Posted on 12/24/2006 12:21:44 PM PST by LurkedLongEnough
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI failed to fully investigate information suggesting other suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, allowing questions to linger more than a decade after the deadly attack, a congressional inquiry concludes.
The House International Relations investigative subcommittee will release the findings of its two-year-review as early as Wednesday, declaring there is no conclusive evidence of a foreign connection to the attack but that far too many unanswered questions remain.
The subcommittee's report will conclude there is no doubt McVeigh and Nichols were the main perpetrators, and it discloses for the first time that Nichols confirmed to House investigators he participated in the robbery of an Arkansas gun dealer that provided the proceeds for the attack.
There have long been questions about that robbery because the FBI concluded McVeigh was in another state at the time it occurred.
The report also sharply criticizes the FBI for failing to be curious enough to pursue credible information that foreign or U.S. citizens may have had contact with Nichols or McVeigh and could have assisted their plot.
"We did our best with limited resources, and I think we moved the understanding of this issue forward a couple of notches even though important questions remain unanswered," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., the subcommittee chairman, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Rohrabacher's subcommittee saved its sharpest words for the Justice Department, saying officials there exhibited a mind-set of thwarting congressional oversight and did not assist the investigation fully.
The report rebukes the FBI for not fully pursuing leads suggesting other suspects may have provided support to McVeigh and Nichols before their truck bomb killed 168 people in the main federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.
The report says the inadequacy of the bureau's work was exposed two years ago when some bombing evidence overlooked for 10 years was discovered in a home linked to Nichols that had been searched repeatedly by agents.
Officials at the FBI press office had no immediate comment Sunday but were looking into the details of the report.
Previously, the bureau has said it believes its investigation of the bombing was exhaustive and that there is no credible evidence that other people were involved.
The subcommittee concludes the Justice Department should not have rushed to execute McVeigh in 2001 after he dropped his court appeals, and that officials should have made more efforts to interview and question him about evidence suggesting he might have gotten help from other people who remain unpunished.
The former lead FBI agent in the case, Dan Defenbaugh, told AP a few years ago he was trying to get one last interview with McVeigh to go over unanswered questions in the case but could not get it arranged before McVeigh was executed.
Rohrabacher's report cites several leads the subcommittee believes were not fully investigated, including:
_information that McVeigh called a German citizen living at a white supremacist compound in Oklahoma two weeks before the bombing and that two witnesses saw the men together before the bombing.
_witness accounts that another man was seen with McVeigh around the time of the bombing. The FBI originally looked for another suspect it named John Doe 2, even providing a sketch, but abruptly dropped that line of inquiry. The subcommittee concludes that decision was a mistake.
_findings in AP articles in 2003 and 2004 that indicated the FBI had gathered some evidence suggesting a group of neo-Nazi bank robbers may have been tied to McVeigh. The subcommittee interviewed three of those robbers, and all denied a connection. A fourth member of the gang died and a fifth member could not be located by Congress.
_phone record and witness testimony that persons associated with Middle Eastern terrorism in the Philippines may have had contact with Nichols, and that Nichols took a book about explosives to the Philippines. The FBI and Filipino police spent months investigating such a connection, but ruled it out.
_information from a former TV reporter concerning an Iraqi national who was in Oklahoma around the time of the bombing.
I don't know what is going on between the Bushes and the Clintons. Their coziness is very odd.
HuntsvilleTxVeteran asks:
"Wasn't the "main" person convicted of the OKC bombing put to death so much faster than usual for a capital crime?"
~~~~~~~~~~~
Excellent observation. The lighting fast execution(silencing?)of McVeigh was also the first federal execution in 38 years.
wasn't the clinton administration against the death penalty?
Marking this one for sometime other than Christmas Eve night....too many things to accomplish...and wife will not allow me to sit here in front of this thing tonight.
I can't honestly recall a time when Rohrbacher was not posturing.
BTTT! Many grrrreat FReeper comments.
Why hasn't GWB closed the borders? Why is GWB calling for amnesty? Why is GWB supporting the minimum wage?
Your post is probably the most clear and probable explanation I have seen, and exactly what I have thought from the beginning. I remember those sketches of John Doe that looked like a ME'ster.
hmm...
It was the Bush administration, and John Ashcroft's Department of Justice -- not the Clinton administration -- that rushed to put Timothy McVeigh to death.
OKC terrorism alert!
Oklahoma BUMP
X actly my thought.
I suspect there is something about Padilla that will burst out shortly.
Secndly the explosion was not a simple one, it was a preliminary explosion which caused a fuel air mixture that was set off in sequence...too sophisicated for the forensic conclusion of a simple fertilizer-fuel mixture.
The Clinton administration covered it up for some reason. Mistakes were made along the order that the tragedy could have been prevented but likely the lower echelon investigators were not allowed to act as soon as they could have to interdict McVeigh's tawdry group. Why? Bigger fish were involved, and they got away. So Clinton and his running dogs covered it up.And regretably, so did the Bush administration.
The twin towers may not have been the first Islamofascist sponsored attack on US soil.And perhaps the Bush administration did not want to upet the status quo with the Saudis over the incident. Little did our president know that his hand would be forced a few months later on 9/11.
Ping.
Billy Clinton was exactly like Barney Fife. He said: "Jamie! (instead of Andy) We gotta nip these conservatives and their ground-swell in the bud! In the BUD, I tell ya!! Git-er-DONE!!!" (and she did)
They did not review those tapes on the record. If you want a thorough forensic analysis of what DID happen,visit the link below.
It looks very, very suspicious. I believe there was a cover up, and that it involved a bungled operation. They let McVeigh and his foreign helpers get too far without stopping them.
http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/ok.html
"_phone record and witness testimony that persons associated with Middle Eastern terrorism in the Philippines may have had contact with Nichols, and that Nichols took a book about explosives to the Philippines. The FBI and Filipino police spent months investigating such a connection, but ruled it out.
_information from a former TV reporter concerning an Iraqi national who was in Oklahoma around the time of the bombing."
Like EVERYTHING the Clintonistas did, "Juan and Evita" had political motives here too. They were more interested in smearing "militia groups", "gun-owners" and the "vast right wing conspiracy (proud member since the 1990s)" than in finding the truth of the matter.
Thanks.
Bump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.