Feb 28th...this day in history.....

[Grand Torino]

At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, agents of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) launch a raid against the Branch Davidian compound as part of an investigation into illegal possession of firearms and explosives by the Christian cult. 

As the agents attempted to penetrate the complex, gunfire erupted, beginning an extended gun battle that left four ATF agents dead and 15 wounded. Six Branch Davidians were fatally wounded, and several more were injured, including David Koresh, the cult’s founder and leader. After 45 minutes of shooting, the ATF agents withdrew, and a cease-fire was negotiated over the telephone. The operation, which involved more than 100 ATF agents, was the one of the largest ever mounted by the bureau and resulted in the highest casualties of any ATF operation.

Following the unsuccessful ATF raid, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took over the situation. A standoff with the Branch Davidians stretched into seven weeks, and little progress was made in the telephone negotiations as the Davidians had stockpiled years of food and other necessities before the raid.

On April 18, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno approved a tear-gas assault on the compound, and at approximately 6:00 a.m. on April 19 the Branch Davidians were informed of the imminent attack and asked to surrender, which they did not. A few minutes later, two FBI combat vehicles began inserting gas into the building and were joined by Bradley tanks, which fired tear-gas canisters through the compound’s windows. The Branch Davidians, many with gas masks on, refused to evacuate, and by 11:40 a.m. the last of some 100 tear-gas canisters was fired into the compound. Just after noon, a fire erupted at one or more locations on the compound, and minutes later nine Davidians fled the rapidly spreading blaze. Gunfire was reported but ceased as the compound was completely engulfed by the flames.

Koresh and at least 80 of his followers, including 22 children, died during the federal government’s second disastrous assault on Mount Carmel. The FBI and Justice Department maintained there was conclusive evidence that the Branch Davidian members ignited the fire, citing an eyewitness account and various forensic data. Of the gunfire reported during the fire, the government argued that the Davidians were either killing each other as part of a suicide pact or were killing dissenters who attempted to escape the Koresh-ordered suicide by fire. Most of the surviving Branch Davidians contested this official position, as do some critics in the press and elsewhere, whose charges against the ATF and FBI’s handling of the Waco standoff ranged from incompetence to premeditated murder. In 1999, the FBI admitted that they used tear-gas grenades in the assault, which have been known to cause fires because of their incendiary properties.

 

[Chucktshoes]

https://ammo.com/articles/waco-siege-branch-davidian-compound-standoff-atf-raid-us-federal-government
 

 

4 hours ago, Grand Torino said:

The FBI and Justice Department maintained there was conclusive evidence that the Branch Davidian members ignited the fire, citing an eyewitness account and various forensic data.

 In related news, the FBI and the DOJ lied. A lot. In case anybody ever wondered where my general feeling of antipathy towards the federal government comes from, look no further than Waco and Ruby Ridge. These events showed teenage me what the federal government was really about. You will bend the knee, or they will burn you and your whole family alive. 
 

 

 

[Quavodus]

Yeah, theres a lot of corruption in the Waco story. I always believed that.

[Dirtshooter]

And they let old crooked Hillary go scott free. In her famous words "what does it really matter". I'll tell you Hill, it is called justice and it won't be justice until you are arrested, tried and sent to a solitary hole for life.

[Grayfox54]

That whole Waco thing was a disaster from the get go. The local Sheriff was on good terms with Koresh and could have simply knocked on the door. It was also a well known fact that Koresh took a daily jog, same time, every day, on the local road. He could have very easily been picked up then without incident. Nope, the Feds wanted a show. They got one in spades. And they were the villains.