(28 Oct 1996) English/Nat

Richard Jewell, the security guard cleared of suspicion in the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta is blasting federal law enforcement officials and the media for wrongly accusing him in the case.

An emotional Jewell, speaking Monday in Atlanta, was the subject of an intensive F-B-I probe and intense media coverage following the July 27 bombing that left one dead and more than a hundred wounded.

Jewell, now cleared as a suspect in the case, says the ordeal became 88 days of hell from which he may never fully recover.

Flanked by his attorneys Richard Jewell faced the media Monday in Atlanta - this time officially as an innocent man.

Jewell was an obscure security guard working at the Olympic Games last Summer until he got caught up in the F-B-I's hunt for the person who planted the pipe bomb.

At first he was hailed as a hero for alerting authorities to a suspicious knapsack in the park and helping to evacuate the area.

But soon he became the F-B-I's prime suspect and his life was turned upside down.

He said the media was to blame for much of his suffering.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"In its rush to show the world how quickly it could get its man, the F-B-I trampled on my rights as a citizen. In its rush for the headline that the hero was the bomber, the media cared nothing for my feelings as a human being. In their mad rush to fulfil their own personal agendas, the FBI and the media almost destroyed me and my mother."
SUPERCAPTION: Richard Jewell

He became a virtual prisoner in the apartment he shares with his mother.

But Jewell was never formally charged.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"For 88 days my mother lived a nightmare too. Mum, thanks for standing by me and believing in me."
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Jewell

Federal prosecutors finally sent Jewell a letter Saturday clearing him of suspicion.

Choking back tears, he has spoken for the first time about his ordeal.

He says the F-B-I had the wrong man from the beginning.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"On the evening of July 27th, 1996 at Centennial Olympic Park, I did not set out to be a hero. I set out that night simply to do my job and to do it right. I was then, and remain now, an individual committed to the principals of law enforcement and the protection of the public."
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Jewell

Jewell found himself besieged by reporters and staked out by federal agents.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"You the media were looking too. Your cameras trained on my mother and me. Your cameras and the F-B-I followed my every move. I felt like a hunted animal followed constantly, waiting to be killed."
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Jewell

He says although he's overjoyed at the news , his troubles are far from over.

He thinks the chances of getting hired in law enforcement are "between slim and none," and will never fully recover his reputation.

His lawyers have a potential remedy.

They plan to sue news organisations and reporters who they believe tried to make Jewell fit a profile of a bomber - a military type or aspiring police officer seeking to become a hero.

Federal investigators are still hunting for the culprit of the Atlanta bombing.

They have been studying rolls of videotape and still photographs taken at the park near the time of the bombing, and have started re-interviewing bomb victims.

The July 27 explosion killed one person and injured more than 100 at the Olympic games in the Summer.

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