The New York Times

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

Blame in the Chinese Embassy Bombing

Early a year after the American bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during last spring's NATO air war against Yugoslavia, the Central Intelligence Agency has done its part to investigate and punish those who were responsible for the disastrous mistake. The question now is whether the Pentagon and NATO will look as squarely at their own role. While the C.I.A. made the pivotal error that misdirected the bombs, military commanders failed to review the agency's target selection adequately.

Last week the C.I.A. dismissed a mid-level officer whose error led to the bombing. Six other agency employees received administrative punishments. In disciplining these employees the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, properly assigned accountability within his agency.

The bombing killed 3 Chinese and wounded 20. Officials at the White House, the Pentagon and the C.I.A. have maintained that it was an accident, the result of a series of errors that flowed from the use of an outdated map of Belgrade. The intended target was a Yugoslav arms procurement agency. Instead the bombs hit the embassy, several hundred yards away, though the site of the embassy building was well known in Belgrade.

The officer who was dismissed last week apparently used a year-old, unclassified military map to try to pinpoint the arms agency's location. He also wrongly assumed that Belgrade's street addresses were numbered uniformly. His chosen target was then discussed during at least three meetings among C.I.A. officials, none of whom questioned his identification process. Instead they passed it along to the Pentagon, which put it on the list of targets to bomb.

This is no way to pick a bombing target in the middle of a crowded city. The C.I.A. long ago gave up a central role in selecting bombing targets for the Pentagon and was ill prepared to pick sites on its own during the air war. Mr. Tenet said last week that the agency "lacked formal procedures for preparing and forwarding target nomination packages" to the Pentagon. Normal vetting procedures by the Pentagon and NATO were not applied.

Beijing, which exploited the bombing to stir anti-American sentiment in China, yesterday dismissed the C.I.A.'s disciplinary actions as insufficient. That may play well in China, but it reflects a stubborn refusal to believe that Washington may merely have made a terrible mistake in picking the target. Mr. Tenet has had the courage to admit his agency's errors and to hold individuals accountable. The Pentagon should do the same.