edited, from alt.activism === This editorial was in the Arizona of 8/22. It was written by William P. Cheshire, Senior Editorial Columnist. LOOKING BEYOND THE WACO SMOKE An anonymous tipster sent me a videotape the other day describing in startling detail the government's shootout, siege and ultimate destruction - possibly deliberate - of the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Texas. The tape is the production of Linda D. Thompson, an Indianapolis lawyer who traveled to Waco to protest the government's initial assault on the compound, which left four agents dead, and now devotes most of her time to investigating how 80 or so people died 50 days later when the place was torched. According to agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the followers of guru David Koresh set fire to their own building when it was stormed by tanks and a small army of heavily armed governments agents. But the videotape, assembled from the government's own film, clearly shows one of the tanks crashing into the building, then backing out again, fire belching from its turret. EYEWITNESSES LACKING This received virtually no publicity because the media were kept under wraps. On a story of this magnitude, reporters and cameramen normally would have been on the scene providing first- hand coverage. But in this instance the press acquiesced in extraordinary restraints. Search and arrest warrants were sealed, and when government agents settled down for what was to be a seven-week siege, the press was allowed to get no closer than two miles from the Branch Davidian compound. As the tanks rolled and the feds broke out their grenades and submachine guns for the final assault on April 19, reporters and cameramen gathered behind distant roadblocks, waiting for government handouts. Miles away the compound was being burned to the ground. A school board can't meet in secret without the media going ballistic, Thompson says, but here the government conducted a massive armored assault on civilians, unencumbered by witnesses. "I'm very discouraged that reporters weren't being more aggressive in Waco," Phil Record, ombudsman for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, told Mark Holmberg of the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, VA. "If there had been a few neutral eyes up there, I would feel much better about it". Thompson is more blunt. "Reporters sucked up everything the ATF and FBI told them," she says. "They're a bunch of weenies and sheep. None of them had the guts to ask challenging questions or the intelligence to ask constitutional questions." FLAME THROWER IDENTIFIED I reached Thompson by phone at the American Justice Federation, a civil liberties group she operates. She now has identified the tank seen backing out of the Branch Davidian building, she told me. "It was an M67A1 tank manufactured by Chrysler," she said. This tank, equipped with a flamethrower, is no longer in service and, according to Thompson, had to be taken from "the graveyard" for the Waco assignment. The clear implication is that the government deliberately set fire to the Branch Davidian compound, killing some 17 children and 69 adults. I asked how she found out about the M67A1, a little-know weapon to which even Jane's Armour and Artillery gives only brief mention. "The driver who drove it from Fort Hood called me," she said. At the end of the Waco madness, President Clinton said the Branch Davidians had "burned themselves up" - and allegation that, in the light of Linda Thompson's allegations, Congress needs to investigate. Already, The Washington Post reports, the Waco embarrassment has prompted a major reshuffle at the ATF. Some officials may be forced to retire, the Post says, and the chief of the intelligence division could be denied "future promotions." Such punishments seem hardly proportionate. As a consequence of the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, two police officers were tried for the assault and acquitted, then tried again for civil rights violations and sentenced to two and a half years in the federal penitentiary. How is it that federal agents responsible for the death of more than 80 men, women and children may be permitted to retire or even to keep their present jobs? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.