Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991 TAG: 9102060270
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The New York Times and Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
But the investigators were careful not to rule out the possibility.
"We're still in the middle of the investigation and have drawn no final conclusions," said Jim Watters, a special agent in the Norfolk office of the FBI.
Other investigators and some outside experts on terrorism and explosives said circumstantial evidence was increasingly leading them to the believe that the bombs probably were not the work of international terrorists.
Much of the focus of the investigation, they said, was on the possibility that the bomb maker might be a sociopath or someone with a grudge, perhaps a disgruntled worker.
Watters said the FBI had not identified any suspects or determined a motive.
Jack Killorin, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said, "There are questions both ways" on whether the bombs had been placed by terrorists, but that investigators lacked "a clear indication" pointing to terrorism.
The pipe bombs were unsophisticated devices that might not have blown up the tanks even if they had gone off, Killorin said. Such crude devices usually are not made by people who have been trained to make explosives, he said.
Also weighing against a terrorist connection was the absence of a claim of responsibility, he said.
Officials of Allied Terminals said they were not aware of anyone who would have a motive to sabotage the tank farm. "We don't have any union problems," said W. Bruce Law, executive vice president of Allied Marine Industries Inc., parent of Allied Terminals. "We have had almost zero employee turnover."
Meantime, the bomb scare apparently prompted several additional threats in the area, and there was a minor bomb explosion in Harrisonburg, 230 miles away.
The Downtown Tunnel between Norfolk and Portsmouth was closed for about three hours Tuesday morning after a threat was received, said Bob Haynes, a Norfolk Police Department spokesman.
Callers also claimed bombs were placed at the Norfolk jail and at Marine Hydraulics International, an industrial repair business near Allied Terminals, Haynes said.
In Chesapeake, LaFarge Calcium Aluminate, a cement manufacturer, was the target of a bomb threat, said city spokeswoman Mindy Hughes. The plant's 150 employees were evacuated, she said.
No bombs were found.
In Harrisonburg, a small bomb exploded Tuesday in a car parked at an apartment complex. Fred Ridder, owner of the car, suffered cuts to his face and upper body and was in stable condition at Rockingham Memorial Hospital, said Harrisonburg police spokesman Dan Claytor.
Claytor said the motive for that bombing was not known, although Fire Chief Larry Shifflett said there was no evidence the explosion was linked to terrorism.
The fear of terrorism set off by discovery of the bombs may be exaggerated, an expert on international terrorism said Tuesday.
"It is certainly prudent to take into account that when you have a very serious world-class thug, as we do here, that [Iraq's Saddam Hussein] means what he says," said John Norton Moore, director of the University of Virginia Center for Law and National Security.
"But we should also not exaggerate whatever capabilities and capacities he may have around the world," said Moore. "He has a pattern of exaggerating his military capabilities and projecting an image of helplessness on the part of those who are thoroughly defeating him."
by CNB