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03/04/93
Congressman says he forwarded letters about sect to FBI
By Steve McGonigle / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON-Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, pledged Wednesday to find out whether the FBI acted after he forwarded two accusation-filled letters about the Branch Davidian sect in April.
Mr. Edwards said two FBI offices never replied to letters he received from a former sect member and a second person he would not identify. The letters made detailed allegations about child abuse and weapons stockpiling, he said.
The seriousness of the allegations and the lack of response prompted Mr. Edwards to send the letters to the FBI a second time in early February. That effort also produced no reply, he said.
Although the congressman said he did not want to second-guess the bureau, Mr. Edwards said he does have questions about what happened to his effort to inform federal agents about a situation that he considered serious.
"If they used the letters to start an investigation, I will have no criticism of that,' he said. "But if the agency took the letters and threw them in the trash can, they will hear from me very vocally.'
Neither an FBI spokesman nor a top official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which spearheaded the federal government's investigation of the Davidian sect, said they were aware of Mr. Edwards' letters.
Jim Pasco, associate director of the ATF, said that even if his agency had been aware of the letters, it probably wouldn't have mattered.
"That letter probably wouldn't have accelerated anything that happened, because they've been following the situation for some time,' he said.
Other officials of the ATF have said that the sect had been under investigation for about eight months.
Joe Hanley, a spokesman for the FBI's San Antonio field office, said he learned about Mr. Edwards' effort from news reports this week. He said he did not know whether his boss, Jeff Jamar, knew of the letters.
Mr. Edwards' spokesman, Vance Gore, said the letters were first sent to the FBI's Waco office and then to the San Antonio office, which supervises FBI agents for the 60-county Western District of Texas.
Mr. Gore described the letters as an 11-page affidavit from a former cult member and a two-page letter from a related person. He said the letters were forwarded to Mr. Edwards' office by a House member from Michigan.
Citing privacy concerns, Mr. Gore and Mr. Edwards declined to identify the letter-writers or the member of Congress to whom they were written.
Mr. Edwards said he received the letters late last March and sent them to the FBI in mid-April with a request for "appropriate' action.
Mr. Edwards also declined to release the letters or discuss their contents in detail. He did say that they contained very specific allegations of criminal activity and named several sect members, including David Koresh, the leader.
He said neither he nor his staff contacted the authors of the letters or attempted to investigate their charges. Instead, Mr. Edwards said, he concluded that the FBI was the proper agency to follow up.
"I feel comfortable we did the very best we could to bring this to the attention of the proper authorities,' he said. "If there is any suggestion that we didn't handle it properly, I would dispute that.'
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