Good evening. It's been an agonizing day for Americans.
So many people waiting to hear from Saudi Arabia about the dead and the wounded in last night's attack
against Americans at the housing compound not far from Dahran.
And not much cooperation today from Saudi Arabia in telling the story.
Tonight we can tell you how many dead and wounded there are as of now.
First, the Americans.
Nineteen Americans have died.
Eighty Americans are still in the hospital. At least one of them is in critical condition.
More than 200 other Americans were treated for minor injuries and released.
But as of tonight, the Saudi Arabian government has allowed only a glimpse of survivors.
The Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, was in the region and he went immediately to Saudi Arabia.
He has seen some of the survivors in the hospital
and he went to see for himself what damage the bomb had done.
We talked to him on the phone.
They said the force of the explosion was enormous.
Those who died apparently died from some kind of a concussion,
but they were thrown against the wall, thrown out of their rooms, some of them into the stairwell.
So it was a very large explosion.
Actually, it damaged buildings as much as a half a mile away, blowing windows out a half a mile away.
Based on American and Saudi reporting, we still believe that this is what happened last night.
At a little before 10 o'clock, a fuel truck with explosives on board drove towards the complex.
At approximately 9.50 p.m., three security guards in an observation tower saw the truck.
It had parked just outside a security fence that surrounds the apartment complex.
The truck was about 100 feet from the nearest building.
At about 9.54, a Saudi security officer approached the truck.
Two men then left the truck, ran to a white car, and drove off.
The security guards ran through the compound yelling, bomb, bomb.
But virtually no one left their quarters in time.
Air Force General Kurt Anderson was there.
We had one of our security personnel who were on patrol notice the truck pulling up against the fence outside the fence,
and he initiated the alarm and began evacuation of the specific building.
Unfortunately, between the time the truck pulling up against the fence and the bomb going off was less than four minutes.
So there was not very much time at all, and it was a huge explosion.
So those two factors combined to make it a very tragic event.
Tragic for others as well.
147 Saudis were injured when the bomb went off.
So were 118 Bangladeshis and a handful of Jordanians, Filipinos, and Indonesians.
Once again, when Americans die overseas, the pain is felt in every American community at home.
This morning, President Clinton was on his way to Europe for the meeting of the major industrialized nations,
but he spoke to Americans before leaving.
Let me be very clear.
We will not resist, we will not rest in our efforts to find who is responsible for this outrage,
to pursue them and to punish them.
Anyone who attacks one American attacks every American, and we protect and defend our own.
There are so many questions, but the president puts his finger on one of them.
Did the United States government do enough to protect its own?
ABC's David Ensor is standing by at the Pentagon.
David, tell us about what possible warnings there may have been that this was going to happen.
There have been plenty of warnings, Peter.
In fact, in the last six months, the State Department has issued these six advisories
warning Americans that they had evidence that they might be targeted,
that American targets might be hit in Saudi Arabia.
The last one warned that there was an anonymous telephone threat of retaliation against Americans
if four Saudis charged with a previous bombing were executed, and they were at the end of last month.
So steps were taken, about 20 different steps, to upgrade security at this one location,
including those cement barricades, but it clearly wasn't enough.
Can we anticipate...
There is now, I'm sorry.
I'm just thinking, we now anticipate that people are going to want to make changes?
There's an urgent worldwide review underway, Peter, of security at military installations,
and for that matter, at embassies and consulates, and there are going to be some changes, I'm told.
Okay, David Ensor at the Pentagon, thanks very much for your reporting.
A very senior Saudi Arabian who knows this compound well asked us today,
why do the Americans live in the building right on the perimeter?
This was a 400 building complex, he said.
Why do the Americans not live deeper inside?
ABC's Jim Wooten tonight on how could this have happened?
We've seen these pictures before.
The Beirut embassy and the Marine barracks,
New York's World Trade Center, Oklahoma City,
Riyadh, the Saudi capital,
hundreds of Americans injured and killed by bombs hidden in trucks or cars,
and now this.
The word not for the fence and the security barrier
around these apartments,
there would have been many, many more casualties.
But Secretary Perry and others in the government,
by now quite familiar with this nightmare,
know a hundred feet is no protection against two and a half tons of high explosives.
So why was this truck that close to the apartments?
In these times, in that place, how could this be?
The perimeter was a chain link fence,
eight feet high and topped with concertina wire
and one set of heavy concrete barriers on each side.
No way to penetrate that, yet for these terrorists, no need.
They simply park their truck and their bomb just beyond the perimeter,
only 35 yards from the target.
Most kids can throw a football that far.
To have a 35-yard security perimeter in light of a history of attacks
against US military facilities in the Middle East is absolutely reprehensible.
By the end of the day, the country's top military officer,
General Shalik Ashvili, was saying it's time to take a new look at security.
We certainly have to take into consideration a very different threat
than we had to in the past.
This is Pennsylvania Avenue.
The White House is just down there.
The street's been closed for some time now,
an effort to keep terrorist vehicles at least this far away, 300 yards.
So any inquiry into what happened yesterday will surely have to focus on whose idea it was
to let them get any closer than that to American troops in Daran.
Jim Wooten, ABC News, Washington.
Most of the 2,400 Americans living in the housing complex
at that Al-Khobar housing complex came from Air Force bases in Utah,
New Mexico, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Florida.
And most of the casualties were among men from the two Florida bases,
Patrick and Eglin Air Force Base.
Secretary of State Christopher told us this afternoon he was struck by the number
of American soldiers he saw calling home trying to reassure their families.
That is a lot of families.
Here's ABC's Aaron Brown.
Air Force hotline, can I help you?
For thousands of American families, there was no place more important than this place,
the phone bank at Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.
All the armed injured have been treated and they've been released,
but there have been no armed casualties.
A visit from an officer brings bad news.
The phone brings good news.
It brought good news about Williams' sign to his mother in Cleveland.
They said he was cut by flying glass, but he was up and around.
That's the news that I got.
Terrorism in the Middle East claims American lives.
In South Carolina, Camille Burgstresser spent this day watching what little news there was,
having spent last night waiting for the phone to ring, which it did.
Bill, her husband of nine months, was alive and well.
I want to see him walk off a plane tomorrow.
And I'm not going to be convinced that he's okay and that he's safe until he's off the plane
and until I can hold him and know that he doesn't have to go back over there.
In Seattle, the phone rang at Lois Zilmer's house.
Son Jake made it, and so did Jake's wife, Belle.
Jake yelled for Belle and she yelled for him, and he managed to get all the rubble out and get her out.
But in suburban Milwaukee, there was no good news phone call for the Fennegs.
Son Patrick, who was supposed to leave Saudi Arabia tomorrow, had died.
I love this country. Pat loved it.
And I wish all Americans that live here would love it as much as we do.
Tonight, the phones are still ringing.
Have a good day and keep praying.
And so many families are still waiting, hoping against hope that the worst news has already been delivered.
Aaron Brown, ABC News, New York.
In a moment, who might have carried out the bombing and why is the U.S. military in Saudi Arabia anyway?
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In the Middle East, as we've all come to understand, there were so many people with grievances that pointing the finger without being sure of who did it is risky.
There are several categories into which suspects fall.
Certainly Saudis qualify as suspects in the aftermath of another attack last year in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Here's ABC's Gary Gutley.
The men who confessed to the November attack were Saudis.
Three of them had fought with Islamic militants in the war in Afghanistan.
All four were executed, but Saudi and U.S. officials believe they did not act alone.
If the latest attack may have been revenge for the executions, it may also have involved other groups in Saudi Arabia,
who believe that the country's vast oil wealth has led to corruption among its leaders and a betrayal of Islam.
That their country, which is the birthplace of their religion, is not where the American military and Western influences should be.
Mohammed Bassari was imprisoned by the Saudi government for leading an opposition movement.
Now he leads it from London.
Today, his supporters were calling him from Saudi Arabia.
Many people called me from inside.
They were excited and happy.
Sorry to say that.
That's it. I think it's a message for the American public.
Why?
Because they said now the Americans will get out of the country.
They will see that they are facing a stiff resistance and they finally they are not invited by the people.
Other theories of who was behind the attack involve Iran, which has long competed with Saudi Arabia for influence in the region.
Or Iraq, because the pilots at that U.S. base maintain a no-fly zone over southern Iraq.
But the strongest theory is that the attack was homegrown.
A protest against the autocratic rule of the country's leaders and their close ties to the United States.
Garret Gutley, ABC News.
And here's a question which sheds a little light on history.
What are American troops still doing in Saudi Arabia?
Here's ABC's Barry Seraphim.
The U.S. has guaranteed Saudi security ever since President Roosevelt met with King Saud in 1945.
The big reason?
Oil.
America gets 1.3 million barrels of Saudi oil a day.
U.S. allies in Japan and Western Europe get even more.
Before the Gulf War, the American military presence in Saudi Arabia had been limited to a few hundred security advisors.
Since then, about 6,000 U.S. military personnel have been stationed there.
We have sought presence for decades and now we've had a chance to do it following the Gulf War.
Along with oil, Saudi Arabia is seen as an island of stability in a volatile region.
We're there because the region has some destabilizing elements that pose some security threats to our friends and allies.
Meaning Iran and Iraq?
Meaning, in particular, meaning Iran and Iraq.
And the Saudis have been important low-profile players in the Middle East peace process.
For all of those reasons, no one expects last night's attack to change the U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia or the American military presence there.
Barry Seraphim, ABC News, Washington.
In a moment, we'll go on to the other news of the day, the White House keeper of the FBI files.
He faced his accusers today, right after this.
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Tonight on Primetime, live from Saudi Arabia,
continuing coverage of the terrorist bombing that killed and wounded many Americans.
Sheila McVicker reports live from there on the investigation.
Primetime gets it done tonight.
On Capitol Hill today, there was a raucous hearing on the hundreds of FBI background files obtained by the White House.
There was testimony from former White House officials, four of them in fact,
who are central to the incident.
As ABC's Brit Hume reports, it is the first time we've heard from any of them publicly.
There was an early moment of drama from Craig Livingstone, the White House Director of Personnel Security,
whose office improperly obtained those hundreds of FBI files.
I am tendering my resignation from the White House effective immediately.
But I also want to make clear that neither I, nor to my knowledge anyone else in the White House,
participated in any kind of smear campaign or an effort to compile an enemy's list,
as some have alleged or feared. It's just not true.
But one committee Democrat scorned Livingstone for creating the opportunity for what he called
a political witch hunt by the Republican-controlled committee.
Resigning, he suggested, was not enough.
I am pleased that you finally saw that this was the minimum,
the minimum you should do in accepting a modicum of responsibility
with an infinitely more distinguished public record than yours,
Admiral Burda committed suicide, when he may have committed a minor mistake.
So the fact is, it's a good thing you did it. You should have done this a long time ago.
Harsh perhaps, but a rare bit of clarity in a hearing that failed, among other things,
to establish who precisely brought Livingstone into the White House in the first place.
Bernard Nussbaum, the original Clinton White House counsel,
and William Kennedy, his former deputy, said they found him on duty when they got there.
Livingstone couldn't remember exactly who brought him in.
Nor did the hearing determine the precise origin of the list of names used to get the FBI files,
the one that supposedly contained all those previous administration employees.
That list apparently is long gone.
Everybody said they thought it was from the Secret Service,
but asked why nobody could do much better than this.
It is not a document that I recall with complete precision,
mostly because it was a routine computer printout that was not otherwise particularly memorable.
Marcisa is the man who actually sent to the FBI for all those files.
He acknowledged today that he got hundreds more files on Republicans than previously thought,
including the file on Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor to President Bush.
He also acknowledged that he did take White House memos
containing information drawn from FBI files out of the office.
Did you, Mr. Marcisa, take those files home with you at any time?
Yes, sir, I took my file. I had a CID computer.
I took them home every day. I took them home every day, yes, sir.
All the witnesses did their best to say that this whole thing was a huge but honest mistake,
but there seemed too many questions left unanswered and too many new ones raised
for this hearing to give the administration what it most wanted today and end to this controversy.
Britt Hume, ABC News, The White House.
In Washington today, there was a fire to take note of, a fire in the Treasury Department.
It started on the roof, apparently some chemicals being used for renovating the building caught fire.
The damage to the top floor seems to be fairly extensive.
The building was evacuated and everyone is safe.
When we come back, why the Virginia Military Institute should never look quite like this again.
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