Official Who Ordered Cult Raid Quits -- Higgins Retires Before Release Of Waco Report

WASHINGTON - The director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced his retirement yesterday, just days before the release of a Treasury Department report that is expected to criticize his agency's handling of last February's fatal raid on the Branch Davidian cult headquarters near Waco, Texas.

Stephen Higgins, director of ATF for 10 years, said in his letter to Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen that he realized that "changes in direction and focus" will be called for in the report. But he said he disagreed with some of the conclusions reached in the report.

Joan Logue-Kinder, an aide to Bentsen, said Higgins' decision to retire had been accepted and the report would be made public this week.

"ATF deserves a director who is willing to act on it," she said.

Higgins, 55, said last April he expected to retire once the Treasury Department had completed its review.

He was widely criticized in Congress for the confusing statements ATF officials made about the raid and the events that led to it. Of particular concern was whether the agency had been aware of reports that David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidian cult, had been tipped to the raid in advance.

Congressional sources have said that ATF may have inadvertently alerted Koresh to the raid in the course of seeking media coverage of it.

Responding to reports that cult members were stockpiling weapons, AFT agents mounted their ill-fated raid on the compound

outside Waco in the early morning hours of Feb. 28. In an ensuing gun battle, four agents and at least six cultists were killed and 16 agents were wounded.

The failed raid then led to a 51-day standoff between the cult and the FBI that ended in a conflagration on April 19, when the FBI attacked the compound with tanks and tear gas. Koresh and 86 cultists died - some reportedly shot by other members - as fire consumed the wooden structures.

The FBI attack, for which Attorney General Janet Reno promptly took responsibility, has been the subject of another review - this one by the Justice Department - that is nearly complete.

In addition to criticism from Congress, Higgins also faced a sharp rebuke from Bentsen, who said in a statement last April that he was "deeply troubled by conflicting statements" by Higgins and others about the raid.

While telling Congress no ATF official would "knowingly" lead his men into an ambush, Higgins declined to say specifically whether agents knew they had lost "the element of surprise" before entering the compound.

Court documents released in recent months suggest that supervisors ordered the raid even though they knew Koresh and his heavily armed cult members were expecting them that Sunday morning.

In addition to its finding fault with Higgins' actions, the Treasury Department is also expected to call for reassignment or disciplinary action for other agency officials, including Associate Director Daniel Hartnett, Deputy Associate Director Edward Conroy and Intelligence Director David Troy.

Hartnett and Conroy have been accused of making misleading statements about whether an undercover agent recommended that the raid be called off because Koresh had learned it was being planned.

Troy also has been criticized for issuing false or misleading statements after the raid.