In April 1994, I got an assignment from The Nose magazine to do a piece on the first anniversary events commemorating the holocaust at Waco.

My friend Richard Mosley had just finished producing a documentary, Day 51: The True Story of Waco. When I told him about my assignment, he suggested I not wait for the anniversary, but come to Waco a week early and meet the surviving Branch Davidians at a private screening of Day 51.

So, one evening, I drove to Waco and the home of Dr. Dewey Millay, a doctor who had taken the Davidians under his wing following the destruction of their home. Several of them were living in house trailers on his property.

Dr. Millay was the first person Richard introduced me to when I drove up. We stood outside his house talking for a while. He told me how he had been under FBI surveillance for the previous year.

"They used to sit in a van down the road," he said, "just watching, 24 hours a day. I haven't seen them there lately, but sometimes I'll see them driving back and forth, or stopping by the gate to look in my mailbox. I used to get upset about it, but now I don't care anymore."

He talked about the public's misconceptions about the Davidians. Several of them had been patients of his, and he had always known them to be good, honest, peaceful people--not the fiendish cultists described by the government and mainstream media.

"They were good parents too," he said. "People are always asking why wouldn't they let their children go. Well, they did let some of the children go--and if people only knew what happened to those children, they wouldn't wonder why the Davidians wouldn't let more go."

He described how the children--already frightened to be away from their parents and in the hands of these government agents who had attacked their home--were herded by the BATF into a large room.

Each child was carrying a small bundle of clothes and one favorite toy. Also, on their shirts were pinned notes written by their mothers describing medical and other needs. The BATF agents would rip these notes from their shirts, wad them up, grab their bundles, and throw everything into one big pile in the center of the room--smashing the toys to pieces while the children watched.

Clive Doyle stepped out of one of the trailers, and I was introduced to him. Doyle had assumed leadership of the Davidians following David Koresh's death. He had lost several family members in the fire, and had himself been badly burned on the arms. He told me that the trauma of the experience had caused him to have gaps in his memory.

In all, there were about a dozen Davidians there that night. They had a lot of stories to tell.

One thing they talked about was their experience with ABC's 20/20. They had all been interviewed by a woman reporter for the program, and had told her many things--how the government agents started the fire, how people were shot by snipers as they ran out the back of the building, and much more.

The reporter was excited by these revelations. It was going to be a great segment, she said. She even called the Davidians the day before the broadcast to tell them to be sure to watch.

They did, only to discover that all their exciting revelations had been edited out of the interviews.

The reporter called them the next day to apologize. She had been as surprised as they, she said. It had been her producer's decision, not hers, to censor the segment.

So, the Davidians had great hopes for Day 51. At last, they were being given the opportunity to speak on camera uncensored.

We gathered in Dr. Millay's living room. I sat on the couch next to Sheila Martin, who had lost her husband and five children in the fire. Extra chairs were brought in, and the screening began.

Day 51 opens with video footage of the tanks tearing up the building, known as Mt. Carmel Center, in the pre-dawn hours of April 19, 1993--systematically ventilating the building in preparation for the inferno to come.

Then the film segues into interviews with the Davidians, as they describe the February 28 raid by the BATF that led to the siege--how the helicopters came that Sunday morning and began strafing the roof with gunfire, killing one elderly couple as they lay in bed.

The most provocative interview in the film is with Wally Kennett, a Davidian who was away during the raid and therefore not involved in the siege. Kennett makes the surprising statement that the BATF was not really looking for an illegal arsenal when they raided Mt. Carmel, but rather, for information stored on a computer.

It was well known among the Davidians that two of their number--Jeff Little and Wayne Martin (Sheila's husband)--had been conducting an "investigation" into illegal government activities, and storing their findings on a computer.

Kennett notes that the room the BATF agents were trying so desperately to enter when three of them were shot was the computer room. The gun shop was in an entirely different part of the building. (For that matter, most of the guns had been taken to Austin that morning to a gun show--a fact which the BATF acknowledges it was aware of when the raid was mounted.)

Both Martin and Little were killed in the final assault on April 19, so it is not known exactly what kind of information they had gathered.

Incidentally, I am interviewed in Day 51. This came about because I had heard an FBI spokesman label Waco "another Jonestown," and, since I knew Waco was not a mass suicide, my suspicions were aroused about Jonestown.

So I did some research and discovered that Rev. Jim Jones had extensive CIA connections, and that Jonestown was a CIA mind control operation. Also, the evidence shows that most of the persons who died at Jonestown did not voluntarily partake of the cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Most were either forcibly injected with cyanide or shot.

So, yes, Waco was "another Jonestown"--though not in the sense the FBI would have us believe.

When I told Richard about this research, he asked me to describe it on camera. That was my contribution to Day 51.

Day 51 ends with a montage of photos of all the Davidians who were killed. Sheila, sitting beside me, dabbed tears from her eyes as the photos of her children appeared on the screen. Others in the room wept.

Later, when the film was over, I stood outside talking to Wally Kennett. He reminisced about David Koresh:

"People say all kinds of things about him that aren't true. They say he was brainwashing us, they say he forced us to sit through hours of lectures to wear us down--but it wasn't like that at all. Everyone was free to leave at any time. But we didn't want to. David would be tired and wanting to go to bed, but we wouldn't let him. We'd beg him to keep talking. It was fascinating, all those things we used to talk about. David inspired us. And he was a lot of fun."

  Wally told an interesting anecdote about Koresh:  "One night after weâd been up late talking, we went outside and David looked up in the sky, and said, 'Look. It's the Merkabah.' We couldn't see it, but I wouldn't be surprised if he could. Or maybe he was just kidding."

The Merkabah figures prominently in Davidian theology. In Ezekial 1 and 10 it is described as the throne-chariot of God. Many have interpreted it as a UFO.

I said goodbye, told everyone I would see them the next week at the first anniversary events, then left. As I pulled out of the driveway, I looked for a van parked by the road. Luckily, I didn't see one. Didn't see the Merkabah either.

The following Saturday I returned to Waco for an all-day event called "The Day of Information." The press and public had been invited to visit the site of the fire and hear the facts about Waco from the Davidians and their supporters.

There were numerous booths set up to disseminate books, videos, and other items. I bought a commemorative gimme cap at the Davidians' booth.

Richard had set up a booth to promote Day 51. As I walked up, his cell phone rang and he answered, "Mt. Carmel Center. David speaking."

  I laughed, glad to see Richardâs sense of humor was still working after a year researching Waco.

  On display in his booth was a scale model of Mt. Carmel he had built. (Richard is a man of many talents.) It had been used in the film to illustrate various events during the siege. This model attracted a lot of attention. Later that day I noticed a young boy, who had lost several family members in the fire, staring solemnly at it for a long time. Not far away was the real Mt. Carmel, or what was left of it. It was a big pile of weed-grown rubble, surrounded by a tall cyclone fence, with two uniformed guards inside.

Jack Boulware, the editor of The Nose, showed up. He had decided to expand the magazine's Waco section and write his own piece in addition to mine. So he and his photographer had driven all the way from San Francisco for the event.

Jack and I walked around the grounds for a while. We explored the small building which had been used by the FBI snipers. The windows had been knocked out and sandbags were piled against the walls. Anti-Davidian obscenities were scrawled on the walls.

As Jack and I were walking back to Richard's booth, we heard a commotion. Everyone was looking and pointing towards the north.

We turned, and saw three large Army helicopters flying low and circling the grounds. In a few minutes, they were gone.

More people were arriving now. Some were carrying signs with anti-gun control and anti-ATF slogans. One read: "The Black Booted, Black Suited, Black Helmeted, Machine-Gun Totin' ATF Gestapo Are Guilty of Killing Children and Holding Women Hostage."

There was a definite Texas theme to some of the signs, like the guy whose sandwich-board sign read "Remember the Alamo, Remember Mt. Carmel."

Another guy was strumming a guitar and singing (to the tune of "Davy Crockett"): "Davy, Davy Koresh, king of the wild compound . . ."

I hung around all day, sometimes listening to the speeches, but mostly talking to people. I met David Thibodeaux, who had been the drummer in Koresh's rock band, and Bonnie Haldeman, Koresh's youthful-looking mother.

At one point, I manned the Day 51 booth to give Richard a break, and while I was there, a man walked up and introduced himself as the minister of another Branch Davidian church in Waco.

I didn't know whether or not to believe him. Later, however, I learned there was indeed such a church, and he was who he said he was.

I have forgotten his name, but not what he told me. He leaned closer, dropped his voice, and said, "You know, don't you, that Koresh was working for the CIA?"

"Really. What was he doing for the CIA?"

"He was manufacturing biological weapons."

A few years later I heard this allegation again. In her Penthouse interview, Linda Thompson, producer of the documentary Waco: The Big Lie, said that there was a war going on between the CIA and FBI, and that the FBI, in alliance with the Mossad (Israel intelligence), had shut down Mt. Carmel, which was a CIA bio-weapons factory.

A similar allegation was made by attorney Paul Wilcher, who conducted a private investigation into Waco.

Wilcher claimed that sarin gas was being manufactured at Mt. Carmel. He described Koresh and his top lieutenants as "sleeper" agents under CIA mind control who had been programmed to stage a sarin gas attack in Oklahoma City (similar to the attack staged a few years later in a Tokyo subway by the Aum Supreme Truth cult). However, according to Wilcher, Koresh and the others woke up from their programming, and refused to carry out the attack--thus necessitating their elimination and the destruction of the factory.

Wilcher made these and other allegations in a long letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, then died under circumstances widely regarded as mysterious.

Whether or not there was a bio-weapons factory at Mt. Carmel is a question that may never be answered. It is, however, known that there was a methamphetamine factory on the premises at one time. According to the Davidians, this was under the leadership of George Roden. Roden left Waco in the 1980s after a power struggle with David Koresh. When Koresh took over, he and his followers destroyed the methamphetamine factory. They also found a large inventory of pornography, which they destroyed as well.

Later, Roden was charged with the murder of his roommate, and found innocent by reason of insanity. He was confined to a mental institution in Big Springs, Texas, but a few years later, escaped and traveled to the Israeli embassy in New York. There, he sought an Israeli visa, claiming he was Jewish and had some kind of connection with the Israeli government. He further claimed that PLO-trained hit men were trying to kill him. Roden was denied a visa. He created a disturbance, which lead to his arrest, and he was returned to the facility in Big Springs, where he later died.

Again and again, Israel is mentioned by Waco researchers. Some even believe the true origin of the Branch Davidians can be traced to Abraham Davidian, a Los Angeles-based Jewish Mob boss with deep connections to Israel. Los Angeles, they point out, was one of Koresh's frequent stops on his many travels. So was Israel.

It was in Israel, in fact, that he first became David Koresh. He arrived as Vernon Howell, but while in the country received a vision in which he was reborn David Koresh. Thus began his career as a religious leader.

The book Why Waco? reports that Koresh continued to receive visions after returning to the U.S., and that the inspiration for his sermons came from the images he saw during these visions.

This has always reminded me of the late science fiction author Philip K. Dick, who towards the end of his life claimed that Gnostic symbols were being beamed into his brain by an extraterrestrial satellite called VALIS--an experience he described in the novel VALIS. Some researchers, however, believe that Dick was the victim of government mind control experiments--an alternative explanation which Dick himself sometimes considered.

Of course, a simpler explanation would be that these were psychotic hallucinations. Or, who knows--maybe it was a real mystical experience. Or maybe there never were any visions. Maybe Dick--and Koresh--were prone to exaggeration.

However, technology does exist which can broadcast sounds and visual images into the human brain by microwave. The Pentagon has spent years--and billions of black budget dollars--developing this and other forms of "non-lethal" weaponry. Also, many researchers believe that the leaders of CIA-type mind control cults are often under mind control themselves. There is evidence, for instance, that Jim Jones was heavily drugged and hypnotized. So, one has to wonder, was Koresh under mind control, and did his visions come, not from the Merkabah, but by microwave?

But, we can only ask questions about these matters. There is no hard evidence that mind control was practiced at Mt. Carmel, or that it was a sarin factory.

The only thing going on at Mt. Carmel suggestive of intelligence work was the investigation Wayne Martin and Jeff Little were conducting.

It was known by the Davidians that Little had some kind of connection to the government. According to them, he was a computer expert who, before coming to Waco, had worked for the Yamaha Corporation on a secret project to modify a law enforcement software to contain a "trap door."

This sounds suspiciously like PROMIS, a law enforcement software developed by the firm INSLAW to help prosecutors track cases. INSLAW has alleged for years that that the Reagan Justice Department stole the software. It is also alleged that PROMIS was modified to contain a "trap door," then sold to various entities worldwide. The trap door would allow the U.S. to monitor all computer transactions made by users of the software. Reportedly, one of the purchasers of PROMIS was the Mossad.

In the article "Fostergate" by Jim Norman (written for Forbes, then killed at the last minute by Forbes board member Caspar Weinberger, only to be published later in Media Bypass), the late White House Special Council Vince Foster was for years a highly placed operative of the National Security Agency. In that capacity, he oversaw an NSA project to install PROMIS--"trap door" and all--in the banking industry.

Later, the story goes, Foster fell victim to his own project. A group of CIA renegades known as the Fifth Column, who had been working to expose government corruption, were using PROMIS to investigate the off-shore accounts of various officials. Foster's Swiss bank account came under their scrutiny.

His account supposedly contained money he had received for his role several years earlier in the October Surprise--the George Bush-Caspar Weinberger deal with the Iranians to delay the release of the hostages in the U.S. Embassy until after the 1980 presidential election so that Carter would lose. Israel is said to have mediated this deal with the Iranians. As payment, secret U.S. nuclear launch codes were transferred to Israel. Foster arranged the transfer--a treasonous act which the Fifth Column was about to make public.

Exposure would have been embarrassing to both the Clinton administration and Israel. Thus, Foster was targeted for death.

And yet, Foster's widow has stated that his death had something to do with the incident at Waco, which had occurred a few months before. In an Associated Press story, she said he felt responsible for Waco and killed himself out of guilt.

It is doubtful that Foster killed himself. Evidence at the crime scene (gun in the wrong hand, a body that had obviously been moved from another location, and so forth) is more consistent with murder. So, Mrs. Foster is probably wrong about that one. But what if there is a half-truth in her statement? What if the part about his death being related to Waco is true?

If so, it would suggest that maybe Martin and Little's investigation involved Foster. Maybe they were Fifth Column operatives.

These are just things I wonder about. I don't have the answers.

I also wonder about a story that circulated in Waco in the months after the fire. It was said that, during a campaign stop in Waco, Bill Clinton went to a barber shop. The barber was a Branch Davidian. No one knows what the barber and Clinton might have talked about, because the only other witnesses to this meeting were three Clinton bodyguards who were later killed in the raid on Mt. Carmel.

In Waco: The Big Lie, these three can be seen on videotape entering the window of the computer room. As soon as they are all inside, the BATF agent left on the roof sprays the wall with gunfire, killing them with "friendly" fire. Perhaps it was a mistake, but it has a deliberate look to it. Again, these are just things I wonder about.

I went back to Waco a few days later for the memorial service on April 19, the first anniversary of the fire.

Whereas the Day of Information had been larger and somewhat circus-like, this was a smaller event, and somber--and, whereas the previous event had occurred on a sunny day, today the skies were overcast, which heightened the somber mood.

Richard was there. He and I watched the memorial service for a while, then wandered away to walk around the fenced-off rubble and talk.

After a while, we heard a bell begin to toll. We knew what this meant. It was now the exact minute when the fire had broken out a year

earlier. Richard wanted to be by himself for this moment, so he walked around behind the burnt-out shell of a bus that had been destroyed by the BATF.

 I stood on the other side of the bus, watching the ceremony from a distance. Here and there I could see American flags hung upside down--the symbol of a nation in distress. The bell kept tolling, its funereal sound spreading out and fading across the green prairie.

I had the sense that I was witnessing not only a memorial service for the Branch Davidians, but for America.

The Branch Davidians were targeted for a variety of reasons. On one level, it was an opportunity for the BATF to stage a big show that would--they hoped--make a good impression when it came congressional funding time. Also, as discussed earlier, there may have been information stored on a computer potentially damaging to some element of the government.

But what happened at Waco seemed to serve a larger purpose. It set a precedent. It conditioned the American people to accept such illegal police intrusions. It sent the message that Posse Comitatus and the Bill of Rights could be set aside if the government so chose.

Many believe that Waco was a test of the American people. Would they stand for such an atrocity? Would they allow their government to attack a church and kill 87 men, women, and children?

The consensus is that the American people failed this test. And so was ushered in a new, dark era in American history.

After a while, Richard rejoined me and we walked back to where all the people were gathered. I noticed it was Bonnie Haldeman who was ringing the bell. On the speaker's stand, Clive Doyle was reading the names of all the persons who had been killed at Waco. Each time he read a name, the bell tolled once. Then a family member of the deceased would pick up a small white cross, carry it up the hill towards the rubble, and hang it on the fence. Sheila Martin carried five crosses.

This went on a long time. The only sounds were the names being read, the bell tolling, people sobbing, and the continuous soft clicking of camera shutters from the crowd of reporters.

Then there was a loud rumbling in the east. I looked up. It was not the Merkabah.

It was an enormous military plane--seeming all the more enormous because it was flying low. As it passed over, it drowned out all other sounds. The memorial service had to be suspended for a few minutes.

I thought about all the memorial services that had been held over the previous year for the four BATF agents who had died in the initial raid on Mt. Carmel. There had been large contingents of government officials at those services, eager to honor the cops who had been killed in the illegal raid on the Branch Davidians' home and church.

But today, at this service, there were only ordinary people. No government officials. Nothing to represent the government at all--except this plane.

"How nice," I said. "It's not the same as sending flowers, but--what the hell, it's something. Right?"

"Yes," he said, "it's the thought that counts."

The plane passed, and the service resumed.

I drove back to Austin, uneasy about the future. Subsequent events have shown my unease to have been justified.

One year later, on the second anniversary of Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing occurred. Like Waco, the evidence is strong (a BATF informant with prior knowledge, explosives wired into the foundation of the building, and on and on) that this atrocity was staged by the government.

After the Oklahoma City bombing, Congress quickly passed Clinton's infamous Anti-Crime and Terrorism Bill.

This has become a familiar pattern. An atrocity is staged, then legislation is passed which further erodes our rights.

Most recently, the September 11 terror attacks (another probable government conspiracy) were followed by passage of the Patriot Act which effectively guts the Bill of Rights.

And now, we are being told by the Bush administration that another terrorist attack, far worse than the attack on the World Trade Center, is inevitable, and that we must be prepared to sacrifice more freedoms to be safe.

All sorts of things are being proposed--legalized police torture, a national I.D. card, an implantable microchip. Do these things make you feel safe? I'll take my chances with anthrax.

The microchip would be used like a bar code to identify individuals, and also to track them--and, who knows, maybe mind control them. It has recently been approved by the FDA, and the California Board of Prisons has begun a trial program to use the microchip to track the movements of parolees.

Do not think it will stop with parolees. The microchip is planned for everyone.

It will be resisted, of course. But this resistance will come mostly from "fringe" groups like the Branch Davidians, who regard the microchip as the Mark of the Beast.

Such "apocalyptic" groups, along with supporters of the Constitution, have been identified as potential terrorists by the FBI's Project Megiddo Report, and the government has already demonstrated how they will be dealt with should they resist.

They staged the demonstration nine years ago in Waco.

HOME