ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 29, 1996 TAG: 9607290069
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Newsday
NOTE: Above
As investigators fanned out across the South following ``very significant leads'' in the Saturday morning bombing in Centennial Olympic Park that killed a 44-year Georgia woman, officials said they had a composite sketch of a man they say might have planted the bomb.
Authorities also reported a growing number of bomb threats at the Olympics.
``Bomb threat calls have increased,'' said Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard. She did not have specific numbers. But Bill Rathburn, chief of Olympic security, said there were ``a lot,'' and the National Guard said it was sending an additional infantry battalion to the Games to help handbag searchers, metal-detector operators and guards.
While saying no arrest was imminent, federal and city investigators all but said publicly that the bombing was more of an amateur act than a professional one and more likely to have originated locally than from abroad. ``Don't put the word `international' in front of the word `terrorist,''' one federal investigator said.
Robert Browning of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said, ``We've developed very significant leads, and we are following them up.''
That was the theme of an afternoon news conference held by the FBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Atlanta Police Department.
``We have a significant amount of evidence - a large volume of information - and we are going through all of it,'' said David Tubbs, FBI spokesman for the investigation. He said there were numerous eyewitness accounts and added that no one has claimed responsibility for the blast.
Tubbs said the eyewitness accounts from people in the park were good enough to allow investigators to make a composite sketch of a man they believe may have been the one who first placed the bomb in the park and then called 911 from a pay phone two blocks away to disclose its existence. The bomb exploded 18 minutes after the call.
But the sketch was not immediately made public. Tubbs said, ``We need to
The FBI searched a home in Rocky Face, Ga., near Dalton, Saturday night. A sheriff's department spokesman in Whitfield County said the FBI was responding to an anonymous tip.
``They followed up on it. It was nothing,'' said the sheriff's deputy. ``They went in there yesterday, but stated it wasn't related to what happened in Atlanta.''
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The resident of the house, who works for a Dalton printing company, could not be reached for comment.
Federal, state and city officials said in interviews that enough of the crude bomb had been found intact that they had what one investigator called a ``blueprint'' of its maker. By dawn Sunday, officials said, they had narrowed their investigation down to what one official called ``a promising line of inquiry; we know where we're going.''
``I have not seen any of what was found,'' said this investigator, ``but the talk among the investigators is that it was really crude, like a big M-80 packed with nails.''
Indications that authorities suspected a home-grown bomber include: The 911 caller sounded like a ``white American male with an indistinguishable accent''; Tubbs said the agency was comparing fragments ``to bombs that have been built over the years in our country''; and an anonymous senior law enforcement official in Washington said FBI agents were calling the device a ``Bubba bomb.''
This means, the senior official said, that the agents suspect a right-wing malcontent, probably with some military experience. The official added that authorities expect to make a breakthrough ``fairly easily'' and ``probably shortly,'' meaning within a few days.
Nevertheless, the bomb, which went off about 1:20 a.m. while the park was packed with people attending a rock concert, packed a deadly wallop and sent reverberations throughout this Olympic city. Despite the 911 call, security officials in the park were not notified.
Asked why, Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard said at Sunday's news conference that the caller did not specify in which park the bomb had been placed. She also said dozens of similar calls had been received by police since the Games began last week. No other bombs have been found.
- The Los Angeles Times contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB