Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1993)
fexu- News Digest jhs&s. Clinton: Koresh ‘killed those he controlled’ Attorney General comes under fire after FBI effort i WACO, Texas — Some dooms day cultists may have been shot trying to flee “Ranch Apocalypse” before others started the inferno that left scores dead, investigators searching the still-smoldering ruins said Tues day. Whatever happened in the final hours at the Branch Davidian com pound Monday, federal agents said “ responsibility few the carnage rests solely with the group’s leader, David Koresh. “He killed those he controlled,” President Clinton said at the White Mouse. Koresh and 85 others were be lieved to have died in the fire that ended the cult’s 51 -day standoff with federal agents; there were nine survi vors, four of whom remained hospi talized Tuesday. Investigators began pulling bodies out of the nibble, but were slowed because "ammunition was still cook ing and exploding” in the wreckage, said FBI agent Jeff Jamar. Officials said it could take two weeks to gather all the evidence. Among developments Tuesday: • The Clinton adminstration's handling of dbe case was sharply ques tioned by victims' relatives and attor neys, politicians and observers world wide. CliMon defended Attorney Gen eral Janet Reno, who approved the FBI effort louse a tank to knock holes in the compound walls and tear-gas the cult members out, but said, “I signed off on this.” Clinton ordered federal agencies to investigate events that led to the fiery end erf the standoff. Two con gressional investigations also were announced. • Five cull members who sur vived the blaze appeared in federal court, wearing orange jail suits and shackled by the ankles. One of them, Remos Avrram, told reporters that an FBI tank spraying tear gas into the compound had knocked over a lan tern and started the fire, and that the cult had “no plan for suicide." The FBI said its supers saw cull ists setting blazes and that a survivor told investigators that lantern fluid had been poured throughout the wooden complex. • Texas Rangers at thecompound began investigating the deadly shootouts that erupted at the begin ning of the siege, during raids Feb. 28 by federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire arms agents. Four agents were killed and 16 were wounded while trying to execute search warrants for alleged firearms violations. Korcsh had said six cullisls also were killed in the shootouts. • Gov. Ann Richards joined Waco residents at a memorial service in a small downtown church. “Now I think it’s time for us to heal,” she said. Waco Habitat for Humanity direc tor Jo Pendleton told the mourners: “The 10 billion words that have been written, the speculations that have been made, the fingers of blame that have been pointed, all make no differ ence here.’* • State officials were trying to determine the best future for surviv ing children who were made orphans by the fire. Thirty-six people had left the compound after the siege began. The state's Child Protective Services division has custody of 11 of them; 10 others were released to relatives. “Most of the 21 have lost at least erne parent, and some have lost both parents in the Ore," said Stewart Davis, a spokesman for the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. “We are working to place these children on a temporary and eventu ally a permanent basis that will be in their own best interests.” Th a A Ao+h The search continues for bodies of the 86 Branch Davidians believed dead. As I ne aeain many as 24 of me 95 lnside the compound at the time of the fire may have been of a cult Children. Only nine cultists are believed to have survived the fire. [Tower base with concrete bunker. mus^c^infrom!0 Possible location of bodies of -- -1 Suspected cult weapons i mam# of tha Aft halievad dead Two bodies found cache. Possible point of many of tne w> oeiievea aeaa. bunker expi08ions seen during The concrete bunker is aN that survived in an L_ rT——-- Mondav's fire earty 1980’s electrical fire, which destroyed \ \ Monoay^rire. mother large Branch Davidian building at the (JFIrst FIooT) Young victims had no choice, no voice in their deaths WACO, Texas — They were the innocents. Trapped inside the prairie compound's pink walls, they' had no voices, no recourse, no protector. Seventeen young children had the boor of their deaths dictated by David Korcsh. the religious zealot who was father to many of them and who con trolled every aspect of their brief ex istence. These children "were absolutely under his control." FBI special agent Jeff Jamar told reporters Tuesday in Waco. "Once he decided that this is what be was going to do, he was not going to let them go." r Jamar said the FBI had evidence that some cult members may have been killed inside the Branch Davidian compound before the flames reached them. More than 60 adult cult mem bers, including Koresh, were believed dead in Monday’s inferno, and seven older youths are almost certainly among the victims. Eight adults and a 17-year-okl girl survived. From the start, the children were at the center of the standofT. They were the reason the FBI waited almosteight weeks before moving on Koresh, a 33-year-old high school dropout who fathered several infants with women ---1 Businesses may have new way to seek tax deductions WASHINGTON — The Su preme Court said Tuesday that newspaper subscribers and other businesses' no-contract custom ers may be depreciable assets, a ruling that could cost the federal . government billions in lost tax dollars. The court, by a 5-4 vote, said new owners may depreciate and seek tax deductions for such “in tangible assets," just like machin ery or inventory, if their value and duration can be determined accu rately. In other decisions, the court: • Ruled unanimously that a federal ban on age discrimination does not necessarily bar employ ers from firing older workers to avoid paying them pensions. The court said m a case from Massa chusetts that such f trod employees may sue under a federal pension protecting law. • Resolved pan of an old dis pute over apportioning the North Platte River's water by ruling that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation may continue diverting some for irrigation use by Nebraska resi dents. In the tax case, government law yers had argued that newspaper subscribers and business custom os not undo contract arc part of a company's “good will” and cannot be depreciated under federal tax law. But writing for the high court. Justice Harry A. Blackmun said that's a matter best decided on a case-by-casc basis. Blackmun said the Newark Morning Ledger Co. “has home successfully its substantial burden of proving that 'paid' subscribers’ constitutes an intangible asset with an ascertainable value and a lim ited useful life, the duration of which can he ascertained with rea sonable accuracy.** Kim GolightJy, an accounting firm tax expert, praised the deci sion, declaring. “We’re talking about tensofbillions in deductions.” he claimed as his “wives.” “We thought that their instincts, the motherly instincts would take place and that they would want their chil dren out of that environment,” FBI special agent Bob Ricks said Mon day. “Thatdidnotoccur,” he said. “Un fortunately they bunkered down the children the best we can tell, and they allowed those children to go up in flames with than ” Bob Boyd of Child Protective Ser vices inWaco said all the kids brought up by Koresh were “innocent vic tims." — II They didn’t choose to be there like many of the adults did. It’s a horrible tragedy. —Boyd Child Protective Services agent - 91 " “They didn’t choose to be there like many of the adults did. It’s a horrible tragedy,*’ he said. Also victims were the 21 children who left the compound in the course of the standoff. Many lost their par ents in the flames. “Anytime that you have to talk to children about the death of theirpar cnts, it’s difficult,” Boyd said. “Chil dren shouldn't have to go through that." U.S., German troops to swap soldiers under NATO orders BRUSSELS. Belgium — The Umacd States and Germany are trails ferring NATO wartime command of thousands of each other’s soldiers in an unprecedented move that will put GIs under German officers and Ger mans under U.S. orders. The exchange reflects NATO’s need to combine forces into multina tional corps given national troop cut backs. It is also a departure from Washington’s traditional reluctance to allow foreign generals to supervise its troops. ~The United States has not in the past designated any of its forces for operations directly under the com mand of others," said U.S. Army Gen. John Galvin, former chief of Euro pean forces for the 16-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization. ‘‘If the balloon goes up, the plan would be for that division to chop (pass) to the German corps.” said Galvin, now at West Point Military Academy in New York. ___ Ai Thursday’s ceremony in Giebelstadt airfield, about 50 miles southeast of Frankfurt, Germany, the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division, based at Bad Kreuznach, will be at tached to the German army's 2nd Corps. Germany’s Slh Panzer Divi sion will go to the U.S. 5th Corps, based in Frankfurt. The 16,000 to 20,000 troops in each division will not move from their bases. Each multinational corps will total 50,000 to 75,000 soldiers. Each nation will also assign six bilingual officers to the other’s corps headquarters of several hundred per sonnel. The specialists will take part in training, intelligence, communica tions and logistics. "The German division is an equal partner in the planning processor the 5th Corps, which has never been done before,’' said Lt. Col. Dick Bridges, the cops spokesman. The com mand arrangement would come into play during a crisis, when control of national troops is transferred to NATO’s chain of command of U.S. and European officers. At the top is U.S. Gen. John Shalikashvili. In peacetime, the troops remain under national control. Two other multinational corps arc also planned — one German-Dutch and another Danish-German. The command structure of the four multi national units will be in place by 199 V Mixing units is intended to lessen the burden on NATO nations that can’t afford to<Tield as many soldiers as they once did. The multinational units will also be smaller and more flexible. Mingling U.S. and other allied sol diers with German troops cases the impression that a united Germany, the front-line nation in the Cold War. remains occupied by foreigners. It also continues to link the UnitedStatcs Jto Europe's security.