat, smoke, drink, inhale, inject, or otherwise do to themselves.
But unlike many libertarians, we're not obsessed with the gold standard, we don't believe incorporation is humanity's highest achievement, and we don't believe everything in life comes down to dollars and cents. We've read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's novels, but we understand that they're works of fiction.
We're skeptical, and we're sick of so-called 'journalists' who aren't skeptical at all.
These pages are published by Harry and Helen Highwater, happily married low-income nom de plumes and rabble-rousers from Madison, Wisconsin (with a few friends scattered around the world helping out).
We try to spotlight news that hasn't gotten enough (or appropriate) attention in American media, along with our opinions and yours.
We bang our keyboards against the wall, because it doesn't hurt as much as banging our heads.
