They acknowledged their responsibility for security outside the fence of the compound, while the 4404th was responsible for security inside. The Saudis were unable to detect, deter, and prevent the truck bomb attack outside the perimeter fence at Khobar Towers. I found that the Saudis and other friendly governments in the region are willing to help us provide better security in the future. It will require maintaining better continuity in the working relationships with local host nation officials as well as inculcating a willingness for lower echelon commanders to surface issues to the chain of command when those issues cannot be resolved satisfactorily at their level. The Task Force discovered found a manpower intensive approach to force protection used in the Gulf.
American technology is the best in the world.
We can and must provide our forces with state of the art sensors, blast protectors, automated entry points and cargo inspection devices. We also must assist our commanders in applying this technology. We have enough inspectors. We need helpers who can point out deficiencies and then make the corrections by helping commanders overseas install these advanced systems. We believe that the Department of Defense estimate of 20,000 pound bomb is inaccurate.