That’s nonsense. The fire was started by the tanks pumping in burning gas into an unsafe wooden structure. And yeah he was crazy. But F-troop caused that disaster.
They wanted to search for illegal machine guns. The search had no child abuse nexus. The feds lied and said there were drugs there in order to get military support.
That assault style raid was simply not needed. All the ATF had to do was have two men in suits knock on the front door. The proof? The McClennan County sheriff arrested him on a murder charge a few years earlier in just such a manner. He offered no resistance. At trial he was acquitted,
ATF wanted a big flashy PR raid.
And as an aside, he went to lunch every week at the Chelsea Street Pub at Waco mall. They could have simply arrested him.
He was a nut but the Feds utterly screwed that up.
Exactly.
Shaky Jake Reno wanted a big headline to push the agenda forward.
Quietly nabbing the nut case on one of his trips to town doesn’t garner a lot of print media.
That’s all true. They could have arrested on many occasions, away from the hands. They wanted him guns, not child abuse.
They didn't screw up. They did it that way deliberately, just like they deliberately sent thousands of weapons to the Mexican drug cartels.
Have you any clear data on the Rodger Stone ambush at his house that early morning...for one man?
Yes, an article at the time supports there was no evidence of abuse (link below). The Justice Department's own report, in an effort to clear Janet Reno of wrongdoing, suggested that "sanitary conditions" inside the compound was reason enough to launch the operation because it posed a danger to the children. LOL