Mr. Bacon: Good afternoon.
Let me start with two announcements. First, as you all know, two years ago today terrorists killed 19 airmen at Khobar Towers, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. These terrorists are still at large, and as Attorney General Reno said last night, the United States is still working hard to bring them to justice. A remembrance was held today at Patrick Air Force Base for the airmen who perished at Khobar Towers, and it's an appropriate time for all Americans to remember the sacrifices and the risks that American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines face every day as they do their duties.
As you know, following the Khobar Towers bombing, the Defense Department worked very hard to improve force protection all around the world -- particularly in the Middle East, but all around the world -- and we have made a number of very significant changes in our force protection procedures. Nevertheless, the effort to protect our forces from terrorists is never ending and we can never be 100 percent sure that we have done enough, and therefore we are always striving to do more when we see threats before us.
...........Q: On the Saudi bombing, is there frustration in this building at the apparent lack of progress two years after this blast in bringing people to justice? And when are the American people and the families of the victims going to get some kind of progress report on how the investigation is going?
I mean all we get so far, including from the FBI, is that the investigation is in progress, and the FBI's the spokesman on it and they don't seem to be saying much about it at all.
A: In answer to your first question, there's frustration in this government with the inability to bring these killers to justice. It transcends the Defense Department. There is clearly frustration here, but there's also frustration in the Justice Department and throughout the entire government. However, it frequently takes a long while to bring terrorists to justice, and as the Attorney General said yesterday, that effort is continuing and it will continue until we find out who did this, who's responsible.
Second, last year or early this year, the government did meet with all of the families of the airmen who perished at Khobar Towers. The Attorney General addressed them, the Secretary of Defense addressed them, and the Director of the FBI addressed them, along with Air Force officials. This was an effort to bring them up to date on what has happened since the bombing and to listen to some of their concerns, and there are meetings with family members from time to time. I suspect there will be another one sometime in the future. We've made a very strong effort to stay in touch with the family members.
Q: Two points on this particular issue. One, the Saudis have solved the case, and they're not doing any more investigating, but have they shared with this government, to your knowledge, the details of their investigation?
A: As I've said many times, this is the FBI's job, to investigate, and as the Attorney General said, the FBI is continuing its work. So I don't want to comment on where the investigation stands or what one group has said about it or another group.
Q: Has the Department of Defense been able to share any of the light shed by the Saudis with the families that you mentioned?
A: I think it's very clear the investigation is not complete in our minds and is not complete because no one has been brought to justice.
Q: The second point has to do with this article about Janet Reno about Iran being thought to be the perpetrator of this terrorist act, having supplied explosives, etc. A number of our intelligence people here in the United States believe it's Iran. Is there any more light shed on that or do you have any more comment on that?
A: It's up to the FBI to comment on the results of the investigation.
Q: Is the Pentagon satisfied with Saudi Arabia's cooperation in these matters?
A: I think we're frustrated with our inability to bring this investigation to a close.
Q: Does that frustration stem from a lack of cooperation by the Saudis?
A: The frustration stems from the fact that we don't know who did this yet and we haven't been able to bring them to justice. There are a number of reasons for that.
.............Press: Thank you.