Terror Strikes Again
Attacks on U.S. embassies prompt new fears--and a vow of retribution
The American response this time was quick, a reflex hardened by three decades of fighting terrorism. Within minutes of learning about the bombings at about 3:45 a.m. in Washington, the State Department had activated FEST--its Foreign Emergency Support Team, charged with coordinating America's response to terrorist attacks overseas. Calls went to emergency operations centers at the FBI, CIA, and Pentagon; top deputies were soon meeting to determine the next steps. By 5:30 a.m., President Clinton was awake and being briefed by Sandy Berger, his national-security adviser. "I have some news to pass on to you," Berger began somberly.
Airborne surgeons. While security alerts went out to 260 U.S. diplomatic posts worldwide, marines were dispatched from the Persian Gulf to help secure the sites. One C-141 transport plane left Ramstein Air Base in Germany for Nairobi carrying an interagency disaster squad, complete with a surgical team and medical supplies. Another C-141 flew later in the day from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Nairobi, carrying antiterrorism experts, communications personnel, and FBI agents to help in the investigation.
At the president's regular 9 a.m. security briefing, Berger showed Clinton maps and satellite photographs of the embassy compounds and explained the latest theories on what happened and how the bombers had succeeded in detonating the blasts. Clinton "peppered" Berger with questions and, immediately afterward, began phoning U.S. officials and diplomats and African leaders to coordinate the American response. Later, Clinton appeared in the Rose Garden to offer sympathy to the families of the deceased. "These acts of terrorist violence are abhorrent, they are inhuman," he said.
Among the injured was U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Prudence Bushnell, who was cut by flying glass on the hands and lip, requiring a few stitches. She had been meeting outside the embassy, at Cooperative Bank House, with Kenya's trade minister, Joseph Kamotho. He said that when they heard the first, smaller blast, she asked him whether it was construction noise.
Because the explosions took place at midmorning, the streets around both embassies were busy. In Nairobi, people begin lining up at 6 a.m. each working day for visas to visit the United States. Buses and taxis also line up outside the building. After the bombings, a local Stagecoach bus was parked in front of the embassy with its windows blown out. In the back was a teenager's twisted body, his lifeless eyes staring out the rear door.
Rescue efforts were aided by scores of local volunteers, and hundreds of people quickly surrounded the wreckage of the Ufundi building next to the embassy. A shout went up from the crowd every time a live person was pulled from the rubble. At the city's three main hospitals, even people with the slightest medical expertise were asked to help. One American woman said she stitched up a victim, something she had never done before. Other injured people were brought in private cars on makeshift stretchers and given IVs on the sidewalk outside one hospital.
A dozen embassy workers lingered at the scene hours after the explosion, trying to find out what happened to people inside. They were hugging, crying, and staring blankly up at the building.
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