The Hull Thread
Chronology of Events From January 1998 - June 1998
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January 7, 1998 CNN Web posted at: 8:03 p.m. EST (0103 GMT)
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols escaped a death sentence
Wednesday, when a badly divided panel of jurors was unable to agree on a
unanimous decision in the penalty phase of his trial.
"The government was not able to prove to us
satisfactorily that Terry Nichols was greatly involved in this process, only
that he was somewhat involved," jury forewoman Niki Deutchman
told a news conference after jurors were dismissed. ......
"There were a lot of things about the evidence that
seemed to be sloppy," she said. In particular, she questioned
the FBI's decision to take notes, rather than tape record, key interviews
in the case, including a nine-hour interview with Nichols. Those notes were
then submitted to the jury. ... "It seems arrogant
to me, on the part of the FBI, to say,
'You know, we have good recall, and you
can take what we have said,'"
Deutchman said, adding that the trial experience led her to
"understand how someone would be unhappy with the
government." ...... While saying nothing justified the bombing
and massive loss of life, Deutchman said the
"government's attitude -- and the FBI is definitely
included in that -- is part of where all of this comes from in the first
place. There are a fair number of people out there who are pretty unhappy
with the government and feel unsafe and very suspicious,"
Deutchman said. "I think maybe it's time
for the government to be more respectful and to be more aware of each of
us as people with inalienable rights ... and not with the attitude of
'We know, and you don't. We have the
power, and you don't.'"
January 8, 1997 The Associated Press
Reported that Ramzi Yousef was
sentenced to life in prison without parole. ...
“Yes, I am a terrorist and am proud of
it,” he said, adding that the United States invented terrorism.
“I support terrorism,” he said..... The
last suspect in the attack, Abdul Rahman Yasin, who was born in Bloomington,
Ind., and moved to Iraq in the 1960s,
remains at large.
January 9, 1998 Newsday
A group of retired military pilots and a conservative media "watchdog"
group said yesterday that information from the flight data recorder of the
ill-fated TWA 800 indicates a missile caused the fatal explosion,
despite an FBI conclusion to the contrary. Retired
Navy Cmdr. William Donaldson and representatives of Accuracy in
Media, based in Washington, D.C., accused the National Transportation Safety
Board of deliberately ignoring the last line of data from the aircraft's
flight recorder, which he said indicated a missile hit or nearly hit the
aircraft, causing its center fuel tank to explode.
"It looks to me like there was a high explosive
warhead that blew up on the left side [of the plane],"
Donaldson said. NTSB spokeswoman Shelly Hazle dismissed the groups' missile
theory. She said the groups incorrectly based their theory on an assertion
that discarded information from the plane's flight data actually shows the
explosion was caused by a missile. Hazle said the information found at the
end of the data tape was crossed out and not considered by investigators
because it was data from another flight. Hazle said flight data recorders
record essential flight data "continuously." Along with the data from TWA
800, the tape included flight information from a previous flight, she said.
"We have no evidence of a missile striking TWA 800
or a missile exploding near TWA 800 and fragments striking the
aircraft," she said. "We don't have radar
data to support it. We don't have physical evidence on the airplane to support
it." Several eyewitnesses to the crash also spoke at yesterday's
news conference, and reported, as they have previously, that a "streak of
light" consistent with a missile trajectory appeared in the sky just prior
to the crash. All were interviewed by the FBI and other investigators who
also concluded that no act of sabotage was involved in the July 17, 1996,
explosion, which killed all 230 on board. The FBI and CIA said what witnesses
saw was actually part of the stricken plane falling away. Federal investigators
are now focused on a mechanical reason for the explosion of the aircraft's
center fuel tank and whether it may have been caused by faulty or frayed
wiring.
January 9, 1998 USA
Today
Retired admiral Thomas Moorer, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, called Thursday for new congressional hearings into TWA Flight
800. ..... "This time, I wouldn't let
the FBI do it," Moorer said. "I'd have
the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) do it."
Moorer and other retired Navy brass, at a news conference, expressed suspicion
over the FBI's 18-month investigation of the disaster.
"All the evidence would point to a missile,"
Moorer said. Moorer, an expert
on missiles, attended the news conference convened by a media watchdog group
that scoffs at the NTSB and FBI findings. The FBI's Joseph Valliquette
said the agency is "comfortable" with
its conclusions that "there's no evidence a criminal
act was responsible." The Navy officers - who appeared
with a veteran TWA pilot, two witnesses and members of Accuracy in Media,
which coordinated the briefing - said a study of the evidence from recovered
Flight 800 data recorders rebuts the government's oficial story about fuel
vapors exploding in a central tank of the jetliner after a spark from unknown
causes. The retired officers speculated a missile
could have come from either a submarine or a buoy device
developed by the Navy years ago. "One vital
question we haven't attacked is the origin of that streak of light,"
Moorer said. ..... Shelly Hazle, a spokeswoman for the NTSB,
scoffed at allegations made at the news conference.
"Their interpretation of the data from the flight
data recorder only displays ther lack of knowledge of how FDRs work and how
data is interpreted."
(Editorial note from M. Hull: Reader might
wish to review article at
http://www.webexpert.net/thread/library/iransub.html
regarding possibility
of a submarine involvement.)
January 9, 1998 The Press-Enterprise
http://www.press-enterprise.com/news/
Refusing to believe the government's explanation for the crash of TWA Flight
800, a group of retired aviators said Thursday they
had found evidence that a missile exploded just 60 feet from the front of
the Boeing 747. The last line of data from Flight 800's flight
data recorder, information released during National Transportation Safety
Board hearings in Baltimore last month, includes readings that prove an explosion
took place outside the plane, said William S.
Donaldson, a retired Navy commander who investigated crashes.
"It looks to me like there was a huge explosive
warhead about 60 feet from the plane and blew the nose up and to the
left," Donaldson said during a news conference sponsored
by the Associated Retired Aviation Professionals and the conservative group
Accuracy in Media. Responding to the Donaldson theory, government officials
said there was no evidence of a missile, saying that information from the
flight recorders was being misinterpreted. Also
at the news conference were two men who witnessed the crash -- a military
helicopter pilot who was flying over Long Island at the time and a businessman
who saw the disaster while eating dinner at a yacht club -- said a CIA video
recreation of the crash doesn't reflect what they saw. .... An
NTSB spokeswoman repeated Thursday that the agency has discounted a missile
theory. Federal investigators have concluded vapors in the plane's central
fuel tank were ignited by an unknown mechanical malfunction.
"We have absolutely no evidence that a missile struck
the aircraft or that a fragment of a missile entered the
aircraft," said spokeswoman Shelly Hazle. Donaldson vehemently
disagreed, drawing his conclusions that a missile
shot down the plane as a terrorist act from a printout of
flight data produced by the NTSB. The flight data recorder tracks information
such as altitude, speed, engine power, the direction in which flight controls
are pointing and how directly the wind hits the plane. Before printing copies
of the flight data for distribution in Baltimore, an NTSB official drew a
line through the last set of numbers, writing by hand
"END OF FLT 800 DATA." An NTSB official
said Thursday that the figures represent incorrect readings from earlier
flights and are junk data. Flight data
recorders use the same reel-to-reel tape several times, erasing it and writing
over repeatedly. If the data are to believed, however,
they indicate Flight 800's gauges recorded physically impossible conditions,
such as dropping 3,645 feet and slowing to 100 knots from 298 knots in just
one second. More likely, Donaldson said, the readings record the shock wave
of an exploding missile as it ripped past sensors. Such a wave would increase
the air pressure enough to skew the altitude and speed measurements, he said.
It would also have rocked a device, not unlike a weather vane, which measures
from which wind hits the aircraft. That reading went from 3 degrees to 106
degrees. The last reading, less than a second later, was again 3 degrees.
A shock wave would help explain how the plane's central fuel tank exploded,
Donaldson said. Jet fuel, basically kerosene, does not burn easily,
not even at the temperatures that the federal government says the central
fuel tank reached, he said. Donaldson showed a video in which he repeatedly
extinguishes a match in a can of jet fuel. The fuel does burn, however, when
it is suspended in a mist, as he demonstrates by putting the fuel in a spray
bottle and spritzing it at a candle. Donaldson theorized the shock wave from
the outside explosion knocked what little fuel remained in the plane's central
fuel tank into the air. That fuel was ignited by a fragment from the missile
exploding, he said. Unlike other missile theories surrounding Flight 800,
Donaldson said he does not believe a missile struck the plane, but that one
exploded near it. He said the government is trying to cover up evidence of
the missile because it failed in its job of protecting airliners from terrorist
attacks. Donaldson, a one-time fighter pilot, first said last year that he
didn't think it was possible for jet fuel vapors in the central fuel tank
to explode without first being sent into the air by a shock of some sort.
And he doubts that the data that led to his conclusions were left over from
an earlier flight and were therefore incorrect. "A lot of the data recovered,"
he said, such as the angle of attack measurement.
"It all fits with what I described."
Others speaking at the news conference included
Fred Meyer, a retired Air National Guard
major who was flying a helicopter practice mission around Long
Island. He said FBI investigators talked to him briefly, but were not too
interested in his account of a streak of light arcing through the sky and
ending in what looked to him as a military explosion.
"I've seen ordnance explosions," said
Meyer, a Vietnam veteran. "This was military
ordnance." Another witness, Richard
Goss, a carpenter and businessman, said he was having dinner when
he saw an ascending streak of light over the Atlantic Ocean, ending in an
explosion. He said he twice talked with FBI investigators, but they didn't
follow up with him. They were joined at the news conference by
Mark Hill, a retired Navy rear admiral,
and Howard Mann, a former TWA 747 pilot,
who first picked up on the cross-out line in the flight recorder data while
looking over documents he picked up during the Baltimore hearings.
January 14, 1998 FAA Releases TWA Flight 800 Tapes
8:37:11 Boston: Well, I want to confirm that you saw the splash
in the water.
8:37:20 Eastwind 507: Yes, sir. It just blew up in the air,
and then we saw two fireballs go down to the water. ...
There seemed to be a light.... I thought it was
a landing light, ... and it was coming right at us at .. about
... I don't know .. about 15,000 feet or something like that, and I pushed
my landing lights, ah, you know, so I saw him, and then it blew.
8:37:40 Boston: Roger that, sir, that was a 747 out there you
had a visual on that. Anything else in the area when it happened?
8:37:47 Eastwind 507: I didn't see anything. He seemed to be
(alone?). I thought he had a landing light on
... maybe it was a fire ... I don't know.
January 20, 1998 CNN Web posted at: 11:52
p.m. EST (0452 GMT)
Uniondale, New York A couple accused of stealing wreckage from the
investigation site of TWA Flight 800 pleaded not guilty in federal court
Tuesday. Journalist James Sanders and his wife, Elizabeth, a flight attendant
with TWA, are charged with felony theft for allegedly obtaining a swatch
of seat fabric from the closely guarded hanger where the Boeing 747 was being
reconstructed last spring. .... Even with the charges pending against him,
Sanders remains committed to his theory that the government is covering up
the accidental firing of a Navy missile at TWA Flight 800. His efforts to
prove his point made headlines last March. Sanders, who was a police officer
before he became a writer, tested seat fabric from the wreckage and claimed
it showed residue of what could have been missile fuel. James Kallstrom,
the former assistant director of the FBI who was involved in the crash
investigation, has vehemently denied Sanders' claim.
"It's not rocket fuel. It never was rocket fuel,
and it never will be rocket fuel," he said. In December, Sanders,
his wife, and Terrell Stacy, a TWA pilot assigned to assist in the crash
investigation, all were charged with stealing the material from the hangar
where the plane was being reconstructed. Stacy accepted a plea bargain and
is expected to testify against Sanders and his wife. Sanders is planning
a defense strategy based on the First Amendment. "I
can't believe that any responsible journalist would not take the step and
test the Constitution and take the material and have it analyzed,"
said Jeffrey Schlanger, Sanders' attorney. Sanders and his attorney insist
the case is no different from others in which journalists base reports on
restricted material. But one expert on free press issues says the First Amendment
protects the right to publish but does not grant access to private or government
property. Mary Cheh of Georgetown University Law School said the government's
case against James and Elizabeth Sanders alleges that they stole government
property. "That makes it an entirely different sort of a case," she said.
January 23, 1998 Paris Match
.... la justice américaine se prépare pour un procès
en responsabilité directe intenté au constructeur Boeing et
à la compagnie aérienne T.w.a. En février, des
employés des deux entreprises seront entendus. L'avocat du constructeur
aéronautique a déjà averti le juge américain
qu'il soutiendra la thèse du missile devant
les tribunaux, lors du procès qui pourrait se tenir en
janvier 1999.
(.... the American justice system is preparing to consider a suit for responsibility against the plane's builder, Boeing, and the airline company, TWA. In February, employees of both firms will be heard. Boeing's lawyer has already warned that he will argue for the missile theory in the courts, during a trial which could occur in January 1999.)
March 15, 1998 London
Telegraph
New evidence has emerged to support claims that the Ministry of Defence
(MoD) covered up the cause of one of Britain's worst air disasters
- the 1968 Aer Lingus tragedy that claimed the lives of the 61 people on
board. Allegations that a stray missile from the Royal Aircraft Establishment's
testing range at Aberporth, Dyfed, may have caused the crash - when the Viscount
plane mysteriously plunged into the Irish Sea on March 24, 1968 - have always
been dismissed by the MoD. But one of the salvage crew who looked for the
wreckage has now come forward on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the disaster.
He claims that he and his colleagues were prevented
by the Navy from searching the area where the plane crashed. Billy
Bates, a 34-year-old lifeboatman at the time, said last night:
"There were lots of Royal Navy ships in the area
immediately following the crash, including minesweepers, which seemed unusual.
They got there very fast. What was odd was the fact that we were turned away
from an area they called Area Alpha. That was where the plane actually fell.
Every time we offered to help search that part of the water - our job was
to try to find the wreckage - we were told to look elsewhere. Only the Navy
trawled that section and took away what they found." Hugh Byrne,
the Irish minister of state at the Department of the Marine, also claims
there has been a cover-up. ..... It doesn't take
a very smart man to deduce that something happened. The whole thing
stinks." What has particularly aroused the suspicions of Mr Byrne
and relatives of the victims is that the Navy log books of two vessels which
were in the vicinity at the time of the crash are missing. Log books from
Invermoriston and Uplifter, support vessels attached to Aberporth, have been
asked for by relatives since the tragedy. But the MoD says that there is
no trace of them. It has always maintained that there was no military testing
on the weekend of the fatal flight. The accident occurred at 11.58am on a
clear Sunday. The Celtic League, a group covering the main Celtic areas of
the western British Isles, has also proved from documents provided by the
MoD that there were missile tests at least until the early hours of Saturday
morning. Two years ago it emerged that there had been technical problems
at the base, with missiles failing to "lock on" to their intended targets.
But the British and Irish governments have refused to re-open the investigation.
An MoD spokesman said: "We have looked exhaustively
at theories that the tragedy was caused by a missile, but have found no basis
for the suggestion. The Aberporth range was closed on March 24, 1968, a Sunday,
and no missile firings took place."
March 31, 1998 New York Times
The Saudi Arabian government said on Monday that it had completed its
investigation into the June 1996 terrorist bombing there that left 19 American
airmen dead but would not immediately release the results of the inquiry.
The announcement caught the Clinton administration by surprise ..... The
American officials, who have long been critical of the Saudi government for
failing to cooperate in the investigation, said the Saudis had yet to share
their detailed findings with the United States, although a Saudi official
indicated the information would ultimately be made available. There was concern,
officials said, that the Saudis failed to conduct an adequate inquiry because
it might produce evidence of a link between the
bombers and Iran, embarrassing the Saudi government. Relations
between Saudi Arabia and Iran have warmed dramatically in recent months.
...... The relationship between the Justice Department, which is overseeing
the investigation for the United States, and the Saudis remains "chilly,"
the official noted. The 19 American airmen were killed on June 25, 1996,
when terrorists drove a large truck filled with explosives up to the perimeter
of an apartment complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and fired a detonator.
The blast left an 80-foot crater. There was widespread suspicion in Saudi
Arabia and the United States that the bombing might have been directed by
Iran, which has long protested the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia
and has been accused of involvement in other terrorist attacks against the
United States. ... The Saudi announcement Monday was made by the interior
minister, Prince Nayef ibn Abdul Aziz, who said in a news conference in Mecca,
the Saudi holy city, that "all the facts concerning
the crime are in our hands" and that Saudi investigators had
"exerted great efforts to learn all the facts and
each detail about this incident." He said the findings
"will be released in due course." .....
The United States announced last fall that it would drop criminal charges
against a Saudi dissident who was once described as a central figure in the
bombing and who is still in custody here, awaiting deportation hearings.
The dissident, Hani Abdel Rahim al-Sayegh, who once
lived in Iran, fled to Canada after the
bombing and was arrested there. Saudi intelligence officials identified al-Sayegh
as the driver of a scout car that signaled the driver of the explosives-laden
truck to the site of the blast. Al-Sayegh was deported to the United States
from Canada as part of a plea agreement in which he initially agreed to provide
the Justice Department with information about the bombing in exchange for
a promise that he would not be returned to Saudi Arabia, where he almost
certainly face execution by beheading. But on arrival in the United States,
al-Sayegh reneged on the agreement with the Justice Department, claiming
he was not involved in the bombing and had no information to provide to American
prosecutors. He has recently insisted that he was not in Saudi Arabia when
the bombing occurred.
April 7, 1998 The Associated Press
Investigators trying to determine what caused TWA Flight 800 to explode found
problems with the wiring and fuel-monitoring systems on that plane and four
other Boeing 747s, prompting the federal safety agency to make sweeping
recommendations Tuesday that could affect thousands of airliners. After finding
frayed wires, the National Transportation Safety Board asked the Federal
Aviation Administration to require wiring and fuel probe inspections on three
early series of the jumbo jet, the 747-100, -200 and -300. TWA 800 and the
other planes, all older models, had probes with sharp edges that could have
frayed some of the planes' wiring. The NTSB also wants the FAA to require
separation or rerouting of fuel-monitoring wires away from bundles of other
wires that carry electrical charges. The agency fears that those wires, which
carry up to 350 volts, could sent a jolt to one of the fuel wires. In addition,
the agency is asking the FAA to require the installation of surge protection
systems to prevent electrical jolts from reaching fuel tanks. Only the FAA
has the power to mandate the changes, but it immediately issued a statement
saying it was already working with Boeing on requiring many of the
recommendations. Boeing did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Taken together, the recommendations mean that all 750 older Boeing 747s still
in service would have to undergo inspections and possibly extensive rewiring.
The rest of the recommendations could affect 500 to 600 newer 747s - as well
as other types of planes - since the NTSB wants them applied to ''all applicable
transport airplane fuel tanks.'' ''The safety board recognizes the difficulty
and expense associated with physically separating (fuel-monitoring) wires
from other wires and adding shielding to (the) wires on in-service air carrier
airplanes,'' NTSB Chairman Jim Hall wrote in his 10-page letter to the FAA.
''However, the separation of the ... (fuel-monitoring wires) from other power
sources by shielding and separation can protect fuel tank wires from power
sources that can potentially ignite an explosive vapor in a fuel tank.''
The agency stressed that it has not concluded what caused the crash of TWA
Flight 800 ... The chief suspect in that disaster is a combination of events
involving damaged wires and corrosion on a fuel-measuring rod, which may
have introduced a spark or flame into the center fuel tank. The tank was
virtually empty and the vapors in it heated up as the plane sat on the runway
on a hot day waiting to take off. At NTSB hearings last year, experts from
Boeing testified that the company has been testing different ways to protect
the center fuel tank from exploding - including using different types of
fuels. In a statement, the FAA said it agreed with the intent of the NTSB
recommendations. ''The FAA is working actively with the NTSB and Boeing to
develop both short- and long-term solutions for addressing fuel-tank ignition
sources and reducing or eliminating explosive fuel/air mixtures,'' the statement
said. The NTSB said its investigation of TWA Flight 800, while not yet
determining the cause of the crash, had turned up other safety concerns that
could not be ignored. An examination of the wiring and fuel probes on TWA
800, three retired planes and a plane that is still in service found frayed
wires or sharp edges on some early-model Honeywell fuel probes could provide
an ignition source. It also said it found two ''inappropriate repairs'' in
the fuel-monitoring wires for TWA 800's wing-tip fuel tanks, although
investigators do not believe they contributed to the crash. TWA issued a
statement saying the repairs had been performed in accordance with Boeing
and FAA procedures. In addition, the NTSB recommended that the FAA conduct
studies into copper sulfide deposits that are found in airplane fuel tanks
''to determine the levels of deposits that may be hazardous.'' While conceding
that Boeing and the FAA were working on service bulletins suggesting some
of the recommendations, the NTSB wrote: ''Compliance
with SBs is not mandatory.''
April 12 1998 The Times
Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist group, has received $25m (£15m)
from a senior member of the Saudi royal family, raising fears that the enormous
influx of money could be used to fuel a devastating bombing
campaign. Saudi sources said the contribution was the first sent
directly to Hamas, which has killed scores of Israelis in a series of suicide
bombings since 1996. ..... A substantial portion of the $25m was destined
for Izzedine al-Qassem, Hamas's military wing ..... The revelation of the
Saudi contribution came as Hamas leaders from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and
Sudan held an emergency session this weekend in Saudi Arabia with
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the frail founder
and spiritual leader of Hamas. He lives in Gaza, but has been in the kingdom
since March 3 for medical treatment. ..... The Saudi-Hamas connection seems
a strange one at first glance. Pro-western Saudi Arabia supports the Oslo
peace process between Israel and the Palestinians; Hamas calls for war against
Israel until it has been completely destroyed and considers the West,
particularly the United States, an enemy because of its support for the Jewish
state. Like most Arabs, however, the Saudi sheikhs have grown increasingly
frustrated with Israeli intransigence that has halted the peace process and
increasingly radicalised the Middle East. The Saudis also view Hamas as a
future political force in the West Bank and Gaza; such a substantial contribution
is clearly seen as a way of ensuring their influence. The public face of
Saudi Arabia's approval of Hamas came last month when Crown Prince Abdullah
visited Yassin, who is paralysed, partly blind and nearly deaf, at the King
Khaled National Guard hospital in Jeddah. Yassin
resumed control of Hamas last October after being freed from an Israeli
prison. ... An attack seems inevitable, however. Palestinian sources
said that Yassin warned during the Saudi meeting that a bombing campaign
would play into Israel's hands by sparking a civil war with the PA. But he
was opposed by leaders living abroad and young militants in the West Bank
and Gaza.
April 12, 1998 The New York Times
For half a century, the Persian Gulf has held a crucial place in U.S.
policy-making. Repeatedly, its oil and its leaders have drawn the United
States into its sometimes deadly games, even as its rivalries and intrigues
have confounded U.S. strategy. So the United States can end up preoccupied
with the smallest events, on the assumption that they may be the prelude
to something big. This is one of those times. Saudi
Arabia, America's closest ally in the Persian Gulf, and Iran, one of Washington's
most bitter foes, have been busy trying to charm each other. ....
In the two decades since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini fomented Iran's revolution,
the Saudis and Iranians have never been particularly close. .... Since then,
Saudi Arabia and Iran have moved slowly -- very slowly -- to shape a more
normal relationship. That effort accelerated late last year, when Saudi Crown
Prince Abdullah met Iranian President Mohammed Khatami in Tehran at the summit
of Islamic countries. After two meetings, the Iranian cleric and the Saudi
prince gave signals that they had, in a manner of speaking, bonded. ....
These days, there are no more rumblings from the
kingdom that Iran might have been involved in the terrorist bombing of an
apartment building in Saudi Arabia in 1996 that left 19 U.S. servicemen dead.
.... So the question in Washington is: What's up? ..... The stability
of the Saudi kingdom is of so much concern to the United States that since
the bombing of the military housing, a special task force of analysts has
been studying the kingdom under the same rigorous process used to assess
the most serious potential threats to U.S. national security. The Saudis
who hold power now are not about to walk away from the United States, of
course. It's just that the relationship is a lot more difficult than when
King Fahd was in good health, in charge and eager to please the United States.
Crown Prince Abdullah, who is running the country on a day-to-day basis,
simply isn't as likely as his brother the king to say yes every time the
United States asks for something. When Defense Secretary William Cohen visited
in February in a vain effort to win support for possible military action
against Iraq, Crown Prince Abdullah simply made himself unavailable. Prince
Sultan, the defense minister, stood in. A week later, the crown prince did
turn up for a meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Ever-protective
of his boss, State Department spokesman James Rubin said she found the encounter
"fascinating"; other officials described
it as a stern lecture by Abdullah on the failings of U.S. policy in the Middle
East, followed by an equally stern defense by Ms. Albright.
The Iranians, meanwhile, are not about to embrace
the United States. They have been demanding for two decades that the U.S.
military leave the gulf, and that is not likely to change. But
already the Saudis have urged the Clinton administration to help along Iran's
new president and have offered to mediate. One thought remains profoundly
comforting to the policy planners in Washington. Whatever else is going on
between Saudi Arabia and Iran, trust is not part of the equation. Crown Prince
Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain, one of Saudi Arabia's close neighbors,
shared a joke recently with a senior U.S. official visiting the sheikdom.
In Iran, he said, "You have three people in charge:
You have Khamenei, and he is in charge of religion and
terrorism,"
referring to Iran's ruling spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "You
have Rafsanjani, and he is in charge of business and
terrorism.
And you have Khatami, and he is in charge of internal politics, moderation
and
terrorism."
Issue dated April 20, 1998 Newsweek
Conspiracy theorists who still believe that TWA Flight 800 was shot down
by a missile will get a boost when statements of more than 400 eyewitnesses
collected by the FBI after the crash are released. Scores of people told
agents they saw something streaking toward the Boeing 747 just before it
exploded. The FBI will soon turn over the accounts, with names blacked out,
to the National Transportation Safety Board, which will likely make them
public. A CIA-produced video re-enactment has demonstrated how an initial
explosion in the plane's center fuel tank caused the nose to fall away and
the aft section to continue upward--producing the streak mistaken for a missile.
NTSB officials are convinced the explosion was caused by a mechanical glitch.
But lawyers for TWA and Boeing, anticipating the accounts' release, have
told the court handling lawsuits against them that they cannot rule out the
possibility of a missile.
May 1, 1998 Dan's Papers Long Island, NY
A lawyer from up-Island..... said that late in the summer of 1996 he had
been out boating with some friends and at the end of the day had stopped
off to see a client of his at the Shinnecock Coast Guard Station. He went
inside while his friends stayed in their car in the parking lot. When he
came out he noticed that debris that had been recovered from TWA Flight 800
was being hoisted onto flat bed trucks by a crane. He and his friends stood
in the parking lot watching. "I saw a section
of the fuselage being lifted into the air and as it was brought over to the
truck it dangled and turned. And you could see on one side this opening with
smooth sides, an opening about the size of a basketball and as the thing
turned you could see the other side and the opening on the other side had
the metal pushed out, like a giant bullet had gone through the metal. "I
turned to my friends and said. 'Boys, you just saw history.'"
May 3, 1998 The New York Times
The National Transportation Safety Board is taking twice as long to investigate
plane crashes as it did five years ago, primarily because of the efforts
it is still devoting to the daunting mysteries of the crashes of
TWA Flight 800 in 1996 and a USAir flight near
Pittsburgh in 1994. ..... A large share
of the board's investigative force has been consumed with the crash of TWA
800 and that of USAir near Pittsburgh, Flight 427, because both involved
popular plane models whose possible mechanical failures raised broad questions
about airline safety .... In Flight 800, a Boeing 747 exploded .. after the
center fuel tank exploded, but the source of ignition is not clear. In the
USAir flight, a Boeing 737 went out of control near Pittsburgh on Sept. 8,
1994, possibly because of a rudder malfunction.
(See Musing #4) In each case,
a definitive cause has never been found. Neither the wreckage nor the "black
boxes" -- the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- provided the answers
that would allow the safety board to make a determination. .... At
the National Business Aviation Association, a trade group, Jack Olcott, the
president, said, "I think what you're seeing is
what's happening throughout Washington, a litigious atmosphere, where people
are very reluctant to make any moves before all the i's are dotted and all
the t's are crossed." He advocated trying to strike a delicate
balance. "The sooner you can resolve some of these issues and offer a recommended
correction, the better off everyone is," he suggested. On the other hand,
he said, "you don't want to shoot from the hip and
come up with something instantaneous and have it be wrong."
May 7, 1998 The Associated Press
The discovery of leaking fuel in a pipe carrying electrical wires on an older
Boeing 737 prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to order quick
inspections of similar aircraft Thursday. Less-urgent inspections were ordered
for two other Boeing planes. The affected pipe ran through a wing fuel tank,
and FAA and Boeing officials determined that fuel got into the pipe through
two pin-sized holes. They suspect those holes were caused by electrical arcing
within the pipe, creating an atmosphere of air, fuel and electricity that
could spark a fuel tank explosion like that suspected of downing TWA Flight
800..... The action stems from an investigation into the TWA accident in
July 1996, which killed all 230 aboard, over Long Island, N.Y. While
investigators still have not determined what caused the crash, they suspect
electricity from wiring around the Boeing 747's center fuel tank may have
sparked an explosion.
May 22, 1998 The New York Times
A Saudi official has been quoted as saying that citizens of Saudi Arabia
were behind the bombing that killed 19 United States airmen near ... Dhahran
in June 1996 - the first time that a Saudi official has so clearly ruled
out any foreign participation in the attack. ...The suggestion that Saudi
citizens alone are responsible for the attack is a significant admission
for the Government because it raises the possibility that it was carried
out by Sunni Muslim fundamentalists. .... Last year, the Saudis requested
the extradition from the United States of a Saudi national, Hani Abdel Rahim
al-Sayegh who was extradited to the United States in June 1997 from Canada
.... Canadian and American authorities say that Mr. Sayegh helped plan the
attack and admitted belonging to a Saudi group that used the name Hezbollah.
Saudi Arabia has enjoyed a recent reconciliation with the Government of President
Mohammad Khatami, the moderate cleric who came to power a year ago. In November
1996 the Iranian Ambassador in Riyadh congratulated the Saudi authorities
on the objectivity of their inquiries into the bombing.
May 26, 1998 The New York Times
When the ritualistic chants of "Death to America!" began to rise again at
a public gathering last weekend, the Iranian president was ready with an
unusual retort. "In this gathering I prefer that we talk about life, not
death," said President Mohammed Khatami, turning the shouts into cheers as
he tried again to ensure that the world sees a new Iran with a less hostile
face. Khatami's quest to overcome what he called "a wall of mistrust" between
Iran and the United States has yielded little fruit, at least in terms of
greater warmth from Washington. Within months of starting the effort,
the State Department reissued an annual assessment
of Iran as the world's "most active state sponsor of terrorism."
That caused senior Iranian officials to complain that U.S. policy-makers
who had welcomed Khatami's gesture were "stabbing us with a smile." .....
Khatami first called for greater understanding between the Iranian and American
people in an interview in January with Cable News Network. But he has recently
muffled that appeal, apparently in deference to domestic criticism. ....
In interviews over two weeks a wide range of Iranian scholars, commentators
and senior officials have faulted the United States because the atmosphere
between the two countries is not much warmer. In addition to putting Iran
at the head of the terrorism list again, those Iranians have cited renewed
U.S. allegations that their country is seeking to acquire weapons of mass
destruction as a sign that the relationship is not warming. The Iranians
also cited a congressional decision this year to allocate millions of dollars
for a new Radio Free Iran, with the purpose of undermining the structure
established by the Islamic Revolution of 1979. ........ Iran has made marked
progress in improving ties with other countries. European ambassadors who
had left in protest over Iranian involvement in terrorism have returned.
And ties between Iran and most of its Arab neighbors, long snarled in mutual
suspicions, have become healthier than at any time since the revolution.
One problem in relations with the United States is that in Iran's political
system, the president does not have the last word. That belongs to the supreme
religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who continues to denounce the United
States and its "global arrogance." That is a major reason, U.S. officials
have suggested, that the United States has remained mostly guarded in its
statements about Iran. The State Department noted
in its report last month that Khatami and his deputies had publicly condemned
some forms of terrorism, but that the words had not been matched by
deeds.
June 5, 1998 WASHINGTON, DC (EmergencyNet News)
Pentagon officials say that the U.S. Navy is asking its sailors to exercise
caution in the Persian Gulf and has canceled shore leave for ships there
because of recent threats against U.S. military forces. The steps were taken
earlier this week by Vice Admiral Thomas Fargo, the 5th Fleet commander based
in Bahrain. The U.S. Navy warning also covers forces in Pakistan and Yemen.
One Pentagon official said, "He has upgraded the security. This certainly
is a prudent measure." The move was taken as the two-year anniversary of
the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia nears. Nineteen airmen were killed
in the attack on a U.S. military housing complex in Dhahran in June 1996.
The actual anniversary date varies according to the Islamic and Western
calendars. In addition, exiled Saudi terrorist financier Osama bin Laden
recently threatened a holy war against U.S. troops in his homeland. Bin Laden
reportedly has financed several terrorist acts around the world, allegedly
including the Dhahran strike. In light of bin Laden's comments, the U.S.
State Department earlier this week advised U.S. embassies in the Middle East
and Indian subcontinent to tighten their security.
June 10, 1998 The Associated Press
Taking the lead on U.S. arms control policy, Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright proposed worldwide curbs on shoulder-fired missiles as a threat
to civil aviation. ..... Shoulder-fired missiles have proliferated around
the world in the last two decades. The United States provided Stingers to
guerrillas in Afghanistan after Russia invaded the Asian country in 1979.
"In the wrong hands, such exports can endanger our people and empower our
adversaries,'' Albright said, calling for international negotiations to impose
tight controls on exports. Partly in response to initial speculation that
a missile may have caused the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 that killed 230
people, Vice President Al Gore set up a commission to look into airline safety.
One conclusion was that shoulder-fired missiles, a weapon the United States
provided to guerrillas in Afghanistan after the Russian invasion in 1979,
was particularly dangerous and extremely lethal. "These are hard to defeat,''
State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. More than 115 countries are
now equipped with shoulder-fired missiles, and it is a favorite weapon of
terrorist groups. Rubin said the United States had imposed strong restrictions
on export of the weapons, and "we want to impose similar, stringent restrictions
around the world.''
June 10, 1998 ABC Nightline
He may have backed the bombers that attacked the World Trade Center. Weapons
which he supplied shot down U.S. helicopters in Somalia. He applauded the
bombings of U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia. American forces have now gone to
a higher level of alert because he has threatened new attacks on U.S. targets.
.. He's rich, well-educated, and by his own description one of America's
most dangerous enemies. He has a personal fortune estimated at $250 million.
His family, which has publicly renounced any connection with him, is nevertheless
believed to be a continuing resource. Their worth is said to be in the
neighborhood of $5 billion. He lives in a cave atop a range of mountains
in Afghanistan. From there he controls a web of financial, logistical and
strategic assistance to Sunni islamic groups engaged, in what they consider,
a jihad or holy war. The principal targets of that jihad are the Israelis
and the United States. His name is Osama bin Laden ... Washington
does in fact take him and the threat he poses seriously. Some intelligence
sources claim that Osama bin Laden was connected to the bombing of the World
Trade Center in New York and the bombing of Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia two years ago on June 25. Bin Laden described that particular terrorist
act as "the beginning of war between muslims and
the United States". ..... Khobar Towers was a turning point for
the United States. Nineteen american servicemen came home in coffins. Within
the military there were two frightening realizations - that it could have
been much worse - and almost certainly would happen again. In Saudi Arabia,
once considered safe for americans, the landscape changed overnight ....
A sometimes difficult relationship with the Saudis becomes even tougher on
certain types of intelligence - they have yet to come clean with the U.S.
on who they believe conducted the Khobar Towers bombing and who trained them.
It came as a bit of a shock to the Saudis to find out how many Saudi young
men had been trained overseas by the so-called Afghani in extremist or potential
terrorist roles. Further tensions were created by the way the FBI handled
itself in Saudi Arabia. In the view of the Saudis
the FBI tried to "muscle" them. The Saudis simply stopped talking. The image
of the FBI is "a forensic bull in an arab china shop - and a bull that can't
speak the language and doesn't understand the culture". .....
The businessman turned terrorist, Osama bin Laden, issued a new threat against
Americans - a threat taken so seriously that the Departments of State and
Defense have ordered security tightened at embassies and U.S. bases throughout
the Middle East and Persian Gulf. ... Osama bin Laden speaking:
"We believe that the biggest thieves in the
world are Americans and the biggest terrorists on earth are the Americans.
The only way for us in face of this assualt is by using similar means. We
do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians
- they are all targets in this Fatwa. .. You will leave when the bodies of
American soldiers and civilians are sent in the wooden boxes and coffins
- that is when you will leave". .... Clearly he is a role model
for a lot of islamic militants in the world today. ... Osama bin Laden
speaking: "We must use punishment to keep your evil
away from us - muslim women and children. Americans impose themselves on
everyone who believes in his religion and his rights. They accuse our children
in Palestine of being terrorists - those children who have no weapons and
have not yet even reached maturity." .... American intelligence
agencies believe it was bin Laden who dispatched his personal brigades with
rocket launchers to shoot down U.S. helicopters (in Somalia) - eighteen U.S.
soldiers were killed.... Osama bin Laden speaking:
"Our people realized more than before that the
American soldier is a paper tiger that run in defeat after a few blows. America
forgot all about the hoopla and media propaganda and left dragging their
corpses and their shameful defeat". The FBI believes that bank
accounts controlled by bin Laden may have funnelled money to
Ramsey Yousef to blow up the World Trade
Center. When Yousef was captured in February 1995 he was staying at a guest
house paid for by bin Laden. Osama bin Laden speaking:
"Ramsey Yousef after the World Trade Center
bombing became a well-known muslim personality and all moslems know him.
Unfortunately I did not know him before the incident. America will see many
young men that will follow Ramsey Yousef". ... The U.S. Justice
Department believes bin Laden is operating what is in essence an underground
foundation where terrorists can apply for a grant..... Bin Laden has issued
these Fatwas and made these threats before but this time there is something
different - he put a time cap on it saying that whatever action will be taken
against Americans in the Gulf, whatever violence awaits, will occur within
the next few weeks. ..... (bin Laden) has sought
to open and fund training camps in the Phillipines
(See Musing #8) and other places
to do a two stage program - religious indoctrination into moslem fundamentalism
and then military training to serve in his various armies.
June 14, 1998 NY Times
The house on Thomas Street in this suburb 15 miles southwest of Chicago ...
is the home of a man who has operated secretly as a high-ranking member of
the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas
.... The owner, Mohammed
Salah, served nearly five years in an Israeli prison after pleading
guilty to membership in Hamas. Released in November 1997, Salah, a naturalized
U.S. citizen born in Jerusalem, returned to his home in this quiet subdivision
near one of the area's largest mosques. Salah, 45, lived modestly and
unobtrusively with his wife, Azita, and three children -- until last week.
Tuesday, the government stepped in. Prosecutors obtained a court order seizing
the Thomas Street property, as well as bank accounts in seven Illinois financial
institutions worth nearly $1.5 million. Prosecutors did not charge Salah
with a crime, but law enforcement officials said their investigation could
lead to his indictment on terrorism-related charges because they had evidence
that the money was to be used illegally to underwrite the Hamas war of terror.
....... The case seemed to signal a hardening in the government's attitude
toward Hamas activities in the United States. .... In a highly detailed
affidavit, federal prosecutors disclosed what they presented as a reconstruction
of Salah's bank transactions in the early 1990s. Prosecutors said that wire
transfers of tens of thousands of dollars from other accounts in the United
States and Switzerland linked Salah to specific terrorist attacks, including
one in which an Israeli soldier was killed. But Salah, in an interview with
his lawyers present, said the government had seriously misjudged him, mistaking
his charitable efforts on behalf of the Palestinians as terrorism.
"I am not a member of Hamas, I am not a supporter
of them," Salah said. "I am a person
who likes to help poor people." Salah said his admission
of guilt in an Israeli military court was a sham -- the only way he could
avoid a potential life sentence. He said he signed an incriminating statement
because he feared for his life after days of beatings and physical threats
by the Israelis. "Is this man a bag man for a terrorist
network?" said his lawyer, Matthew Piers.
"The answer is no." The voluminous affidavit
prepared by the FBI said the agency had obtained evidence, mainly bank records,
that showed for the first time how Salah and his alleged confederates deposited
hundreds of thousands of dollars in several Northern Illinois banks and engaged
in one real-estate deal that was intended to supply money to support the
Hamas campaign of terrorism against Israel. "The
illegal transfers have supported specific terrorist activities,"
the affidavit said, "involving the extortion, kidnapping
and murder of the citizens and government of the State of Israel as part
of an ongoing movement and campaign publicly pledged to the goal of forcing,
through coercive and violent means, the state and citizens of Israel to cede
physical and political control and dominion over the lands comprising Israel
and the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."
The FBI document said Salah used a cover story to carry out his activities,
operating as a computer analyst for the Quranic Literacy Institute, a
Chicago-area group that translates sacred Islamic texts. In reality, the
government said, Salah worked secretly as an important Hamas courier and
conduit who moved money around the world to finance weapons purchases and
launch attacks against Israel. The affidavit combines new financial data
with Israeli intelligence information and the admissions that the Israeli
military authorities said Salah made to them after his arrest. At the time
of his arrest, his statements suggested, Hamas had logistical and financial
support in the United States. The Israelis said Salah had admitted that he
helped train and recruit candidates for Hamas military cells in the West
Bank and Gaza and conducted background checks and interviews for prospective
members. His training, the affidavit said, included mixing poisons, developing
chemical weapons and preparing remote-control explosive devices. After receiving
this training as a Hamas member in the late 1980s, Salah began operating
as a financial agent for Hamas in 1991, opening accounts at First National
Bank of Chicago, LaSalle Bank and Standard Bank & Trust in suburban Evergreen
Park, officials said. ...... In one case, the FBI said he gave a Hamas member
$48,000 to buy weapons, including an M-16 rifle used in a suicide attack
in October 1992 that resulted in the murder of an Israeli soldier in Hebron.
In December 1992, Salah traveled to the West Bank for what the government
said was a Hamas operation. The trip, according to the affidavit, was ordered
by Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, described as a Hamas leader. Marzook instructed
Salah to distribute $790,000 to Hamas units for terrorist actions, the government
said. In the following days a total of $985,000 was deposited into Salah's
LaSalle account.
June 15, 1998 The Associated
Press
CBS News has hired the chief investigtor into the TWA Flight 800 explosion
to be a law enforcement consultant, the network said Monday. James
Kallstrom, the former FBI assistant director in charge of the New York City
office, retired from the FBI after 28 years last December. He headed the
probe into the Flight 800 disaster, which killed 230 people in July 1996.
"He will add significant insight to CBS News' coverage
of stories and issues involving law enforcement and will be a major asset
in our dedication to enterprise reporting in that area," said
Al Ortiz, CBS vice president and Washington bureau chief. Kallstrom is currently
senior executive vice president of MBNA America Bank.
June 21, 1998 The New York Times
The government's investigation of a 1996 terrorist bombing that killed
19 U.S. airmen in Saudi Arabia has collapsed over disagreements
with the Saudis, and Clinton administration officials now say they may never
be able to determine who carried out the attack. In frustration, FBI Director
Louis Freeh has quietly pulled out the dozens of investigators initially
rushed to the scene of the bombing at the Khobar Towers apartment complex
in eastern Saudi Arabia, leaving behind only a single agent as a legal attache
and liaison to the Saudis. ..... the Clinton administration's insistence
that it remains committed to the case is at odds with other signs that the
investigation has dissolved into a muddle of inconclusive evidence and
ill-feeling between the United States and Saudi Arabia ....
Evidence suggesting that Iran sponsored the attack
has further complicated the investigation, since the United States and Saudi
Arabia have recently sought to improve relations with a new, relatively moderate
government in Tehran. .... As the case languishes, families of
the American victims are, for the first time, complaining openly about the
slow pace of the investigation. They also assert that the case is not being
pursued aggressively because of U.S. fears of offending Saudi Arabia ....
"Ignoring us doesn't make us go away,"
said Fran Heiser of Palm Coast, Fla., mother of an Air Force master sergeant
who was killed in the explosion. "Everybody is
forgetting about this case. These guys didn't die so much for their country
as they died because of their country." .... What may have been
the FBI's best hope of cracking the case -- the arrest of a Saudi dissident
opposed to the royal family who initially suggested that he was involved
in the attack -- evaporated last year when he reneged on a plea-bargain agreement
and changed his testimony. He insisted that he had no information on the
bombing. The Saudi, Hani Abdel Rahim
Sayegh, is now in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service at an undisclosed location, awaiting deportation to Saudi Arabia,
where he is likely to be beheaded. Even if he reversed himself again and
agreed to testify, U.S. officials say, his credibility is now so tainted
that his account might be of little use. U.S. officials acknowledge that
the FBI is stymied. They say there is no reason to believe that they will
ever obtain the Saudi cooperation necessary to determine who carried out
the attack. "By ourselves, there's not much we can do," one U.S. official
said. Attorney General Janet Reno and Freeh have publicly criticized the
Saudis for a lack of cooperation. Federal officials say the Saudis have refused
to allow them to interrogate dozens of suspects arrested by the Saudis and
to review critical evidence. It took months, they said, for the Saudis to
agree to allow the FBI to inspect the getaway car used by the terrorists.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington said it had no comment on the investigation,
but American business executives and others close to the Saudi government
said that the Saudis were equally frustrated by the FBI. They said
the Saudis described the bureau as high-handed in
its dealings with the kingdom and reluctant to accept the validity of evidence
gathered by the Saudis suggesting that the attack was carried out by Saudi
dissidents with the help of Iran. The evidence, they said, included
videotapes of confessions by some of the suspects and wiretaps of their
conversations with other terrorists. ..... While U.S. officials do not deny
that the Saudi government's theory about an Iranian tie may be correct, they
say that the evidence that the Saudis have shared with them has been inconclusive
and would be of little value in a U.S. court. Freeh once described the Saudi
evidence as little more than
"hearsay." ... Families of the American
victims of the bombing are, for the first time, complaining openly about
the slow pace of the investigation. They say they fear that the Clinton
administration has allowed justice for their loved ones to be sacrificed
to the complexities of the relationship between the United States and Saudi
Arabia. ..... "They let the Saudis get away with
a lot of things because of the oil," she said.
"They need to go to the Saudis and say, 'Look, we
lost a lot of people, we need your help.' But the Pentagon won't do that.
They're weak." While the Defense Department insists that it is
closely monitoring the FBI investigation, it insists that it cannot interfere
in the work of criminal investigators. "We've been
very clear from the beginning: This is the FBI's job," said Ken
Bacon, the Pentagon's chief spokesman. "We don't
ask the FBI to fly F-16s over Iraq and they don't ask us to take over their
investigations." The families of the
victims say the Pentagon's attitude smacks of callousness. ....
U.S. and Saudi investigators have attempted to maintain a facade of mutual
assistance, with periodic pledges of cooperation and occasional discussions
of the case. But Clinton administration officials say that whatever substantive
cooperation did exist between the FBI and its counterpart in Saudi Arabia
is largely over. .... "In the end of the day, there
is a big cultural gulf here," said a senior administration official.
"Neither side has a great deal of experience in
dealing with each other in these matters. The FBI has no history of involvement
in the kingdom." The question of Iranian
involvement has greatly complicated the investigation, especially since the
United States had at one time threatened a military strike against any foreign
government involved in the 1996 attack. The Saudis insisted early on in the
case that there was an Iranian connection to the blast and arrested dozens
of Saudi dissidents, including several who had been educated in Iran and
had ties to the Lebanese militants Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist
group. Any conclusive finding that Tehran was involved in the bombing could
undermine the recent foreign-policy goals of the United States and Saudi
Arabia. Both countries have sought to improve ties to Iran as a result of
last year's election of President Mohammad Khatami, a moderate who was spoken
of his desire to end years of hostility with the United States and Saudi
Arabia. Thursday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in
a speech in New York that the United States hoped to establish a framework
for improved relations with Iran. "As the wall of
mistrust comes down, we can develop with the Islamic republic, when it is
ready, a road map leading to normal relations," she said. President
Clinton called for "a genuine reconciliation" between the two countries.
The Saudis have gone much further recently in seeking an improvement in its
relations with Tehran. Last year Crown Prince Abdullah traveled to a summit
meeting of Islamic countries held in Iran, where he met with Khatami and
praised the new Iranian leader. Commercial ties between the two nations have
been restored. Yet despite the recent good will, people close to the Saudi
government say that the Saudis continue to believe that the Iranian government
sponsored Saudi dissidents who carried out the bombing. While he did not
single out Iran for blame, the Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef ibn
Abdul Aziz, said last month that "Saudi
hands" had carried out the bombing "with
the support of others." People
close to the Saudi government say that the Saudis have been perplexed by
the reluctance of the FBI to accept the validity of evidence showing an Iranian
link. "You'd think that maybe this is
an investigation that the United States doesn't want concluded,"
said Nathaniel Kern, an American oil-industry consultant
who is close to senior Saudi officials. "My
suspicion is that it would be terribly difficult for the United States if
the investigation concluded that Iran was responsible for the deaths of 19
Americans. What practical steps do you take? Do you put new sanctions on
Iran? Do you bomb it?"