Khobar Towers Bombing
On June 25, 1996, a sewage truck carrying 5,000 pounds of explosives detonated near a U.S. Air Force housing complex in the town of Khobar, near Dharan, Saudi Arabia. 19 Americans died, and 500 people sustained injuries. The attack prompted a review of military force protection matters headed by retired General Wayne Downing. The FBI investigation into the attack identified Hami Al-Sayegh, a Saudi citizen with Iranian connections living in Canada, as a suspect. Canadians authorities arrested him in 1997. Ultimately, there was not enough evidence for a prosecution and he was deported to Saudi Arabia in 1999. On June 21, 2001, the Justice Department indicted 13 members of Hezbollah Al-Hijaz, a terrorist group operating in Saudi Arabia. The indictment included Hani Al-Sayegh as part of this group as well as an additional, unnamed member of Lebanese Hizballah. For records specifically on the Khobar Towers bombing, see:
2006-0648-F This collection consists of records related to the terrorist bombing of the Al-Khobar Towers housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia on June 25, 1996. These records include correspondence, memoranda, emails, press materials, and reports regarding the attack and its aftermath. The collection also contains an unclassified copy of the September 1996 Downing Commission Report to the President and Congress on the Protection of U.S. Forces Deployed Abroad.
2006-1164-F Segment 2 This is the second segment of a collection consisting of records dealing with terrorist attacks during the Clinton Administration and the counterterrorism policies put in place in response to those attacks. The collection contains records from the files of the staff of the Transnational Threats Directorate in the National Security Council and includes memoranda, briefing papers, reports, notes, cables, emails, correspondence, and press material. Topics addressed include legislation, preparedness reports, aviation security, Presidential Decision Directives (PDDS) 39 and 62, and the investigations of the Oklahoma City bombing, the Riyadh bombing, the Khobar Towers bombing, the U.S.S. Cole bombing, and abductions of westerners.
This is the third segment of a collection consisting of records dealing with terrorist attacks during the Clinton Administration and the counterterrorism policies put in place in response to those attacks. These records contain studies, legislative materials, memoranda, and reports regarding United States government preparedness for terrorist attacks, and response to those attacks. The documents address a wide variety of terrorism-related topics, including aviation security, Presidential Decision Directives 39 and 62, the 1986 La Belle Disco bombing, the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, the 1996 Khobar Towers Bombing, the TWA 800 disaster in 1996, the 1999 Egypt Air 990 crash, and the 1996 Summer Olympics.