White House Counsel Assails Waco Panel’s Co-Chairman : Investigation: Mikva blasts GOP Rep. Zeliff’s suggestion that Clinton had a covert role in approving the tear-gas raid on cult’s compound.

A top White House official on Monday issued a scathing letter criticizing a Republican congressman for suggesting that President Clinton had a hidden role in approving a tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian headquarters near Waco, Tex., in 1993.

White House Counsel Abner J. Mikva wrote Rep. Bill Zeliff (R-N.H.), co-chairman of a committee investigating the tragedy, that his comments on a national television program Sunday “were nothing short of irresponsible, intent on creating a story without any news and alleging a scandal without any basis.”

The letter, released by the White House, came one day after Zeliff claimed that he had new evidence showing Clinton more involved in the decision to attack the Davidian compound than was originally believed. Zeliff stood by his statement Monday, saying that Mikva “protests too loudly.”

Up to this point, Republicans have tried to connect the President to the disastrous siege near Waco, but so far have failed to document any active participation on Clinton’s part. Today, on the 10th and final day of hearings, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno is expected to face numerous questions about whether she was fully informed of important details before consenting to the tear-gas operation.

In testimony Monday, FBI tank operators recalled inserting tear gas near the entrance to an underground shelter that could have provided a haven for children and later snatching a reluctant Davidian survivor from the flames of the compound.

It was also revealed Monday that transcripts of negotiations between the FBI and Davidians in the few days before the April 19, 1993, inferno indicate that Koresh actually was working on a manuscript explaining the Bible’s Book of Revelations. Koresh had agreed to a surrender plan after completing the paper but FBI negotiators dismissed what he had said as a delaying tactic.

The siege began Feb. 28, 1993, when four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and six cult members were killed in a gun battle following an attempt to search the building for illegal weapons.

About 80 Davidians and their children died in the April blaze that engulfed their headquarters. Authorities have maintained that Koresh instructed his followers to deliberately set the fire after FBI agents sought to end a 51-day standoff by inserting tear gas into the compound.

Jeffrey Jamar, the FBI’s on-site commander, testified that he would have waited indefinitely if he had known Koresh was going to set the compound on fire. “We would have done nothing to provoke him,” Jamar said.

A Justice Department report disclosed that Reno was reluctant to approve the planned assault out of concern for the 20 children inside, but changed her mind after receiving assurances from military experts that the tear gas would cause no harmful, long-term effects.

So far, testimony at the hearings show that Clinton learned of the gas plan when Reno informed him of her decision the day before the assault. Webster L. Hubbell, former associate attorney general and a close friend of Clinton who participated in planning sessions during the siege, told the committee last week that he never discussed the episode with the President in an official or social conversation until after the fire.

But new evidence reveals that Clinton was personally involved in the decision, Zeliff said on “Meet the Press” Sunday. “We believe there is information we can show this week that indicated that he wanted to be informed every step of the way . . . . “ Zeliff said. “I don’t believe Janet Reno, who had less than two weeks on the job, made this decision by herself.”

Zeliff also angered Democrats when he said that the government “killed more than 80 people” near Waco.

In an unusually harsh letter, Mikva wrote that Zeliff’s statements undermined the joint committee’s goal of conducting thorough and objective hearings before rendering a judgment on how the government could avoid future tragedies.

“I am distressed that you would go on national television [and] . . . suggest you are exposing hidden misdeeds,” Mikva wrote. “That is a disservice to the American people.”

Mikva noted that the facts regarding Clinton’s involvement in the Waco decision have not changed since they were disclosed in the Justice Department’s 1993 report. The President had limited knowledge of the gas plan, accepted Reno’s recommendation to approve the operation and accepted responsibility for the tragic loss of life, the report found.

Zeliff’s comments fit a pattern of some Republicans using the hearings to spread innuendo and rumor without any supporting facts, Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

“It is a serious, serious charge to say the President was involved and pushed ahead with the decision,” Schumer told reporters during a break in the hearings. “I’m here to say to Chairman Zeliff: ‘Put up or shut up.’ ”

Zeliff refused to back down, telling reporters to wait until Reno’s appearance today to hear the evidence. In an opening statement Monday, Zeliff criticized Clinton for “distancing himself” from the decision-making process.

The tear-gas assault lasted nearly six hours before Davidians set fire to the compound. As flames licked the exterior, one FBI agent risked his life to rescue Davidian Ruth Riddle.

Special Agent James McGee testified that he spotted Riddle jump from a second-story window and immediately try to return to the burning structure. McGee said he left a Bradley armored vehicle and carried Riddle to safety, even though she fought to join other Davidians in committing suicide.

When McGee asked Riddle where the children were located, he got no reply, he said. “If she’d have said where the children were, we’d have gone in after them,” McGee said. “That is what we were there for.”

The driver of the first combat vehicle to insert tear gas into the compound told the committee that he followed the operations plan that called for him to spray gas near a trap door that led to an underground bus shelter.

“If we allow them to get into that bus . . . then it would be even harder to get them out,” said Special Agent R. J. Craig. “They’re going to be entrenched even more physically and mentally in that bus. So if we pushed them away from that trapdoor initially, that was our goal.”

However, hours after the fire, FBI officials criticized Koresh for not permitting women and children to retreat to the buried bus, where they could have survived.