The Waco Investigation. All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic

Former Senator, John C. Danforth of Missouri, has been tasked with the duty of looking into the incident that occurred in Waco Texas. An incident which resulted in over 80 Americans losing their lives at the hands of their own government. Death at the hands of an enemy is a tragedy that most all Americans are prepared to accept as a necessary price. Our vigilance is required to protect and promote the concepts of a free, fair, and just Republic. We are now at a crossroad,and witnessing a new day dawn that is much brighter than in times past. We now have a profound appreciation of what darkness and despair is like. We have borne witness to the divisive tactics employed by sanctioned government sects like the SS and Gestapo. History, and all the world has borne witness to the American plight for a free Republic. All of recorded time has borne witness to the necessary ills suffered in order for the American People to free themselves from the burdensome yokes of the Tudor, Stuart, and Hanover monarchies.

But now, there are burning questions that the American People must ask themselves. There are questions that are questions that all of history cries out for the American People to ask, and indeed, to answer. Under the Color Of Authority are the freedoms of the American People being eroded? Are there elements within the midst of the American People that would have them turn their hopes and struggles from the light of the dawning of a new day? Although the faces and names have changed, some things seem to remain the same. Is the American People witnessing another form of tyranny in the making? To what degree will this insidious creature be allowed to rule? And finally, what will it take to stop it?

To paraphrase a statement made by Justice Cardozo, "there are fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutions", and that these fundamental principles are, "of the very essence of a scheme of ordered liberty." So, does Justice Cardozo, a man tasked with the role of being a sentinel over the American People's liberties, see something that others are not yet aware of? Has his wakeup call fallen on deaf ears and gone unheeded?

Will former Senator Danforth address the question of how the acts committed by the agents acting under Color Of Authority are contributing to the perceived erosion of the liberties held by the American People? Will former Senator Danforth expose any and all of the perverse treachery that caused over 80 American lives to be lost in Waco Texas? It would serve all well to reflect on a very profound statement made by another man tasked with the role of sentinel. While at his post Justice Brandeis stated:

"Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subject to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.  Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."

‘Whistleblower’ Indicted

Waco Prosecutor Hid Evidence U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston poses in his office in Waco, Texas, Sept. 9, 1999. Johnston has been indicted on federal charges of obstructing the investigation into the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas.

The Associated Press S T. L O U I S, Nov. 9, 2000 - A former government prosecutor has been indicted on federal charges of obstructing the investigation into the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, that he helped set in motion. Former assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and three counts of lying to investigators and a federal grand jury. The indictment was returned Wednesday as Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report absolving the government of wrongdoing in the siege. Attorney Michael Kennedy, while acknowledging that Johnston made mistakes in his dealings with the special counsel, called the charges baseless and unfair. “Danforth seeks to destroy the messenger and whitewash the governmental excesses of Waco,” he said. “While Bill’s mistakes were harmless, the same cannot be said for so many other government employees, who today are merely chastised or ignored completely by Mr. Danforth.” Helped Write the Waco Warrant Johnston helped draft the search warrant that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tried to execute on Feb. 28, 1993, at the Waco compound. The botched raid turned into a gunfight in which four federal agents and six Davidians were killed. The shootout sparked the 51-day standoff that ended on April 19, 1993, with a fire that consumed the compound, killing sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers inside. Johnston in 1994 helped convict nine Davidians during their criminal trial. In 1999, federal Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. ordered the government to give him all records and evidence connected with the standoff. Johnston then complained publicly that the Justice Department was covering up evidence showing FBI agents had fired pyrotechnic tear gas at the compound. Justice Department and FBI officials denied for years that the government had used anything capable of sparking fires when they employed tanks and tear gas to try to end the standoff. The FBI’s subsequent confirmation that some pyrotechnic tear gas was used prompted Attorney General Janet Reno to ask Danforth to investigate. Government Cleared of Blame In July, Danforth in a preliminary report absolved the government of blame in the blaze. A week earlier, an advisory jury hearing a $675 million wrongful-death lawsuit brought by surviving cult members and the victims’ families reached the same conclusion. Johnston left the U.S. attorney’s office in February and Danforth’s investigators questioned him repeatedly. He admitted in July that he had withheld several pages of notes from 1993 dealing with the FBI’s use of pyrotechnic gas. A congressional report issued last week praised Johnston for helping reveal the use of pyrotechnics but condemned his failure to surrender the notes, which indicated he was told in 1993 that FBI agents fired several incendiary military tear gas grenades. “I don’t perceive him as a whistleblower,” Danforth said. “Because I think the meaning of whistleblower is somebody who brings into the light things that were hidden. The allegations in this indictment are to the contrary: somebody who hides things.” Johnston said in a statement Wednesday that he withheld the notes out of fear that hostile colleagues might try to use what he had written to discredit him. He added that he didn’t reveal the notes to Danforth because his investigators “treated me with the same loathing and hostility that I had encountered from the Justice Department.”