-Caveat Lector- extracted from: http://www.shadeslanding.com/firearms/waco.massacre.html THE MASSACRE OF THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS A STUDY OF GOVERNMENT VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS, EXCESSIVE FORCE AND COVER UP By Carol Moore, (c) 1994 [1] January 28, 1994 GOVERNMENT RELIANCE ON "PRIVATE SPIES" AND "CULT BUSTERS" Because of government spying upon and disruption of peaceful political groups during the 1960s and 1970s, the Justice Department set guidelines prohibiting investigations of groups "based solely on activities protected by the First Amendment or on the lawful exercise of any other rights secured by the constitution or laws of the United States." [20] As an agency of the Treasury Department, BATF does not work under such restrictions. Both agencies are free to investigate groups suspected of engaging in criminal activity. Once an investigation is underway, most government agencies, including BATF and the FBI, seem willing to receive information from such groups as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL) and the Cult Awareness Network (CAN). These groups, and others like them, clearly have their own agendas. They keep copious files of biased and prejudicial information on private individuals and organizations and share these with law enforcement. The Anti-Defamation League keeps files on Arab- American, Jewish peace, anti-apartheid, and other human and civil rights groups. A year-long investigation by the San Francisco District Attorney found that the ADL had infiltrated groups, stolen membership lists and other private documents, and swapped files with police, sometimes illegally. However, the ADL escaped prosecution. "In an unusual procedure, (District Attorney) Smith filed a civil suit accusing the ADL and (ADL investigator) Bullock of illegally possessing confidential documents, then promptly accepted a settlement that contained no admission of wrongdoing." Shortly after this, 19 individuals filed a suit seeking damages for 1,100 people who allegedly were the targets of illegal surveillance and seeking court orders against such surveillance. [21] The government's lenience towards ADL suggests it does not frown on ADL's spying activities. The ADL supplied information about the Branch Davidians to federal authorities. In a front page article about the ADL, Herb Brin, publisher of Heritage, which serves the Los Angeles Jewish community, wrote: "U.S. and Texas authorities have precise documentation (from ADL, of course) on the Branch Davidian cult in Waco and how it operated in the past." [22] The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) actively urges the press, Congress and law enforcement to act against any non- mainstream religious, psychological or even political movement which it describes as a "cult." After interviewing CAN's executive director Cynthia Kisser, a reporter wrote: "No one knows how many destructive cults and sects exist in the United States. Kisser's binder holds 1,500 names gleaned from newspaper clippings, court documents and thousands of calls to the network's hotline. Some of the groups have legitimate purposes, Kisser says. But her group's efforts show that most, despite wildly diverse beliefs, share stunningly similar patterns of mind control, group domination, exploitation and physical and mental abuse." [23] CAN critics point out that so-called "mind control" techniques are not much different than the techniques used in education and socialization efforts used by all schools, churches, ideologies and philosophies. According to CAN critic Dr. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of Religion in Santa Barbara, California, CAN has used a number of means to try to destroy small religious groups: they unsuccessfully tried to expand "conservatorship" to allow families to remove members from "cults"; they unsuccessfully tried to have laws passed against "cults"; they unsuccessfully sued the American Psychological Association for rejecting their views on "brainwashing." However, they have found one successful method of disrupting groups: false anonymous charges of child abuse. Anonymous reports are legal under current law. [24] Priscilla Coates, former executive director of CAN, told reporters, "I know how these types of groups work and the children are always abused." [25] CAN has been on a crusade against the Christian religious group The Children of God, known in the United States as "The Family." CAN alleges the group practices indiscriminate sex, including with children. [26] Many Family members accuse CAN of making false child abuse complaints which have resulted in dozens of arrests in at least 10 countries. Most of the charges are quickly dropped and there have been no convictions. The Family has demanded a Congressional investigation of CAN. [27] The Cult Awareness Network's other successful approach is referring relatives of group members to "deprogrammers" who charge thousands of dollars for their services and, according to a former national director of CAN's predecessor, the Citizens Freedom Foundation, "kick back" some of the money to CAN. [28] Deprogramming often includes kidnapping individuals, subjecting them to sleep and food deprivation, ridicule and humiliation, and even physical abuse and restraint until they promise to leave the alleged cult. Because deprogrammers usually involve family members in these kidnappings and deprogrammings, victims rarely press charges. However, in the last few years 5 deprogrammers have been prosecuted for kidnapping or "unlawful imprisonment." One such deprogrammer is Rick Ross, a convicted jewel thief, who has boasted of more than 200 "deprogrammings." CAN executive director Cynthia Kisser has praised him as being "among the half dozen best deprogrammers in the country." In the summer of 1993 Rick Ross was indicted in Washington state for unlawful imprisonment. Nancy Ammerman, a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University's Center for the Study of American Religion, was one of the outside experts assigned by the Justice Department to evaluate BATF and FBI's handling of the Branch Davidians. She was particularly critical of Rick Ross and the Cult Awareness Network. "Although these people often call themselves `cult experts,' they are certainly not recognized as such by the academic community. The activities of the CAN are seen by the National Council of Churches (among others) as a danger to religious liberty, and deprogramming tactics have been increasingly found to be outside the law... Mr. Rick Ross, who often works in conjunction with the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), has been quoted as saying he was `consulted' by the BATF... The Network and Mr. Ross have a direct ideological (and financial) interest in arousing suspicion and antagonism against what they call `cults'... It seem clear that people within the `anti-cult' community had targeted the Branch Davidians for attention." (JDR:Ammerman:1) Footnote [29] All references from the Justice Department report will be included within the text, with the page number after the colon. The report consisted of 4 books and an unbound paper. (JDR:#) refers to the largest book, the factual report. All other references will include the name of each specific contributor, e.g., (JDR:Dennis:#) or (JDR:Stone:#). Nancy Ammerman compared Waco and Jonestown: "There, too, an exceptionally volatile religious group was pushed over the edge, inadvertently, by the actions of government agencies pushed forward by `concerned families.'" (JDR:Ammerman:8) What she may not have realized is that CAN's President is Patricia Ryan, daughter of Congressman Leo J. Ryan. It was he who threatened and hounded Jim Jones and his Peoples' Temple members until they murdered him and committed mass suicide in Guyana in 1978. Carrying on what seems to have become a family tradition, on April 8, 1993, Patricia Ryan told the Houston Chronicle, "Officials should use whatever means necessary to arrest Koresh, including lethal force." [30] Ross definitely deprogrammed one (and possibly more) of the Branch Davidians who fed questionable but damaging evidence to BATF. He also provided negative information to the Waco Herald-Tribune for its February, 1993, series on the Branch Davidians. The paper quotes Ross declaring, "The group is without a doubt, without any doubt whatsoever, a highly destructive, manipulative cult... I would liken the group to Jim Jones." The authors write, "Ross said he believes Howell (Koresh) is prone to violence... Speaking out and exposing Howell might bring in the authorities or in some way help those `being held in that compound through a kind of psychological, emotional slavery and servitude.'" Ross told the Houston Chronicle that Koresh is "your stock cult leader. They're all the same. Meet one and you've met them all. They're deeply disturbed, have a borderline personality and lack any type of conscience... No one willingly enters into a relationship like this. So you're talking about deception and manipulation (by the leader), people being coached in ever so slight increments, pulled in deeper and deeper without knowing where it's going or seeing the total picture." [31] CAN representatives made numerous television and radio appearances during the siege. Ross bragged on the "Up to the Minute" public television program that he "consulted with ATF agents on the Waco sect and told them about the guns in the compound." On April 19th he told the "Today Show," "I was a consultant offering ideas, input that was filtered by their team and used when they felt it was appropriate." The Justice Department report mentions a Rick Ross television appearance during the siege where he declared he hoped Koresh would be a coward and surrender rather than end up as a corpse. (JDR:167) After the April 19th fire, CAN associate Louis West said on a MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour broadcast that the FBI "knew they were dealing with a psychopath. Nobody is more dangerous or unpredictable than a psychopath in a trap." After the fire, CAN "counselor" Brett Bates tried to arrange contacts with survivors by meeting with their families. He told the N.Y. Daily News, "Before they can become productive witnesses in the prosecution, they have to realize they were victims of mind control." Columnist Alexander Cockburn wrote, "the deprogrammers are demanding that they be allowed to exercise their dark arts on the burned Davidian survivors so that they testify correctly and desist from maintaining -- as they have -- that no mass suicide was under way. The FBI says `this is worth considering,' but the decision is up to the U.S. attorney." [32] The only Branch Davidian to turn state's evidence is Katherine Schroeder who was confined in a mental institution after leaving Mount Carmel in March, 1993 (private communication). It is unknown if she was "deprogrammed." After the April 19th fire Methodist Minister Joseph Bettis wrote Attorney General Reno, "from the beginning, members of the Cult Awareness Network have been involved in this tragedy. This organization is widely known for its use of fear to foster religious bigotry. The reliance of federal agents on information supplied by these people, as well as the whole record of federal activity deserves your careful investigation and public disclosure ... Cult bashing must end, and you must take the lead." Larry Shinn, a vice president of Bucknell University wrote to the chair of the House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, "media, legal institutions, and law-makers too often rely on the word of self-styled cult experts like C.A.N. whose overly negative agenda often slides into purely anti- religious attack." And in early May, a coalition of 16 religious and civil liberties organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Conference on Religious Movements, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Episcopal Church, the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Council of Churches of Christ and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations issued a statement which read in part, "We are shocked and saddened by the recent events in Waco... Under the religious liberty provision of the First Amendment, the government has no business declaring what is orthodox or heretical, or what is a true or false religion. It should steer clear of inflammatory and misleading labels. History teaches that today's `cults' may be tomorrow's mainstream religions." President Clinton seems to have jumped on the anti-cult bandwagon. On April 23, 1993, Clinton said, in what some see as a thinly veiled threat, "I hope... that others who will be tempted to join cults and become involved with people like Koresh will be deterred by the horrible scenes they have seen... There is, unfortunately, a rise in this sort of fanaticism all over the world. And we may have to confront it again." Attorney General Janet Reno also has expressed anti- cult sentiments. During the April 28, 1993, House Judiciary Committee hearing, Representative William Hughes advised Janet Reno to consult groups like the Cult Awareness Network for advice on "mind control." Reno replied that she was concerned about the negative affect of cults on children, that "if a child is in a cult situation for any length of time," he or she might experience "permanent damage." BATF is still investigating so-called cults. In November, 1993, acting director John W. Magaw stated that he was determined that other religious "cults" not develop into "armed compounds." He said, "They're out there. They don't yet have the kind of weaponry that we saw in Waco... but they will develop if society allows them to." Magaw said BATF is keeping tabs on "cult-like organizations" in "three or four places around the country... We're trying to monitor way early in the game." [33] In his November 22, 1993, American Academy of Religion presentation, Dr. Melton condemned the government's calling on groups like the Cult Awareness Network for information on "cults." He compared it to the government calling on Nazis for information on Jews or Ku Klux Klan members for information on African-Americans. At least one group is fighting FBI use of the "cult" term and its reliance on private spies. In May, 1993, the New Alliance Party, its presidential candidate Dr. Lenora Fulani, and other members of the party sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Janet Reno, and other officials. Referring to "cult," the party is "seeking a declaratory judgment that defendants' description as the predicate or justification for investigative activities, use of force, criminal prosecution, or governmental regulation is a violation of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States." The suit also claims the FBI excused its "virtual liquidation of the" Branch Davidians as "appropriate law enforcement action to take against a `cult'." And the suit attacks the FBI's having "consulted with one or more persons associated with a Chicago-based organization, the Cult Awareness Network." FOOTNOTES 20. "Attorney General's Guidelines on General Crimes, Racketeering Enterprise and Domestic Security Terrorism Investigations," 1976. 21. "Anti-Defamation League Still Faces Legal Action," Washington Post, November 28, 1993, A12. 22. Herb Brin, "ADL's travails bring glee to enemies of the Jews," Heritage, April 16, 1993, p. D. 23. Associated Press wire story, April 23, 1993, 10:25 EDT. 24. Dr. Gordon Melton presentation at American Academy of Religion panel on the Branch Davidians, Washington, D.C., November 22, 1993. 25. Gustav Nieguhr and Pierre Thomas, "Abuse Allegations Unproven: Koresh Was Investigated in Texas, California," Washington Post, April 25, 1993, A20. 26. "30 Members of Children of God Arrested," Washington Post, September 2, 1993. 27. December, 1993 Letter to Senators from Charles Russell of The Family, Los Angeles, CA. 28. Information on CAN and unfootnoted quotes are from the Ross & Green Report "What is the Cult Awareness Network and What Role Did It Plan in Waco?", 1993. Available from Ross & Green, 1010 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 118, Washington, D.C., 20005. ("Ross" is no relation to Rick Ross.) 29. All references from the Justice Department report will be included within the text, with the page number after the colon. The report consisted of 4 books and an unbound paper. (JDR:#) refers to the largest book, the factual report. All other references will include the name of each specific contributor, e.g., (JDR:Dennis:#) or (JDR:Stone:#). 30. A description of Representative Leo Ryan's actions against Jim Jones and their similarity to the Cult Awareness Network's actions against the Branch Davidians is contained in Peter McWilliams Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do in the chapter on "Unconventional Religious Practices," pgs. 621- 639. (Santa Monica: Prelude Press, 1993). 31. Steven R. Reed, "Would-be Messiah gave death, not life," Houston Chronicle, April 20, 1993, 18A. 32. Alexander Cockburn, ">From Salem to Waco, by Way of the Nazis," Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1993. 33. Scott Shepard, "ATF chief vows to keep an eye on religious cults", Washington Times, November 2, 1993, A3. extracted from: http://www.shadeslanding.com/firearms/waco.massacre.html THE MASSACRE OF THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS A STUDY OF GOVERNMENT VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS, EXCESSIVE FORCE AND COVER UP By Carol Moore, (c) 1994 [1] January 28, 1994 In consultation with: Alan Forschler Ian Goddard James A. Long Richard J. Sanford Timothy Seims Andrew Williams COMMITTEE FOR WACO JUSTICE, P.O. Box 33037, Washington, D.C. 20033, 202/986-1847 202/797-9877 Please Feel Free to Copy and Distribute! Copying for non-commercial distribution encouraged. . DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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