Girl's Chilling Testimony Stuns Waco Hearings

WASHINGTON - Whatever the ultimate political and legal fallout from House hearings on the 1993 Waco tragedy, the first day belonged to Kiri Jewell.

In testimony that riveted a jammed hearing room and stunned bickering Republican and Democratic members into solemn silence, Jewell, a 14-year-old former member of the Branch Davidian religious group, graphically described being sexually assaulted by cult leader David Koresh when she was 10.

"You couldn't really think about not doing what he said to do," Jewell said yesterday.

Among the things she learned: "The best way to shoot yourself if necessary . . . was to put the gun into your mouth back to the soft spot above your throat before pulling the trigger."

Jewell's mother, Shari, perished in the fire that consumed the Davidians' Mount Carmel compound after a 51-day siege by federal law enforcement agents.

Today, as House Republicans tried to refocus the hearing to their concern about the use of military force during the Waco siege, President Clinton angrily rejected any suggestion that law-enforcement mistakes were comparable to the "depravity" that Jewell described.

Clinton told a group of law enforcement officials, "It is irresponsible for people in elected positions to suggest that the police are some sort of armed bureaucracy acting on private grudges and hidden agendas."

The President acknowledged that the government made mistakes in Waco and said "changes were made, people were dismissed.

"But we must not make war against police and we must not confuse making mistakes . . . with the awful things that happened in that compound at Waco."

He said the hearings were "a sad and painful reminder of the depravity that took place inside that compound."

Military role questioned

Meanwhile, Republicans running the hearings voiced concern about the military's role.

"More than any other, the image of Bradley fighting vehicles and M1 tanks set against the burning Mount Carmel compound calls into question the role of the military at Waco," said Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind.

"Since before the founding of our nation," he said, "Americans have had deeply rooted concerns about the separation of the military from civilian affairs."

The Defense Department was allowed to help prepare Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for the raid because ATF officials said they had evidence that the Branch Davidians were operating an illegal methamphetamine lab.

No trace of an illegal drug lab was found after the fire, leading some opponents to suggest that ATF concocted the rumor to get the military assistance.

Four ATF agents and six Davidians died in the agency's botched Feb. 28, 1993, raid of the compound. On April 19 FBI agents knocked holes in the walls of the compound and inserted tear gas. The complex caught fire and 81 Davidians, including Koresh, died from flames and bullets.

The GOP was able to return to their agenda after Jewell's dramatic testimony, which was introduced by the Democrats. As the hearing dragged into the night, Republicans prodded the ATF officials who were in charge of the raid to admit that they made some mistakes and regretted them.

Dan Hartnett, who was the agency's deputy director for enforcement but has since retired, said he thinks frequently about mistakes that allowed the raid to go forward even after Koresh was tipped off.

Hartnett said he was the only person who could have canceled the raid if the element of surprise was lost, and he did not. In fact, he said, he never heard the term "element of surprise" until the day after the failed raid.

He was contradicted by ATF agent Davy Aguilera, who said he and Hartnett were present at a meeting when then-ATF Director Steve Higgins directed that the raid be canceled if agents could not surprise the Davidians.

Chilling tale of molestation

The allegations of child molestation were chillingly reinforced by Jewell who, with her mother, joined Koresh when he was living in California in the mid-1980s. She was 5 years old.

"He only spanked me twice, though I knew he spanked other people or had them spanked," Jewell said. "He used the big wooden boat oar they used for adults, not the wooden spoon they called the `Little Helper.' "

She also described how Koresh had prepared sect members for a "final battle" with federal authorities, instructing them to take cyanide or shoot themselves.

"We were always waiting for and preparing for the feds to come in," said Jewell. "There was never a time when we didn't expect to be killed by the feds."

With her father, David, sitting next to her, Jewell spoke of Koresh's having sexual relations with 13- and 14-year-olds and said she slept together with him, her mother and another woman at times.

In the hushed hearing room, Jewell related in detail her own sexual initiation that occurred in 1991 in a Texas motel.

Jewell said her mother, who had been shopping at the time, later asked, "Did he take you?" The girl said she answered yes and her mother "wasn't mad or anything."

Jewell last saw her mother in 1992. She had gone to Michigan to see her father and he obtained a court order to gain custody just weeks before the raid.

Jewell once asked her mother what they would do if they ever left Mount Carmel. "She said, `We'll never leave, so why ask?' "

This report contains material from The Associated Press, Gannett News Service and the Los Angeles Times.

ISSUES IN WACO HEARINGS ------------------------------------

The hearings are expected to focus on several questions: -- Why did agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms decline Koresh's offer to search the the Davidian compound during their weapons investigation?

-- Did the ATF intentionally mislead the Army when it claimed that the Davidian complex contained a drug lab so that it could obtain the use military equipment and personnel?

-- Did ATF agents in helicopters fire on the compound?

-- Why did the FBI cease to engage in good-faith negotiations with Koresh?

-- Did FBI officials mislead Attorney General Janet Reno in seeking her approval to launch a tear gas assault?

-- What steps have been taken to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring?

Los Angeles Times