Sunday, September 12, 1999
Waco's ashes still smolder
BY PETER BRONSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As the charred remains of 82 men, women and children were still cooling, tanks lurched back and forth crushing the rubble, caught on video tape obliterating evidence of what took place at Mt. Carmel on April 19, 1993.
Some blame stupidity. Some think it was criminal. I'd call it criminally stupid.
So was Vernon Howell, who posed on videotape playing with guns and guitars during the 51-day Waco siege. The “martyr” known as David Koresh was a molester, not a messiah. He took over the Branch Davidians by digging up a corpse and challenging the sect's leader to resurrect the decaying cadaver.
“They took the casket to the courthouse and just marched right up the steps,” John Young of the Waco Tribune-Herald recalls.
The graveyard dispute led to a shootout. Mr. Koresh was acquitted of attempted murder and his guns were returned to him.
“They were no threat,” said Mr. Young, whose paper published a story on the Davidians the day before Mt. Carmel was raided by the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). “From the start, we were wondering why the sheriff didn't arrest him (Koresh). He could have been arrested peacefully. He went to bars, his favorite guitar shop. He was in town a lot.”
Instead, the ATF-Troop tipped Dallas TV stations to expect “something big,” assembled an assault team trained by Army Special Forces and invaded Mt. Carmel in cattle trucks. Along the way, a TV crew spilled news of the attack to a mailman — a Davidian who called to warn Mt. Carmel. Surprise was lost. The ATF knew it. They went in anyway.
What happened next is the Jimmy Hoffa mystery of the 1990s. A report by outside investigators found the ATF guilty of “flawed decision making, inadequate intelligence gathering, miscommunication, supervisory failures and deliberately misleading post-raid statements.”
Now, six years after the FBI went in to clean up the ATF's mess — and made it worse — another outside investigation will ask if the FBI also lied and covered up its criminal stupidity.
It would be nice to know who shot first, if the FBI's pyrotechnic devices and tear gas started the fire, and if tanks deliberately destroyed evidence. But the big question is:
Why did this happen?
I have been fascinated and horrified by Waco since I watched on TV as the first flames began to shimmer and snake over the Texas plains. I've read smug rationalizations and lunatic conspiracy theories in news stories, web sites, books and magazines.
My theory:
The ATF, threatened with funding cuts, found an easy target for TV publicity by cooking up lies about guns and drugs stockpiled by a Texas cult. Their raid backfired and the ensuing FBI siege (Nancy Sinatra tapes and dying rabbits) made the new president look wimpy. Bill Clinton called the shots on Waco through his Justice Department crony, Webster Hubbell. Attorney General Janet Reno was as clueless as she looks — out to lunch when the assault began.
One thing is certain: There are no heroes.
Autopsies showed some Davidians died of gunshot wounds to the head, indicating cult suicide. Mr. Young, who describes the DNA evidence of child molesting by David Koresh in an excellent column on Page 2, said, “It's totally ridiculous to make either side heroic. It makes me sick ... You could just go on and on about the mistakes and lies.”
He says Waco is resigned to being a shorthand name for tragedy and shame, like Littleton, Dealey Plaza and Donner Pass.
But the rest of us are determined to go on and on about the mistakes and lies. A movie, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, claims to show FBI agents machine-gunning Davidians as they flee the flames. Critics say it's not true — or insist it's part of a government plot to hide the true crimes of Waco.
Timothy McVeigh visited the graves at Mt. Carmel, and detonated his truckload of diesel fuel and fertilizer in Oklahoma City on the April 19 anniversary of Waco.
And now we discover that the Waco “wackos” were not so crazy — the FBI did lie and the Justice Department allowed a cover-up to protect higher-ups. And that pours more diesel fuel on the fertilizer of anti-government paranoia.
Mr. Young is “constantly amazed at the way people choose sides and won't see the shades of gray.”
He's right. The ashes of Waco are gray, not black and white.
And the only way to put out the smoldering coals is to find and punish the fools who ordered a criminally stupid assault on harmless followers of a deranged false prophet.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or com
ments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
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