PROBE: COMMANDERS IGNORED WARNINGS IN SAUDI BOMBING.

Byline: Philip Shenon The New York Times

American military commanders ignored repeated warnings of terrorist threats to an apartment complex housing American troops in Saudi Arabia that was bombed in June, and later exaggerated the size of the explosion in defending their lack of preparation for the attack, Pentagon investigators said on Monday.

The report suggested that many of the 19 airmen killed in the bombing on June 25 might have been saved had military commanders insisted on a few basic security precautions, including the installation of Mylar sheets over apartment windows to prevent them from shattering in a blast. The report found that shattered glass was a major factor in the deaths of 12 of the airmen.

The study by a retired Army general, Wayne Downing, found that American commanders had been told repeatedly before the bombing about the growing terrorist threat to American forces in Saudi Arabia, and about the special vulnerability of the sprawling complex, Khobar Towers, which housed about half of the 5,000 American troops in the country.

The report was especially critical of the commander of the Air Force's 4404th Air Wing, Brig. Gen. Terryl Schwalier, whose troops were housed in the Khobar Towers, near the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, and it recommended that the general be referred to the ``chain of command for action, as appropriate,'' which means that he could face disciplinary action.

The Air Force said on Monday that it would consider disciplinary action, including courts-martial, against Air Force commanders responsible for security measures at Khobar Towers, although the Air Force statement did not single out Schwalier by name.

``Khobar Towers was identified to Gen. Schwalier as one of the three highest-priority soft targets in the region'' for terrorists, Downing's report said. ``While intelligence did not provide the tactical details of date, time, place and exact method of attack on Khobar Towers, a considerable body of information was available that indicated terrorists had the capability and intention to target U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia and that Khobar Towers was a potential target.''

But Schwalier, the report said, did not appear to make terrorism a central priority during his one-year tenure as the air wing commander and ``never raised to his superiors force-protection matters that were beyond his capability to correct, nor did he raise the issue of expanding the perimeter or security outside of the fence with his Saudi counterparts.''

In interviews immediately after the bombing, Schwalier said that he and his deputies had asked the Saudi government for permission to move the perimeter fence surrounding the apartment complex nearly 300 yards further out, but that the Saudis did not act.

Downing and his investigators said in their report on Monday that Saudi officials had denied that they had received such a request from Schwalier. The Pentagon report said American investigators could find ``no record of a written request to Saudi officials'' about the fence or other physical security issues at the Khobar Towers.

The report raised questions about the credibility of Pentagon officials in their repeated statements about the size of the bomb.