Text Excerpt 12: Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum What We Are Supposed To Believe The Department of Justice Report, the Autopsy Reports of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office, at least one Branch Davidian survivor, and many Waco commentators say that the Davidian women and children went to the concrete room to escape the CS gas on April 19, and died there "when the bunker collapsed." The narratives of those deaths contain one or more of the following elements: - The victims were alive on April 19; - Sometime in the morning of April 19, the women and children sought refuge from the CS gas and/or the tanks in the concrete room; - The mothers had gas masks, the children did not have gas masks; - The mothers brought buckets of water into the concrete room and pieces of cloth. In order to protect the children from the CS gas, they soaked the cloths in the water and put them over the faces of the children; - Wet towels, blankets, and sleeping bags were used by the mothers and the children as a shield from the CS gas; - The structure collapsed; - As a result of the structural collapse, many died of blunt force trauma or were "buried alive" or suffocated; - Others died of smoke inhalation; - Others died of gunshot wounds; - The gunshot wounds were inflicted on children by mothers who committed mercy killings, and then committed suicide in order to prevent a horrible death by burning alive; - The ammunition caught fire in the concrete room, incinerating the bodies. The above scenario is a composite drawn from the following sources: Dr. Nizam Peerwani and Dr. Rodney Crow of the Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office, the Department of Justice Report, the Autopsy Reports, and the account of Branch Davidian David Thibodeau. Veracity of Branch Davidian Statements As we review the evidence and compare it to government and Branch Davidian accounts of events surrounding the deaths of the mothers and children, the following should be considered: The Treasury Report, "Activity In The Compound," (pg. 92), notes that government agents (apostate Branch Davidians) were inside Mt. Carmel at the time of the raid, posing as devout Branch Davidians. In addition, the London Sunday Times of March 21, 1993 indicated state-of-the-art (military) surveillance equipment was installed into the walls and phones of the Mt. Carmel Center. It is likely that this equipment was installed by (military) intelligence undercover agents posing as Branch Davidian residents. These government agents have never been identified. It is possible that they are still posing as Branch Davidians and working as undercover agents for the government. And in weighing the veracity of the statements of the surviving "real" Branch Davidians, there is no escaping the fact of the duress they have already undergone; 80 of their friends, wives, husbands, parents, brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren were vilified, tortured, killed, and imprisoned. According to Texas Ranger Alan Byrnes, who headed the Ranger operation during the Waco Holocaust, the Branch Davidians who left during the siege were "interviewed" (without attorneys) by FBI/HRT commandos (Transcript, pgs. 636, 637). HRT commandos are trained by military commandos and imbued with the "Butcher and Bolt" philosophy of commandos (see The Black Army in the War Gallery for discussion.) Victory is the objective in war, intimidation one of the gentler tools. Some Davidians are serving long prison terms, the length of which could depend upon the pleasure of their captors. Under such circumstances, few people of ordinary mettle would risk more duress with brave or foolish statements. Who could blame them, even if they testified against their fellows, or parroted the words they were told to speak? In short, the Branch Davidians must be regarded as people still under duress; the veracity of their statements must be evaluated against the entirety of the evidence. With these cautions in mind, let's look at two Branch Davidian statements concerning the mothers and children and events of April 19. Branch Davidian David Thibodeau's Account David Thibodeau is one of the nine people whom the Department of Justice identifies as having survived the inferno at the Mt. Carmel Center on April 19, 1993. In a recorded interview in July, 1995, Waco Remembrance co-ordinator Carol A. Valentine talked with David Thibodeau concerning the fate of the mothers and children whose bodies were found in the concrete room. David first said that he had seen no women and children on April 19; when asked who told them to go into the concrete room, David said he did not know. He did, however, say that the mothers took the children there to protect them from the gas attack. David said that the mothers had gas masks, and that the children had no gas masks. To protect their children from the gas, David said that the mothers had buckets of water and cloths and with them; the mothers dunked the cloths into the buckets of water, and covered the children's faces with cloths. When asked how he knew what was going on in the concrete room/pantry during that morning, David replied that one of the mothers came out and told him, and that he did not remember which mother. The Texas Ranger in charge of the crime scene and excavating the concrete room, Sgt. Raymond Coffman, did not report finding any buckets when he testified at the 1994 San Antonio trial of the Branch Davidians. The Autopsy Reports do not indicate any buckets were found in the concrete room near the bodies, and do not mention any traces of gas masks on or near the bodies. Branch Davidian Clive Doyle's Account Clive Doyle is one of the nine people whom the Department of Justice identifies as having survived the inferno at the Mt. Carmel Center on April 19, 1993. In July, 1995, Waco Remembrance co-ordinator Carol A. Valentine interviewed Clive Doyle concerning the fate of the mothers and children. Clive said that he had not seen the mothers and children on April 19, and in fact did not know their whereabouts. He said that he did see Cyrus Koresh, 8, on April 18; Clive had been sick that day, Cyrus had visited him in his room, and Clive had given Cyrus a kaleidoscope. Now let's look at the evidence. Next: Excerpt 13, The Collapsed Bunker That Wasn't a Bunker Didn't Collapse --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.