the blumenfeld education letter january_1994

8/7/2019 The Blumenfeld Education Letter January_1994

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The BlurnenfeldEducation LetterV ol. 9 , N o. 1 (Le tte r # 89 )

"My People Are Destroyed For lack Of Knowledge" HOSEA 4:6J a n u a r y 1994EDITOR: Samuel l.Blumenfeld

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide kno~ledge for parents and educators who want to save the children of Americafrom the des~uctive forces that endanger fIlem. Our children in the public schools are at grave risk in 4 ways: academically,

. spmtually, morally, and physically - ctnd only a well-informed public will be able to reduce these risks."Without vision, file people perish."

The Governm ent's W aco Coverup :C an Linda Thomp s on's V ideo Wak e U p America?

Bynow, many of our readers have proba-bly seen Linda Thompson's video, 'Waco:The Big Ue." It's impact on anyone whosees it is quite powerful. If what the videoshows is true, then the U.S. Government isresponsible for the wanton, calculated mur-der of at least 85 innocent people all of whomwere deprived of their constitutional right tosimple due process. Ifwhat the video showsis true, then our government is responsiblefor an atrocity as evil as anything perpe-trated by the Nazis in occupied Europeduring World War II. That is why it is soimportant that this video be seen by as manyAmericans as possible, so that the call froman aroused public for a full Congressionalinvestigation of 'Wacogate" will be heeded.Linda Thompson, an Indianapolis law-yer, must be given eternal thanks for goingthrough all of the available TV coverage ofthe Waco affair and putting together theastonishing footage which clearly indicts ourgovernment officials of high crimes andmisdemeanors. All of the television net-works have in their possession, or access to,the same footage, but they have decided not

to show it to the American public. We wereshown the Rodney King video a million timeson all of the networks for one purpose only:to arouse public indignation against thepolice officers involved. But in the case ofWaco, the crucial scenes have been studi-ously kept from the public. In other words,the mass media are not only accomplices inthe coverup, but from the very begirmingwaged a campaign of defamation and vilifi-cation of the Branch Davidians calculated todestroy whatever sympathy the public wouldhave had for them when the governmentcarried out its murderous punishment.It has been at least six months since theWaco video has be en circulated and viewedby thousands of Americans across the coun-

try, and as yet we have not seen nor heardany mention of its existence by Ted Koppel,or Peter Jennings, or Dan Rather, or TomBrokaw, or David Brinkley, etc., etc. In fact,it seems as if the national media have suc-cumbed to a new phenomenon called Warnanmesia. They will only acknowledge thevideo if enough people see it and demand anexplanation from their government.

The Blumenfeld Education Letter is published monthly. Sources of products and services described are not necessarily endorsedby this publication. They are intended to provide our readers with information on a rapidly expanding field of educational activity.Permission to quote is granted provided proper credit is given. Original material is copyrighted by The Blumenfeld Education Letter.Subscription Rate: 1 year $36.00. Address: Post Office Box 45161, Boise, Idaho 83711. Phone (208) 322-4440.


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Education Letter, Pg. 2 ,January 1994

If you have not yet seen the Thompsonvideo, here is a synopsis of what's initThe first part of the video presents infor-mation about the Branch Davidians whichseems to contradict what the media havetold us about them.. The media gave theimpression that the Branch Davidians werea bunch of suicidal apocalyptic psychopaths.The Thompson video shows them as prettynormal human beings , seriously devoted toa charismatic teacher, living peacefully incommunal style at their Mt Carmel center.The sect, founded in 1935, is an offshoot ofthe Seventh Day Adventist church. Therehave been many such unorthodox religioussects and rommunities in America, none ofwhich have ever suffered a military-styleassault by the U.S. governmentBut what drew the ire of the federalgovernment to the Branch Davidians wasthe fact that they bought and sold guns,which is perfectly legal. Buying and sellingguns in Texas and elsewhere is one way inwhich many people earn money. None ofthe Branch Davidians had been convicted ofa violation of any of the gun laws on thestatute books.The second part of the video deals withthe legal preparations made by the govern-ment to justify its planned assault on theBranch Davidians' compound. Mrs. Th-ompson points out th e blatant irregularitiesin the search warrant issued by the federaljudge.The F irs t A s s ault

The third part shows th e unprovokedmilitary assault on the Branch Davidians onSunday morning, February 28. ATF troopsare shown firing at the front of the com-pound with automatic weapons with no firebeing returned. In addition, it shows threehelicopters flying overhead. It then showstwo teams of ATF men in black uniforms at

the side of the house with automatic weap-ons climbing onto the first-floor roof byladders. The group at the right is comprisedof four men, three of whom smash their wayinto a second-floor window after throwing asmoke grenade into the room. The fourthman on the roof is lying prone with a ma-chine gun, covering his buddies as they enterthe building. No one is firing at them. Thefourth man then goes to the window andthrows a grenade into the room his buddieshave just entered. He then fires the machinegun into the room. Why is he firing at hisown men? As he fires into the room, we seethree shots fired from inside the room pierc-ing the outside wall. Did those shots comefrom the three ATF agents in the room whorealized they were being shot at from theoutside? Undaunted, the fourth man thenfires into the room once more. A bullet hitshis helmet and the impact knocks him down,but he is unhurt He scurries to the edge ofthe roof and quickly goes down the ladder tothe ground.Who is that fourth man, and why did hefire into the room where he knew his ownmen had entered? We are told that the ATFhad rehearsed the attack over and over again.Had that fourth man been given special in-structions? The th ree men who had enteredthat room were the three men killed in theassault, and they have all been identified asBill Clinton's bodyguards during the elec-tion campaign.Why was an investigation not madeinto the circumstances of the deaths of thethree ATF agents? Why was the blameimmediately placed on the Branch Davidi-ans who suffered six deaths in the assault?The circumstances of the death of the fourthATF man has never been satisfactorily ex-plained. Supposedly he was killed beforethe shooting even started. Was it an acci-dent? But if it is true that one or more of tlagents were actually killed by the Branc..

'--- The Blumenfeld Education Letter ~ Post Office Box 45161~Boise, Idaho 83711 -'


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Education Letter, Pg. 4 , January 1994

spectacle on television, simply assumed thatthe "cultists," or "religious fanatics," in thecompound were so dangerous and cr iminalas to warrant the most drastic military meansto bring them into submission.

Also, we do not know, as yet, of the stateof mind of the people in the compound whowere being subjected to this barbaric tor-ment by their own government We can onlyspeculate about David Koresh's politicalknowledge. Having gone to American publicschools where he was labeled dyslexic, heprobably had a very faulty view of theAmerican government. It probably neveroccurred to him that the federal governmentwas willing to do anything and everythingin its power to destroy him, regardless of theillegality of its methods. He probably as-sumed that sane people on the outside wouldprevent the government from doing what itfinally ended up doing, burning them all todeath. After all, this was America, not NaziGennany, and those men in the black uni-forms pointing guns and tanks at the com-pound were Americans, educated in thevalues of religious freedom and due process,pledged to uphold the Constitution of theUnited States. After all, didn't PresidentClinton take his oath with ,a hand on theBible, the same Bible that Koresh used as thebasis of his beliefs? It should be noted thatKoresh's followers were not idiots. One ofthem was a graduate of Harvard Law School.T h e F in a l S o l u t io n

The fifth part of the video deals with thefinal assault that led to the total destructionof the compound by fire and the death ofvirtually everyone inside. We do not knowhow the final assault was planned. But wedo know that the plan was approved byPresident Ointon and his Attorney General,Janet Reno.

The plan, as advertised to the public,

was to use tanks with extended arms topunch holes in the walls of the compound,pump CS gas into the building. and force thepeople inside to come out with their handsup. Janet Reno justif ied the use of thesemethods in order to "save the children." O fcourse, had she really been interested insaving the children, she would have simplycalled off the entire military operation andpermitted anyone who wanted to leave thecompound to do so unharmed. That wouldhave been the humane and sensible thing todo. It is wiser to let the guilty go free if that' 5what it takes to save the innocent. But shewas so intent on capturing the alleged killersof the ATF agents, that she was unwilling tospare the 85 innocent men, women and chil-dren in that building. H she was so intent onbringing the killer or killers of the ATF agentsto justice, why didn't she start by question-ing the ATF man who fired into the roomwhere his buddies, Clinton'S former body-guards, were?

What the Thompson video shows is thatthe plan as described to the American peopleon television was quite different from whatactually happened on that tragic day, April19, beginning at 6:05 a.m. First, the Th-ompson video shows us a diagram of thecompound and the two underground bun-kers a few feet away from the main buildingwhich were accessible through a trapdoor inthe house. It is speculated that many of theDavidians, particularly the women and chil-dren, were spending nights inthe bunkers toescape the psychological torment aimed atthem by their government. And since thegovernment knew where everyone was inthat building at all times, what took placenext is perhaps too gruesome to be true butprobably is.

The first thing we see is a large militarytank maneuvering directly over the bunkerarea, at six a.m., moving back and forth. It~not clear what the tank is doing, but it seem,

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E du catio n L ette r, P g. 5 1 January 1 9 9 4to be destroying the building over thetrapdoor leading to the bunkers which wouldhave made it impossible for anyone to getout. We then see smoke rising out of theground where the bunkers are located. Thebunkers are obviously on fire, and the peopleinside are trapped. They can't get out, andthey are being burnt to death. The ATF hasblocked their escape. All of this took placeearly in the assault, six hours before the bigconflagration that destroyed the entire com-plex.

In fact, we se e no evidence of CS gasbeing pumped into the building. What wesee are 58-ton converted M-60 tanks withextended crane-like arms simply pushing inand destroying the building around thebunker entrance area as if to seal it off. Thebig fire is reported to have started at 12:05p.m. at the very other end of the compound,It should be noted that during that entiretime, a good six hours after the beginning ofthe operation, no ATF or FBI agent was shotat. Since many of the people who wereburned to death in the compound were foundin the underground bunkers, we have nochoice but to assume that they were killed bythe government hours before the big fire.They were killed in the bunkers! probablybetween 6 and 8 a.m., well before the big firebroke out. Their murder had to be coveredup, for they would not have been kiilled inthe big fire had they been alive before the fireat noon and taken refuge in the bunkers.What about the CS gas? Was any of itactually pumped into the building, or wasthe CS gas idea simply invented as a pretextfor using the tanks to demolish the build-ings? We shall have to wait to hear the testi-mony of the Davidian survivors who willstand trial for their "crimes,"But what we then clearly see in thevideo is the U.S. government starting the fireat around noon which reduced the entire

compound to ashes. We dearly see a con-verted tank with a blow torch pushing intothe building and pulling out. Also, we seetwo ATF agents who probably started firesin the upper levels. One ha s leapt down ontoa tank, the other we see jumping from thebuilding! removing fire-repellant clothingand nonchalantly walking away from thebuilding. Who were those two ATF agents?What were they doing on top of the build-ing? Who gave them their instructions? Havethey been questioned by anyone? Also, whowas driving the tank with the blow torch?Who gave him his instructions, and whatwere they?

D e s t r o y i n g the E v i d e n c eV \ l e also know that Koresh made a des-perate call for help! but that the ATF pre-vented any fire-fighting apparatus fromgetting to the building until it was burnt tothe ground. We also know that the ATFproceeded to level everything in sight anddestroy any evidence that would have contra-dicted their story that the Branch Davidianshad immolated themselves in some sort ofapocalyptic mass suicide. The truth is thatthe government is covering up mass murderby its own agents.The sense of shock one feels after view-ing that video is numbing. One asks howcould the U.S. government commit such anatrocity on 85 or so innocent men! womenand children, none of whom had been con-victed of a crime, and all of whom had beendenied and deprived of their basic constitu-

tional right to due process. Apparently, theConstitution no longer means anything tothose who rule over us.And the myth that David Koresh andhis followers committed mass suicide is stillbeing drummed into the heads of the Ameri-can people eight months later by the media,despite the existence of the Thompson video

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Education Letter, Pg. 6 , january 1994

and their own video files which contain thesame footage.

The government hopes that an indiffer-ent and apathetic public will let them getaway with the Waro massacre. But whathappened in Waco is far worse than whathappened at My Lai, for in Vietnam oursoldiers were fighting a war. There was nowar in Waco, only sheer, unadulterated tyr-anny by a lawless government that must bemade accountable for its murderous actions.Some 85 individuals were killed by theirgovernment at Waro. The American peoplemust not permit the murderers to go unpun-ished.

Lies F rom the MediaWhat is most disturbing about this en-

tire Waco episode is the utter complicity ofthe media in characterizing Koresh and hisfollowers as suicidal apocalyptic psycho-paths.

For example, Steven V. Roberts, a seniorwriter at U.s. News & World Repo r t wrote thefollowing commentary in its May 3, 1993issue:

Waco and. Bosnia. David Koresh and SlobodanMilosevic. One driven by religious zeal, the other bynationalist blood lust. But these two places, and thesetwo men, present civilized people with basically thes am e q ue stio n: How does society deal with a messi-anic personality who resists all attempts at persua-sion and pressure?

How? ill a country that believes inreligious freedom, you leave him and hisfollowers alone, all 85 of them. Thafs how.Koresh represented no danger to anyone.The government's suspicions of illegalitieswere simply that. Suspicions founded onhearsay, noises, and the tales of vindictiveindividuals and cult deprogrammers. Thequestion th~ writer should ask is how doesan individual protect himself from false

witnesses when the government has decidedthat it is out to get you? Mr. Roberts contin-ues:

As President Ointon put it, after Koresh and hisfollowers burned themselves at the stake of RanchA po caly ps e: "T h ere is unfortunately a rise of this sortof fanaticism all across the world. We may have toconfront it again,"

Whose fanaticism was more dangerous,the ATFs fanatic detennination to get itsman no matter the cost, or Koresh's belief inhis own religious calling? The latter claimedthe loyalty of about 130 people, while theformer represents a gross perversion of theAmerican legal system. Were the technicalgun violations the Branch Davidians wereaccused of worth the 85 lives destroyed bythe government's relentless and mercilesspursuit after an eccentric religious vision-ary? Why didn't the writer in U.S. Newsquestion the governmenfs wisdom and/orlegality in Waco? He writes:

The most painfuI question is this: To stop insan-ity, do civil ized people have to become insane them-selves? Do they ultimately have to kill and malin inorder to thwart a greater evil? Finally, inWaco, thepatience broke , and the result was tragedy.

Obviously, the writer in U.S. News hasn'tthe slightest idea how to tell fact from fiction.Was it "civilized" to attack a compound of 85men, women and children with helicoptersand automatic weapons for the purpose ofserving a search warrant? Only an insane orevil government would do what was done inWaco. And comparing David Koresh toSlobodan Milosevic is about the closest thingto insanity Ican think of. Koresh did notattack the ATF. They attacked him first,killing six of the people in the compound.During World War II, there were Gennanswho used tortured logic to justify what Hitlerwas doing to the Jews, and Mr. Roberts isusing the same strained logic to justify what

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Education Letter, Pg. 7, january 1994

his government did to th e Davidians.Has Mr. Roberts or any of his colleagues

seen the Thompson video? Are they eveninterested in knowing the truth? Has any-one in Congress seen the video? At a speechLinda Thompson gave to an audience of3000 in Milwaukee on Oct. 23f 1993f she said:,

We started sending out videos to churches andgroups around the country. We sent ~ ~py . ! ? eve~member of the House and Senate judiciary j~ornnut-tee in th e Ll.S, Congress and t hey denied getting them.We called behind them to ask if t hey got them, Now,one Congressman-Sam Nunn of Georg ia , said on1V the other night "Please, don't anybody send meanother copy of this tape!" We've got to inundatethem with this so please don't let my copyright on thevideo throw you off because I really could care less ifyou copy it. In fact, Iwant you to copy it! Iam anattorney and Ireally put that copyright on ~~re tooffend the people that put this coverage out onginallyso that they would sue me and nobody has! Makecopies, lots of copies and get them out there. Sendthem to Congress. Get th e cheapest deal yoUI~ ~.Make as many as you can---get them out there. 'Thisis the only way we're going to convince anybody to doa genuine investigation.

It is also important to get this videodiscussed by the media which so happilyplayed the Rodney King tape over and overagain. What about 60 Minutes, 20/20, PrimeTime live, and other such T V magazineshows? For a media that devoted volumes toWatergate and Irangate, where is the curios-ity over Warogate? Where are all those we1l-paid investigative reporters? Where are allthose Pulitzer Prize winners? Only a mas-sive effort on the part of thousands of Ameri-cans will be able to break through the wall ofcensorship and disinfonnation erected bythe Clinton government and its accomplices,(To get copies of the Thompson video,'Waro, the Big Lie," write to: American Jus-tice Federation, 3850 S. Emerson Ave.., Indi-anapolis, Indiana 46203. Or phone: 317-780-5204. Fax: 317-780-5209. Price: $20.}

L a w s u i t s F il e d in W a c o M a s s a c r eIn October 1993, the CAUSE Founda-

tion f i led the first of numerous lawsuits underthe Federal Civil Rights Act, on behalf ofrelatives of individuals killed in the Wacomassacre of April 19. After the initial attackby the BATF on February 28, CAUSE ~a~been contacted by family members of Davidi-ans trapped inside by the government siege.As a result, CAUSE sponsored the "LawyersResponse Conunittee" which attempted tolegally prevent the tragedy which occurred51 days later. They contacted well-knownattorneys who agreed to represent BranchDavidians for free, and to connect them withfamily members.

This strategy resulted in the representa-tion of David Koresh by Dick DeGuerin andSteve Sclmeider by Jack Zimmermann , bothof powerful Houston-based criminal lawfirms, In addition, CAUSE sought an injunc-tion and restraining order in the U.S. DistrictCourt in Waco. These legal documents pre-dicted that the government would bum outthe Davidians almost two months prior tothe holocaust of April 19.

CAUSE has also filed three Federal TortOaims Act (FTCA) demands with FBI andBATF, seeking over $100,000,000 in damagesfor the survivors of three Branch Davidianfamilies. "These suits are not so much in-tended to compensate the victims of thegovernment's excessive use of force, as theyare to defend the Constitution from govern-ment encroachment and to se e that anothersituation like Waco never happens again,"said Kirk D. Lyons, attorney and ExecutiveDirec tor of CAUSE.

The 39-page lawsuit filed in the U.S.District Court for the Western District ofTexas , Waco Division, cites several causes ofaction against the U.S. government. The suitnames the United States of America, Presi-

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Education Letter, Pg. 8 T january 1994

dent Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno,FBI, BATF and its former Director, StephenHiggins, numerous BATF agents, includingRobert Rodriguez , the so-called infiltrator,and several FB I agents, including Jeffrey J.Jamar, Special Agent-in-Charge of the David-ian standoff.The civil rights lawsuit accuses the BAT Fof unconstitutional use of excessive force inconducting the February 28 raid that left fourBATF agents and six Branch Davidians dead.Moreover, CAUSE charges that the BATFhad no sufficient probable cause to supportthe search warrant that led to the initial raid,provided the court with false information tosecure the warrant, fired. indiscriminatelyand killed innocent citizens, established a defacto state of martial law, used psychologicalterror, and willfully and maliciously attackedand killed the surviving members of theBranch Davidians. The lawsuits also allegethat BATF is engaged in a conspiracy todeprive citizens of their rights, privilegesand immunities under the Second Amend-ment to the United States Constitution.D e f e n d i n g the S u r v i v o r s

In addition to suing the government,CAUSE has been active with defense attor-neys for the Branch Davidians and repre-sents several of those held as material wit-nesses, having secured several releases fromfederal custody. Moreover, CAUSE Associ-ate Director Dave Hollaway is an independ-ent investigator in the Davidian case andwas taken to the site of the Branch Davidianchurch by BATF prior to the government'srazing of the fire remains.In its investigation, CAUSE h as s ec ure dthe services of an independent forensic pa-thologist, a fire and explosion laboratory,and other expert witnesses. Independentexamination of Branch Davidian humanremains has been conducted by CAUSE.

The official report on the investigationby the U.S. Treasury Department was re-leased on September 3 0, 1 99 3. This led to thefiring of BATF Director Stephen E. Higgins,and the suspension of five senior agents,four of whom are named in the lawsuit:Chojnacki, Royster, Hartnett, and Dunagan.The civil lawsuit was filed by CAUSE on theprevious day.A companion report by the U.S. JusticeDepartment was released on October 8, 1 99 3.The report was hastily edited to remove anyinformation which would be of value in thecivil suit or of use to the defense attorneys intheir representation of the Branch Davidi-ans.

Naturally, the reports leave much to bedesired considering they are products of thegovernment investigating itself. However,they do contain sufficient facts to supportthe contentions of the civil lawsuit. More-over, the reports contradict themselves andeach other: they don't even agree on whatgas was used to force the Davidians out oftheir building.CAUSE represents about seven familiesof dead Davidians and is expected to filemore suits in the next few weeks. CAUSEFoundation is a non-political public servicecorporation dedicated to the preservation ofinternational human and civil rights. It is theonly organization which is actively andmeaningfully pursuing justice for the survi-vors of the Waco massacre. Since the ex-penses for carrying forth these legal battlesagainst the government are high, CAUSEneeds as much financial help from the publicas possible. Any contribution over $50 willreceive a ropy of the lawsuit. (For furtherinformation, write to: The Balance , a newslet-ter published by CAUSE, P.O. Box 1235 ,Black Mountain, North Carolina 28711. Con-tributions to CAUSE should be sent to t h -same address.)

'---- The Blumenfeld Education Letter - Post Office Box 45161- Boise, Idaho 83711 --

the blumenfeld education letter january_1994

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