(The NWO is alive and well. And BTW, if Waco didn't happen, Oklahoma City bombing would probably not have happened. Evil follows Evil... on and on. We must stop this by using a different 'force'. --SW ;-) ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Bard" Subject: SNET: U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Steven Barry (ret.), WACO Date sent: Sat, 18 Sep 1999 23:27:51 -0700 Send reply to: snetnews@world.std.com Steven Barry was on Drudge, Fox News Channel, 10PM PacTime 9/18 According to Matt he is the second person to come forward regarding the use of Delta Force. Bard http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/09-27-99/vo15no20_waco.htm Two years ago in these pages ("Quartered Among Us," September 1, 1997), U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Steven Barry (ret.), who at the time was an active duty Special Forces soldier, pointed out that the Waco episode illustrates the danger of "fusing … military and law enforcement operations." SFC Barry noted that the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team is a carbon copy of the Combat Action Group (CAG) of the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command: "HRT uses the same equipment, the training is identical, and HRT uses CAG’s training facilities, instructors, and standard operating procedures." "Trial Balloon" "Waco was not an aberration," concluded SFC Barry. "It was a ‘trial balloon’ sent up by those who perceive a ‘coalition’ of military and law enforcement to be a good thing. It was, therefore, a portent of the future. And the military’s involvement in that unspeakable outrage, along with its subsequent cover-up of its involvement, bodes ill for America’s future." ------- ------------------------------------------------------ COMPLETE ARTICLE: Vol. 15, No. 20 September 27, 1999 Table of Contents More on Waco Waco Deception Up in Smoke by William Norman Grigg Clinton Administration scandals display a common pattern. The initial disclosures of wrongdoing are indignantly denied. Pleas are issued by Administration spokesmen for people to "stay calm" and wait for "all the facts" to come out. A cover-up of the relevant facts is then undertaken. When damaging facts leak, Administration spin-controllers minimize their significance, or — if necessary — preside over a controlled release of further facts over a protracted period of time. When the full truth about criminal misbehavior, or some significant portion thereof, is finally made public, Administration spinners and their media allies insist that the public has grown weary of the matter and that it’s time to "move on." This approach has served the Administration well in its efforts to surmount the Chinagate treason scandal, the Lewinsky affair, and numerous other episodes. Not surprisingly, the FBI has followed a similar approach in managing disclosures about its conduct in the 1993 slaughter of the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, which is the subject of a federal wrongful death lawsuit by survivors and families of the victims. An order from U.S. District Judge Walter Smith requiring federal authorities to turn over all relevant evidence left from the April 19, 1993 siege turned up a shell casing from an M-651 CS canister, a 40 mm incendiary grenade "that releases tear gas with a burning explosive capable of sparking fires," observed the Dallas Morning News. Spin Strategy Confronted with inescapable facts, the Justice Department followed standard Clinton Administration procedure. First came the admissions of proven facts that had long been denied. In late August, Danny Coulson, a founder of the FBI’s "Hostage Rescue Team" (which was involved in both the Davidian massacre and the murder of Randy Weaver’s wife and son at Ruby Ridge) told the Dallas Morning News that pyrotechnic grenades had been used by the FBI during the final assault on the Mount Carmel church. After stalling for a news cycle by issuing further half-hearted denials, the FBI, in the words of the August 26th New York Times, "backed away from six years of unqualified denials to Congress and to the public" and admitted that the canisters — which were "‘pyrotechnic’ only in a limited sense," the Bureau hastened to specify — had indeed been used at Waco. (The "limited sense" qualification, which savors of Bill Clinton’s equivocation over the meaning of the word "is," offers another example of sophisticated dishonesty.) The coinage of new euphemisms is a major Clinton Administration industry, and FBI spokesmen enriched the vocabulary of double-speak by allowing that they would have to "recant or modify" the previous unqualified denials that FBI personnel had fired upon the Branch Davidians on that tragic April morning. This provided a segueway into the next step of the Administration’s familiar spin strategy — playing for time to devise a new cover story: "We’ ve seen the reports, and we’re trying to get to the bottom of them," stated Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin. Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh, clinging to the story that they have been the helpless victims of unreliable information, promised a new, comprehensive investigation of the matter — which is to say that they began the search for a subordinate who would be a credible scapegoat. Unfortunately for the FBI and the Justice Department, the chosen spin for the "discovery" of the pyrotechnic shell casings undermines their case. The Bureau’s official line is that a Bradley Fighting Vehicle carried an FBI agent to within 40 yards of the Mount Carmel church about six hours before the catastrophic fire. The tear gas grenades, according to the FBI’s account, bounced harmlessly off a concrete structure without causing any lasting damage. Furthermore, as the Times pointed out, the FBI has "no new information to challenge the finding that the Davidians themselves started the fire." In other words, the detailed account explaining the presence of the expended grenades was not new information. The FBI has knowingly, systematically, lied to Congress and the public about this matter, and the new "investigation" is an exercise in misdirection and delay. Controlled Release? Why did the FBI and Justice Department offer a damaging admission that undermines their new cover story? One possibility is that the admission was part of the third step in the Clintonite spin control process — the effort to minimize the significance of the long-denied but now inescapable facts. By admitting that two grenades were fired at the church several hours before the fires began, the Administration offered a tardy admission which actually allows them to cling to the official story that the Davidians were responsible for the catastrophic fire. It is important to understand that the FBI’s chief concern is not to offer a candid disclosure of the relevant facts; as the Times observed, the FBI and Justice Department are "far more worried that the recantation will fuel the suspicions of people who have long doubted the Federal Government’s motives and actions in the incident." As one anonymous official told the Times, "we’ re fighting the conspiracy theorists." The Times editorial board, while offering perfunctory criticism of the FBI and Justice Department for looking "at best sloppy and at worst untruthful," endorsed the Clinton junta’s priorities in an August 27th house editorial by archly stating that the new disclosures gladden "the hearts of conspiracy theorists everywhere." This is to say that the real scandal here is not the needless immolation of over 80 people, or the government’s persistent, culpable dishonesty regarding that tragedy, but rather the fact that the evidence is vindicating critics of the government’s actions. Any residual doubts that the FBI had engaged in a cover-up dissipated with the September 2nd "discovery" of a recorded conversation in which Richard Rogers, the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) during the final siege, authorized HRT supervisor Steven McGavin to use the pyrotechnic grenades. As the Los Angeles Times reported, Rogers "later sat behind William S. Sessions, then Director of the FBI, as he testified before Congress that no flammable munitions had been used" against the Davidians. Janet Reno ordered U.S. Marshals to seize the new evidence from the FBI, purportedly for use in the new inquiry — but as Reno’s handling of the "Chinagate" inquiry demonstrates, her priority will be to bury the truth, not expose it. Delta’s Role On August 27th, the Dallas Morning News reported that former CIA officer Gene Cullen had been informed that three or four Army Special Forces troops had been "present, up front and close" during the final assault on the Branch Davidian church. "When they explained to me the depth to which they were involved down in Waco, I was quite surprised," remarked Cullen. "They said basically they were out there in the … Bradley [fighting vehicles], the CEV [tanks].... They were active." Absent a presidential waiver, such participation would constitute a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the military to participate directly in domestic law enforcement operations. On the following day, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that "Army anti-terrorism specialists, including the commander of the top-secret Delta Force, attended the 1993 meeting at which Attorney General Janet Reno approved the use of tear gas against members of the Branch Davidian group near Waco, Texas." On the same day, the WorldNetDaily Internet news service published a transcript of contemporaneous, non-verbatim notes describing that meeting, which occurred on April 14, 1993. Among those present at the meeting were Major General Pete Schoomaker, who at the time was assistant division commander of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas; Colonel John Boykin of Delta Force; Dick Rogers, commander of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team; HRT co-founder Danny Coulson; Attorney General Reno; then-Assistant Attorney General Webster Hubbell; and two unnamed individuals who refused to identify themselves and are believed to have been White House personnel reporting directly to Bill Clinton. A "Special Forces source" who possesses an "unredacted" copy of the notes from that meeting provided WorldNetDaily with critical facts that had been excised from the "redacted" version; according to the source, the document was signed by Colonel (now General) Boykin. According to the notes, "It was obvious that Attorney General Reno had already been briefed on the concept of the operation" — that is, to insert CS gas into the building for "up to 48 hours" and then "to use an armored platform with a blade to start removing the front of the building." When asked by Reno to offer an assessment of the plan, the Delta Force officials replied, "This was not a military operation and could not be assessed as such. We explained that the situation was not one that we had ever encountered and that the Rules of Engagement for the FBI were substantially different than for a military operation." "We can’t grade your paper," stated one military official by way of summary. If this were to be handled as a military operation, continued the officers, it would be important to remember that "the principles of surprise, speed and violence of action were essential to any operation" and that "momentum should be maintained and that ground gained should not be relinquished." Reno asked the FBI officials present why the standoff should be ended quickly. The FBI’s reply focused upon three points. First, "There is no reason to believe that Koresh has any intention of coming out voluntarily." Second, "There are indicators that children are suffering abuse" — true enough, once it is understood that they were being held hostage by armed federal troops and subjected to a psychological torture campaign designed with the aid of Soviet psy-war specialist Igor Smirnov of Moscow’s Institute for Psycho-Correction. Third, the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team was losing its edge as the standoff wore on. The military officer who compiled the notes emphasized, "I made it clear that I was not encouraging an immediate execution of the operation. My exact words were, ‘I don’t have a dog in that fight.’" He also suggested that the FBI "should consider pulling their people off the target for a short while" to "retrain and polish" some of their skills. And he emphasized that "the plan which was executed at Waco was an FBI plan which neither [redacted] nor I helped prepare." The Special Forces source who consulted with WorldNetDaily commented that the notes clearly indicated that their author "didn’t want to be directly involved in [the operation], and did not want to be dragged into it. Delta Force operators … continually cautioned the FBI against attempting an ‘Open Air Assault’ on the target, and continually stated they did not want to be involved in firing on or [an] assault [upon] American civilians. These official and unofficial comments went ignored and, in fact, one Special Operations officer was threatened with court- martial if he continued to protest." This perspective, coming from a veteran of the Special Forces, underscores a critical point: The release of the redacted notes may have been intended to make the military the scapegoat for the FBI’s debacle. This is not to say that the military was blameless in this matter or immune to political considerations. Both Boykin and Schoomaker have been promoted. (In fact, as the commanding general of the U.S. Special Operations Command Gen. Schoomaker has enthusiastically embraced the concept of "build[ing] training links" between U.S. Special Forces and comparable units of the Red Chinese People’s Liberation Army; see "Green Berets Going Red?" in our September 28, 1998 issue.) In addition, if the account offered by ex-CIA officer Gene Cullen is accurate, then Delta Force was directly involved in the final siege, despite the fact that the unit didn’t have "a dog in that fight." More to Come Publication of the notes of the April 14, 1993 meeting precipitated a crisis at the Army’s Fort Bragg Special Forces headquarters. "Special Forces command has sent the orders down the ranks that nobody is to talk to the press," a Special Forces source who has provided detailed legal depositions regarding the Waco tragedy told The New American. "There’s nothing they can do about the facts that have already been publicized, of course, but they are trying to forestall the disclosure of even more damaging information. There are other shoes yet to drop, and I don’t think that they’re going to be able to catch them all." As the controlled implosion of yet another Clinton scandal produces new revelations, it is important not to lose sight of the most damning evidence: forward-looking infrared (FLIR) footage suggesting that FBI personnel gunned down Davidians who sought to flee from their burning home. SAC Rogers’ go-ahead order to use pyrotechnic grenades was recorded on an aerial infrared videotape — presumably the same recording on which the incriminating FLIR footage is found. That order was issued at 7:49 a.m., several hours before the fire was ignited and the tell-tale heat signatures of automatic weapons fire directed at the compound were recorded. Mike McNulty, producer of the forthcoming documentary Waco: A New Revelation, asserts that Delta Force commandos were "deployed and pulling triggers" during the final siege at Mt. Carmel. Two years ago in these pages ("Quartered Among Us," September 1, 1997), U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Steven Barry (ret.), who at the time was an active duty Special Forces soldier, pointed out that the Waco episode illustrates the danger of "fusing … military and law enforcement operations." SFC Barry noted that the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team is a carbon copy of the Combat Action Group (CAG) of the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command: "HRT uses the same equipment, the training is identical, and HRT uses CAG’s training facilities, instructors, and standard operating procedures." "Trial Balloon" "Waco was not an aberration," concluded SFC Barry. "It was a ‘trial balloon’ sent up by those who perceive a ‘coalition’ of military and law enforcement to be a good thing. It was, therefore, a portent of the future. And the military’s involvement in that unspeakable outrage, along with its subsequent cover-up of its involvement, bodes ill for America’s future." As this is written, it appears that the Clintonite spin control ministry, displaying the institutional "loathing" for the military for which the Administration is properly notorious, appears to be angling to make the military the scapegoat for the Waco massacre. While military officials involved in the episode have much to answer for, it must be remembered that Bill Clinton himself must have issued a presidential waiver authorizing Delta Force involvement. Filmmaker Mike McNulty, producer of the award- winning documentary Waco: Rules of Engagement and its forthcoming sequel Waco: A New Revelation, told Internet newshound Matt Drudge that the "chain of command" in the Waco tragedy eventually leads to the late White House Counsel Vince Foster. Might the incriminating presidential waiver have been among the documents removed from Foster’s office by Clinton operatives following his "suicide"? © Copyright 1999 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/09-27-99/vo15no20_waco.htm Bard