Posted on 10/03/2002 8:14:28 AM PDT by aculeus
I'M NOT A conspiracy guy. I think Oswald killed Kennedy, and that he acted alone. And, like all Americans, I figured that the tragic bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City was the work of two sick ex-Army guys, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
Now I'm not so sure.
Last night, my radio station, the Big Talker 1210, brought three speakers to town for a remarkable presentation: Jayna Davis, a reporter from Oklahoma City; Larry Johnson, ex-deputy director of the State Department's office of counterterrorism, and Patrick Lang, Mideast expert formerly of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
In a spellbinding presentation, they made the case for a connection between Mideast terrorism, the Murrah bombing - and the attacks on the Twin Towers.
Now I know why former CIA Director James Woolsey has been quoted as saying that when the full truth is known about these acts of terrorism, the nation will owe Davis "a debt of gratitude."
Why her name is not already a household word is the greatest mystery of all. Just this week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that U.S. intelligence has "bulletproof" evidence of links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Rumsfeld didn't offer specifics. But here is what we know from the work of Davis.
When the Murrah bombing occurred at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, Davis was a reporter for the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City. She was among the first journalists to broadcast that an enormous truck bomb had rocked the heartland, killing 168 and injuring hundreds.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, the FBI launched an international pursuit of several Middle Eastern-looking men seen fleeing the Murrah Building in a brown Chevy pickup right before the blast. Without explanation, that all-points bulletin was later canceled. Two days later, Timothy McVeigh was a household name. So was Terry Nichols.
And that's where most of us left the tale. Stunned, but convinced that two Army buddies, homegrown terrorists, acted alone.
Thankfully, Davis didn't close this book as quickly as most of us did. She pursued the APB and set off to track reports of multiple sightings of McVeigh with an elusive dark-haired accomplice. The infamous sketch of John Doe No. 2 was always tucked firmly in her grip.
Davis soon uncovered that several employees at an Oklahoma City property- management company said they had seen a brown Chevy truck like the getaway vehicle aggressively pursued by law enforcement parked outside their office in the days before the bombing. The company's owner was a Palestinian with a rap sheet and suspected ties to the PLO.
Davis learned that, six months before the bombing, the Palestinian hired a handful of ex-Iraqi soldiers to do maintenance at his rental houses. Eyewitnesses told Davis that they celebrated the bombing.
She was also made aware that these same men were absent from work on April 17, 1995, the day McVeigh rented the Ryder truck that carried the bomb.
While pursuing the story of these Middle Eastern men, Davis also became aware of another ex-Iraqi soldier in Oklahoma City named Hussain Hashem Al-Hussaini. She was taken aback to see that Al-Hussaini's picture, when overlaid with the government sketch of John Doe No. 2, was arguably a perfect match. He even sported a tattoo on his upper left arm indicating that he likely had served in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.
Davis then set about looking for a connection to McVeigh, Nichols, Al-Hussaini and other Iraqis. It came when a colleague located two eyewitnesses who claimed to have independently seen Al-Hussaini drinking beer with McVeigh in an Oklahoma City nightclub just four days before the bombing.
This convinced her station to run with the Iraqi-connection story. It was met with some controversy.
The Justice Department responded that the identification of John Doe No. 2 was merely a case of mistaken identity. Al-Hussaini contacted local reporters, claiming to be falsely accused. Davis did not back off because she believed she could repudiate Al-Hussaini's alibi.
AND SHE LOCATED two dozen witnesses who identified eight specific Middle Eastern men, the majority of whom were ex-Iraqi soldiers, who were seen with McVeigh and Nichols. Two witnesses named Al-Hussaini as the dark-haired, olive-skinned man they observed one block from the Murrah Building just before daybreak on the day of the blast.
She also uncovered evidence that implicated several of Al-Hussaini's co-workers. One of these men was identified as sitting in the driver's seat of a Chevy pickup at an Oklahoma City apartment complex hours before the truck was abandoned on the lot and towed to the FBI command post. According to police records, the truck had been stripped of its vehicle identification numbers and identifying body molding.
The story gathered steam. Here, it would appear, was the deserted pickup that was the same vehicle that was seen speeding away from the vicinity of the Murrah building with two Arab-looking occupants.
And there was more. Five witnesses independently fingered several of Al-Hussaini's associates as frequent visitors to an Oklahoma City motel in the months, days, and hours leading up to 9:02 a.m. on April 19. On numerous occasions, the subjects were seen in the company of McVeigh, and during a few instances, associating with Nichols - at the same motel!
Davis spoke to the motel owner and a maintenance worker who said the men came within feet of a large Ryder truck parked on the west side of the parking lot at 7:40 a.m. on April 19. An unexplained odor of diesel fuel emanated from the rear carriage. Minutes later, McVeigh entered the motel office and returned the room key. The motel owner then saw McVeigh drive off the lot with a man identified as Al-Hussaini.
To this day, the Justice Department has refused to return the original registration logs for the motel.
Davis has 80 pages of affidavits and 2,000 supporting documents, and they suggest not only an Iraqi connection to the Murrah bombing, but also to the attacks against the Twin Towers.
For example, Nichols was a man of modest means. Yet he traveled frequently to the Philippines. Davis discovered that Nichols was there, in Cebu City in December 1994, at the same time as the convicted mastermind of the first World Trade Center attack, Ramzi Yousef.
She has also found evidence that Islamic terrorists boasted of having recruited two "lily whites" for terrorism.
Al-Hussaini had a very American response to Davis' investigation. He sued for defamation. In a ruling on Nov. 17, 1999, federal Judge Timothy Leonard dismissed the case.
In 1995, the federal grand jury proclaimed in the official indictment that McVeigh and Nichols acted with "others unknown." And several members of the Denver juries who convicted the two said publicly that they thought they had help.
Since 1997, Davis has repeatedly tried to interest the FBI in her investigation. She has been rebuffed.
As for Al-Hussaini, after leaving Oklahoma City, he went on to work at Boston's Logan International Airport, the point of origin for several for the 9/11 hijackers, including Mohammad Atta.
One more thing. That motel where McVeigh, Nichols and Al-Hussaini were seen together was later visited (pre-9/11) by Atta, Zacharias Moussaouy and Marwan Al-Shehi.
Michael Smerconish's column appears Thursdays. E-mail mas@mastalk.com.
© 2001 philly and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
Andy was "security officer" for the white supremacist camp outside of OKC. That camp was being run by Millar now a confirmed but very dead FBI informant. Regardless of the "players" the circumstances around the bombing indicate that the "bad guys" burned the "good guys". The rest was and remains CYA- bigtime.
oh purely coincidence I'm sure...(/sarcasm)
Khalid Mohammed has been identified as the operational mastermind behind 9-11. I believe Khalid can be connected to the OKC bombing and Khalid can be connected to Saddam Hussein. The Khalid connection may be included in the information Davis provides Spector.
Mohammed, a Kuwaiti national, was indicted in the United States in 1996 for his alleged involvement in a Philippines-based conspiracy to bomb commercial U.S. airliners. That indictment landed him on the FBI's list of 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, issued in October 2001. The Philippine report on the 1995 plot listed the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as targets. Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah, who is in U.S. custody, has named Mohammed as a key financial figure in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Mohammed is believed to be somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The U.S. government has offered a $25 million award for information leading to Mohammed's arrest and conviction.
At what point was it neccessary for "me" to hit the abuse button? Ugh...nevermind.
"Poor form" is being an effeminate analyst commenting on things you have no insight into or facts at your disposal.
I pinged some people and was harrassed by the nonstarter for having done so. That is where it began...I finished it in short order...unless of course, you would like to take someone's place and continue.
~grin~
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is wanted for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy plot, based in Manila, The Philippines, to bomb commercial United States airliners flying routes to the United States from Southeast Asia in January of 1995. He was indicted in the Southern District of New York in January of 1996.
The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST AMERICAN EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.
I would not get too excited about Specter's alleged participation in this -- he has known about Jayna Davis and JD#2 since at least 1995.
This is from the book "The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror", published several years ago.
"Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) is an avid proponent of the "Terror From Within" theory. During the militia hearings, Specter asked Michigan Militia leader Norm Olson how he could say that he understood how someone could do such a thing (referring to the bombing). Although Specter took Olson's statement out of context, he should probably have asked himself that question. Specter's foregone conclusions obviously derive from a keen sense of intuition. As a young federal prosecutor during the Kennedy assassination, it was Arlen Specter who propounded the single "magic bullet" theory. Now, on the very same day as the bombing, Specter is seen propounding the single "magic bomb" theory on McNeil/Lerher."
"Now Specter, who is head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is asking KFOR for all the evidence they have collected on John Doe #2. No doubt the good Senator's collecting this information for the next Warren Commission report."
I spent the last hour searching and could not find what I thought I'd read somewhere -- that Specter had wanted to hold hearings into the OKC Bombing but was "talked out of it." Honway, help with this if you can.
I will be very suprised if Specter agrees to go over Jayna's evidence on a live radio show. That's not his style.
Hope I'm wrong, though. Specter, as I've said before, is probably the most enigmatic senator.
For all of you who believe Oliver Stone's depiction of Specter being "crazy" -- he is crazy like a fox.
If he takes up this issue in a serious way now, there is a reason for it. And I will leave it at that.
And what is funny they both joined FR a long time ago, and hence are using that fact as the basis for their 'wisdom' .....in that they are some sort of FR veterans or something (one tried to tell me how he partook in the Clinton Impeachment debate on FR). To that my answer is: so bloody what! Of all the answers i got theirs were the most asinine since instead of answering questions they are telling me about their lil' debates on FR years ago.
And as for their 'warwounds' and time on FR i think that is the most hilarious facet about them. The majority of freepers (actually all) who answered me comprehensively were relative newbies, yet these two guys had been on FR for years and could not even compose a cohesive sentence without trying to impart useless info like how long they have been debating on Clinton's impeachment. Let me say if they are spokespeople for 'time spent on FR equals wisdom' they seriously failed since of all the replies theirs was not onyl acerbic but asinine. Hence in this particualr case i would say age on FR may equal experience, but definitely not wisdom or the ability to answer a question and stick to the parameters.
Ay caramba, i think some folks just go picking fights for no use VaB.
And although i am not afraid of getting into heated debate i am not going to waste my time with such folk over a thread topic that is still up in the air. Once i know the facts then tha is another story, but as far as i am concerned this is a thread that seems to have something in it (for example there is some sort of coverup), but the what is still an unknown factor. for all intents and purposes this is very similar to the Kennedy assasination brouhaha in that there seems to be a kernel of doubt with circumstancial evidence and witnesses, but as of yet no official word saying something did happen. This is not to say the Iraqis were not connected with OKC (chances are they might actually have played a hand) ....however i refuse to engage in silly jousting with Freepers who think their age on FR somehow makes them supreme sages or something like that (and yet the way they answer shows otherwise).
When it comes to argumentative debate I would rather stick to familiar territory eg Sukhois (lol).
Posted with hope!
I have been saying over and over that is what they need to do. How many people know this? Not enough, although there has been some mention of it on the mainstream media. This has to be told to the American people! They also need to tell the connection to Sept 11th! This is not a new war, but a continuation of the war on terrorism imo, and they need to say so!
Speaking of FedShills -- is _Jim still around?
Guess no one has posted the acronym, "ATF" lately -- to trigger his watchroom's computer... '-}
TXnMA (No Longer)
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