Day 18 of the Waco Standoff

March 17, 1993
The negotiators contacted Steve Schneider at 10:15 a.m., and once again urged a face-to-face meeting. Schneider refused and only wanted to discuss the Bible and his anger with ATF.
The negotiators decided at 1:20 p.m. to broadcast audiotapes over the public address system, which the FBI had set up outside the compound. The audiotapes were of those who had exited the compound, and contained positive comments about their treatment by law enforcement.
At 1:37 p.m., SSRA Sage, one of the FBI's principal negotiators, called Koresh and firmly urged him to surrender. In a conversation lasting until 2:39 p.m., Sage urged some type of positive action on Koresh's part and challenged his sincerity. Koresh refused totally to take any action and generally avoided discussing any specifics of a peaceful resolution.
In a conversation with Schneider at 4:16 p.m., SSRA Sage took the same approach that he had previously taken with Koresh. Sage told Schneider that his (Sagels) statements to Koresh had "fallen on deaf ears" and that progress had to be made. Schneider was repeatedly urged to take responsibility for getting some people to leave. Schneider claimed, however, that no one wanted to come out. All preferred to wait. The conversation ended at 4:49 p.m. with no progress.
The audiotapes from relatives were broadcast once again over the loudspeakers at the end of this conversation with Schneider.
Between 9:10 p.m. and 11:10 p.m., negotiators spoke with seven individuals inside urging them to take some positive action; however, there were no agreements and no progress.


(The Myth: The FBI wouldn’t let any of those people out of their church!)

[The Truth: This is the constant refrain from the Goofy Bastards. While negotiating with Vernon today, the FBI constantly tried to talk to him about letting the Davidians out of the place. Vernon said ‘no.’ All he wanted to talk about was his weird view of the Bible.

S. Olson