FEDERAL AGENTS WARY AS ANNIVERSARIES NEAR.(MAIN)

Byline: CHRISTI HARLAN Cox News Service

WASHINGTON -- Federal agents who took part in the raid of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco three years ago don't like to say where they work now.

``Not when my name's on the Internet and people are asking where I live and what kind of car I drive,'' said one of the agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. ``I don't want to make it easier for them.''

Threats against ATF agents have been growing since the Waco raid on Feb. 28, 1993. But since the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City last April 19 -- the two-year anniversary of the inferno that destroyed the Branch Davidian compound -- ATF and other federal agents fear that the public is also becoming a target of anti-government militants.

Law enforcement officials won't say whether they have received specific threats for this Feb. 28 and April 19, but they are mindful of the potential.

``We like to make our employees a little more aware of those dates,'' said Trinidad Martinez, Southwest regional director of the Federal Protective Service, the law enforcement arm of the General Services Administration, which owns and leases office space for the federal government. ``Obviously, we'll have our eyes more than open.''

The anniversaries this year fall at a particularly vulnerable time for law enforcement agencies. Legislation that would have given them broader powers to investigate domestic terrorist groups has been hung up in Congress since June.

Meanwhile, the ATF, which is responsible for enforcing federal firearms and explosives laws, is still restructuring and recovering after its own missteps in Waco.

Law enforcement agencies also face second-guessing by Congress. Two House subcommittees held televised hearings last July into the ATF's and FBI's handling of the Branch Davidians and the Randy Weaver family at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. A report on the hearings is expected in late March.

Altogether, the pressure on law enforcement agencies is to move slower when it might be time to move faster.

``I think the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction right now,'' said Ronald K. Noble, who for nearly three years oversaw the ATF as the first undersecretary for enforcement at the U.S. Treasury Department.

``I believe that because of Waco, law enforcement will be inclined to wait rather than act, for fear that by acting they will be accused of having acted prematurely,'' Noble said. The result, he predicted, will be suspects committing the kind of ``heinous activity'' that agents feared from the beginning.

For agents, the new concern is that the heinous activity may be directed at them. The ATF has traditionally drawn the scorn of the National Rifle Association and the hatred of more militant pro-gun groups because the ATF enforces gun laws, but recently the vitriol has a new edge to it.

Since Waco, agents have received so many threats that the bureau has established a computer database to track and analyze them. The bureau can obtain authority for wiretaps to investigate gun and explosives violations but not threats against its own agents.

Feb. 28 has a second meaning for the ATF and its most malevolent detractors: It is the second anniversary of the Brady Bill, the federal law that set up a waiting period for handgun purchases.