Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 9, 1991 TAG: 9102090290
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
"The investigating agencies have concluded that the motive for the attempted bombing is in no way connected to the war in the Persian Gulf or to the Naval facilities located in Norfolk," said the statement by Director Stephen Higgins.
Higgins said it was "unusual to comment on a motive in an ongoing investigation," but he was doing so to "allay unwarranted concerns."
Spokesman Jack Killorin said that investigators were pursuing "a more traditional motive. This is just not seen as a political act."
FBI officials earlier had said they had not discounted terrorism. A spokesman for the FBI in Washington was not immediately available Friday night.
Law enforcement sources in Washington said the FBI has questioned a suspect who has no known links to political terrorism. But the FBI said terrorism had not been ruled out.
"We talk to a lot of people. There's nothing unusual in that," Special Agent Jim Watters of the Norfolk FBI office said earlier Friday. "I'd like to say we've solved it, but we haven't. We haven't ruled anything out yet."
The bombs were safely removed from tanks of methanol and sodium sulfide at Allied Terminals Inc., a privately owned tank farm on the Elizabeth River. The incident spawned a rash of subsequent threats to other locations, but no other bombs were found.
Since the war to drive Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's troops out of Kuwait began last month, the giant Norfolk Naval Base that is home to more than a third of the ships in Operation Desert Storm has stepped up security measures, including individual identification checks at incoming gates.
"I think everyone has been aware there might be some kind of terrorist activity and that Norfolk might get some of that," said the Rev. Kenneth S. Hemphill, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Norfolk, the state's largest Southern Baptist congregation with dozens of Navy families on its rolls.
"But I've not heard anyone who's afraid, say, to go out and go shopping," Hemphill said. "I think the feeling is that the pipe bomb wasn't in any way related to any sort of terrorist activity."
The site where the bombs were found is about 10 miles from the Navy base and has no military tie. An executive of the company that owns the storage yard discounted the possibility of a labor-related motive or actions by a disgruntled employee or former employee.
But Watters said any business that has operated for any length of time has had at least one unhappy worker.
In the days after the bomb scare, numerous telephoned threats kept authorities in Norfolk and neighboring cities scrambling. The Downtown Tunnel linking Norfolk and Portsmouth was closed for three hours Tuesday for a bomb search, and a Chesapeake cement plant was evacuated.
Several schools and universities, and even a sewage plant, also were threatened.
A package that contained auto parts caused the evacuation Thursday of the Christian Broadcasting Network mailroom in Virginia Beach, said spokeswoman Susan Norman. "Nobody here ordered it," she said. "We think it was sent to scare us."
Two bags left unattended at Norfolk International Airport's baggage-claim area were destroyed Wednesday night by a bomb disposal unit as a precaution. As it turned out, the bags contained business blueprints and a portable computer.
by CNB