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04/15/93
Koresh lawyer details plan: He says cultist to give up after his prophesies are written
By Lee Hancock and Diane Jennings / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-Self-proclaimed messiah David Koresh intends to surrender after he completes a manuscript detailing his apocalyptic prophecies, his attorney said Wednesday.
But one biblical scholar named by Mr. Koresh as an intended recipient of the manuscript said it could take "several weeks' to complete, further prolonging one of the longest sieges in U.S. history.
Both the scholar and federal officials conceded that Mr. Koresh's latest pledge to peacefully lead his followers out of his barricaded compound could be another bid to buy time.
"It could still change, but at least this is going to give him something to focus on,' said Dr. Jim Tabor, a religion professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who has studied Mr. Koresh's beliefs since the standoff began 46 days ago.
"What he does next might depend on what we say when we get it,' Dr.
Tabor said.
Houston attorney Dick De-Guerin said Mr. Koresh made his pledge to come out in a three-page letter and telephone conversation Wednesday morning, the last direct talk that FBI officials say they will allow between the cult leader and his attorney before his surrender.
"Upon the completion of this task, I will be freed of my waiting period. I hope to finish this as soon as possible and stand before man and answer any and all questions regarding my activities,' Mr. Koresh dictated in a letter read to Mr. De-Guerin during the telephone conversation.
Mr. DeGuerin said his client could not say how long the manuscript will take "in real time' but reported that he was finishing one part, a task he began several days ago.
FBI officials refused to comment on the latest twist in the standoff Wednesday.
But federal officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said authorities are highly dubious that the cult leader's latest pledge to surrender is any more sincere than his previous ones.
"So what does this mean? Your guess is as good as mine,' one federal official said. "How do you figure this guy, and literally, how do you analyze that letter? He's gone back on his word three or four times.'
On March 2, Mr. Koresh promised to surrender after authorities aired his hourlong taped sermon but then reneged, saying God had told him to wait for a message before giving up.
After Mr. DeGuerin began talks with the cult leader three weeks ago, Mr. Koresh hinted that he would surrender after the Branch Davidian sect's Passover observance, which ended Tuesday evening.
"DeGuerin has played out,' another official said. "He's not coming back unless they meet him at the front door, ready to leave. I don't think they're going to do that.'
Mr. Koresh and his followers have been holed up inside their fortified compound east of Waco since Feb. 28, when they repulsed a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms effort to serve search and arrest warrants with a 45-minute firefight. The confrontation left four agents dead and 16 wounded. Cult members have said six people died inside the compound.
"David has been working day and night,' Mr. De-Guerin said.
"Basically, he says as soon as the manuscript is delivered to me and I am able to speak with some experts on theology, that he will come out and stand before you and the courts so his story can be told.'
After it is released, he said, it may take "one or two' days to get it to religious scholars-a requirement Mr. Koresh has set for his surrender.
Mr. DeGuerin said the manuscript will contain Mr. Koresh's detailed interpretation or "decoding' of the seven seals of the Bible's Book of Revelation.
In the final book of the New Testament, which many Christians consider a graphic and often violent prediction of the world's last days, the seven seals hold the final plagues, portents and natural disasters to be loosed on humans before the world's end.
Mr. Koresh goes far beyond the literal interpretation of fundamentalist Christian sects, saying not only that the opening of the seals will bring God's final judgment but that he is God's anointed and has the power to open them.
In a news briefing Friday, FBI Agent Richard Swensen said federal officials feared that Mr. De-Guerin was being manipulated by his client.
The lawyer's initial attempts to speak with his client were rebuffed Tuesday, with the cult leader's chief lieutenant first reporting that Mr. Koresh was sleeping and then that he was too busy writing a message to come to the phone.
But Mr. DeGuerin said Wednesday that he viewed the telephone conversation and letter as hopeful signs that "we're getting closer' to resolving the standoff.
Jack B. Zimmermann, a Houston lawyer representing cult lieutenant Steve Schneider, said he also spoke to his client Wednesday morning and was encouraged by Mr. Koresh's latest pledge.
"There was an excitement in Steve's voice that hasn't been here before,' he said.
Both lawyers said they will not speak to their clients again until they are ready to surrender.
Mr. Koresh's letter, read to Mr. De-Guerin, complained that his last two letters to authorities last weekend had been ignored or misrepresented by the FBI and the public. Each letter purported to be messages from God, included violent biblical references and threatened that God would rain death and destruction on Mr. Koresh's enemies.
Mr. Koresh's most recent letter also predicted that he would be rejected after his surrender and saw his manuscript as a way to reach people "who won't have to deal with me in person.'
"I was shown that as soon as I am given over to the hands of man, I will be made a spectacle of, and people will not be concerned about the truth of God but just the bizzarity of me in the flesh,' he wrote.
Dr. Tabor, a specialist in Christian origins and early Judaism, said Mr. Koresh's latest move appeared to be a response to a radio show aired April 2 on KLIF-AM in Dallas.
In that show, Dr. Tabor and Houston theologian Phil Arnold, also named in Mr. Koresh's latest letter, tried to argue to Mr. Koresh that he should consider other interpretations of Revelation.
Federal authorities later delivered a tape of the interview to the compound.
Dr. Tabor said he and Dr. Arnold, who has advised Mr. De-Guerin on the standoff, purposely tried to address Mr. Koresh "within his world view.'
Dr. Arnold said they argued that Mr. Koresh should present his teachings to scholars and religious teachers before doing anything rash.
"Revelations is the most violent book in Bible,' he said. "He believes it's at hand, and we couldn't take that away. What we could do is argue for time. That's what we did.'
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