UNSAFE IN SAUDI

Despite faxed warnings from militant Islamic fundamentalists to the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia during April and June, no additional security precautions were taken prior to a bombing Monday that killed six people, five of them Americans. U.S. Ambassador Ray Mabus on Wednesday said investigations into the faxes had led nowhere, and he admitted that no further precautions were taken because the Saudi kingdom is "deemed one of the safest" countries for military security: "You cannot let somebody with a fax machine paralyze you or keep you from doing what you do day-to-day." Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson reports: "Only miraculous second-guessing could have prevented the bombing, and the U.S. government is stunned by it. Remember, the huge American force during the Gulf War stationed Saudi Arabia was never harrassed or objected to." Thompson says the real target may have been the Saudi Army National Guard, the force that protects the Saudi monarchy and received training at the bombed installation. "If the target was American soldiers alone, as the militants claim," he adds, "there are any number of more significant American targets they could have gone after."