On Terrorism's Trail
How the FBI unraveled the Africa embassy bombings
Special Agent Sheila Horan's flight had just landed in Rota, Spain, for a quick refueling. As Horan strolled into a forward cargo hold to stretch her legs, she saw smoke. "Out!" she yelled to her team of FBI agents and rescue specialists. "Get out of the plane!" No one was hurt, but it took mechanics 12 hours to fix the faulty valve that had routed engine exhaust into the cabin. Horan's government KC-135 arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, at 3 a.m. on August 9, a long 41 hours after the bombings of U.S. embassies there and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
It was an inauspicious beginning for what would become the FBI's largest overseas investigation--and for Horan, head of counterterrorism at the FBI's Washington field office and the first woman to run an operation of this size. Within days, 375 FBI agents and crime experts would pour into East Africa. Yet despite planes that broke down, phones that didn't work, and myriad obstacles of distance, culture, and logistics, that investigation is now widely judged a success. Osama bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire, was indicted this month with five of his associates, based largely on the work of the FBI and its partners in Africa. Among the highlights:
The key to cracking the case came, as in many investigations, with a lucky break. A man arrested a thousand miles away with a phony passport identified many of the bombers and tied them to bin Laden, who prosecutors say masterminded the attacks.
The FBI has determined that the bombs used against both embassies were big, crude devices that packed as much as 2,000 pounds of TNT into each charge. Blasting caps and plastic explosives were used as detonators; other parts gave the bombs a Middle Eastern signature.
The trail that provided money for the bombings led through accounts at a Saudi-backed bank in Dar es Salaam and through Islamic charities in Nairobi. But investigators have yet to trace the money back to bin Laden.
Working with only shards of metal and an ID plate, the FBI traced the bomb vehicle in Tanzania back to its manufacturer in Japan, then through at least five owners to one of the bombers.
U.S. News has interviewed Horan and her deputy, Kenneth Piernick, at length. The agents took pains not to comment on the results of what is a continuing investigation; but their interviews, along with those of African police and U.S. justice and intelligence officials, provided fresh glimpses into how the case of the embassy bombings was solved.
In those first August days after the bombings, the FBI flooded East Africa with its best people: From Washington, D.C., came bomb experts and lab technicians. From Pocatello, Idaho, came computer specialists trained in logging and analyzing data. From New York came counterterrorism agents who for two years had followed Osama bin Laden. The bureau also brought to the scene a lesson it had learned in Saudi Arabia. There, investigating the bombing of the Khobar Towers, agents found the Saudis less than cooperative, and the case had ended in frustration. Here, Horan hoped the bureau would fare better with local police.
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