Waco and Waddle

At first glance, there would appear to be little connection and few similarities between two national tragedies, the sinking of a Japanese fishing boat by an American submarine, the USS Greeneville and the fiery inferno that claimed the lives of 25 innocent women and children at the Mt. Carmel religious retreat near Waco, Texas in 1993.

But once you scratch the surface, the similarities and contrasts form an interesting case study.

Both incidents involved the taking of innocent human lives by an arm of the U.S. government.

Both incidents received extensive media coverage and government investigation.

And both incidents have ignited a backlash against the parties responsible.

Navy Commander Scott Waddle, the skipper of the Greeneville appeared on ABC’s Nightline program Tuesday evening, tearfully reliving the surfacing accident that claimed the lives of nine young Japanese crewmembers aboard the trawler, Ehime Maru. He has been relieved of his command and his 20-years of otherwise exemplary service to the U.S. Navy will be forcibly terminated next October.

No members of the FBI, BATF or Justice Department were ever forced to resign over the Waco debacle. Then Attorney General Janet Reno offered her resignation to President Clinton but it was refused.

The United States has offered compensation and apologies to the families of the victims of the Greeneville incident.

The families of the Waco victims received jail terms.

The investigations and reports that arose from the twin episodes are also worthy of exploration.

The US Navy admitted it had campaign donors and influential civilians aboard the vessel manning the sub’s strategic control positions at the time.

The US Army has never officially admitted that its Delta Force personnel accompanied law enforcement officers in the final raid on the Mt. Carmel religious retreat.

A Board of Inquiry concluded that Commander Waddle did not follow standard operating procedures or take the necessary time to make sure the surface was clear before issuing orders for his submarine to surface.

The Danforth Report admitted that Federal agents had listening devices in the Branch Davidian headquarters that allowed the FBI to know ahead of time that members of the group were planning to spread and ignite gasoline in case of a government attack but did not recommend actions against the officials who ordered the onslaught and put the lives of innocent women and children at risk.

We could elaborate on the numerous deceptions contained within the Danforth Report. No FBI or BATF agents or officials, to our knowledge, have ever been given polygraph tests to verify their accounts of the events that day.

Infrared tests conducted by an allegedly independent British firm were actually performed by the English subsidiary of a major American defense contractor that receives billions of dollars from the U.S. government.

At least two independent experts expected to testify on behalf of the Branch Davidians, both proficient in the analysis of Forward Looking Infrared Radar or Flir imagery were mysterious victims of death or permanent disability, preventing their participation.

The government re-enacted the Waco attack and changed critical components to support its argument that light flashes (glint) on FLIR imaged videotapes were reflections of sunlight rather than gun barrel flashes. We have been told that flash suppressors were added to gun barrels and the background of the terrain was different than that encountered at the Mt. Carmel retreat.

Also curious was the government’s unwillingness to allow two expert hostage negotiators the opportunity to try peaceably ending the confrontation before the final holocaust. We have it on good authority that ex-lawman Jack McLamb and former Army Col Bo Gritz, who successfully negotiated an end to the Ruby Ridge stand-off, had both volunteered to parachute onto the Davidians’ property and meet with David Koresh.

Although McLamb and Gritz revealed that on two occasions prior to the conflagration, FBI officials said they would welcome such a parachute mission, it was delayed due to high winds on the morning of April 19^th. Rather than wait for better weather conditions and the results of the talks, the Feds, incomprehensibly, proceeded with their lethal assault on the compound.

For years, I have wondered why Janet Reno’s alleged concern for the "children of Waco" who were (without evidence) believed to be victims of child abuse, should prompt such reckless activity on behalf of the federal government that resulted in their deaths.

For that matter, why did the FBI and BATF disregard their own rules of engagement regarding the use of CS gas against the Branch Davidians? This sometimes lethal mixture is banned for use in international warfare but was pumped into the Koresh compound for six hours straight in the hours leading up to the final assault and conflagration. 

Government officials had previously ordered that the gas be inserted a little at a time over a 48-hour period, which might have given the innocent women and children the chance to evacuate the buildings with their lives.

So how can they account for the siege and gas insertion proceeding uninterrupted for those six critical hours before the match was struck?

So many questions. So many investigations. So much whitewash.

The bottom line?

The Navy found its scapegoat in Commander Waddle. After all, diplomatic relations were on the line between the United States and another ally, Japan. The Asian lobby applied the necessary pressure and someone was held accountable.

But the Branch Davidians have no lobby. They hold no political clout. They have in their support just the shell of a U.S. Constitution…and the hope that the American public would have long memories.

That’s all that stands in the way of a very tragic chapter in American history repeating itself.

(Ed. note: Fox News  presents an outstanding overview of the charges and countercharges surrounding the Danforth report.)