WACO: A Survivor’s Story
Book by David Thibodeau, (c) 2018
Selected Quotes compiled by Gary L. Clendenon, May 2019
History and Context: The Waco Siege began in early 1993, when a government raid on a compound in Axtell, Texas [near Waco], led to a 51-day standoff between federal agents and members of a millennial Christian sect called the Branch Davidians. The siege ended dramatically on April 19, 1993, when fires consumed the compound, leaving some 75 people dead, including 25 children.
~ History.com
David Thibodeau is an American Branch Davidian who [at the time of this story] was being led by charismatic leader David Koresh. Thibodeau was in the compound for the 51-day siege until he escaped, with eight other survivors, the fire that consumed the compound.
~ Wikipedia
Before the Attack:
“What are you going to do six months from now when all this is surrounded by tanks?” David Koresh said one summer afternoon, when four or five of us were finishing off the roof of the three-story residential tower.
My hand, holding the hammer, froze in mid air. “They're not going to bring tanks against us!” I exclaimed. “Not tanks. That's real paranoid, David.”
David answered obliquely, launching into a commentary on the Biblical Nahum: the chariots shall be with flaming torches. ... I only half listened to him. To me it was inconceivable that the federal government could actually use heavy armor to attack us. Not in America, I said silently—surely? (p. 129)
April 20, 1993: The Day After:
What were a group of Americans to do that had been assaulted by its own government with such ferocity, not because we threatened anyone, but essentially because we were different?
Someone suggested tentatively that we’d just experienced one of the worst moments of religious persecution in U.S. history. “Not since the Mormons—” he said, and trailed off.
To me the words “religious persecution” sounded medieval. Wasn’t this the Land of the Free? The friggin’ twentieth century? I wanted to shout that this was nonsense, that we couldn’t possibly be persecuted for our scriptural beliefs. Not in America! But I kept coming around to an implacable question: Why else had we been attacked so fiercely? It just didn’t make sense. (p. 189-90)
“Authorities were able to take action against Davidians with such immunity because they [the media] and members of the general public shared a view of Koresh and his followers and the situation that allowed, even required, such actions,” stated James T. Richardson, professor of sociology and judicial studies at the University of Nevada-Reno and an expert on new religions.
Richardson and others have pointed out the crucial role of the media plays in distinguishing between “worthy” and “unworthy” story subjects. People or groups that the press decides are worthy of sympathy are described in ways that predispose viewers and readers to look upon them kindly. Those whom the media choose to demonize are shown in a light that distances them from public compassion. As Richardson remarked, “The dehumanization of those inside Mt. Carmel, coupled with the thoroughgoing demonization of Koresh, made it easier for those in authority to develop tactics that seemed organized for disaster.” (p. 200)
A major example of this crude characterization of David and our community was a TV movie of the week, “In the Line of Duty: Ambush at Waco” rushed into production during the siege, shown on NBC in May, 1993, and rebroadcast many times since. In the film, David was shown in the most damning light as a charismatic, Jim Jones—style monster obsessed with young girls.
However, in an address given at the 1997 memorial service for the people who died in Waco, the TV movie's writer, Phil Penningroth, recanted his role in shaping the NBC film. “Within days of the ATF raid, the Davidians, and especially Koresh, were demonized as the Jews were in Germany before World War II,” Penningroth said. “As we all know now, the government and the media painted a portrait of Koresh and Davidians that I now believe was insidious, malevolent, and ultimately destructive. To my everlasting shame and regret, I added to that distorted view. I pray that soon, very soon, other artist, other journalists, will recognize the truth of what happened here four years ago.”
In an ironic twist, the FBI became a victim of its own connivance. ... Having fed the media vicious tales, officials saw them amplified in a rising public pressure that eventually forced their hand. (p. 201)
The FBI’s “Jericho Plan” called for a “step by step” process in which tear gas would be pumped in to our building to drive us out over 48 hours, but no armored vehicles or gunfire would be used against us. The cocktail favored by the feds to subdue us was a chemical called CS in a solution of methylene chloride. … In January, 1993 the United States and 130 other countries had signed the Chemical Weapons Convention banning the use of CS gas in warfare; apparently there was no prohibition on its use against American citizens. … No greater concentration of CS has ever been sprayed by government agents at U.S. civilians [than what was used at Waco]. (p. 246-248)
This was the deadly brew the FBI brass was quietly cooking up for us while appearing to accept that we were ready to come out, as soon as David finished writing his interpretation of the seals [The 7 seals of Revelation]. (p. 248)
“We were sincerely expecting to come out. We had our bags packed.” ~ Clive Doyle, Survivor (p. 257)
It was the feds, not us, who created the conditions for a conflagration [an extensive, destructive fire]. For that terrible consequence, the government is completely responsible. (p. 259)
The [Government’s] Plan...was abandoned within minutes of the dawn attack. Throwing aside all restraint, the tanks hacked away wildly at Mt. Carmel. (p. 262)
Amid all this, the ATF [The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives], to mark its terrible triumph, took time to remove the tatters of our flag and run up its own bureau’s banner, along with the Texas standard and the Stars and Stripes. (p. 266) (See Footnote 1)
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno spoke on “Larry King LIVE”: She claimed the FBI had hard evidence that our kids were being beaten—which was the reason she allowed the Feds to burn them! The logic of this escaped me. (p. 269)
The media spin was so powerful, it even began to twist my mind. Talk about brainwashing! (p. 269)
“Some religious fanatics murdered themselves,” President Clinton declared, but he was wrong. The truth is that a religious community that threatened or harmed no one was brutally destroyed by agents of the U.S. Government in broad daylight, watched by the world. The FBI assault on Mt. Carmel was one of the most violent episodes of official religious persecution in U.S. History. (p. 269)
All these official distortions of the truth were an early warning to me that the world outside had more or less made up its mind that we were merely a bunch of religious maniacs who’d murdered ourselves. (p. 269)
With the screams of my suffocating, scorched friends and the moans of the kids I knew and loved echoing in my ears, I wondered at the ways of the world. How could this woman [Janet Reno], who had ordered her cohorts to destroy us, be hailed as a Superstar? (p. 270)
After the fire, a charred copy of the Fourth Amendment was found in Mount Carmel’s ashes: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”
I was troubled by the loss of my bedrock faith in America and its rule of law, in the essential decency and fairmindedness of the American people, their willingness to hear the truth and their ability to resist government and media manipulation. All that seemed to have been trampled underfoot at Mt. Carmel. The feds had refused to take any real blame for what they had done, and the American public had seemingly accepted their gross corruption of our moral and social inheritance. (p. 293)
All eight [Davidians who were tried, found guilty, and jailed] were heavily fined to compensate the ATF and FBI for their losses in attacking us. (p. 308)
If only Janet Reno had shown some contrition; if only she could have brought herself to admit that what she had allowed to happen in Mt. Carmel was a terrible mistake. If she had, the true healing process over this American tragedy might have fully begun. Without that generous admission, the public conscience remains in limbo, strung out between guilt and outrage. (p. 336)
Belief can’t really be explained to those who don’t have it, but that doesn’t make it invalid. (p. 340)
The situation could have been easily defused, but instead the FBI literally lit the fuse, hurled it into the building, and incinerated most of its inhabitants. (p. 344)
We’re living in a time [written in 2018] where it’s hard to find the truth and Waco serves as an example of how the truth isn’t always what we are presented. (p. 348)
Waco has left a stain on American history that will never be erased and we ignore its lessons at our peril. (p. 350)
FOOTNOTES:
1. https://www.stormbound.org/mount-carmel-property/branch-davidian-flag/
