Koresh Sends Doom-Laden Letter to FBI

A doom-laden letter written by Branch Davidian leader David Koresh in the guise of an avenging Old Testament deity became an object of intense curiosity Saturday as law enforcement authorities hoped for signs that the 42-day stalemate at the besieged cult compound might end soon.

Delivered Friday, the four-page letter was addressed “to friends” and signed “Yahweh Koresh,” which Koresh says is the true name of God, FBI agent Bob Ricks said. It was filled with apocalyptic biblical “messages of a powerful, angry God empowering his chosen people to punish and harm those who oppose them,” Ricks said.

Seemingly written as if “directly from God” and referring to Koresh as “my servant,” the letter is being analyzed by FBI specialists in Washington to determine if it might be the sign Koresh has insisted he needs to see before allowing 95 followers to exit from their compound, officials said.

Citing the delicacy of their negotiations, officials would not release the contents of the letter. Ricks would only divulge ominous passages cited by Koresh, among them one from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah: “A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.”

“If it is the ‘message from God,’ ” Ricks said, “then we have to know what the heck the message is.”

Attorneys negotiating with cult members said they are still optimistic that Koresh will fulfill his end of a tentative surrender plan, which officials have said they hope will occur this week after the sect’s celebration of its own Passover rites ends Tuesday or Wednesday.

That plan seemed in danger of collapse after one of Koresh’s deputies, Steven Schneider, told negotiators that the end of their holiday was not linked to any surrender.

Ricks said Saturday that “we still have the assurances of the attorneys that they will be surrendering (this) week.”

Houston lawyer Jack Zimmermann, who represents Schneider and had recent face-to-face contacts with the cult deputy, said he and other attorneys for sect members “are still optimistic based on what (Koresh and Schneider) told us in the beginning. It’s just a question of timing.”

Still suspicious of those assurances, federal officials are applying a stick to the lawyers. Ricks said Saturday that Zimmermann and Dick DeGuerin, an attorney who has met with Koresh, will not be allowed to return to see their clients until a day has been set for the surrender.

Ricks said DeGuerin will be allowed to talk with Koresh to see if “there is an intent on his part to leave following Passover,” but the attorneys will only be allowed to return to the compound on the day of the surrender “to effect the coming out of those inside.”

Zimmermann declined to say if the FBI decision might impede or spur the surrender. “There hasn’t been any agreement with the FBI on the particulars of how it would be worked out,” he said.

Two men emerged from a compound building Saturday only to quickly return inside. The lack of activity was in sharp contrast to several puzzling scenes that took place Friday.

At one point, Ricks said, Schneider asked for permission to light seven canisters of incense outside the compound, part of the sect’s Passover rites. The flares spewed orange smoke around the site.

Schneider emerged from the house at another point, only to retreat after agents hurled concussive grenades in his direction. Schneider had failed to first ask for permission to leave the fortress, Ricks said.

To maintain their grip on the siege site and prepare for the possible exodus from the compound, federal agents Saturday began hemming in the compound with concertina wire.

“It seems that they are more emboldened to come out and test the control of our perimeter,” Ricks said.