Fbi Opens File To Public On Olympic Bombing Feds Offer $500,000 Reward; Jewell Reaches Settlement With Nbc

More than four months after the Olympic bombing, the FBI posted a $500,000 reward Monday and for the first time played a tape of the 911 warning call, hoping someone might recognize the man’s deep, slow voice.

One-time suspect Richard Jewell, meanwhile, reached an undisclosed cash settlement with NBC over his claim that news anchor Tom Brokaw implied he was guilty of the bombing that left two dead and hundreds injured. NBC said it agreed to the settlement to protect confidential sources.

The FBI’s deputy director, Weldon Kennedy, denied that investigators are at a dead end, and said the agency has made a “lot of progress.” He said investigators believe people have photos, videos or other information that may identify the bomber or bombers.

FBI officials played the 911 recording three times. A transcript of the call, in which the man warns “There is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have 30 minutes,” had been released shortly after the July 27 bombing.

The tape wasn’t released earlier because the caller apparently disguised his voice, Kennedy said, “and we felt in the earlier stages of this that we did not have enough information to provide.”

The bombing killed one spectator and injured more than 100 others during the early-morning concert at the crowded Centennial Olympic Park. A Turkish cameraman rushing to the scene died of a heart attack.

Jewell, a security guard, was initially labeled a hero for discovering the knapsack that contained the pipe bomb just before the blast. The knapsack was left beneath a bench near a light tower between midnight and 12:45 a.m., Kennedy said. The 911 call was made at 12:58 a.m. and the bomb exploded about 1:20.

Kennedy said it was possible for one person to have planted the bomb and made the 911 call.

“The time factors are such that it’s possible one person did both,” he said. “But … it could also have been two people acting in concert.”

It took the FBI more than four months to piece together fragments of the knapsack. Displaying a replica of the bag, Kennedy said someone, somewhere has a photograph of “a person carrying this bomb into the park.”

FBI Director Louis Freeh said months ago that there were other suspects, described by law enforcement sources as linked to some private militia groups. No arrests have been made, and Kennedy declined comment Monday on any militia connection.