Word: cults
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...cult leader had broken one deal after another, officials reminded Reno. "There were never any real negotiations," says Jeffrey Jamar, the beefy FBI agent in charge on the ground. "We stayed in touch to avoid provocation, but everything was done on his time -- he was in strict control." Negotiators had learned that Koresh had a particular dread of jail, a fear of being raped. "He had all the wives, food and liquor he wanted," Coulson says. "Inside, he's God. Outside, he's an inmate on trial for his life. What was he going...
...undercover agent inside before the original raid, but his shooting skills on the target range may have aroused suspicion. After negotiating to send in milk, magazines and a typewriter, they tucked in tiny listening devices as well to help them monitor Koresh's moods. But cult members were said to have found the bugs and destroyed them...
...frontal assault was out of the question. They suspected that the entire place was booby-trapped; they knew the sect had powerful weapons and night- vision scopes, sentries guarded the windows around the clock, and whenever agents approached in tanks, cult members held up the children in the windows. The strategists talked about using a water cannon, but rejected the idea. First, they didn't have an armored fire truck. Second, the blast of water was as strong as a wrecking ball and might cause the building to collapse on the children inside. Finally, water would destroy evidence...
Koresh would use food as a weapon, even on his own children. The cult had stockpiled enough Army rations to last for months, but Koresh dispensed them all. His favorites usually had the first claim, like the members of his rock band, and his Mighty Men, the term referring to the warriors who fought under King David in the Old Testament. So for the ultimate task, the fight to the death, the warriors would be fed. The weak, the vacillating and the helpless would grow weaker and weaker, unable to split off if given the chance...
...there was also plenty of evidence pointing the other way. Fully a year ago the U.S. embassy in Australia, where many cult members had lived, sent Washington a cable about the cult, warning that the Davidians would never allow themselves to be taken alive. As members came out of Ranch Apocalypse, they confirmed the planning; a 12-year-old girl told the audience on the Phil Donahue show how they were taught to put the barrel of a gun in their mouth. The feds took the possibility seriously: they collected enough anticyanide kits to provide a lifesaving dose for every...