Kenyan and Tanzanian Embassy Bombers Trial: 2001

The prosecutors introduced FBI agents who had interrogated the defendants. Special Agent John Anticev testified that Odeh said the Nairobi bombing was a "blunder" that killed so many Kenyans because the truck's drivers headed nose-first into the embassy, rather than backing in, so the explosion burst toward the adjacent building. Anticev said Odeh admitted membership in Al Qaeda and that in its military camps he learned how to use explosives.

The trial's most dramatic testimony came as Ambassador Bushnell gave details on the Nairobi explosion. As the ceiling caved in, she said, "I thought the building was going to collapse, and I was going to die." Descending the stairwell, she added, "there was blood everywhere. I could feel the person behind me bleeding onto my back."

FBI special agent Stephen Gaudin told the jury that defendant al-'Owhali agreed to describe his involvement if he could be guaranteed trial in the United States. The defendant, said the agent, called the Nairobi embassy "an easy target," with the bombing planned for late Friday morning when observant Muslims would be moving toward mosques and thus out of danger, and was targeted also because it had a female ambassador whose death would generate extra publicity. (A report filed after the bombing revealed that Ambassador Bushnell had earlier requested security improvements from the State Department and Defense Department, but none were made.)

Agent Gaudin added that al-'Owhali rode as a passenger in the bomb truck, carrying stun grenades. At the embassy gate, he jumped off, threw a grenade at the security guard so the truck could get past, then ran.

FBI special agent Donald Sachtleben described how the Toyota Dyna pickup truck's rear axle was hurled more than 700 meters as the blast blew out all embassy windows, produced major structural damage of the building, and reduced the seven-story building next door to rubble.