Editor’s Pitch

This is an amazing investigative film exposing the FBI and ATF’s brutal tactics in the 1993 siege of David Koresh’s, Branch Davidian compound in Waco. One of the best documentaries of its kind, this is a shocking catalogue of US government mandated violence against its own people. This is a must-see for anyone interested in how suppression and media manipulation are alive and well in a society that trusts its politicians to protect its citizens.



Nominated for Best Documentary at the 1997 Academy Awards., this is a controversial documentary about the stand-off between an unorthodox Christian group (the Branch Davidians, under the leadership of the young, charismatic David Koresh) and the forces of the FBI and ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) in Waco.

The place was Waco, Texas,, the dates - 51 days between February and April 1993.

It presents a different spin on the events given by the United States government, which stated that the Branch Davidians set the fire that destroyed their compound, and killed the vast majority of them, on April 19, 1993.

Using footage from the 3 month siege, plus the congressional hearings in the aftermath, participants in the deadly event, and experts from technical, psychological, and religious perspectives, this investigation stakes an unpopular claim. That the Branch Davidians were not a cult, but a valid religious group, practicing under the United State’s First Amendment freedoms.

They fell victim to the ineptitude of an ATF raid designed to garner the agency positive attention, and the cruel, methodical work of the FBI, who over-saw the murder of the Davidians and then quickly covered it up.



Press Reviews

”I think ‘Waco: The Rules of Engagement’ is the most remarkable investigative documentary made in the 1990s. Its proposition initially seems dubious - that the FBI not only countenanced but organised the burning of the Branch Davidians at Waco in April 1993. The astonishing thing is that all these assertions, except for the question of motive perhaps, were proved to be correct five years later. …anyone who truly likes journalism should view it as an example of how to tell a difficult story.”
Nick Fraser, BBC Storyville


”William Gazecki's ‘Waco: The Rules of Engagement’ is a major documentary - a meticulously detailed, step-by-step and terrifyingly persuasive all-out attack on government agencies and officials for their handling of the siege. What emerges here is an acute sense of the ongoing struggle in American society between protecting the constitutional freedom of religion and protecting the public from the lunatic fringe. It is an understatement to say that ‘Waco: The Rules of Engagement’ is provocative in every sense of the word.“
Kevin Thomas, LA Times



Further information on the Waco tragedy

There is a wealth of fascinating supplementary material on the Waco tragedy and this hugely influential documentary online. The best place to begin would be the producers own website which has photos, the deputy attorney John Danforth’s report and a exhaustive Q and A section.

You can read the full transcript of the negotiations that took place during the Waco standoff here and the Introduction to the Branch Davidians provides a great background to their beliefs and charismatic leader David Koresh.

Wikipedia has pages on the Waco Siege, David Koresh, and the Branch Davidians with links to other interesting pages. Salon News runs an interesting article on what happened and the BBC ran a profile on Koresh and the Seige.

There is new evidence of FBI complicity in the Waco massacre on American Free Press. If you’d like to read up on those who arent taken by the evidence presented in Waco: The Rules of Engagement these articles attempt to debunk it: ‘Waco documentary is a hoax!’ and ‘Waco Suits for Waco suckers!’.