FBI Questioning Bomb Suspects
Investigators are painstakingly searching through the piles of debris for clues to the deadly terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies in east Africa, CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.
Last week's twin bombings in Nairobi and Tanzania killed 257 people and injured more than 5,000. Twelve of those killed were Americans.
President Clinton led the nation in mourning Thursday at a memorial service for 10 of the 12 Americans killed in the Nairobi blast. One American, Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Sherry Olds, was flown home Wednesday at the family's request. The other, Jean Dalizu, will be buried in her adopted homeland, Kenya, where she married.
FBI officials say that the agency may have identified parts of the vehicle used to carry the bomb.
"We need to send evidence back to the FBI laboratory in Washington to assess the chemical residues on suspected pieces of evidence," said FBI Special Agent Sheila Horan.
Five people are being questioned in connection with the blast in Kenya because of what investigators call "suspicious activities." Kenyan officials have provided no information on their nationalities, or what they may have told them about the attacks.
Twenty special units, including Kenyan police officers and FBI officials, are interrogating thousands of witnesses to the attack, including victims. Officials in Kenya have set up a hotline to gather any information people may have on the bombings.
"The public is coming forward now to provide info and statements ,which greatly assist this investigation," Horan said.
Officials have stressed that the investigation is in the early stages and the case may take months, or years, to solve.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, said she had warned the State Department over the past year that security measures needed to be tightened at the embassy.
In Tanzania, an official said Wednesday that all but three of the original 14 suspects arrested there Tuesday in connection with the Dar es Salaam bombing had been released.
The three in custody of Tanzanian police were foreign nationals, said Mustafa Salim Nyang'anyi, Tanzania's ambassador to Washington.
"There is reason for our police force to believe that they need to talk more together with the FBI," said Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
However, FBI officials have downplayed the arrests as routine.
On Tuesday, the 14 arrested included six Sudanese, six Iraqis, a Somali-born Australian, and a Turk. Australian officials said Wednesday the Australian had been freed, but there were no reports of who else had been released.
Goss confirmed that the CIA apparently thwarted two bombing attempts on U.S. embassies in unspecified countries last year. He said that one main question posed by investigators is: Did thwarted terrorists then look for a "wealink in the chain", and then target Africa? It was well known last year that the U.S. cut back on human intelligence resources in Africa, and the number of CIA stations in Africa had been cut in half in recent years.
Investigators suspect the powerful explosive Semtex was used in the attacks, but no link has been found to a particular group, a senior U.S. official in Washington said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.