RENO ASSAILED IN GOP REPORT ON WACO ASSAULT.

Byline: Angie Cannon Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

President Clinton should have accepted Attorney General Janet Reno's offer to resign over the 1993 assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, two congressional panels concluded Thursday.

In a sharply worded preliminary report following 10 days of hearings last summer, two House panels charged that top Treasury Department officials were ``derelict in their duties'' during the Waco standoff and accused Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents of being ``grossly incompetent.''

While the GOP report blames David Koresh and the other Branch Davidians for the tragedy of Waco, it also says that Reno's decision to approve the FBI's plan to end the 51-day standoff was ``premature, wrong and highly irresponsible,'' and that she was ``seriously negligent'' in authorizing the tear gas assault.

The assault led to about 80 deaths, including 25 children.

While this report isn't likely to prompt any further changes, it gave the Republicans a chance to revisit one of the most embarrassing and difficult events for the Clinton administration.

Congressional Democrats immediately accused the Republicans of ``kissing the ring'' of the National Rifle Association and of delaying the release of the preliminary report until the election season. Democrats also charged that they were excluded from reviewing the report or the summary issued Thursday.

``I am sorry that this Waco report striptease is one of the more irresponsible actions the Republican majority has taken in this entire Congress,'' said Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. ``This is pure politics being danced on the graves of federal officers who died at Waco.''

Federal law enforcement's actions at Waco have become a rallying cry for anti-government militias. Last year's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City was on April 19, the two-year anniversary of the Waco disaster.

On Feb. 28, 1993, a force of 76 ATF agents stormed the Davidian residence to make arrests and search for illegal firearms, but the Davidians learned of the plan and began a 90-minute gunbattle that killed four ATF agents and wounded 20 others.

Then, the FBI took control and began a 51-day standoff that culminated in Reno's decision to inject tear gas into holes punched in the building's walls by a tank on April 19. Cult leader David Koresh and about 80 of his followers died in either the ensuing fire or from gunshots.

Speaking to reporters Thursday at the Justice Department, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick said that the department's own Waco report was ``quite self-critical'' and that changes have been made in the handling of such crises.

``I think you see the product of that . . . in the way we handled the Freemen situation and in the way we are handling countless other challenges that we face on a daily basis,'' Gorelick said, referring to the recent peaceful surrender of the anti-government Freemen in Montana after an 81-day standoff.