Feds accused of 'torturing babies'

Saying he wants to hold the government accountable for "the torture
of innocent children," the attorney for David and Rachel Koresh's three
children -- all of whom perished, along with 14 other children in the
Branch Davidian fire in Waco, Texas -- has already deposed, under oath,
over 30 FBI and Delta Force personnel regarding their role in the April
19, 1993 disaster.

In the wrongful death lawsuit, attorney Jim Brannon was hired by relatives to
represent the three Koresh children, ages 16 months, 6, and 8; the two
oldest children celebrated their birthdays during the 51-day siege.
Other deceased victims of the fiery assault, both adults and children,
are being represented in other cases.

This scene from the documentary "Waco: A New Revelation" shows federal agents in their original Feb. 28, 1993 assault on the Branch Davidians, shooting through walls and windows even though they knew children were inside. Photo courtesy MGA Films, Inc.

Eventually, over 100 federal officials will be deposed, including
Attorney General Janet Reno and perhaps President Bill Clinton. So far,
about a third of those on the list have been questioned under oath in
court-ordered depositions.

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"Almost all of them from FBI people. Two of them from military
people, and it seems as though an almost universal amnesia has struck --
an epidemic of amnesia," explained attorney Jim Brannon in a telephone
interview.

The federal officials involved in the 51-day siege at Waco completed
a government form known as a "302" after the event took place. Those
forms are primarily notes or transcriptions of interviews, but they are
not sworn statements. Brannon is using those forms as a starting point
for questions as he places the federal officials under oath.

"Naturally they don't remember anything, but they sure remember
there wasn't anybody there on the ground shooting," Brannon told
WorldNetDaily.

A recent documentary film, "Waco: A New Revelation," presented evidence that federal forces fired guns into the Mt.
Carmel site prior to and during the fire that killed 17 children and 54
adults. The documentary also presents evidence that CS gas was sprayed
almost continuously into the site for up to six hours, and that the gas
combined with incendiary devices now known to have been used in the
assault could have caused the ensuing fire.

The FBI has strongly denied there was any gunfire from any federal
forces. It has also stated that the Branch Davidians committed suicide
by not coming out when the CS gas was used on them.

Bob Ricks, FBI special agent in charge at Waco, stated at a press
conference shown in the documentary that the FBI purposely sprayed the
dangerous gas on the mothers and children. He said it was done in an
effort to get the mothers to "flee" with their children.

"You have these other groups of lawyers who represent all the adults,
and their families, and heirs, and brothers, and sisters, and so on. I,
on the other hand, have three innocent kids who are dead, and we want to
know why," explained Brannon.

"My fundamental position in the case, just from the standpoint of the
limited claim that I have, is very simply this: We don't authorize under
any conditions, any circumstances, not a single instance, nowhere, no
time, do we tell any law enforcement officer as part of the arrow in
your quiver you get to torture babies to accomplish your ends," stated
Brannon emphatically.

Although the FBI and other federal officials have tried to justify
their actions, Brannon said there is no justification and believes his
case will be an easy one to win.

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The FBI should know "you don't ever torture a baby for any reason,
however noble it may be," he said. "You don't get to torture a baby to
save your life. We don't pay you to torture babies, and that's what you
did there, and you knew you did it, and you advertised you did it, and
you bragged that you did it, and you said, 'Oh, but we didn't think it
would hurt them much.'

"That's not the worst thing you said. The other thing you said was,
'Well, all their parents have to do is bring them out, so don't blame
us.' The translation is, if you have bad parents in this country, and
you're a little kid, law enforcement gets to torture you because they
don't like your parents.

"Ain't that a hell of a note for the government to take! Nobody says
you get to torture babies in America -- period. Not for any reason. Not
for any purpose," stated Brannon.

The FBI continues to maintain its claim of innocence in the sworn
depositions, said Brannon, still maintaining that no government guns
were fired that fateful day. Government video footage seems to show
gunfire, but official FBI sources have disputed those claims, even
though government experts were used to analyze the footage.
WorldNetDaily recently reported on efforts to dispute those
claims.

Brannon initially had difficulty getting the government to admit that
the Delta Force exists. Once an agreement was reached that he could
depose members of the elite fighting team, a series of strict rules was
put in place.

Brannon is not permitted to know the names of the Delta Force members
being deposed, or even to see them. They are kept behind a screen for
"national security" reasons.

No recordings of the interviews are permitted on video or audiotape.
The only record of the deposition is by a court stenographer.

Brannon said the process is worse than the amnesia of the FBI agents.
After he asks questions, the Delta Force members are most often directed
by government attorneys not to answer, he said.

"I want the helicopter pilots. I want the snipers -- all of them. I
want to see if they can all tell the same lies. I don't think they're
that good. I might get real lucky and run across one or two of them who
is willing under oath -- when they have to tell the truth -- [to] tell
the truth. Maybe I'll find some that won't lie for them. I believe the
truth won't hurt my side. Not out of what I've seen up to now," Brannon
said.

Since there is no judge present during the questioning, Brannon is
left with no means to compel the witnesses to answer. Indeed, government
attorneys direct Delta Force members not to respond to most of Brannon's
questions.

Despite the fact that the government admits to the presence of only
three Delta Force members at Waco, Brannon claims there were at least
10.

"The 10 have been traced on their travel vouchers. They came and went
during the 51-day siege at Waco. Sometimes there were only three from
that group present at one time," Brannon explained. He hopes eventually
to get depositions from all of them.

A doll found in the ashes of the Waco raid conducted by the FBI and Delta Force after 17 children were burned to death April 19, 1993. Photo courtesy of MGA Films, Inc.

The government has been using what Brannon considers stalling tactics
in complying with court orders to produce evidence, witnesses and
depositions. As a result, the court issued an order in November -- after
the government asked for an extension of time -- which said, in part:
"The court is not unmindful that the government waits not only until the
last day, but until the last minute to respond to every order this court
has issued. That practice causes the court to be suspect of the
government's desire to comply with its orders."

Brannon has plans to depose Reno. "It's just a question of
scheduling," he said. He would not rule out depositions of Gen. Colin
Powell, Hillary Clinton, and President Bill Clinton, all of
whom had roles in the Waco event, according to government documents.

"If Clinton did what I think he did, if I can ever prove it, I think
he gave the okay to the Delta Force to go in there and help those guys.
I think he said, 'They don't know what they're doing. Y'all go in there
and take care of it.' Or words to that effect," said Brannon.

When the court sent an order to all federal agencies requesting
copies of all Waco-related documents, the White House refused, claiming
"executive privilege."

"That's one of those things where you take the Fifth Amendment and
everyone in the world knows you're guilty," said Brannon. "If you're
going to claim executive privilege, it's something you don't want the
public to know you did."

Nevertheless, Brannon is going to attempt to lift the cloud of
national security and executive privilege so he can get the evidence he
needs.

"They can't hide behind a classified heading when they're going down
there shooting Americans," he said. "I will be seeking to declassify all
information pertaining to military operations against civilians."

He said that on his most recent trip to Washington, D.C. to take
depositions, he spent most of his time negotiating with the FBI. The FBI
team is identified in a court document as G. Noesner, J. Huyler, and F.
Lanceley.

Brannon said the negotiators conceded to him that the Waco incident
was poorly handled. "It was the worst they had seen in their 20-plus
years in the FBI," said Brannon.

Michael McNulty, co-producer of "Waco: A New Revelation," said he
agrees with Brannon that the children were purposely tortured by the
government agents and military. The government readily admits that CS
gas was sprayed almost continuously on the mothers and children who were
inside the Mt. Carmel buildings on April 19, 1993.

The Branch Davidians and their children were subjected to many hours
of gas before they were allegedly attacked with gunfire. Survivors claim
that despite the horrors of being gassed, the Branch Davidians believed
they would be shot if they came out, according to the documentary
presentation.

"The so-called bunker or church vault where the women and children
were hunkered down, the exposure (to CS gas) there went on for a couple
of hours at the very least. It was continuous. There was no escaping it,
particularly in a small, unventilated, confined space," said McNulty of
what he uncovered in his investigation.

McNulty used an excerpt of video from a government press conference
at Waco, showing Ricks telling reporters that the gas was used to get
the women and children to flee from the Mt. Carmel buildings.

"That's an admission. That means they are going to put that gas in
there to where it was so bad that it would force the mothers to flee
out. But you know what? The mothers maintained. On the flip side of the
coin, you have to understand that there was a gunfight going on when one
would have expected them to flee out. Flee out to what? To being shot?
That's the irony of this," said McNulty.

Brannon believes the evidence clearly shows the FBI was at fault.

"The most pertinent (form of torture) that everybody knows about was
the intentional insertion of a gas," explained Brannon. "About which
they knew precious little about the effects of that gas on children, and
knew nothing of the effects of it at the dosages they were squirting in
there -- knowing that the children were unprotected.

"They did it with the express purpose of making the children so
uncomfortable that the parents would bring them out. In other words,
torturing the children to get their parents to do something. I don't
believe law enforcement anywhere in the United States should be
authorized to torture a child. And certainly not torture a child as a
strategy to get the parents to obey their orders -- period," said
Brannon.

"Why in God's name would national security issues ever become part of
a civil law enforcement case? It would have had to have been the Branch
Davidians were Russian spies or something, and therefore it would fall
under the aegis of national security and the FBI would have handled it
from the outset," said an angry McNulty to WorldNetDaily.

McNulty conducted the majority of the research to locate the evidence
and witnesses presented in his documentary. Much of that evidence has
been shared with attorneys for the various civil cases now under way,
and with government investigators.

New evidence found by producer Michael McNulty and shown in "Waco: A New Revelation" indicates the possibility that incendiary devices used by government forces could have touched off the inferno that took the lives of 17 children. Photo courtesy of MGA Films, Inc.

"Why would a civil law enforcement matter have documents generated by
the president of the United States and/or his staff that can be covered
under executive privilege in the first place?" he asked rhetorically.

"What have we stumbled on here? The tip of the actions of our federal
government in the capacity of a secret police," McNulty suggested.

Brannon was present during the siege on Mt. Carmel and offered to
help the FBI negotiate with Branch Davidian leader David Koresh. They
turned his offer down flat.

"If you really want the guy out, why would you not let us go in and
talk to him?" Brannon says he asked the FBI at the time. "Well, their
answer was always the same. 'Those are terrorists in there. They'll
shoot you. They'll put you as a shield.' All that bull they were putting
out. It was all part of the demonizing process that we were all
swallowing like candy. We made them to be demons, courtesy of the FBI
and the press. Everything the FBI said, the press put it right out."

He tried to get reporters to ask why the FBI would not let Brannon or
Koresh's grandmother go in and talk to him. No one would do it for him.

"I was allowed to go to a certain gate about six miles from Mt.
Carmel. The press got to drive on past that gate. No member of the
public got past that gate. The press got to drive on by and get up there
and get those cameras there a couple miles away. There was a whole
society of the press," he told WorldNetDaily.

"Here's what the one guy from the press told me. He said, 'Listen
Jim. We don't want to get kicked out. If we ask that question, we'll be
like that crew from New Zealand. They (the FBI) ran them right off.'
They didn't want any tough questions, and they made an example of that
one group."

Brannon claims the press only published the official statements of
the FBI without digging deeper, or even trying to report other aspects
to the story.

Brannon's case, Andrade et. al. v. Chojnacki et. al. is expected to
complete the current depositions and discovery phase by the end of
March. Trial will take place before the year is over.

He says the evidence presented by the FBI in the case has been
tainted so that it comes out the way they want it to.

"Any evidence touched by the FBI never comes away the same way it
goes in. They put their mark on it. They spin it; they treat it, they
throw it away, they test it, they reconstruct it, they taint it. That
has to do with the fire evidence. It has to do with everything.

See related story, Waco prosecutor quits' by David Bresnahan.

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