NRA-ILA FAXLINE NRA Institute for Legislative Action 11250 Waples Mill Road * Fairfax, VA 22030 Phone: 1-800-392-8683 * Fax: 703-267-3918 7/26/95 NRA-ILA Special Report THE WACO HEARINGS: DAY SIX Lingering from Day Five: Charges from Texas Rangers -- and the Question of Leadership Last night, Captains Maurice Cook and David Burns of the Texas Rangers called the FBI agent in charge of the Waco siege "out of control" and alleged that the famed Texas law enforcement agency was misled, even "lied to," by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Under questioning by U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, the Texas Rangers insisted that, had they been in charge, they would have taken up Koreshžs offer to examine his firearms -- an offer extended to, and refused by, BATF case agent Davey Aguilera in 1992. U.S. Rep. Steve Schiff asked, if the Rangers were in charge and Waco had ended as tragically as it did, what actions would the Rangers have taken? Captain Cook responded that the Rangers would have, at the very least, fired those responsible and, in addition, prosecuted those individuals who lied to them. The Rangers said they felt very comfortable about saying that BATF lied to them. Specifically, Burns said, BATF agents Charles Sarabyn and Phillip Chojnacki lied to them and suggested they be referred to criminal prosecution. Burns, who had interviewed Sarabyn, Chojnacki and other BATF agents, found the two not credible. He also believed that the two agents knew full well that the raid had been compromised. As Day Six of the Waco hearings got underway, a shaken Jim Cavanaugh said, "The Davidians opened fire." Taking issue with the Branch Davidian attorneys who argued on the previous day that the Davidians did not start the shoot-out February 28, the BATF agent said, "I am sickened by any other assertion.... They shot first!" But the ultimate impact of the testimony on Day Five may not have been the sizzle of who fired first, rather the substance of who led the raid, the siege and the gas attack -- and who continues to lead. "I think that unless the oversight process that you're going through here results in some leadership changes, we're going to have people still in the position that they were in before this Waco fiasco, making the same kind of bad judgement calls." So testified Jack Zimmerman, Branch Davidian attorney on Tuesday. Zimmerman insisted that the only way to re-establish faith in federal law enforcement is to establish accountability in leadership. "There has been no personal leadership accountability in the Department of Justice at all," he added. "And in the Treasury Department, the people who were found by their own investigators to have lied and committed crimes are still working for you and me." Telling The FBI What They Want to Hear According to testimony heard today from Pete Smerick, former criminal investigative analyst with the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, William Sessions, FBI Director at the time of the raid, was not happy with the first four memos circulated by Mr. Smerick. In these memos, Smerick told the committee that he suggested a "waiting strategy" and urged the FBI to back away from the house. When questioned by U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot as to whether he had advised the FBI that increased pressure on Koresh could be counter-productive and could result in loss of life, Smerick answered yes. Smerick explained that FBI officials were not happy with the tone of his first four memos; they felt it was tying their hands and would not allow the FBI to increase pressure on the Branch Davidian center. Smerick admitted that he believes he subconsciously toned down the fifth memo to the FBI to more or less fall in line with what the FBI would want to hear. Sincere Negotiations or a Stalling Ploy? The plan to gas the residents of the Davidian complex was not a last-minute option, as plans were under consideration in Washington as early as March 27. While Washington built the CS gas assault plan, Waco was the scene of peaceful negotiations between Koresh and federal agents. Davidian attorneys DeGuerin and Zimmerman were told by Jeff Jamar, FBI special agent in charge during the 51-day siege, that they would have "all the time it takes." In fact, on April 14, the attorneys believed, there was a breakthrough in negotiations with Koresh. He agreed to come out after writing his interpretation of the "Seven Seals." Religious experts agreed. Philip Arnold of the Reunion Institute in Houston and Dr. James Tabor, Associated Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of "Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America" testified last night that had the FBI had knowledge of the religious faith of the Davidians, the Waco tragedy could have ended in a far different way. Tabor said the FBI report was "a meltdown of information." FBI was not trained in the Book of Revelation, Tabor maintained, and "they had a tough time to figure out who to listen to." On a U.S. News & World Report electronic forum July 18, Dr. Tabor wrote, "I will go on record as saying that I do NOT believe that the Branch Davidians started the fire (emphasis in original). I never have thought that. It was against their faith, and David Koresh had gathered the women and children, all forty three of them, to the safest place he could that morning. The concrete structure near the kitchen -- with water and wet blankets ... He did this to save them, not to burn them in a horrible death...." Nevertheless, Jamar and other officials dismissed Koresh as "devious" and the surrender plan a ploy, "just another trick." Both Mr. Jamar and FBI Agent Byron Sage testified today that they did not believe Koresh would surrender as promised. In the Justice Department report on the raid, Sage was cited for having said, on April 15, that there was nothing more he or negotiators could do to persuade Koresh to release more people. Today, Jamar stated that he did not consider the Zimmerman and DeGuerin plan a "serious plan" and that it was just another "delaying tactic." When questioned by U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, Jamar said he did not know if Attorney General Reno had ever even been made aware of the plan for the peaceful surrender predicated on Koresh's completion of his biblical interpretation. Rep. Shadegg: "[D]o you know if Attorney General Reno was ever advised that there was this new development before she made her decision?" Jamar: "I don't know, because -- I doubt it, because it was not from our understanding of it and the judgement was, looking at what they were doing, maybe that she was not. I donžt know, but there wasnžt any reason to, because it was not a serious plan. It was just another delaying tactic." On the U.S. News forum July 17, Dr. Tabor maintained that this surrender plan was indeed something substantive -- certainly something to consider in lieu of a four-part gas assault. "It is not widely known, as was apparently not communicated to the Attorney General, that Koresh had worked out with his lawyer Dick DeGuerin and with Philip Arnold and me, as biblical scholars who had communicated with him, a SIGNED pledge and plan to exit Mount Carmel with all of his people -- this was just four days before the April 19 CS gas assault and resulting fire (emphasis in original)." New York Times Puts Heat on Congress NBC Turns Out the Lights The FBI got its first big dose of bad press after Day Five of the Waco hearings, according to a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA). But yesterday's hearings got only 14 seconds of airtime on NBC's "Nightly News," while New York Times coverage has been even more critical of the Congress than FBI and ATF, the study found. CMPA reported that coverage of Day Five focused on charges that the FBI ignored opportunities for a peaceful outcome to the 51- day siege of the Branch Davidian compound. Leading newsmakers were Dick DeGuerin and Jack Zimmerman. NBC Nightly News broadcast only a fourteen-second summary of the day's events while the other two networks aired complete two- minute stories and PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour devoted over ten minutes of air time to the day's hearings. Overall, NBC's flagship news show lags behind the other networks with six minutes, thirty seconds of Waco coverage compared to over eleven minutes on ABC and nine minutes on CBS. MacNeil-Lehrer has outpaced all three commercial broadcast networks combined with over forty-four minutes of Waco news. The FBI was criticized 28 times and supported only 8 times in the day's 9 Waco stories, according to CMPA. The Justice Department also attracted attention but received more balanced coverage (45% positive, compared to only 15% positive for the FBI). Criticism of ATF and Congress dropped off sharply and, for the first time since the hearings began, no criticism of the National Rifle Association appeared in the daily Waco coverage. Congress is not without its share of criticism with regard to the Waco hearings. CMPA shows that while comments on the ATF and FBI have been most critical in the Washington Post (7 to 1 negative) and most balanced in USA Today (2 to 1 negative), complaints of Congressional partisanship also appeared frequently, before slacking off this week. Evaluations of Congress have been 3 to 1 negative on television and in USA Today, 4 to 1 negative in theWashington Post, and an overwhelming 13 to 1 (96%) negative in the New York Times. EVEN LOWER MEMBER DISCOUNT ON TRANSCRIPTS!! Complete transcripts of the hearings are available to NRA members for an even LOWER DISCOUNT RATE of $9.95 a day!! Call Jack Graeme at the Federal News Service at 1-800-969-3677 to receive a daily transcript. Be sure to mention that you're an NRA member to secure the incredible discount rate. Hearing quotes excerpted from Federal News Service transcripts. =+=+=+=+ This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA. This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is available at any of the following URL's: http://WWW.NRA.Org, gopher://GOPHER.NRA.Org, wais://WAIS.NRA.Org, ftp://FTP.NRA.Org, mailto:LISTPROC@NRA.Org (Send the word help as the body of a message) Information may also be obtained by connecting directly to the NRA-ILA GUN-TALK Bulletin Board System at (703) 934-2121.