Is it possible David Koresh didn't lose his confrontation with the Godless state he and his followers identified as "Babylon," at all?
Throughout their 51-day Texas standoff with the FBI in the spring of 1993, Koresh and his followers repeatedly compared their plight to that of God's people facing the "flaming chariots" of Babylon in the biblical prophesies of Nahum and Habakkuk. A follower says Koresh believed he would be the one to "bring down Babylon" by sacrificing himself and his denomination.
Will it now turn out the Branch Davidians retain the power to reach out from the grave and smite their oppressors?
After completing the documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" -- nominated for an Academy Award -- researcher Mike McNulty continued to delve into what appeared to be the greatest mystery of Waco: Why would scores of perfectly sane and decent Christian Americans apparently choose to condemn themselves and their children to death by flames, rather than coming out and surrendering to the federal tanks and helicopters that surrounded them?
Mr. McNulty appears to have found some answers -- at least to the extent anyone still can, given the determined after-the-fact efforts to bleach and bulldoze the "crime scene." Those answers are offered in "Waco: A New Revelation," directed by Jason Van Vleet.
The documentary video is not strident. The new evidence is piled up in such a measured and matter-of-fact way that its full impact may not register without a second viewing.
But at that point, any thoughtful viewer must wonder how willfully the Congress and populace of this country must (start ital)want(end ital) to ignore what really happened at Waco, to be able to close their eyes to facts like these:
On the evening of Feb. 28, three Branch Davidians who had not been present for the initial BATF raid attempted to get home to their wives and children at Mount Carmel. They were intercepted and fired upon by 17 agents "dressed as trees." Two were captured, but Michael Dean Schroeder -- not charged with any crime -- was shot seven times and killed. As the other two Davidians were led away they report hearing two final shots behind them, in quick succession. An autopsy showed Michael Dean Schroeder had two neat bullet holes immediately behind his right ear. His body was left lying in the ravine for five days.
Far from inviting an exodus and surrender, tape recordings reveal that by late March, FBI negotiators told the Davidians: "No one is authorized to come out of there for any reason. ... If anyone tries to come out, they will be treated in such a way that they'll be forced to retreat."
Manning sniper post Sierra 1 in the "undercover house," Lon Horiuchi (who eight months before had shot the unarmed Vicky Weaver as she stood holding a baby in her kitchen in Idaho) swore he did not fire into the church on April 19. But other FBI agents swore they heard fire from his position, and four expended .308 shell casings were later found.
At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, a Branch Davidian is spotted trying to exit the building across the roof. "Falcon 2," an FBI helicopter, is seen approaching in ground-level footage. It hovers, and muzzle flashes can be seen from its port waist gun. Other close-range video -- not high-altitude footage -- clearly shows full-sized machine guns in cradle mounts in the waist doors of the FBI helicopters, which the government long swore were unarmed.
Branch Davidians Phillip Henry and Jimmy Riddle appear to have been shot behind the building at this time. Neither had soot in their lungs or carbon monoxide in their blood -- both died before the fire. An autopsy showed half of Riddle's body torn away, which the medical examiner said could have been consistent with "an encounter with a tank tread."
The film's researcher, Mike McNulty, tells me the most likely scenario is that Henry and Riddle were shot behind the building by government agents around 9 a.m. Then, closer to noontime, their bodies were bulldozed back into the church dining room by tanks, and the final government machine-gun assault began.
At that point, ground level footage clearly shows men in Kevlar army helmets firing projectiles from an M-79 grenade launcher into the church's storm shelter. Seconds later, white smoke pours from the shelter.
Though the government has consistently denied the Army's Combat Applications Force -- the "Delta Force" -- was present at Waco, previously classified Army documents reveal that four Delta Force "observers" were deployed to Waco on March 21. Gene Cullen, a senior case officer with the CIA's Special Forces Group, reports "At (an April 14) CIA briefing, we were told there were more than 10, and that they would be actively participating" in the April 19 attack.
Most chilling of all, Steven Barry, a retired Special Forces sergeant, notes that Delta Force operators had penetrated the building on several occasions, and that on one occasion, late April 17 or early on the 18th, they saw Koresh within six feet of them. They radioed back to the Tactical Operations Center for permission to grab him, and within minutes the word came back from the Justice Department, " 'No, we already have a plan in place,' that being what happened on April 19."
"People ask why we didn't let the children out," sobs Davidian survivor Clive Doyle. "If they saw all that was happening, and they were there with their children, would they have sent them out to the animals outside that were shooting at them and doing all those terrible things? No. ... When there was shooting going on it's kind of tongue in cheek to then turn and say, 'Well, why didn't you come out?' "
So federal agents stand accused of murder.
Why are there still no trials?
To order "Waco: A New Revelation" dial 1-877-GET-WACO; or go to web site http:www.waco-anewrevelation.com.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His new book, "Send in the Waco Killers" is available by dialing 1-800-244-2224.
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Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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