U.S. Officials Lied About Cult Raid, Agent Says

Top federal officials lied about losing the element of surprise in a raid on David Koresh’s commune, then tried to pass the blame for the botched assault, an undercover agent testified Friday.

“They were not saying what had happened,” said Robert Rodriguez, an undercover Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who had infiltrated the Branch Davidian complex near Waco, Tex. “I knew it was wrong. The information they were saying was wrong.”

Rodriquez added that a nervous, shaking Koresh repeatedly said “the time has come” after someone tipped him off about the Feb. 28 raid on his compound.

Rodriguez, who had been posing as a student to get to know the sect, said he immediately reported to his ATF supervisors that Koresh knew of the raid.

The undercover agent said he thought the operation would be called off, but it wasn’t.

The raid erupted into a shootout that left four ATF agents dead. Eleven Branch Davidians are on trial for murder in their deaths.

After the raid, Rodriguez said, then-ATF Director Stephen E. Higgins, Associate Director Dan Hartnett and the agency’s intelligence chief, David Troy, claimed in nationally broadcast news conferences that they had maintained the element of surprise.

Rodriguez said he relayed his information about Koresh knowing of the operation to raid organizer Charles Sarabyn, who later briefed some top officials.

“He (Sarabyn) told me what they were saying was true and what I had said was not right,” Rodriguez said.

Several ATF officials resigned or were disciplined for their roles in giving out the misleading information.

Under cross-examination, Rodriguez said that when he heard the false statements he wondered whether there was “a strategy” behind them. He said he eventually complained and hired his own attorney.

“I was aware of it. I was upset about it,” Rodriguez said, adding that ATF officials tried to blame him for the agency’s mistakes.

Defense lawyers contend that their clients acted in self-defense during the shootout after federal agents waged an ill-conceived assault on the compound.

Six Branch Davidians are thought to have died in the gun battle. An ensuing 51-day standoff ended April 19 when the compound burned during a new federal attack. Koresh and more than 80 of his followers died in the blaze.