CIA’s One Choice of Target in War Led to Embassy Blast

WASHINGTON — The only target the CIA picked during NATO’s 11-week bombing campaign against Yugoslavia was the one that led to the U.S. attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, CIA Director George J. Tenet said Thursday.

“The attack was a mistake,” Tenet said. “Let me emphasize, our investigation has determined that no one--I repeat no one--knowingly targeted the Chinese Embassy.”

Adding new detail concerning a mistake that shook Sino-American relations, the nation’s spy chief and the Pentagon’s No. 2 official told a House committee about the errors that led a B-2 bomber to attack the embassy compound May 8. The attack came during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 78 days of airstrikes against Yugoslavia.

“War is about violence, it’s about destruction, and unfortunately it’s also about accidents,” Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told the House Intelligence Committee. Both Hamre and Tenet accepted responsibility.

The attack killed three Chinese journalists who were working out of the embassy. China initially rebuffed U.S. explanations and apologies, saying that U.S. weapons technology ruled out the possibility of an accident.

Among the details disclosed in Thursday’s hearing:

* The Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement was the only target selected by the CIA for NATO bombing. The Pentagon and NATO did virtually all the strike planning. An error in pinpointing the coordinates of the directorate was the principal cause of the mistaken bombing. The directorate headquarters turned out to be about 330 yards from the Chinese Embassy.

* The CIA was pressed into service selecting a target because the Pentagon urgently demanded more targets as the campaign dragged on longer than NATO and the Clinton administration had anticipated.

* Maps initially consulted by target planners showed the Chinese Embassy in a prior location across town. After the bombing, when the CIA realized its mistake, the agency found maps in its files that showed the embassy in its new location, after a 1996 move.

* The CIA had access to employees and colleagues who knew the embassy’s location, but they were not consulted.