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WACO, Texas (AP) -- Some who survived the fiery end to the 51-day standoff at the Branch Davidians' Central Texas compound are to gather for a memorial service on the 20th anniversary of the fire. Survivors and others who see the events as an unwarranted government intrusion into personal and religious freedoms are to attend the service Friday at a Waco museum. Federal agents raided the compound Feb. 28, 1993, trying to arrest sect leader David Koresh for stockpiling illegal weapons. But the group had been tipped off about the raid and a shootout ensued. Four agents and six Davidians...

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...

WACO, Texas - Thirteen years after the Branch Davidians' armed standoff with federal agents ended in an inferno that killed nearly 80 people, six sect members who were sent to prison are about to be released from custody. Most of those who will be freed over the next two months escaped from the compound near Waco as it burned to the ground on April 19, 1993 — 51 days after a shootout that erupted when federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to arrest religious leader David Koresh for stockpiling guns and explosives. The six men went to...

(April 19, 2006)--An informal memorial service may be held Wednesday at the site of the Branch Davidian compound to mark the 13th anniversary of the fire that killed almost 80 Davidians and ended the 51-day standoff with federal agents, but survivors don’t plan to attend this year, according to the Mt. Carmel Survivors Newsletter.

Court Passes on Davidians' Judge Case Mon Mar 22,10:35 AM ET by ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal questioning the conduct of a federal judge involved in lawsuits over the FBI siege of the Branch Davidian complex near Waco, Texas. The high court did not comment in rejecting a pair of appeals from survivors and from families of children who died in the fire that swept the complex in April 1993. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, the only federal judge sitting in Waco, refused to recuse himself despite what the...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal questioning the conduct of a federal judge involved in lawsuits over the FBI siege of the Branch Davidian complex near Waco. The high court did not comment in rejecting a pair of appeals from survivors and from families of children who died in the fire that swept the complex in April 1993. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, the only federal judge sitting in Waco, refused to recuse himself despite what the Davidians called a demonstrated bias against them. At one point the judge referred to part of the Davidians'...

Once you have clambered over the huge tank tracks in the mud and negotiated large areas of weeds and brush scrub, the evidence of a decade-old tragedy is plain to see: a pair of charred leather boots, a single high-heeled pink and white shoe, several glass bottles, the burned and tattered remains of a dress and a table lamp, its metal base contorted by the heat. Ron Goins picks up a small piece of bone. "I don't figure this is human bone, but a number of people weren't recovered after the fire," he says. Waco, Texas, will forever be known...

Court Rejects Davidian Claim Against U.S. Tue Jul 15, 9:52 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo! By ALAN SAYRE, Associated Press Writer NEW ORLEANS - A federal appeals court rejected an attempt by survivors to collect damages from the government for the deadly 1993 confrontation outside Waco, Texas, between federal agents and members of the Branch Davidian cult. Without dissent, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) late Monday turned aside contentions that a lower court judge who ruled against the survivors was biased. Scores of Branch Davidian...

Voluntary Alternatives to Taxation Stuart K. Hayashi Most Americans believe paying taxes is a patriotic duty. Yet this very nation was founded upon people evading taxes in 1776. When individuals don’t pay taxes, the government goes after them with guns, even though they haven’t used force on anyone else. Thus, taxation is an initiation of physical force against the individual’s right to life, liberty and property. Because taxation is forcible extortion, it violates your right to property. If you don’t pay taxes, you can be jailed, hence depriving you the right to liberty. And if tax “evaders” fight tax...

In light of Janet Reno’s concession of defeat in Florida’s primary elections, and as an addendum to Chris Ruddy and Carl Limbacher’s current bestseller "Catastrophe,” America needs to remember the horrific evil perpetrated by then-Attorney General Reno in the first months of the Clinton presidency. In March of 1993, I was the keynote speaker at a conference of business and civic leaders held in Indianapolis. One of those attending was a federal judge named Joe (it’s best not to mention his last name). He seemed a nice, decent fellow who not once hinted that (as I had been informed by...

Aussie claims Waco site By Michael McKenna in Los Angeles August 14, 2002 http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4897930%255E401,00.html A FORMER Australian government worker has won control of the Branch Davidians' Texas compound that was the scene of a violent 1993 stand-off with US authorities in which more than 80 sect members and their children were killed. Melbourne-born Davidian Clive Doyle, a former federal currency printer, learnt several weeks ago he had won the battle for the near desolate property, outside Waco, that he has lived on since the late 1960s. Several factions within the dwindling ranks of the sect, once headed by "messiah"' David...