Saudis Hamper FBI’s Probe of Blast, Agent Says

FBI agents investigating a truck-bomb attack in Saudi Arabia have been restricted to interviewing U.S. airmen and sifting the debris at a U.S. military complex, an American law enforcement official complained Saturday.

Quietly visiting Saudi Arabia for the second time in nine days, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh continued to press Saudi officials at the highest levels to grant his agents access to all evidence gathered on the June 25 bombing, which killed 19 U.S. service personnel and wounded hundreds of others.

On Saturday, a U.S. law enforcement official, requesting anonymity, explained some of the restrictions put on the more than 70 FBI agents sent to the Arab kingdom.

“We haven’t been allowed to talk to people in the community. We’ve been restricted to the U.S. post and interviewing the U.S. airmen,” the U.S. law enforcement official said. “They basically all say they were asleep, heard the explosion and saw no one.”

The U.S. agents want to conduct a full investigation, including talking with Saudi witnesses and anyone detained by the Saudis for questioning in the attack, the official said.

FBI agents in Dhahran at the Khobar Towers complex, home to 3,713 U.S. service personnel, have analyzed rubble, debris from the truck and remains of the bomb itself, but they have been hampered by a lack of forensic equipment on site, the official said.