Danforth’s Warren Report - Covering Up at Waco

By Preston Peet

The Branch Davidians at Mt. Carmel were an offshoot of the largest home-grown religion of the United States, the 7th Day Adventist Church. They lived on their own land, Mt. Carmel, in Waco, Texas, where gunlaws are notoriously relaxed and gun ownership is normal behavior. They lived a lifestyle more religiously devout than most Americans, and that made them different. They became targets when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms came looking for trouble.

Zee Big One Needs a Drug Nexus
Drug Nexus=More Public Money for Law Enforcement

In Spring, 1992, a UPS driver in Waco reported to the McLennan County Sheriff’s Department “suspicious” mail shipments of inert hand grenades to certain Davidians. The Sheriff’s Dept. in turn brought in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, (BATF), which began investigating Davidian leader Vernon Howell, aka David Koresh, and a few associates on June 9, 1992, for possible federal firearms laws violations.

Davey Aguilara, BATF lead investigator of the Davidians, and Special Agent Jimmy R. Skinner visited Koresh’s gun dealer, Henry McMahon, July 30, 1992, who called Koresh saying government agents were asking questions. Koresh replied, “If there’s a problem, tell them to come out here. If they want to see my guns, they are more than welcome,” reports Dick J. Reavis in his landmark 1995 book, “The Ashes of Waco.” The agents responded by motioning silently, “no, no,” and getting McMahon to hang-up. Planning soon began for a dynamic-entry raid on Mt. Carmel, where Koresh lived with over 100 men, women and children suspected of committing no crime at all.

The raid on the Branch Davidian home and church, February 28, 1993, was what was known in the BATF as a ZBO, or “Zee Big One,” wrote investigative reporter Carol Vinzant in 1994 in SPY, quoted by David B. Kopel and Paul H. Blackman in their exhaustive study on Waco and the militarizing of US police, “No More Wacos,” (1997). A ZBO is “a press drawing stunt that when shown to Congress at budget time justifies more funding...The attack on the Branch Davidian’s complex was, in the eyes of some of the agents, the ultimate ZBO.” Under fire from some female agents over rampant sexual harassment within the BATF, (which CBS “60 Minutes,” reported on January 10, 1993), and a lawsuit filed by black agents alleging discriminatory policies, the BATF hierarchy knew its image was severely tarnished, and needed something to take before Congress in early March, 1993, budget hearings.

The Government Accounting Office report, “Department of Defense- Military Assistance Provided at Branch Davidian Complex,” (August 26, 1999), says, “Although the [B]ATF conducted a firearms investigation of Howell and other Davidians, it also acquired information on possible drug activity when it decided to seek support from military counterdrug elements,” [emphasis added]. On December 4th, 1992, the BATF conferred with a military officer with the Department of Defense Office for Drug Enforcement Policy and Support, stationed at the BATF’s Special Operations Division headquarters in Washington, DC, asking what aid was available. The BATF was told any assistance would have to be reimbursed unless there was a “drug connection to the investigation.” On December 11, 1992, the BATF contacted the Texas National Guard counterdrug program, and were again told any military assistance had to be reimbursed unless there “was a drug connection to the investigation.” When the BATF subsequently submitted a written request for aerial surveillance assistance to the Texas National Guard counterdrug program mentioning no drug connection, it was returned with the suggestion that the BATF, “must submit a revised request” including a “drug connection.” Texas law mandates a drug nexus for LEA assistance. Texas National Guard counterdrug officers told the GAO it’s not unusual for Law Enforcement Agencies to “make requests without citing a drug connection. In those cases the Texas National Guard returns the request with the explanation of the need of a written statement of possible drug activity.” Two days later, December 16, the BATF says it received information from a disgruntled former Davidian about a methamphetamine lab at Mt. Carmel.

“We left Mt. Carmel in 1984, and came back in 1988. I wouldn’t say we found a lab per se, but we found chemicals, recipes, paraphernalia, stuff like that. We handed it over to the Sheriff’s Department,” Davidian survivor Clive Doyle told this reporter, although the GAO report says the Sheriff’s office denies ever receiving it. This stuff was left by George Roden, the son of a late leader of the Davidians. Roden no longer lived at Mt. Carmel.

David Hardy, a Tucson, Arizona attorney who helped represent the Davidians in late summer, 2000, in their civil trial against the government, says the methlab “wasn’t even when Koresh was there. It’s clear that no one had seen any such thing in years, and in fact the building it was in didn’t even exist anymore.”

Mike Caddell, lead attorney in the Davidians' $675 million civil suit against the US Government, filed in Waco, June 1999, and lost August 2000, said, “There was a list of names of people who had been affiliated with the Davidians and they went through and compiled some sort of history of either real or imagined drug connections. There were some people on that list who were not even in Mt. Carmel anymore.” Doyle notes, “There was one guy who ended up dying in the fire by the name of Raymond Friesen. They had a Raymond Friesen on the list as being a drug addict of some kind, and it turned out it was somebody in California, no connection...Some of the names they had on there were real, there were people who prior to coming had some kind of problems, but I think if you go to any church that’s what churches are for, to help people with problems. You are going to find all kinds of people, especially in a church that evangelizes. ”

The BATF alleged that partially blind former Davidian, Marc Breault, was their main source for the drug nexus. Breault told Reavis he never tried to link Koresh to the drug trade. “There were no drugs of any kind used during my time in the group. I have no reason to believe that drugs were used afterwards...Never at any time did I accuse Vernon of drug dealing or usage.” Reavis writes, “the [B]ATF’s allegation about the methlab was fabricated from the shreds of a misconstrued and bygone incident.” (The BATF and FBI eventually did reimburse 76 percent of the nearly $1 million cost of military assistance at Waco, after Congress noted the spurious methlab allegation in 1995 hearings.)

On February 4, 1993, representatives of the BATF, Texas National Guard counterdrug program, and Joint Task Force 6, an active military group that coordinates military assistance with LEAs in anti-drug efforts within the US, met to discuss assistance available to BATF to prepare and carry out their raid on Mt. Carmel. The Texas National Guard agreed to supply “vehicles, office and camp equipment.” It subsequestnly brought in Alabama National Guard helicopters. By Feb. 17, JTF-6 ok’d firearms range practice and “limited training” of BATF. From Feb. 25 to 27, BATF raiders trained assaulting a mock-up of Mt. Carmel at Ft. Hood, Texas.

BATF agents began a surveillance operation January 10, 1993. Caddell says, “There was a house immediately across the road from Mt. Carmel, only a couple hundred yards from the main building. A number of BATF agents took up residence in this house,  claiming to be students at the Texas State Technical College. It was very transparent and the Davidians knew they were government agents. I mean, these guys were clearly in their 30s, weren’t students, didn’t make much of a pretense of being students. They were cops and it was pretty obvious to everybody that was what they were. But the Davidians invited them over, did some target practice with them, discussed theology with them, that sort of thing.” Two BATF agents went to Mt. Carmel on February 19, nine days before the raid to shoot their AR-15s with some of the Davidians. Koresh supplied the ammunition. They all shot and admired one another’s weapons.

The day before launching “Operation Trojan Horse,” refered to among the raiders as “Showtime,” BATF reserved rooms in local hotels for over a hundred agents and personnel, and helicopters were flying in. It wasn’t difficult for local residents, or the Davidians, to see a massive operation was underway, aimed at Mt. Carmel.

The Dogs of Armegeddon

Davidian David Jones, also a local postman, was tipped off to the upcoming raid early morning Feb. 28 when a news cameraman asked for directions to Mt. Carmel. While they spoke, a BATF sniper team drove past, and National Guard helicopters flew overhead. Jones headed for Mt. Carmel, finding Koresh discussing theology with BATF undercover agent Robert Rodriguez, who’d been attending bible study lessons, and shooting his guns with Koresh and other Davidians. After speaking with Jones, Koresh told Rodriguez something like, “go do what you gotta do, we know they’re coming.” Koresh shook Rodriguez’s hand, wished him well, and allowed the perfect hostage to walk out the front door.

Rodriguez told his superior, BATF Special Agent Chuck Sarabyn, that any element of surprise they might’ve had was gone, that the Davidians were expecting them. Sarabyn’s reaction was to run yelling to the troops, waiting after their 60 mile drive in an 80-vehicle, mile-long convoy from Ft. Hood to Bellmead Civic Center, about 10 miles from Mt. Carmel, “hurry up, let’s go, they know we’re coming!” The 76 BATF raiders loaded into two large cattle trailers, fully armed, and ready for war, to serve an arrest warrent for one man. What they weren’t ready for was a surrender. If Koresh opened the door and said, “I surrender,” elements of the assault force wouldn’t have known, having no radio communication between each other. They’d still have climbed the roof, and thrown in flashbang grenades, into a building they allegedly suspected contained a highly volatile methlab they were unsure the location of, not to mention all the innocent men, women and children inside that morning.

No one is really sure what happened next. BATF agents allege the Davidians opened fire in a vicious ambush. Some Davidians allege helicopters fired on them during the opening moments of the raid. BATF has consistently denied this, but there is a pre-raid BATF memo that discusses using gunfire from helicopters to “distract” the Davidians. There is evidence that agents exiting the cattle-trailers fired accidentally, putting two bullets through the cab and radiator grill of the second pickup truck pulling the trailers. A couple BATF agents testified later they thought other agents were “taking care of the dogs.” The Davidians had 5 Malamute dogs, a mother and her pups. BATF agent John Carpenter told the Texas Rangers during their investigation immediately following the raid that when he heard gunfire from the front, he thought agents were shooting the dogs. Mike McNulty, documentary filmmaker who wrote and researched two films, “Waco: The Rules of Engagement,” (1997-nominated for an Academy Award the same year), and “Waco: A New Revelation,”(1999), told this reporter, “The version we present about how the gunfight started seems to play out completely within the context of the testimony given during the civil trial. The way the gunfight started was the BATF shot the Davidians’ dogs, and when people on either side of the firing line heard gunfire, that was it. My kingdom for a dog. Its funny how people react to the dead dogs. Yeah, you shoot my dog it is like shooting my kid. You don’t do that.”

Koresh opened the door, saw running, hollering agents pointing weapons at him, and yelled, “go away, there’s women and children in here, let’s talk.” He told CNN during the resulting siege, “they started firing at me, so what happened was I fell back in the door and the bullets started coming in through the door.” BATF insists that the Davidians opened fire through the now-closed door.

Within 3 minutes, Davidian Wayne Martin, a local attorney, called 911 attempting a cease-fire. Doyle recalls, “Wayne Martin got on the phone, 911, with Lieutenant Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Lynch. I guess he’d asked Wayne to make some decision Wayne felt he couldn’t make so he was sending a few of us running up the stairs to where David was lying wounded to get confirmation or a decision. I remember the first time I went up the stairs, I couldn’t even get down the hall, because the women had the kids all on the floor, kind of lying on top of them and over them. I was surprised there wasn’t a lot more screaming and panic, you’d expect it. They seemed to be pretty well in control, even though they were scared and everything. After the BATF left some of the kids were like, ‘Yeah, some of the bullets were coming up through the floor, one of them hit my shoe but didn’t go into it,’ you now, they were kind of excited, but they weren’t screaming and panicking.” By the time a cease-fire was arranged over 2 hours later, 6 Davidians were dead, an unknown number were wounded, 4 BATF agents were dead, and 20 agents were wounded. By nightfall, the BATF handed over control to the FBI, and heavy military equipment was brought in.

Let’s Get Our Kicks Before the Whole Shithouse Goes Up In Flames

Doyle said, “I remember being in the chapel, in the dark, we had opaque glass in there, kind of like bathroom glass in the chapel, the next thing the building just started shaking, Having been in California through 3 earthquakes, I knew the feeling, but we don’t have earthquakes in Texas. What’s going on? We cracked the window and peeked out and here’s this big convoy a half a mile from the building. They had these tanks up on big trailers, coming down from a little town called Elk. For the next 50-odd days, they were running around and around us in close proximity.” The FBI used 10 Bradley Fighting vehicles, 2 Abrahms tanks, and a multitude of other armored vehicles at Mt. Carmel, in this domestic law enforcement operation.

Communication to the outside world was cut, short-wave radios and cell phones were electronically jammed. The only contact out for the Davidians was the single phoneline the FBI ran directly from Mt. Carmel to FBI negotiators. No reporters were allowed closer than 1-mile to the complex. The FBI conducted war on the Davidians with classic propaganda tactics, using terms like “cult” and “compound” to describe the Davidians, alleging irrelevant crimes that may or may not have been committed by Koresh at any point in his life, without pointing out many of the allegations, such as child abuse, were investigated by the Texas Department of Child Protective Services in 1992. It found insufficient grounds for continuing an investigation. The FBI proved duplicitous and threatening from the start.

“David [Koresh] and Steve [Schneider, another Davidian attorney, who negotiated most with the FBI], talked to the negotiators. When the tanks arrived on the scene, that was one of the first things negotiators promised: that the tanks were only going to be used for security or perimeter detail, they were not going to come on the property,” said Doyle.

“Frankly, if you look at the video of what the FBI did in certain instances, they were not simply moving things out of the way, they were clearly running over things, demolishing things. It was a clear attempt to intimidate the Davidians inside, and scare them into doing what they wanted them to do,” Caddell said. “The FBI leadership had the unfortunate notion that people can be forced to do anything. If you apply the right mix of intimidation and terror, you can bend people to your will. That simply turned out to be not only wrong, but tragically wrong, disastrously wrong, for the people inside Mt. Carmel.”

There was no communication between the Davidians and troops outside, only with off-site negotiators. “As we got into the siege, they made more and more demands of course. There came a point when they said no one was to be in the tower. If they saw anyone in the tower they’d consider it a threatening gesture and deal with it. There was one young guy from England who was an artist. David had him working on some artwork in a room on the first floor. We’d lifted up the drape so he could get some light, and he would work in front of the window. Sometimes when they’d be driving the tanks by outside in the driveway, if they saw you in the window they’d stop and move the gun turret around to point it at you. Sometimes the little flaps on the sides of the tanks would lift and you’d see flashes as they took pictures of you. But if the tank gun didn’t intimidate you, if you didn’t back off when they stopped, they’d turn the tank and charge the building and stop just shy of hitting the wall. It wasn’t a deal where you just hung out the window all the time and were friendly. They certainly weren’t in the mood to be friendly.”

In mid-March, the FBI began a psywar, playing extremely loud music, shining bright searchlights all night, and blaring the screams of animals being slaughtered, such as rabbits, trying to affect the Davidians’ mental state. “Everytime we thought we were cooperating, people were coming out, or we were doing what they’d asked, we’d be punished, almost right after complying," said Doyle. "The electricity being cut off, the music being played, all that kind of stuff just gave us the attitude they certainly did not mean what they were promising, that we couldn’t trust them. Of course we’re listening to their morning briefings on the radio. They were supposedly showing great concern for the childrens’ welfare, that they were supposed to be the innocent parties, but ...the noises, the lights, all the things that went on for the next 50-odd days just confirmed in our minds they had no concern for our children at all. Other than to get them away from us. Whatever they did to us the children were having to put up with as well. If they’d been concerned with the children, they wouldn’t have done the raid.” Doyle described one malicious incident. “There was one day when they buzzed the building with one of these jet helicopters, I don’t know what kind it was but it was really noisy, a black type of helicopter, it wasn’t just a regular rotor one, but it was really fast. They would buzz the building and everyone was kind of instinctively ducking. The next day, we hear this helicopter coming again and everyone starts ducking, just a reflex, and it went on for a little while, we began to wake up: There is no helicopter. We’d look out the window to see which way the helicopter went, turned out there wasn’t a helicopter. They’d recorded the thing, and were just playing it to us the next day, to get us to instinctively duck.”

“Towards the end of the siege, I’d say the last week before the fire, anybody that came out of the building either legitimately or just to get fresh air had flashbangs lobbed at him, including Steve Schneider, who came out the front door on a negotiated rendezvous with a tank to pick up supplies. He picked up the stuff from the people in the tank, turned around and they threw two flashbangs at him at the front door. Scared the daylights out of him. At that time we weren’t even aware of the potential danger of them other than like I say being noisy and scary. We found out later they are dangerous and can maim someone.”

Is it Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away?

Schneider mentioned numerous times the possibility that the LEAs would want to get rid of the evidence. On March 13, he told negotiators, “They may want to burn the building down, they want to destroy evidence, because the evidence from the door will clearly show how many bullets and what happened...If this building stands, and the reporters and the press get to see the evidence, its going to be shown clearly what happened and what those men came to do...So if you guys want, you can even be involved with them in burning this place down...” He said the Davidians were using candles and Coleman lanterns to see, and had haybayles along the walls to protect them from government gunfire. After he told negotiators there was one fire extinguisher for the entire place, he was told, “someone in there oughta buy some fire insurance.” (The front doorway contained two doors, left and right. The right half-a-door Schneider mentioned has not been seen since the fire. One Texas Ranger, Sgt. David Keys, says he suspects he saw it loaded into a U-Haul trailer by FBI agents on the afternoon of the final assault. It has never been found.)

On April 14, 1993, DoJ secretly flew in two US military officers, Brigadier General Paul J. Shoomaker, and Colonel William “Jerry” Boykin, then Commander of Delta Force, (B Squadron), Special Ops at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, (who went off to Somalia within a year, participating in yet another US military debacle). They were flown by FBI transport to Waco to “asses the situation,” then flown to Washington, DC to meet Janet Reno, to discuss “contingency plans that may be used to bring the situation in Waco to an end,” according to a Army Operations Command memo obtained by WorldNetDaily, August, 1999.

On day 51, April 19, 1993, the FBI and other LEA and military-types ended the siege. “They announced at 6 in the morning, while it was still dark, the siege was over, they were going to be spraying gas into the building, that this was not an assault. That is to say, they’re not going to be entering the building, they would  be spraying gas and we were to all come out and surrender, as this gas would permeate our clothes, and our food, make life miserable, so they basically announced what they were going to do. Shortly after that announcement, they made the first incursion of gas. Of course they started shooting ferret rounds which were not supposed to be used for 48 hours...They were supposed to spray gas for 48 hours. If we hadn’t come out by then they were going to go to Plan B. And their explanation recently is well, plan B was always there, and if Plan A was jeopardized by us firing on them, which they claim we did, they could escalate it.” During the six hour final assault, tanks smashed into the building at various points 33 times, crushing the gymnasium at the rear of the complex, and creating what the FBI later described as escape routes for the Davidians, but actually turned Mt. Carmel into the perfect stove-pipe configuration, on one of the windiest days of the year. Immediately after the Bradley busy crushing the gymnasium pulled out of the building for the final time, at about 11:40 AM, the first fire was seen to erupt, spread, and very quickly Mt. Carmel was a raging inferno. At least 82 Davidians perished, including the 6 killed during the opening raid, but not including two trauma-born infants found amongst the rubble and ashes. Only 9 Davidians in the building survived the final assault and fire. The BATF raised their flag over the embers on the Davidian flagpole, signaling victory.

January 12, 1994, the Government launched a criminal trial of 11 Davidian survivors in San Antonio, Texas. Three were not at Mt. Carmel Feb. 28. Three were acquitted, 5 got 40 years, one got 20 years, one got 5, and one, not at Mt. Carmel during the siege, got 15 years in prison. (The US Supreme Court ruled all these sentences unconstitutional June, 2000, due to presiding Judge Walter Smith’s sentencing methods.) There were a number of government and LEA reports. All found evidence of government malfeasance but still blamed David Koresh for the Davidian deaths. All LEA personnel involved in the April 19th assault insisted the Davidians started the fire, killing themselves in mass cult-suicide, and that the FBI and other agencies maintained strict self-control and never fired guns at the Davidians. The FBI fire plan was to hold the firetrucks back until they were safe from gunfire emanating from inside, implying they waited for anyone still inside to die,and for evidence of LEA wrongdoing to burn up with the Davidians, before allowing fire engines forward. The FBI’s pre-assault briefing plan given to Attorney General Janet Reno noted local hospitals with the best burn units, but the FBI insists they’d no idea a fire might occur.

Smoldering Suspicions and Hot Denials

Not everyone believed the LEAs and Government. Suspicious researchers such as Reavis, Blackman and Kopel, McNulty, Carol Moore, author of “The Davidian Massacre,” (1995), and others, began investigating, raising serious questions about the Government’s version of events.

“About the time of the House hearings in 1995,” explained Hardy, “I saw Clive Doyle on television. Clive said that as the ferret gas rounds were coming in, you could hear them hissing under the furniture. He asked someone to pick them up and throw them out. That person said ‘I can’t, they’re too hot.’ My ears went up immediately. I contacted Col. Rex Applegate, who was the world’s expert on riot control. He said those are not ferret rounds, those are pyrotechniques.”

On August 9, 1999, Judge Smith, who sat over the 1993 criminal trial, presided over the Davidian survivors’ civil trial, (which they lost in August 2000, and are appealing). Judge Smith ordered the DoJ to turn over all evidence in its possession relating to Waco. The DoJ refused. On August 24, 1999, Lee Hancock of the Dallas Morning News published an article quoting Danny O. Coulson, the founding member of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, and Deputy Director of the FBI during the Waco incident, who said, “there were at least 2 pyrotechnic rounds used that day.” These military rounds have a burning time of 20 to 30 seconds, and have been known to explode on impact. Not only had pyrotechnic shell casing photos turned up, but also information the military supplied 250 40 mm. high-explosive rounds to the FBI HRT at Waco. Coulson was the first US Government official to admit the whole story was not known. Around the same time, stories began to circulate the corporate press for the first time that US military personnel, Delta Force, had assisted in the planning of, and were on the scene during the final assault. On September 1, 1999, Reno ordered US Marshals to sieze all Waco evidence in FBI possession.

Reno, insisting she’d been mislead by subordinates, appointed former Missouri Senator John Danforth as Special Counsel, signing Order No. 2256-99 September 9, 1999, to “ensure a full and thorough investigation” into government actions “at the Mt. Carmel compound at Waco Texas, April 19, 1993.” Danforth was authorized to investigate 6 specific questions: whether any government employee or agent made, or allowed others to make, false or misleading statements or withheld evidence or information “from any individual or entity properly entitled to obtain evidence or information,” whether any government agents destroyed, altered or suppressed evidence,” whether the government had used pyrotechnic or incendiary devices, whether any government agent or employee started, or contributed to the spread of fire, whether any “engaged in gunfire,” and whether there was any illegal use of US Armed Forces “in connection with the events leading up to the deaths occurring...” at Mt. Carmel. Reno authorized Danforth to press charges if he felt federal laws were broken, and to issue a report “in a form for public dissemination.”

Danforth’s Warren Report- Can He Put Out the Embers?

Reading Danforth’s “Final Report to the Deputy Attorney General Concerning the 1993 Confrontation at the Mt. Carmel Complex,” delivered to Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Nov. 8, 2000, it is difficult for anyone familiar with both reports not to be reminded of the 1964 Warren Commission Report. Danforth’s investigation lasted 14 months, employed 74 personel, and cost US taxpayers $17 million. Danforth’s Office of Special Counsel sifted through 2.3 million documents, interviewed “exactly 1001 witnesses,” and examined “thousands of pounds of physical evidence.” Danforth states emphatically that “the government did not start or spread the fire...did not direct gunfire at the Davidians, and did not unlawfully employ the Armed Forces of the United States.” The Report is a morass of obfuscation, utilizing Orwellian doublespeak at every turn.

In the Preface, Danforth states he’s investigating whether the government engaged in “bad acts, not bad judgment.” He notes 61 percent of the country, according to a TIME Magazine poll, believes the government started the fire that killed the Davidians, and that’s a matter of grave concern. Instead of seeking truth, he sets out to calm the citizenry. “When 61 percent of the people believe that the government not only fails to ensure ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ but also intentionally murders people by fire, the existence of public consent, the very basis of government, is imperiled.”

Danforth alleges the Davidians “refused to exit the complex peacefully for...51 days, despite extensive efforts and concessions by negotiators for the FBI,” never mentioning the negotiators, who were not on the scene, and the HRT troops surrounding the complex were using tactics diametrically opposed to one another’s. He concludes the Preface hoping the Report will “not only dispel the dark questions about Waco, but will also begin the process of restoring the faith of the people in their government, and the faith of the government in the people.”

The Report describes the Feb. 28 shooting of Davidian Michael Schroeder, who was attempting with two other Davidians to join his family within Mt. Carmel “late afternoon, early evening,” after the gunfight, introducing the assertion that the 14 BATF agents who shot Schroeder and left his body to rot for days in a ravine were “attempting to withdraw from the area.” These agents were stationed in a haybarn on the neighboring Perry Ranch, and intercepted the three, killing Schroeder, and arresting Norman Allison. The third, Woodrow “Bob” Kendrick, escaped. The agents were by no means “attempting to withdraw from the area.” There’s evidence two shots were fired into Schroeder’s skull as he lay bleeding and broken. The FBI refused to allow Texas Rangers to reach the body for days, until rainfall had washed away footprints that might’ve proved whether an agent approached and executed Schroeder as alleged. Danforth doesn’t mention this, nor the fact that Schroeder’s blue knit cap, that might’ve shown powder burns from close-range shots, was missing from the evidence for 6 years.

Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) cameras were recording the entire assault, from 5:58 AM until 12:15 PM, in three shifts. Until 1998, the FBI put into writing on more than one occasion, in response to Hardy’s FOIA requests, that no FLIR footage was taken before 10:42 AM, 4 hours into the assault. This was a blatant lie. Danforth found this “troubling.” Unable to find anyone who would tell him where the formerly-missing FLIR tape was from the moment it was turned into the Command Post at Waco, April 19, 1993, to the time 3 copies were discovered, one late August at HRT headquarters, and two Sept. 1, 1999, at the FBI’s Aviation Special Operations Unit, he was willing to leave it a mystery. The report notes, FOIA only requires a “reasonable search” be made, and Danforth “makes no conclusion” as to whether the search by the FBI for FLIR tapes was “reasonable.” He also leaves a mystery the 5 minute and 41 second unexplained gap in the 10:42AM to 12:16 PM FLIR tape, claiming the FLIR is unaltered.

“During the last 3 years, representatives of the Davidians and several independent experts retained by the media and Congress have concluded that gunfire could have caused or did cause [the flashes seen on Waco FLIR footage]. The FBI and its experts have claimed that the flashes are reflections or glint coming from debris scattered in and around the complex.” Danforth agrees with the FBI and a British firm hired by the OSC, Vector Analysis, a division of Anteon Corporation of Washington DC, which holds numerous US Defense contracts. Vector concluded the flashes aren’t gunfire by comparing them to carefully-crafted test FLIRs simulating the final assault, taken at Ft. Hood, (March 19, 1999). One FBI agent told the OSC, “being on foot outside the vehicles would be sheer madness,” and “would have unreasonably and unnecessarily risked the agents’ lives,” due to alleged Davidian gunfire, but there are photos of FBI agents standing in the open outside their armored vehicles within 50 to 100 yards of the Davidians’ home, exposed to any supposed gunfire. Hardy has FLIR-expert affidavits convincingly asserting some Waco FLIR flashes are gunfire.

The only pyrotechnic devices Danforth’s report will admit were fired were fired at 8:08 AM, at a building 75 yards from the main building. The order to fire by HRT Commander Richard Rogers is heard on the early FLIR tape. In yet another footnote (#34), Danforth says “the FBI puts forward the argument that the military teargas rounds fired by the FBI at the concrete construction pit April 19, 1993, are not pyrotechnic. Because this teargas was delivered with a charge that burns, the OSC rejects this argument. Military teargas rounds are clearly pyrotechnic in nature, as numerous government documents, (including the FBI’s own Manual of Investigative Operations and Guidelines), and witnesses acknowledge.” The FBI’s continued denials are not considered lies by Danforth. Nor does Danforth address where the M651 pyrotechnic rounds came from, nor who ok’d giving them to the HRT against Reno’s express order banning the use of “pyrotechnic or incendiary” teargas.

“No forensic pathologist who has examined the evidence has found any indication that the teargas killed any Davidian,” notes the Report, “except Dr. Uwe Heinrich, who concluded if people couldn’t leave a room, ‘there is a distinct possibility that this kind of CS exposure can significantly contribute to or even cause death.’” The FBI used 48-hours worth of cs-gas in less than 6 hours, and had to request more. Autopsies found no smoke in many Davidian children’s lungs, proving they’d died before the fire began. Danforth asserts, “some Davidians...could have experienced mild irritation, dizziness, and decreased responsiveness to visual and auditory signals from methylene chloride,” the chemical mixed with CS to spray it in from the tanks. “Many Davidians moved away from exposed rooms...protecting themselves with gas masks and wet towels wrapped around their faces.” As Doyle noted in his 1995 Congressional testimony, water increases the burning from CS. Perhaps if one completely blocks access to all skin with a wet towel it is possible to avoid the worst of the chemical’s effects, but that would necessitate covering one’s eyes, making it hard to escape the fire. The Davidian children had no gasmasks that fit to protect them, so received the full brunt of the gassing.

The Report states the military assistance was legal, as federal Posse Comitatus law, which bans most military assistance to domestic LEAs, (except in drug cases), only prohibits “large scale” or “elaborate” training of LEA personnel by the military. Danforth then states in a footnote, (#44), that “the Office of Special Counsel found no established standard for what qualifies as ‘large scale,’ or ‘elaborate,’ training.

On March 21, 1993, The London Sunday Times reported that not only were the US LEAs using super-high tech, classified US military surveillance tools at Mt. Carmel, but that they had conferred with British SAS members, special forces types, requesting a British military plane be flown in to help in surveillance. Was this a way to get around the Posse Comitatus limitations? Danforth doesn’t mention this assistance.

In October 1993, the Pentagon told Congress there were a total of 4 Delta Force operatives at Mt. Carmel. DoJ lawyers have since filed court documents swearing to 10, and DoD documents now show at least 14 present. One former CIA agent told McNulty, on film, that he had spoken to several Delta shooters who said they were in a gunfight at Mt. Carmel, April 19. There are conflicting accounts of the whereabouts of one Delta Force operator, a shooter, during the hours of the April 19, assault. A Delta technician testified he’d not seen this operator all morning, and that when he did appear a couple hours after the assault he had the appearance that he’d been out drinking. He was disheveled, with bloodshot eyes, basically a real mess. When deposed Jan., 2000, by Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, inventor of the “single bullet theory” for the Warren Commission, and by House investigators, the Delta operator testified he didn’t know what the technician was talking about, that he had been there all morning and even said hello to the technician that day. Danforth reports this Delta shooter passed a lie detector test, but a footnote, (#23), states that due to their unreliability, “the majority of courts do not permit polygraph results to be introduced as evidence.”

“Documents show that the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and then Secretary of Defence Les Aspin), signed off on it. There’s only two people that have authority to sign off to send Delta, otherwise known as the Combat Applications Group, B Squadron. There is no such thing as Delta. They were the Combat Applications Group, of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, B Squadron,” McNulty said. “Now, B Squadron is an acronym for basically the active duty element that would be assisting law enforcement.

There is the issue! We have graduated to the point now where the premier anti-terrorist military organization in the United States Government is now involved in the drug nexus, and the open-ended explosion of their use in any and all kinds of activities. The question is, do we want to become a militarized police state or do we want to cling to the vestiges of our Constitution? Which way do we want to go?”

Danforth denigrates evidence that someone, perhaps Delta operators, entered Mt. Carmel, placed a bomb on top of what assault forces called a “bunker,” at the bottom of the tower, blowing a small round hole in the ceiling and decimating all the women and children inside who’d sought protection from the tanks and gas. This is discussed at length in McNulty’s, “Waco- A New Revelation.” Danforth blames the broken steel rebar supports in the hole, bent down into the room, on a cooking-off Davidian grenade inside the room, against all laws of physics.

Discussing the Combat Engineering Vehicle tearing down the gymnasium, Danforth asserts that “between 11:18 AM, and 11:27AM, CEV-3 made 9 successive penetrations into the gymnasium. Each penetration was into the same opening and towards the tower. After the ninth penetration, the gymnasium roof began to collapse, the driver of CEV-3 continued to attempt to penetrate the gymnasium, still aimed towards the tower.” But in another of those contradictory footnotes, (#74), Danforth admits that eventually CEV-3 penetrated in different directions, introducing another new version of reality concerning the Mt. Carmel incident, alleging that was due to “concern of a possible threat of a Davidian reported to be in the upper floor of the gymnasium.” Hardy says he never heard that story before.

The OSC, “concludes the Texas National Guard decision to accede to the [B]ATF’s request by flying 3 National Guard helicopters near the Mt. Carmel complex on February 28, 1993, may have resulted in an inadvertent violation of guidance in NGR-500-2, which states that military ‘pilots in command will not fly into or land in areas where the aircraft is likely to be fired on,’ and commanders will ensure they don’t. Although the pilots said they’d not expected gunfire, they knew the Davidians were allegedly dangerous, and they did take fire from the Davidians during the [B]ATF operations. Other than this particular “possible inadvertent violation” of federal law, Danforth concluded the Guard’s support was entirely legal.

The OSC also “concluded the allegation that National Guard Helicopter crews fired at the Davidians February 28 is without merit,” but no one ever said that. What was alleged, by Davidians, film footage of apparent machinegun fire coming from a helicopter, audio tapes, and attorneys Dick DeGuerin and Jack Zimmerman, who saw bullet holes through ceilings into Mt. Carmel before it burned down, was that there was gunfire from an unidentified person or persons on board the helicopters. “Interviews with each of the crew members indicate that the Davidians fired, but the helicopter crews did not return fire.” Danforth pointedly ignores the presence of fully armed BATF agents aboard the National Guard helicopters.

“FBI agents negotiated patiently for 51 days. They developed their tactical plan with input from behavioral psychologists and doctors whose paramount concern was for the safety of the children inside,” notes the Report. The Report doesn’t mention many of these experts insisted the FBI HRT troops’ actions outside Mt. Carmel, often in direct contravention of FBI negotiators agreements and talks with those inside, were driving the Davidians closer together, that if the FBI was trying make Koresh do something stupid or crazy, they couldn’t have picked better tactics.

Danforth reports that although numerous federal employees did lie and actively cover-up for 6 years the use of pyrotechnic devices by the FBI on April 19, 1993, and that some are still apparently lying, there is no evidence of a “large scale government cover-up.” He doesn’t describe the established standards of “large scale” government cover-up.

A Coverup by One Whistleblower? 

Only one man has been criminally charged by Danforth. Former-Assistant US Attorney in Waco, William “Bill” Johnston, who helped draw up the original warrant, and was one of the three lead prosecutors in the San Antonio criminal trial in 1993, was indicted November 8, 2000, on 5 felony counts that could land him in prison for 21 months. Charge one is for endeavoring “to obstruct and impede the due and proper administration of the law” by concealing notes from the OSC that showed he knew of pyrotechnic use in November, 1993, that he certified falsely he’d turned in all records relating to Waco, that he made false and misleading statements to investigators and lawyers for the OSC on October 6, 1999, and on May 10, 2000, and for making false and misleading statements to shift blame to others and away from himself. Count two charges he concealed and lied to a federal grand jury May 10, 2000, and July 25, 2000. Count three accuses him of uttering a “materially false statement by falsely stating” he’d not equated pyrotechnics with military rounds. Count four is for lying about not “seeing any notes or anything on Corderman, (the HRT member who told prosecutors in November, 1993 that he had fired military rounds.) Count five seems to be a repeat of count three, that Johnston lied about knowing military round and pyrotechnics were the same thing, or had pyrotechnic qualities. Danforth ignores the fact that someone sent pyrotechnic military rounds to the HRT in Waco, knew they had done so, but have not stepped forward in the last 7 years to admit to it.

“Danny Coulson, the former deputy director of the FBI, is the one that spilled the beans, and gave the revelation to the Dallas Morning News that brought about Mr. Danforth’s appointment,” McNulty explained. “Let me give you a little history. Back in May 1998, I started communicating with the DoJ. Ultimately that lead to a communication with Mr. Johnston, asking to be allowed to go into the evidence lockers and look. We had photographs of specific material we wanted to look at, and among those were the pyrotechnique projectiles, more than one type there were three types, and ultimately Mr. Johnston worked with us and got us, he DID NOT GIVE US, the permission from Mr. Burton Brandenberg, (DoJ Public Affairs). We wanted to interview Mr. Johnston, we wanted to interview Janet Reno and Ray Jahn, the lead prosecutor. We were not allowed to interview any of those folks, but we were given permission to go into the evidence locker and look for the specific evidence we had listed, with photographs and identification numbers in our requests. It would have been later in the year, in 1998. Mr. Johnston was very gracious, very kind. He acted with great propriety. We were escorted at all times while we were looking at the evidence. Mr. Johnston noted there was no hanky-panky, relative to us handling the evidence, photographing it or anything of that nature. We discovered there was missing evidence from the evidence chain. Specifically M-651 Military CS-Gas rounds. We reported that dutifully to the Texas Rangers, and to Mr. Johnston, who in turn reported it to the DoJ. Mr. Johnston’s basic reaction to our information was, he was surprised. He was surprised they were in the evidence chain, and he was surprised they were also missing. I believe his reaction was genuine. Now what bothers me about all this is that we also gave this information to the DoJ and to Mr. Jahn...we received no response from the DoJ or Mr. Jahn to our detailed inquiries.”

New York City attorney Michael Kennedy, is defending Johnston, assisted by NYC attorney Roberto Rionda. “It is a hell of a story. Johnston is the nearest thing to a hero to come out of that debacle,” Kennedy said. “This is a terrible tragedy, and of course he is the only one being indicted. There is a real message there too, with potential for whistle-blowers. He was [a federal prosecutor] for 17 years, he was their star, but a very honorable star. I don’t like prosecutors. I never have and I’ve never represented one. The only reason I’m representing him is because these friends of mine in Texas called me, friends who I’ve worked on cases with, all defense lawyers. Everyone of them had had one or more experiences with Johnston, and they said, ‘Michael, he is totally fucking straight. This man doesn’t lie to anybody, he doesn’t cheat, he makes it fair for the defendants. He’ll beat you to death if he’s got the stuff, but he doesn’t cheat. I’ve met him and I like him. I know he’s an honorable man.” On Danforth’s report, Kennedy said, “You want to read it from the perspective of Bill Johnston. You want to ask yourself, how come the 14 other people who allegedly lied, obstructed, mislead, how come they get a pass? That’s fundamentally the question.” 

Taking depositions in November 1993 at Quantico, Virginia headquarters of the FBI’s HRT, the prosecuting team was told by HRT member, David Corderman, that he’d fired a military round at a building at Mt. Carmel.  The prosecutors never disclosed this information to the Davidians’ defense team. In fact, less than 36 hours after the initial raid Johnson advised BATF Deputy Director of Enforcement Daniel Hartnett to stop the shooting review because it was creating Brady material, exculpatory evidence for the defense, according to a memo sent to Ron Noble, then Assistant Secretary of Enforcement, Sept. 17, 1993. Johnston actively suppressed evidence that could have hurt the prosecution case. Johnston did however send a letter, March 23, 1993, to Reno complaining that “our concerns about the preservation of evidence go unheard,” due to the FBI destruction of the crime scene.

Nearly a year after McNulty found expended pyrotechnic shells mislabeled as “silencers,” Johnston began in August 1999 to send messages up the chain of command, then writing directly to Reno telling her that she’d been mislead by subordinates about pyrotechnics being used at Mt. Carmel. After his superiors leaked a memo specifically noting Johnston had been at the 1993 deposition, Johnston panicked when finding a note on a notepad with the word “incind” written in his handwriting. “I had just been ordered to place all my trial materials in the hands of the people” who leaked the incriminating memo. He withheld the scribbled note, and told Danforth’s investigators and a grand jury on two occasions that he knew nothing about pyrotechnic use, and that he’d turned over all his notes. “I should have turned over those notes,” Johnston wrote in a public statement November 8, 2000. “But I didn’t. I should have turned over those notes anyway and faced the consequences. But I didn’t. And for several months I didn’t give those notes to the OSC either, quite frankly, because OSC investigators treated me with the same loathing and hostility I had encountered with the Justice Department. This past July, (2000), I finally acknowledged the existence of the notes to the grand jury convened by the OSC, and made them available...I owe the American people an apology. Unfortunately, Danforth and his prosecutors want a lot more than a public apology. They have threatened me with 21 months of incarceration.”

Kennedy filed a number of motions seeking dismissal of the charges, December 23, 2000, including the “OSC’s  failure to advise the grand jury that its discretion to indict Johnston was being guided by a higher standard, i.e., the OSC was holding Johnston to a higher standard than anyone else...Had Johnston been informed that he was being singled out for special treatment under a higher standard, Johnston would have understood his need for counsel, (which he waived), at the grand jury and his need to invoke his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination.” Kennedy writes, “during my investigation of this case, I have spoken to several individuals who have been contacted by Special Counsel Danforth and his office, (OSC). I have learned from two witnesses that Mr. Danforth told them prior to the indictment that the OSC was holding Bill Johnston to a higher standard of conduct than others in deciding whether to prosecute Mr. Johnston. At a hearing on this matter, I am prepared to present evidence of the Special Counsel’s statements.”

Examples of misleading the government and the American people are abundant throughout Danforth’s report. (Two names one won’t find are those of Chuck Sarabyn and Philip Chojnacki, both of whom lied to superiors and investigators at BATF about agent Rodriguez telling them the Davidians knew BATF was coming, according to the Treasury Department’s 1993 report. After being fired, both were eventually rehired with backpay.) It acknowledges that, besides denying emphatically until 1999 the existence of the FLIR tape on which HRT Commander Dick Rogers can be heard giving the ok to use pyrotechnics, the FBI also prepared a 49-page evidentiary report for Congress in 1995, but turned over a 48 page report, “accidentally” leaving off the final page which “discloses a 40 mm military teargas shell was recovered” at Mt. Carmel.  Danforth alleges there were two other complete documents turned in, but no one at the FBI corrected the mistaken conclusion reached by Congress in 1995 that no pyrotechnics were used.

Robert Ricks, FBI Special Agent in Charge, and spokesman at Waco, held a press conference immediately after the fire, stating no pyrotechnics had been used.

HRT Commander Dick Rogers sat behind both former FBI Director William Sessions and Reno during their Congressional testimony  in 1993, and let them tell Congress no pyrotechnics were used, when he’d given the orders himself to use them against Reno’s express orders banning their use.

Richard Skruggs lead a DoJ team of attorney’s in preparing the 1993 DoJ Report on the Mt. Carmel incident, which did not disclose one witness testified they’d heard radio transmissions about a “military round” used on April 19. Skruggs lead another team of DoJ attorneys in preparing briefs for Congress in 1995, along with Steven Zipperstein, and Robert Lyon, many of which incorrectly state that no pyrotechnics were used.

Monty Jett, the firearms expert at Quantico who suggested the CS gas and ferret round delivery system, told DoJ attorneys that the gas was “non-pyrotechnic in the method it was utilized.”

Linda Bateman, of the FBI’s Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, wrote Skruggs in response to Congress’ request for all information regarding pyrotechnics use at Mt. Carmel that “there were no incendiary or pyrotechnic devices used against the Branch Davidians on 4/19/93.”

Tony Betz, Unit Chief of the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Unit sent a facsimile to DoJ attorney Helene Goldberg stating, “...The FBI has specifically chosen methods of delivery and dispersal of CS that do not utilize pyrotechnic or incendiary components.”

John Collingwood, an FBI Assistant Director, told Congressional staffers in 1995 that no pyrotechnics were used.

Ray and LeRoy Jahn, the husband and wife Assistant US Attorneys who headed the criminal prosecution case in 1993, Johnston’s bosses in the trial. They also stopped the BATF shooting review, hid exculpatory Brady evidence from the defense, lied to Congress, and refused to confirm to the OSC they’d turned over all documents. Assistant US Attorney John Phinizy and DoJ attorney John Lancaster also knew about the FBI use of pyrotechnics in November, 1993, and said nothing, nor did paralegal Reneau Longoria. While Danforth is pressing charges against Johnston, the rest get a pass, except the Jahns, who Danforth recommends be fired.

Doyle is understandably suspicious of Johnston. “He was a little miffed because he wasn’t the head prosecutor. He felt it was his case. Time and time again we would go to court, either for sentencing or an appeal, and he would put on a real tear jerking performance about the four dead agents. He’d hold their pictures up and break into tears, talking about how these men had families. Well, I feel for those families, but all of a sudden he’s now on the other end being persecuted because he’s the whistle blower. I don’t know whether he feels so emotional and playing on the hearts of the people as he certainly tried to in court. He’s crying for himself now...I don’t know why he started helping McNulty.”

“My understanding is that when Danforth entered the picture he was looking for someone to blame for this missing evidence, and the lack of its forthcoming during the course of the criminal trial and the Congressional hearings,” said McNulty. “My understanding from press accounts was that Danforth took Johnston to task before the grand jury on the issue of his knowledge of these things, but in fact everything that I had learned up to that time pointed to the Jahns as being the ones responsible for the manipulations, at least, knowledge of the data...And isn’t it interesting to note that all of the individuals that have been shall we say acquitted by Mr. Danforth for, as he put it, ‘lack of evidence,’ none of them were whistle blowers, all of them were loyal, faithful company employees. The one guy most responsible for bringing this all to the fore is gonna be leaned on. I am suspect of the motives and it being anything other than political.” Johnston’s case finally ended with his settling for a plea-bargained misdemeanor.

The US Government has tried to destroy the Davidians, but the few who survived carry on. Those Davidians still imprisoned had their sentences drastically reduced late 2000, and most will be eligble for parole in about 5 years. A church has been rebuilt at Mt. Carmel amongst the rusted concertina wire still littering the property. A grove of trees has been planted around a memorial marker listing the names of all the innocents destroyed. “I talk to some people and they just can’t believe that anything bad could come from our government or various law enforcement agencies,” Doyle said. “Until something actually happens to you then you begin to believe some of this stuff. If people wed themselves to an ideology, or get feelings of power, they are likely to go overboard in a lot of areas.”

This Country's Descent into Military Fascism

A good place to begin further research into this disgusting display of bureaucracy gone mad, which included the murder of 21 children, is Serendipity, which has put together a fascinating page of facts and links. Another is Sharlene Shappart's Waco Tragedy News. Sharlene is close to the families of the 82 victims, and so provides very personal insight into the orchestrated media caricature of these people. Another good source, of course, is simply www.google.com, "waco massacre." You'll find an encyclopedia of well-informed, utterly nauseated Americans.