25 years ago today, the U.S. government used chemical weapons on American civilians, which resulted in the death of nearly 80 men, women, and children.
The post By US Standards, America Should’ve Been Bombed for What Happened in Texas, 25 Years Ago Today appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,
“Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience… Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem… people are obedient, all these herdlike people.” — Howard Zinn
If truth be known, Americans are no more free than were Germans under Gestapo Germany. “Freedom and Democracy America” is the greatest lie in the world.
Countries sink into tyranny easily. Those born today don’t know the freedom of the past and are unaware of what has been taken away. Some American blacks might think that finally after a long civil rights struggle they have gained freedom. But the civil rights that they gained have been taken away from all of us by the “war on terror.” Today black Americans are gratuitously shot down in the streets by police in ways that are worse than in Jim Crow days.
American women might think that finally they have gained equality, and they have—the equality to be abused by police just like men. As John Whitehead reports, women are forced by police to strip naked, often in public, and have their viginas explored as part of a “drug search.” When I was a young man, society would not have tolerated any such intrusion on a woman. The officer and police chief would have been fired and if not prosecuted for rape, would have been beat into bloody pulps by the enraged men.
Tryanny was brought to Americans intentionally by their government. Perhaps it began in 1992 with the unaccountable use of police power against an American family at Ruby Ridge. Randy Weaver’s 12 or 13 year old son was shot in the back and murdered by federal marshalls. Then his wife was murdered with a shot through her throat while she stood at the door of her home holding a baby in her arms. There was no justification for this gratuitous violence against a peaceful American family, and the federal marshalls who murdered were not held accountable. The Congress, “the people’s representatives” held a hearing, and those responsible for murdering a family told the representatives that they had “to trust the police”.
A year later, 1993, the Clinton regime murdered, using poison gas as well as gun fire, more than 100 members of the Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, Texas.
Women and children comprised most of the victims of “freedom and democracy America.” The Branch Davidians had done nothing except be different. They were a threat to no one. But the Clinton criminal government knew that it could portray the Branch Davidians, as they were different, in unfavorable lights. They were said to be in possession of, and perhaps manufacturing, illegal machine guns. They were said to be having sex with underage girls in their collective.
When the Branch Davidian compound was attacked by a tank spewing chemical warfare and then burnt to the ground, insouciant Americans were told that justice had been done to child abusers. No one objected that the same “justice” had also been done to the allegedly abused children.
Again the “representatives of the people” held a hearing. The result was that the Clinton criminal regime and Janet Reno got approval for dealing effectively with those who violate gun laws.
Ruby Ridge and Waco established the precedents that the US government could murder large numbers of Americans, and at Waco some foreigners, without consequence. The “representatives of the people” accepted the executive branch’s lies in order to avoid having to hold the executive branch accountable for what were clearly without any doubt capital crimes against American citizens for which the federal perpetrators of these crimes should have been tried and executed.
These two instances established the precedent that the US government could murder US citizens at will.
The next step was to take away the constitutional and legal protections of citizens that are in the Bill of Rights, the amendments to the US Constitution, and are, or were, institutionalized in legal practices.
The false flag attack of September 11, 2001, was the instrument for deep-sixing the bill of rights. The George W. Bush regime made us “safe” by taking away our civil liberties. Habeas corpus, the foundation of liberty, was destroyed by the executive branch’s assertion that the President on his sole authority, the US Constitution notwithstanding, can detain US citizens indefinitely without evidence, without going before a court, without any accountability to law whatsoever.
The Obama regime not only endorsed this murder of the US Constitution, “American’s First Black President” even went further. Obama declared that he had the power to sit in his office and write down names of US citizens whom he could murder at his will without acountability.
Congress did not object. The Supreme Court did not object. The American media did not object. The law schools and bar associations did not object. The Republican Party did not object. The Democratic Party did not object. The American people did not object. Washington’s allies in Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada did not object. The Christian churches did not object.
I objected, and a few others like me, such as John Whitehead.
9/11 clearly, without any doubt, destroyed American liberty. Even if you are so brainwashed as to believe an obviously false story of the event, even if you believe that a few Saudi Arabians without government or intelligence service support outwitted all 16 US intelligence agencies, the National Security Council, all intelligence agencies of Washington’s vassals abroad, outwitted Israel’s Mossad, US Air Traffic Control, caused US Airport Security to fail four times in one hour on the same day, and prevented for the first time in history the US Air Force from sending fighters to intercept off course airliners, the fact remains the same: the US government used 9/11 to destroy the constitutional protections of US liberty.
The raw, ugly, but true fact that “our” government has destroyed American liberty is the reason that everyone of us is subject to experiencing the abuses that John Whitehead describes below.
Who will be next? You? Me? Your Wife? Your Son? Your daughter? Your aged and infirm parents?
When it happens, it was the American people who permitted it.
Americans are up in arms over the alleged gas attack in Syria. Although there was no investigation, and many high-profile individuals have called it a sham, the US has pinned the blame on Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. So, we thought it would be a good idea to remind our fellow Americans of an occasion where the federal government got away with gassing its own people, an action which, consequently, led to the deaths of 86 men, women, and children.
Our source material comes from the FBI’s own vault, which contains two files on the case against Vernon Howell, also known as David Koresh. Koresh was the leader of the “Branch Davidians Seventh Day Adventists.” According to the FBI case file, Koresh was believed to have been holding people against their will at his compound in Waco, Texas, potentially guilty of “involuntary servitude and slavery” charges.
In 1992, Child Protective Services (CPS) was called in to investigate the accusations. After a thorough investigation, CPS concluded no one was being held at the compound against their will, nor any child abuse, and the federal prosecutor, who reviewed the report, saw no reason to prosecute Koresh. On October 16th, 1992, the FBI closed the case against Koresh and the allegations he was abusing children and holding his followers against their will.
Still, however, the FBI proceeded with investigating other allegations the Branch Davidians had converted semi-automatic AR-15 (assault) rifles into fully automatic ones, a violation of federal law. Also alleged was that the group was planning a mass suicide. The FBI concluded, “no information has been developed to verify the accuracy of the allegations.” Still, the FBI put local law enforcement on notice.
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Despite having no concrete evidence Koresh, who some have said was delusional, had violated anyone’s civil rights, or abused any children, the investigation into the weapons violations continued. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives pursued the allegations the group was stockpiling weapons and explosives. According to the ATF, the bureau found:
136 FIREARMS, INCLUDING ASSAULT RIFLES AND HANDGUNS
700+ MAGAZINES FOR THOSE FIREARMS
200,000+ ROUNDS OF VARIOUS AMMUNITION
110 UPPER AND LOWER RECEIVERS FOR AR15/M16 RIFLES
GRENADE-LAUNCHER ATTACHMENTS FOR AR15/M16 RIFLES
400+ EMPTY M31 RIFLE GRENADES, ALONG WITH BLACK POWDER AND OTHER
EXPLOSIVE CHEMICALS
Wishing to further investigate the compound’s armory, the ATF secured a search warrant and attempted to raid the compound on February 28th, 1993. The Davidians, possibly feeling they must protect their home, property, and persons from the intruders, opened fire on the federal agents, an action which led to the deaths of several ATF agents and compound members.
FOUR ATF AGENTS (SA TODD MCKEEHAN, SA CONWAY LEBLEU, SA ROBERT WILLIAMS AND SA STEVEN WILLIS) WERE KILLED; 20 ATF AGENTS WOUNDED FROM GUNSHOTS OR SHRAPNEL AND 8 SUFFERED OTHER INJURIES. SIX DAVIDIANS WERE ALSO REPORTEDLY KILLED AND FOUR WOUNDED FROM GUNSHOTS, ALTHOUGH THIS COULD NOT BE FORENSICALLY PROVEN BECAUSE OF THE LATER DESTRUCTION (BY FIRE) OF THE COMPOUND.
The raid initiated a 51-day standoff with the ATF as well as the FBI. Koresh released 24 members from the compound, who were mostly children, and continued the stand-off with authorities which was broadcast daily across the country until day 51 arrived. On that day, the government brought in heavy equipment and penetrated the compound with a tank-like machine which pumped the compound full of CS Gas. What happened next, in the minds of many who saw it, can only be likened to a horror film.
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The compound became ablaze with a roaring fire. The all-consuming inferno killed 76 people who were huddled inside. Later, it was determined many of those who’d perished were also shot by firearms. Researchers, who later investigated the incident, concluded federal agents were observed shooting from the compound’s grounds into the building already set ablaze by fire. While the official government narrative is those individuals committed suicide, the researchers were able to demonstrate they were likely killed by automatic weapons fired by federal agents, possibly killed as they were attempting to flee their burning compound.
To this day, the ATF maintains the fire was, “set by cult members, as law enforcement attempted to force them out by introducing tear gas into the building.” And for years, following the fiery destruction of the compound, the FBI maintained the same story line. That was until 1999, when then-Attorney General Janet Reno made the following admission, “I am very, very troubled by the information I received this week suggesting that pyrotechnic devices may have been used in the early morning hours on April the 19th, 1993, at Waco. At this time, all available indications are that the devices were not directed at the main wooden compound, were discharged several hours before the fire started, and were not the cause of the fire. Nonetheless, it is absolutely critical that we do everything humanly possible to learn all the facts as accurately as possible and make them available to the public and Congress.”
Those facts, according to some of the survivors of the fire, who were inside at the time the fire broke out, are undeniable. They are convinced the government used incendiary devices to set ablaze the tear gas which had been pumped into the building. And they’re not alone. According to CBS News, “Independent filmmaker Michael McNulty came upon some evidence that appeared damaging to the government. He found a shell casing from a certain type of tear gas round that could start a fire – a device the Justice Department had denied using for more than six years – publicly and to Congress.” That shell casing led to Reno’s acknowledgment, but the government still has not taken full responsibility, as Reno denied the devices were used to penetrate the building. Questions still remain as to why they would be used at all.
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Even though it was later determined Koresh had, indeed, molested children, and was by all intents and purposes a pedophile of the worst kind, the fact remains. The government used gas on its own people which either directly or indirectly led to the deaths of 76 people. There was no international outcry. Foreign governments did not threaten to retaliate against the ATF and the FBI. Russia did not feel compelled to launch guided missiles into the Waco, TX airport. And neither should the United States.
The U.S. has no business in the affairs of Syrians. And just like in Waco, it may take years to know precisely who was responsible for gassing and killing 83 Syrians in the Idlib Province. But go ahead and believe the official government narrative if you’d like. Here at TFTP, we prefer to deal with the facts.
