Date: Wed, 01 Nov 1995 06:25:53 -0600 From: "R. Knauer-AIMNET" <[r c ktexas] at [ix.netcom.com]> To: [f--p] at [world.std.com], [r--c] at [xmission.com], [n--b--n] at [Mainstream.net] Subject: Senate Waco Hearings In The News Message-ID: <[199511011225 EAA 10951] at [ix9.ix.netcom.com]> >From the news: The worst mistake of federal agents at the deadly 1993 Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Texas was to ignore the likely behavior of cult members, a sociologist told a Senate hearing Tuesday. ``I am convinced that at the heart of the disaster in Waco was the decision -- first by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and then by FBI tactical units -- to treat this as a military-style operation,'' said Nancy Ammerman of the Center for Social and Religious Research in Hartford, Conn. ``Sociologists and social psychologists would have advised that any group under siege is likely to turn inward, bonding to each other and to their leader even more strongly than before. Outside pressure only consolidates the group's view that outsiders are the enemy,'' she said. She said the ATF did not consult any behavioral scientists before its disastrous raid against the cult compound on Feb. 28, 1993 when four agents and six cult members were killed in a massive gun battle. The ATF was trying to arrest cult leader David Koresh for violations of gun laws. Ammerman said the FBI also failed to listen to behavioral experts during the 51-day siege that ended on April 19, when tear gas was fired into the compound and it burned down, killing some 80 cult members. She was a member of a panel to help evaluate the actions of the FBI and ATF at Waco. During the siege, the FBI tried to force cult members to give up by playing loud music and noises to keep them awake. The hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee follows 11 days of testimony before a House panel this summer. It also comes shortly after another Senate hearing on the 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho when a U.S. marshal and the wife and son of white separatist Randy Weaver were killed. Both incidents have inflamed right wing groups and others who see them as examples of excessive force by federal agents. The bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building this April that killed 167 people came on the second anniversary of the Waco fire. Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said investigations of Waco had found mistakes by the FBI and ATF, but added: ''There was no conspiracy to kill Branch Davidians.'' Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, also found fault with the two agencies, but said: ``In the end, David Koresh and the Davidians set themselves on fire and committed suicide.'' A Treasury Department investigation of the ATF raid said commanders at the scene ignored orders to call off the assault after they learned Koresh had been warned they were coming. ATF is part of Treasury. Three ATF agents who took part in the raid said Koresh could have avoided bloodshed if he had surrendered peacefully. ``David Koresh orchestrated a cowardly and deadly ambush, directed at ATF special agents,'' said agent Roger Guthrie. ATF Director John Magaw, who took over after Waco, said he had reorganized the agency to correct mistakes. ``In the aftermath of Waco, we re-examined completely our way of doing things,'' Magaw said. He said crisis management, intelligence and communication with the Treasury and other agencies had all been improved. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, a committee member and a presidential candidate, said last week he believed ATF should be abolished because of the mistakes it had made. ----- Bob Knauer -- <[r c ktexas] at [ix.netcom.com]> OUR NEW ADDRESSES: *************************************************************** Advanced International Marketing Internet Advertising Agency "AIMNET" World Wide Web Publishing <[w--sa--s] at [aimtec.com]> Robert C. Knauer http://www.aimtec.com/ Houston,TX ***************************************************************