WACO
Another government coverup
By
Deirdre Griswold
The Attorney General of the United States, Janet Reno, has
admitted that the government lobbed incendiary devices into the
Waco, Texas, compound of the Branch Davidian sect on April 19,
1993, the day it went up in flames.
The fire incinerated 80 people, 25 of them children.
For six years, the Justice Department denied eyewitness
reports of what it now admits is true.
But the government says the canisters didn't set the
fire--the Davidians started the blaze themselves. It says its
only failure was "lapses in communicating facts to the public."
What he have here is a failure to communicate?
Remember, this is the country that goes around the world
preaching human rights--and shows its commitment to them by
raining down cruise missiles and "smart" bombs on anyone its
claims violates such rights.
This is always done without a trial--in fact, even without
evidence, as in the case of the cruise missiles that blew up a
pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, a
year ago on Aug. 20, 1998. They said at the time that the
factory was linked to Saudi rebel Osama bin Laden and that
poison gas was manufactured there. Both stories have proven to
be ludicrous, and Washington isn't even trying to defend its
earlier statements any more.
What was the great crime of the Branch Davidians? That they
were a religious sect organized around a demanding leader?
There are plenty of such sects in the United States. All the
organs of the capitalist state--from the presidency to the
military to the media--promote religious dogma and mysticism
rather than a scientific explanation of the world. Right now,
the capitalist media and lots of celebrities are falling all
over themselves in adulation of the Dalai Lama, whom many would
call a cult leader.
So why did the U.S. government treat this group
differently?
One problem seems to have been that the Branch Davidians did
not trust the U.S. government and therefore armed themselves
for self-defense--which is supposedly a constitutional right.
Fifty-one days before the final siege and massacre, agents of
the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms branch of the Justice
Department had tried to force their way into the compound to
disarm the group. There was a shootout in which four ATF agents
and two Davidians were killed.
From then on, it seemed, the ATF was out to "get 'em."
What happened in that shootout? Given the way the government
lied about its later use of incendiary devices, should anyone
believe the official story? Isn't it most likely that the
attack on the Davidians was a brutal affair sure to provoke a
panicked response?
There are so many brutal attacks on the populace by SWAT
teams, "narcs," and other police units that hardly a day goes
by without hearing of a police shooting somewhere. These
attacks are against people of color and immigrants way out of
proportion to their numbers. Demonstrations against racist cops
are almost as common today as protests against segregation and
the Vietnam War were in the 1960s.
What stands out, however, is that groups you might expect to
be raided by the ATF or other federal agencies are handled with
kid gloves by comparison.
Look at what happened after the Oklahoma City bombing, in
which 168 people, including 19 children in a daycare center,
were killed and hundreds more injured.
Look at what happened after woman-hating, gay-hating
anti-abortion fanatics set off bombs in Atlanta and gunned down
doctors and nurses in women's health centers.
Or look at what happened after a well-known neo-Nazi shot
five children in a Jewish community center in Los Angeles and
then killed a Filipino letter carrier.
Nothing. Nothing. And nothing.
There were no raids of the type the government carried out
against the Black Panther Party or other organizations of the
oppressed in the 1970s. Fascist paramilitary training camps
weren't stormed. People in right-wing organizations weren't
attacked in their homes or their offices, weren't slammed up
against the wall, weren't beaten unconscious.
Is it because the government has become kinder and gentler
since the 1970s? It wasn't kind or gentle in 1985 to the MOVE
organization in Philadelphia, a group led by African Americans
that wanted to live according to its own lifestyle. Their house
was firebombed by federal and local police agencies. Eleven
people, including four small children, died in the blaze.
And it wasn't kind or gentle in Waco. Some reports say
special military units were involved in the assault on the
compound, which involved tanks and heavy weapons.
The Branch Davidians weren't a progressive organization.
They weren't made up primarily of people of oppressed
nationalities, although among the dead and those imprisoned
afterward there were a number of people of color. But they did
live communally, with inter-racial relationships, in the racist
state of Texas. This and their practice of the right of
self-defense seem to have been enough for the Rambos of the
federal government to decide to go after them.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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