The Israeli authorities permitted publication of the news today that an unexploded bomb containing five kilos of powerful explosives had been found in the United States Embassy here on Friday and dismantled by police experts. Utmost secrecy was maintained over the incident until this morning although the information had spread widely by word of mouth.
Police said that the bomb had failed to explode by the margin of only one minute. It was made up of five metal pipes, each containing one kilogram of high explosive and joined together by wires with a detonator which was triggered by a Japanese-made clock to go off at exactly 3 p.m. local time. The clock stopped at 2:59 p.m., just 60 seconds before.
Investigation revealed that the bomb was actually in the embassy for nine days before it was discovered on Friday. It had been placed in a black plastic bag and checked in the cloakroom of the embassy library. When it was not claimed after two days the bag was moved to the embassy office. Workers there became suspicious when a claimant still failed to appear for an item that seemed to them “rather heavy” for its size. A security officer checked its contents and called the police when he discovered they were explosives. Israeli sources do not overlook the fact that the bomb may have been placed in the embassy by Arab extremists as a means of undermining U.S.-Israel relations.
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