ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9607010083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Lede
Hundreds of parts of an exploded truck bomb were spread out on long, plastic sheets at a devastated U.S. military complex Saturday, among them key clues that investigators hope will lead to attackers who killed 19 Americans.
The chassis of the deadly fuel truck - complete with serial number - were among the parts FBI agents have discovered. Saudi authorities reportedly have the license plate number and plan soon to release composite sketches of two suspects.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry flew in for a brief tour of the bomb site Saturday and revealed that security had been stepped up prior to Tuesday's blast due to suspicions that people were scouting out the complex that houses some 2,000 American servicemen.
Since the bombing, which injured hundreds of people, additional security measures taken include moving perimeter barriers to 400 feet from the building - four times farther out than before. Perry acknowledged that U.S. officials must assume another attack is possible.
``We have to take that vulnerability very seriously,'' he said. ``We are making our security plans as if there were other threats.'
But the commander of the U.S. Air Force in Dhahran, Brig. Gen. Terryl Schwalier, said that Saudi officials twice refused requests in March to allow the concrete-and-wire barrier to be moved out to the 400-foot line.
``We asked them to move it to the outside of the parking lot,'' Schwalier told a small group of reporters. ``The answer was, `Not at this time.'''
He explained their refusal by saying ``the pace is different'' in the kingdom. ``We did as much as we could, given the environment,'' he said.
Schwalier said that after a November bomb attack that killed five Americans and two Indians in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Dhahran base officials conducted a ``vulnerability assessment'' and identified 40 necessary measures for beefing up security - including moving the perimeter.
Measures taken included moving the main gate; erecting barriers to slow vehicles approaching the entrance; stringing a second tier of concertina wire around parts of the perimeter fence; and increasing patrols.
President Clinton, in France for an economic summit, on Saturday assigned retired Army Gen. Wayne A. Downing to assess the bombing and security at other military installations and to report back to Perry within 45 days.
At the bomb site, Perry peered into the enormous crater left by the bombing and saw the extensive damage to the building, where huge chunks of concrete dangled from iron rods and overturned bathtubs lay inside exposed bathrooms.
``Absolutely devastating,'' Perry said. ``It's a wonder more people weren't hurt.''
FBI agents had laid parts from the truck on three long, plastic sheets in the parking lot north of the eight-story building. In addition to the truck chassis, investigators have found a blackened crankshaft, and a Mercedes-Benz hubcap they think came from the same vehicle, Air Force spokesman Maj. Jim Stratford said.
U.S. officials say the bombers fled in a white, mid-1980s, Chevrolet Caprice Classic automobile - the single most popular car model in the kingdom.
Perry revealed that even before the bomb blast, security had been heightened because of evidence that would-be terrorists were scouting out the housing complex. He cited ``suspicious actions at the Khobar Towers, which suggested they might have been under surveillance.''
That was one reason that U.S. forces had built new fences, established a security perimeter around the area, posted lookouts on the roofs of buildings and run extra foot patrols in the area, he said.
Since the blast, Americans have been relocated from exterior rooms to rooms closer to the center of the buildings, a move he called ``inconvenient, but safer'' for the soldiers.
Suspicion is focused on Muslim militants who want to drive the roughly 5,000 U.S. troops out of the kingdom, home to Islam's holiest shrines. American officials doubt several claims of responsibility by previously unknown groups.
Investigators have some evidence linking the attack to the November bombing in Riyadh, Perry said Friday.
The Saudis have mobilized thousands of security men across the kingdom in their effort to identity those behind the truck bombing, which further tarnished the kingdom's image as an oasis of stability in the often violent Middle East.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Defense Secretary William Perry (right) listens toby CNBan unidentified U.S. Air Force officer at the base in Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia, Saturday. color.