Military Unit Responsible at Waco

http://www.spotlight.org/New_Story/waco/waco.html

An elite U.S. Army military unit was responsible for the massacre of 76 Branch Davidians after a 51-day siege by federal officers of their compound at Waco, Tex., in 1993.

EXCLUSIVE TO THE SPOTLIGHT

By Mike Blair

Orders were given to the top secret  Combat Applications Group of Fort Bragg, N.C. (known as the Delta Force), by President William Jefferson Clinton because the seemingly endless stand-off between the FBI and members of the religious sect had become an embarrassment to his administration, according to a former Army Special Forces member.

Also involved in the final days of decision-making that brought "closure" to the siege was first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, currently the U.S. media poster girl as a result of her venture into Senate politics in New York.

Reports have been received by The SPOTLIGHT that Gene Cullen, a former CIA agent, has asked a Senate committee for "protection" in return for his testimony regarding Delta Force activity at Waco. Cullen is requesting "protection," according to reports, because he has been threatened with prosecution for violating national security if he talks.

WHITE HOUSE BRIEFED

The recent release of documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveals that Army officials, and in particular those from Delta Force, met with White House and Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Janet Re-no and her then second-in-command and former Hillary Clinton law partner, Webster Hubbell, to discuss a resolution to the Waco standoff.

However, information obtained by The SPOTLIGHT reveals that Delta Force played far more than an advisory role in ending the siege. In fact Delta Force had a direct, operational role in the attack on the Branch Davidian compound that resulted in the holocaust that took the lives of 76 residents of the religious community, including dozens of women and children.

Steve Barry, a retired long-time mem-ber of Army Special Forces and a top expert in the field of military special operations, said a team of about 10 members of Delta Force was involved in the Waco massacre.

BarryÕs military career included training with Delta Force.

On April 19, according to Barry, "two bricks," or four-man teams, were involved in the actual attack.

In recently released FBI infra-red video tapes of the crucial minutes of the April 19 assault on the compound, fully-automatic gunfire is seen being directed into an area of the structure, which Branch Davidians were attempting to use to escape from flames, fanned by high winds, consuming the wooden buildings.

The FBI has consistently maintained that it did not fire into the com-pound during the April 19 as-sault.

Barry told The SPOTLIGHT that there was a team of "as many as 10" Delta Force troopers assigned to Waco, including, as he describes them, "a commander, a sergeant major, two to three communications guys, two to three intel [intelligence] guys, a medic and two to three operations guys."

He said assigned to them, supposedly in an advisory capacity, were members of the British SAS (Special Air Service), an elite British special operations force.

The Delta Force, Barry explained, shared a Tactical Operations Center (TOC) at Waco with an FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) force. Since the 1993 tragedy, the American people have been led to believe that the HRT force alone conducted the assault on the compound.

Barry said the Delta Force receives its orders from what is known as the National Command Authority, which then included Clinton, Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Colin Powell.

The ultimate decision to send Delta Force into action rests with the president, Barry said. ÒIt can be no other way,Ó he added.

FAMILIAR FACE

Adding to the controversy, it has been confirmed that Lon Horiuchi was in charge of a sniper post where Texas Rangers recovered spent .223 and .308 shell casings.

Horiuchi was the FBI sniper who fatally shot the wife of Randy Weaver, while wounding both Randy Weaver  and Kevin Harris, during the federal standoff at Ruby Ridge in Idaho.

The recovered shell casings would be consistent with government-issued sniper rifles. Horiuchi has denied that he or any members of his "team" fired any shots at Waco.

The retired special operations expert said that during the siege at Waco, first lady Hillary Clinton operated a "crisis center" at the White House, put together on her own initiative. Serving with her was another former member of her Little Rock law firm, White House Deputy Counsel Vincent M. Foster Jr.

Foster was later found dead under mysterious circumstances in a Virginia park across the river from D.C.

According to Barry, it was from this "crisis center" that word went out that there was "child abuse" by adult members of the sect, including leader David Koresh, at the Waco religious facility.

This revelation about the part Foster played in the Waco tragedy has been confirmed by Mike McNulty, a producer of a documentary film on the siege.

McNulty said he was told by Foster's widow, Lisa, that the White House attorney's depression at the time of his death "was fueled by horror at the carnage at Waco for which the White House had given the ultimate green light."

McNulty also said that Foster was preparing a Waco report when he died. This has been confirmed by veteran British journalist, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in his book, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton.

Pritchard wrote:

The Branch Davidian siege was clearly on Foster's mind. He was "drafting a letter involving Waco" on the day of his death, surely a point of some significance. He kept a Waco file in the locked cabinet that was off limits to everybody, including his secretary. His widow mentions Waco twice in her statement to the FBI. Toward the end of his life, Foster had no sense of joy or elation at work. The Branch Davidian incident near Waco, Tex., was also causing him a great deal of stress. Lisa Foster believes that he was horrified when the Branch Davidian complex burned. Foster believed that everything was his fault.*

BREAKING THE LAW

When asked about how the Delta Force action jibes with the Posse Comitatus Act, which outlaws the use of Army forces to enforce civilian law, Barry said: "That's just it. It doesn't jibe with Posse Comitatus."

A violation of Posse Comitatus is in-deed "a high crime or misdemea-nor," which would be an impeachable felony offense.

And if Clinton's reasons for ordering the Delta Force attack at Waco are murky, the reasons for directing a cover-up are obviously not.

Posse Comitatus clearly states that "Whoever . . . willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a Posse Comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years." (18 U.S. Code, Section 1385)

*The Secret Life of Bill Clinton is available from Liberty Library for $27 (Hardback, 416 pages). Send payment to Liberty Library, 300 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, D.C.