Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.conspiracy From: [b f rg 9732] at [uxa.cso.uiuc.edu] (Brian F. Redman) Subject: The Tragedy After Waco Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1993 00:28:37 GMT The Tragedy After Waco -- Public Response ========================================= by Erwin Knoll (Editor of the *Progressive* and a regular panelist on the PBS MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.) [Excerpted from an article in the *Christian Science Monitor*, April 27, 1993 edition] ----------------------------------------------------------------- [Excerpts] *Immediate* public reaction to the television images of the "Davidian inferno... ran 10 to 1 *against* Attorney General Janet Reno and the FBI. But by Tuesday, when the government's spin doctors had gone on the offensive, 8 out of 10 messages to the Justice Department were conveying approval, and by Wednesday the polls showed that a clear majority of Americans gave their blessings to the operation and its outcome." "Such enthusiasm for an exercise that was botched from the beginning, that ended in a horrible blood bath, and that continues to pose agonizing questions, ought to dismay all of us..." "Why the initial assault by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), an arm of the Treasury Department? We were told that cult members led by David Koresh had acquired a substantial arsenal of illegal automatic weapons. But such arsenals are to be found in many communities all over our country... [These other communities] are rarely subjected to raids by armed federal agents. Mr. Koresh had bought his weapons openly and had threatened no one with them. So what was ATF doing there in the first place?" "We were told there were 'reports' of possible child abuse within the compound. None of those claims have been substantiated -- but if they had been, since when does ATF deal with child abuse? This much we know: The children who died because of last week's federal assault will be abused no more." "...even before the ATF mounted its [February] assault, leaders knew their attack was expected. Why did they go ahead anyway?" "We were told the FBI agents were exhausted and needed to act and go home. Since when is fatigue a sufficient motive for assault?" "What caused the inferno that followed the federal agents' tear- gas barrage remains, at this writing, a matter of conjecture." The author speculates that "...the Branch Davidians real crime... was their stubborn refusal to bow to conventional orthodoxy and official authority..." "These are deeply vexing questions... but most vexing of all is the willingness of Americans to rush to the government's support before the answers are in, and in the face of overwhelming evidence that wretched blunders have been committed." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Transcribed by Brian Redman ([b f rg 9732] at [uxa.cso.uiuc.edu])