Data-Gathering Flaws Cited for Failed Raid : Waco: Federal agents’ loss of element of surprise doomed the operation, experts testified. Free use of military helicopters by the ATF is questioned.

Federal agents who carried out the original raid of a religious sect’s fortified compound two years ago near Waco, Tex., were unsuccessful because of unreliable intelligence and inadequate communication, experts testified Thursday.

Donald A. Bassett, a former crisis-management specialist for the FBI, testified on the second day of congressional hearings on events at Waco that the raid was doomed when the element of surprise was lost.

Better use of intelligence gathered from within the compound of the Branch Davidian sect could have dissuaded officials from the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from pressing ahead with the raid when they did, Bassett said.

Bassett called the breakdown in intelligence-gathering a major concern. His conclusions were shared Thursday by Wade Y. Ishimoto, a counterterrorism consultant who contributed to an earlier Treasury Department review.

Bassett also testified that authorities “would have greatly reduced the risks” of the Feb. 28, 1993, raid if they had arrested sect leader David Koresh during one of his trips away from the heavily armed compound. Four ATF agents were killed in the raid and more than 80 sect members died by the end of the 51-day confrontation.

Lewis Merletti, another official who reviewed what happened at Waco for the Treasury Department, testified that an ATF supervisor told agents just before the raid was to begin: “ ‘Hurry up, [Koresh] knows we’re coming.’ ”

The supervisor, Chuck Sarabyn, confirmed making the remark. But Sarabyn testified that he was not certain on Feb. 28, 1993, that Koresh actually knew the raid was about to begin.

The day’s most poignant testimony came from William Buford, an ATF agent who was badly wounded in the raid. Buford described how Robert J. Williams, a fellow agent he regarded almost as a son, was killed by the Davidians as Williams stood over him.

“He was shot through the head returning fire while I was lying on the ground,” Buford said in an interview following his testimony. “That is why I owe Rob Williams.”

Republicans and Democrats continued to clash over law enforcement’s performance at Waco: Democrats, seeking to protect the Clinton Administration from criticism for the Waco tragedy, defended the ATF actions. Republicans--most of whom have opposed stronger gun controls--complained about what they depicted as overreaching by the ATF and other law enforcement officials.

Yet the Republicans excused Ishimoto as a witness without asking him to comment on his earlier finding that ATF communications during the raid were harmed by the agency’s use of military helicopters.

*

Ishimoto had written in a September, 1993, Treasury Department report on the Waco siege that ATF officials erred by not staying with their original plan to use helicopters provided by the U.S. Customs Service. The ATF flew National Guard helicopters instead.

In his written criticism, Ishimoto indicated that ATF officials were unwilling to share the spotlight with Customs for what would be a highly visible action. Customs is also an agency within the Treasury Department.

“The decision not to use U.S. Customs helicopters ostensibly stemmed from a concern” over keeping the mission secure, Ishimoto wrote. “I am of the opinion that it was due more to interagency rivalry. . . . The use of Customs helicopters and crews offer several advantages [including telephone] communications capabilities not found on the National Guard helicopters and the ability to fire from the helicopters.”

Rep. Steven H. Schiff (R-N.M.) voiced frustration because of the attention given to testimony about Koresh’s child molestation. The focus of the hearings, Schiff said, should be whether federal agents and their superiors followed the law at Waco.

*

Schiff and others assailed the basis upon which ATF officials gained the free use of the National Guard helicopters and training facilities at Ft. Hood, Tex. Agents used the helicopters, provided by the Texas Army National Guard, during the initial raid.

With few exceptions, including pursuit of illegal drugs, federal law prohibits the free use of U.S. military equipment in civilian law enforcement matters. The military assistance was granted in Texas at no cost to the ATF because the agency argued that a drug, methamphetamine, was being produced inside the compound.

Ishimoto said that the ATF used “outdated information” to claim, inaccurately, that a drug “nexus” existed at the compound.

However, a procession of military officials called before the committee pointed out that even without the presence of illegal drug activity, the military assistance could have been provided, so long as the ATF was required to pay for it. No military personnel participated in either the February, 1993, raid or the siege that followed. It ended tragically with the incineration of the Davidian compound.

Committee members differed over the significance of the testimony. “They didn’t need to have to lie in the first place,” said Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.). “That is what we learned today.”

Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) countered that the testimony “dismisses as kind of paranoid complaints that the military is taking over America.”