-
- An elite U.S. Army military unit was responsible for
the massacre of 76 Branch Davidians after a 51-day siege by federal officers
of their compound at Waco, Tex., in 1993.
-
- Orders were given to the top secret Combat Applications
Group of Fort Bragg, N.C. (known as the Delta Force), by President William
Jefferson Clinton because the seemingly endless stand-off between the FBI
and members of the religious sect had become an embarrassment to his administration,
according to a former Army Special Forces member.
-
- Also involved in the final days of decision-making that
brought "closure" to the siege was first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton, currently the U.S. media poster girl as a result of her venture
into Senate politics in New York.
-
- Reports have been received by The SPOTLIGHT that Gene
Cullen, a former CIA agent, has asked a Senate committee for "protection"
in return for his testimony regarding Delta Force activity at Waco. Cullen
is requesting "protection," according to reports, because he
has been threatened with prosecution for violating national security if
he talks.
-
- WHITE HOUSE BRIEFED
-
- The recent release of documents through the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) reveals that Army officials, and in particular those
from Delta Force, met with White House and Justice Department officials,
including Attorney General Janet Re-no and her then second-in-command and
former Hillary Clinton law partner, Webster Hubbell, to discuss a resolution
to the Waco standoff.
-
- However, information obtained by The SPOTLIGHT reveals
that Delta Force played far more than an advisory role in ending the siege.
In fact Delta Force had a direct, operational role in the attack on the
Branch Davidian compound that resulted in the holocaust that took the lives
of 76 residents of the religious community, including dozens of women and
children.
-
- Steve Barry, a retired long-time member of Army Special
Forces and a top expert in the field of military special operations, said
a team of about 10 members of Delta Force was involved in the Waco massacre.
-
- Barry's military career included training with Delta
Force.
-
- On April 19, according to Barry, "two bricks,"
or four-man teams, were involved in the actual attack.
-
- In recently released FBI infrared video tapes of the
crucial minutes of the April 19 assault on the compound, fully-automatic
gunfire is seen being directed into an area of the structure, which Branch
Davidians were attempting to use to escape from flames, fanned by high
winds, consuming the wooden buildings. <snip Barry told The SPOTLIGHT
that there was a team of "as many as 10" Delta Force troopers
assigned to Waco, including, as he describes them, "a commander, a
sergeant major, two to three communications guys, two to three intel [intelligence]
guys, a medic and two to three operations guys."
-
- He said assigned to them, supposedly in an advisory capacity,
were members of the British SAS (Special Air Service), an elite British
special operations force.
-
- The Delta Force, Barry explained, shared a Tactical Operations
Center (TOC) at Waco with an FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) force. Since
the 1993 tragedy, the American people have been led to believe that the
HRT force alone conducted the assault on the compound.
-
- Barry said the Delta Force receives its orders from what
is known as the National Command Authority, which then included Clinton,
Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Colin Powell.
-
- The ultimate decision to send Delta Force into action
rests with the president, Barry said. It can be no other way, he added.
-
- FAMILIAR FACE
-
- Adding to the controversy, it has been confirmed that
Lon Horiuchi was in charge of a sniper post where Texas Rangers recovered
spent .223 and .308 shell casings.
-
- Horiuchi was the FBI sniper who fatally shot the wife
of Randy Weaver, while wounding both Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris, during
the federal standoff at Ruby Ridge in Idaho.
-
- The recovered shell casings would be consistent with
government-issued sniper rifles. Horiuchi has denied that he or any members
of his "team" fired any shots at Waco.
-
- The retired special operations expert said that during
the siege at Waco, first lady Hillary Clinton operated a "crisis center"
at the White House, put together on her own initiative. Serving with her
was another former member ofher Little Rock law firm, White House Deputy
Counsel Vincent M. Foster Jr.
-
- Foster was later found dead under mysterious circumstances
in a Virginia park across the river from D.C.
-
- According to Barry, it was from this "crisis center"
that word went out that there was "child abuse" by adult members
of the sect, including leader David Koresh, at the Waco religious facility.
-
- This revelation about the part Foster played in the Waco
tragedy has been confirmed by Mike McNulty, a producer of a documentary
film on the siege. McNulty said he was told by Foster's widow, Lisa, that
the White House attorney's depression at the time of his death "was
fueled by horror at the carnage at Waco for which the White House had given
the ultimate green light."
-
- McNulty also said that Foster was preparing a Waco report
when he died. This has been confirmed by veteran British journalist, Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard, in his book, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton.
-
- Pritchard wrote:
-
- The Branch Davidian siege was clearly on Foster's mind.
He was "drafting a letter involving Waco" on the day of his death,
surely a point of some significance. He kept a Waco file in the locked
cabinet that was off limits to everybody, including his secretary. His
widow mentions Waco twice in her statement to the FBI. Toward the end of
his life, Foster had no sense of joy or elation at work. The Branch Davidian
incident near Waco, Tex., was also causing him a great deal of stress.
Lisa Foster believes that he was horrified when the Branch Davidian complex
burned. Foster believed that everything was his fault.*
-
- BREAKING THE LAW
-
- When asked about how the Delta Force action jibes with
the Posse Comitatus Act, which outlaws the use of Army forces to enforce
civilian law, Barry said: "That's just it. It doesn't jibe with Posse
Comitatus."
-
- A violation of Posse Comitatus is indeed "a high
crime or misdemea-nor," which would be an impeachable felony offense.
-
- And if Clinton's reasons for ordering the Delta Force
attack at Waco are murky, the reasons for directing a cover-up are obviously
not.
-
- Posse Comitatus clearly states that "Whoever . .
. willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a Posse Comitatus
or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined not more than $10,000 or
imprisoned not more than two years." (18 U.S. Code, Section 1385)
-
- *The Secret Life of Bill Clinton is available from Liberty
Library for $27 (Hardback, 416 pages). Send payment to Liberty Library,
300 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, D.C.
-
- _______________
-
- Military reluctant in Davidian siege
-
- http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap19991030_887.html
WIRE:10/30/1999 16:53:00 ET Report: Military reluctant in Davidian siege
-
-
- WACO, Texas (AP) - U.S. military leaders were reluctant
to assist in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian headquarters near Waco
and questioned the legality of their role, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported
Saturday.
-
- Federal law prohibits the military from becoming actively
involved in domestic law enforcement matters unless directed to do so by
the president.
-
- Citing federal documents obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act, the newspaper reported that at one point, a top Army officer
questioned the legality of military support for the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms.
-
- The military previously has acknowledged that it provided
assistance to federal law officers. In August, the General Accounting Office,
an investigatory arm of Congress, reported that military personnel were
called to the scene after the ATF "cited possible drug-related activity"
at the Davidian compound.
-
- A senior Pentagon official then said no consideration
was given to requesting a presidential waiver of the law that prohibits
military involvement in domestic law enforcement because it wasn't deemed
necessary or applicable.
-
- According to the Tribune-Herald, the military role began
before Feb. 28, 1993, the day ATF agents tried to serve members of the
Davidians with search and arrest warrants. A gunfight ensued; four agents
and six Davidians died.
-
- The ATF had contacted Operation Alliance, an agency that
coordinates law-enforcement requests for military help in fighting drugs,
the newspaper said.
-
- In a Jan. 22, 1993 letter to Operation Alliance, ATF
officials requested training by special-forces troops, instruction in driving
Bradley Fighting Vehicles and the loan of seven Bradleys.
-
- Operation Alliance forwarded ATF's request to Fort Bliss
and Joint Task Force-6, the military's headquarters for domestic anti-drug
efforts. Officials there were told that assistance was "in direct
support of interdiction activities along the Southwest border," the
newspaper said.
-
- But Maj. Mark Petree, commander of the Army's special
forces, questioned the legality of the request. Maj. Phillip Lindley, his
legal adviser, wrote in a Feb. 3, 1993 memo that the ATF request would
make the military an active, illegal partner in a domestic police action.
-
- After Joint Task Force-6 accused Lindley of trying to
undermine the mission, he consulted his boss, Lt. Col. Douglas Andrews,
the deputy staff judge advocate, the newspaper reported.
-
- Andrews told Lindley that the military could probably
evaluate the ATF plan, but could not intervene to cancel it or revise it
for the agency, the paper reported.
-
- There have been allegations that members of the Army's
Delta Force squad engaged in a shootout with the Davidians on the day of
the April 19, 1993 fire in which sect leader David Koresh and about 80
followers died.
-
- However, military officials insist three Delta Force
members were present that day as observers only.
-
- Delta Force officers did meet with Attorney General Janet
Reno to discuss proposals to flush the Davidians from the compound.
-
- The newspaper cites a document in which an unidentified
Delta Force officer reported that Reno was only offered limited advice
_ including the military's belief that inserting tear gas into the residence
might cause mothers to panic and "run off and leave infants."
<snip
-
- No Army official familiar with the situation was available
for comment Saturday, said Gerry Gilmore, a Pentagon Army spokesman.
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