$500,000 Award Set for Olympic Bombing Info

With no prime suspects in sight, the FBI intends to offer a $500,000 reward and display evidence from last summer’s Olympic bombing in hope of generating new leads, a law enforcement official said Friday.

At a news conference in Atlanta on Monday, bureau officials plan to display the knapsack that held the pipe bomb, according to this federal official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Agents have “reconstructed the bag” using fragments found at the bomb scene in Atlanta.

They also may play a tape recording of a male caller to 911 who warned of the blast minutes before it went off in the early morning hours of July 27, the official said.

The bomb killed one person and injured more than 100 during a concert at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.

FBI agents will show a picture of what they believe was the bomb’s exact location near the park’s bandstand and give the precise time of the blast.

“They will ask people who have pictures of that location” to turn them over to agents for analysis, the official said.

“The purpose of disclosing all this material is to find out if we can generate more leads,” the official said, acknowledging that the FBI is not near arresting anyone in the case.

After nearly three months as the only named suspect, security guard Richard Jewell, who first pointed out the knapsack to officers, was cleared by the government on Oct. 26. Jewell had been put under suspicion on the possibility that he fit a known psychological type--someone thirsty for recognition, often from law enforcement personnel, who creates a crisis so he can defuse it and become a hero.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said months ago there were other suspects. They have been described by law enforcement sources as linked to some private militia groups, but no arrests have been made.

In August, the FBI set up a special team to painstakingly study more than 200 rolls of videotape and still photographs taken by professional and amateur photographers all over the park near the time of the bombing.

“There were a lot of people taking pictures--videotapes and still photos--in the park during the concert when the bomb went off,” another federal law enforcement official said in August. “We have more than 200 of them, and we’ve set up a group to analyze them in detail.”