Posted on 10/30/2002 3:01:42 AM PST by kattracks
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - An investigator who assisted in the appeal of Timothy McVeigh's conviction for the Oklahoma City bombing, disputes claims by a former television reporter that former members of the Iraqi military were involved in the 1995 attack.
Investigator Cate McCauley says the claims made by Jayna Davis, the former TV reporter, are "easily refutable."
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) met Oct. 10 with Davis, a former investigative reporter for an Oklahoma City television station, about an alleged connection between McVeigh and foreign terrorists. Specter told Davis her claim "warrants an inquiry."
"We will pursue it," Specter said, after hearing a one-hour presentation from Davis.
"We will send it over to the FBI and we will continue to look at it," he told Davis during the meeting, which was broadcast live on the Michael Smerconish talk show on "1210 The Big Talker," WPHT radio in Philadelphia.
As CNSNews.com previously reported, Davis presented Specter with 22 notarized statements from Oklahoma residents who have identified eight Middle Eastern men, allegedly former Iraqi soldiers, who the witnesses claim collaborated with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the bombing plot.
But McCauley, a licensed private investigator who was appointed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado to assist with McVeigh's appeal, had harsh criticism for Davis' claims.
"This is perhaps the worst case of misinformation and pandering I have ever seen in this case," McCauley said of Davis' meeting with Specter. "Davis' theories were dismissed long ago for very good reasons."
McCauley said she is speaking out because Davis' contact with Specter means that taxpayers' money is now being "wasted" to re-investigate the allegations. She also noted that a gag order on everyone involved with the investigation was lifted after McVeigh's 2001 execution, so she is free to discuss details that she could not disclose in the past.
The McVeigh appellate team spent months pouring over all of the case files, reports and memoranda from the original investigation prior to filing its appeal in March of 2000. That process included reviewing 42,000 leads phoned in to the toll-free tip line set up just after the bombing, and the 20,000-plus FBI "302s," lead sheets generated from those tips.
Who Was John Doe #2?
"Seven of those witnesses place Hussain Al-Hussaini in the company of Timothy McVeigh, riding in the Ryder truck, the morning of the bombing, stepping out of that truck at ground zero, directly in front of the federal building moments before the massive fertilizer bomb exploded and speeding away from downtown in a brown Chevrolet pickup that matched the FBI's all points bulletin for foreign suspects that morning," Davis told Specter during their Oct. 10 meeting.
But McCauley told CNSNews.com the trial court and the FBI heard from those witnesses, as well.
"There are witnesses who I'm aware of on that list, who changed their testimony over time or, in the case of [a particular witness], were terribly traumatized and confused by the bombing," McCauley said. "If you go through the list of these witnesses, you will find things that have changed, or you will find people that are saying they had seen McVeigh when McVeigh was hundreds of miles away."
Mike Moroz, who claimed he had seen Al-Hussaini with McVeigh in the infamous Ryder truck used in the bombing, was one of the witnesses cited by Davis.
"In an affidavit, Mike Moroz, a worker at Johnny's Tire Service, a few blocks from the Murrah Building, said that at about 8:30 a.m. on April 19, the day of the bombing, McVeigh pulled up in his Ryder truck and asked for directions," the LA Weekly reported in a Sept. 28, 2001 story on Davis. "He insisted there was another man sitting in the truck cab. Moroz told Davis he had picked McVeigh out of a live FBI lineup. He also said Al-Hussaini, as shown in one of KFOR's surveillance photos, could have been the man he saw."
But, according to FBI records, McCauley claims Moroz did not positively identify McVeigh.
"The FBI questioned Moroz immediately after the bombing. He was one of four people asked to participate in a live line-up. Moroz picked two men, one of which was McVeigh," she explained. "In the world of eyewitness identification, that would be considered a miss."
Davis acknowledged that Moroz identified two people from the line-up, but said the FBI "302" from the session indicated that he "leaned strongly" toward the "real McVeigh." The line-up, Davis alleged, was comprised of McVeigh and three soldiers from a nearby Army fort, whose appearance was almost identical to McVeigh's.
McCauley said the person Davis claimed was Al-Hussaini was later identified as Todd Bunting, an Army private who was at the Ryder rental office almost exactly 24 hours after McVeigh rented the truck used in the bombing. His physical appearance - including a distinctive tattoo on his arm - is identical to the description and sketch of John Doe #2.
FBI Refusal to Accept Witness Affidavits
Davis claimed she tried to surrender the 22 witness statements and corroborating documentation she uncovered to the FBI in 1997, but requested that agents sign a notarized receipt for the evidence. She said, after consulting with "the legal department," they refused to accept the documents.
McCauley said that's not the entire story.
"There's something missing from the story about why the FBI refused [Davis'] information," she said. "When Ms. Davis walked off her job at KFOR in March 1997 she took her materials. The station sued her in order to retrieve what they considered their property."
FBI Agent Dan Vogel told the LA Weekly in a Sept. 28, 2001, interview that the litigation made agents wary of accepting the documents.
"I was told we gave the affidavits back to her because there was some question of ownership," he said, "whether she or KFOR had legal rights to the material."
In an Oct 29, 2002, letter to Specter, Davis stated that "I interviewed the witnesses and drafted the summary reports on my own time with my personal resources and computer equipment ... ownership of the documents the FBI refused to receive from me in 1997 was never in dispute before the court. Once again, I compiled the dossier after leaving the station."
'She's Standing on the Graves of Thousands'
"What Ms. Davis has been running around with for the past number of years, I think, is just not complete. It's factually incorrect," McCauley charged. "I think that there are many good answers to these questions and I think she's whipping up a frenzy for whatever reason, I don't know. But, I don't like the fact that she's standing on the graves of thousands of people."
McCauley said that, while she knows Davis' information is incorrect, she does not question the former reporter's motives.
"She's like a lot of people who got attached to a very small package of information and has convinced herself that this is right and this is just," McCauley speculated. "But they simply don't have all the information or, it seems, the discipline necessary to go through investigative material.
"You can't cling to things you want," McCauley concluded, "and ignore the things you don't like."
Davis told CNSNews.com that she stands by the information she has collected and the witnesses she has interviewed.
"I think that there's other evidence that refutes what Cate McCauley is putting forth," Davis said. "Her credentials are highly suspect. She worked very long for the Charles Key investigation."
McCauley was the executive director of an investigation lead by Oklahoma State Rep. Charles Key from 1997 to 1999.
"It became apparent that [members of Key's committee] refused to look at certain evidence that didn't fit their theories," McCauley explained. "In March 1999, I resigned from Key's committee because they were going to publish falsehoods, which I flatly refused to take part in."
Sen. Specter's office did not return calls seeking information about the status of his requests to the FBI.
E-mail a news tip to Jeff Johnson.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
McCauley's statement is totally unbelievable.
You should have heard her sound off on her discoveries re the "scary" Middle Eastern connection back before she started corresponding (and flirting) with "Timmy"!
TXnMA (No Longer!!!)
BTW - no facts are given above by McCauley, only attacks.
I don't know if I'd want a lot of people to know that.
However, she does not make a case for dismissing the notion out of hand as being no more credible than space alien abductions and Elvis sightings.
I'm sure that 'because they don't agree with the party line' is sufficiently good reason to Ms. McCauley.
I agree with thinden that: McCauley's statement is totally unbelievable.
...and with flamefront that: BTW - no facts are given above by McCauley, only attacks.
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I know that many of you -- as I do -- admire and appreciate the long years of persistent work Jayna Davis has done -- gathering evidence and struggling to get someone to act upon it. And I can tell by your comments that many of you are hoping and praying that Specter or Burton -- or someone in authority -- will finally take action on all the evidence Jayna has gathered on the ME/OKC connection.
IMHO, Jayna (along with her evidence) constitutes America's best hope of peeling back the sham of lies that the FBI and the OK government have smeared over the bombing of the MFB.
If any of you on the (lengthy) "OKC Ping List" feel so led, I'm sure that Jayna would appreciate a supportive e-mail to her at jayna@jaynadavis.com. And, if you haven't done so already, why not visit Jayna's website at http://www.jaynadavis.com ...
It's time to FReep Jayna with a BIG show of FR support! Let Jayna know that she has lot of FReepers rooting for her!
TXnMA (No Longer!!!)
Thousands???? Is she lumping 9/11 together with OKC?
No, Cate. The worst case of misinformation might be the FBI's smear of Richard Jewell, or its smear of Dr. Hatfill, or its in-your-face denial of eighty people who saw a missile hit TWA Flight 800, or the media which now ignores sniper Mohammad's jihad motivation.
The McVeigh appellate team spent months pouring over all of the case files
"pouring"? Or "poring"? Cate is pouring cold water on Jayna Davis' facts--not "reading, studying attentively, pondering".
But, I don't like the fact that she's standing on the graves of thousands of people."
What "thousands", Cate? Quit smoking crack.
"You can't cling to things you want," McCauley concluded, "and ignore the things you don't like."
Cate, when you sober up, try taking your own advice.
The article is lazy journalism, putting a microphone in front of a homeless person at a bus stop who says she's Catherine the Great.
Gotta go with Jayna Davis for consistency, beating the street to get the story--and sticking to fact, not crack.
Davis claimed she tried to surrender the 22 witness statements and corroborating documentation she uncovered to the FBI in 1997, but requested that agents sign a notarized receipt for the evidence. She said, after consulting with "the legal department," they refused to accept the documents.
FBI Agent Dan Vogel told the LA Weekly in a Sept. 28, 2001, interview that the litigation made agents wary of accepting the documents.
Sorry, this is gonna be a waste of time. The excuse given by the FBI doesn't pass the smell test.
Davis claimed she tried to surrender the 22 witness statements and corroborating documentation she uncovered to the FBI in 1997, but requested that agents sign a notarized receipt for the evidence. She said, after consulting with "the legal department," they refused to accept the documents.
FBI Agent Dan Vogel told the LA Weekly in a Sept. 28, 2001, interview that the litigation made agents wary of accepting the documents.
Sorry, this is gonna be a waste of time. The excuse given by the FBI doesn't pass the smell test.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) met Oct. 10 with Davis, a former investigative reporter for an Oklahoma City television station, about an alleged connection between McVeigh and foreign terrorists. Specter told Davis her claim "warrants an inquiry."
"We will pursue it," Specter said, after hearing a one-hour presentation from Davis.
Easily refutable? Apparently the Senior Senator from Pennsylvania is not in agreement with the former TV reporter.
Pushing forward this investigation could be the key to burying the Clintoon's influence forever!
bump...the Rats! Vote.
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