n mid-November 1992, personnel from the 60 Minutes television program began contacting BATF officials regarding a story that 60 Minutes was producing about sexual harassment within the BATF. [5] At the same time, the BATF knew that a new President was coming to power--a President who had pledged to fight sexual harassment on every front, to "reinvent government," and to cut the federal budget deficit.
The BATF had already been on the defensive about discrimination. In 1990, black agents had filed suit in federal court claiming that the BATF racially discriminated in hiring, promotion and evaluation. [6] A fresh round of discrimination complaints by black BATF agents came in October 1992, the month before 60 Minutes began setting up interviews for the sex discrimination story. [7] The 60 Minutes report, which *3 would air on January 10, 1993, put the BATF in a vulnerable position for the Congressional budget hearing that would take place in early March, given the new administration's concern with sexual and racial harassment, and with reorganizing the government.
The 60 Minutes report was devastating. A BATF agent, Michelle Roberts, told the television program that after she and some male agents finished a surveillance in a parking lot, "I was held against the hood of my car and had my clothes ripped at by two other agents." [8] Agent Roberts claimed she was in fear for her life. The agent who corroborated Ms. Roberts' accusations recounted that he was pressured to resign from the BATF. Another agent, Sandra Hernandez, said her complaints about sexual harassment were at first ignored by the BATF, and she was then demoted to file clerk and transferred to a lower- ranking office. BATF agent Bob Hoffman said "the people I put in jail have more honor than the top administration in this organization." [9] Agent Lou Tomasello told the television audience: "I took an oath. And the thing I find totally abhorrent and disgusting is these higher-level people took that same oath and they violate the basic principles and tenets of the Constitution and the laws and simple ethics and morality." [10]
The BATF had investigated David Koresh in the summer of 1992. The BATF investigation began about a month after an Australian tabloid television program produced a story about Koresh. [11] Having lain moribund since the summer, the BATF investigation perked up in mid-November. [12] By early December, the BATF was planning the raid on a seventy-seven acre property outside Waco, the Mount Carmel Center, *4 which the Branch Davidians called their communal home. [13]
A BATF memo written two days before the February 28, 1993 raid explained "this operation will generate considerable media attention, both locally [Texas] and nationally." [14] The BATF public relations director, Sharon Wheeler, called reporters to ask them for their weekend phone numbers. The reporters contend, and Wheeler denies, that she asked them if they would be interested in covering a weapons raid on a "cult." Wheeler, on the other hand, states that she merely told them, "We have something going down." [15] After the raid, the BATF at first denied there had been any media contacts. [16] Journalist Ronald Kessler reports that the BATF told eleven media outlets that the raid was coming. [17] The Department of the Treasury has refused to release the pre-raid memos which deal with publicity, asserting that they are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. [18]
In any case, the BATF's public relations officer was stationed in Waco on the day of the raid ready to issue a press release announcing the raid's success. [19] A much-publicized raid, resulting in the seizure of hundreds of guns and dozens of "cultists" might reasonably be expected to improve the fortunes of BATF Director, Stephen Higgins, who was scheduled to testify before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government on March 10, 1993. Investigative reporter Carol Vinzant wrote:
*5 In the jargon of at least one ATF office, the Waco raid was what is known as a ZBO ("Zee Big One"), a press-drawing stunt that when shown to Congress at budget time justifies more funding. One of the largest deployments in bureau history, the attack on the Branch Davidians compound was, in the eyes of some of the agents, the ultimate ZBO. [20]
60 Minutes rebroadcast the BATF segment a few months later. Host Mike Wallace opined that almost all the agents he talked to said that they believe the initial attack on that cult in Waco was a publicity stunt--the main goal of which was to improve ATF's tarnished image. [21] The codeword for the beginning of the BATF raid was "showtime." [22]
Raids for TV cameras aren't effective raids.
