What Did Waco Inquiry Do? -- Details Emerged; Questions Linger

WASHINGTON - After 10 days of examining federal actions at Waco - from the decision to investigate the Branch Davidians to the bloody raid and the final tear-gas assault - Congress faces an even thornier debate.

What did the hearings accomplish?

Republicans who had predicted that the inquiry would expose major new facts now say that their work mostly filled in details of the government's mistakes. But they say those details are important.

"We've never really had a full and complete examination of what went on," said Rep. William Clinger, R-Pa.

Democrats, who protested the inquiry as an orchestrated attack by the National Rifle Association on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, now say the hearings deflated some conspiracy theories surrounding the 1993 incident.

"If you just look at the facts, it should put to rest the conspiracy theories," said ranking Democrat Charles Schumer of New York. But he and others said they fear that some Republicans aired misinformation, "feeding" conspiracists.

Both sides now will write separate reports on the incident.

The Republicans are expected to emphasize mistakes and leadership failures of high-ranking officials in what Rep. Bill Zeliff of New Hampshire, co-chairman of the hearings, called a "preventable and arguably predictable nightmare." Their report may include recommendations to reduce the ATF's police duties.

The Democrats are likely to continue arguing that despite the government's acknowledged mistakes, ultimate blame for the tragedy lies with David Koresh.

"You cannot compare the mistakes of the ATF and the FBI with the evil of David Koresh," Schumer said.

To the public, observers say, the hearings may say less about Waco than about the ways of Congress.

"I think for most people, this is politics as usual," said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg.

"It probably is an invitation to increased cynicism," he said, citing public-opinion polls showing that 50 percent of Americans disapproved of federal handling of the standoff, but two-thirds thought that the goal of the hearings was embarrassing President Clinton.

Still unresolved, and likely to remain so, say some involved in the tragedy, is perhaps the most troubling question of Waco: How does law enforcement deal with a self-proclaimed messiah who convinces followers that bloody battle with the government is the only path to salvation?

"We have an obsession as a nation for laying blame. Somebody has got to be at fault, and I think that's what this is as much about as anything," said ATF Agent Peter Mastin, who participated in the ATF raid and supervised three of the agents who died.

"The problem facing this committee is that it's hard to accept that one person, David Koresh, could control things," said Mastin, now the ATF's ombudsman. "We've said, OK, we made errors. But what do we do the next time? And there will be one."

Hearings began with the investigation that led to the Feb. 28, 1993, raid on the Branch Davidian compound. Four ATF agents died and 20 were injured as they tried to search the compound and arrest Koresh for weapons violations.

Republicans charged that ATF did not consider alternatives to a military-style raid. Some challenged assertions by the Treasury Department that ATF commanders were told not to proceed with the raid if they lost the element of surprise. Treasury officials staunchly defended their review of the incident, and the only witnesses willing to criticize it were two raid commanders and two other ATF officials censured in the Treasury inquiry.

As the hearings turned to the 51-day standoff, Republicans questioned the wisdom of the FBI decision to shift from negotiations and use CS teargas on April 19 to force a surrender. Hours after tanks began bashing the compound to inject gas, a fire erupted. Minutes after that, Koresh and more than 80 followers were dead.

FBI officials insisted that waiting increased the threat of Koresh forcing a confrontation to fulfill his apocalyptic prophecies.

FBI and Justice Department officials denied direct White House involvement in Waco decisions or any effort to hide such a role.

"THE RIGHT WAY"

"We did it the right way," Attorney General Janet Reno testified yesterday.

As 94 witnesses appeared for 10- and 12-hour days of testimony, the proceedings often lapsed into political theater.

Lawmakers waved AK-47s and grisly photos of burned bodies of dead children. Some browbeat witnesses, played to the banks of television cameras or wryly acknowledged their colleagues' bids for prime-time coverage.

Away from the cameras, self-styled truth squads from government agencies under scrutiny circulated news releases, fact sheets and offers of interviews with officials previously unavailable for comment.

Branch Davidian survivors and proponents of conspiracy theories offered their own commentaries.

The hours of often-tedious testimony were occasionally broken by gripping, personal accounts of the tragedy.

A 14-year-old girl stunned the committee with graphic details of being raped by David Koresh when she was 10.

Veteran ATF agents wept while recounting the ambush that ended their initial raid and left four comrades dead.

Branch Davidian witnesses declared their innocence and recounted their terror in the raid, siege and fire. One said he still considered David Koresh "a messiah."

FBI officials brought bullets as long as the palms of their hands to show what they feared the Branch Davidians might fire against them. Understanding that threat, they explained again and again, would ease public dismay over the tragedy.

"Things that could be disproven, some of their outstanding questions, they simply did not call the witnesses who could answer them or didn't ask the right witnesses," said a Justice Department official who requested anonymity.

For instance, the official noted, lingering questions about whether National Guard helicopters used in the ATF raid fired into the compound could have been answered by calling their pilots.

"They testified in the criminal trial and made it clear that there was no gunfire from those helicopters. There also were tapes made in the helicopters where you can hear the gunfire hitting the aircraft, and it's clear that no shots are being fired back. The committee had those tapes, so why didn't they play them?"

Branch Davidians also complained about the balance of the hearings. Branch Davidian Clive Doyle noted that only he and one other survivor were allowed to testify.

Chip Berlet of Cambridge, Mass., who studies right-wing movements, said: "The end result of the hearings is confusion. Nothing seems to have been further resolved by them. I wanted the people who are suspicious to come out of the hearings less suspicious, and I don't think that occurred."