Alex Jones launches the Phoenix Project to rebuild a chapel on the former Mount Carmel compound in Waco, Texas, framing the 1993 siege as a government massacre. He alleges BATF agents used explosive rounds to secure funding, comparing the event to Nazi Germany while claiming media censorship hid the violence. Despite land disputes and back taxes, Jones asserts construction of a 30-by-40 or 50-by-50 foot sanctuary is underway within months. This memorial aims to symbolize religious freedom and resistance against what he terms a police state, challenging official narratives of the tragedy. [Automatically generated summary]
I've talked to these Valley Branch Davidians and they concur with my idea to have it a church and at the same time a memorial and a museum for what happened right here on this very ground in 1993. It's called the Phoenix Project, a church that will rise from the ashes of the Branch Davidian compound.
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I think it's important that we have a place to worship again after our church was destroyed.
Volunteers are doing all the work.
Volunteers such as Austin contractor Mike Hansen.
We just think it's the right thing to do.
Jones says the 50 by 50 foot church is more than just a building.
He says it's a symbol of what happened here more than six years ago.
Jones calls it an attack on religious freedom.
Today's effort was organized by syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones.
He says rebuilding the church will be a statewide effort.
And so now a large group of people here in Austin, we're going to be met by others in Waco and Temple and surrounding areas in Central Texas, are all going to travel to Mount Carmel, the site of the fiery conflagration in 1993, to rebuild the church sanctuary area of the Mount Carmel complex.
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And the church is expected to be completed in about three months.
We're just thankful to God that...
There are certain people in this country that still got a spirit of assistance and wanting to do, you know, something to show their sympathy and their concern for what happened here, and we appreciate it.
Plans call for the new site to hold a new 30-by-40-foot white-frame church.
It's expected to be completed in two, two, three months.
Topic tonight's news, a scene of mass destruction becomes a foundation for a new beginning.
Good evening, I'm Kim Barnes.
And I'm Phil Scott.
Austin volunteers are rebuilding a chapel on the site of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco.
The compound burned down in 1993 after a 51-day standoff between Davidians and federal agents.
Davidian leader David Koresh and about 80 followers died.
KB24's Joel Thomas reports on the news.
I've known the Branch Davidians a long time, and I think they're good, God-fearing people.
I think they were demonized.
Most are galvanized by the thought the federal government murdered the Davidians.
They videotaped deputies who've come to hurry them along.
They don't trust law enforcement anymore, or the media.
They're in the process of digging these holes right now.
We anticipate at least three months for the construction process.
They build on the very site where America saw a shootout.
I think it's sad that a lot of people don't really care, you know, what happened here.
Seeing the battered rubble here staggers even those who've studied the standoff.
As I reflect on what happens, there's a sense even students of Waco don't know the entire message.
It's not the same.
I want to live here, but I need a trailer to do it, and I don't have the money.
You would come back out here and live like that?
You bet I would in a...
Watson walks in a memorial grove, each withered tree planted for someone who died here.
There is still a lonely vigil for David Koresh's return, a lonely feeling no one from outside of the compound can ever understand.
I'll tell you, when helicopters come after you, and you see them, and you hear them, and you know what they're doing, that's an entirely different story.
Even so, one of the workers who drove here from Austin says he feels like he's building a future tourist stop, a sort of Alamo for the Branch Davidians.
But one of the Branch Davidians who is here tells me that's okay.
After all, he says the only chapel they really need is in heaven.
In Waco, Joel Thomas, KVU 24 News.
All right.
Good morning, Mike.
I got you already.
We told everybody to meet us over there, and the KI van is running around at Capital Class.
We all want to go over there and sit in that parking lot.
What you're seeing is a group of Texans and Americans standing up against the police state, standing up against what happened to the Branch Davidians who were demonized back in 1993, the basic cover-up of the federal government.
And we're now witnessing the media and many others finally realizing that we've all been lied to, we've all been conned.
The Branch Davidians have never changed their story.
They've always told the truth.
And that's been worn out in the past six years.
And so now a large group of people here in Austin, we're going to be met by others in Waco and Temple and surrounding areas of Central Texas, are all going to travel to Mount Carmel, the site of the fiery conflagration in 1993, to rebuild the church sanctuary area of the Mount Carmel complex.
What happened in 1993 was basically the BATF wanted to get their funding increased.
They were out there with four cameras.
They had a 100-man assault team that went in and basically opened fire first.
They were going there wanting blood.
They only had an arrest warrant for David Koresh, and they could have picked him up any time in town.
But they didn't choose to do that.
They sent in a 100-man assault force.
A 100-man assault force.
And opened fire.
Helicopter gunships came in.
And this is something that really hasn't been told, but we have the video evidence of it actually happening.
And then 51 days later after psychological warfare and basic torture...
And when people would try to leave, they would have flashbang grenades thrown at them.
Now the Texas Ranger report shows this.
They were basically contained.
The Army Special Operations Delta Force was sent in with the FBI's hostage rescue teams, and from the internal Delta Force memos that have now been confirmed to be real via the Freedom of Information Act, it showed that they discussed in the memos violence of action.
Basic arrest situation, not a hostage situation.
They went in there to basically, according to the Dallas Morning News, take them out.
And in Special Forces terms, and most people know what take them out means, because in Special Forces terms, it means kill them.
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What exactly are you going to do today?
What exactly, how much are you going to get done today?
We're going, well, yesterday we were out there and we surveyed the area.
We put stakes in the ground.
We're basically going to dig the foundation.
We're going to pour the foundation, and that's the most important stage of any building project.
Then, in the next few weeks, we're going to move forward, start building the superstructure, and I would say within two and a half to three months, you'll have a fully functional sanctuary there for the Surviving Branch Davidians and for a monument to what happened in 1993. With the police and the military all working in concert, attacking any group of people.
It's horrible.
And then to see them demonized, where they were demonized, and all of that has been now disproven, is really a frightening trend in this country.
In fact, it's reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
And so we need to focus on that and have a historical perspective about how dangerous it is when you have these type of relationships forming.
The news media was held back two and a half miles.
The only footage we got was a German news cam on a 24-foot platform on some ranch land from a far distance with a super-zoom lens, and all we got was the very front.
And incidentally, that probably saved Clive Doyle and David Thibodeau's lives because that...
The only people that survived were those that got out the front and side where the news cameras could actually get some footage.
Everyone that was herded towards the back by the tanks that actually went inside died.
We now have the actual flare footage of the Delta Force and the hostage rescue teams shooting the people as they tried to exit.
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Now, what do you folks need to complete this mission?
We need people to donate time and materials, and yes, if they want money, but we will just go buy the materials we need and then deliver them to Central Point as we're doing this morning.
That's all we need is people's time and people's energy and people's heart, and we're going to be able to...
Say to certain elements of the government, it's not the whole government, but certain elements of the government that would try to engage in a cover-up and a smear campaign, a witch hunt against American citizens, we would say to them that this is about standing up and saying the people of Central Texas, the people of America, are firmly against this type of behavior.
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Well, it's about freedom of it's about freedom of religion and the free exercise thereof.
Well, for years, coming to the remembrances, we've talked about trying to do something for the Davidians, but it was all talk.
Finally, myself and Mike Hanson said, look, let's just do it.
I think we can get people behind it.
I think there's enough people in Central Texas that care and realize what happened was wrong.
And so we put it together.
In fact, we started announcing it last Monday, and here we are on Sunday, as we said we would, and a lot of great people have shown up.
More are on their way from Dallas and Fort Worth and right here in Waco and Temple and Austin and all areas in between, and we're going to build this church back.
I've talked to Surviving Branch Davidians and they concur with my idea to have a church and at the same time a memorial and a museum for what happened right here on this very ground in 1993. So is it safe to say that most of the people out here today are just people out here?
I believe there's only four Davidians out here today, Surviving Branch Davidians.
Now these are just concerned citizens from here in Texas and from all across America.
I'm hearing about this and saying that they're going to come for at least part of the construction.
So this is mainly a volunteer effort, central text, and showing the world that, hey, we think what happened here was wrong.
These people's constitutional rights were violated.
They were stamped as criminals and paraded before the press and basically demonized.
And I don't even blame the press for that.
It was the government.
They held the media back two and a half miles and then engaged in their demonization program.
And we're here to say, hey.
Enough is enough.
We're not going to talk and argue about this anymore.
We're here to support these people and support America.
That's what America's about.
What's the time frame in terms of what you guys are doing today?
Well, we have built another home for a veteran in Austin, Texas, Joe Campana.
We did that in 14 days, a city record, and that's fully furnished because the bulldozers were coming.
They condemned his old home and said he wasn't going to help him.
That took 14 days, but that was inside Austin in the metropolitan area.
Since we are outside Waco and Bellmead, I can certainly say three months, but probably within a month and a half to two months you'll have a fully completed church.
We need to complete it that fast to keep our momentum up and get the job done properly.
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As far as the land dispute goes, they said it's okay to go ahead and build on this.
Clive Doyle, as you see, lives here on the property in his mobile home.
Regardless of what ends up happening with the land, and I've talked to attorneys and others, and it's even been in the Waco Tribune, that basically once a church is built here, it'll just be up to the trustees of the church who basically owns the property.
So it's even more of an, let's say, affirming whose property this is, and this property belongs to the surviving branch Davidians, and Clive Doyle's paid the back taxes.
But regardless, we're building a memorial to what happened here, and I don't think anybody would ever want to tear it down.
Well, I've talked to attorneys and I've actually read some of the reports, some of the published reports.
Clive Doyle's already positioned.
He has a renowned attorney, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
He's paid the taxes.
And regardless of who gets this property, this place will always be basically a battlefield museum almost.
People are going to be coming out here probably forever wanting to understand what happened here.
So basically that's why we're here.
We want to put a mark on history saying the people of Central Texas and America said, no, this is wrong what happened here, and we're not going to believe the propaganda.
We're not going to believe the lies, and hopefully by leading by example, the media and others that are finally starting to wake up to what happened will also join us in trying to heal some of the wounds.
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Thank you.
Tear Gas Rounds Talk00:02:25
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Okay, here it is with a shovel.
Not yet.
Not yet, just stand still.
Everybody's talking about these tear gas rounds.
It's the 250, 40 millimeter high explosive rounds.
They'll tell you about mines and explosives placed on top, 40-millimeter exploding rounds, Delta Force running around and killing people with want and abandon.