Though the arrests began before Bush’s April 14 arrival, the Kuwaitis didn’t alert U.S. authorities until he was about to depart. U.S. Embassy officials immediately asked to interview the suspects, but the Kuwaitis did not permit the FBI to begin questioning them until last week. The delay “is troubling,” says a U.S. intelligence official. “You don’t know what the Kuwaitis did to them during those weeks.”
The CIA notes the suspects carried a type of explosive Iraq used in the gulf war. But Kuwaiti security officials say they also had large amounts of drugs and alcohol-illegal there and hardly good cover for assassins. Washington officials briefed on the case won’t draw conclusions. Says one Hill source: “We just don’t have a real smoking gun at this point.”
