|
04/25/93
Negotiations with Koresh called one-sided, laborious
By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-It was a deadly mental chess game.
And the 51 days of talks with Branch Davidian leader David Koresh
amounted to a contest in which negotiations were doomed to fail, say federal authorities and outside psychological experts who assisted them.
"There were no negotiations, ever. These were one-sided delusional tirades from a psychopathic paranoiac,' said Dr. Murray Miron, a Syracuse University psychology professor who helped the FBI analyze the cult leader's writings and his personality.
"He was not prepared to surrender. It was as simple as that.'
Monday's fiery tragedy came as authorities tried for the first
time since the start of the 51-day siege to use aggressive tactics- the introduction of tear gas into the fortified compound-to force Mr. Koresh to surrender.
Instead, the structure erupted in a blaze that apparently consumed him and an estimated 85 followers, including 17 children.
Mr. Koresh's attorney, Dick De-Guerin of Houston, contends that the cult leader would have surrendered peacefully if given the chance.
It began Feb. 28 as federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents battled the cult in a 45-minute firefight that started when the federal agents tried to arrest Mr. Koresh and search the compound east of Waco. Four agents were killed and 16 were wounded before the cult called 911, and the call was transferred to a trained ATF hostage negotiator who talked Mr. Koresh into a cease-fire.
During the next few days, Mr. Koresh and his chief lieutenant, Steve Schneider, stayed on the telephone almost continuously with negotiators from the ATF and the FBI.
Negotiators worked in shifts, with a primary agent assigned to talk with the Branch Davidians while three agents listened on headphones. Those listening would coach, log contents of the talks and manage the negotiation strategy, federal officials said.
More than 20 agents talked to cult members for hundreds of hours of phone calls during the 51-day siege, said one federal official involved in the talks.
The conversations were a bizarre mix of biblical rantings, threats and childhood reminiscences from the 33-year-old cult leader, a high school dropout afflicted with a stutter and learning disabilities.
"He told many stories about his life,' said FBI Agent Bob Ricks, one of four FBI officials who helped manage the siege. "He was placed in special education classes, and he described the saddest day of his life as the day when kids on the playground yelled, "Here come the retards' at him. He was a young kid that just did not fit in.'
Initially, experts thought that they had established a rapport with Mr. Koresh, and they hoped negotiations might succeed because the cult leader steadily released children during the first week.
Signs of hope
McLennan County Sheriff Jack Harwell, who monitored negotiations,
members. "He was not an idiot. . . . It was difficult for our
negotiators, skilled negotiators to work with him. On the second or
third day, he told negotiators, "Y'all are using psychology on us. We
know as much about psychology as you do.' '
Twenty-one children were released by the end of the standoff's first week, but after March 5, the releases abruptly stopped. Most of the 16 adults who came out later were elderly, sick or had caused discipline problems inside, authorities said.
After the releases of children stopped, the FBI experts used a cold snap to rachet up the pressure: They cut off electricity to the compound March 12.
Three days later, the cult agreed to a face-to-face meeting with the McLennan County sheriff, the only law enforcement authority whom the cult leader recognized.
"We thought maybe we could suggest, "Let's go out and stand in the
open, stand between the lines. Let's look each other in the eye and
talk.' '
He met for an hour in a chilly rainstorm with two of Mr. Koresh's closest advisers, but that also led nowhere, the sheriff said.
Authorities again raised the stakes March 21 by broadcasting music at the compound from huge loudspeakers ringing its perimeter. The broadcasts were aimed at disorienting members of the group by disturbing their sleep patterns.
Even those tactics ultimately had limited value, Agent Ricks said, because Mr. Koresh and his followers appeared well-prepared for much of what was thrown at them.
"It was almost like they had read the FBI hostage negotiations manual,' Agent Ricks said. "When we started broadcasting sounds and music, they had earplugs. When we started with gas, they had gas masks.'
On March 29, 10 days after negotiations broke down, authorities decided to try letting Mr. Koresh speak to a Houston lawyer hired by his mother. That was followed by a series of direct meetings between the lawyer, Dick De-Guerin, and Mr. Koresh. A lawyer hired to represent Mr. Schneider, Jack Zimmermann of Houston, also was allowed into the compound.
But Agent Jamar and others said the lawyers only made things worse.
That became most apparent after Mr. Koresh promised Mr. De-Guerin that he would come out after the cult's Passover and then reneged.
Mr. DeGuerin and Mr. Zimmermann say their clients intended to come out peacefully after Mr. Koresh completed a manuscript detailing his biblical prophecies. Federal officials called it another stalling tactic.
Tactical action
Authorities concluded that only an aggressive tactical action might force Mr. Koresh's surrender, Agent Jamar said. They decided to use tanks to knock holes in the buildings and inject tear gas until the cult members were forced to flee.
"What else could we have done to force them out?' he said. "You don't go in and kill people to try to keep them from killing themselves.'
Dr. Miron, the FBI consultant, said he and other behavioral analysts who were asked to examine Mr. Koresh's personality concluded independently that further negotiations were fruitless.
They concluded that the cult leader was not likely to kill himself because he was a psychopath, a personality type that does not typically commit suicide.
In an April 16 report he prepared at the FBI's request to brief U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Dr. Miron said he wrote that further attempts to negotiate would only be met with more stalling tactics.
"It was my recommendation that any longer delay only worsened the situation,' he said.
After the cult's observance of Passover, FBI managers in Waco asked for and received approval to use the gas, Agent Jamar said.
"Our best estimate was that he was not going to commit suicide and mass suicide was a possibility but not a probability,' he said. "The only way to stop that was to gas them with enough speed to break communications so people might think for themselves.'
Instead of driving the cult members out, the compound was consumed by fire-an outcome that authorities insist they could not have predicted.
"In these hostage situations, you reduce people to basic needs:
food, water, medical care,' the federal negotiator said. "When you introduce (tear gas), you're introducing the need for air. I think it's hard for anyone to comprehend that anyone would willingly sit there and burn up.'
|
Back to Top
