that Kuwaiti authorities possibly "cooked the books" on the assassination plot. CIA analysts stated that the Kuwaiti government may have used the discovery of an unrelated Iraqi weapons smuggling plot to project a plot against Bush. They noted that some of the evidence, including explosive devices matching those used in Iraqi operations, definitely pointed to Iraqi involvement. However, they were unable to corroborate the Kuwaiti assertion that the plot was aimed at Bush. US officials described the report as an "interim report" and suggested subsequent FBI operations left open the possibility that there had indeed been an Iraqi plot on Bush's life. In October 1993, New Yorker investigative journalist Seymour Hersh assailed the U.S. government’s case as "seriously flawed." He noted that seven experts in electronic engineering and explosives who saw photographs of the explosive device in Kuwait and a known Iraqi device told him that "both were generic equipment without unique characteristics." Hersh also said that some of the suspected bombers disavowed their confessions and claimed that they had been beaten. In 1994, ten Iraqis and three Kuwaitis were convicted and sentenced for their roles in the plot, including five Iraqis and one Kuwaiti who were sentenced to death. One defendant was acquitted during the trial. Ghazali was the only defendant to plead guilty and was one of the individuals sentenced to death. He stated after his sentencing that he attempted to assassinate Bush as revenge for the Persian Gulf War and his family, claiming that 16 family members were killed by Bush's actions. In March 1995, Kuwait's top appeals court upheld two of the death sentences, while commuting the death sentences for three Iraqis to life imprisonment and setting aside the death penalty conviction of one Kuwaiti for a lower charge resulting in five years imprisonment. Cruise missile attack on Baghdad Between 1AM and 2AM local time on 26 June/June 27, 1993, 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched by two U.S. Navy warships into downtown Baghdad. These hit a building which was believed to be the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service in the Mansour district of Baghdad. Iraq claimed that nine civilians were killed in the attack and three civilian houses destroyed. The missiles were fired from the destroyer in the Red Sea and the cruiser in the Persian Gulf. U.S. Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, stated in a June 27, 1993, interview with The Washington Post: