Weren’t the FBI and BATF serving lawful search warrants? Wasn’t the Davidians’ response to fight? ~G. Fink
From David Kopel's book (on my bookshelf), "No More Wacos." The BATF agents lied to the judge by saying that some E2 trigger kits (perfectly legal to put in an AR15) were actually what they called "EZ kits" which BATF agents falsely claimed were used to illegal convert ARs to full auto. The judge, being a typical judge, was too ignorant to confront the F-Troopers with their lie.
The BATF could have arrested Koresh on one of his morning jogs. On one day, when the BATF was inspecting the gunshop which Koresh did much of his business, one of the the employees got on the phone with Koresh telling him that the BATF was there. Koresh told him to relay that "They can come on over here any time they want." When the F-Trooper was informed of the offer, the fine Federal Agent was seen to shush the employee and wave his hands as if to say, "Ix-nay. Don't blow my plan."
Nope, the plan was to go in with a grand show of force. Why? The BATF had suffered several embarrassments from the late 1970s (complete with Congressional findings of misdeeds as well as Michigan Congressman Dingel -a Democrat- coining the infamous reference, "Jack-booted Thugs." As well, a video was released showing the annual BBQ that BATFer would frequent known as the "Good Ol' Boy Round-up"
http://elfie.org/~croaker/goodboys.html (a 1995 story detailing the attempt to clean up the image of these Federal Thugs .
They're trying to tone down the racist trappings of the "Good O' Boys Roundup" here in the Tennessee hills east of Chattanooga, where hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officers gather every spring to let off steam.
There was a lot to tone down. Gone, for example, are many of the crude signs that once greeted arriving officers, like this one: "****** check point."
The "Good O' Boys Roundup" is organized by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and it was held this year on May 18-20.
Of course, since many Branch Davidians who perished in the fire were black (American, Brit, etc) I doubt that any F-Troopers shed a tear.
Yep. All that and the calls to reduce the funding of the agency. With budget hearings coming up, BATF brass decided that they needed a media event to showcase their talents. They invited press to be at the raid, --that's why W:TROE has so much video shot then. Oh, they call sign to begin the raid and have the 80 F-Troopers pile out of the cattle cars to assault the plywood church? "SHOWTIME !! SHOWTIME !! SHOWTIME !!"
The video shows the Huey helicopters loaded with BATF agents swooping down during the raid. As the helicopters flew over the plywood church, the F-Troopers straifed the roof with their machine guns (where the women and children slept). The hostage negotiator tried to lie about it when confronted by the Davidians over the phone. "There were no guns on those helicopters." After he was pressed, several times, he retreated, "Well, there were no guns *mounted* on the helicopters... okay?"
The most "entertaining" thing on the documentary was the scene of the F-Troopers retreating backwards with their hands in the air. Ya see, the F-Troopers ran out of ammunition for their MP5s and Glocks. The Davidians allowed them to depart with their dead and wounded. Some suggest that the Davidians should have taken some hostages, knowing what criminals they were dealing with.
Phoenix's own BATF Agent-in-Charge Marvin Richardson was there on Feb 28th (I sat in with him on a panel and made sure that the others knew what thugs BATF agents were and that they were not to be trusted when they wanted to open "Project Exile" in Phoenix). And after the FBI-HRT showed on the scene with tanks (borrowed from the US armed forces because they (both BATF and FBI) lied about a drug-nexus allowing suspension of portions of Posse Commitatus.
Speaking of rogue federal agent-thugs. Guess who else was there, fresh from his murder of Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge as she held her ten-month old daughter, Elisheba? Well, that favorite FBI-HRT sniper, Lon Horiuchi. Lon would love to comment, but he's living in an undisclosed location after Clinton's lackey Attorney General, Janet Reno moved his Idaho indictment to federal court so that she could get the charges quashed. Janet Reno, the person who approved of the assault plan that included pumping hundreds of pounds of flamable CS powder suspended in toxic (and flamable) di-chloroethylene (which no doubt killed several as massive amounts were pumped into the church.)
That metal door that disappeared? One of the Waco Attorneys testified (under oath in Congressional hearings) that the bullet holes went *in* to the metal door -- not out. Yes. That door (it was actually one side of a double door with the other one present, without holes) was gone.
But there's more. After the fire (FBI refused to allow fire truck --for their own safety, of course), they ran bulldozers over the rubble thus destroying as much evidence as possible. Not the actions of an innocent Federal agency, ya think?
The Feds maintained that the flashes of light in the FLIR video were refections of sunlight off of broken glass. FLIR measures infrared -- heat, not visible light, assuming proper calibration. Think of the amount of heat in a rifle shot. Now, go outside and pick up a piece of broken glass which has been sitting in the sun. Get the picture?
Tucson Attorney, David T. Hardy, who wrote the brief for Printz-Mack v US (striking down part of the Brady Law which required Sheriff's to do the work of Bill Clinton) and attorney for some of the Branch Davidians (and the guy who wrote the best history on the Second Amendment I have ever read), has a web page which answers many questions, including the FLIR issue.
http://www.hardylaw.net/flir.html
BTW, the FLIR expert who was to testify that they were gunshots, was found dead in his workshop.
Rick