Unsolved Blasts Unnerve Atlantans, Baffle the FBI

The armed barricades and daily bomb scares of last summer long have faded into memory but, just beneath the surface, Atlanta remains very much a city under siege.

Four pipe bombs have exploded at three different locations here since July, striking targets as disparate as an outdoor concert, an abortion clinic and a lesbian-owned nightclub. And the FBI is warning minority communities that they could be targeted next should the perpetrators strike again.

“I’ve never been to the Middle East, but from what I’ve read I imagine that this is what it’s like,” said Kay Scott, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Atlanta. “You take the best precautions you can, but you’ve got to get on with your life.”

The FBI did little to ease the jitters Thursday with an appeal to the public for help in solving the cases--the third such appeal since the first bomb exploded July 27. Authorities all but acknowledged that they are nowhere near to making an arrest or determining whether the bombings are related.

FBI Special Agent Woody Johnson struck a positive note. “We’re making progress every day,” he said. But then he used a metaphor that the FBI also used at one point in the unsolved mystery of the explosion of TWA Flight 800. “I see this thing very much like a thousand-piece puzzle. We’re steadily filling it all in.”

Authorities released grainy photographs of eight people and a sketch of a ninth man who were in Centennial Olympic Park before a fatal pipe bomb exploded during the Summer Olympics, and asked for help in making identifications.

“We are asking the depicted individuals to promptly contact the FBI and we also are seeking help from the public to aid the FBI in identifying and locating these nine persons,” said Johnson.

Johnson stressed that they are not suspects. Agents want to interview the nine people because they were near the site of the bomb shortly before it exploded and might have useful information, he said. One woman was killed and more than 100 people were injured by the bomb. In addition, a man died of a heart attack connected to the bombing.

Despite strong similarities between the last two bombings--both involved twin devices, timed to go off in such a way as to injure or kill law enforcement personnel--there also are enough differences that authorities can’t yet say with certainty whether they are related.

“We could be dealing with three different individuals in this thing,” Johnson said.

While investigators are looking into the possibility that the bomber or bombers have a militia or military background and may harbor a hatred of law enforcement or government, Johnson said investigators may not be able to determine whether the bombings are related until they can zero in on a suspect.

Nor were agents able to answer the question on the minds of everyone here: Why Atlanta?

Indeed, while city residents seem to curtail few activities because of concern over terrorism, a lingering residue of fear may be Atlanta’s dominant legacy of the Summer Olympics. Once known as the city too busy to hate, Atlanta has in recent weeks had to cope with the possibility that a hateful and deadly serial bomber is stalking its streets.

In an indication of how jittery the city is, authorities only Monday shut down a major highway for an hour and a half during rush hour because someone spotted a suspicious object on the median. It turned out to be a college student’s lost backpack containing school books, some food and deodorant.

And just before the FBI’s press conference in a convention center auditorium, a man entering the building stopped a television news crew to ask what was going on. “Oh,” the man’s companion said, relieved at the answer. “I thought it was a bomb.”

Building evacuations still occur with some frequency because of phoned-in bomb threats. “Some really sick people are out there having a field day because they have the power to empty buildings,” said a member of an organization that has received harassing phone calls but who did not want to be identified. “You can’t ignore it.”

Beth McMahon, co-owner of The Otherside, a nightclub with a predominantly gay clientele that was bombed Feb. 22, said business has dropped off 50% since the bar reopened. Five people were injured in that blast.

A police bomb squad spotted a second explosive device planted outside the nightclub and safely detonated it after taking X-ray pictures of the bomb.

“Let’s hope that we get the coward [who planted the bomb] before he really kills somebody,” she said.

Other gay nightspots and businesses say they have experienced no drop in business as a result of the bomb. But they say they are taking precautions, including hiring extra security personnel and checking bags and purses.

A letter purportedly sent by a group calling itself the Army of God took responsibility for the last two bombings. Johnson said authorities have not yet determined whether the letter is legitimate.

While the FBI said it has been warning groups in Atlanta--”particularly minority communities”--to be on guard, a number of organizations Thursday said they had not been contacted.

Melanie Rosen of the Atlanta Gay Center said she knew of no gay or lesbian organization that had been warned by authorities.

“We have not been contacted,” said a spokesman for the regional office of the NAACP. “As far as I know, it’s business as usual.”

FBI officials said they have been meeting with local law enforcement personnel, however, about taking precautions during next month’s annual weekend college spring break street party known as Freaknik, which is expected to attract more than 100,000 black college students. The event falls on the fourth anniversary of the federal assault on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, and the second anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Scott, the Planned Parenthood official, said she has been meeting with federal and state investigators weekly to discuss safety and harassing phone calls her organization receives. She said investigators are looking for patterns in the calls.

Abortion clinics in Atlanta have been attacked before, she said, but always with the intent of closing the clinics down. But the most recent bombings in Atlanta and assaults at abortion clinics in Florida and Massachusetts--not to mention non-abortion-related terrorism such as the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building--seem designed to kill.

“There’s definitely been a change,” she said.

Two hundred federal agents in two separate but coordinated task forces are sifting through evidence in the bombings.

“In the Olympic bombing investigation, we have interviewed more than 2,000 witnesses, cataloged and reviewed nearly 1,000 videotapes and 5,000 photographs, and completed more than 7,000 investigative and forensic reports,” Johnson said.

Through interviews and painstaking cross-matching of photographs and videotapes, he said they’ve been able to identify hundreds of people who were near the bomb site.

A dark-haired white man depicted in the FBI sketch--and believed to be in his 20s, between 5 feet, 8 inches, and 6 feet tall and between 140 and 170 pounds--was seen by witnesses sitting on the bench where the bomb was placed, authorities said.

Anyone with information related to the bombings is asked to call the FBI on their toll-free number: (888) 324-9797.