The Iraq Connection - Was Saddam involved in OK City and the 1st WTC bombing? ~ Micah Morrison

The Wall Street Journal. editorial page ^ | September 5, 2002 | Micah Morrison, WSJ. Senior Editorial Page Writer

[Elle Bee]

Was Saddam involved in Oklahoma City and the first WTC bombing?

OKLAHOMA CITY -- With the Sept. 11 anniversary upon us and President Bush talking about a "regime change" in Iraq, it's an apt time to look at two investigators who connect Baghdad to two notorious incidents of domestic terrorism. Jayna Davis, a former television reporter in Oklahoma City, believes an Iraqi cell was involved in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building here. Middle East expert Laurie Mylroie links Iraq to the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, and has published a book on the subject.

[glorygirl]

Big John Gibson ping.

Gibson and the Judge(Napolitano) just did a tete a tete on this.

Don't know what preceded it, I turned it on in the middle of the discussion, but the Judge was talking about the government's responsibility in all of this (read that FBI, Justice Department) and how this kind of information might have been a mitigating factor for the jury weighing the death penalty against McVeigh.

Anyway, my guess is Fox will do more on this tonight, so you might want to stay tuned.

[okie01]

"A defense examination of phone records found that Nichols had repeatedly called the Cebu boarding house in the weeks preceding the bombing. Some of the calls were billed to a prepaid phone card to which McVeigh also had access. The calls were often made from pay phones at truck stops and the like, and sometimes followed mysterious patterns. In one instance, for example, the same number was dialed nine times in nine minutes before someone answered and spoke for 14 minutes."

Wouldn't it seem to you that there is enough information in this one paragraph to cause law enforcement/intelligence antennae to quiver with regard to a probable connection with the bombing and the possibility of accomplices.

Yet, for some reason, even though they had the information, the FBI evidently never followed up on it.

Incompetence? Or a political red light?

Which was it? There simply isn't any other answer...

[billhilly]

"Former CIA Director James Woolsey, for example, recently told the Journal that "when the full stories of these two incidents are finally told, those who permitted the investigations to stop short will owe big explanations to these two brave women. And the nation will owe them a debt of gratitude."

An administrtion that would kill innocent children (Waco) would not, and did not in my opinion, hesitate to impede and cover up the investigation of an incident that revived a moribund presidency. It had to appear that domestic "right-wing-kooks" were responsible, and it worked. For the remainder of the Clinton Presidency it was "the vast right wing conspiracy"that was blamed for his every shortcoming. As a ranking member of "The vast-right-wing-Conspiracy",and one for whom the phrase was invented, I can assure you that we were neither vast, or a conspiracy. Even right-wing could be up for grabs in my particular case. Conservative, for sure.

[GOP_1900AD]

Iraq>WTC1>Abu Sayyaf>OKC>ISI>Al Qaida>WTC2 Ping

Now imagine if the Bubba administration had actually paid attention to what Bodansky has been writing about since the early 1990s. Here's a sample from the late 90s. There are no excuses.

Never forget! Let's Roll! We shall leave no stone unturned. We will punish all, including, if necessary, great powers, for what has been inflicted on us thus far, and in order to preclude far worse...

[okie01]

"Incompetence? Or a political red light?"

So, you cast your ballot for "political red light", over "incompetence".

That's my guess, too.

[GOP_1900AD]

The Trans-Asian Axis - the most evil axis ever seen on Earth - we can thank this axis for every attack against Western interests since at least the early 90s. Some say, the Eastern Bloc simply morphed into the Trans-Asian Axis.

There is only one appropriate response. Declare war against the Axis and do it soon.

[independentmind]

BTTT

I was just checking to see if this had been posted. I have not even read the entire article yet.

[justa-hairyape]

Clever, but you get my point and you know it is true. I heard NO ONE---I repeat, no one ever even hint that McVeigh did not know what he was doing. He may have been "crazy," but he was fully rational and in control.

Apparently you have forgotten that McViegh claimed that the military placed a chip inside him while he was enlisted. That should easily meet the definition of someone who may not be in full control of their facilities.

Whats interesting to me about this is that the Iraqi's may have been trying to get our government and the general public to trash militia groups and the extreme right wingers. That is clearly a diabolical and very clever way of beginning to divide a great nation that they were at war with. It is also apparent that they have acquired sympathetic individuals within this country to attempt to cover-up thier clever 'divide and conquer' strategy. Unfortunately however they over stepped their bounds when they destroyed the WTC and attacked the Pentagon. The Iraqi's and their allies cannot even handle the small nation of Israel and all they have done by attacking us is to unlesh a giant that is at least 10 times as powerful as Israel. They have sealed their own fate.

[billhilly]

Yes. A political red light backed up with a Jersey Wall.

[independentmind]

At any rate, kids, this is a major editorial in a major paper. I hope others follow suit.

Me,too. An Iraqi connection to the OKC bombings could help me make sense of Bush's recent rhetoric.

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt

[LS]

Now you are getting into tinfoil land. If you think Saddam is clever enough to develop a giant plot to use militia groups to "divide America," well . . . .

Sending a guy to meet with McVeigh, maybe. I await further (any?) evidence. But we are talking about a tinpot dictator who actually believed his "republican guards" would last more than two days against our troops.

Do you know what an Israeli advisor to the U.S. command in the Middle East said on the day before ground operations? After surveying the facilities, he said, "Too many hospital beds, not enough POW camps."

[Lord_Baltar]

Of course you wouldn'y buy it, it doesn't fit into your wonderfully Humorless Myoptic view of things.

Funny though, you failed to even attempt to try and answer any of it.

Go in peace copy, I'm done with you

[justa-hairyape]

So I take it you are conceding the point that you were in left field when you stated that McViegh was rational and fully in control of his facilities.

Now you are getting into tinfoil land. If you think Saddam is clever enough to develop a giant plot to use militia groups to "divide America," well . . . .

McViegh was utilized to tarnish militia groups and right wingers. Everyone recognizes that. Remember Clinton even pointing the finger at talk radio as causing this type of 'domestic terrorism'. Now if their is an Iraqi connection, then they must have been clever enough to realize that such an event would divide the nation and allow the government to control the internal strength of America. This is not just Saddam Hussien that we are up against. It is Saddam and extremist islamists fundamentalists. That group has been around for over a thousand years. Plotting to 'divide and conquer' is normal warfare for them and not really all that clever.

Sending a guy to meet with McVeigh, maybe. I await further (any?) evidence. But we are talking about a tinpot dictator who actually believed his "republican guards" would last more than two days against our troops.

But yet, they are still there defending him right now !

[Plummz]

Do you know what McVeigh was doing?

[Lizard_King]

The republican guard, for the most part, sat the war out. Those guys you saw surrendering en masse were cannon fodder conscripts...not to say that the Marine Corps won't cut through them like they are warm butter. Just that urban fighting will complicate things a bit.

Also, I think you are confusing the rhetoric Saddam spews for media with what he actually thinks is going to happen...he is evil, not delusional. It does not take much of a brain for him to come up with the current strategy of developing weapons of mass destruction to assure invulnerability; hell, it would have been a sure bet if we were under Klintoon or algore.

Our military has a long tradition of demanding overwhelming numbers and support against any foe, stemming back to the Civil War. For my money, that is better than getting caught short.

[lawdog]

BBTTT !

[Vermont Lt]

OK, the tin hat is on securely...

There are a couple of things that are interesting. The attacks on OKC and Flight 800 line up pretty nicely in a timeline from WTC#1 through WTC#2 (9/11). It fits the pattern of an every 18 month cycle or so.

McViegh was never going to tell the whole story because he knew he it wouldnt get him off...and no one wanted to hear it. He could be the center of the story, because if someone else was part of it--THEY would be the story and he would just be a patsy traitor. His ego would not let that happen.

Methinks that someone in Gitmo might be talking--because we are allowed to be a bit more persuavsive down there. While I am not at all convinced there is a middle eastern connection to OKC or Flight 800, I am not able to completely dismiss it either.

OK, I can take that tin foil hat off now.

[glorygirl]

"While I am not at all convinced there is a middle eastern connection to OKC or Flight 800, I am not able to completely dismiss it either."

Funny how a story in the Wall St. Journal can make all the difference in the world.

BTW, anyone who wants to be added to the OKC ping list, please freepmail me.

[the crow]

OKC double bump.

let The Truth be told.