I was one of millions of Americans who, after seeing the April 19, 1993 burning of the Branch Davidian church outside of Waco, Texas, wondered: Did these people really commit mass suicide, as the government alleged, despite the clear evidence on television that the fire started after a tank crashed into one part of the building? Were they really as insane as the government claimed? Why did they have to be attacked with massive, military-like force 51 days earlier? What is the truth? Carol Moore, author The Davidian Massacre
The question of who fired first is in dispute. ATF agents who participated in the raid have testified in court and at a congressional hearing that the Branch Davidians fired the first shots. Right after the raid, however, one ATF agent told an investigator that a fellow agent may have shot first, when he killed a dog outside the compound. The agent later retracted the statement, saying that the Branch Davidians had initiated the gunfire. Surviving Branch Davidians have maintained that they did not shoot their guns until they were fired upon by federal authorities. Waco: The Inside Story, PBS 1995; viz also Frontline online article
Texas 1993: An armed raid on the home of a small religious sect veers wildly out of control. The raiders were trying to arrest David Koresh, the leader of the sect. The man the media called the Sinful Messiah .... There was a raid, there was a siege, there was a fire. For almost everything else, there’s someone who disbelieves, disputes or doubts. The siege leaves behind it mistrust, suspicion and a mass of unanswered questions. Conspiracies – Waco Massacre
In the middle of March the FBO ferried in a powerful public address system. In a bid to drive the Branch Davidians out of Mount Carmel, the Hostage Rescue Team introduced psychological warfare and the sound of bagpipes ... The cacophony of noises played throughout the night also included sounds of low-flying helicopters and the screams of rabbits being slaughtered. ibid.
Over eighty Branch Davidians, a quarter of them children, had perished. ibid.
Branch Davidians was born Vernon Howell in Texas in 1959. He was drawn to the Bible and God from an very early age. At the age of 19 Vernon Howell joined a religious sect at Mount Carmel, ten miles outside Waco. This group was a dissident doomsday offshoot of the Church of Seventh Day Adventists. Set up in the 30s the group was already well established. The young Howell settled easily into the community and was well liked. Vernon Howell was the golden-haired boy. Not yet a leader but on his way. With increasing self-confidence came increasing power. In 1987 Vernon Howell became David Koresh. And David Koresh was undoubtedly a leader. Killer Cults: The Men Who Would Be Gods
In 1984 David Koresh married Rachael: she was fourteen years old. And one year later she gave him his first son. In the name of God Koresh took one wife after another, building up a veritable harem. If a girl was reluctant he was very persuasive. In all Koresh married nearly twenty women aged between twelve and twenty. ibid.
In the early morning of the 28th February 1993 the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tried to serve a warrant for illegal guns to David Koresh, who had been under surveillance for months. Koresh led the Branch Davidians, a fundamentalist religious sect that for decades had lived in Waco, Texas. Children of Waco, 2003
Koresh’s dominance over the group grew over time. Children became familiar with the Helper, a small wooden paddle used for spanking. ibid.
The entire building burned down in just thirty minutes. ibid.
1993 Waco, Texas: The world watched as a range compound burned to the ground. 80 people died, 17 of them children. They called themselves the Branch Davidians. And they were led by their charismatic leader David Koresh. Having proclaimed himself the son of God, Koresh claimed he was the Lamb who would open the Seven Seals. After a fire-fight with federal agents, who believed he was hoarding illegal weapons, Koresh and his followers perished in a fire after a 51-day standoff. Nostradamus Effect s1e9: Satan’s Army, History 2009
On February 28 1993 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. Four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians were killed. The Branch Davidians were immediately charged with murder, thus beginning a 51-day siege. On April 19 1993 the siege ended in a fire which destroyed the compound and took the lives of 79 men, women and children. The FBI later claimed that the Davidians had committed mass suicide. Since 1993 former FBI, Special Forces and CIA operatives have come forward with evidence to suggest this claim is not true. This is the story of that evidence. Waco: A New Revelation, 2000
The Branch Davidians were Seventh Day Adventists, or a sect of Seventh Day Adventists. They were an off-shoot developed first in California under the leadership of Victor Houteff. He moved to Waco in 1934/35. Founded a community called Mount Carmel. ibid.
This previously classified military document confirms the presence of Delta Force at Mount Carmel. ibid.
The FBI claimed that it never used pyrotechnic CS rounds – munitions capable of starting a fire. However, in this footage made prior to the fire two agents are seen firing projectiles from a M79 grenade launcher into the storm shelter at the north end of the building. Seconds later smoke pours from the shelter. ibid.
The pyrotechnic projectiles identified in the crime scene photos were missing from the evidence boxes. However, two 40 mm munitions were found ... In the rubble behind the compound. ibid.
At 12.10 p.m. the Flare Video Tapes shows at least two automatic weapons being fired into the back of the burning dining room, the only undamaged exit from the building. According to the Justice Department report at least fifteen people were found shot to death at this location. ibid.
The leader of the Branch Davidians was 33 year old David Koresh. His radical teachings had attracted former Seventh Day Adventists and other Christians from across the world to the Mount Carmel community, which had been in existence since 1934. Of the 130 people that lived there 30 had come from Britain. Inside Waco
Alongside a church and Bible studies there were guns and a firing range. ibid.
The undercover operation had discovered that Koresh had in excess of 150 automatic weapons and explosive devices. He also had 8,000 rounds of ammunition. Enough to equip a small army. To counter this it was decided to mount a military-style operation ... The raid was set for Sunday 28th February at 10 a.m. ibid.
On day two of the siege the world’s media descended on Waco. ibid.
With the continuing failure to bring an end to the siege by negotiation, the FBI commanders were relying on an increasingly aggressive strategy. The change in tactics was creating a bitter rift within the FBI. Two factions developed: those in favour of negotiation and those who promoted an increased use of force. ibid.
On day 13 the FBI increased the pressure further. As the night-time temperature dropped to minus four degrees, they permanently cut off all power to Mount Carmel. ibid.
Hour after hour the Davidians were bombarded with sound. And then with search-lights and helicopters. ibid.
Eighty-three people were inside Mount Carmel as the inferno fanned by the wind took hold. Only nine managed to escape. ibid.
David Koresh was born Vernon Howell in 1959 in Houston, Texas. His mother Bonnie Clark gave birth to him when she was just fifteen. His father Bobby Howell never married Bonnie, and took no responsibility for their son. By all accounts Koresh had a lonely and painful childhood. Criminal Behaviour: David Koresh
In the midst of his spiritual quest nineteen-year-old Koresh experienced something which shook his faith. His fifteen-year-old girlfriend Linda became pregnant and her father banned them from seeing each other. ibid.
Koresh’s intensity engendered a passionate loyalty from many at Mount Carmel. But others saw a darker side to his leadership. ibid.
Polygamy, sex with minors, and allegations of child abuse troubled the local authorities. But they lacked the evidence to make an arrest. One of the Davidian’s business activities finally gave them all the ammunition they needed to go after Koresh. ibid.
An exchange of gunfire resulted in the deaths of four agents and six followers of David Koresh. A subsequent fifty-one day siege ended when fire destroyed the compound. Seventy-six people, twenty-four of them British nationals, died. Including more than twenty children. Two pregnant women. And Koresh himself. ibid.
The issue of who fired first is important. The ATF has never changed its story. ibid.
David Koresh was dangerous, irrational and probably insane. Bill Clinton
There’s a common thread in all this: Oklahoma City, the World Trade Centre bombing and of course Waco. Alex Jones, America: Wake Up or Waco, 2000
Those babies did not deserve to be murdered by the black ski-masked thugs. ibid.
This is just one small symbol against the tyrannical elements of this government that are pushing themselves to the forefront of the world today, ladies and gentlemen. This is the right thing to do. Alex Jones, in situ on rebuilding of Mount Carmel