Word: davidians
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House hearings into the 1993 federal assault against the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, produced partisan sparks and riveting, emotional testimony. Republicans accused federal agents of having bungled the operation. Under harsh questioning, former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said he had no advance knowledge of the raid and played no role in the decision to use tear gas to end the standoff. Democrats accused Republicans of having let the National Rifle Association influence key aspects of the committee investigation. Dramatic testimony also came from a teenager who described how sect leader David Koresh sexually molested her when...
...Branch Davidian Clive Doyle, one of the few survivors of theWaco raid, gave testimony today that was sharply at odds with FBI and Clinton Administration accounts. The FBI shot first, he told House members, and at least one Davidian was killed by helicopter fire. Both assertions have been flatly denied by the FBI. But Doyle also contradicted himself. Days after the raid he said the compound fire was started inside with Coleman fuel; today he couldn't remember. Defending the Administration today, former deputy attorney general Webster Hubbell, who recently testified at Senate Whitewater hearings, was grilled by House Republicans...
...raid planners had chosen a direct assault in part because they believed Koresh never left the Branch Davidian compound, and thus could never be isolated from his followers. But Koresh did leave the compound--several times in late 1992 and only weeks before the February 1993 raid. ATF just never knew it. The report blamed this on its "failure to establish an effective intelligence operation...
...Bill Zeliff (R-N.H.) demanded that former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen explain why he apparently did nothing to deter federal agents under his jurisdiction from using tear gas at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, even after his deputy, Roger Altman, had warned of "the risks of a tragedy" in a memo. "Isn't this an alarm crying out for some responsible action?" Zeliff asked. "Didn'tRoger Altmansound the alarm?" Bentsen responded: "The responsibility at that point was the Justice Department and the FBI. That was their jurisdiction. I had other responsibilities to attend to. I thought...
...Wednesday will have to weather new congressional hearings into the 1993 federal siege in which 91 people died near Waco, Texas. TIME's Elaine Shannon reports that two GOP-dominated House committees plan to begin eight days of testimony by examining whether the ATF should have targeted the Branch Davidian compound in the first place. "It's hard to find anybody in Washington who thinks they did," she says. "The Clinton Administration cannot come out of this looking very good, since the Branch Davidians died in circumstances that will remain murky." But Republicans, some of whom have openly courted...