WACO
THE BIG LIE
Using outakes of satellite footage shot by a local news
station, director Linda Thompson paints a chilling portrait of the ATF and FBI's
military assault on the Branch Davidian's compound in Waco.
Thompson argues convincingly that the ATF's initial assault on Mt. Carmel was
legally grounded on nothing more than a $200 weapons surchage that Koresh had
failed to pay. With proof of that in their back pocket, the ATF called out U.S.
Army gunships, and attacked the compound with dozens of stoked, reckless agents
employing massive gunpower. The footage on this video demonstrates that the
Branch Davidians did not meet the ATF with "a hail of gunfire." You'll see
unthreatened ATF agents riddling the front of the compound with gunfire, fully
aware that inside were dozens of women and children.
The ATF had plenty of time to shoot not only the house; they fired on
themselves, other agents, children playing outside, long before a Branch
Davidian fired a single shot in self defense. The video also details the FBI's
effective bamboozlement of a compliant press, but the most controversial part of
the tape comes at the end, when Thompson provides footage allegedly showing
government tanks with flamethrowers that she contends set the fire that killed
all 89 people inside.