-Caveat Lector- >From Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/national/091399/waco_broder.sml - U.S. Probers: Feds Used Bogus Drug Charges to Push Waco Raid 5.00 p.m. ET (0000 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. Bill Janscha/AP A monument to Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and about 80 followers who died in the 1993 raid 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. AP To read these documents click here 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. -- Dan S DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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