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Only David Koresh -- not FBI -- could've saved Branch DavidiansBy Byron Sage I was at Waco for the entire 51-day siege and ended up assisting with aspects of the subsequent crime scene investigation. At the time, I was assigned as the FBI supervisor in charge of the Central Texas region, including the Austin and Waco offices of the FBI. The events of the siege have somehow been reduced to a two-day event; the morning of Feb. 28, 1993, and the morning of April 19. What most people have lost sight of are the extraordinary efforts of a myriad of law enforcement officers and support personnel who labored tirelessly in an effort to resolve this situation without any further loss of life. During the, siege, extensive efforts were devoted to negotiation with a total of 949 separate conversations with more than 95 Branch Davidians who voluntarily remained inside the compound. Exhaustive efforts were made to convince them to leave the building and to present their own case in a court. They refused to leave. Virtually every issue identified as a stumbling block to settling the standoff was addressed and the solution presented to David Koresh. In each instance, he and his followers delayed and remained inside the compound, which had no sanitary facilities and six decaying corpses of Davidians killed in the Feb. 28 gun battle with the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. The situation was deteriorating continuously throughout the siege. The decision to force Davidians to leave the compound by using nonlethal tear gas was, in my estimation, the proper one. It represented the lowest level of potential force that could be used. We underestimated the control Koresh exerted over these people. Approximately 52 hostage negotiators participated in more than 214 combined hours of intense negotiations with the Davidians. We initiated virtually every type of communication effort you can imagine, from the telephone to a highly dangerous, but well-considered, face-to-face meeting on March 15. Ultimately, David Koresh had the final say as to how this situation would be resolved. Our plan was to insert the nonincendiary tear gas in a systematic and staged progression over a 48-hour period. This plan was accelerated only after shots were fired by the Davidians at our tracked vehicles early on the morning of April 19. I was the negotiator who was responsible for calling into the compound and warning them that we were in the process of inserting the tear gas. If Koresh or any of his followers would have given us the slightest indication that they intended to leave the tear gas would not have been used. Nearly 10 minutes passed from the time that I announced the tear gas plan until the first insertion began. Around 12:07 p.m., multiple fires were detected within the compound --all set nearly simultaneously by the Davidians. Some of the most important testimony to be provided before Congress during the summer of 1995 was from the independent arson team that investigated the crime scene. Team members testified that from the initial indications of the fires being set, the Davidians had an estimated 20 to 25 minutes to safely exit the building before they would have been overcome by the smoke and heat. They did not do it. If these people chose not to ;eave with the building on fire, how can the American public believe that a few more days of negotiation would have ended the situation peacefully? Ultimately nine people left the compound on that last day. Of the nine, seven had accelerants (gas, kerosene, diesel fuel) on their clothing or on their hands. Not one of these people took the time to bring out a child! Each of the surviving Branch Davidians was asked immediately where the children were. Several of them indicated that they believed that the kids would be in the buried bus located to the north of the compound. While the compound was still burning, several of the FBI's hostage rescue team entered the buried school bus. The kids were not there. The FBI and other law enforcement must be answerable to the American public, and such a review is welcome as long as it is truly open and unbiased. To allow the type of misrepresentations and intentionally misleading information to continue unchallenged is a gross disservice. The FBI has secured direct and independent analysis of the controversial Forward-Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) videotapes and the media footage that is at the center of the allegations. In these studies, the experts have repeatedly found through scientific analysis that the flashes that appear throughout the tapes are not the result of weapons' fire. The aircraft from which the FLIR and supporting still photographs were taken, along with the video, were the FBI's own equipment. Does it make any sense whatsoever, that the FBI would have set out to murder innocent men, women and children and actually videotaped such an outrageous act? It is documented fact that FBI hostage rescue team members left the protection of their armored vehicles and, on one occasion, rescued one of the Davidians from the burning building. FBI agents are our sons and daughters, our aunts and uncles, our brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbors. The ultimate blame for the tragic loss of life -- both on Feb. 28 and April 19, 1993 -- lies squarely at the feet of David Koresh. Sage is retired after 28 years with the FBI.
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