-Caveat Lector-
Fox News
U.S. Probers: Feds Used Bogus Drug Charges to Push Waco Raid
5.00 p.m. ET (9.00 p.m. GMT) September 13, 1999
By Jonathan Broder
WASHINGTON � A congressional probe into the 1993 fatal assault on
the Branch Davidian compound is focusing on suspicions that
federal law enforcement officials trumped up drug manufacturing
charges to pave the way for their attack on the group.
A senior official with the House Committee on Government Reform
told Fox News Online that the military determined that the drug
charges were "bogus," and that investigators are now trying to
determine why the Army nevertheless became involved in the Waco
siege and assault, and to what extent soldiers participated.
"The question is: Why were the military folks � who were pretty
strident against having any involvement � overruled? And who
overruled them?" said the committee official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Official documents obtained by Fox News Online show a senior Army
Special Forces lawyer warned his commanders that the direct
involvement of soldiers in a civilian operation against the
cult�s Waco compound would violate the so-called posse comitatus
law, which bans the use of U.S. military forces in domestic
operations.
The lawyer, Maj. Philip W. Lindley, judge advocate for the
Pentagon�s Joint Special Operations Command, also questioned
whether an amendment to the law, which permits the use of
military personnel in domestic anti-drug operations, could be
cited to justify the deployment of forces from the Army�s Joint
Task Force (JTF) against the Branch Davidians.
The JTF is a special Army unit that was created to assist law
enforcement in drug-related cases.
"Since these are point targets with identified civilian
subjects, this falls outside the scope of JTF mission and cannot
be accomplished," Lindley wrote in a memo dated Feb. 3, 1993.
This was three weeks before the 51-day Branch Davidian siege
began.
Referring to the anti-drug amendment, Lindley warned that the
JTF could face both criminal and civil liability unless the
government had a strong drug case against the Branch Davidians.
"The case law is clear and the burden is still upon the
government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the military�s
actions were permissible in order to convict the civilians in a
U.S. District Court," Lindley wrote. "No 'war on drugs' will be
won if the guilty cannot be convicted."
Nevertheless, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
later cited suspicions that the Branch Davidians were
manufacturing illegal methamphetamines.
"The ATF came up with this bogus request (for military support),
where they said the Davidians had a meth lab in their compound,"
said the committee official.
The ATF cited suspicions of drug and weapons violations for their
initial armed raid on the compound, in which six Davidians and
four ATF agents were killed.
The official said JTF personnel later determined "there was no
evidence" to support the ATF�s suspicions of drug involvement.
"They were pretty ticked off at the ATF for even trying it," the
official said.
Further corroboration regarding the lack of evidence of drug
manufacturing came from Capt. Truman Simons of the McClennan
County, Texas, Sheriff�s Department, where Waco is located. He
said in a telephone interview that there had been a drug lab in
the Davidian compound during the 1980s, when the cult was led by
George Rhoden. But when David Koresh took over the cult and the
Waco compound in 1987, "Rhoden left and took all the drug lab
stuff with him, " Simons said, adding he had no evidence of any
drug manufacturing in the compound after 1987.
Contacted in Tallahassee, where he now works for the Florida
State Prosecutor�s office, Lindley declined to comment further on
his memo, adding that he has been subpoenaed to testify in
Washington. A committee official said Chairman Dan Burton,
R-Indiana, had subpoenaed "all records relating to military
involvement" with the 1993 siege of Waco.
Burton opened his investigation after it was discovered that at
least three pyrotechnic tear gas canisters were fired at the
compound during the final assault, which ended with the compound
going up in flames. The Justice Department�s admission that such
devices were used has raised questions about its earlier
insistence that no incendiary military-style ordnance was used
against the Davidians.
Despite their admission, both the FBI and the Justice Department
insist there is no evidence that these canisters caused the April
19, 1993 fire that killed about 80 people. Federal officials say
Koresh and his followers deliberately set the fire to precipitate
the fiery end to the standoff.
The Pentagon also insists that only a handful of Special Forces
were on hand as observers during the 51-day siege and assault,
but had no operational involvement in either.
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