Waco

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the BATFE for violating the First Amendment by illegally detaining someone in retaliation for writing she had on her vehicle: "Remember the children of Waco" and "Boo ATF". 

What on earth makes them think they can get away with this?

I'm a little surprised that the ACLU took the case; they don't like anything that even smells like the 2nd Amendment.  Of course, this one is purely a 1st Amendment case, but even so, I would have expected them to find some excuse.  Credit where credit is due.

Speaking of reforming the BATFE, David Hardy has a page up about Waco.  The events at the Branch Davidian compound are an enduring black mark against a government all too willing to kill over a matter as trivial as a missing $200 tax stamp... and to kill again, in full view of the media, to cover up their actions.

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 isa mild word to describe my feelings about that quest.

This is a fairly interesting article by one of those on the inside -- one of the very few who made it out before the entire complex burned down.

Congress, the Clinton White House, Attorney General Janet Reno and the press still promote the lies that the Branch Davidians "ambushed" federal agents, refused to cooperate with negotiators, and killed themselves and their children. Why does the U.S. government continue to demonize the victims of its incompetence and wrath?

Does the "Waco incident" leave you with the uncomfortable feeling that the federal government cares more about the reputation of federal law enforcement than the protection of the American people? Then you must read this detailed, documented mass market paperback by longtime libertarian pacifist activist and writer, Carol Moore. The book draws on government and news sources, trial and congressional transcripts, and interviews with experts and participants, including Davidian survivors and prisoners.

In 487 pages of text and 20 pages of graphics and photographs, including photos newly available from the FBI, the book systematically analyzes evidence that agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) committed real crimes against the Branch Davidians. It details how these agencies, as well officials of the Justice and Treasury Departments and the Clinton White House, covered up these crimes.

I'm opening two new categories, one for Waco stories and one for Ruby Ridge stories. The idea is to compile information about the massacres for historical purposes. It's not exactly current news, but it's still something that everyone should remember. Please send me your Waco and Ruby Ridge links.

In the spring of 1998, under the Freedom of Information Act, investigators from MGA Studio's film division became the first private citizens to gain access to the Waco investigation evidence lockers. What they found was shocking. Upon examination, the evidence gathered under the supervision of federal officials appeared to contradict the FBI's congressional testimony, raising serious and disturbing questions about events surrounding the siege at Mt. Carmel and the deaths of the Davidians.

Since 1993, former members of the FBI, former Special Forces and CIA operatives have come forward with new evidence to suggest that the FBI's claim is inaccurate.

FBI officials late Tuesday were set to officially drop their long-held claim that agents had not fired any potentially flammable devices into the vicinity of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, the day it erupted in flames, killing more than 80 people.

FBI sources tell CNN the agency plans to release a formal statement acknowledging for the first time that two CS gas canisters were fired at a concrete bunker in a pit outside the wooden structures which went up in flames hours later.

But the FBI still insists it is not responsible for causing the blaze. "The ordnance was fired at the bunker in a direction far away from the compound," an official said.

Remember -- despite years of lies and cover ups, not to mention the people who died, no BATF nor FBI agent has been so much as reprimanded over this issue. This is justice?

Eleven years ago, on April 19, 1993, the FBI gassed the home of David Koresh and his followers, and then forced a tank and incendiary devices into the building, causing a fireball that consumed the lives of eighty civilians, including about twenty children.

Anyone who has looked closely into the Waco massacre and who is not a blind devotee of the government would agree that the tragedy was primarily the government?s fault. The feds lied to the press repeatedly during the standoff, saying that they went there to apprehend Koresh and not his followers, insisting that it was a hostage situation, and claiming that Koresh and his followers were armed with dangerous weapons that they intended to use against their neighbors. In truth, the ATF raided the Davidian home primarily for publicity, the Davidians were not hostages, the FBI threw explosives at people who tried to leave the building, and the Davidians probably had no more weapons per capita than the average Texan. If Koresh was their main target, the authorities could have easily arrested him on one of his routine jogs or visits to the local bar. Instead, they befriended him and even fired guns with him at his shooting range before turning on him and attacking his home.

April 19th, 2004, is the 11th anniversary of the massacre in Waco, Texas. And nothing has been done to those responsible.