
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 1, 1993                   TAG: 9305010171
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From The Washington Post, Dallas Morning News and The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

OFFICIALS FIRST REFUSED ASSAULT ON WACO CULT

Fearing a violent confrontation that would take the lives of innocent children, senior Treasury Department officials initially refused in February to approve the federal raid on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas.

They relented hours later after being assured that agents would be able to storm the compound by surprise, a top official said Friday.

Ronald K. Noble, assistant treasury secretary for enforcement, said he heard about the plan on Feb. 26, the same day he and other officials were preoccupied with the World Trade Center bombing. He said he feared a deadly replay of the 1985 MOVE tragedy in Philadelphia.

As a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia in the 1980s, Noble said, his public career had been "shaped and influenced" by the disastrous outcome of the MOVE incident.

Also Friday, investigators in Waco believed they had recovered the body of Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, tentatively identifying his remains after finding them near some of his belongings, McLennan County Sheriff Jack Harwell said.

Harwell said he was told of the discovery by investigators when he visited the site Friday afternoon, but he added that he was told few details of where the body was found or its condition. The sheriff said investigators expect it to take several days to positively identify the body using dental records obtained from Koresh's family.

"They thought it was him because they did find some things on it that they thought were his personally," Harwell said, adding that he was not told what the belongings were.

James Collier, the McLennan County peace justice, said on Friday that he saw the bodies of about 17 children removed from the fire-ravaged compound - the number of youngsters cult leader Koresh said were there.

Collier said that inside a fortified room where workers removed 32 bodies, he saw a child lying near what appeared to be its parents. At the child's side was a plastic bag containing a small doll and other toys that had not burned.

Senior Clinton administration officials said that Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen had selected Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams, former Watergate prosecutor Henry Ruth and journalism Professor Edwin O. Guthman to evaluate the investigation of the February raid.

Bentsen is expected to announce the appointments on Monday, as investigators from Washington travel to Texas to begin their review.

by CNB