The CIA was blamed for misjudging the bomb-making capabilities of Saudi militants , arbitrarily deciding that no bomb could exceed the size of that used in the November 1995 bombings in Riyadh ( 200 lbs ) . According to official U.S. government estimates , the Khobar bomb weighed in at approximately 5,000 pounds . American commanders were also blamed , as they had not taken every precaution advised by the Pentagon ; specifically , because " the project was deemed too costly , " they had failed to implement a recommendation to coat Khobar 's windows with plastic to prevent shrapnel penetration . The main security concern at the Khobar Towers compound before the bombing had been the prevention of an attack similar to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings , when a vehicle-bomb entered the compound itself . Yet the Pentagon 's report from that incident suggested , as did the Khobar report , that a Beirut-sized bomb would still have caused significant damage from as far as 300 feet away . Officials concluded with the observation that bomb size was less important to the production of catastrophic results than that same bomb 's effective proximity ( blast radius )
1983 Beirut barracks bombings
1983 Beirut barracks bombings
Khobar Towers bombing