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

DATE: FRIDAY, October 1, 1993                   TAG: 9310010192
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CULT REPORT SPURS ATF SHAKEUP

Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, citing judgment errors and cover-up attempts in the botched federal assault on David Koresh's Texas compound last February, replaced the head of the agency that conducted the deadly raid and suspended five of his subordinates Thursday.

Bentsen's actions came in response to a 501-page report reviewing the Feb. 28 assault by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco.

The secretary named John Magaw, the director of the Secret Service, to serve as acting head of ATF. He will immediately replace Stephen Higgins, who announced Monday he planned to retire Oct. 30 after 11 years in the job.

He also placed five top ATF officials on administrative leave: Daniel M. Hartnett, associate director of law enforcement; Edward D. Conroy, deputy associate director; David C. Troy, chief of ATF intelligence; and two Houston-based agents who led the raid near Waco, Phillip J. Chojnacki and Charles D. Sarabyn.

"Corrective steps were necessary," Bentsen said at an afternoon news conference at the Treasury Department building to release the report.

But throughout the news conference, neither Bentsen nor the independent reviewers who assessed the report addressed fully the question of why the raid was even conceived or conducted.

Bentsen acknowledged that ATF officials did not adequately explore the possibility of arresting Koresh away from the compound.

And they erred, he added, by failing to abort the mission once they had lost the element of surprise.

by CNB