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| Clashes between religious sects and US authorities resulted in 86 deaths and the destruction of a building. |
The story ended with 86 deaths and a building reduced to ashes.
It was the tragic end to an incident 30 years ago that ended a 51-day siege by law enforcement agencies of the headquarters of a small religious community in the US state of Texas.
The story begins on February 28, 1993, when agents from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) embarked on a major mission they had been planning for some time. had been.
This government agency called ATF had been investigating the sale and purchase of illegal weapons by the General Association of the Seventh Day Adventist Church for several months.
The agency had already completed an undercover operation in which two agency officials posed as university students to contact Vernon Howell, the sect's main leader, who had changed his name to David Koresh. were built
After completing the initial investigation, one day in February, a convoy of 76 agents was heading towards the hideout of this cult located 15 minutes from the Texas town of Waco. These agents had search and arrest warrants while also having military training.
The followers of this sect named their abode as 'Mount Carmel' and according to their belief, this abode was destined to become the center of a new divine kingdom after the great destruction (resurrection) coming to the world.
The leader of the sect was David Koresh, a 34-year-old self-proclaimed messiah who had several wives, some of whom were minors, and fathered several children.
But when the convoy of law enforcement officials reached the sect's headquarters at the end of a dirt road, followers of the faith were already there awaiting their arrival as they had been tipped off about the operation by their sources. was
Soon a two-way exchange of fire started which lasted for about 90 minutes.
Heather Jones, the niece of the cult's leader, was nine years old at the time of the operation and was in the compound, which was surrounded by law enforcement agencies.
"I saw how the bullets hit one of Koresh's wives," he said in a Netflix documentary about the incident that happened 30 years ago. I remember their screams, I can't forget them. The most unforgettable part of the incident was hearing the screams of those injured and killed by bullets.
As a result of this clash, four ATF agents and two followers of the religious sect were killed while dozens of people on both sides were injured. Among the injured was Koresh who was hit by two bullets: one in the back and the other in the side.
After ninety minutes of continuous firing, a cease-fire was agreed upon at 11:30 a.m. and the operation was handed over from the ATF to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The bloody conflict took a new dimension after the FBI took over the operation.
Malcolm Gladwell, a journalist for the New Yorker magazine, described the scene outside the cult's headquarters during the operation: 'The FBI has assembled the largest force in American history against its own suspected citizens. It includes 10 Bradley tanks, two Abrams tanks, four combat vehicles, 668 agents plus six Customs, 15 Army personnel, 13 members of the Texas National Guard, 31 Texas Rangers, 131 officers from the state Department of Public Safety, 17 from the McLennan County Sheriff's Office. from and 18 Waco police officers. A total of 899 law enforcement officials.
An army of journalists had also reached the spot with their cameras and mobile units to broadcast the scenes live.
Journalist John McLemore, who covered the operation for a local TV channel, said in the Netflix documentary, "It was like watching a war movie in a movie theater, but the reality was that it was happening in real life." .'
It was at that moment that law enforcement agencies laid siege to the building, which lasted for the next 51 days, culminating in tension, misunderstandings, mistakes, and dire consequences.
Failed negotiations
The FBI's negotiation team began receiving daily calls for Koresh to surrender, while law enforcement officials resorted to other tactics, and soon the case went from local media to international media. reached
Within a few days, the results of the negotiations began to emerge. The leader of the religious sect promised the officials that if they would broadcast a message from him on the radio every day, in return he would release the two children at the headquarters.
Kathy Schroeder, the mother of Scott, the first young child to be released from the compound (who was also at the compound), admonished her son to 'remember that God is on His throne and David loves you. Is.'
Kathy said in the Netflix documentary that when she was sending her son off, 'I didn't feel like I was saving him.'
He further said that at that time his thought was that 'I don't care about living.' All I cared about was being in fellowship with God.'
The rescued children were taken to a 'Methodist Home' in the town of Waco and their statements were recorded in the hope that seeing them would encourage the followers inside to surrender and leave the compound.
The ploy worked and 35 people, including 21 children, came out of the compound. Seeing people coming out, the FBI officers thought that the end of the case was just around the corner. They were thinking that in no time the leader of the sect, Koresh, would also lay down his arms and surrender himself to the authorities, but soon these hopes were dashed by an announcement made by Koresh. That announcement was:
Koresh: God has commanded me to wait longer.
FBI Agent: Do you trust in God?
Koresh: I am God.
And after this announcement, no follower left the compound until March 23.
On the other hand, the siege became tougher to force them out by the security forces, the electricity to the complex was cut off, and the compound was illuminated at night with powerful floodlights while loud pop music was deliberately played from the speakers. go
With the help of a camera taken into the compound with the permission of the FBI, Koresh filmed himself with several children and young women, introducing them as his wives and children. He tried to make it clear that the people inside were not held hostage but were there of their own free will.
"Who cares about you?" he asks a child in the video.
Schroeder was one of 11 adults who voluntarily decided to leave Mount Carmel and were detained.
He was later tried on charges of conspiracy to murder and assault. She explains that it was considered normal for their leader to have sexual relations with several women in the group, even minor girls.
In a recent documentary on the subject, she said that 'in our belief system, all girls were considered adults at 12.' They attend sessions only when they are chosen by their leaders. According to her, she regularly prayed for him.
'And then the first time he had sex with me, we were alone.'
Then came the time when senior officials from the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Attorney General's Office began to consider ending the operation in April because the operation was costing the government millions of dollars daily. While the reputation of the United States was being separated at the global level due to this case.
So around 6:00 a.m. on April 19, chief negotiator Byron Sage telephoned the compound to inform people that tear gas shells would soon be fired into the building to force people to leave, but at the same time, It was assured that the officials would not storm the compound. The message was repeated over the public address system.
Immediately after this announcement, shots were fired at FBI personnel and vehicles from inside the compound. And at the same time, despite the objections of the negotiators, the commander of the rescue team ordered to fire of gas shells simultaneously on the entire complex.
They fired tear gas shells continuously for six hours, but no one left the building. Due to such intense shelling, a fire broke out at three places in the compound around noon.
Within minutes, Mount Carmel was reduced to ashes and firefighters could not arrive in time to put out the fire, but why this happened is still unknown. No one inside survived.
The compound had become a mass grave for those who followed a highly controversial religious faith.
Responsibility and Suspicion
US President Bill Clinton, who had only been in office for three months, stated the next day that "I don't think the government is responsible for a group of fanatics deciding to kill themselves."
He said this because he may not have been aware of how much this event would shake up his first year in office and how it would play a role in the Republican Party regaining control of Congress in 1994. will
During all these events, public opinion was divided. One was those who considered David and his followers to be a mad and fanatical sect who were responsible for their own death. While others started criticizing the action of the federal government as excessive.
Stewart A. Wright, Professor of Sociology of Religions at Lamar de Beaumont University, told the BBC that 'an extraordinary majority of the public in a poll the following year overwhelmingly blamed the federal government for what happened in Waco. '
The author of hundreds of articles and editor of the book 'Armageddon in Waco' continued, 'Over time and the many academics who have reconstructed the facts of the event, it has been concluded that things were peaceful. could be solved in a way.
"There's a lot of evidence that points to that and it's been acknowledged by some people involved in the process today," he added. Gary Neusner, the FBI's chief negotiator during the siege, has repeatedly acknowledged that 'David Koresh was responsible, but that doesn't mean we didn't make mistakes as an agency, we did make mistakes. In Waco, we didn't save as many lives as we could have. So for me, it was a failure.
Between April 1995 and May 1996, two congressional committees investigated the actions of federal forces during the siege of Mount Carmel.
Although they concluded that the ultimate responsibility for the incident rested with Koresh, the final report was highly critical of the decisions and actions of the agencies involved.
These committees, among other authorities, noted that the ATF's investigation of David and his followers was "grossly flawed" and "worse than the minimum professional standards" of a federal agency.
The final report called the Attorney General's decision to green-light intervention to end the siege of Reno as 'premature, misguided and grossly irresponsible'.
The report also said that those affected by tear gas, particularly young children, pregnant women, and the elderly, suffered "immediate and severe" physical pain and rejected its use, insisting that authorities should allow peaceful recovery until the end. Had to negotiate.
However, the report did not discuss the orders given by the forces from the beginning of the firing in this incident to negate the theory that the agents were the cause of it intentionally or unintentionally.
The report also did not dispute the Justice Department's arguments to justify the lack of fire extinguishers at the scene and the delay in calling the fire department.
The report did little more than fuel the conspiracy theories about the authorities' role in the tragedy that had begun to spread like wildfire.
Professor Wright told the BBC: 'It was taken advantage of from the start by far-right groups interested in promoting the right to bear arms and anti-government ideas. And he declared the sect of David as a 'martyr'.
Many saw David and his followers as defenders of two fundamental rights in America, freedom of worship and freedom to bear arms.
David Koresh himself said of these rights during the siege, "It's not going to happen in this country," and that's why he considered the federal government to be the enemy of these freedoms.
Some members of the Davidic community who survived the tragedy, such as David Thibodeau, have admitted that at times they were untouchable in society, only noticed by right-wing political parties. "Nobody wanted to hear what he had to say except people on the right," he told the New York Times.
Two years after the siege, a young man named Timothy Mikoya, who had expressed support for David and his followers in Waco and had become fanatical in response to the New World Order, bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City. 168 people were killed and 700 were injured.
It is still the deadliest 'domestic terrorist attack' in US history.
The tragedy also inspired conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who, then a young radio announcer, organized a campaign to rebuild the Davidic capital in 1998 to pay tribute to those who died.
Still a prominent figure on the right today, Alex Jones was one of the first and most prominent voices to support Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Decades later, references to the Waco tragedy have not left the minds of militias and white supremacists like the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers groups that stormed Capitol Hill in January 2021.
Heidi Brach, the co-founder of the NGO Global Against Hate and Extremism, told the BBC's Sham Kabiral: "Waco still resonates in anti-government circles as an event that shows that federal government does not protect its citizens and is willing to violate civil rights and disarm them.'
Some saw echoes in Trump's decision to launch his 2024 presidential campaign from Waco Airport on March 25, just days after the 30th anniversary of the tragedy.
However, his political team has denied any such intention, explaining that the location was chosen due to its proximity to central and central Texas metropolitan areas. Because their staunch voters live here.
Although some of his supporters and critics have already made it clear that his holding his first political rally in a place that has become a symbol of the fight against the government for many is a coincidence.
Sharon Anderson, a retired Trump supporter from Tennessee, told The New York Times, referring to the criminal charges against the former president, that "the Waco tragedy was also an overreach by the government and today they are overreaching with Trump."
Trump himself has portrayed himself to the public as the victim and target of a politically motivated Justice Department.
During his political rally in Waco, he didn't miss an opportunity to criticize the administration and repeatedly referred to the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden, saying it was "rigged." were
He also praised those who stormed Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, to try to stop Biden's confirmation as president. However, several federal government agencies are investigating Trump's alleged role in the attack.
"Our enemies are desperate to stop us and have done everything they can to crush our spirit and break our resolve," Trump declared to hundreds of supporters. But they have failed. This process has only made us stronger. And 2024 will be the great final battle.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Wright says that it is no coincidence that President Trump gave a smoky speech a few kilometers away from the place where the largest clash between civilians and federal forces in American history took place.
"What could be more symbolic than that," he says.