{"id":12084,"date":"2018-04-16T16:15:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T20:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=12084"},"modified":"2024-09-11T16:53:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T20:53:20","slug":"the-hill-bitter-lessons-25-years-after-fbi-final-assault-at-waco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/16\/the-hill-bitter-lessons-25-years-after-fbi-final-assault-at-waco\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hill: Bitter Lessons 25 Years After FBI Final Assault at Waco"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

The Hill, April 16, 2018<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Bitter lessons 25 years after Waco, Texas, siege<\/a><\/h1>\n
By James Bovard, opinion contributor<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Twenty-five years ago today, FBI tanks smashed into the ramshackle home of the Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas. After the FBI collapsed much of the building atop the residents, a fire erupted and 76 corpses were dug out of the rubble<\/a>. Unfortunately, the American political system and media have never faced the lessons from that tragic 1993 day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fifty-nine days before the FBI final assault, scores of federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents launched an attack on the Davidians\u2019 home spurred by allegations<\/a> that they had converted semi-automatic rifles to full-automatic capacity. The ATF\u2019s lead investigator had previously rejected an offer to peacefully search<\/a> the Davidians\u2019 home for firearms violations. Four ATF agents and six Davidians were killed<\/a> in the fracas on February 28, 1993. At least one ATF agent told superiors that the ATF fired first,<\/a> spurring an immediate end to the official shooting review. But the media trumpeted the ATF storyline that its agents had been ambushed, entitling the feds to be far more aggressive in the following weeks.<\/div>\n

What lessons can today\u2019s Americans draw from the FBI showdown on the Texas plains a quarter century ago?<\/p>\n

Purported good intentions absolve real deadly force.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Janet Reno, the nation\u2019s first female attorney general, approved the FBI\u2019s assault on the Davidians. Previously, she had zealously prosecuted child abuse cases<\/a> in Dade County, Fla, though many of her high-profile convictions were later overturned because of gross violations of due process<\/a>. Reno approved the FBI assault after being told \u201cbabies were being beaten<\/a>.\u201d It is not known who told her about the false claims of child abuse. Reno\u2019s sterling reputation helped the government avoid any apparent culpability for the deaths of 27 children<\/a> on April 19, 1993. After Reno publicly promised to take responsibility for the outcome at Waco, the subsequent Justice Department investigation<\/a> was so shoddy that even the New York Times denounced the \u201cWaco whitewash<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not an atrocity if the U.S. government does it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shortly before the Waco showdown, U.S. government officials signed an international Chemical Weapons Convention treaty pledging<\/a> never to use nerve agents, mustard gas, and other compounds, including tear gas against enemy soldiers. But the treaty contained a loophole permitting governments to gas their own people. On April 19, 1993, the FBI pumped CS gas and methyl chloride, a potentially lethal, flammable combination, into the Davidians\u2019 residence for six hours, disregarding explicit warnings that CS gas should not be used indoors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rep. Steven Schiff (R-N.M.) declared that \u201cthe deaths of dozens of men, women and children can be directly and indirectly<\/a> attributable to the use of this gas in the way it was injected by the FBI.\u201d Chemistry professor George Uhlig testified to Congress in 1995 that the FBI gas attack probably \u201csuffocated the children early on\u201d and may have converted their poorly ventilated bunker into an area \u201csimilar to one of the gas chambers used by the Nazis at Auschwitz<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Orwellian language will vaporize federal aggression.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Abrams tanks driven by FBI agents continually battered the Davidian\u2019s home, FBI loudspeakers endlessly broadcast: \u201cThis is not an assault<\/a>.\u201d Prior to the fire, the tanks had collapsed 20 percent of the building<\/a> atop its residents and the FBI planned to totally demolish the home<\/a>. Grenade launchers on the tanks and other armored vehicles fired almost 400 ferret rounds of CS gas through<\/a> the thin wooden walls and the windows of the building. Yet Attorney General Reno later insisted: \u201cWe didn\u2019t attack. We tried to exercise every restraint possible to avoid violence<\/a>.\u201d Demolishing someone\u2019s home was supposedly no more bothersome than leaving a Federal Express package on their doorstep.<\/p>\n

Truth delayed is truth defused. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The FBI speedily asserted that the Davidians ignited the fire that consumed their dwelling. The following day, the President Bill Clinton<\/a><\/span> deriding<\/a> suggestions that Attorney General Reno \u201cshould resign because some religious fanatics murdered themselves.\u201d Six years later, independent investigators found pyrotechnic ferret rounds the FBI fired at<\/a> the scene prior to the flames erupting. Attorney General Reno lashed out at the FBI for destroying her credibility<\/a> but neither she nor FBI officials suffered any consequences from the collapse of the official narrative.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t trust Congress to expose federal misconduct. <\/strong><\/p>\n

A few days after the conflagration, Reno was heartily praised at a Senate committee hearing<\/a> and the media had made her a national hero. There was little or no sympathy on Capitol Hill for those who died during the final FBI assault. Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, commented that the Davidians were \u201chorrible people. Despicable people. Burning to death was too good for them<\/a>.\u201d If Republicans had not captured control of Congress in 1994, there would have been no substantive hearings on Waco.<\/p>\n

Media favorites can perform rhetorical magic tricks. <\/strong><\/p>\n

When Attorney General Reno testified to the House Waco hearing on August 1, 1995, she was challenged on FBI\u2019s use of 54-ton tanks to assail the Davidians. Reno replied that the tanks were \u201cnot military weapons… I mean, it was like a good rent-a-car<\/a>.” When Rep. Bill Zeliff (R-N.H.) challenged her, Reno hectored: \u201cI think it is important, Mr. Chairman, as you deal with this issue, not to make statements like that can cause the confusion.\u201d This is the high-toned D.C. version of the old saying: \u201cWho are you going to believe \u2014 me or your lying eyes?\u201d Media coverage of Reno\u2019s showdown with congressional Republicans ignored her rent-a-tank absurdity, instead praising her toughness and demeanor.<\/p>\n

While the events at Waco alienated millions of Americans from the government, few if any lessons were learned in Washington. Waco should have taught the disastrous consequences of unleashing government agencies from the law and the Constitution. Unfortunately, 25 years later, controversies are raging as hot as ever about the power and prerogatives of federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n

James Bovard is\u00a0<\/em>a USA Today columnist<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and the author of 10 books, including \u201c<\/em>Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty<\/em><\/a>\u201d (St. Martin\u2019s Press, 1994).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The Hill, April 16, 2018 Bitter lessons 25 years after Waco, Texas, siege By James Bovard, opinion contributor Twenty-five years ago today, FBI tanks smashed into the ramshackle home of the Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas. After the FBI collapsed much of the building atop the residents, a fire erupted and 76 corpses were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1435,1439,1437,1300,1438,47,1436,565,102,472],"class_list":["post-12084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alcohol-tobacco-and-firearms","tag-auschwitz","tag-beaten-babies","tag-branch-davidians","tag-cs-gas","tag-fbi","tag-jack-brooks","tag-janet-reno","tag-waco","tag-whitewash"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hill: Bitter Lessons 25 Years After FBI Final Assault at Waco - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/16\/the-hill-bitter-lessons-25-years-after-fbi-final-assault-at-waco\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hill: Bitter Lessons 25 Years After FBI Final Assault at Waco - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 The Hill, April 16, 2018 Bitter lessons 25 years after Waco, Texas, siege By James Bovard, opinion contributor Twenty-five years ago today, FBI tanks smashed into the ramshackle home of the Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12084"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20460,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12084\/revisions\/20460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}