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”You’ve got my word…..it’s 1000 percent solid…we won’t attack you”- FBI agent, talking to Branch Davidian leader David Koresh


Today is April 19, 2003, a day that stands out in the memory of many Americans as a day of bloodshed. On this date in 1995, Timothy McVeigh ignited a bomb that blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma City, killing dozens and dozens of innocent people. It was a terrifying moment in U.S. history, but McVeigh’s attack was inspired, in part, by an act of bloodshed committed by agents of the U.S. government exactly two years earlier. I’m talking, of course, about the U.S. government’s massacre of the Branch Davidians at Mt. Carmel, in Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1993. This event, with all the death, the finger- pointing, and the lengthy congressional hearings, stands out as a horrific reminder of the excessive use of government force and for the trampling of American civil rights. On this documentary video, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, writer and director William Gazecki provides an educational overview of the events leading up to the government siege, all the way to the fire that killed 90 people and the ensuing government cover- up.

Basic Contents of This Video:

Gazecki begins the documentary by showing live interviews of some of the members of the Branch Davidians. Several of the members speak up about why they became interested in this religious group and why they chose to stay there and fulfill God’s mission. After talking to a few people, the video then covers the history of the Branch Davidians, and some of this will surprise the average viewer. The Branch Davidians were an offshoot of the Seventh- Day Adventist Church, and the group’s roots go all the way back to the late 1930’s. Throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s, the group went through a period of ups and downs, with membership fluctuating back and forth. Things became more solid in the early 1960’s when the Branch Davidians became more organized and started to hold official meetings and, eventually, constructed a worship and education center at Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas.

After explaining the history of this religious sect, Gazecki then covers some of the key events that led up to the siege, which began on February 28, 1993. Allegedly, the reason for the search warrant on the Branch Davidians was that the group was stockpiling illegal weapons. It was a known fact that the Branch Davidians were strong believers in the second amendment. They firmly believed that all of the members of the group should be armed, in order to protect themselves from attack and to prepare for the ultimate battle of Armageddon, where the forces of good and evil would have one final battle.

Much of the video focuses in on the congressional hearings and on live testimony from experts on the Waco ordeal- how it started, why the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and the FBI decided to attack, and how they attempted to cover up the mess and blame the members of the Branch Davidians for the fire and the deaths of its members. You get to hear the live testimony from people who were there, including David Thibodeau, who was one of the survivors. You also get to hear interaction between FBI and BATF agents as they talk to Koresh during the siege. There’s one moment that’s especially incriminating to the FBI, where Jim Cavanaugh is talking with Koresh on the phone and he begins by swearing that the helicopters flying overhead “don’t have any guns”. Koresh lashes back: “You’re a liar….a total liar….are you honestly going to sit there and say that there are no guns on those helicopters”? Cavanaugh then pauses, trying to think of a good excuse for his blatant lie, and then changes his line completely: “I said there were no mounted guns…..I’m not saying there was no gunfire…the helicopters do have guns”.

Into the second half of the video, Gazecki shows speeches given by members of the FBI and other government groups, insisting that they were going to resolve the conflict “without further bloodshed”. Then, the scenes switch over to the actual siege, showing ATF agents bombarding the Mt. Carmel building with gunfire and playing psychological games with the Davidians, hoping to torture them enough that they will come out. They start playing Nancy Sinatra music as loudly as possible and blaring it through the windows of the building. Then, they shine bright lights into the windows and start playing sounds of rabbits being slaughtered, all with the hope that the members will get so annoyed that they will surrender and leave the building.

Koresh isn’t the only voice that you get to hear, from inside the building during the siege. Other members also get their time in front of the video camera and/or on audio tape. In one very poignant moment, Branch Davidian member Wayne Martin, a Harvard Graduate, calls 911 in frantic desperation: “I’m under fire…they started firing first….we’re under fire…we’re surrounded by 75 men”! Bewildered members of the group are shown on tape, while the siege is going on. There is no sense of anger, like one might expect. Instead, the feeling seems to be one of sadness. They openly express how disappointed they are that something like this could take place in the United States. A country that is supposed to celebrate religious freedom and individual expression is attacking their group for no apparent reason at all.

The video ends with the final assault and the massive conflagration that resulted, along with continued cover- up by FBI and ATF members. Federal agents decided to pump the building full of a compound mixture of CS power and another chemical, which produces an aerosol- like spray. The mixture is known to be flammable, and the slightest spark will easily ignite the entire building complex. It’s also known that this type of gas is toxic, especially to young children and the elderly. But the FBI/ATF agents don’t seem to care. It’s almost like they planned this from the start, pumping the place full of flammable material and then just sitting back and waiting for it to go up in flames. The large gashes that the tanks tore into the sides of the building were very suspicious, too. These large holes provided venting that made it easier for the entire complex to engulf itself in flames.

Final Thoughts:

The federal siege at Waco is a fascinating event for countless reasons. It occurred about one year after the assault on Ruby Ridge, and it left many people with a suspicious feeling about agencies like the FBI and the ATF. Why did they decide to attack this group? Why were they so determined to kill its members? Did they have a personal vendetta against Koresh? Were the FBI and ATF just trying to put on a show of power and use this as a warning against other “fringe” groups that they, too, could be part of a “seek and destroy” mission at some point in the future?

Watching this video provides some answers, but it leaves others open. It does seem like these two branches of the Federal government were on a mission. I don’t see how they could be so naïve to think that pumping toxic gas into a building wouldn’t increase the possibility of starting a conflagration. They had to know this, just like they had to know that if they kept firing guns at the building, eventually there would be a spark large enough to set the place ablaze. From what I can tell, it seemed like these Federal groups were trying to use the Branch Davidians to improve their reputations with the public. Both the FBI and the ATF had lost respect after Ruby Ridge. They were hoping that they could make this event into something redeeming. Also, it seems like they were very annoyed with David Koresh because he was making them look bad to the public. On video, and on audio, Koresh can be heard trying to reason with the Federal agents and then exposing their lies. Much of the public heard this, and it looked very bad for the agents who worked for these two groups. And who could forget the scene when the Davidians displayed a sheet from a window that contained the words “Rodney King, we Understand”. The FBI/ATF team seemed like they were on a death march from the start, determined to beat the Davidians and get revenge against Koresh for making them look like villains.

Some of the government cover- up should have been obvious from the very start. I remember when this 51- day siege was taking place, and I was both amused and disgusted at the way the ATF was trying to brainwash the public against the Branch Davidians. First of all, they started to refer to the group as a “cult” and its place of education and worship as a “compound”. It was evident, to me, that this was a lame attempt to turn the American people against the group. If the Branch Davidians could be labeled as crazy, irrational “cult” members who kept members imprisoned inside a “compound” and wouldn’t let them go, then the ATF reasoned that most Americans wouldn’t like the group and wouldn’t care if they were attacked and killed. They wanted to create an image similar to the Jim Jones cult in Guyana, and they wanted people to think that Koresh was the same type of maniac as Jim Jones. But if you listen to Koresh talk, and if you listen to other members of the Branch Davidians, it’s easy to see that this group was not really a suicide cult at all. Koresh, in fact, isn’t even all that charismatic of a person or speaker. He seems confident of what he says, but his speech is not spellbinding or captivating in any way. He didn’t have any characteristics of a cult leader at all. He was just a guy with his own set of personal believes that wanted to be left alone. Besides, even if the Branch Davidians did have some unusual beliefs, this was still not justification for killing them. Religious freedom is supposed to be a guarantee for all people, not just for those in the majority. I can think of many mainstream religious groups right now, and some individual people too, who have very unusual ideas and viewpoints. If the Branch Davidians can be killed for thinking outside the box, then who will the FBI and ATF target next? One interesting point to keep in mind is that a video showing interviews with several members of the Branch Davidians was intentionally blocked from release to the general public by the FBI. The reason was that the FBI was worried that, once the public saw that the members of the Branch Davidians were ordinary people with no signs of craziness or insanity, it might sway public opinion over to the Davidians side. That’s our wonderful FBI in action!

There’s a lot of gruesome scenes in this video, so you need to be prepared if you decide to view. There’s a scene with Koresh, on video, talking to the camera and displaying the open wounds on his chest, showing where the bullet went in the front and out the back. There is also some grisly scenes at the end of the video, following the inferno, showing the charred bodies of adults and small children with nothing but skeletal remains.

The attempts by federal agents to cover up this event and the arrogant displays by the ATF are repulsive and they will make some viewers very angry. The fact that the ATF pumped the building full of toxic, explosive fumes is terrible, especially when you consider that there were young kids inside the building who would be unable to protect themselves against something like this. Our own government was torturing small children! And yet the members of the ATF and FBI still tried to cover up the whole thing by transferring blame to the Davidians. In one exceptionally disgusting scene, a leader of the FBI is asked to explain how the dead members’ bodies could possibly be so full of bullet wounds if the FBI didn’t fire a shot (as it continued to claim throughout the whole video). He replied: “the bullet wounds found in the bodies were self- inflicted…they shot themselves”. What gall! How could any self- respecting person look into a camera and make a statement like that? I was also disgusted with the action that the ATF took at the end of the siege. The building was already burned down, yet they still felt the need to raise an ATF flag over the empty grounds. It was an ugly display of arrogance and power!

This video is about 136 minutes in length. It was nominated for a 1997 Academy Award for documentaries, due to its hard- hitting investigation and its incriminating indictment of the FBI, ATF, and the government political leaders who were part of the effort to cover- up the entire event and brush it off as a “cult” activity that went too far. “Waco: The Rules of Engagement” is an excellent video to view, to discover more about the excessive use of government force. If things like this are allowed to occur in the United States of America, then the entire Bill of Rights is in grave danger of becoming extinct. This isn’t something to take lightly. If groups like the FBI and ATF are free to attack and kill people at will, then whom will they target next?

If you can get your hands on this video, then I recommend doing so. It can be found on most on- line sites that sell videos, like Amamzon.com and others, and it’s also available in many stores and as a rental. It’s a powerful video- one that you will play over and over again in your head. It’s emotional, compelling, and revealing!





Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age