Posted on 03/21/2002 1:54:05 PM PST by glorygirl
Here are excerpts from Glenn Fine's testimony today, linked above:
"Because of the passage of time, the number of documents involved, and the inability of individuals to recollect exactly how they handled one document out of the many they created or gathered, it was impossible for us to ascertain with clarity the path of each belated document or why each such document failed to be turned over to the defense. Nonetheless, we were able to determine a number of factors that contributed to the belated disclosure of documents: ...
We found that the Task Force also shares responsibility for documents not being disclosed to the defense. Documents that were sent to the Task Force were lost or placed in the wrong file drawer. For example, in our search we found some of the belated documents in the Task Force misfiled in subfiles that were not used to compile discovery. The problems in the Task Force’s handling of documents were attributable to a variety of causes. The process used to move paper around the Task Force was cumbersome and the opportunities for documents to be misplaced were numerous.In addition, the Task Force did not have a routine policy of checking to ensure that items a field office said were being sent actually arrived at the Task Force....
We carefully examined the allegation that the government intentionally withheld documents it knew to be discoverable from the defense. We questioned FBI employees and former employees, analyzed circumstantial evidence, and investigated evidence the defense alleged showed that the government intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence. We concluded, for the following reasons, that the evidence did not support a finding that government personnel withheld evidence it knew to be discoverable from the defense:...
• We received no direct evidence that any FBI or Task Force employee intended to conceal exculpatory information.
• The evidence showed that, for the most part, the failure to provide documents and other items to the defense was caused by mistakes on the part of various individuals. In a few instances, we did find that agents had made the decision not to send certain items to the OKBOMB Task Force. The agents mistakenly believed that documents they judged to be non-pertinent to the OKBOMB investigation did not need to be sent to the Task Force. We do not believe these incidents show any intentional decision to withhold significant evidence from the defense.
• The belated documents did not contain a significant quantity or quality of previously unknown exculpatory information. We found that a significant portion of the belated documents concern useless information and would not have been discoverable in other criminal cases.
• The fact that the government disclosed information pretrial regarding allegations that persons other than McVeigh and Nichols had bombed the Murrah Building is evidence that the government was willing to disclose potentially exculpatory information.
As part of this inquiry, we also investigated eight belated documents that McVeigh’s attorneys asserted were particularly significant and evidence of the government’s intentional misconduct. We interviewed the agents who drafted the documents, their supervisors, and in some cases the administrative personnel who processed the documents. As a result of this review, we did not find evidence showing intentional misconduct. Rather, as with the other belated documents, the evidence indicated inadvertent breakdowns in the document handling process due to human error. ..
When the two analysts in Oklahoma City discovered the potential problem with belated documents as part of the routine archiving process, they immediately notified FBI managers about the problem. We concluded that the managers who were informed of the problem – particularly Defenbaugh and White – did not adequately manage the review process of the OKBOMB documents. The analysts kept White and, through him, Defenbaugh informed that they were unable to find evidence establishing that many of the documents they were examining had been disclosed before the defendants’ trials. Both White and Defenbaugh traveled to Oklahoma City in March 2001 and examined some of the documents that had been set aside as “problems.” Yet, even then Defenbaugh and White did not determine how the files were going to be retrieved from the field or in what time frame. They did not set any timetable for completing the review and did not actively supervise the project or ensure that Oklahoma City managers were supervising it.
Most important, they did not notify the OKBOMB prosecutor, the FBI’s General Counsel, or anyone else in FBI Headquarters about the potential problem. Their explanations for this failure varied, ranging from it was not their responsibility to do so, to not wanting to raise the problem until the review was completed, to being concerned about a possible premature leak about the problem. We do not believe their inaction was justified. We concluded that the failure by Defenbaugh and White to take timely action to resolve, or report, the problem of the belated documents was a significant neglect of their duties, and we recommend that the FBI consider discipline for these failures...
We also concluded that FBI officials at Headquarters failed to effectively address the document problems after they were notified in May 2001. Early statements about the cause of the problem incorrectly placed blame on the FBI’s computer system and FBI field offices, when the fault lay with both the field offices and the Task Force. Communication with the field offices was deficient and led to some field office SACs learning of the problem from the media. In addition, Headquarters officials gave instructions to the field without a complete understanding of the nature of the problem. Their instructions were confusing, contradictory, and incomplete, which resulted in field offices having to complete multiple and duplicative time-consuming searches.
In addition, we saw many inadequate, untimely, and inaccurate responses from the field offices to the directives in 2001. Although these failures did not cause the belated documents problem, they raise serious questions regarding the FBI’s attention to detail, managerial accountability, and the reliability of information sent by field offices to Headquarters and to other field offices
For example, we found that some field offices reported in January 2001 that they had no OKBOMB documents only to later send boxes of documents to Oklahoma City in May 2001.
In addition, some field offices appeared to have “lost” the FBI archivist’s December 2000 request for OKBOMB documents and never took any action on it even though the request was sent electronically. In addition, , although the January and March 2001 requests from Oklahoma City for OKBOMB documents were marked as requiring “immediate” action, in many instances the field offices took weeks or months to respond....
As described earlier, through an electronic communication dated December 20, 2000, the FBI archivist authorized FBI field offices to destroy copies of OKBOMB documents that remained in their files if the field office followed guidelines set out in the communication. Our investigation found that 2 field offices had destroyed documents before the archival process had begun, and 13 field offices destroyed some portion of their OKBOMB files following the archivist’s authorization. Of the 13 field offices, only one reported following the archivist’s instructions.
We attempted to determine whether these field offices had destroyed any FD-302s or inserts – in other words, the type of documents that were covered by the discovery agreement. Nine field offices either acknowledged destroying such documents or could not rule out the possibility that they had been destroyed.
These nine offices insisted, however, that they destroyed only copies of materials that had been sent to the OKBOMB Task Force. While probably true with regard to most of the destroyed documents, it is impossible to verify that all the destroyed documents previously had been sent to the Task Force. Furthermore, even if the documents had been sent to the Task Force, the information might not have been disclosed to the defense. Without the actual documents to compare with the FBI databases, it is impossible to determine with certainty whether all the destroyed documents had been disclosed to the defense."
Italics mine, of course.
The above statement from the AG's report to the Senate Judiciary is absolutely incorrect whether he knows it or not.
For more details why AShcroft is very wrong in his statement , please read the following articles:
"Ashcroft Relies On Evidence Obstructed by the FBI and US Prosecutors In OKC Bombing Case "
Source: OKCSubmariner Personal Research
Published: may 29, 2001 Author: Patrick B. Briley
Posted on 05/29/2001 11:02:18 PDT by OKCSubmariner
------------------------------------------
"Counter Terrorism Failures and Cover-Ups by the FBI and Danny Defenbaugh (OKC, 9/11)"
CNN, UPI, AP,Dallas Morning News, Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Personal Research | March 19, 2002 | Patrick B. Briley
Posted on 3/19/02 7:38 PM Pacific by OKCSubmariner
------------------------------------------
"State Sponsored Terrorism? (OKC Bombing and 9/11/02[1] Attack Suspects Connected by FBI)"
Fox News | March 20, 2002 | John Gibson
Posted on 3/21/02 2:17 PM Pacific by OKCSubmariner
------------------------------------------
3 very important, material and discoverable (exculpatory) FBI 302 interview reports were withheld from the defense and the prosecutors but later found in Defenbaugh's Dallas office in early 2001 . These reports had been done in April 1995 for three Pakistani suspects arrested on April 19, 1995 in connection with the OKC bombing, Iraq and with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The FBI and Janet Reno lied in 1995 when they claimed no ME suspects had been arrested in the OKC bombing case. and these 302 prove they were lying.
The finding of the FBI 302s on the Pakistanis in Defenbaugh's Dallas FBI office was reported last year in a story by Jack Douglas of the Ft Worth Star Telegram I posted on the FreeRepublic.
Bomb ingredients were found on the luggage of the Pakistanis at their motel in Dallas by bomb sniffing dogs right after the OKC bombing.
The witness to the Pakistanis being with McVeigh in OKC, Debbie Budick was called by FBI agent Odom from Denver during and after the trials to initmidate her not to talk to anyone about the Pakistanis she had seen with McVeigh after the bombing.
What is also significant about the Pakistanis is that Saudi intelligence told CIA counter terrorism chief Vincent Cannistraro on the morning of the OKC bombing that Saddam Hussein had hired seven Pakistanis to help do the OKC bombing. THe FBI wrote deliberately four conflicting 302 interview reports on the Cannistrao story to confuse the story.
In early January 1999 I went to the Senate Intelligence Committee to get their help in having the FBI recieve evidence of the Iraqi connection to the OKC bombing from KFORTV reporters. The FBI and US Prosecutor Sean Connelly had refused up until that time to receive the evidence.
When I presented to the Senate Intelligence committee what the evidence was (22 sworn affadavits), the intelligence committee instructed me to tell the former KFORTV reporter to call the FBI in OKC directly and tell them that the intelligence committee wanted the FBI to receive the evidence immediately and to notify the intelligence committee if the FBI still refused. As a result I passed along the intelligence committee's instructions to the former KFORTV reporter who then contacted and arranged to meet with FBI agent Dan Vogel on January 29, 1999 with the reporter's spouse and attorney. Vogel received the evidence from the reporter.
But AG Ashcroft and the FBI has blocked Vogel (now retired) from testifying about the evidence at the Nichols state trial in Oklahoma. So far Vogel has also been muzzled from speaking in any detail to the press and to Congress. Ashcroft and the FBI has alo blocked release of surveillance tapes showing John Does with McVeigh at the scene and of the actual explosion.
FBI agents repeatedly threatened law enforcement , military (ARMY), and other private citizen witnesses who had seen MCVeigh with John Does at the scene in OKC at the time of the OKC bombing and before.
During the turn over of the evidence, Vogel indicated that the FBI was tracking individuals in Dallas who may have had a connection to the OKC bombing. This would include Hamas and AlQaeda cell members in Dallas that Dallas Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Danny Defenbaugh had been tracking since 1998
Did anyone else catch this on fox and friends recently?
Could that be Larry Johnson? He's former CIA and is now, I think, an anti-terrorism expert.
"...middle eastern connection to OKC and that it was COVERED UP!!!!!!!"
I saw him on John Gibson's show Tuesday and that's pretty much what he said. I had wondered what had happened to the search for John Doe #2, who had been described as middle eastern. It was also odd that the search for a middle eastern man turned into an investigation of a militia group. And, remember that Clinton blamed Rush and the vast right wing for OKC.
"State Sponsored Terrorism? (OKC Bombing and 9/11/02 Attack Suspects Connected by FBI)"
Fox News | March 20, 2002 | John Gibson
Posted on 3/21/02 2:17 PM Pacific by OKCSubmarine
Link for the article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/651093/posts
I just did! Thanks for directing me to it.
Thanks, also, for all of the research you have done on the OKC bombing, as well as other subjects.
I've been lurking on your threads for a loooong time.:o)
(that was me in the corner heheh)
And OKCSubmariner, I am impressed with your articles. How bout a tag? That way I won't miss an article like the one you just linked me to already discussing Larry Johnson.
tnp
I will try and flag or ping or bump you on anything relevant that comes up on the subject.
Thanks for asking.
This is what I found surprising that the IG would even admit:
"Our investigation found that 2 field offices had destroyed documents before the archival process had begun, and 13 field offices destroyed some portion of their OKBOMB files following the archivist’s authorization.
Of the 13 field offices, only one reported following the archivist’s instructions.
We attempted to determine whether these field offices had destroyed any FD-302s or inserts – in other words, the type of documents that were covered by the discovery agreement. Nine field offices either acknowledged destroying such documents or could not rule out the possibility that they had been destroyed."
What all this means is that at least some important discovery documents were not just withheld lost or misplaced but in fact were they were destroyed (deliberately in my opinion based on what else I know about) before they could get to the prosecutors, to the defense attorneys and to the Judge or court. Outrageous!!
What do you bet that the AG Ashcroft of DOJ and Mueller of the FBI do not do anything really meaningful or adequate to punish those involved or more importantly to find out what were in the discovery documents??
In fact the IG says that it is now impossible to know so Congress and the resat of should stop tryuing to dfind out since it is impossible they say. They are flat out lyuing and want you to falsely believe it is impossible.
THe reason why it is still possible to know is from the lead sheets which still exist and from the actual witnesses (whom I have interviewed) seeing John Does who were domestic FBI informants and ME terrorists such as witnesses John Morris Kupper, the four women at the Travelers aide, the Army recruiters, Debbie Burdick who saw McVeigh with the 3 Pakistanis in OKC right after the bombing. All these witnesses were threatened by the FBI not to talk because the FBI did not do 302 interview reports or destroyed the ones they did do and deliberately did not do sketches with the witnesses
I will tell you on the authority of the Bible that because of the murder and intimidation of innocent Christians these men in the FBI and DOJ who continue to lie and perjure themselves (AShcroft,Mueller,Defenbaugh,etc) will be utterly consummed by what God will allow to happen to them if they do not repnet now and in a very big hurry.
Right this down and watch what happens so you will know that the Lord is not slack on His Word.
thanks for putting me on your list...I look forward to the discussions.
tnp
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.