Subject: WACO - CLINTON'S WAR AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
From: address.below.or@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
Date: 1999/09/04
Message-ID: <Clinton-2146.990904@news.mantra.com>
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WACO - CLINTON'S WAR AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
By Justin Raimondo
antiwar.com
September 3, 1999
CLINTON'S WAR ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
"The day will come when 'Remember Waco' will become a
battle cry for the people."
So wrote someone whose moniker is "Deadeye," posting a
message on the Internet bulletin board Freerepublic.com,
the wildly popular cyber-headquarters of the populist
right-wing. And he was far from alone in his sentiments.
"Eskimo" chimed in with "there are many who believe that
the criminal elements that now operate the federal
government intended Waco to be an object lesson and a
direct indication that they are ready and willing to use
force to realize their oligarchic dreams." Yesterday,
"Eskimo" would have been considered a marginal
"extremist"; today, as the ugly truth about Waco begins
to emerge, this analysis is hard to dispute.
DEPLOYED AND PULLING TRIGGERS
For six years the feds have denied that incendiary
devices were fired that could have resulted in the Waco
conflagration. Their line has always been that the
followers of David Koresh committed mass suicide. Now
comes new evidence that not only were "pyrotechnic"
devices utilized in the assault, but the top secret Army
unit known as "Delta Force" were in the front lines of
the battle – and not as mere "advisors," as the Justice
Department is now claiming. As Mike McNulty, producer of
the film "Waco: Rules of Engagement," puts it, they were
"deployed and pulling triggers."
THE SHOCKING TRUTH
McNulty's film, nominated for an Academy Award, showed
how the victims of Waco were set up and incinerated. Now,
in "Waco: New Revelations," McNulty comes forward with
the rest of the shocking truth: While government
officials claim that the "pyrotechnic" gas canisters the
government now admits were found at the scene could not
have caused the fire, McNulty reveals that "what they
aren't talking about is the pyrotechnic devices that were
found at the points of origins of the fire in the rubble
of the building after the fire." What about "the other
types of 40-millimeter munitions that were also found in
the aftermath of the fire that were definitely
'pyrotechnic' – and possibly more than that"?
THE STAKES ARE HIGH
The administration is terrified of the answer to this
question, but the truth is coming out faster than the
even the champion liars in the White House and the
Justice Department can deny it. On October 18, a case
pursued by the survivors of the massacre and their
relatives is scheduled to go to trial in federal court in
Waco; U.S. District Court Judge Walter Smith has moved to
take control of all evidence, resisting the Justice
Department's attempt to grab the reins of the
investigation. With different sectors of the
Establishment battling for control of the evidence, the
high stakes were vividly dramatized when Reno sent US
federal marshals storming into the FBI's Washington
headquarters, impounding tape recordings of FBI
commanders' communications with field agents on the day
of the massacre.
A CRISIS OF LEGITIMACY
What is at stake is nothing less than the legitimacy of
the American state. For if it turns out that McNulty is
right, and the feds – not only the FBI but Reno and the
President himself – covered up the wanton murder of over
80 people, including 25 children, then the moral and
political legitimacy of this government has come to an
end. Having launched a war against their own people, our
rulers have broken the social contract – and lose their
right to rule.
ON TARGET
"Deadeye" was dead on target: "Remember Waco" is the
battle cry of millions of radicalized Americans, outraged
by Clinton's secret war against the American people – and
their numbers are growing with each new revelation. If
this is "extremism," then let the apologists for mass
murder make the most of it – while they still can.
A LESSON LEARNED
American conservatives are learning a lesson the Left
long ago forgot – these dedicated patriots are coming to
appreciate the horrific criminality of which their
government is capable. Indeed, during the past eight
years, they have seen that the US government seems
capable of little else. During the reign of this most
warlike of American Presidents, US armed forces have
launched military operations against enemies all over the
globe – with not even the American people exempt from
their war-maddened bloodlust.
IN PERSPECTIVE
But just to put things in perspective: imagine ten-
thousand Wacos, envision bombers instead of helicopter
gunships, and think of the tens of thousands of children
fallen victim to the US assault on Iraq instead of the 25
murdered at Waco.
DEMONOLOGY
Another analogy to Iraq: The demonization of Koresh
followed the classic lines of the propaganda campaign
that equated Saddam with Hitler. Milosevic was similarly
caricatured, along with Noriega and the ruler of every
other "rogue nation" that dared defy Washington's edicts.
Just as these wars were fought with the American media
cheerleading the fight on behalf of the administration,
so the war at home requires the same sort of media
complacency, and even complicity.
THE SMEAR ARTISTS
We weren't supposed to talk about the Waco massacre: for
the longest time, after the bombing of the Oklahoma City
federal building, the subject was verboten, a sure sign
that whoever raised it was a dangerous right-wing
"extremist,: a militia member who might follow in the
footsteps of Timothy McVeigh: the preferred epithet was
"antigovernment extremist," as the professional smear-
mongers invariably phrased it, employing their favorite
tactic of manipulating the language to suit their own
ends. For if we accept the unacknowledged premise of that
neat little phrase – that any and all opposition to
government is "extremist" in nature – then all opposition
is effectively criminalized. Waging a war on "hate
speech" and "hate groups" whose major crime seemed to be
their hatred of government, a whole platoon of
"extremist"-watchers grew up into a veritable mini-
industry, the most active and certainly the wealthiest
being the Southern Poverty Law Center, founded by Morris
Dees.
INFORMANTS
Mr. Dees, about whom I have written before, is the Grand
Inquisitor of the well-funded and well-connected "hate
the Right" movement. His Center raises millions each year
under the pretenses of fighting "hate" – when it is hate
that seems to motivate Dees, a deep and abiding hatred of
rightist dissent, or, indeed, of any radical protest
against the political and economic status quo. As an
organization, the SPLC has functioned as a virtual arm of
the State, especially its growing "anti-terrorist"
apparatus, acting as an informant, a chronicler, and a
clearinghouse for information to be placed at the
disposal of federal agencies. In their capacity as a kind
of privatized Thought Police, Dees and his associates are
called on by the liberal media whenever they want to
discredit and smear the right-wing populist opposition.
Naturally, these "experts" were brought in to yesterday's
front page story in the New York Times, "Tenacity of 2
Played a Role In reviving Inquiry on Waco," by Jim
Yardley.
A FAMILIAR IDIOM
While the facts are roughly if vaguely presented, the
tone of Yardley's piece is enough to convey the paper's
editorial disdain for its subjects. It starts in the
first very short paragraph, in which the author describes
the six year quest by McNulty and lawyer David Hardy to
uncover the truth as "obsessive." Yardley goes on to
frame the issue in the familiar idiom of the "extremist'-
baiters: "Espousing views popular with many right-wing
groups," he continues, "Mr. McNulty, in particular, has
blamed federal agents for the deaths" of the 80-plus
victims of the FBI-Delta Force assault. But the critics
of the government's role in the Waco incident are not
limited to the right side of the political spectrum; and
besides, all the reviews of "Rules of Engagement"
emphasized quite the opposite – that these were a bunch
of liberal-to-leftie filmmakers. McNulty's documentary
made a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival, not exactly
a hotbed of right-wing ideology.
SOUR GRAPES
Yet we are still treated to the same tired old smear
tactics that haven't worked in the past and won't work
this time, with Yardley hauling out the malevolent Mark
Potok, of the SPLC, who laments that "this is really
unfortunate. This has given credence to the rest of
McNulty's views, which are unsupported." But which views?
And what, exactly, is "really unfortunate" – that McNulty
has been proven right, or that the government's lies are
being exposed? In Potok's case, I suspect that the answer
is both.
HAUL OUT THE "EXPERTS"
Not content with one "expert" with a political axe to
grind, Yardley cites yet another professional "expert on
right-wing extremism," one Mark Pitcavage, described as
"a historian who specializes in right-wing extremist
groups and operates the Militia Watchdog Web site. "The
Waco documentary was highly publicized," he avers, "but
the inaccuracies were not. I don't think the McNulty Waco
documentary could even remotely be considered objective."
It is absolutely amazing that this man should be cited in
this article as some kind of scholar of "far right
extremism," and the maintainer of a website, when he in
fact is an employee of the FBI: here, from his website,
is some biographical material, not mentioned in the
Yardley piece:
MARK PITCAVAGE – SCHOLAR, HISTORIAN, AND GOVERNMENT
STOOGE
"The creator and maintainer of the Militia Watchdog
website is Mark Pitcavage. Mark Pitcavage is a historian
living in Columbus, Ohio, who specializes in the history
of right-wing extremism in contemporary America. He is
currently Director of the SLATT Program Research Center.
The SLATT Program (State/Local Anti-Terrorism Training
Program) is a Justice Department program designed to
educate senior state and local law enforcement officials
on domestic terrorism issues. It is conducted jointly by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Institute for
Intergovernmental Research, a nonprofit organization.
Pitcavage has provided training to a number of law
enforcement agencies and other groups, including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation."
THE JIM YARDLEY SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM Yardley cites
Pitcavage as an "objective source," who is given a
platform to denounce McNulty as a dangerous subversive,
without telling his readers about his links to the
government – and the very agency implicated in the
killings and the cover-up. This tells us everything we
need to know about the kind of journalism they practice
over at the New York Times.
DUH!
But what does it say about the intelligence of a
journalist who gives the skeptical reader a key clue in
debunking his own thesis? For anyone with a computer and
a connection to the Internet could check up on
Pitcavage's bona fides and find them wanting. Simply by
taking a few minutes of Web-surfing to confirm his worst
suspicions, a child could debunk this fatuous ploy – and
so why do they expect the American people to believe it?
Is it any wonder that "mainstream" journalists are losing
their credibility, and people are turning to the
"alternative" media on the Internet to find out what is
going on the world?
ULTERIOR MOTIVES
The grand finale of Yardley's article is another choice
quote from Pitcavage, the FBI agent masquerading as a
distinguished "scholar": "They [McNulty and Hardy]
deserve a little bit of credit. But you wish that someone
else had discovered this stuff instead. These guys have
ulterior motives." Naturally, a government agent posing
as an oh-so-objective academic couldn't possibly have any
ulterior motives.
WHY IS THAT?
And why didn't anybody else discover "this stuff"? Could
it be because no one in the "mainstream" media thought to
question the official government line? Is it remotely
possible that the pundits and alleged "reporters" in the
major media centers could have cared less that a bunch of
"extremist" Christian fundamentalists had been
slaughtered like animals – what were they doing with that
kooky Koresh, anyway? Didn't they really deserve to die?
CALL OUT THE TROOPS
And I suppose it is "conspiracism" of the worst sort –
the major crime cited by the professional "watchdogs"
such as Dees, Pitcavage, and freelance extremist-baiter
Chip Berlet – to speculate that it won't be long before
the troops are called out again. I think I hear war-drums
beating in the distance – and they seem to be getting
closer by the day. Iraq is about due for another major
bombing, and the Transcaucus is incubating a "refugee
crisis" that may very well require "humanitarian"
intervention – and there's always China, provoked into a
fury by US patronage of Taiwanese separatists. Any one of
these could explode at a moment's notice, and divert
attention away from the fact that murderers walk among us
– and not only walk among us, but rule over us.
A SLOGAN FOR THE FUTURE
But perhaps, this time, not even the spectacle of war
will divert the national attention from the unfolding
horror – perhaps it will only underscore the criminality
of our ruling elites. No more Wacos – US Out of Iraq: now
there's a slogan for the antiwar movement of the not-so-
distant future.
Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com
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Posted on 09/04/1999 14:45:23 PDT by josiban
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