Waco

The Waco tragedy occurred when I was in college. As a young man, I didn’t have much more understanding of the events than the media provided me.In years since, I have been taught scripture and, by God’s favor, have taught the same. It is through this lens that I digested this book. It saddens me that God’s word is so perverted and taken out of context by men such as David Karesh. It is not that such evil men as Karesh exist that saddens me, but that there are so many people with no basis in the truth of God’s word and the saving power of the gospel. That brings me to tears. The Branch Dividians, good hearted, from what I could tell, were ripped off by a snake oil salesmen (pun intended). In being mislead by a perversion of scripture, they became less than innocent of the polygamy and child rape that their leader mandated and normalized. Sin spreads a wide net.As to the gross government overreach that lead to the carnage and loss of innocent lives (the children) I should say they our overlords should be ashamed. But I won’t, because they aren’t. Looking at the events of Waco with 30 years of hindsight, the narrative spin and the over eager media ready to spring it on the world sound all to familiar,

This is actually my second copy of this book. I loan it out to everyone and they don't always make it home. If you are on the fence about purchasing- just do it. Especially if you think you know all about the events that were reported. I love the way this book is written, he shares his experiences, his own feelings and what took place inside. More people need to hear the stories that have been written about this tragedy.

Most everyone knows about the federal government's disastrous debacle at Waco, Texas back in 1993. We have watched the testimonies, the congressional investigations, and the flames engulfing the building that housed the Branch Davidian religious sect. Some of us have even read books on the event, and many have been written. This book, written by survivor David Thibodeau, is one of the best yet.Thibodeau was right there, in the middle of the standoff with ATF and FBI agents, so his perspective is unique from others who have written about the event from the outside. Starting with the time when he first met David Koresh while playing in various bands in Los Angeles, Thibodeau talks about his interest in the Branch Davidians and explains what got him involved in the group; why he became interested in religion after never having much interest or instruction during his youth; why he decided to follow Koresh and his teachings; why he decided to stay at Mt. Carmel during the siege; how he handled the media and press following his escape from the fire; and his post- Mt. Carmel life, touring the country as an informational speaker.Thibodeau has a lot of anger to share in this book, not toward Koresh or the other members of the religious group, but toward the press and the U.S. government. He fully admits that Koresh wasn't perfect and that certain actions taken by Koresh (like sleeping with young girls) wasn't right and should have landed him in jail. But above all, he is most scornful of the media and the U.S. government. The members of the media acted like lap dogs during the siege, reporting on anything told to them by the ATF and FBI as if it were absolute truth. Thibodeau and the other members of the Davidians were saddened and angered by, for example, the reference to their group as a cult and the reference to their building as a compound. The various government reporting agencies promoted these terms to turn the public against the Davidians. Thibodeau is correct in his assertions about the government's actions in this area, and he makes some good points about this. It is true that Koresh himself was a little strange, but he was no real threat and the things he taught were hardly radical. If his teachings qualify the Branch Davidians as a cult, then many mainstream Protestant groups would also be cults. It is known, too, that the FBI deliberately prevented the release of a video tape that featured the different members of the group talking to the camera about their families and lives because the FBI was worried that, once the public saw this tape, they would see that these people were pretty ordinary and it would sway public opinion over to the Davidian's side.The government's handling of the investigation was purely political, with Democrats taking the side of the ATF and FBI, in order to protect the Clinton administration, and the Republicans taking the side of religious freedom in order to make Clinton and his administration look bad. Thibodeau talks about how sickening it was to watch this unfold. No one really seemed to care about truth or justice. All they cared about was protecting their own fellow politicians or making the opposing politicians look bad.The writing in this book is excellent, and Thisbodeau was very wise in making the decision to hire a professional editor to help with the work. Other victims of well- publicized tragedies have also written books, but many of them rely on their own amateurish writing skills to carry them through, often resulting in a book that is sub-par at best and that often fails to be as effective as it could have been. The writing in this book, thanks to the assistance of Leon Whiteson, is nearly flawless and it kept my attention throughout the reading.Thibodeau spends his time touring the nation now, giving speeches to different groups around the country about what happened and what needs to be done in the future to prevent any more Wacos. He shows some strong courage in writing this book, openly admitting that certain actions taken by his own friends were wrong and were deserving of punishment. But he places the bulk of the blame on the ATF and FBI for starting all the trouble in the first place. Like Ruby Ridge, Waco is yet another example of what can happen when government power goes unchecked. And Thibodeau makes a strong case for reigning in the power of government in this well- written, personal book about the tragedy at Waco that killed more than eighty people.

David Thibodeau's mother was the leader of what they called the hostage families during the Waco siege and it is one of the fortunate things that happened that her son siurvived the fire. This book apparently goes into what life was really like at Waco, just how bad and just how good.Although not mentioned by Kirkus or the author for some reason, perhaps a fear of controversy I think this book would have to talk about the fire and the events that ended the compound at Waco, and probably deal with some of the not so little lies said during and after the siege, like the claim that it was called Ranch Apocalypse.David Thibodeau has said it is not true that any shots were fired from inside the compound on April 19. He was interviewed a few times during the Congressional hearings. I don't know how much of what he knows got into this book, but it is something I am going to get.(The story of the events of the siege has been made very complicated, of course, so to really deal with it, rebuttig all the things said that are wrong and rebutting the attempted rebuttals of the rebutalls would be very long.)By way of background, explaining where I am coming from:I have a personal opinion about the fire, which is that is was done to protect J. William Buford head of the bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Fire- arms in Little Rock who had murdered three agents under his command. they were not former Clinton boodyguard, Bill Clinton himself was responsible for starting that story by claiming in a speech to Treasury department employees in March 1993 that they had been assigned to his security something most likely untrue and if true very incidental. His motive may have been to disguise the reason for their murder. Clinton sent Roger Altman to personally speak to Buford after the raid - this was ovrheard by a Wall Street journal reporter present in the White House to do a story about a week in the President's life. (the story was in the March 9, 1993 Wall Street Journal - and it is the only place this connection was mentioned in all the news coverage about Waco. It is mentioned in Carol Moore's book, because I wrote her and told her about it.After the fire the place of the death of the three agents, originally placed in a room on the second floor (see March 17, 1993 newsweek diagram) was moved outside, and Buford himself was moved into the room into which he shot. This would probablynot have been posisble without the destruction of the building and the deaths of so many of the people in it and their deaths also disguised how the shooting began on Feb. 28.I think the reason for Buford machine-gunning three of the men under his command was that he knew the warrant, which he had helped prepare, was not good and the intention from the start was to have a shootout. In order to make that shootout look justified or necessary Buford arranged to kill three men under his command and blame their deaths on koresh (prior approval by Clinton is possible too - or it may be the McArthur murder in 1982 (see the book Widow's Web) that may have been reason Clinton arranged tp protect him. The timing of the planning of the raid followed Clinton's eelection prospects: starting in earnest in June 1992, right after he won the Californoa primarty, slowing down in July, starting again right after the November election - and on january 1 and 3 1993 Buford got personally involved, putting the sex allegations into the warrant, although they were legally irrelevant to the matter at hand, which was guns.In any case, the plan to kill three agents and have their deaths blamed on Koresh, relying on the confusion to hide the true cause, fell apart because Koresh had access to a cellular phone and a second phone billed to a law firm in Waco also still worked and also maybe because the shooting got videotaped by TV station KWTX-TV , Channel 10 in Waco. There was a BIG problem for Buford now.It took seven weeks for Clinton to finally save Buford's skin.On April 19 there was a plan on paper with a loophole authorizing the real plan to be implemented.It was vital it include tear gas and that was why FBOI Director Sessions's plan for water cannon had to be argued down so hard. The fire was caused by the injection of CS tear gas near 12 P.M. Before that they used other tear gas.There ought to be things in this book to bear out or dispute many theories about Waco, and the more you know the more you will be able to use this.

Interesting version from someone on the inside.

No problems with seller or with delivery, thank you.The book itself is awful in my opinion. It's well enough written, but I cannot understand the mindset of this person at all. As a nurse I've witnessed my fair share of human suffering and feel I am a tolerant person, but this story really upset me. I got as far as the author trying to justify and normalise David Koresh's relationships with underage girls and other men's wives and found it all so disturbing I had to put the book away. The whole situation is abnormal and abhorrent to me, I cannot understand how any person with any sense of morality or indeed any level of intelligence could go along with this man's teachings and world views. You can justify anything with the words 'God told me to do it'. It makes me very glad that I am not religious. My heart goes out to the children who got sucked into this mess. Not a book for me.

A tough, hard hitting realisation of a perversion of the truth by the American authorities at the time, although the question of David Kiresh sexual predilection fir minors makes me feel ill having teenage daughters. A very good read whether you've seen the TV series or not.

Fantastic book, dispels the myths, worth reading if you want the true story of waco

Good and badSadly he rambles on too much, good bits interesting but we want to know about Waco not what he ate for breakfast when he was a kid. Too drawn out.