At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launches a tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound, ending a tense 51-day standoff between the federal government and an armed religious cult. By the end of the day, the compound was burned to the ground, and some 80 Branch Davidians, including 22 children, had perished in the inferno.
On February 28, 1993, agents of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) launched a raid against the Branch Davidian compound as part of an investigation into illegal possession of firearms and explosives by the Christian cult. As the agents attempted to penetrate the complex, gunfire erupted, beginning an extended gun battle that left four ATF agents dead and 15 wounded.
Six Branch Davidians were fatally wounded, and several more were injured, including David Koresh, the cult’s founder and leader. After 45 minutes of shooting, the ATF agents withdrew, and a cease-fire was negotiated over the telephone. The operation, which involved more than 100 ATF agents, was one of the largest ever mounted by the bureau and resulted in the highest casualties of any ATF operation.
David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell in Houston, Texas, in 1959. In 1981, he joined the Branch Davidians, a sect of the Seventh Day Adventist Church founded in 1934 by a Bulgarian immigrant named Victor Houteff. Koresh, who possessed an exhaustive knowledge of the Bible, rapidly rose in the hierarchy of the small religious community, eventually entering into a power struggle with the Davidians’ leader, George Roden.
For a short time, Koresh retreated with his followers to eastern Texas, but in late 1987 he returned to Mount Carmel with seven armed followers and raided the compound, severely wounding Roden. Koresh went on trial for attempted murder, but the charge was dropped after his case was declared a mistrial.
By 1990, he was the leader of the Branch Davidians and legally changed his name to David Koresh, with David representing his status as head of the biblical House of David, and Koresh standing for the Hebrew name for Cyrus, the Persian king who allowed the Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Israel.
Koresh took several wives at Mount Carmel and fathered at least 12 children from these women, several of whom were as young as 12 or 13 when they became pregnant. There is also evidence that Koresh may have harshly disciplined some of the 100 or so Branch Davidians living inside the compound, particularly his children. A central aspect of Koresh’s religious teachings was his assertion that the apocalyptic events predicted in the Bible’s book of Revelation were imminent, making it necessary, he asserted, for the Davidians to stockpile weapons and explosives in preparation.
Following the unsuccessful ATF raid, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took over the situation. A standoff with the Branch Davidians stretched into seven weeks, and little progress was made in the telephone negotiations, as the Davidians had stockpiled years of food and other necessities before the raid.
On April 18, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno approved a tear-gas assault on the compound, and at approximately 6:00 a.m. on April 19 the Branch Davidians were informed of the imminent attack and asked to surrender, which they refused to do. A few minutes later, two FBI combat vehicles began inserting gas into the building and were joined by Bradley tanks, which fired tear-gas canisters through the compound’s windows.
The Branch Davidians, many with gas masks on, refused to evacuate, and by 11:40 a.m. the last of some 100 tear-gas canisters was fired into the compound. Just after noon, a fire erupted at one or more locations on the compound, and minutes later nine Davidians fled the rapidly spreading blaze. Gunfire was reported but ceased as the compound was completely engulfed by the flames.
Koresh and at least 80 of his followers, including 22 children, died during the federal government’s second disastrous assault on Mount Carmel. The FBI and the Justice Department maintained there was conclusive evidence that the Branch Davidian members ignited the fire, citing an eyewitness account and various forensic data. Of the gunfire reported during the fire, the government argued that the Davidians were either killing each other as part of a suicide pact or were killing dissenters who attempted to escape the Koresh-ordered suicide by fire.
Most of the surviving Branch Davidians contested this official position, as do some critics in the press and elsewhere, whose charges against the ATF and FBI’s handling of the Waco standoff ranged from incompetence to premeditated murder. In 1999, the FBI admitted they used tear-gas grenades in the assault, which have been known to cause fires because of their incendiary properties.
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https://abcnews.go.com/US/photos/20th-anniversary-oklahoma-city-bombing-30378328/image-30401520
And I wonder what we might see happen today.
Sigh.
Today is Patriots Day, the single most important day in the history of America. Any of the events of this day in American history builds on and were possible because of the sacrifices made at Lexington and Concord.
Summary: It was the Branch Davidian’s fault!!!
Is there anyone here who doesn’t realize history.com is;
—1) about as reliable as Wiki
—2) about as useless as tits on a hog
—3) a stooge for the government
Unfortunately, the FBI guidelines at the time stated this — “If we murder 23 children we will immediately form a Committee, which will form a Task Force, which will ask a question “Did we really fuck this up?”, which will be forwarded to The Department Of Deniable Plausibilty for further studies.”
They only needed to murder one more child …..
The piglets would beg to differ.
I sat through the trial in San Antonio. There were 27 dead children, many of whom were crushed to death by the tank that ran over the buried walk-in cooler/bunker. The bodies were concentrated in that area. As to being shot? I have no recollection of that testimony. Dr. Pirwani from Ft. Worth did the autopsies and stated that the majority of deaths were from smoke inhalation, cynanide poisoning and being crushed by the tank(s). Had there been children shot, I daresay that would have been done as a mercy killing. The FBI destroyed the underground escape routes, so claims that no one came out because they wanted to stay is a lie. The tanks crushed the area and fired military rounds into the building. There were also helicopters circling the area.
At the original start of the attack those helicopters fired into the building, Dick DeGuerin (Koresh’s attorney who was allowed into the building) testified that he saw the splintered wood shards facing into the building, NOT the other way around. Metal military grade pyrotechnic tear gas grenades were fired into the building along with parachute illumination flares but the government claimed the Davidians started the fire.
Dr. Pirwani had a diagram of the compound, mounted on white foam core and used that to indicate where the bodies were found, gender of the bodies (pregnant women counted as two since the fetal skeleton was found inside the female bodies in some instances)
The government claim that they fired no shots is a lie, many of the survivors whom I met with stated that they were afraid to leave the burning building because of being shot at. The federal government murdered those women and children and have done nothing but lie about their culpability ever since.
I can recall several Big Events that changed the-way-i-think-about-things.
Waco was one such event. I believe it was the first time I wondered — “What kind of shitfuk government do we actually have?”
My impression of Our Rulers has been going downhill ever since.
Anyone who actually believes anything coming out of the government lie factory is an idiot. All the events, from Ruby Ridge to 9-11 to the ‘attack on the Capital’ have been massively covered up by the government. What happened to the molten steel? Carted off, and real quick like. Eric Holder was all over the OK bombing, instigating and covering up….and Clinton used it as an excuse to go after those ‘right wing conservatives’ and talk radio listeners, just like the democrats and Pelosi immediately called the ‘riot’ at the Capitol crimes committed by ‘White supremacists.’
The Federal Government is a corrupt cesspool from top to bottom and the stupidity and gullibity of the American public cannot be underestimated.
Also known as Lon Horiuchi’s second day of murder under color of law.
Under Bush One, Delta Forces murdered hundreds of Leftist in Panama in Cold Blood; the UN did a report that was censored by the US. Then the Clinton’s Administration murdered (burned to death) those 80 Americans in Cold Blood and Whites did not protest because the MSM told the public that the Church folks (even women and children) were criminals. Congress held hearings that were a Cover-up of the government’s Crime (ref the MSM’s BS lying propaganda report above; ref the Video “Waco: Rules of Engagement” for the Truth). Tim McVay committed another awful Crime of revenge by blowing up a fertilizer bomb in front of the Murrah Building but the Government knew he was going to do it and had planted C4 charges the night before on the front columns. No one was allowed to take samples of the debris to prove that and the building was bulldozed immediately. Congress held hearings that were a Cover-up. The Twin Towers were a rinse and repeat. Now we have a full on illegal permanent Communist Dictatorship that wants our guns and currency, and who knows what else but you can be sure it will be plenty and big. Blacks are protesting for more communism and Whites seem to be still sitting around with their heads up their asses.
“…and Whites seem to be still sitting around with their heads up their asses.”
Waco was a test to see if the American sheeple were paying attention. They weren’t.
“Well he (Koresh)was in there fucking them babies.”
Did he get a fair trial by a jury of his peers?
And not a peep out of “The Church.”
Waco was a test to see how easy it was to lie to the public and have them believe the lies. It was the government who attacked the compound, firing into the front doors which…for some odd reason…were recovered (steel doors) but somehow one of those doors then got lost. Those doors would have proven that the government’s contention that the Davidians fired first was a lie.
Many of the guns that they displayed at the trial showed no evidence of having been in a fire.
This is about the doors and the mysterious white van, the missing doors and some other ‘odd’ things that went on after the fire.
https://rense.com/ufo6/wacobholes.htm
Everyone I met that was significantly on that operation is haunted by that.
All involved should have been executed for murder, starting at the top.
But it was to protect the children! I guess I better ad the /sarc tag, just in case.
This was my “Kennedy Moment”,took me i am sad to say awhile before I woke up.
That said,at least I did wake up.
Never forget/Never forgive.
I seethe with anger and hate whenever I think about what the government did to those folk in Waco. the demonization of the Davidians was relentless and cruel. Those people weren’t the evil gun toting demons that the media painted them to be, they weren’t abusing children, and they certainly weren’t killers. The compound had lots of elderly people, people from diverse countries and all of them were Christians. Sadly, they took the Book of Revelations literally and that was their downfall. They were right about the Government being Satan….
They weren’t running a meth lab either (another lie spread around).
The CCP are not the only ones very good at propaganda narrative control. Take advantage of a crisis or create one as necessary, then claim to have the solution to fix the crisis and the sheep will bleat a little then go back to cool of the shade and sweet grass.
Its often hard to tell who is the more evil empire today from the three main ones, CPP, USA, Russia. I think its a toss up between the first two.
The article leaves out the part about helicopters and and agents firing at people attempting to flee the fire.
This documentary does not leave that out, nor the way ‘they’ lied about the weapons on board. 2.25 hours, but a lot of information. Waco: Rules of Engagement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i1rW-iW554
Anyone that took part in this is a cold blooded murderer and will be judged by God for a reserved seat in Hell. And there are a lot of seats!
In 1993 they came for the Branch Davidians but I didn’t object because I wasn’t a Branch Davidian….
I will say also on this day in history LSD was first made.
See,there are a few positive events on this day!
This is Biden’s pick to run the ATF, or as Joe called it, the AFT.
He’s anti-2A.
Who poses for a picture after contributing to this horror?
That event was a seminal moment in my belief system about this nation and its national gov’t. And I was working for the USG. It’s been a long decline since then hasn’t it? Now, they can murder you and you don’t even rate knowing the ‘public servant’s” name.
Author, you have some glaring lies in this article, do more research, instead of copying off Wikipedia