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06/10/93
911 tape released in ATF raid; Cult member says agents shot first
By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON-A dramatic 911 recording from the ill-fated raid on the Branch Davidian compound includes a cultist's contentions that federal agents shot first, fired from helicopters and continued shooting after the sect offered a cease-fire.
But ATF officials and House members alike openly dismissed cultist Wayne Martin's contentions, and the 911 tape recording clearly depicts the sounds of gunfire from inside the compound, including bursts of automatic weapon fire, even as the cultist insisted that he had stopped firing.
The 30-minute tape, released Wednesday during a congressional hearing on the Feb. 28 raid, also includes cult leader David Koresh's spouting of religious teachings as his followers engaged in the gunfight.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government, flatly stated Wednesday that he found Mr. Martin's statements incredible. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has maintained since the raid that the cult fired on its agents without warning and that no gunfire came from three unarmed Texas National Guard helicopters used during the raid.
The tape recording, the first of hours of conversation recorded at the Waco Police Department's 911 emergency system the day of the raid, was released during the first day of a two-day inquiry into how the ATF planned and executed the raid.
ATF officials gave their most comprehensive public explanation to date of the failed raid, in which four ATF agents died and 16 were injured. A standoff with federal authorities ensued, and Mr. Koresh and more than 80 followers died 51 days later when the compound was consumed in a massive fire.
ATF officials' testimony during Wednesday's hearing was a marked contrast to a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee last month. In that inquiry, ATF Director Stephen Higgins was repeatedly battered with angry questions that he said he could not answer because of orders from superiors at the Treasury Department.
Wednesday's hearing included an account by Assistant Treasury Secretary Ron Noble of how he initially questioned the raid but ultimately did not oppose the ATF's plans.
He said he and other treasury officials reviewing the raid are still trying to determine how the raid lost its crucial element of surprise and whether ATF commanders in Waco went ahead with the raid despite indications that the cult may have been tipped off.
ATF Deputy Director Dan Hartnett told the subcommittee he was certain that a leak to the cult that apparently occurred just before the raid did not come from anyone in law enforcement. That statement may bolster assertions by some in law enforcement that the leak came from a TV cameraman who inadvertently passed information to a cultist after learning about the raid from local emergency medical personnel.
ATF's presentation included testimony from Agent Sharon Wheeler, a public information officer from Dallas who disputed widely publicized allegations that she might have tipped off the media to the raid.
"My name and reputation have been smeared in newspapers and television across the country,' he said. "I was told absolutely not to tell them, and I didn't.'
Mr. Higgins also told the committee that his subordinates were under orders to cancel the raid if they suspected the element of surprise had somehow been lost.
Mr. Hartnett, who supervises the ATF's law enforcement operations, said ATF officials decided a massive raid was necessary to take the compound after a meeting on Dec. 24. He added that he ordered agents at that meeting to try to infiltrate the compound with undercover operatives before sending in a raiding party.
Four ATF agents posing as college students moved into a house near the compound in early January. They began trying to befriend Mr. Koresh while monitoring movements in and out of the compound with a hidden camera mounted on a utility pole, Mr. Hartnett said.
ATF officials said they could not substantiate statements by some Waco residents that Mr. Koresh was often seen in that city just before the raid and was even spotted jogging near the compound.
They added that Mr. Koresh had told undercover Agent Robert Rodriguez that he would not leave the compound, and the ATF agents never saw any indication that he was outside after Jan. 28, when Mr. Koresh's black Camaro was seen leaving the compound.
Mr. Hartnett said the jogger reported to be Mr. Koresh was actually an undercover ATF agent.
He said ATF agents considered luring the cult leader away from the compound to arrest him but could not find a way to do so. They approached a Texas Department of Human Services social worker who had been inside the compound and asked her to help lure Mr. Koresh out, he said.
"She agreed to do that, but when her supervisor found out, he would not permit that,' he said.
The state worker, Joyce Sparks of Waco, has stated she was ordered not to help with the ATF's ruse. Her supervisor could not be reached for comment.
An affidavit filed by the ATF in connection with the ongoing federal investigation states that within an hour before the raid, the agency's undercover agent saw Mr. Koresh summoned into another room and then return exclaiming that ATF agents were on their way.
The affidavit states that Mr. Koresh vowed not to be taken.
ATF officials said, however, that they did not call off the raid
after the undercover agent reported what Mr. Koresh had said because neither he nor other ATF agents nearby saw any evidence that the cult was preparing for an armed confrontation.
On the tape, Mr. Koresh can be heard talking with a McLennan County sheriff's deputy, Lt. Larry Lynch, just after the raid began. Lt. Lynch repeatedly tried to steer the cult leader away from a rambling discourse on the Bible and onto a discussion of a cease-fire.
Mr. Koresh also blamed ATF for the gunfight during the phone call.
"You see, you brought a bunch of guys out here, and you killed some of my children. We told you we wanted to talk. How come you guys try to be ATF agents? How come you try to be so big all the time?' he said.
Authorities said they later learned that no children were killed during the initial raid.
Much of the tape is taken up by Lt. Lynch's frantic efforts to reach an ATF communications van, which he had been instructed to contact in case of an emergency.
Although he never reached the communications van, Lt. Lynch told the committee, he made contact with an ATF agent involved in the raid and was able to relay some information between the raiding party and the cult.
Asked whether the ATF's communications planning was adequate, Lt.
Lynch told the committee: "This thing turned out to be worse than anybody had anticipated. I felt like they were tied up with their troops.'
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