No Recrimination Over Cult Children, Reno Says : Justice: Her heated exchange with a congressman at hearing on Waco proves the exception. Most offer praise.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, her voice cracking with emotion during a congressional hearing, denied Wednesday trying to rationalize the deaths of children in the Waco compound and under hostile questioning vowed that she “will not engage in recrimination.”

“I feel more strongly about it than you will ever know,” Reno told Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) at the first full-scale hearing by the House Judiciary Committee into the 51-day standoff with the Branch Davidian cult, which ended in a fire that killed scores of people.

Conyers denounced FBI tactics that culminated in a tear gas attack to end the standoff, calling the move “a profound disgrace to law enforcement in America.”

He told Reno: “You did the right thing in offering to resign. . . . There is at least one member in the Congress that isn’t going to rationalize the death of two dozen children that weren’t cultists. They weren’t nuts. They weren’t criminals.”

Reno’s heated exchange with Conyers proved the exception, however, as she drew praise from both Democrats and Republicans on the 35-member panel. Some GOP members did question what they saw as only limited involvement by President Clinton, but Reno rejected that suggestion, contending that Clinton “knew exactly what I was doing” and “supported it in an intelligent manner.”

“I wasn’t trying to shield the President,” Reno said of her decision to claim responsibility for the FBI’s actions immediately after the fire.

“My mother always taught me,” Reno said, “when you make a decision, you take responsibility for it.”

She recalled the overwhelmingly “lonely” feeling that enveloped her when she returned to her apartment following a day that began at 6:30 a.m. in the FBI command center and was capped by a round of late-night television interviews on the fire.

“It was about 12:20 at night.” The first call was from her sister, who said, “ ‘That-a-girl,’ ” Reno recalled, struggling to keep her composure. “The second call I got was from the President of the United States” who also said, “ ‘That-a-girl.’ ”

“There are a lot of people who would say ‘that-a-girl’ to you, Atty. Gen. Reno, and will continue to say that,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley).

Stephen E. Higgins, director of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau, drew the most criticism at the hearing over the decision to proceed with the Feb. 28 attempt to arrest cult leader David Koresh and search the compound. Four ATF agents were killed and 16 were wounded in the ensuing gun battle, after which the 51-day standoff began.

Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), committee chairman, asked Higgins whether ATF had been aware that the cult was tipped off on its plans to enter the compound. “I can’t give you a simple answer,” Higgins said, though he expressed confidence that no ATF leader “would knowingly and purposefully lead his agents into an ambush situation.”

Pressed further, he said the matter was under investigation by the Texas Rangers and he could not comment until that investigation and an internal Treasury Department review were completed.

Under questioning by Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), Higgins said he could not comment on a New York Times report that Sharon Wheeler, an ATF public information officer, had called Waco area TV stations to alert them to the upcoming raid.

“It’s certainly critical to the investigation by this committee,” an obviously frustrated Moorhead said.

Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen was not present at the hearing but he issued a statement Wednesday expressing concerns about the conflicting reports.

“Was ATF aware it had been lost?” the statement said. “If so, why did the raid proceed? Before this investigation is finished, I will insist that this point, among others, be cleared up.”

Higgins said the ATF had not sought prior approval of the Treasury Department, ATF’s parent agency, before executing the plan.

Several congressmen raised the idea of transferring ATF’s law enforcement functions to the FBI, and Conyers said he planned to introduce legislation to do so.

FBI Director William S. Sessions, whose agency took over in Waco after the standoff began, defended the FBI’s actions. Asked by Brooks whether the agency should have waited longer before forcing the situation, Sessions said: “I think we did what you contemplate we should have done.”

The testimony by Reno and Sessions left open to question the role played by fear of child abuse inside the Davidian compound in the approval of the gas attack.

Reno, under questioning by Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), said there were no specific allegations of child beating or other abuse after ATF’s ill-fated raid on Feb. 28.

But Sessions said that after the siege, a cult member “confirmed living arrangements” in which Koresh was having relations with “one of the child brides,” whom the FBI director said was 13 or 14 years old.

“That’s statutory rape in Texas, I believe,” Brooks said.

Reno described continually searching for alternatives while she considered the proposed attack, once waking at 4 a.m. with the idea of dropping operatives from helicopters to take control of the compound. She said the FBI nixed that idea as too risky for the agents.

Another time, she considered “spraying something” that would put the cult members to sleep for 10 hours so that agents could take control of the facility, but this was beyond current technology.

“Nobody will ever know what the right answer was,” Reno said.