AIR FORCE INQUIRY CLEARS GENERAL IN SAUDI BOMBING THAT KILLED 19.Byline: Eric Schmitt The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times The Air Force has concluded that the general in charge of a military housing complex in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia (sä  `dē ərā`bēə, sou`–, sô–), officially Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, kingdom (2005 est. pop. where 19 Americans were killed and 500 wounded in a terrorist truck-bombing last June took reasonable steps to protect against attack and should not be punished in any way. The finding contradicts a major conclusion of a separate Pentagon investigation in September that singled out the Air Force officer, Brig Brig, town, Switzerland Brig (brēk), Fr. Brigue, town, Valais canton, S Switzerland, on the Rhône River, at the north entrance of the Simplon Tunnel. . Gen. Terryl Schwalier, for failing to adequately safeguard the Khobar Towers complex in Dhahran, where the blast occurred. Senior Pentagon officials, who described the results of the Air Force inquiry Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said the Air Force found the deaths a terrible tragedy, but not the fault of Schwalier. The officials said the inquiry concludes that none of the 10 officers responsible for the safety of the troops in Dhahran violated any laws, Air Force regulations or codes of conduct. Under military law, the Air Force decides who, if anyone, should be held accountable for a disaster like the Dhahran bombing. The punishments range from mild reprimands to court-martial proceedings that can lead to prison terms. In this case, the Air Force recommended that no punishment of any kind was warranted. Officials said Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall Sheila Evans Widnall is an American aerospace researcher and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She served as United States Secretary of the Air Force between 1993 and 1997, making her the first woman to lead an entire branch of the US military in and Gen. Ronald Fogleman General Ronald Robert Fogleman (born January 1942) was Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. As chief, he served as the senior uniformed Air Force officer responsible for the organization, training and equipage of 750,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces , the Air Force chief of staff, had approved the decision to exonerate the officers. They said that the finding was expected to be announced To be announced (TBA) A contract for the purchase or sale of an MBS to be delivered at an agreed-upon future date but does not include a specified pool number and number of pools or precise amount to be delivered. later this month. Defense Secretary William Perry
``Surely there is a desire to hang somebody for this,'' said a senior Pentagon official who supports the Air Force decision. ``But as you look back over the evidence it's pretty hard without 20-20 hindsight to say, `I'd have done that.''' The truck bomb exploded on Schwalier's last day as commander of the air base and housing complex in Dhahran. He is now in a Pentagon job overseeing Air Force operations and is awaiting a promotion to major general. ``It's the wrong call,'' one official involved in the initial Pentagon investigation said of the Air Force's decision to exonerate the general. ``It just bothers me from standpoint of the families. It's not right.'' While some senior officers have been reprimanded for their roles in recent military disasters, it is rare for a general to face court-martial. When two Air Force F-15 fighters flying over northern Iraq mistakenly shot down two U.S. Army helicopters in 1994, killing all 26 people aboard, only a captain serving as a weapons-control officer in an AWACS AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) Mobile, long-range radar surveillance-and-control centre for air defense. Used by the U.S. Air Force since 1977, AWACS is mounted in a specially modified Boeing 707 aircraft, with its main radar antenna affixed to a rotating dome. control place went to trial. He was acquitted. Similarly, none of the 16 officers, including two generals, who were disciplined in connection with the crash in April in Croatia that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others, were court-martialed. |
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