After just a week of planning, dozens of volunteers from across the state gathered at Mount Carmel to build a church. It s a project that was started by Austin radio talk show host Alex Jones. We re going to build this church back. I ve talked to these Valley Branch Davidians and they concur with my idea to have it a church and a memorial and a museum for what happened 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.
00:00:47.000After just a week of planning, dozens of volunteers from across the state gathered at Mount Carmel to build a church.
00:00:54.000It's a project that was started by Austin Radio talk show host Alex Jones.
00:00:59.000We're going to build this church back.
00:01:01.000I'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.
00:01:21.000I think it's important that we have a place to worship again after our church was destroyed.
00:01:30.000Volunteers such as Austin contractor Mike Hansen.
00:01:33.000We just think it's the right thing to do.
00:01:35.000Jones says the 50 by 50 foot church is more than just a building.
00:01:39.000He says it's a symbol of what happened here more than six years ago.
00:01:43.000Jones calls it an attack on religious freedom.
00:01:45.000Today's effort was organized by syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones.
00:01:49.000He says rebuilding the church will be a statewide effort.
00:01:53.000And 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.
00:02:11.000And the church is expected to be completed in about three months.
00:02:18.000There 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.
00:02:31.000Plans call for the new site to hold a new 30-by-40-foot white-frame church.
00:02:36.000It's expected to be completed in two, two, three months.
00:02:38.000Topic tonight's news, a scene of mass destruction becomes a foundation for a new beginning.
00:04:23.000Watson walks in a memorial grove, each withered tree planted for someone who died here.
00:04:30.000There is still a lonely vigil for David Koresh's return, a lonely feeling no one from outside of the compound can ever understand.
00:04:39.000I'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.
00:04:49.000Even 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.
00:04:57.000But one of the Branch Davidians who is here tells me that's okay.
00:05:00.000After all, he says the only chapel they really need is in heaven.
00:06:40.000What 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.
00:06:51.000And we're now witnessing the media and many others finally realizing that we've all been lied to, we've all been conned.
00:06:58.000The Branch Davidians have never changed their story.
00:07:02.000And that's been worn out in the past six years.
00:07:04.000And 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.
00:08:15.000The 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.
00:08:31.000Basic arrest situation, not a hostage situation.
00:08:33.000They went in there to basically, according to the Dallas Morning News, take them out.
00:08:38.000And in Special Forces terms, and most people know what take them out means, because in Special Forces terms, it means kill them.
00:08:45.000What exactly are you going to do today?
00:08:47.000What exactly, how much are you going to get done today?
00:08:50.000We're going, well, yesterday we were out there and we surveyed the area.
00:08:55.000We're basically going to dig the foundation.
00:08:58.000We're going to pour the foundation, and that's the most important stage of any building project.
00:09:03.000Then, 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.
00:09:24.000And 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.
00:09:31.000In fact, it's reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
00:09:33.000And 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.
00:09:41.000The news media fell forward big time, didn't it?
00:09:47.000The news media was held back two and a half miles.
00:09:49.000The 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.
00:10:00.000And incidentally, that probably saved Clive Doyle and David Thibodeau's lives because that...
00:10:05.000The only people that survived were those that got out the front and side where the news cameras could actually get some footage.
00:10:11.000Everyone that was herded towards the back by the tanks that actually went inside died.
00:10:16.000We now have the actual flare footage of the Delta Force and the hostage rescue teams shooting the people as they tried to exit.
00:10:23.000Now, what do you folks need to complete this mission?
00:10:26.000We 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.
00:10:37.000That's all we need is people's time and people's energy and people's heart, and we're going to be able to...
00:10:42.000Say 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.
00:10:59.000Well, it's about freedom of it's about freedom of religion and the free exercise thereof.
00:11:26.000It's-- The Davidians have never changed their story, and the government has.
00:11:31.000And I've been studying it for, well, ever since it happened.
00:11:35.000And as time goes on, I begin to realize this was basically a witch hunt.
00:11:38.000It was about getting more funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
00:12:32.000In 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.
00:12:37.000More 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.
00:12:47.000I'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?
00:13:02.000I believe there's only four Davidians out here today, Surviving Branch Davidians.
00:13:11.000Now these are just concerned citizens from here in Texas and from all across America.
00:13:16.000I'm hearing about this and saying that they're going to come for at least part of the construction.
00:13:21.000So this is mainly a volunteer effort, central text, and showing the world that, hey, we think what happened here was wrong.
00:13:27.000These people's constitutional rights were violated.
00:13:30.000They were stamped as criminals and paraded before the press and basically demonized.
00:13:36.000And I don't even blame the press for that.
00:13:50.000What's the time frame in terms of what you guys are doing today?
00:13:55.000Well, we have built another home for a veteran in Austin, Texas, Joe Campana.
00:14:00.000We did that in 14 days, a city record, and that's fully furnished because the bulldozers were coming.
00:14:05.000They condemned his old home and said he wasn't going to help him.
00:14:07.000That took 14 days, but that was inside Austin in the metropolitan area.
00:14:11.000Since 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.
00:14:19.000We need to complete it that fast to keep our momentum up and get the job done properly.
00:14:24.000As far as the land dispute goes, they said it's okay to go ahead and build on this.
00:14:29.000Well, Clive Doyle's paid the back taxes.
00:14:31.000Clive Doyle, as you see, lives here on the property in his mobile home.
00:14:36.000Regardless 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.
00:14:46.000So 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.
00:14:57.000But regardless, we're building a memorial to what happened here, and I don't think anybody would ever want to tear it down.
00:15:47.000We 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.
00:15:57.000We'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.
00:25:26.000Call down and just ask the police department about the Delta Force and the bribery and how the police chief and the mayor had to throw them out.
00:25:32.000What's your loving Delta Force that was here?
00:27:18.000And what was Delta Force doing out here serving a search warrant that they never brought with them?
00:27:23.000I mean, since when has Delta Force served?
00:27:25.000Delta Force was here with them on the first day, and that's now been proven.
00:27:28.000But see, what you've got to do is you've got to go to the Texas Rangers website.
00:27:32.000That's Texas Rangers, far from Cooke's.
00:27:33.000They'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.