What Happened?

The local office of the BATF received a report of automatic weapons fire at the residence of Branch Davidians outside of Waco, Texas.  No inquiry was made with the local law enforcement agencies.  Nor did they as allowed under the current regulations send agents out to inspect the federally licenced firearms dealer residing on the site.  And they could have arrested Koresh as he made his morning run but did not do so.   With his past history of cooperation with local law enforcement they could have simply asked him to come down to the local sheriff’s station.  Instead they attempted to stage a military-style assault, code named Operation Showtime, in order to impart a positive impression of the agency upon the current administration in Washington.  After the task force was driven off the Hostage Rescue Team of the FBI, descended upon the Branch Davidians and laid siege to the residence.  The HRT used armored vehicles to destroy the exits from the building and to allow the wind to blow through it and then injected CS gas, known to be inflammable and toxic to children and elderly persons, into the wooden structure.  The HRT fired CS rounds, which are incendiary devices into, the building.  A tactic to commit mass murder used by the National Socialists in Poland and Russia was to confine civilians, especially women and children, in wooden buildings and set the structures on fire.

To this day the perpetrators remain at large.