ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: SUNDAY, May 23, 1993                   TAG: 9305230060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PROBE OF KORESH RAID TO FOCUS ON MEDIA ROLE

The media's role during the failed Branch Davidian raid will be an important focus of an independent federal effort to learn why the action went wrong, said the Treasury official supervising the inquiry.

Investigators soon will begin interviewing individual agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who participated in the Feb. 28 raid, said Ronald Noble of ATF.

They also hope to question reporters from a Waco, Texas, television station and newspaper who watched as the attempt to serve federal search and arrest warrants at the heavily armed cult unleashed a 45-minute firefight that left four ATF agents dead, Noble said.

Edmund Guthman, one of three prominent citizens asked to review the treasury investigation, is a Pulitzer prize-winner who teaches journalism at the University of Southern California. Also on the panel are Los Angeles Police Chief Willie Williams and former Watergate prosecutor Henry Ruth. - Knight-Ridder/Tribune 


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