(29)    Tue 13 Jun 95 11:08
By: DAVID RICE
To: FREDRIC RICE
Re: What is a cult?
St:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:ee26 1ecd5900
@TID: FastEcho 1.41/g 10280
 -=> Quoting Fredric Rice to David Rice <=-

>>RB> There was no arrest warrant.

>DR> I think the Davidians were wiped out for political
>DR> reasons, not theological, which makes the issue of
>DR> topicality in this echo questionable.

FR> More, it was probably economic reasons at the heart of
FR> the issue.

That's why I think the topic is rather non-topical, though I
believe that one mitigating factor was Ms Reno's personal
opinion that the Davidians were not practising a religion she
approved of---- political was the primary reason.

The events as far as I can discover were roughly as follows.

There were rumors that the Davidians were converting semi-
automatic weapons into automatic. This rumor was started when
they purchased a lathe and an end mill, plus gained among
their membership a machinest. The BATF "reasoned" that since
the Davidians COULD now manufacture silencers and full-auto
conversion parts, they WOULD do so--- regardless of the fact
that _a_priori_ guilt is unconstitutional.

The "for the children" excuse was put to rest many months
before the BATF raid. The Waco sheriff, along with the Child
Protection "Service," performed a six-month-long
investigation and found =NO= evidence of child abuse or child
neglect.

The BATF had one of their agents join the Davidians, and the
BATF got regular reports on the Davidians' activities. The
placed agent discovered =NO= illegal weapons, =NO= parts for
making illegal weapons, and =NO= intent among the Davidians
to manufacture these parts. That was what he reported to his
superiors.

It is my opinion that the BATF believed that their agent had
been subverted and had "become one of them," and thus was
lying about not finding illegal weapons.

The BATF had botched several of their big-media raids before
the Waco raid, and very much needed a "win" to regain their
funding--- they were afraid of being dismantled and combined
with the FBI. Ms Reno very much =NEEDED= the Davidians to
have illegal weapons, so that her BATF could swoop in, grab
the weapons, throw the Davidians in jail, and, much more
importantly, crow and strut about how she and her BATF had
saved society from a degranged, armed "cult."


... Do YOU trust a religion that won't obey it's OWN laws?
* Shy.David@EdenBBS.com
--- Silver Xpress Mail System 5.3H1G
 * Origin: What we need is a moment of SCIENCE, not silence. (1:124/9005)
SEEN-BY: 102/2 138 850 851 890 943 147/7 270/101 280/1 9 25 31 333 343 354
SEEN-BY: 280/389 1776 396/1 3615/50

@PATH: 124/9005 1 396/1 280/1 102/2 851
