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03/21/93
Official cautiously optimistic cult standoff will end soon
By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-Federal officials voiced cautious optimism again Saturday that an end was near in the 21-day Branch Davidian standoff, citing a long late-night talk with the cult's leader that brought two men out of the compound.
Cult leader David Koresh still has offered no timetable for breaking the impasse, but he is talking about resolving it "in the near term,' said FBI Agent Richard Swensen.
In response, federal officials adopted a more conciliatory tone toward the cult, even announcing in a Saturday news briefing that they would honor the sect's Sabbath by halting broadcasts of taped messages into the compound until sundown.
Agent Swensen said the two cult members who left the compound Friday night-Kevin Whitecliff, 31, of Honolulu, and Brad Branch, 34 -- were rank-and-file followers who began telling negotiators that they wanted to leave more than a week ago.
Both men, who are being held in the McLennan County jail, have been "forthcoming' in answering questions about the cult, the agent said, but he declined to detail their discussions with investigators.
Agent Swensen said the cult members' emergence after a week of often frustrating talks resulted from "very frank' negotiations, a desire by the two cult members to end the stalemate and the recognition that "ultimately, they're going to come out of that compound.'
"I think that there was a realization on their part that this is not something that we're going to walk away from,' Agent Swensen said. "I think it's going to get resolved here.'
The latest departure brings to 27 the number of people who have walked out of the heavily armed compound since a bloody Feb. 28 raid that left four federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and an unknown number of cult members dead. Another 103 persons, including 17 children, remain inside.
Helicopter movements
By late Saturday, there were no signs that any other followers had left. Meanwhile, three helicopters were observed making landings near the Branch Davidian outpost. An ATF spokesman described the event as routine medical evacuation training.
Cult members Kathryn Schroeder and Oliver Gyarfas, who surrendered March 12, remained jailed Saturday, held as material witnesses in the ATF investigation.
Authorities said Saturday that prosecutors would ask a federal magistrate to hold Mr. Branch and Mr. Whitecliff under the same terms.
Agent Swensen said people who have left the compound have provided no substantive information about the number of dead inside.
That may be because the bodies of people killed during the raid apparently are being kept separate from the compound's living quarters, he said.
Authorities remain frustrated with the "trickle' of cult members coming out, Agent Swensen said.
"We do want it to move faster. We've expressed that,' Agent Swensen said. "We're hopeful that we're approaching that.'
Mr. Koresh has suggested in recent days that the signs from God that may tell him to give up may include astrological events, but he has not specified what they may be, Agent Swensen said.
"I don't know what his thoughts are, but we notice that we've got a new moon coming up on the 23rd (Tuesday). The vernal equinox (the first day of spring) is today, which has some significance within the religion,' he said.
During the four-hour talk with negotiators Friday night, Agent Swensen said, Mr. Koresh did lapse into discussions about the Bible- a topic authorities began refusing to discuss last week because it had not been productive.
Positive talk
But Mr. Koresh's religious discussions Friday night seemed positive, Agent Swensen said, because "the tone was more optimistic and tended to address a resolution to this thing.'
"This appears to be one of the first times that he's alluding to the final end to this thing, and he's talking in terms of some large numbers (of cult members leaving),' Agent Swensen said. "He is addressing it ending fairly soon. He's still waiting for the various signs, but we're not talking long-term.'
When Mr. Branch and Mr. Whitecliff were released about 8 p.m.
Friday, Agent Swensen said, the cult leader was on the phone with authorities to talk through the surrender process.
"Any time this happens, it's almost choreographed,' he said. "We talk by the numbers . . . so that nothing happens in that last minute.'
Mr. Whitecliff, a former correctional center guard, joined the Branch Davidians in 1988, according to the The Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He is the father of a 9-year-old girl, who lives with a relative in Honolulu, the newspaper reported.
Raised as a Catholic, Mr. Whitecliff began attending a Seventh Day Adventist Church after experiencing marital problems, his mother told the newspaper. That's where he met Mr. Koresh, whom he later followed to Texas after Adventist church leaders confronted the charismatic cult leader.
In January 1992, Mr. Whitecliff returned to Hawaii after a disagreement with Mr. Koresh. But when members of the Branch Davidians called him, he returned to Texas. "They're giving me a second chance,' he reportedly told his mother. "I must go.'
Information on Mr. Branch's background was not immediately available.
In other developments Saturday, ATF officials acknowledged that Mr.
Koresh made a 911 emergency call the night of the aborted raid. But Deputy Assistant Director Dan Conroy said a tape of the call has been retained as evidence and "won't be released until the time of trial.'
Authorities again said they don't know how the group may be maintaining water supplies. Some news photographers with telephoto lenses reported seeing cult members gathering water in pots and pans during a late-afternoon downpour Friday afternoon.
Also Saturday, Balinda Ganem , mother of cult member David Thibodeaux, visited with Mr. Gyarfas at the McLennan County jail. During his first visit with anyone except his attorney and law enforcement officers since leaving the compound, Mr. Gyarfas "was in good spirits. All is well,' Mrs. Ganem said.
Mrs. Ganem said Mr. Gyarfas did not discuss conditions in the compound or what had happened during the standoff because "he's not at liberty to give me any information.' But, she said, "he doesn't appear to be in a bad place emotionally. He's being treated well.'
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