Forensic evidence
crucial to solving blast
Main storyPartial list of victims Victims' families Saudi Security? Investigation Clinton reaction World reaction June 27, 1996
Web posted at: 12:40 a.m. EDTFrom Correspondent John Holliman
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Given that evidence and forensic analysis proved crucial to solving New York's World Trade Center bombing and the Pan Am explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland, it was not surprising that President Clinton's first action was to rush an FBI field emergency response team to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
In the World Trade Center explosion, an ID number from the vehicle that carried the bomb was found, and traced back to the perpetrators. Investigators in Lockerbie found pieces of cloth from the bomb container that brought down Flight 103. The cloth came from a factory on the island of Malta, where it was allegedly purchased by Libyan diplomats
Now, Clinton hopes that an FBI team will work the same magic in the truck bombing in a military housing complex near Dhahran where 19 American servicemen were killed.
Since the 1983 Beirut Marines barracks bombing, the FBI has had a team of experts, ready with prepacked equipment, that can be quickly dispatched to the site of a blast. In fact, the field emergency team was formed to handle major crime scenes.
"They are real experts at ascertaining from the residue of chemicals and the like where the chemicals may have come from," said former CIA director James Woolsey.
Former FBI official Sean McWeeney says the team's approach will be the same as that of any big crime scene. "They'll be looking for little bits of evidence to pull things together," he said.
Among the group heading for Dhahran are explosives experts to help look for evidence of the device itself and photographers to document the entire site. Chemists from the FBI's crime lab and a large group of agents trained to collect and preserve evidence are also part of the team.
Since the FBI has no jurisdiction in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's government had to invite the team to come in, and it will, in fact, control the probe.
"A lot of the investigation in Saudi Arabia would have to be done by the Saudi authorities ... but U.S. intelligence and the bureau can both be some help," Woolsey said.
Digging through the debris promises to be a tedious but critical chore: The clues that lie buried in the wreckage may be the only way to find out who did it ... and why.
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