Posted on 02/12/2003 11:17:50 PM PST by kattracks
click here for grabbe piece from 1997
as I mentioned earlier on this thread, this information has been out there quite a while. why the sudden interest?
One thing for certain, Pat Briley, our own OKCSubmariner, went far beyond the call of duty to inform the public and try to urge our elected representatives to do their job. If they would have only listened.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39c95cc82b1a.htm
There are 21 sworn affidavits of eyewitnesses who saw McVeigh with seven Middle Eastern John Does who helped McVeigh in Oklahoma City on April 18 and 19,1995. From 1996 until February 1999, the FBI and Federal prosecutors refused to accept these affidavits by saying that receiving them would compromise the prosecution’s case and help the defense case. FBI agent Dan Vogel finally accepted the affidavits in February 1999 after I went to the Senate Intelligence Committee to put pressure on the FBI to receive the affidavits. It is believed these Middle Eastern John Does are connected to a cell near Dallas, Texas known to the FBI and operated by Bin Laden and perhaps Abu Nidal.
Dave McCurdy, the former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee wrote an article published in the Oklahoma Gazette in May 1995 in which he states he was told by the FBI that a local Middle Eastern terrorist cell connected to Hamas was believed to have been involved in the OKC bombing. He claimed that the FBI had shown him training films of the terrorist cell.
According to sworn affidavits and a news conference in December 1998, Lana Tyree, a local attorney and Congressman Ernest Istook told deputy sheriffs Don Hammons and David Kochendorfer on the night of April 19, 1995 that the government had knowledge of a credible threat against the Murrah Building from a local Middle Eastern terrorist group on April 9, 1995 and that they ”blew it”. FBI agent James Carlysle tried to intimidate Kochendoerfer and vowed to write his FBI interview report to reflect a different story than the one Kochendorfer insisted was correct. Carlysle tried to intimidate other witnesses in this case and is believed to have falsified his interview reports.
Herb Johnson was the Chief of Staff and closest advisor for Senator James Inhofe. Johnson wrote and signed a letter which was provided to an attorney and a reporter. The letter stated that a member of the FBI command post in OKC told Johnson that the DOJ was worried and upset because reporters had learned of the Middle Eastern involvement in the OKC bombing and were concerned how they were going to cover it up. I told Inhofe personally about the letter in January 1999. To this date, Inhofe has not conducted an adequate investigation or prosecution relating to Johnson’s allegations. Inhofe is on the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.
FBI agent Floyd Zimms deliberately gave out false information from the FBI command post about the getaway car of Middle Eastern suspects to OKC police officer Don Browning. This false information contributed to the escape of the suspects who were being detained in Dallas. Zimms actually told the police officer that the information was false and told him not to talk about it.
Jane Thomas, an employee of the OKC bombing museum, told me that FBI agents had told her that the FBI knew of Middle Eastern men involved in the bombing but that the FBI could not go after them without jeopardizing the lives of FBI informants and operatives in Middle Eastern cells.
There is one FBI informant who worked for the FBI six years out of Sacramento, set up terrorist cells throughout the US for Bin Laden and is believed to have helped in the OKC bombing. The FBI operative was Ali Mohammed who was indicted in early 1999 for the World Trade Center and Kenyan and Tanzanian bombings and for setting up these terrorist cells in the US. When arrested, Ali had on his possession US intelligence manuals and documents concerning hiding explosives in public buildings. The source for this information on Ali comes from December 1998 articles in the New York Times.
you're right about OKC. it would be interesting to hear his take on these recent AP "stories".
In August 1995 I spoke with my Republican Congressman, Ernest Istook of Oklahoma on the phone at his home in Oklahoma City. I called Istook because I had intended to discuss with Istook what Glenn Wilburn had told me he had learned during his investigation of the OKC bombing. Glenn had investigated because his two grandchildren, Colton and Chase Smith, had been killed in the day care center of the Murrah Building and he wondered if the BATF had been tipped ahead of time about the bombing.
I never got a chance to talk with Istook about what Glenn had told me because Istook complained to me that he had already talked with Glenn and had not learned anything he felt was useful. He spoke in negative terms about Wilburn and his investigation. Then Istook said to me “There is nothing about the OKC bombing that you can tell me that I and the FBI do not already know about.” He ended the call after that by saying he had to get ready for his trip to Europe.
I was struck by Istook’s statement because the FBI had been asking people to call an 800 number with any information or leads about the OKC bombing. I thought it would be possible that even a lowly janitor might have seen something that “Istook and the FBI did NOT already know. Was Istook just not interested and giving me the brush off, or did he in fact know more about the bombing from the FBI and did not feel there was anything new to learn? How could he be so sure unless he may have been briefed of FBI information and possible FBI planning even before the bombing?
On January 15, 1996 I went with my wife and daughter to see Istook at his office in Oklahoma City. In his office I politely asked Istook to let my wife and daughter tell him about vulgar and threatening phone calls they had received from someone known to have close contact with the FBI over what my wife and daughter knew about the FBI’s involvement with the OKC bombing. Istook looked at my wife and daughter and said in a very disdainful way that he did not want to hear and did not need to hear what they had to say.
I explained to Istook that FBI agent James Carlyle had come to my home on January 8, 1996 and falsely accused me of impersonating the FBI. I calmly asked Istook if he could help me do something about the FBI connected threats to my wife and daughter and the false accusations by the FBI against me.
Istook immediately responded in a very elevated voice that “he would not help me even if he could”. I then asked if he could refer me to an attorney for advice. His response to this question was even louder and angry sounding and he said “he was not in the business of referring attorneys.” He abruptly stood up, ended the appointment and left the room with me, my wife and daughter feeling stunned and amazed at his hostile attitude and rudeness toward us which was totally unwarranted and unprovoked.
Please see affidavit in reply #40
This may explain it. By connecting McVeigh to "white supremacists", they distance McVeigh from his conncetion with Moussaoui's Black Muslim roommate,Mujahid Menepta. (Mujahid translates to "jihad maker")
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/669338/posts
After the attacks, said the motel owner, he recognized his visitors in photos from television reports. "I was really stunned," he said. Then he decided to call the FBI hot line. The motel owner said he didn't hear right back from the FBI. In the interim, he also spoke to a former law-enforcement officer who was investigating reported sightings of Mujahid Abdulquaadir Menepta at the same motel during the mid-1990s. Menepta, reportedly a friend of Moussaoui's, was arrested 30 years ago in Colorado for aggravated robbery and served more than three years in prison.
After September 11, Menepta publicly defended Moussaoui, calling him a "scapegoat." The FBI arrested him as a material witness and subsequently charged Menepta with a federal gun violation. He pleaded guilty and in April 2002 was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. He was never charged with any terrorism-related crime. But during the preliminary hearing on the gun charge, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent Jeffrey Whitney testified that a confidential source placed Menepta at a meeting of a radical Islamic group in St. Louis where he allegedly threatened to shoot any police officer who entered the mosque. Menepta's attorney challenged the credibility of this report in court.
A former desk clerk at the motel -- a different clerk from the one who purportedly dealt with Atta and Moussaoui -- told the Weekly that he remembered Menepta because in 1994 and 1995 -- prior to the Oklahoma City attack -- Menepta frequently visited the motel office. There, he bought coffee and talked for hours to this clerk.
The clerk and his wife, who both formerly worked at the motel, said they picked Menepta's picture out of a photo lineup prepared by a law-enforcement officer who had interviewed the motel owner.
This officer, who also spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity, said that after the motel owner told him about the Moussaoui sighting, he contacted a member of Oklahoma's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes the FBI.
The FBI finally acted on the tip. The motel owner said that on December 19, 2001, he went to FBI offices in Oklahoma City for a formal interview, where he was debriefed by an FBI agent and by Oklahoma City Police Sergeant Jerry Flowers. "We talked for several hours, and I told them everything I knew." The motel owner said he would have taken a polygraph exam but was not asked to do so. The Weekly's law-enforcement source corroborates the December 19 interview.
The motel owner never heard from prosecutors in Moussaoui's case but got one more call from the FBI several weeks later. "The agent told me they had passed on a copy of my statement to Moussaoui's defense team, and I might be getting a call from them. But I was under no obligation to talk to them. However, I don't know if that was the truth. Since then, I have never heard from anyone connected to Moussaoui's case."
Moussaoui Linked to 9/11 Mastermind (Khalid Shaikh Mohammed)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui met with the suspected mastermind of the attacks in late 2000 or early 2001 in Afghanistan, a top al-Qaida operative has told his interrogators, U.S. officials said.
Ramzi Binalshibh, a former aide to top al-Qaida operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, said Mohammed provided Moussaoui with contacts in the United States, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Menepta was a Moussaoui contact in the United States. Upon entering the United States, Moussaoui went directly to the Norman/Oklahoma City area.
A reasonable person can conclude Khalid Mohammed provided contacts in the Norman/Oklahoma City area.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/22/attack/main515896.shtml
(CBS) The judge has suspended all pre-trial activity for alleged 9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui and postponed the June 30 trial date until the government's appeal is resolved. No later trial date has been set.
The U.S. government asked a judge last week to halt all proceedings in the case of accused Sept. 11 conspirator until certain issues are resolved by an appeals court.
A government official, who would not be identified by name, indicated one of the issues is whether Moussaoui, a French citizen, should have the right to question Ramzi Binalshibh, who the indictment says was an al Qaeda operative in contact with Moussaoui.
The government is appealing an order by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Binalshibh matter.
The Justice Department has said it wants to keep the case in the criminal justice system, but Brinkema's ruling could force the administration to move the case to a military tribunal.
The administration has been worried about giving Moussaoui access to Binalshibh, because it doesn't want him revealing certain information in a public trial.
"Shortly after I got the court order, I was contacted by Special Agent Finley from the Tulsa BATF and she wanted to get even. Angie said she would pay me to set up Dennis....I went along with it."
After signing a contract Finley provided, Howe was put on the payroll at $120 per week, beginning in mid-1994.
As part of the plan, Howe and Finley went shopping and bought a trunk. Next, they had a tiny surveillance camera mounted inside, with a small hole drilled for the lens, and placed it in Howe's residence.
Howe said that she and Finley had bought legal, practice grenades from an army surplus store.
"I got Dennis talked into making them real and he did so on camera. Leter, we went out to Elohim City and blew them up."
"Angie got the film, and then told me to have Dennis introduce me to the people at Elohim City and get information on Strassmeir and the other radicals."
That was how she met Strassmeir and the others, she said.
"I started going to as many of their meetings as I could and met a lot of people who were very secretive. But sometime in November there was a meeting and Strassmeir and Mahon said it was time to quit talking and go to war."
"I reported all this to Angie."
Howe said Finley then wanted her to try to get Strassmeir on film handling grenades, so in the fall of 1994, she invited him to dinner.
"He brought in Pete Langan and Kevin McCarthy, the bank robbers. In no time I had them painting the grenades in fron of the surveillance camera and I later gave the film to Angie."
But Howe grew increasingly disenchanted with her work.
"In March of 1995, I got fed up with the whole thing because of ny negative feelings about Rev. (Robert) Millar and some of the other people at Elohim City," she saiod. "Angie hadn't made any arrests either, and that was frustrating, so I quit going out there...until after the building got blown up!"
Strassmeir's North Carolina attorney, Kirk Lyons, says his client was never a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing and left the United States in January 1996 only because he feared being brought into the Oklahoma City bombing investigation due to statements the McVeigh defense team was making in the press.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8987612b9e.htm
Lives of Public, OKC Bombing Witnesses & Investigator Put In Grave Peril
BlueDogDemo used this public forum to discredit the information in the link in reply #77.
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