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10 | Community Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News Panel recalls FBI, AJC roles in case of Richard Jewell, Olympics bombing hero turned suspect LOCAL MEMORIES OF A TERRORIST’S BOMBING SPREE Continued from page 9 ing about people,” and that his favorite part of “The Suspect” was learning more about Jewell as a person. “He had become a public character in a story that had this extremely bizarre twist and also at the same time [was] the biggest story on Earth,” Roughton said in defense of the Jewell investigation scoop. “... I still believe that we did the right thing. We had an American citizen who was be ing pursued by the full apparatus of the American government in some way. And this is debatable, but I would argue that we have an obligation to put some day light on that.” But that doesn’t mean the editing and publication process was easy. Roughton was one of several AJC staffers involved before then Managing Editor John Walter made the decision to publish. “It was a very difficult discussion, I have to say,” Roughton said. “Part of what I want to personally be careful about is not becoming defensive... There are a lot of good questions around what we did at the time, and I think there are good jour nalistic questions about that, and those are important. And I think in the world we live in, they’re more important now than they may even have been then.” Roughton disputed Alexander and Sal- wen’s repeated statements that Scruggs’ source was a leaker inside the FBI. Scrug gs and co-reporter Ron Martz never re vealed their sources, even when threat ened with jail time in a subsequent libel lawsuit, and Roughton wouldn’t, either. “I won’t even acknowledge that there’s an FBI source, if there was one,” he said, though adding the source had “very deep firsthand knowledge of the FBI.” Debate over the AJC’s role comes down to whether the paper was too uncritical in reporting a mistaken suspicion. Alex ander said the AJC was not aware that the FBI had other suspects as well. It was when all FBI officials stopped talking to the media that the AJC scored another scoop. Rankin, the AJC reporter, found that Jewell did not have time to both plant the bomb and to reach a pay phone used by the bomber to make a warning call. With officials not talking about the inves tigation, “that was the only reporting we could do,” Roughton said, and it helped to lead to Jewell’s exoneration. Jewell soon filed libel lawsuits against several major media outlets, including the AJC, CNN and NBC News. In a long and fierce case involving prominent Buck- head attorney L. Lin Wood, among others, the AJC finally emerged victorious in 2011 and was the only media outlet not to set tle with Jewell or his estate. While security guard Richard Jew ell was briefly suspected of the 1996 At lanta Olympics bombing, the real per petrator was right-wing terrorist Eric Rudolph. After the Olympics, Rudolph went on to bomb an LGBTQ nightclub in Atlanta and two medical clinics that performed abortions, one in Alabama and one in Sandy Springs. The Sandy Springs bombing on Jan. 16,1997, at an office building at 275 Carpenter Drive, was the first use of his tactic of setting off a delayed second bomb in an at tempt to kill first responders. He was captured in the North Carolina moun tains in 2003 and is serving a life sen tence in a federal “supermax” prison. Here are some memories about the Olympics and Sandy Springs bomb ings. If you have memories you would like to share, email editor@report- ernewspapers.net and we may use them in a future story. Centennial Olympic Park bombing MITCH LEFF Then: Public relations rep for Olym pics sponsors; Now: President and CEO, Leff & Associates public relations I was working for a local public rela tions agency, representing several ma jor Olympic sponsors. That day was a busy one and I had fallen asleep on my couch with the TV on when I got a call from a friend checking to see if I was OK. She thought I was work ing down at Centennial Olympic Park that night. Initially, Jewell was hailed as a hero for getting people away from the bomb and I was part of the team that was fielding media calls and set ting up interviews with him. That lasted for a day or so. When he was named a suspect, we had to stop. Sandy Springs bombing STEVE ROSE Then: Fulton County police officer; Now: Retired Sandy Springs police captain My car was there, but I was not. I left a day earlier on vacation to Lake Tahoe. At the time, I was assigned as securi ty for Fulton Commission Chairman Mitch Skandalakis. He told my sub to take him to the bomb site. They parked beside another car near a dumpster. They were standing in the parking lot- when a second bomb went off in or next to the dumpster. The car next to mine took the brunt of it, but the blast was so strong my car assumed it was a collision and activated the fuel shut off valve, disabling the car from start ing. That Crown Vic never worked right again. Greystar* Overture is an equal housing opportunity. Amenities and services vary by location. See a Greystar representative for < OVERTURE 55+ ACTIVE ADULT APARTMENT HOMES Enjoy a holiday brunch, bubbly, and live entertainment! 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