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According to the raid plan, three National Guard helicopters
would come around the back of Mt. Carmel, just before the raid
started. This was intended to distract people as the cattle trailers,
filled with soldiers, pulled up to the front
The helicopters didn't arrive on schedule, they showed
up as the raid and the firing had already began. The Real Audio
file below shows us why this happened.
Raid Commanders were, Jim Cavanaugh (ground command)
and Philip Chojnacki (air command). Both of them were on different
radio channels and could not talk to eachother! The radiovan
tries to clear up the confusion, he can be heard instructing
the commanders to reset their "Sabres" (portable encrypted
radios), to no success.
Four minutes before the raid begins, Cavanaugh is
still calling to the air commander (Chojnacki) in a desperate
attempt to secure helicopter support.
(Interestingly, this audio evidence was not revealed to Congressional
investigators, FBI later admitted to the fact.)
(Real Audio of transmissions)
Several Davidians, testified that the first shots
came from the approaching helicopters; the proof was the entry
holes from the sky INTO the structures ceiling. Two attorney's
allowed inside Mt. Carmel during the standoff, were retired military
munitions experts, and they testified that the holes they witnessed
were all incoming rounds.
Government witnesses, in complete contrast, deny that
any shots were fired from the aircraft. However,
a memo of the training exercises mentions using gunshots from
aircraft to add to the distraction. The video made from the
helicopters has an interesting soundtrack... with gunshots audible.
Note that (according to the pilot's testimony) the helicopters
never got closer than 350 yards to the building.
Dave Hardy, one of the Davidians attornies spoke with
the pilots and they suggested hearing groundfire in the distance
at approximately 500 yards. This was supposedly heard over the
helicopters engine, rotor and transmission noise, which he mentioned
was not very likely.
With the next Real Audio file we can hear the sound
of gunshots cease, rather than becoming louder, as they fly over
and pass Mt. Carmel. It seeems strange that gunfire was heard
at 500 yards away, yet inaudible at 350 yards. Something doesnt
add up here.
Within seconds of the agents' dismounting, a major
gunbattle was underway. The government version of the incident
was that the Davidians, bent upon homicide, sprang an ambush.
But inside the building, Wayne Martin calls 9-1-1 and reports"there are 75 people around our building
and they're shooting at us!" Government witnesses contend
the agents were raked by full automatic fire from multiple positions--and
on this basis six Davidians were convicted of use of fully automatic
weapons. The audiotape made from the radio van--within hearing
range of the gunfight--shows, however, only semi-automatic fire,
with one exception. A full twelve minutes into the fight,
there is a burst of full automatic,
which shocks the radio van crew. A minute later, a garbled radio
transmission comes in and the agent listening proclaims "Hey,
heh, we got the machinegun!" The logical inferences would
be (1) one person did indeed fire a full auto, after considerable
delay; (2) He was promptly hit by return fire. But since none
of the six Davidians convicted were hit on February 28, it seems
unlikely that they were that person, and certainly all six
could not have been firing the one full auto. The theory upon
which six were convicted is inconsistent with the audiotape--which,
the agency admits, was not revealed even to Congressional committees. Onto Page
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