6A
Wednesday, November 14. 1995
NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Bomb kills 4 Americans in Saudi Arabian capital
The Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A powerful bomb ripped through a building filled with American and Saudi military personnel yesterday, tearing off the facade and engulfing the wreckage in flames. Six people were killed, including four Americans.
It was not clear whether the attack was aimed at the Saudis, the Americans or both. At least 60 people were wounded, more than 30 of them Americans.
King Fahd convened his Cabinet, which expressed its condemnation of the criminal act, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
In Washington, President Clinton pledged to devote an enormous effort to bring those responsible to justice, calling it a hideous act of terrorism. A dozen FBI agents and evidence specialists were sent to Saudi Arabia to help with the investigation.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has been a close ally of the United States for decades, and the two countries have extensive military ties. Some Muslim fundamentalists oppose the presence of the U.S. military and other Western forces in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's highest shrines.
Although open opposition to the ruling al-Saud family is not permitted, some underground groups
have threatened to strike against the deeply conservative Saudi leadership and the Western forces.
Two groups claimed responsibility for the attack, but neither claim could be verified, said Raymond Mabus, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
One group was the little-known Islamic Change Movement, which demanded last spring that Western forces leave Saudi Arabia or it would exert all available means to evict them. The second group was the previously unknown Tigers of the Gulf.
Mabus said the blast was caused by an explosive device.
"We are outraged by this act," he said.
U. S. Embassy representative Jeff Thomas said late yesterday that the death toll among Americans stood at four; three civilian personnel and one military. He said that earlier embassy figures of five American dead had been revised.
A Pentagon official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 34 Americans were injured, and some were taken to hospitals.
The blast occurred outside a modern, three-story building that serves as the headquarters for a 22-year-old U.S. Army program that provides American military
and civilian advisers to modernize the Saudi National Guard.
The multibillion-dollar program, run by the Army Materiel Command, aims to improve Saudi defenses so the kingdom can protect itself from Iraq or other potential enemies. The program was intensified after the 1991 Gulf War.
Americans also are helping the Saudis develop combat medical teams and recently gave Saudi troops a three-month course in counter-terrorism techniques.
U. S. officials said about 200 people — half of them Americans — were inside the building at 11:30 a.m. when the bomb went off.
The Americans live in the same complex, behind the damaged building. Their homes were not destroyed, but windows were blown out in nearby buildings.
It was unclear whether the explosives had been packed inside a car as early reports suggested. There had been reports of a second blast, but it had not been confirmed.
Saudi police cordoned off the street and confiscated the film of photographers trying to capture the scene. The kingdom's staterun television showed a parking lot full of badly damaged cars, with twisted frames and blown-out windows. Some cars appeared charred.
WASHINGTON — A former Army officer at Fort Leavenworth has been turned down in her bid for reinstatement while she challenges her ouster for acknowledging a lesbian relationship.
Lesbian officer loses re-entry bid
The Associated Press
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down without comment yesterday Joyce L. Walmer's request that she be allowed to rejoin the Army until her case is decided in court.
Walmer, a major when she was discharged earlier this year, reportedly has left the area and could not be reached for comment. Her lawyer did not return calls yesterday to The Associated Press.
The case involves the ban on gays serving openly in the military that was in effect before the Clinton administration adopted the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Both policies require discharge for service members who engage in homosexual acts.
Walmer joined the Army in 1979 and received military police assignments in Korea, Hawaii and other military installations. She also served as a college ROTC assistant professor of military science before she was promoted to major in 1990.
In 1992, while she was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, a woman contacted Army officials and said she had had a lesbian relationship with Walmer.
Walmer appeared before an Army board of inquiry and acknowledged that in the past she had engaged in homosexual sex with the woman. Walmer was notified sife would be given an honorable discharge in January 1993.
She filed a federal lawsuit challenging the military policy as a violation of her constitutional right to equal protection and contended she made the admission of a homosexual relationship under threat of court-martial.
The lawsuit alleged one of her commanding officers at the base was a "religious zealot hellbent on persecuting perceived homosexuals." She said the officer threatened her with court-martial if she did not agree to face the board of inquiry.
Walmer initially won a court order barring the Army from discharging her, but a federal judge later ruled she could not remain in the Army while pursuing the lawsuit.
Walmer appeared to be an outstanding military officer, the judge said. The judge noted that other federal courts had upheld the policy against gays serving openly in the military. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
In the appeal acted on yesterday, Walmer's lawyers said the lower courts used the wrong legal standard in denying the temporary order. Justice Department lawyers said the lower court rulings were correct.
FBI reports 1994 hate-crime statistics
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Hate crimes reported to police declined in 1994, with the number of murders dropping from 20 to 13, the FBI said yesterday.
The bureau said 5,852 hate-crime incidents were reported in 1994, compared with 7,684 incidents in 1993.
As before, racial bias was the most frequent motivation for hate crime, accounting for 60 percent of the incidents in 1994. Religious bias was behind 18 percent of the incidents. Bias against homosexuals, mostly males, accounted for 12 percent of the incidents. The remainder stemmed from bias against national origin or ethnic background.
A 1900 law requires the FBI to compile the annual report but merely encourages local police agencies to volunteer hate-crime data to the bureau.
Crimes against people accounted for 72 percent of hate-crime offenses. The rest were directed against property.
cent, followed by vandalism and property destruction at 24 percent.
The most frequent racial targets were African Americans, accounting for 2,666 victims, followed by whites, with 1,268 victims.
The two most frequent criminal acts were intimidation at 39 per-
The most frequent religious targets were Jews, who accounted for 1,074 victims.
There were 768 homosexual victims.
Fifty-seven percent of the known offenders were whites; 30 percent were African Americans. Offenders were not known in 39 percent of the incidents.
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