-Caveat Lector- > The truth about Waco > A survivor says the government still isn't admitting its role in the > deaths of 74 Branch Davidians. > > - - - - - - - - - - - - > By David Thibodeau > > Sept. 9, 1999 | Attorney General Janet Reno says she's "very, very > frustrated" over recent revelations that the FBI fired explosive devices > at the Mount Carmel community outside of Waco, Texas, during > the April 1993 > siege. I know how Reno feels. I was one of only nine survivors of the > Waco > blaze -- 74 men, women and children died -- and I've devoted the last > six years to understanding what happened there. Frustration is a mild word > to describe my feelings about that quest. > > Reno's frustration, and mine, has only gotten worse recently as more > damaging revelations have surfaced. First there was the CIA agent who > told > Salon News and the Dallas Morning News that members of the Army's secret > Delta Force unit had actively participated in the siege. Then the FBI > turned > over tape recordings that include audio of an agent requesting and > receiving > permission to use pyrotechnic devices. Reports on Wednesday revealed the > government also used incendiary flares during the Waco siege similar to > those used to burn down the hideout of white supremacist Robert Mathews. > > The film "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" purported to show infrared > images > of government agents firing on the building. Now there is also a rumored > videotape, uncovered by the film's co-producer, Michael McNulty, that > reportedly shows agents in an ATF helicopter shooting into Mount Carmel. > No doubt there will be more evidence "discovered," more agents coming > forward, their six-year amnesia about April 19 suddenly cured. The > FBI has not come > close to revealing the full government complicity in the Waco massacre. > > Obviously my stake is a bit more personal than most. Back in 1990 I had > been > drumming in a stagnant Los Angeles rock band when I met and befriended > David > Koresh. I needed some new drumsticks, and on the way to a gig stopped in > at the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard. Seeing the sticks in my hand, two > strangers introduced themselves and asked if I was playing in a band. > The > two were David Koresh and Steve Schneider, the closest thing Koresh had > to a deputy. Schneider gave me his card and I promptly handed it back. The > backside was full of Bible verses. "You guys are a Christian band," I > said, uninterested. > I had never been religious in my life, and though I sometimes found > myself asking God for a little help, I couldn't remember the last time I had > been in a church, let alone seriously prayed. But I did have a spiritual > curiosity; there were questions -- big questions -- that I wanted > answers to. Schneider and Koresh weren't pushy and made it clear that all they > really were looking for right now was a drummer. "I'd like to play some > music with you," Koresh said, "and see where we can go from there." > > In truth, my band was going nowhere, and Koresh intrigued me. So I took > the > card back, and a few days later gave him a call. Over the next weeks I > hung out with Koresh and some other musicians in his band. I got to know > Koresh > and was tremendously impressed. Having never paid much attention to the > Bible, I was astonished to find that it actually did have some relevance > to my life. And while Koresh had never gotten much in the way of formal > education, it was clear that his knowledge of and insight into the > scriptures was remarkable and profound. > > That fall I went out to Waco to play music and meet the larger > community. I > was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. The people at Mount Carmel were > extremely involved in knowing and learning the Bible. In the process of > demonizing Koresh and the Branch Davidians -- a name we never used when > describing ourselves -- people have made it seem as if Mount Carmel came > out of nowhere. In fact, Koresh was the third leader of a religious > community > that spun off from the Seventh Day Adventists in 1934. They had been > living outside of Waco for almost 60 years before the ATF raid in 1993. > > I was fascinated with their spiritual search, and I began -- for the > first time in my life -- to read the Bible and to see that its message might > be meaningful. Koresh was interesting, and the ways in which he explained > the scriptures were complex and demanding. I didn't care that he wasn't a > graduate of Yale divinity school. He was clearly a serious religious > scholar and I wanted to understand what he was saying. So I stayed. > > The people around Koresh came from many backgrounds. I met folks who > hadn't finished high school, and others with degrees from places like Harvard > law school. I spent time with African-Americans, Australians, black Britons, > > Mexican-Americans and more. One irony of the Waco disaster is that > right-wing extremists and racists look to Mount Carmel as a beacon; if > they realized that so many of us were black, Asian and Latino, and that we > despised their hateful politics and anger, they would probably feel > bitterly betrayed. > > That isn't to say that all of us leaned to the left. We had some serious > criticisms of the secular world that grew out of our faith. But we also > had a "live and let live" attitude that had allowed the community to > co-exist with its Texas neighbors for all those decades. We certainly > weren't as > isolated as people seem to think. We shopped in town, some of us worked > in the community and our band performed in Waco clubs. I worked as a > bartender in Waco for a time and I doubt a single customer would tell > you that I stood out in any way other than my ability to mix a mean margarita. > > Next page | No drug labs or child abuse > > Many have suggested that Koresh was a Jim Jones-like madman. But he > wasn't. He had no plans for mass suicide; indeed, in sharp contrast to Jones, > Koresh > allowed members of the community to leave at any time, and many of them > did, even during the siege. But many of us stayed, too, not because we had > to, but because we wanted to. The FBI and ATF had been confrontational from > the start, they had lied to us and they continued lying up through the > siege. > > The FBI and ATF had many pretexts for their attack on Mount Carmel. The > initial ATF raid, in which four ATF agents and six Davidians were > killed, was based on allegations that we were running a drug lab. But later even > ATF employees would admit the charges were "a complete fabrication." One > member had allowed speed dealers to operate from the building in the mid-1980s, > but everyone knew Koresh hated drugs, and he'd asked the Waco sheriff to > remove the methamphetamine lab when he took over as leader in 1987. > > Charges that we were assembling an arsenal of weapons to be used against > the government were equally off-base. We ran a business, buying and selling > weapons at gun shows, to bring in revenue for the community. Only a few > of us at Mount Carmel were directly involved with this -- I personally had > an aversion to guns -- but it was a relatively profitable line of work. > Everything was bought and sold on a legal basis. In fact, weeks before > the raid, Koresh offered the ATF the opportunity to come out to Mount Carmel > and inspect the building and every single weapon we had. They refused. > > Maybe the most disturbing allegation, to those inside the building, was > that > we were engaging in child abuse there. The children of Mount Carmel were > treasured, and they were a vital part of our small society. A > disgruntled former resident, Marc Breault, was the original source of complaints > about the treatment of children, and his wild allegations -- that we were > planning to sacrifice one of our children on Yom Kippur one year -- were > unfounded. Yes, occasionally kids were paddled for misbehaving, but the strict rule > was they could never be paddled in anger. The parents usually did the > paddling themselves. A few former residents also complained that David paddled > their children, harshly, but I never saw that, and the Texas Child Protective > Services workers who investigated the complaints concluded they were > unfounded. > > The biggest lie, though, is the FBI's claim that we set the building fire > ourselves, to commit suicide. At the very least, the FBI has already > provided proof that it created the conditions for a disaster. On the > April > morning when the FBI finally made its move, we had been under siege for > 51 days. The FBI had cut off our power weeks earlier, so we had been > resigned to heating the building with kerosene lamps. It was kerosene and gas > from > these lamps and the storage canisters, spilled over the floors as a > result > of collapsing walls and FBI munitions fire, that is often mistakenly > taken > as evidence that we doused Mount Carmel with an intent of burning it. > > Furthermore, the noxious CS gas that the FBI shot into Mount Carmel > (almost > 400 rounds were fired at us) was mixed with methylene chloride, which is > flammable when mixed with air and can become explosive in confined > spaces. > CS gas is so nasty that the United States, along with 130 other > countries, > has signed the Chemical Weapons Convention banning its use in warfare. > But apparently there is no prohibition against its use against American > citizens. > > The amount of gas the FBI shot into Mount Carmel was twice the density > considered life threatening to an adult and even more dangerous for > little children. Ironically, one of the questions that was asked of the FBI > during > the congressional hearings was "Why didn't you use an anesthetic gas > that would have put the people inside to sleep?" The FBI said it felt > anesthetic gas would be harmful to the women and children. > > With powerful Texas winds whistling through the holes ripped in the > building's sides and roof, Mount Carmel was primed to ignite. And while > hours before the blaze FBI bugs inside Mount Carmel picked up, in the > words > of the New York Times, "ambiguous conversations" that seemed to be about > > setting the place on fire, I never heard any serious discussion of > suicide or starting fires. I certainly never saw anyone try to do so. If we had > really wanted to kill ourselves, we would not have waited 51 cold, > hungry, scary days to do it. Truth is, we were desperate to live, to figure out > a way to end the standoff. But the FBI, riled up, was not going to let > that happen. > > In fact, Koresh had negotiated a settlement to the crisis: He would > leave peacefully, to be arrested and taken into custody by the Texas Rangers, > as soon as he finished writing what he called his "Seven Seals" manuscript. > > David worked as fast as he could on this scriptural commentary, > especially > given the fact that he had been shot in the initial ATF raid and was > struggling not only to write but simply to stay alive. The FBI thought > the Seven Seals issue was just a ploy, and dismissed it. But it was > legitimate, > and in the ashes of Mount Carmel they found that Koresh had completed > the first two commentaries and was hard at work on the third when the tanks > rolled in. > > Next page | The FBI warned us to take out fire insurance > > It remains hard for me to clearly remember what happened after the tanks > made their move. Walls collapsed, the building shook, gas billowed in > and > the air was full of terrible sounds: the hiss of gas, the shattering of > windows, the bang of exploding rockets, the raw squeal of tank tracks. > There were screams of children and the gasps and sobs of those who could not > protect themselves from the noxious CS. This continued for hours. Inside > > Mount Carmel, the notion of leaving seemed insane; with tanks smashing > through your walls and rockets smashing through the windows, our very > human > reaction was not to walk out but to find a safe corner and pray. As the > tanks rolled in and began smashing holes in the building and spraying > gas into the building, the FBI loudspeaker blared, "This is not an assault! > This is not an assault!" > > Around noon I heard someone yell, "Fire!" I thought first of the women > and > children, whom I had been separated from. I tried desperately to make my > way > to them, but it was impossible: rubble blocked off passageways, and the > fire > was spreading quickly. I dropped to my knees to pray, and the wall next > to > me erupted in flame. I smelled my singed hair and screamed. Community > member > Derek Lovelock, who had ended up in the same place as me, ran through a > hole > in the wall and I followed. Moments later, the building exploded. > > In the years since the fire, I've tried desperately to find out what > really happened. What I've discovered is disturbing. There is convincing > evidence that the FBI did more than just create the conditions for a deadly > inferno. The recent disclosures about the use of pyrotechnic weapons and > incendiary flares show that they might have actually sparked the blaze. As almost > any munitions expert will admit, the fuses on the sort of pyrotechnic > devices the FBI now confesses to using are notoriously imprecise, and could > quite possibly take as long as four or more hours before detonating. > > And there are many other questions. A just released Defense Department > document backs up the CIA agent's assertion that members of a classified > > U.S. Army Special Forces unit were present at the siege. According to > U.S. law, the military is barred from domestic police work. Even more > troubling is the fact that the unit members were, according to the document, > warned explicitly "not to video the operation." Why? > > Infrared images taken from surveillance planes seem to indicate that the > FBI was -- despite its denials -- firing shots into the building and > shooting at > Branch Davidians who tried to flee. And while some experts dispute > whether > the infrared images contain proof of gunfire, there are also photographs > > that show one of the metal double-doors at the building's entrance > riddled > with what appear to be bullet indentations that could only have come > from > shooters outside Mount Carmel. Mysteriously, the FBI has said that this > door > totally disintegrated in the fire. Just as mysteriously, the adjacent > door survived the fire in excellent condition. Tape recordings of the > negotiations between the FBI and Koresh catch the government agents > chronically lying about details big and small, almost as if they wanted > the discussions to fail. > > There are other questions: Why did the FBI call the local hospital hours > before the siege and ask how many beds were available in its burn unit? > Why did it not equip the tanks with a firefighting agent that would have put > the flames out quickly? What did the FBI negotiator mean when he > threateningly > told us we "should buy some fire insurance"? Why did the FBI not allow > anyone access to the crime scene for several hours, despite an agreement > > with the Texas Rangers that they would be allowed to inspect the area > first? And on and on. > > I often wonder why I survived the blaze while so many others did not. > Perhaps it was to be some sort of a witness. That's why I wrote a book > about > the siege and Koresh and life at Mount Carmel. Maybe that's also why the > recent Waco news has left me both angry and relieved. Angry because for > so long the FBI has called others and myself liars for suggesting they did > what they now admit they did. Relieved because perhaps the truth is finally, > slowly, starting to emerge. The FBI lied about the pyrotechnic devices > for six years, demonizing the Branch Davidians in the process. They also > inspired a large number of extremists -- people like Timothy McVeigh -- > who in turn have killed others, even though we had no affinity with the > right. > > What's harder to believe: that the FBI, by shooting explosive devices > into an area they had saturated with flammable gas, helped spark a deadly > inferno? Or that the FBI honestly didn't know anything at all about the > evidence that it has suddenly discovered in its files and recollections? > Let us hope that we do not have to wait another six years before the > complete > and terrible truth about what happened on that cold April morning is > finally disclosed. > salon.com | Sept. 9, 1999 > > About the writer > David Thibodeau's book, "A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story, has > just > been published by PublicAffairs/Perseus Books. He can be reached at his > Web site. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. 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