From: hal@finney.org
Date: Mon Sep 13 1999 - 17:39:37 MDT
I have ordered the McNulty Waco video through interlibrary loan, so I
should be able to see it in a few days.
I happened to be at home and watching TV the morning that the Waco siege
was ended. I saw, live, the tanks moving around the compound, punching
holes in the walls. Then the first flames appeared, quickly spreading
until the entire compound was engulfed. It was riveting and horrifying.
It is very different to see the events live, happening in real time,
some slowly and some quickly, than to see edited highlights on the news
afterwards. It is far more real.
Much of the recent Waco story has been broken by the Dallas Morning News.
They have done a terrific job in staying on this story and bringing it
to public attention. Surely many journalism awards lie ahead for their
coverage. http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/waco/ provides an overview
of their stories, with breaking news almost every day.
Today they report that shell casings recovered from a remote house
used by the FBI's hostage rescue team may shed light on the question
of whether shots were fired. In answer to the recent comment here,
the "no shots fired" claim refers to FBI agents. The initial raid was
handled by BATF, who engaged in a firefight with the Davidians, leaving
many casualties on both sides. Once the FBI took over they claim that
they never fired any shots. It should be possible to determine whether
those shell casings are from the type of guns used by the FBI vs the BATF,
in order to partially test the truth of the FBI claim.
I had not learned previously that the FBI agent in charge of this
sniper post was the infamous Lon Horiuchi, the FBI sniper who killed
unarmed Vicki Weaver in the Ruby Ridge standoff a few months before.
We already knew that Richard Rogers, who had been in charge at Ruby
Ridge, was also the agent in charge at Waco. But the Horiuci presence
comes as an additional discouraging surprise.
Jerry Pournelle wrote a good article on this subject a few days ago at
http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue289/item6315.asp.
Hal
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