🚀 go-pugleaf

Clifton T. Sharp Jr. <clifto@clifto.com> wrote:
> srt@nospam.unt.edu wrote:
>> Clifton T. Sharp Jr. <clifto@clifto.com> wrote:
>> > The propaganda is that they torched themselves. Visual and infrared pictures
>> > shown dozens of times on HBO show that the use of military incendiaries
>> > started the fires.
>> 
>> Ah yes, "The Rules of Engagement" -- a discredited movie that I'm
>> surprised people actually still cite.

> No one has discredited the pictures. Watch the whole documentary with the
> sound turned off, and see who started the fires.

Yes, there have been *many* refutations of the interpretation of those
pictures.

>> Several congressional hearings, an independent investigator, and at
>> least one court of law have reached the exact same conclusion: the
>> Davidians started the fire.

> They didn't see the pictures.

No, you're wrong about that.  The did examine the pictures, the FLIR
video, and *all* that evidence.  The independent investigator's report
was from 2000, and had all that information available.  Here are some
quotes from the report:

+ There is no doubt in my mind about the conclusions of this report.
+ Government agents did not start or spread the tragic fire of April 19,
+ 1993, did not direct gunfire at the Branch Davidians, and did not
+ unlawfully employ the armed forces of the United States.

+ In fact, what is remarkable is the overwhelming evidence exonerating
+ the government from the charges made against it, and lack of any real
+ evidence to support the charges of bad acts.

And in a clear reference to the "Rules of Engagement" movie:

+ Sensational films construct dark theories out of little or no
+ evidence and gain ready audiences for their message.

For a more specific reference, from the appendix analyzing the
"evidence" from that movie, the experts agree that the story is pretty
much as the government gave it -- NOT as the film did.  Here's one
sentence from an expert report regarding the film's interpretation:

+ Mr. Allard and Mr. Cox's funfire hypothesis is not only based on
+ wrongful assumptions, but it also suffers from neglecting several
+ important scientific parameters.

So all of that evidence has been examined.  By the independent
investigator and by quite a few experts.  The bottom line is that
the Davidians torched themselves, the FBI did not shoot into the
burning building, and the other wacko conspiracy theory ravings are
really just that -- ravings.

-- 
Steve Tate --- srt[At]cs.unt.edu | Gratuitously stolen quote:
Dept. of Computer Sciences       | "The box said 'Requires Windows 95, NT, 
University of North Texas        |  or better,' so I installed Linux."
Denton, TX  76201                |