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04/29/93
Reno testifies on siege; She says tear gas was only acceptable option
By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON-The FBI ultimately used tear gas against the Branch Davidians because there was nothing else it thought could be done, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
Options ranging from using the military's secret Delta Force to tunneling into the compound, knocking it down with tanks or water cannons or even dropping agents in by helicopter were rejected as too risky to federal agents and cult members inside, Ms. Reno and senior FBI officials told House members examining the tragic ending of the 51-day Branch Davidian siege.
Responding to sometimes harsh grilling, officials provided some new details of why the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms decided to raid the cult's rural compound Feb. 28, how the FBI managed the seven-week standoff that followed and why FBI officials decided to try to force an end to the siege on April 19.
They also admitted that they misjudged cult leader David Koresh, the devotion of his followers and the possibility that the Branch Davidians' response to any overt tactical operations would be mass suicide.
"Nobody will ever know what the right answer was,' Ms. Reno said.
"In the hindsight of the last 10 days or so,' she said, "nobody has
given me an answer that would really address the problem.'
As many as 86 people were initially believed to have died when the cult's compound was set ablaze April 19, hours after FBI agents began injecting tear gas into the building in an effort to force cult members into peaceful surrender. Spokesmen for the Texas Rangers, who are conducting an investigation into the incident, say that they now believe that number is too high.
The fire ended a 51-day standoff that began Feb. 28, when four ATF agents and several cult members were killed during a raid by the federal agency which was trying to search the cult compound and arrest Mr. Koresh.
Wednesday's hearing, before a packed committee room, included some moments of high drama.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., elicited a steely response from Ms.
Reno when he denounced the federal operation as a "profound disgrace' deserving Ms. Reno's offer of resignation, made after the fire.
"When in God's name is law enforcement at the federal level going to understand that these are very sensitive events, that you can't put guns, barbed wire, the FBI and the Secret Service around them, sending in sound 24 hours a day and then wonder why they do something unstable,' Mr. Conyers said.
After Mr. Conyers said he could not rationalize the deaths of 17 children believed killed inside the compound, Ms. Reno angrily responded: "I feel more strongly about it than you will ever know. . . . I will not engage in recrimination.'
Some other committee members said Mr. Conyers' comments were unwarranted, and many praised Ms. Reno's willingness to take responsibility for the failed operation.
Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., elicited another emotional response when he asked the attorney general whether President Clinton should have been more closely involved-a line of questioning repeated by other committee Republicans.
Ms. Reno's voice cracked as she told how the president called her to offer support after she appeared on television news shows following the fire.
"I don't think I've ever been so lonely,' she said. "The first call I got was from my sister: 'at-a-girl. The second call was from the president of the United States: 'at-a-girl.'
Ms. Reno said she will ask outside experts to review an analysis by behavioral specialists both inside and outside the FBI that Mr. Koresh was not likely to commit suicide.
The U.S. Treasury Department is also launching an independent review of the ATF's actions in the Feb. 28 raid.
The most sustained criticism came in the afternoon, when the two agency directors appeared to explain their roles in what committee members repeatedly termed a complete fiasco.
The responses of FBI and ATF were markedly different. FBI officials unveiled photographs, charts and even a table-top scale model of the compound to demonstrate the difficulties they faced during the siege. FBI Director William Sessions was flanked by his agency's top directors and by FBI Agents Jeffrey Jamar of San Antonio and Bob Ricks of Oklahoma City, who helped manage the agency's efforts.
In contrast, ATF Director Stephen Higgins testified alone, often telling committee members "that's a fair question'-but one that he couldn't answer because of pending investigations.
He refused to discuss how cult members might have been tipped or what an undercover agent overheard just before the ill-fated raid.
But he harshly denounced speculation that the raid might have been timed to coincide with the confirmation of a deputy treasury secretary or with the agency's congressional budget hearings.
"Anyone that would send someone into a dangerous, violent situation like this because they were trying to impress somebody or because they were trying to increase their budget . . . places a whole lot less value on human life than we do,' he said.
Commitee members pointedly questioned the FBI's decision not to wait any longer to try to force the cult out. They also questioned why FBI officials and the outside behavioral experts who consulted on the case were so confident that Mr. Koresh would not commit suicide.
Asked why the agency did not wait longer, Mr. Sessions said, "We do not normally in our crimimal justice system allow a criminal to set their own timetable on when they will submit to authority.'
He and Ms. Reno told the committee that a mass suicide could have occurred at any time and probably would have been impossible to avert.
FBI officials said they began considering using tear gas in late March, and they started briefing Ms. Reno the week of April 5, near the end of the sect's Passover observance. Mr. Koresh had promised to surrender after Passover but later reneged.
Ms. Reno said she repeatedly grilled FBI officials, asking them to bring in outside experts and even members of the military's elite anti-terrorism units to explore alternatives to tear gas.
She finally approved using tear gas, she said, because of compelling FBI arguments that the situation was becoming progressively more unstable. She said her decision also was motivated by the agency's contention that its 50-member hostage rescue team that was helping manage the crisis the compound was fatigued and could not be replaced.
"I asked, "Well, isn't there another team?' and was advised no, except for the Delta Force,' she said. "We explored the provisions . . . and became convinced that you could not use Delta Force in a civilian situation.'
She said she ultimately mulled tactics straight out of spy novels:
tunneling, putting cult members to sleep with special gases or even dropping agents in by air.
She even proposed building a concrete fence and waiting the cult out. "I kept thinking that we could create our own prison.'
The FBI told her that posed an unacceptable threat because federal agents would remain vulnerable to a massive cult arsenal that included .50-caliber weapons, which had "A killing range of 3,000 yards, a distance that would reach from the U.S. Capitol to the White House.'
After approving the tear gas operation, she said, she ordered that it be halted if agents perceived any threat to the children inside.
"I gave specific instructions that they were not to expose the children to further danger. Just pull back and decide what to do next,' she said.
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