Designed to Fail |
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Few military operations are designed for failure. But the February 28, 1993 assault on the Mt. Carmel Center seems to have been one such operation.
Given the desire of the new military to establish new paradigms, there is reason for the failure of the raid. Without the death of the four ATF agents in the failed raid, it is doubtful that the American public would have supported moving in massive war equipment and escalating the war against the Davidians during the next 51 days. Without the deaths of the four ATF agents in the failed raid, the new paradigm of the military annihilation of citizens under the color of law would not have been established.
The Commander-in-Chief himself validated this observation: "The first thing I did after the ATF agents were killed, once we knew that the FBI was going to go in, was to ask that the military be consulted because of the quasi-military nature of the conflict, given the resources that Koresh had in his compound and their obvious willingness to use them," President Clinton said (Washington Times, April 24, 1993).
On August 5, 1964, President Johnson called congressional leaders to the White House and told them that North Vietnamese naval vessels had flagrantly and without provocation attacked two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. President Johnson had the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution drawn up, and it flew through both the House of Representatives and the Senate with virtually no debate. On August 7, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution had been passed, continuation and escalation of military reprisals against the North were given congressional blessing. "In the heat of the Tonkin clash, the Administration had accomplished . . . preparing the American public for escalation" (Pentagon Papers, pg. 269).
"The Tonkin Gulf reprisal constituted an important firebreak and the Tonkin Gulf resolution set US public support for virtually any action" (study quoted in Pentagon Papers, pg. 269).
Several years later the Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducted an inquiry into the events of August, 1964. Senator Fulbright would later write that the Pentagon had misrepresented the actual event, and that the US had provoked the attack.
"Only when we began those later hearings on the Tonkin Gulf did it really begin to dawn on me that we had been deceived. In the beginning--before Vietnam, that is--it never occurred to me that presidents and their secretaries of state and defense would deceive a Senate committee.
"I thought you could trust them to tell you the truth, even if they did not tell you everything. But I was naive, and the misrepresentation of the Tonkin Golf affair was very effective in deceiving the Foreign Relations Committee and the country, and me, because we didn't believe it possible that we could be so completely misled." (J. William Fulbright, The Price of Empire, pg. 107.)
According to the Treasury Report, the ATF had gathered evidence that:
Therefore, the Davidians had to be covertly tipped off about the impending "raid," so they could make full preparations. Every effort, short of a certified letter, was made to alert the Davidians to the impending attack, and each tip was made to look like a little snafu that could happen by the operation of Murphy's law.
In fact, David Koresh told the ATF undercover agents that he had been watching the "undercover house" with binoculars (Treasury Report, pg. 54). David Koresh knew he was under suspicion and surveillance.
"An ATF agent wearing an ATF raid jacket and local police were in the street in front of the civic center directing the convoy into the parking lot. While waiting to be briefed, some of the agents went inside the center to have coffee and doughnuts; other milled about outside. A supervisor become concerned about the visibility of the agents, many of whom wore ATF insignia or were otherwise unmistakably law enforcement personnel. He ordered everyone to go inside and remain in the civic center. " (Treasury Report, pgs.. 81-82).
The ATF had to know that the Branch Davidians could see out for miles over the prairies, and given the Davidians' alleged proclivity for lookout towers and guards, had to be able to see them coming;
The almost treeless terrain of the Mt. Carmel Center provided the ATF with little cover.
But other details should be mentioned first:
We are asked to believe another manifestation of Murphy's law. The Treasury
Report tells us that early on the morning of February 28, local Waco TV
station KWTX cameraman Jim Peeler, on his way to cover the event, "became
lost" on "back roads." There he coincidentally met a letter carrier who,
coincidentally, was a Branch Davidian. Mr. Peeler asked directions and
coincidentally mentioned the impending raid; naturally the letter carrier,
Davidian David Jones, went to the Mt. Carmel Center and told David Koresh
about upcoming events, as we might expect (Treasury
Report, pg. 85).
We have been asked to believe a lot, but this is beyond the pale: The
location where Mr. Peeler became "lost" was within sight of the Mt. Carmel
Center!
That encounter on the "back roads" was witnessed by one of the ATF undercover
agents in casual clothes, accompanied by the "forward observers ... in
ATF battle dress utilities" and "their arrest support teams," who, we are
asked to believe, were coincidentally on their way to a hay barn behind
the Mt. Carmel Center (pg. 88).
The Treasury Report expresses no curiosity about how a local news reporter,
covering an important local news story at a well-known local landmark,
could become "lost" within eyesight of his destination.
The narration of this incident and speculations on its effect is spread
over seven pages in the Treasury Report (pgs.. 82 to 88), including a map
and schedule of which reporter was where when and what car he was driving.
The drafters of that report worked very hard to convince the readers of
the incident.
In fact, the number of pages in the Treasury Report consumed in narrating
all the dumb moves of government planners and agents in the planning and
execution of this investigation overstates the case. Government bureaus
are notoriously reluctant to admit to their own errors. The Treasury Report,
however, is replete with such "confessions."
One of these agents, Robert Rodriguez, had been taking Bible lessons
from Koresh in order to spy on him. On the morning of February 28, the
Waco Tribune-Herald had just (coincidentally)
published a second inflammatory article on David Koresh in a series entitled
the "Sinful Messiah." Rodriguez visited Koresh to assess what effect the
negative PR was having, whether the publication Tribune-Herald's publication
of Sinful Messiah had incited Koresh and his followers to take up
arms or otherwise increase their security measures. The planners were still
not sure Koresh had been effectively tipped off.
While Rodriguez was taking his Bible lesson from Koresh, David Jones
allegedly returned to the Mt. Carmel Center and gave the news of the impending
raid to his father, Perry Jones. Jones interrupted the Bible discussion,
called David Koresh out of the room on the pretext that he had a phone
call, and told him the news. When Koresh came back into the room, he allegedly
told Rodriguez "they're coming, Robert, the time has come."
We are asked to believe that Rodriguez was "shocked" when he heard the
news; he became so agitated, he contemplated jumping out a window in order
to get out before the ATF arrived (Treasury Report, pg. 89). Rodriguez
suddenly remembered a breakfast appointment, bolted out of his Bible lesson,
jumped in his truck, and drove back to the undercover house. When he got
to the undercover house, Rodriguez found the window was raised. A camera
was in one of the windows, and it was clearly visible from the outside
of the house (doubtlessly within the scope of David Koresh's binoculars.)
When Rodriguez took fast leave of the Mt. Carmel Center he acted like
what he was-- a man in the know, getting out of the way of a massacre--a
man who preferred to be elsewhere when it happened. Just in case everything
else failed, the Davidians watched a house guest suddenly remember a "breakfast
appointment" in the middle of a Bible lesson and make a mad dash to safety.
The ATF plan was both murderous and suicidal. The evidence indicates
that the "bungling" was intended to forewarn the Davidians of the impending
attack, to provoke them into defending themselves, and to provide them
with easy targets. The ATF were led to slaughter to provide the excuse
for the first test of the National Response Plan.
It was not Murphy's law. It was a set-up. It was a domestic Gulf of
Tonkin incident. And as we shall see later in Who Struck John?,
it included some powerful backup plans to ensure its success.
Next: Who Struck John?
Back: Directory of Exhibits
Back: War Gallery Entrance
Many people who distrust the mainstream media have turned to alternate
news sources, some of which are Internet based. Unfortunately, many
of these alternate sources of news simply promote an alternate series
of lies. These alternate lies are of course dressed up as "exposés."
But you can easily tell the phonies from the real thing. The information
in the Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum is an acid test.
Does your news source promote Mike McNulty's video, Waco: The Rules
of Engagement or wring its hands because the Davidian law suit against
the government failed? (See Waco
Documentary Is A Hoax! and Waco
Suits for Waco Suckers.)
Does your alternate news source carry promotional pieces about rebuilding
the Davidian church in Waco and mouth nice words about "healing"?
(See The Cover-up Church.)
Remember, since ancient times, inquiries into questionable deaths have
started with the bodies of the victims. If your news source won't
give you an honest and full account of the forensic information on Waco,
or if it does not have a link to the Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum ...
your alternate news has failed a fundamental acid test.
http://www.Public-Action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum
All original material is copyright 1996-2000 by Carol A. Valentine,
on loan to Public Action, Inc.
This page last updated February 28, 2001.
That's Not Murphy's Law
With this perspective on the purpose of the raid, we will examine whether
the Davidians rose to the bait in Who Struck John?
The Final Tip
We have already seen that the ATF deployed a number of very obvious undercover
agents across the street from the Mt. Carmel Center, and that David Koresh
had told them that he was watching them with binoculars.
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