Quote:
http://www.firearmsandliberty.com/waco.questions.html
2. Did BATF and FBI lie about or even fabricate Davidians' allegedly illegal weapons?
** There have been frequent allegations that BATF converts legal semiautomatic weapons to illegal ones in order to score convictions. BATF/FBI needed to find such weapons to excuse the deaths of 82 Davidians and four BATF agents.
** That is why many suspect BATF and the FBI falsely claim that after the fire they found 48 automatic weapons, four live grenades and twenty metal tubes they labeled "silencers." These agencies have proved to no one outside of law enforcement that Davidian guns were illegally converted. Nor have they proved the grenades were live or the metal tubes were silencers.
** When a Davidian gun expert tried to look at the weapons, he only was allowed to do so through thick plastic, which would make it difficult to see if the changes had been made or if they had been done before or after the fire.
** While several agents alleged they heard automatic gun fire coming out of Mount Carmel, prosecutors could not provide such evidence in video tape or in vehicles shot at by Davidians. If Davidians had used such weapons, they would have done much more damage to vehicles and killed many more agents.
** Prosecutors put on the stand a Davidian woman with little weapons experience to testify a deceased Davidian told her some weapons were automatic. (A Davidian man with little experience told a grand jury that because some guns had three switch positions he assumed they were automatic. He was told a grenade in his possession was live but did not know if this was true.)
** Prosecutors did not prosecute or call to the stand a Davidian mechanical engineer who both the woman at trial and BATF agents in affidavits had identified as being possibly involved in converting weapons. This suggests the engineer had no credible evidence Davidians converted weapons.
[
quote]http://www.carolmoore.net/waco/TDM-02.html
KORESH INVITED BATF AGENTS TO INSPECT WEAPONS IN 1992
On July 30, 1992 BATF investigators Davy Aguilera and Jim Skinner visited Henry McMahon to inquire about Koresh's gun purchases. Because the agents were asking McMahon a lot of questions about David Koresh, he immediately called Koresh to inform him.
According to a 1993 statement to writer James Pate by McMahon, "[Koresh] said, `If there's a problem, tell them to come out here. If they want to see my guns, they're more than welcome.' So I walked back in the room, holding the cordless phone and said, `I've got [Koresh] on the phone. If you'd like to go out there and see those guns, you're more than welcome to.' They looked at each other and Aguilera got real paranoid, shaking his head and whispering, `No, no!' And so I went back to the phone and told David they wouldn't be coming out."21/
Despite the emotional objections of prosecutors, at trial Judge Walter J. Smith allowed McMahon's business partner and woman friend Karen Kilpatrick, who witnessed this incident, to describe it. When Kilpatrick waved her hands and shook her head, as had Aguilera, the entire courtroom burst into laughter, annoying and embarrassing the prosecutors.22/ The prejudiced judge agreed to the prosecutor's demand that Henry McMahon not be allowed to take the stand as a defense witness. Instead jurors heard a brief statement stipulated (approved) by prosecutors and read by a defense attorney.23/
After Koresh's attorney Dick DeGuerin mentioned the incident during a media panel in September, 1993, reporters from two Houston papers contacted Jack Killorin, Chief of BATF's Public Affairs. He told one reporter he was not surprised that a federal agent rejected an offer to inspect weapons. "The preferred method by the law is going with the standard of getting a warrant before entering a home. We execute such warrants."24/ He told the other reporter, "Koresh's learning of the investigation in July 1992 had no effect on the raid or the resulting standoff between agents and cult members."25/
During the July 30th visit agents Aguilera and Skinner noticed that McMahon did not have complete paper work on all of Koresh's purchases. Skinner returned on August 8th and collected documentation which Koresh had faxed to McMahon covering the purchase of lower receivers for AR-15 rifles, and other handguns and rifles.26/
Davidian David Thibodeau asserts Koresh also tried to reassure BATF undercover agent Robert Rodriquez (who was working under the assumed name "Gonzales") about the Davidians' willingness to cooperate, telling him, "If there are any problems, I've invited the Sheriff's department in here a number of times. If they have any questions they can knock on the door and work with me."27/
BATF FOUND NO EVIDENCE WEAPONS WERE PURCHASED ILLEGALLY
Davy Aguilera's investigation of shipments from various arms vendors to the Mag Bag and of gun dealer Henry McMahon's records indicated that during 1992 the Branch Davidians acquired the following firearms and related explosive paraphernalia: one hundred four (104) AR-15/M-16, upper receiver groups with barrels; eight thousand, one hundred (8,100) rounds of 9-millimeter and .223 caliber ammunition for AR-15/M-16; twenty (20), one hundred round capacity drum magazines for AK-47 rifles; two hundred sixty (260), M-16/Ar-15, magazines; thirty (30) M-14 magazines; two (2) M-16 EZ kits; two (2) M-16 Car Kits; one M-76 grenade launcher; two hundred (200) M-31 practice rifle grenades; four (4) M-16 parts set Kits "A"; two (2) flare launchers; two cases (approximately 50) inert practice hand grenades; 40-50 pounds of black gun powder; thirty (30) pounds of Potassium Nitrate; five (5) pounds of Magnesium metal powder; one pound of Igniter cord (A class C explosive); ninety-one (91) AR/15 lower receiver units; twenty-six (26) various calibers and brands of hand guns and long guns; 90 pounds of aluminum metal powder; 30-40 cardboard tubes. The amount of expenditures for the above listed firearm paraphernalia, excluding the (91) AR-15 lower receiver units and the (26) complete firearms, was in excess of $44,300."
All these guns, gun parts, powders, inert grenades, and other equipment were lawfully purchased and could be legally owned at that time. None per se established probable cause that Koresh had violated or was about to violate federal laws. As has been noted, the seemingly large amounts are not illegal either according to the Firearms Owners' Protection Act of 1986 and the Supreme Court decision United States vs. Anders, nor are they unusual for someone dealing in weapons or holding them as an investment.
At trial prosecutors could not call even one gun dealer who could provide evidence of illegal purchases of guns. One asserted that Koresh, Fatta and McMahon's paying thousands of dollars in cash for guns was not unusual among gun buyers.28/
Aguilera did not investigate the one dealer he believed might have sold Koresh illegal arms. In the affidavit he states, "because of the sensitivity of the investigation" he did not contact "vendors with questionable trade practices" who had sold to Koresh, including one merely suspected of "unlawful possession of machineguns, silencers, destructive devices, and machinegun conversion kits." (The vendor was Shooters Equipment Company in Greenville, South Carolina whose owner BATF prosecuted unsuccessfully after the failed February raid. The judge threw out the case because the parts the man was selling all came from hardware stores.29/) In effect, Aguilera refused to check to see if Koresh had bought illegal items from this source and instead inferred that he had and used this as the basis for probable cause.
Aguilera suspected the Davidians were breaking laws regarding machineguns--otherwise known as automatic weapons--which shoot two or more bullets per pull of the trigger, and laws regarding explosive devices. It is only legal to own a machinegun--or machinegun conversion kit--manufactured before May 19, 1986. Both must be registered and one must also pay a $200 transfer tax upon buying the machinegun. Uncertainty arises because the conversion kits can be used to turn semi-automatic guns into automatic machineguns. According former BATF official turned BATF critic Robert Sanders, this area remains so unclear that, "There are no published rulings telling you what is and what isn't [a violation]."30/
As of December, 1992 Aguilera's only evidence that the Davidians were committing any such crimes was that they had bought a number of legal weapons and legal gun parts which, with the help of a few parts they had not purchased, can be converted into machineguns. However, BATF's suspicions remained pure conjecture.
It also was legal at the time to own all the destructive device-related items Aguilera listed--the grenade launcher, M-31 practice rifle grenades, inert practice hand grenades, black gun powder, potassium nitrate, magnesium metal powder, aluminum powder, and igniter cord. What would not be legal is to manufacture these materials into grenades, pipe bombs or other destructive devices without proper registration. Aguilera asserted in his affidavit that BATF explosives expert Jerry A. Taylor had concluded that these materials could be used to manufacture such devices.
However, according to Paul H. Blackman, Ph.D.: "the assertion that possession of the black powder and inert grenades constitutes an explosive grenade because it is possible to make one is misleading. Not only are more materials needed, along with the machinery to drill and plug a hole, but without intent, there is no violation of the law." Blackman asserts the Davidians were using the explosive materials for construction projects and for refilling ammunition, both legal uses.31/ It was because of this lack of probable cause based on Davidian purchases that in December BATF officials instructed Aguilera to gather information about Koresh's "intent" and to set up an undercover house and infiltrate Mount Carmel Center. [/quote]
