Four Takeaways from Obama's Speech on Syria
ReasonTV
Published on Sep 10, 2013
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President Obama Address To The Nation On Syria! - FULL SPEECH!! - 9/10/2013
Published on Sep 10, 2013
September 10, 2013 - Obama Syria Speech Address - President Obama delivered a speech to the American people on Tuesday night on Syria outlining the U.S. response to the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons against rebels and civilians. Obama's speech comes after news that the Syria has agreed to surrender its chemical weapons stockpiles to international control for eventual destruction, which Obama has indicated could avert a U.S. strike.
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Tear-Gas Type Used at Waco Reported in '95
Internal
F.B.I. documents disclosed today by a Democratic lawmaker show that
information about the use of combustible tear-gas canisters at the 1993
Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Tex., has sat in the Justice
Department's files for years and was even sent to Congress no later than
1995.
The documents cast new light on when different parts of the Government first had information about the use of the tear gas cannisters and may alter the dynamics of the renewed outcry over events surrounding the Federal Bureau of Investigation tear-gas attack at the Branch Davidian compound, which burned to the ground on April 19, 1993.
The documents show that even though the Justice Department sent United States marshals to the F.B.I.'s headquarters two weeks ago to seize infrared videotapes that contained references to the use of the tear gas rounds, the department had for years possessed F.B.I. records in its own files that showed such devices were used at the cult's compound. The seizure was ordered by Attorney General Janet Reno, who was angry because she had maintained for six years that the F.B.I. had done nothing that could have caused the fire.
In addition, the documents provide evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has been accused by some in Congress, the Clinton Administration and the public of misleading the Justice Department about the issue, did provide information about the use of the rounds to Ms. Reno's subordinates on several occasions. Ms. Reno has said she did not see any documents on the subject until two weeks ago.
Even so, there is no indication in the documents made public today that F.B.I. officials clearly explained to civilian counterparts at the Justice Department the implications of using the rounds. While F.B.I. officials have denied any role in starting the fire, they never said publicly that they had used the rounds until last month, when they said that a ''very limited number'' of such canisters had been fired at a concrete bunker hours before a deadly fire swept through another structure on the compound. Investigators later found the bodies of about 80 people, among them a number of children.
Read More Here
*********************************************************The documents cast new light on when different parts of the Government first had information about the use of the tear gas cannisters and may alter the dynamics of the renewed outcry over events surrounding the Federal Bureau of Investigation tear-gas attack at the Branch Davidian compound, which burned to the ground on April 19, 1993.
The documents show that even though the Justice Department sent United States marshals to the F.B.I.'s headquarters two weeks ago to seize infrared videotapes that contained references to the use of the tear gas rounds, the department had for years possessed F.B.I. records in its own files that showed such devices were used at the cult's compound. The seizure was ordered by Attorney General Janet Reno, who was angry because she had maintained for six years that the F.B.I. had done nothing that could have caused the fire.
In addition, the documents provide evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has been accused by some in Congress, the Clinton Administration and the public of misleading the Justice Department about the issue, did provide information about the use of the rounds to Ms. Reno's subordinates on several occasions. Ms. Reno has said she did not see any documents on the subject until two weeks ago.
Even so, there is no indication in the documents made public today that F.B.I. officials clearly explained to civilian counterparts at the Justice Department the implications of using the rounds. While F.B.I. officials have denied any role in starting the fire, they never said publicly that they had used the rounds until last month, when they said that a ''very limited number'' of such canisters had been fired at a concrete bunker hours before a deadly fire swept through another structure on the compound. Investigators later found the bodies of about 80 people, among them a number of children.
Read More Here
AP New Archive
Chemist Says Gas May Have Suffocated Children at Waco
Jul. 26, 1995 7:51 PM ET
WASHINGTON
(AP) _ The government's use of tear gas at Waco was sharply
debated Wednesday, with one chemist suggesting the gas attack may have
killed children inside the Branch Davidian compound and another
scientist concluding it did no harm.
In written testimony submitted to two congressional subcommittees
investigating the events at Waco, George F. Uhlig, a professor of
chemistry at the College of Eastern Utah, said a chemical used to carry
the gas into the compound ``would have suffocated the children early
on.''
He also wrote that a poorly ventilated area of the house ``could
have been turned into an area similar to one of the gas chambers used by
the Nazis at Auschwitz.''
Under questioning by Republicans who arranged his testimony,
however, Uhlig said there was a 60 percent chance that the chemical used
with the gas ``could'' have killed children.
The Justice Department immediately attacked Uhlig's findings and a
witness called by Democrats said he and his partner found no evidence
that the gas caused any harm.
Questioning of the scientists marked one of the sharpest disputes in the six days of hearings so far.
Earlier in the day, a federal agent tearfully testified that he has
no doubt the Davidians shot first when officers tried to serve warrants
at the compound on Feb. 28, 1993. The agent, Jim Cavanaugh of the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, also told of the difficulty in
negotiating with a man ``who thought he was God.''
The siege ended 51 days after the shootout, after the FBI filled the
compound with tear gas. A fire, which the government contends was
started by Koresh and his followers, swept the compound.
Koresh and 80 of his followers died in what investigators called a
mass suicide. Critics, including Uhlig, say the government was
responsible for the deaths.
In an interview, Richard Scruggs, an assistant to Attorney General
Janet Reno, said the Justice Department has found no evidence that the
gas contributed to the deaths.
``If it had an effect, we would be very concerned about it and we
would have been the first to say'' there was a problem, Scruggs said.
Uhlig admitted he was not an expert on chemical warfare agents. The
Democrats' witness, David Upshall, said he helped research the gas after
it was first used in Northern Ireland.
Upshall concluded that while the deaths at Waco saddened him, he
believed ``that the (tear) gas played no direct part in these deaths.''
FBI officials said they recommended using gas to try to end the
siege because they did not believe David Koresh was on the verge of
surrendering, as the sect leader's lawyer contended on Tuesday.
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By Richard Leiby
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 26, 1999;
Page A1
The FBI yesterday reversed a six-year-old position
that it never used munitions capable of sparking the blaze that ended a
standoff with the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Tex., and left 76
people dead.
The acknowledgment that FBI agents fired "a very limited number" of
potentially incendiary tear gas cartridges on the final day of the
51-day siege contradicts congressional testimony from high-ranking
Justice Department officials, such as Attorney General Janet Reno, who
said that the tear gas used against the Davidians "could not have caused
a fire."
An FBI spokesman, Paul Bresson, said yesterday that none of its munitions started the fire on April 19, 1993, and noted that they were used hours before the inferno that consumed the Davidians' compound. FBI officials said they still believe that Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and his followers deliberately torched the compound but expressed regret if their answers to Congress ultimately may prove to be inaccurate.
Reno and FBI Director Louis J. Freeh have ordered "a full review of the facts and circumstances" surrounding the use of military gas canisters on that day, according to an FBI statement.
The use of at least two military 40mm cartridges was confirmed by a former senior FBI official, Danny O. Coulson, whose comments were first reported this week in the Dallas Morning News.
"I only found out a week ago that these rounds were fired," Coulson, a deputy assistant FBI director during the Waco siege, said in an interview yesterday. "This is the truth and this is what happened. It's important for the American people to know."
Coulson said the pyrotechnic gas rounds were not linked to the fire, which broke out shortly after noon. The 40mm munitions were fired "no later than 8 a.m.," he estimated. News videos from the time show that the tear gas grenades landed near a storm shelter and emitted smoke but did not ignite any part of the main building.
Congressional investigators, as well as attorneys representing the families of dead Davidians, questioned the FBI's credibility after learning of Coulson's remarks. At hearings in 1993, and again in 1995, officials stressed that all forms of tear gas used against the sect were not incendiary. Reno testified in 1993 that she "wanted and received assurances that the gas and its means of use were not pyrotechnic."
Robert Charles, who as chief counsel for a House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee wrote the final report on the 1995 Waco hearings, said that the new information would have changed how Congress probed the incident.
"It's just a shock to hear from one of the key players that this fact -- which was obviously material to what we were investigating -- was not volunteered, or was deliberately withheld," Charles said.
Michael Caddell, a Houston attorney for the estates and family members of Branch Davidians who died in the siege, said the FBI's acknowledgment proves "what we've been saying along: that the government intentionally used fire-starting devices on that final day."
"The conspiracy of silence is beginning to crumble," Caddell said. "The government lied about this. What else have they lied about?"
Read More Here
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One point that needs to be made, but rarely if ever mentioned,
is that in the supposed rationale for US attack on Syria to
avenge/prevent claimed civilian deaths by government gas attacks, the US
government itself has used similar weapons openly as recently as the
FBI/ATF attack on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco Texas in the
spring of 1993.
76 men, women and children died in this senseless military style assault which used highly lethal military CS gas as a primary weapon. CS is not a nerve agent and it doesn’t in normal concentrations cause immediate death. But it is highly flammable, persistent and designed to incapacitate targets by causing massive biological reactions including inability to breathe, massive tearing in the eyes, nose bleeds, etc.
The Davidians were totally surrounded, posed no threat to others, and responded with weapons fire only after the ATF/FBI attacked with military style firearms. After the initial government assault was repelled, and after a long standoff, an impatient President Clinton and his Attorney General Janet Reno ordered an all-out military assault on the compound, despite the fact that the only legal justification was a single warrant for David Koresh on unproven charges. The presence of innocent group members was ignored, nor was there any planning for medical aid or fire suppression.
The rest is history. Special military tanks were used to puncture compound walls and insert large quantities of CS gas. CS gas grenades were used from military stores along with 2 metal CS pyrotechnic M651E1 shells. Other pyrotechnic devices and flammable rounds were also fired into the buildings despite known dangers of CS gas ignition and chemical changes to the CS in fires making it even more deadly.
Wikipedia has more details. The video “Rules of Engagement” makes it clear that this was a deliberate effort to kill those inside.
In the run up to the Iraq invasion and now with Syria, United States officials loudly wailed about these regimes “killing civilians” with poison gas. Despite lack of hard evidence for such use in these countries, there is no doubt that President Clinton and Reno approved this exact same tactic.
Unlike the Middle Eastern scenarios, no civil war or mass terrorist action was occurring in Waco. There were no enemy forces attacking regime outposts and military targets. Just religious dissenters who followed an unstable cult leader, who lived privately on a remote farm bothering no one.
Read More Here
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An FBI spokesman, Paul Bresson, said yesterday that none of its munitions started the fire on April 19, 1993, and noted that they were used hours before the inferno that consumed the Davidians' compound. FBI officials said they still believe that Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and his followers deliberately torched the compound but expressed regret if their answers to Congress ultimately may prove to be inaccurate.
Reno and FBI Director Louis J. Freeh have ordered "a full review of the facts and circumstances" surrounding the use of military gas canisters on that day, according to an FBI statement.
The use of at least two military 40mm cartridges was confirmed by a former senior FBI official, Danny O. Coulson, whose comments were first reported this week in the Dallas Morning News.
"I only found out a week ago that these rounds were fired," Coulson, a deputy assistant FBI director during the Waco siege, said in an interview yesterday. "This is the truth and this is what happened. It's important for the American people to know."
Coulson said the pyrotechnic gas rounds were not linked to the fire, which broke out shortly after noon. The 40mm munitions were fired "no later than 8 a.m.," he estimated. News videos from the time show that the tear gas grenades landed near a storm shelter and emitted smoke but did not ignite any part of the main building.
Congressional investigators, as well as attorneys representing the families of dead Davidians, questioned the FBI's credibility after learning of Coulson's remarks. At hearings in 1993, and again in 1995, officials stressed that all forms of tear gas used against the sect were not incendiary. Reno testified in 1993 that she "wanted and received assurances that the gas and its means of use were not pyrotechnic."
Robert Charles, who as chief counsel for a House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee wrote the final report on the 1995 Waco hearings, said that the new information would have changed how Congress probed the incident.
"It's just a shock to hear from one of the key players that this fact -- which was obviously material to what we were investigating -- was not volunteered, or was deliberately withheld," Charles said.
Michael Caddell, a Houston attorney for the estates and family members of Branch Davidians who died in the siege, said the FBI's acknowledgment proves "what we've been saying along: that the government intentionally used fire-starting devices on that final day."
"The conspiracy of silence is beginning to crumble," Caddell said. "The government lied about this. What else have they lied about?"
Read More Here
*********************************************************
Government Killing of Civilians by Gas
August 31, 2013
76 men, women and children died in this senseless military style assault which used highly lethal military CS gas as a primary weapon. CS is not a nerve agent and it doesn’t in normal concentrations cause immediate death. But it is highly flammable, persistent and designed to incapacitate targets by causing massive biological reactions including inability to breathe, massive tearing in the eyes, nose bleeds, etc.
The Davidians were totally surrounded, posed no threat to others, and responded with weapons fire only after the ATF/FBI attacked with military style firearms. After the initial government assault was repelled, and after a long standoff, an impatient President Clinton and his Attorney General Janet Reno ordered an all-out military assault on the compound, despite the fact that the only legal justification was a single warrant for David Koresh on unproven charges. The presence of innocent group members was ignored, nor was there any planning for medical aid or fire suppression.
The rest is history. Special military tanks were used to puncture compound walls and insert large quantities of CS gas. CS gas grenades were used from military stores along with 2 metal CS pyrotechnic M651E1 shells. Other pyrotechnic devices and flammable rounds were also fired into the buildings despite known dangers of CS gas ignition and chemical changes to the CS in fires making it even more deadly.
Wikipedia has more details. The video “Rules of Engagement” makes it clear that this was a deliberate effort to kill those inside.
In the run up to the Iraq invasion and now with Syria, United States officials loudly wailed about these regimes “killing civilians” with poison gas. Despite lack of hard evidence for such use in these countries, there is no doubt that President Clinton and Reno approved this exact same tactic.
Unlike the Middle Eastern scenarios, no civil war or mass terrorist action was occurring in Waco. There were no enemy forces attacking regime outposts and military targets. Just religious dissenters who followed an unstable cult leader, who lived privately on a remote farm bothering no one.
Read More Here
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