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Bomb Tip May Have Set Up Police in Atlanta for 'Ambush'

ATLANTA, July 29 -- Law enforcement officials today said the pipe bomb that exploded in Centennial Olympic Park early Saturday, leaving two people dead and wounding 111 others, was crudely made, using a simple clock and low-grade, easily available, explosive powder. The deadly shrapnel that sprayed from the bomb included masonry nails placed in a plastic food container around the explosives.

The FBI today also released the exact wording of the brief warning call made at least 18 minutes before the blast to the 911 emergency number from a public telephone two blocks from the park: "There is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have 30 minutes," said the man, who the FBI believes is "a white American male with an indistinguishable accent."

Terrorism experts and Fulton County, Ga., Sheriff Jacquelyn H. Barrett said the 911 warning may have been an attempt to lure as many police and security guards to the bomb site as possible and injure them. Six state troopers and one Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent were hurt in the blast.

The phone warning is a classic "ambush" technique, designed to clear an area of civilians but draw police to the scene, according to Frank McGuire, a terrorism expert in Bethesda. He said the placement of nails around the pipes meant that the bomber did not just want to produce a big bang but "he wanted to kill people."

"When he [the bomber] says you have 30 minutes and 18 minutes later it goes off, that means there is a good possibility he was out to take out the security forces," said Robert Holland, a retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms explosives expert who is now a private security consultant. There is some confusion about the handling of the 911 call before the blast occurred.

FBI special agent David Tubbs, however, told a press briefing today that at this stage of the investigation the motive of the caller is "sheer speculation."

"I have no idea at this point why he made the call," Tubbs said.

While the FBI has not identified a suspect or suspects, it is focusing on domestic, rather than international, terrorism. The list of possible bombers ranges from anti-government militia members to "a lone nut" to a disgruntled employee, law enforcement officials said.

"I'm sure that will be an issue of concern -- disgruntled employees," Barrett said. "You have to look at disgruntled employees because [the bomb site] is next to an AT&T facility that had people dismissed." Barrett was referring to the recent replacement of private security guards who were supposed to patrol the grounds around AT&T's Global Olympic Village, the part of Centennial Park where the explosion occurred.

The relatively amateurish, but extremely deadly, bomb left many clues behind, investigators said. With a wealth of evidence -- including remnants of the exploded bomb and and residue of a portion that failed to explode, shrapnel and the telephone from which the 911 call was made -- and videotapes and other material from the scene, Tubbs said the agency was confident there would be arrests.

"History leads me to believe that," Tubbs said. "We're further along. . . . I'm still as confident today as yesterday."

Outside experts described the pipe bomb as a device right out of "Bombs 101" -- easily assembled with readily available ingredients, including wire, a battery and a clock, blasting caps, plumber's pipe and some type of "low-order explosive," perhaps black powder, which is easily obtained from sports stores that cater to hobbyists who like to fire antique weapons.

FBI officials today said there were two types of powder used in the Olympic bomb, but would not describe them further.

Demolition experts, however, suggested that at least one ingredient was black powder because of the distinctive puff of white or gray smoke seen by revelers at Centennial Park when the bomb exploded -- and caught on videotape -- and the sulfurous smell left hanging in the air.

In addition to a painstaking examination of the physical evidence, the FBI has been interviewing a large number of people who were downtown the night of the explosion and reviewing videotape shot by sophisticated night-vision surveillance cameras, called SpeedDomes, that were mounted in Centennial Park and camouflaged to look like light poles.

Agents are also examining news footage, including images recorded by KNBC-TV showing the green backpack that contained the bomb, as well as film and video shot by fans and tourists in the park that night.

Tubbs said 300 calls have come in on the FBI's special toll-free phone line just today. Since Saturday, federal and local law enforcement agencies also have responded to 48 credible reports of "suspicious packages" at the Olympic Games. None have contained explosives.

The FBI has produced several composite images of suspicious persons seen by revelers in the park around the time of the blast, but agents said today that the drawings did not represent suspects at this time. "We're not ready to call them suspects," Tubbs said.

Tubbs warned reporters not to jump to conclusions, saying that "a large number of people" would be interviewed and that at present there are no suspects and have been no arrests -- but many leads.

Federal investigators today said they still wanted to speak with fans who were near the site of the explosion. Many employees and guards at Centennial Park have already been interviewed once.

The private security agent who discovered the bomb next to an AT&T sound and light tower in the park said today that the FBI has instructed him not to discuss a rowdy group of individuals who left the area where the knapsack had been placed just before the bomb went off.

"It's already been said that the officers were dealing with some rowdy people, obnoxious people," said Richard Jewell, 33, a contract employee with AT&T, in an interview with The Post. "I have talked to agents of both the state and federal agencies on numerous occasions about this incident. I've been advised . . . that I not go into any further details."

Jewell said that in his job, he routinely made rounds of the tower, checking under benches and making sure nothing was amiss. He said he is certain the knapsack was not in the area around 11:30 p.m., but he did notice it on his next check at about 12:50 a.m., after the rowdy group had left.

"I spotted the package after some subjects left the area," Jewell said. That is when he contacted a nearby GBI officer and told him there was a lone package under a bench. Jewell said he thought the rowdy group had left it.

"I said, `Hey, they left a bag here.' The agent went over to them and asked them if that was theirs and they said no. The agent and I asked several people if it was their package, and they all said no," Jewell said.

He said he never looked inside the knapsack. Instead, the state police agent called ATF bomb investigators, who arrived in about four minutes. Bystanders were being moved away from the area when the bomb exploded.

Jewell said he was 40 feet away when the blast occurred, but the impact still knocked him off his feet. When he looked up, he saw two Georgia police officers sailing through the air.

Jewell was one of a handful of contract guards retained by AT&T after it canceled a previous contract with another security company two weeks ago.

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said investigators had told him they were confident the bomber would be apprehended. He said taped images from the time of the explosion may prove very helpful to investigators.

The blast, as well as the movement of persons around the base of the AT&T sound and light tower where the explosion occurred, may have been captured by the security video cameras, which can be operated automatically or manually. They rotate 360 degrees, and have the ability to stop and zoom in on something and magnify the image 10 times. There are hundreds of these so-called SpeedDomes around the Olympic venues.

A spokeswoman for the company that produces them, Sensormatic Electronics Corp, said Olympic organizers had ordered more to be mounted in Centennial Park before it opens again Tuesday morning.