W

WACO
In 1993, federal agents besieged the Branch Davidian Compound at Mount Carmel, 12 miles from Waco, Texas. More than 80 people, including women and children, perished during the lengthy standoff. For the far-right militia movement, Waco became a rallying cry, akin to the Alamo. David Koresh had become leader of the Branch Davidians, an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church that believed in Christs Second Coming after an apocalypse. Koresh declared himself the father of all the Davidian children, insisted on Spartan living conditions, armed the compound, and began daily paramilitary training as a defensive measure to prepare for the apocalypse. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) believed Koresh had stockpiled illegal weapons, and on February 28, 1993, agents raided Mount Carmel. Four ATF agents and six members of the cult died in the ensuing gun battle, and many others, including Koresh, were wounded. It was the beginning of a 51-day siege. In the first week of March, 37 people left the compound, 21 of whom were under 18. A 9-year-old girl reportedly wore a note pinned to her jacket in which her mother wrote that once the children were gone, the adults would die. Federal agents continued negotiations for weeks. By mid-April, FBI agents began to clear the ground around the compound. On April 19, federal agents in armed tanks pumped teargas into the compound. The subsequent fire, either set by the Davidians themselves or caused by the teargas, burned the compound to the ground.
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Many on the right saw the ensuing investigation as a sinister cover-up by the government. Indeed, Waco seemed to justify the militia movements growing fears about government abuse of power and to give weight to conspiracy theories claiming that the government was systematically disarming its public to prepare for a U.N.-led invasion, which would result in the New World Order. These speculations sprang, in part, from the 1992 government-initiated siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Federal agents had issued a warrant for illegal possession of firearms for Randy Weaver, a white separatist living in rural Idaho. Federal marshals tried to arrest Weaver for failing to appear in court on the weapons charges. In the ensuing confrontation, Weavers teenaged son and William Degan, a federal officer, were killed. Subsequently, an FBI sharpshooter killed Weavers wife as she stood in the doorway of her home. Much as Ruby Ridge reinforced the militia movement in Idaho, Waco, which was televised, inflamed antigovernment sentiments across the country. On the second anniversary of Waco, the Northeast Texas militia of Texarkana erected a granite headstone as a memorial. It read, On February 28, 1993, a church and its members known as the Branch Davidians came under attack by the A.T.F. and the F.B.I. For 51 days, the Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, stood proudly. Three hundred miles away, in Oklahoma City, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was still smoldering from a 9 A.M. bombing that took 168 lives. The trial of the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, would later reveal that the first disaster spawned the second. McVeigh had stopped to observe the siege at Waco while selling survivalist materials on the gun circuit. By 1993, he was already a part of an antigovernment

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movement. In the following months, McVeigh watched conspiracy-laden videos about Waco, including Waco: The Big Lie and Day 51, which reinforced and deepened his antigovernment beliefs. McVeigh was not the only one who committed violence in the name of Waco. In 1997, authorities received a letter taking responsibility for bombings at an abortion clinic and gay club in Atlanta, Georgia, which mentioned retaliation for the siege at Waco. (Although it was signed Army of God, authorities now believe the letter was from Eric Rudolph.) In 1999, prison officials intercepted letters from members of the Aryan Circle, a prison gang, that pledged violence in the name of Waco and Oklahoma City. Many government officials and agencies are more vigilant each April 19.
See also APRIL 19; OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING; TIMOTHY MCVEIGH; ERIC RUDOLPH

Further Reading
Hamm, Mark S. Apocalypse in Oklahoma: Waco and Ruby Ridge Revenged. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997. PBS.org: Waco: The Inside Story. 2002.http://www.pbs. org/wgbh/pages/frontline/waco/. Reavis, Dick J. The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. Stern, Kenneth S. A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Thibodeau, David. A Place Called Waco: A Survivors Story. New York: Public Affairs, 1999. Walter, Jess. Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family. New York: Regan Books, 1995. Wright, Stuart, ed. Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

WAITE, TERRY (1939 )

While secretary for Anglican communion affairs for the archbishop of Canterbury, Terry Waite negotiated the release of several British hostages in Tehran, Iran, and Libya before being taken hostage himself during the Lebanon hostage crisis. The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, recruited Waite to be his adviser in 1980. The Anglican Church had no history of intervening in

international political affairs, and Waites role as a hostage negotiator in the Middle East was not part of the job description. Within a year of Waites appointment, however, three British missionaries were taken hostage in Tehran. The archbishop appealed to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a fellow religious man, and sent Waite as his envoy to negotiate the release of the hostages. Waites success transformed him from a relatively unknown religious representative to a British personality. On Christmas 1984, Waite was received by Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi to negotiate for the release of four more British hostages held in Libya. The hostages were freed the following January. Nearly a year later, on November 4, 1985, Waite made his first trip to Beirut on behalf of American captives, who had written an open letter to the archbishop asking for assistance. In Waites first meeting with a representative of Hezbollah, Waite brought a Polaroid camera and a copy of the London Times, his signature across the front page, and asked that each of the captives be photographed holding the newspaper. The hostages posed for the photographs and interpreted the newspaper with Waites signature as a sign that they might soon be released. When the intermediary returned with the photos less than an hour later, Waite was whisked off to the first-ever meeting between a Western emissary and representatives of Hezbollah. On November 26, Waite met with U.S. vice president George Bush to discuss his progress with Hezbollah. The meeting was largely symbolic, as the United States already knew that the price for the American hostages was the release of 17 Muslim prisoners held in Kuwait for two embassy bombings. However, the meeting, and the following interview on the White House lawn, established Waite as the public cover for the Reagan administrations covert armsfor-hostages deal with Iran. Over the next year, Waite continued his efforts to free the American hostages, even after news of the arms-for-hostages deal leaked into the press. He traveled to Lebanon in January 1987, though he had previously been threatened with death if he returned. On January 27, Waite went to the apartment of Dr. Mroueh, an intermediary in the hostage negotiations. Waite believed he was being taken to see Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland, who were, according to their captors, depressed and ill. Waite was taken, instead, to a 7-by-10-foot tiled cell. He was