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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 16, 1993                   TAG: 9311160048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

EXPERT BLAMES WACO CULT FIRE ON FBI

Alan Stone, a dissenter on a panel that looked into the April 19 tragedy, states in an independent report that "the gut instinct that prevailed at Waco was the law enforcement mind-set, the action-control imperative."

The FBI ended negotiations with the religious cult by firing tear gas into the Branch Davidian compound.

A view within the FBI and in official reports "suggests the tragedy was unavoidable," but "this report is a dissenting opinion from that view," wrote Stone, a Harvard professor of law and psychiatry.

It's unclear, Stone wrote, whether the FBI told Attorney General Janet Reno that bureau officials "had rejected the advice of their own experts in behavioral science and negotiation, or whether the AG was told that FBI negotiators believed they could get more people out of the compound by negotiation."

"By the time the AG made her decision, the noose was closed and, as one agent told me, the FBI believed they had `three options - gas, gas and gas,' " Stone said.

Stone criticized the firing of CS gas into the Branch Davidian complex - pointing to evidence that it is extremely harmful to children.

Given what he has learned about CS gas, Stone wrote, "It is difficult to understand why a person whose primary concern was the safety of the children would agree to the FBI's plan."

He said the information Reno received on CS gas "seems to minimize the potential harmful consequences for infants and children."

The FBI said in a statement that Stone's report "went awry in suggesting the FBI failed to do everything within its power to bring the case to a peaceful conclusion without loss of life."