Saudi Secrecy on Bomb Probe Frustrates U.S. Investigators

The Clinton administration is having increasing difficulty getting Saudi Arabia to share information from its investigation of the truck-bombing that killed 19 American airmen in Dhahran on June 25.

U.S. officials, for example, were unable to confirm from their Saudi counterparts reports from London on Wednesday that the Saudis had obtained confessions from six suspects in the bombing.

Although top administration policymakers have not complained publicly about the lack of information, officials said privately that they are frustrated over Riyadh’s apparent refusal to keep the FBI and other interested agencies fully informed about the investigation.

Administration officials said they have withheld criticism for fear of embarrassing the Saudi government, which has political problems at home, and of setting off a backlash that could worsen relations. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno deflected questions on the issue Thursday, saying only, “We’re trying to work with everybody to do everything possible to see that it’s solved.”

Some officials said that continued secrecy by the Saudis would fly in the face of promises by King Fahd that Riyadh would cooperate fully with the FBI and agents it has in Saudi Arabia. The administration went to great lengths to obtain such assurances earlier this year after the Saudis beheaded four men convicted of a fatal November car-bombing in Riyadh.

FBI agents were not permitted to question the four, possibly depriving the agency of intelligence that officials here have said might have prevented the Dhahran attack. Authorities said there is suspicion now that the same group may have had a hand in both bombings.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh made two trips to Riyadh to discuss the issue, and Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Defense Secretary William J. Perry stopped in Saudi Arabia to discuss diplomatic and military issues after the Dhahran bombing.

After meeting with Fahd a few days after the Dhahran blast, Perry said he understood that U.S. investigators would be permitted to interrogate anyone arrested in connection with the case. But Freeh told the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month that, although his agency was receiving “much more information and detail than we got at the beginning,” it was “certainly not at the level where, in my view, we need to be.”

Officials here conceded they still do not know precisely what stage the investigation is at; they said it has been tough to pin down the Saudis in diplomatic exchanges and other contacts. “It’s hard to know what to believe,” one official said.