ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 TAG: 9607300104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: The Washington Post
NOTE: Below
Law enforcement officials Monday said the pipe bomb that exploded in Centennial Olympic Park early Saturday, leaving two people dead and wounding 111 others, was crudely made, using a simple clock or kitchen timer and low-grade, easily available explosive powder. The deadly shrapnel that sprayed from the bomb included masonry nails placed in a plastic food container around the explosives.
Centennial Park, closed since Saturday, will reopen this morning with a memorial service for the victims.
The FBI on Monday also released the exact wording of the brief warning call made about 18 minutes before the blast to the 911 emergency number from a public telephone two blocks from the park. ``There is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have 30 minutes,'' said the man, who the FBI believes is white and American, with an indistinguishable accent.
An FBI official told a newspaper that two men with ties to an Alabama militia group were among those being questioned, but they had not been declared suspects.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today that the FBI has questioned two men who were believed to be in the park shortly before the bombing. Investigators believe the men, who were not identified, are associated with the Gadsden Minutemen of Etowah County, the newspaper said.
Terrorism experts and Fulton County Sheriff Jacquelyn H. Barrett said the 911 warning may have been an attempt to lure as many police and security guards to the bomb site as possible and injure them. Six state troopers and one Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent were hurt in the blast.
The phone warning is a classic ``ambush'' technique, designed to clear an area of civilians but draw police to the scene, according to Frank McGuire, a terrorism expert. He said the placement of nails around the pipes meant that the bomber did not just want to produce a big bang but ``he wanted to kill people.''
``When he [the bomber] says you have 30 minutes, and 18 minutes later it goes off, that means there is a good possibility he was out to take out the security forces,'' said Robert Holland, a retired ATF explosive expert, now a private security consultant. There is some confusion about how long before the blast the 911 call occurred.
The Associated Press reported Monday that a document detailing the warning to 911 that a bomb would go off in Centennial Olympic Park shows a 10-minute lag between the incoming call and the next notation of any action.
``There is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have 30 minutes,'' was the terse phone threat received by 911 early Saturday morning by Atlanta police.
The warning, which the document says was delivered by a caller who sounded like a white male in a ``calm and even'' voice, never made it to the park in time for police to stop the bomb from exploding. One person was killed and 111 injured.
The document, obtained by AP, lists a sequence of three times logged into the Atlanta police 911 computer early Saturday morning before the fatal bombing:
12:58:34 a.m., apparently the time the call was received.
1:08:35 a.m., followed by the abbreviation ``DIS,'' apparently referring to the dispatch of one or more officers.
1:12:52 a.m., followed by ``ARV,'' apparently referring to an officer arriving at an unspecified location. Police Chief Beverly Harvard has said an officer went to the phone where the call was placed.
The entry at 1:12:52 a.m. apparently could not refer to police arriving at the park, because officials have said officers there did not learn of the 911 call before the 1:18 a.m. explosion.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Flowers and flags lie along the fence that closesby CNBoff Centennial Olympic Park. The downtown Atlanta park, much more
heavily guarded, will reopen today. color.