FBI’s Tactics Seen Not Weakening Sect’s Resolve

Psychological warfare tactics ranging from shining powerful lights on barricaded religious cult members to turning off their electricity have done little to weaken the resolve of the group locked in a 16-day standoff with federal agents, the FBI said Monday.

The besieged cult members have responded to the maneuvers by unfurling banners and using flashlights to blink distress signals in Morse Code toward a news encampment about 2 miles away from their compound, FBI Agent Richard Swensen said at a news conference.

The coded signals and the banners--hung from a watchtower dominating the 77-acre Branch Davidian compound--conveyed similar messages.

“They said ‘SOS’ four times,” Swensen said, “and, ‘FBI broke negotiations. We want the press.’ ”

The electricity was turned off on Friday to help push stalled negotiations “off the dime,” he said. The spotlights went up Sunday to blind cult members peering out of doorways and windows with rifles in their hands to the whereabouts of federal agents positioned near the compound.

Ratcheting up the pressure a notch further, federal negotiators in telephonic communication with the cult’s leader, self-described prophet David Koresh, 33, have begun turning a deaf ear to his rambling and lengthy interpretations of the Bible, Swensen said.

“Frankly, we’re not here to be converted--we’re here to try and get this thing resolved peacefully,” Swensen said. “To that extent, we’ve made it clear we want to talk about substantive issues.”

Phoenix cult expert Rick Ross, who has deprogrammed Branch Davidians from the Waco compound, said there is reason to believe that Koresh is “bending under the pressure.”

“Members have told me that Koresh is subject to panic and anxiety attacks,” Ross said. “I believe he’s anxious about his physical condition, his future, his message and whether or not he can continue controlling those people inside.”

“He’s also starving for attention, and the FBI is starving him out of the compound by denying him access to the media,” added Ross. “I’m sure he’s depressed about walking out of his world within a world, where he has reigned as a king having his way with women and commanding men.”

Reluctant to shed that power, Koresh has tried to stall negotiations with federal agents by telling them that he is waiting for “word from God” about the right time to surrender, Ross said.

Thus far, negotiations between Koresh and federal agents have produced few results beyond the release of 21 children and four adults since federal agents raided the compound on Feb. 28.

The raid to serve search and arrest warrants on Koresh for firearms violations was aborted during a firefight that left four U.S. firearms agents dead and 15 wounded. At least four cult members were killed in the shootout.

More than 100 people, including 17 children, are still believed to be inside the compound, which is surrounded by hundreds of heavily armed agents backed up by armored personnel carriers, tanks and surveillance aircraft that buzz the area daily.

No one has emerged from the compound since Friday, when Koresh approved the departure of Kathryn Schroeder, 34, and Oliver Gyarfus, 19. Both are now in custody as material witnesses to the firefight.