Posted on 04/19/2010 1:46:54 AM PDT by Cindy
DAVID KORESH: MILLENNIAL VIOLENCE
David Koresh and the Waco Incident: Both Sides Prepare
By Katherine Ramsland
David Koresh, 1987 A number of people, both witnesses and historians, have tried to accurately document the facts of what happened on February 28th, 1993 in Waco, Texas in the clash between law enforcement and a religious group known as the Branch Davidians. No one seems able to write about those events in an unbiased manner, since it seems that the whole thing was preventable. Even the academics appear to have a cause, so it's difficult at times to piece together what actually happened and who was to blame. Was Koresh a manipulative psychopath who exploited an opportunity, as many FBI agents claim, or was he just a deluded religious leader whose private play was suddenly exposed on the world's stage? Perhaps we'll never know.
Hostage negotiator Christopher Whitcomb, writing in Cold Zero, and true crime writer Clifford Linedecker in Massacre at Waco, Texas both present a chronology of the facts on that momentous Sunday morning."
(Excerpt) Read more at trutv.com ...
bttt
The simple truth is that the BATF were doing the typical loose cannon gambit. When you can inspect arms, and are invited to, refuse and have a grandstand raid later, then blame the people you attack. Alone, perhaps you could blame Waco on a "whackjob", but there had been a string of escalating, violent, encounters between federal agents and people they allegedly wanted to arrest, from Randy Weaver, to Gordon Kahl, to Koresh, and all could have been arrested alone in a relatively peaceful operation. Instead, Weaver and Kahl were bushwhacked, and Koresh, instead of being arrested outside the Mt. Carmel facillity, was atacked by nearly 100 federal agents in a 'surprise' operation which had been blown over a half hour before. BTW, Koresh is dead, not in jail.
Federal excess led to slaughter in each instance.
I don’t dispute the government screwed up big time that first day.
What I am stating is Koresh could have walked out at any time, received excellent legal representation, and would be alive, and out of prison today. And every one of those that died in the inferno would also be alive.
The simple truth is Koresch was a very very poor ‘leader’, and sorry, claiming he was ‘rise from the dead’ ala Jesus Christ makes him a certifiable whack job.
Randy Weaver? Feds screwed that man big time.
don’t know about Kahl.
I don’t dispute what you say here.
My point is Koresh could have surrendered at any point, choose not to, and as a direct result of THAT DECISION at the End was the final mistake that cost all those lives.
He had 52 days. He made a decision, and we know the result.
I agree with most of what you wrote. I will however, disagree with the assertion he would have been found guilty related to those wounded and killed, personally. The fact is we’ll never know who inside was firing rounds ‘out’ at the ATF, because there are no forensics available to analyze, such as GPR on hands, fingerprints to match up with specific weapons fired that first day, or in the days and weeks after. Given that, its unlikely prosecutors would have tried to get convictions for murder, or attempted murder against Koresh...just my opinion on that specific aspect.
We can certainly disagree with how a trial would have turned out. It would have been as big as the OJ trial. Of that I’m sure. Someone like him would have represented himself. After all, God doesn’t need a lawyer, right? He would have gotten up in court and made rambling speeches. Perfect for TV.
It would have also put the ATF and its senior agents on the scene on trial along with him. At least in the court of public opinion. Another reason why the ATF did not want a living Koresh to come out of there. They were pushing to raid that compound for a long time during the standoff while the FBI negotiators were holding them back. Then they bulldozed the compound later, thus erasing any evidence of anything. That “crime scene” was not properly investigated...
I don’t see us being ‘very apart’ in our view of this tragedy.
I’m certainly not giving a pass to the government for their role.
I’ll just note OJ walked, and the evidence against him was crystal clear.
Lots of people made bad decisions in that deal.
True, but the last one Koresh made got all his remaining followers incinerated. THAT was completely, totally, avoidable.
Many of Koresh's followers survived. At least one testified before Congress about the raid. From what I've read none of those Davidian survivors were ever convicted any of the allegations that the government accused them of.
I was wrong on my last post, several Davadians were actually convicted of various charges.
Minor charges resulted in convictions, but they are all out of jail today from what I understand.
Yep.
If the BATFE had arrested Koresh on one of his many excursions out of the compound, none of this would have happened at all. But the BATFE was looking for a propaganda coup, so went with the "dynamic entry" assault, and it backfired big time.
Koresh may have been a whackjob, but even whackjobs are supposed to have rights under our Constitution.
Koresh met them at the door and spoke with them. Who started shooting? Who came with 100 pumped up agents, armed to the teeth?
Nope.
Even when they knew the operation was blown, that the Davidians had notice, (yes, the lines were tapped), they went ahead and did the raid anyway.
If there was no desire for bloodshed, they would have postponed the grandstand op and picked up Koresh in town.
The BATF just bit off more than they could chew.
Still, there were more decisions, among them to pump the building full of CS, carried in methylene chloride. Keep in mind, that this building is full of women and children, and then go look up the MSDS on Methylene Chloride. (Just in case you don't, it's in carburettor cleaner, and it's nasty stuff--inhaled, worn, or burned up in.)
You obviously are not familliar with the events of that day if you think the Davidians were going to get off without getting their dogs shot and their kitties stomped.
“Koresh may have been a whackjob, but even whackjobs are supposed to have rights under our Constitution.”
Bears repeating. And I might add that being in the right is a dangerous place to be when the government is wrong.
You ignore my point completely. Why?
My point is Koresh would be ALIVE today had he walked out and surrendered. So would the 80 plus that died with him, including all those children.
You state ‘keep in mind this building was full of women and children’. Indeed.
Didn’t stop Koresh from insisting they die ‘in place’ did it?
A good ‘leader’s’ first responsibility is to those that follow him. Koresh was a nutcase, and as a result of his insane messiah complex over 80 people died that horrible day.
I do not dispute the government screwed this up. I know why they went in the way they did, it was because they needed a PR win to fight expected budget cuts. I know as much about the ‘details’ of this mess as anyone. Including the more ridiculous claims which I just shake my head at.
But the fact is Koresh had over 50 days to save his followers. His choice was no different than the one Jim Jones made.
btw, I’m still waiting for him to ‘rise from the dead’. Are you?
I don’t dispute the the government screwed up big time on the day this began.
My point is Koresh was a nutcase that got all his followers killed for no reason other than his megalomania. As I just noted, he could have walked out at any time during the standoff, they’d all be alive today.
His choice in the end was no different than Jim Jones.
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