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04/21/93
FBI agent tried to prod Koresh toward surrender
By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News
WACO—FBI Agent Bob Ricks began and ended the Branch Davidian siege watching in utter, impotent horror as the cult's apocalyptic violence played itself out on national TV.
The Oklahoma City-based special agent, one of four FBI officials who helped manage the Waco siege, said he was at home watching a Sunday golf tournament when network news programs broke in Feb. 28 to report that four ATF agents had died in a firefight at the McLennan County compound.
Within hours, he said Tuesday, he was on his way to Waco, where he had attended Baylor University as an undergraduate and law school student. He helped oversee almost two months of negotiations and worked on plans for the gas attacks that ended with cult leader David Koresh and his followers setting fire to the compound in what appeared to be mass suicide.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Dallas Morning News, the 48-year-old chief of the FBI's Oklahoma City office provided new details of how FBI agents tried—and failed—to end the standoff and rescue of 17 children inside the compound.
In Waco, Agent Ricks was the FBI's chief spokesman, conducting 32 news conferences during the 51-day siege. The Del Rio native was a distinctive but understated presence, giving the agency's perspective on the unfolding crisis with more than an occasional flash of dry humor.
He acknowledged Tuesday—as he did during some briefings—that the agency's news media statements were often most aimed at Mr. Koresh and his followers.
"What I would do, generally every afternoon … I'd meet with psychologists and negotiators, and I would say, what is the theme that we were trying to put over," Agent Ricks said.
He would alternately praise and scold Mr. Koresh in the briefings, producing an ebb and flow of messages that shaped negotiations, he said.
When Mr. Koresh quit talking or became too abusive, "I would scold him in the news briefings, he said. "And when I would take on that (role), amazingly he would come back and start to talk."
At one point, he said, he attempted to speak directly to the American public.
"It appeared that people just weren't getting it. They were saying why didn't we just leave this religious guy alone," he said. "So I went through a period where I said (to negotiators), 'I want the wacko in Waco quote of the day. I want the worst thing that he's said.'"
In addition to his duties as a spokesman, Agent Ricks said, he helped develop FBI strategies for ending the siege.
On Feb. 28, Agent Ricks said, he and others devised an emergency rescue plan to take the compound if it became apparent that cult members had begun killing children.
"The immediate plan was quite similar to the one we ended up withMonday," he said.
It had two basic goals: rescuing all the children and doing sowith no injuries to any federal agents, Agent Ricks said. "We knew thatthe chances were great that the adults would not come out unharmed. Sowe felt that if we got any of them out safely, that would be a greatbonus," he said.
Authorities became convinced within the last few weeks that theplan was needed because negotiations were going nowhere. Mr. Koreshseemed increasingly anxious to provoke a deadly firefight, Agent Rickssaid.
"We were not going to end it on their terms," he said.
But in all the worst scenarios they considered, Agent Ricks said,no one suspected that the cult might die in what amounted to a massimmolation.
"It was a horrible sight. As soon as I saw that smoke, itimmediately struck me what was happening," Mr. Ricks said. "The FBIconsiders itself part of the good guys. We basically viewed our wholereason for being there was to save lives. … It was agonizing forus to see those flames spread and have no power to stop it."
It is the loss of the children about which agents feel worst, saidAgent Ricks, a devout Baptist and father of two. His voice chokes ashe talks about the children burned to death, children he saw onvideotapes sent out by the cult.
"We felt deeply for those children. I looked at those tapes. Ilooked them in the eyes. They're etched in my memory," he said.
"And there are voices that will always be there. They will never go away," he said. "David Koresh, his voice is in my head."
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