Text Excerpt 6: Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum That's Not Murphy's Law (In the preceding two excerpts, we have seen that the February 28, 1993 raid was designed to fail, providing an excuse for the use of massive military force against a group of civilians under the rubric of "law enforcement.") With this perspective on the purpose of the raid, we will examine whether the Davidians rose to the bait in the upcoming excerpt, "Who Struck John?" But before we do, other details should be mentioned: - We are asked to believe another manifestation of Murphy's law. The Treasury Report tells us that early on the morning of February 28, local Waco TV station KWTX cameraman Jim Peeler, on his way to cover the event, "became lost" on "back roads." There he coincidentally met a letter carrier who, coincidentally, was a Branch Davidian. Mr. Peeler asked directions and coincidentally mentioned the impending raid; naturally the letter carrier, Davidian David Jones, went to the Mt. Carmel Center and told David Koresh about upcoming events, as we might expect (Treasury Report, pg. 85). - We have been asked to believe a lot, but this is beyond the pale: The location where Mr. Peeler became "lost" was within sight of the Mt. Carmel Center! - That encounter on the "back roads" was witnessed by one of the ATF undercover agents in casual clothes, accompanied by the "forward observers ... in ATF battle dress utilities" and "their arrest support teams," who, we are asked to believe, were coincidentally on their way to a hay barn behind the Mt. Carmel Center (pg. 88). - The Treasury Report expresses no curiosity about how a local news reporter, covering an important local news story at a well-known local landmark, could become "lost" within eyesight of his destination. - The narration of this incident and speculations on its effect is spread over seven pages in the Treasury Report (pgs. 82 to 88), including a map and schedule of which reporter was where when and what car he was driving. The drafters of that report worked very hard to convince the readers of the incident. - In fact, the number of pages in the Treasury Report consumed in narrating all the dumb moves of government planners and agents in the planning and execution of this investigation overstates the case. Government bureaus are notoriously reluctant to admit to their own errors. The Treasury Report, however, is replete with such "confessions." The Final Tip We have already seen that the ATF deployed a number of very obvious undercover agents across the street from the Mt. Carmel Center, and that David Koresh had told them that he was watching them with binoculars. One of these agents, Robert Rodriguez, had been taking Bible lessons from Koresh in order to spy on him. On the morning of February 28, the Waco Tribune-Herald had just (coincidentally) published a second inflammatory article on David Koresh in a series entitled the "Sinful Messiah." Rodriguez visited Koresh to assess what effect the negative PR was having, whether the publication Tribune-Herald's publication of Sinful Messiah had incited Koresh and his followers to take up arms or otherwise increase their security measures. The planners were still not sure Koresh had been effectively tipped off. While Rodriguez was taking his Bible lesson from Koresh, David Jones allegedly returned to the Mt. Carmel Center and gave the news of the impending raid to his father, Perry Jones. Jones interrupted the Bible discussion, called David Koresh out of the room on the pretext that he had a phone call, and told him the news. When Koresh came back into the room, he allegedly told Rodriguez "they're coming, Robert, the time has come." We are asked to believe that Rodriguez was "shocked" when he heard the news; he became so agitated, he contemplated jumping out a window in order to get out before the ATF arrived (Treasury Report, pg. 89). Rodriguez suddenly remembered a breakfast appointment, bolted out of his Bible lesson, jumped in his truck, and drove back to the undercover house. When he got to the undercover house, Rodriguez found the window was raised. A camera was in one of the windows, and it was clearly visible from the outside of the house (doubtlessly within the scope of David Koresh's binoculars.) When Rodriguez took fast leave of the Mt. Carmel Center he acted like what he was-- a man in the know, getting out of the way of a massacre--a man who preferred to be elsewhere when it happened. Just in case everything else failed, the Davidians watched a house guest suddenly remember a "breakfast appointment" in the middle of a Bible lesson and make a mad dash to safety. The ATF plan was both murderous and suicidal. The evidence indicates that the "bungling" was intended to forewarn the Davidians of the impending attack, to provoke them into defending themselves, and to provide them with easy targets. The ATF were led to slaughter to provide the excuse for the first test of the National Response Plan. It was not Murphy's law. It was a set-up. It was a domestic Gulf of Tonkin incident. And as we shall see later in Who Struck John?, it included some powerful backup plans to ensure its success. Next: Excerpt 7, Who Struck John? -------------------------------------------------------------- Entire set of text excerpts from the Museum available with anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.public-action.com/wm2-0txt.zip Excerpted by Carol Valentine. Images omitted. Visit the Museum at http://www.holocausts.org/waco. SkyWriter@holocausts.org Copyright 1996-2000 by Carol A. Valentine, on loan to Public Action, Inc. All commercial rights are reserved. Full statement of terms and conditions for copying and redistribution is available in the Museum Library. "Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum," "SkyWriter," and the skywriting logo are trademarks of Public Action Inc.