{"id":15175,"date":"2020-10-23T08:53:07","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T12:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=15175"},"modified":"2020-10-24T13:49:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T17:49:17","slug":"waco-whitewash-king-vindicates-prez-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/23\/waco-whitewash-king-vindicates-prez-debates\/","title":{"rendered":"Waco Whitewash King Vindicates Prez Debates"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>American Conservative, October 23, 2020<\/h3>\n<h1 class=\"c-single-blog__title c-title wow animated\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/articles\/waco-whitewash-king-vindicates-presidential-debate-commission\/\"><span class=\"c-title-inner\">Waco Whitewash King Vindicates Presidential Debate Commission<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n<p>by James Bovard<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-single-blog__subtitle c-subtitle \">\n<p class=\"c-subtitle__inner\"><em>John Danforth, a key player in the cover-up of misconduct at Waco, has some rich ideas about faith in government and the 2020 election.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-single-blog__content c-content \">\n<p>\u201cTrump\u2019s attack on the debate commission is an attack on the election itself,\u201d blares the headline from today\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/commission-presidential-debates-trump-election-threat\/2020\/10\/20\/44d42db8-1310-11eb-ad6f-36c93e6e94fb_story.html#click=https:\/\/t.co\/bP3NBfwsKD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Washington Post<\/i> op-ed page<\/a>. That article was written by former senator John Danforth, who has been a member of the Commission on Presidential Debates since 1994. Danforth, an ordained Episcopal priest whose piety earned him the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/columns\/tony-messenger\/messenger-fifty-years-after-danforth-revived-the-missouri-gop-the-script-has-been-flipped\/article_0f7552b4-cc91-5b9e-a955-adfc2138afbf.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">derisive nickname, \u201cSaint Jack<\/a>,\u201d is one of Washington\u2019s favorite useful idiots of Leviathan. It is no surprise that he would be a permanent fixture on a commission that appears determined to perpetuate the swamp.<\/p>\n<p>Danforth wails in the <em>Post<\/em> that accusing the debate commission of favoritism \u201cdestroys public confidence in the most basic treasure of democracy, the conduct of fair elections\u201d and \u201cpaves the way to violence in the streets.\u201d Danforth warns that the \u201cdamage to our country is incalculable\u201d if Americans lose faith in \u201cthe fairness of our presidential debates, and, in turn, the presidential election.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-1\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-6678135-9\" data-google-query-id=\"CMjyq9veyuwCFTXR4QodUBsKmA\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/3946880\/TAC_INLINE_Pos1_0__container__\">\n<div id=\"ld-dfp-ad-13045197114175078-0\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/lockerdome.com\/lad\/13045197114175078?pubid=ld-dfp-ad-13045197114175078-0&amp;pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theamericanconservative.com&amp;rid=www.google.com&amp;width=837\" width=\"600\" height=\"416\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The usual Twitter mob quickly affixed a halo over Danforth\u2019s head for his proclamation. But few people remember how <strong>Danforth previously appointed himself as the nation\u2019s political faith healer after the biggest federal law enforcement debacle in modern times<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On February 28, 1993, 70 federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents launched an attack on the home of the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas. After the assault was rebuffed, the FBI arrived and, on April 19, 1993, sent in tanks that demolished much of the Davidians\u2019 home before a fire broke out. Eighty corpses of men, women, and children were discovered in the wreckage.<\/p>\n<p>Almost nobody in Washington cared about the Texas carnage. Attorney General Janet Reno, who approved the deadly final assault, was labeled a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1993-05-16-mn-36203-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cfolk hero\u201d<\/a> by the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> and the <em>Washington Post<\/em> declared that she had \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/clinton.presidentiallibraries.us\/items\/show\/47199?output=omeka-xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">superstar status<\/a>.\u201d A few days after the fire, the opening of a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing had to be delayed so senators could have their pictures taken with Attorney General Janet Reno. Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, captured the sentiments of many congressmen when he <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=w7AaCgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT47&amp;lpg=PT47&amp;dq=waco+jack+brooks+horrible+people.+Despicable+people.+Burning+to+death+was+too+good+for+them&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=jIx2eCPWuo&amp;sig=pS9nGSEjv-MyjoFzgDff10FjAP0&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi4r-6D7LTaAhXtRt8KHcTeBx0Q6AEIQDAI#v=onepage&amp;q=waco%20jack%20brooks%20horrible%20people.%20Despicable%20people.%20Burning%20to%20death%20was%20too%20good%20for%20them&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">declared<\/a> in 1994 that the Davidians were \u201chorrible people. Despicable people. Burning to death was too good for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1995, Reno testified to Congress and shrugged off the FBI\u2019s use of 54-ton tanks to assail the Davidians, declaring that the tanks were \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/digital.library.txstate.edu\/bitstream\/handle\/10877\/1892\/441.pdf?sequence=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">not military weapons<\/a> \u2026\u00a0I mean, it was like a good rent-a-car.\u201d Media coverage of Reno\u2019s showdown with congressional Republicans ignored her rent-a-tank absurdity, instead praising her toughness and demeanor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In 1999, news leaked out that the FBI had lied when it used pyrotechnic grenades at Waco that might have started fires that killed scores of women and children. Thanks to those revelations, 57 percent of Americans believed that the FBI had carried out an \u201cintentional cover-up\u201d of Waco, according to an ABC News poll. Reno personally selected John Danforth, a \u201cmoderate\u201d Republican who supported gun control and was a golfing buddy of President Bill Clinton, to re-investigate federal action at Waco. In July 2000, as he was rumored to be on the short list for George W. Bush\u2019s vice presidential pick, Danforth rushed out a preliminary report. Danforth\u2019s report was more pro-FBI than the FBI itself and revived discredited drug charges that the Justice Department abandoned six years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Danforth\u2019s report began by stating that Koresh and the Davidians \u201cshot and killed four [ATF] agents\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsdl.org\/?abstract&amp;did=731749\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wounded 20 others<\/a>.\u201d Since the Davidians had wrongfully killed and wounded dozens of federal agents, they presumably deserved whatever the feds subsequently did to them. Danforth tacitly accepted the notion that a massive federal no-knock assault was necessary to determine whether the Davidians had violated federal prohibitions on converting semi-automatic firearms into firing in fully automatic mode.<\/p>\n<p>Danforth ignored the fact that, only nine days before the ATF attack, David Koresh had gone target shooting with three undercover ATF agents (whom he recognized as G-men). Koresh \u201cprovided the ammunition and the agents handed him their guns,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hardylaw.net\/DK_Shooting.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">noted<\/a> former federal lawyer David Hardy, whose research exposed the ATF memo detailing the target practice six years after the raid. After the raid, the ATF insisted that Koresh never went outside the \u201ccompound\u201d\u2014and thus the agency needed to launch a full-scale attack to get him. But Koresh could easily have been arrested while target shooting. Danforth also ignored the evidence that ATF agents shot first as they assaulted the Davidians\u2019 home.<\/p>\n<p>Danforth declared that one of the key topics for his investigation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsdl.org\/?abstract&amp;did=731749\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was<\/a> \u201cwhether the military was wrongly used\u201d in the assault on the Davidians\u2019 home. Before the February 28 raid, ATF officials were told that it would be illegal for the U.S. military to assist them unless there was a \u201cdrug nexus\u201d to the case. A few days later, the ATF notified military officials that they suspected the Davidians had a methamphetamine lab in their basement. ATF agents then received training in close-quarters combat and called in military helicopters from the Texas National Guard to assist in the assault.<\/p>\n<p>Despite such extensive preparations, the drug charge vanished immediately after the raid, and federal prosecutors never raised the issue at the surviving Davidians\u2019 1994 trial. A 1996 congressional report concluded that the ATF\u2019s actions during and after the raid made it\u00a0 \u201cclear that the ATF believed that a methamphetamine lab <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/CRPT-104hrpt749\/html\/CRPT-104hrpt749.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">did not exist<\/a>.\u201d The House report concluded that \u201cthe ATF intentionally misled Defense Department and military personnel\u201d regarding the existence of the meth lab. Danforth is interested in none of this. But Danforth\u2019s report noted that while \u201cthe Office of Special Counsel did not extensively investigate the basis for ATF\u2019s assertion that there was a drug nexus \u2026 there is some evidence prior to February 28, 1993, connecting \u2018drug activity\u2019 with the complex which could form the basis of a drug nexus.\u201d This is the same type of flimsy \u201cdrug link\u201d that has been used to justify thousands of no-knock raids in the subsequent decades.<\/p>\n<p>Danforth repeatedly minimizes or comically misrepresents the amount of force the feds used against the Davidians. FBI agents repeatedly threw flash-bang grenades at Davidians who tried to leave the residence and may have thrown them inside the Davidians\u2019 residence. When Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) asked Danforth about this at a hearing, Danforth <a href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/eric-holder-waco-coverup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">replied<\/a> that flash-bangs are \u201cin the nature, as I understand it, of, you know, firecrackers. They make a flash and they make a bang. And they don\u2019t cause injury, as a general rule.\u201d A 2019 federal appeals court decision noted that flash-bang grenades are \u201cfour times louder than a 12-gauge shotgun blast\u201d with \u201ca powerful enough concussive effect to <a href=\"https:\/\/casetext.com\/case\/zj-v-brooks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">break windows and put holes<\/a> in walls.\u201d Flash bangs burn hotter than lava and have started more than a hundred fires across the nation.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the section headings in Danforth\u2019s report made it appear that Waco was a huge law enforcement success\u2014such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsdl.org\/?abstract&amp;did=731749\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">description<\/a> of the origins of the FBI tank-gas assault: \u201cThe FBI Develops a Tactical Solution to the Standoff.\u201d After the FBI had gassed the Davidians for more than four hours and exhausted almost its entire gas supply, FBI tank drivers were ordered to demolish the building. In the next hour, tanks smashed into the residence eight times and collapsed at least one-quarter of the Davidians\u2019 home. The <i>Dallas Morning News<\/i> summarized government <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=nrAaCgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA276&amp;lpg=PA276&amp;dq=dallas+morning+news+%22compound+tower.+At+its+base+was+a+concrete+room+where+officials+believed+the+%27hostiles%27+were+hiding,+records+show.%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=FEJAXFwt9Z&amp;sig=ACfU3U3z8AhGnrr5MrWXjYsq0j0onrKuKw&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiR6srtqcbsAhUelnIEHbiOCX0Q6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&amp;q=dallas%20morning%20news%20%22compound%20tower.%20At%20its%20base%20was%20a%20concrete%20room%20where%20officials%20believed%20the%20'hostiles'%20were%20hiding%2C%20records%20show.%22&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">documents<\/a> on the tank assault: \u201cJust before noon, [FBI on-scene commander Richard] Rogers ordered tanks in front to drive deep [into the building] toward the compound tower. At its base was a concrete room where officials believed the \u2018hostiles\u2019 were hiding, records show.\u201d As FBI Deputy Director Floyd Clarke <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jimbovard.com\/Bovard_Wall_Street_Journal_1995_Waco_Hearing_Revelations.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">admitted<\/a> in 1995 congressional testimony, \u201cthe destruction of the building was part of the ultimate plan\u201d to bring the siege to an end.<\/p>\n<p>Despite all this evidence, Danforth accepted at face value 1995 testimony of FBI on-scene commanders Jeffrey Jamar and Richard Rogers, who insisted that the tanks were not attempting to bring the building down. Danforth dismissed not only written evidence but stunning visual evidence. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Waco-Rules-Engagement-William-Gazecki\/dp\/B0741CYTDL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Waco: Rules of Engagement<\/a>, a movie that won an Emmy and was nominated for an Academy Award, shows lengthy footage of FBI tanks repeatedly and systematically demolishing much of the building. Harvard Prof. Alan Stone, one of the outside experts the Justice Department tapped in 1993 to examine the incident, <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=nrAaCgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA276&amp;lpg=PA276&amp;dq=alan+stone+waco+%22government%E2%80%99s+actions+may+have+killed+people+before+the+fire+started.+I+cannot+tell+whether+%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=FEJAXFwvcT&amp;sig=ACfU3U1EhaBCFTz4yzfF0WfBAlPwW0GZaA&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjY9J7YqsbsAhX8hXIEHYYiASsQ6AEwAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&amp;q=alan%20stone%20waco%20%22government%E2%80%99s%20actions%20may%20have%20killed%20people%20before%20the%20fire%20started.%20I%20cannot%20tell%20whether%20%22&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">concluded<\/a>: \u201cSome of the government\u2019s actions may have killed people before the fire started. I cannot tell whether the tanks knocked down places where people were already. I don\u2019t know if there were people in there crushed by the collapsing building [as a result of FBI tanks plowing into the structure] before the fire started.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FBI\u2019s pyrotechnic devices were the hottest item in Danforth\u2019s investigation. Reno had sworn to a congressional committee in 1995 that the FBI used no pyrotechnic devices at Waco. Yet Danforth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/CHRG-106shrg73366\/html\/CHRG-106shrg73366.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told<\/a> a Senate committee that \u201cthe use of the pyrotechnics, itself, under these circumstances was not a big thing.\u201d Danforth also assured the senators: \u201cI don\u2019t think that there\u2019s been anybody that I know of connected with the government who has ever believed that the use of pyrotechnics, in this case, had anything to do with the fire.\u201d And what was his proof? The\u00a0FBI told him so. Regardless of how often the FBI changed its story, its latest version was sacrosanct.<\/p>\n<p>Danforth\u2019s report noted several cases where federal officials either made false statements or wrongfully withheld key evidence on Waco. A <i>St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/i> headline perfectly summarized his report: \u201cOfficials Had Nothing to Hide\u2014But Hid Some Things Anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the report\u2019s preface, Danforth bizarrely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsdl.org\/?abstract&amp;did=731749\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">absolved<\/a> lying federal officials: \u201cIn today\u2019s world, it is perhaps understandable that government officials are reluctant to make full disclosures of information for fear that the result of candor will be personal or professional ruin. Any misstep yields howls of indignation, calls for resignations, and still more investigations.\u201d Danforth vehemently opposed any prosecution of any federal official who misled investigators on Waco from 1993 onwards.<\/p>\n<p>Even though numerous agency and congressional investigations had found federal misconduct regarding Waco, Danforth lamented \u201ca nearly universal readiness to believe that the government must have done something wrong. Breaking this vicious circle of distrust and recrimination is essential if we are to rebuild the consent of the governed on which our system depends.\u201d <strong>Danforth championed a \u201cmove along, nothing to see here\u201d version of \u201cconsent of the governed\u201d in which citizens are obliged to swallow unlimited federal malarkey.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The lesson of Waco, according to Danforth, was that the burden is on \u201call of us\u201d to \u201cbe more skeptical of those who make sensational accusations of evil acts by government.\u201d Danforth declared that he hoped his report would \u201cbegin the process of restoring the faith of the people in their government and the faith of the government in the people.\u201d Danforth believed government officials have been wrongfully victimized by public distrust. That phrase about \u201crestoring \u2026 the faith of the government in the people\u201d should have been ridiculed from coast to coast. Instead, it may have helped spurred PBS NewsHour host Jim Lehrer to <a href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/Bovard_American_Spectator_2000_Latest_Greatest_Waco_Whitewash.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gush<\/a> to Danforth: \u201cYou did tremendous investigating.\u201d\u00a0At least Danforth didn\u2019t require the 57% of Americans who believed in an FBI coverup to write personal apology letters to FBI boss Louis Freeh.<\/p>\n<p>Danforth talked as if blind trust in Washington is the key to the \u201cgood government.\u201d Citizens provided almost boundless trust after the 9\/11 attacks, and the result was a disastrous war in Iraq, a worldwide torture regime, and the National Security Agency ravaging Americans\u2019 privacy. And the FBI agents that Danforth exonerated created an endless series of scandals, entrapments, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2017\/05\/11\/comey-fbi-fire-trump-russia-investigation-james-bovard-column\/101506342\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">debacles,<\/a> culminating (perhaps) in their effort to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2018\/06\/15\/inspector-general-report-clinton-emails-secrecy-column\/704890002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">take down<\/a> President Donald Trump. The same nonchalance about law enforcement abuses by politicians of both parties in recent decades led to the George Floyd <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/articles\/cops-kill-because-we-gave-them-the-legal-framework-to-do-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">killing<\/a> and the violent protests that rocked this nation.<\/p>\n<p>Despite it all,<strong> Americans are still supposed to bow to the sacred word \u201cbipartisan\u201d\u2014as if that was \u201cclose enough for government work\u201d to politicians actually obeying the Constitution and the law.<\/strong> Former senator Bob Dole recently <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/520442-bob-dole-claims-no-republicans-on-debate-commission-support-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">complained<\/a> that none of the Republicans on the Commission on Presidential Debates supported Trump. But the hollow absurdities and blatant biases of the debates are irrelevant as long as \u201cSaint Jack\u201d and his cohorts can continue preening. <strong>As for the malcontents who recognize the charade: \u201cMove along, nothing to see here.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i><strong>James Bovard<\/strong> is the author of\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2LsDHUb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lost Rights<\/a><i>,\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2uSsrq2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Attention Deficit Democracy<\/a><i>, and\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2mN0dbO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Public Policy Hooligan<\/a><i>. He is also a\u00a0<\/i>USA Today<i>\u00a0columnist. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JimBovard?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>@JimBovard<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American Conservative, October 23, 2020 Waco Whitewash King Vindicates Presidential Debate Commission by James Bovard John Danforth, a key player in the cover-up of misconduct at Waco, has some rich ideas about faith in government and the 2020 election. \u201cTrump\u2019s attack on the debate commission is an attack on the election itself,\u201d blares the headline [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1300,2544,349,1490,2543,1436,565,2076,102,833],"class_list":["post-15175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-branch-davidians","tag-commission-on-presidential-debates","tag-coverup","tag-david-hardy","tag-david-koresh","tag-jack-brooks","tag-janet-reno","tag-john-danforth","tag-waco","tag-washington-post"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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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 &amp; 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. 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