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Continued from "No Stone Unturned"
TWA 800 Sidebar
The experiences of these witnesses parallels those who saw a missile rise out of the water to shoot down TWA flight 800 on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board. Over 154 witnesses on Long Island, who witnessed the attack, described what appeared to be a missile--a glowing object that impacted with the plane.
These accounts were backed up by FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) radar records, which showed an unidentified object (a "blip" that was not "squawking" a transponder code) move rapidly towards, then merge with, the large jumbo-jet.(903)
Yet like the seismic records, and the video surveillance footage which would have shown the Murrah Building being blown up, these radar tapes would be confiscated by the FBI.
Naturally, the government lied about the crash. The National Transportation Safety board (NTSB) claimed that the most probable cause was a "spark" in the center fuel tank due to "static electricity." This is ridiculous even to the uninitiated. Said Michael Barr, director of aviation safety programs at USC, "Airplanes don't blow up just like that. I've been following 747s since 1970 and I've never seen one blow up like that."(904)
One witness, Lou Desyron, told ABC World News Sunday: "We saw what appeared to be a flare going straight up. As a matter of fact, we thought it was from a boat. It was a bright reddish-orange color.... Once it went into flames, I knew that wasn't a flare.(905)
Another witness told the New York Daily News: "It looked like a big skyrocket going up, and it kept going up and up, and the next thing I knew there was an orange ball of fire."(906)
Long Island resident Linda Kabot inadvertently snapped a picture of the missile while photographing friends at a party. The photo appeared in the July issue of Paris Match.
Eyewitnesses on the ground weren't the only ones who saw a missile. Vasilis Bakoynis, a Greek commercial airline pilot flying behind flight 800, told the FBI that he saw what appeared to be a missile rise up from the water and strike the plane. "Suddenly I saw in the fog to my left toward the ocean, a small flame rising quickly toward the sky. Before I realized it, I saw this flame become huge.…"(907)
Private pilot Sven Faret reported a "short pin-flash of light [which] appeared on the ground, perhaps water," that rose up "like a rocket launch at a fireworks display."(908)
Major Fred Meyer, the pilot of an Air National Guard helicopter which was in the area, said he saw "a streak of red orange" heading toward the plane. "...it arrived at a point in space where I saw a small explosion which grew to a small fireball, then a second explosion and a huge fireball," the Boston Herald quoted Meyer as telling a press briefing on July 18th.
Meyer's co-pilot, Captain Chris Baur, told Aviation Week & Space Technology on March 10, "Almost due south, there was a hard white light, like burning pyrotechnics, in level flight. I was trying to figure out what it was. It was the wrong color for flares. It struck an object coming from the right [TWA 800] and made it explode."(909)
Ten days later, Meyer, a Vietnam veteran, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise: "I know what I saw. I saw an ordinance explosion. And whatever I saw, the explosion of the fuel was not the initiator of the event. It was one of the results. Something happened before that which was the initiator of the disaster."(910)
Meyer and Baur's account was backed up by Air National Guard C-130 pilot Cononel William Stratemeir, Jr., who told Aviation Week & Space Technology what "appeared to be the trail of a shoulder-fired SAM ending in a flash on the 747."(911)
Yet the government would seek to silence the hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw the missile. A team of approximately 50 FBI agents, many of the same agents who worked the Oklahoma City case, would visit these witnesses and ask, then demand, their silence.
"There was nothing I observed that gave me any indication that the streak of light I saw was caused by a missile," Meyer would later quoted as saying. "I don't know what I saw."(912)
"We did not see smoke trails [from a missile], any ignition source from the tail of a rocket nor anything…" said Stratemeir four months later.(913)
Medical Examiner Dr. Charles V. Wetli originally told reporters that the passengers in the forward compartment were hit hardest, indicating the major event was in the front of the plane, not the center as the government claimed. Dr. Wetli and others then backed off from their findings. An explosion had happened and killed people was as much as he could say, reported the New York Times. (914)
Was the government covering up evidence of a terrorist missile strike, or the negligence of the United States Navy? While the disintegration of flight 800's number three engine appears to indicate a shoulder-launched missile, the large gaping hole running from just underneath the center fuel tank through the top of the forward cabin suggests a strike by an unarmed missile "drone."
There is evidence for both theories. After denying the existence of any military operations in the area, the Pentagon eventually admitted that a C-130 military transport and two HH-60G Blackhawk helicopters of the New York Air National Guard's ANG's 106th Rescue Wing were operating in the area as part of a night-rescue exercise.
Such a "rescue exercise" doesn't explain the presence of a P-3 Orion anti-submarine warfare plane, which, contrary to claims by Navy public affairs, is capable of carrying missiles. The U.S.S. Normandy, an Aegis class guided missile cruiser (similar to the one that accidentally shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the straits of Hormuz, killing all 290 people), was also operating in the vicinity. The Normandy carries RIM-67 Standard SM-2ER semi-active radar homing air defense missiles, with a range of 93 miles and an altitude of 100,000 feet. Was the Normandy firing drones as part of a practice drill? Such maneuvers are routinely carried out off the coast of Long Island. Area W-105 was activated as a "hot zone" at the time of the disaster.(915)
Naturally, the Navy claimed the Normandy was 180 miles from flight 800, which was in area W-106, 15 miles to the Northwest of W-105.(916)
FBI chief investigator James Kallstrom cited claims of military culpability as "irresponsible… total unadulterated nonsense," and, echoing the psychobabble employed by the government in the Oklahoma City bombing investigation, stated that such claims are hurtful to the victims. Jim Hall, head of the NTSB investigation, backed up Kallstrom, saying the allegations "are causing incredible pain and confusion for those who lost loved ones."
"I can tell you we left no stone unturned," Kallstrom announced, as if playing a bad re-run of Janet Reno's press conference on Oklahoma City.(917)
Then in November, Pierre Salinger, a former ABC News correspondent and press secretary for President Kennedy, told reporters in Cannes, France, he had obtained a document from French intelligence (there were numerous French citizens onboard) detailing how the Navy was indeed test firing missiles and accidentally hit Flight 800 because the plane was flying lower than expected. Salinger said the document written by someone who "was tied to the U.S. Secret Service and has important contacts in the U.S. Navy."(918)
Backing up Salinger's report was Lt. Col. Bo Gritz, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and Special Forces commander, who reported in June that the Army and Navy were conducting final acceptance tests of the AEGIS-CEC (Cooperative Engagement Capability) system, in the wake of the tragic shootdown of an Iranian airbus by the USS Vincennes.
The military chose Area W-105, claimed Gritz, in order to provide a realistic test using a densely populated area. "W-105 had been especially selected (and activated for live fire) because of its similarity to the Persian Gulf."
The Navy Orion P-3, a member of the CEC team, was loaded with up-graded gear, allowing integration of Army and Navy Anti-Aircraft Artillery acquisition radar. The equipment was supposed to "discriminate between friend-neutral-foe electronic signatures, isolate the hostile threat and select the weapon best positioned for an assured kill to launch at the target."
The simulated boogie was a Navy BQM-74E missile drone launched from Shinnecock Bay, east of Riverhead, Long Island by an Army unit shortly after the "all clear" at 8:30 p.m.…
Through the thickening fog of replicated hostile images, a shot solution was plotted and relayed to the missile unit best positioned for the kill. The software then automatically triggered the launch of a Navy Standard IV Anti-missile missile.…
The antimissile was programmed to climb rapidly until a "mid-course" correction would be relayed to the missile's on-board computer directing the dive to impact. Final course adjustments would be made by the missile's "semi-active" radar device after "lock-on" was achieved.…
Tragically, the last radar able to see the boogie through the heavy jamming and target replication suddenly and unexpectedly went blind.… Unable to receive guidance commands to keep it on an intercept course with the target drone, the Standard IV reverted to its own programming and began seeking a target. In a heartbeat, the internal radar acquired the TWA 747 well above and to the west of the intended target.(919)
Was the 747 destroyed by "friendly fire?" Reports that rocket fuel residue was present on seat backs and bodies of the victims, and the large entry and exit holes, tend to support these allegations.(920)
During the 1982 Falklands War, an Argentine AM.39 Exocet anti-ship missile struck the British destroyer HMS Sheffield. Although it was a dud, "the kinetic energy of the missile, flying at supersonic speed, was able to punch through the hull and slice into fuel lines, allowing the still-burning rocket motor to ignite a deadly and explosive fire. TWA 800 may have experienced an airborne version of this same fate."(921)
Gritz' claim that the military chose the area off of Long Island for testing jives with the well-documented fact of decades-long military testing on unsuspecting civilians in hundreds of cities across the nation--including everything from drugs and nuclear radiation, to chemical and biological weapons.(922)
Interestingly, on August 29, six weeks after the TWA 800 crash, an American Airlines pilot reported seeing a missile pass by his 757 while flying over Wallops Island, Virginia, the site of the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, which has a program for unmanned research rockets. Wallops Island is about 220 miles south of the TWA crash sight.(923)
Finally, as Ian Goddard reported, on May 13, 1997, Long Island's Southampton Press reported that resident Dede Muma accidentally received a fax from Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical intended for the FBI's office in Calverton, Long Island (the two have similar phone numbers). The fax indicated that parts of a Navy missile target drone, a BQM-34 Firebee I manufactured by Teledyne, may have been found in the wreckage. The fax shows a diagram of what appears to be a missile, along with a breakdown of its tail section and a parts list...(924)
The near disintegration of the plane's number three engine, however, supports the theory of a heat-seeking SAM, suggesting that the plane was destroyed by terrorists.
Recall that two major terrorist conferences were held during which it was announced that there would be increased attacks against U.S. interests: one on June 20-23 in Teheran, and the other on July 10-15 in Pakistan. Intelligence officers and terrorist leaders from Hamas, HizbAllah, and the PFLP-GC's Ahmed Jibril, who carried out the Pan Am 103 bombing, were in attendance. This was followed on June 25 by the truck-bombing of the military housing compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.(925)
Also recall that immediately following the July 16th U.S. Senate resolution for sanctions against Libya and Iran, the al-Hayat newspaper received a warning from the Movement for Islamic Change:
The world will be astonished and amazed at the time and place chosen by the Mujahadeen. The Mujahadeen will deliver the harshest reply to the threats of the foolish American president. Everyone will be surprised by the volume, choice of place and timing of the Mujahadeen's answer, and invaders must prepare to depart alive or dead for their time is morning and morning is near.
The New York Post also reported that the FBI was looking into an anonymous threat received after conviction of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the spiritual leader of the World Trade Center bombing cell, convicted of plotting to blow up major New York City landmarks. The threat warned that a New York area airport or jetliner would be attacked in retaliation for the prosecution of the sheik.(926)
A warning was also provided to the Israelis that Iran was likely to launch an attack against a U.S. aircraft. Thousands of Stinger missiles were given to the Mujahadeen by the CIA in the 1980s. According to former FAA investigator Rodney Stich, "At least a dozen were thus obtained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards from Yunis Khalis, a radical Muslim Afghani resistance leader. One of them was fired by Iranians at an American helicopter on patrol in the Persian Gulf on October 8th, 1987."
The U.S. produced nearly 64,500 of these missiles for the military and other countries since 1980, including Angola, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The Soviets are known to have sold their SAM-7 to China, North Korea, India, Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Laos, Libya, Sudan and Syria, among others.(927) Stingers provided to the Mujahadeen via the CIA in Peshawar, Pakistan, were often sold to terrorists and other groups.
"We have now spent more than a decade trying to retrieve those missiles," said Natalie Goldring, a defense analyst with the British-American Security Information Council. "Several hundred that were transferred during the Afghan war are nowhere to be found. They are very capable anti-aircraft missiles."(928)
According to Stich, the CIA has bumbled attempts to retrieve the missiles. In a letter to Senator Arlen Specter dated October 20, 1995, Stich writes:
Recent information provided to me by one or more of my contacts in the CIA community describes the dates, places, and people involved in offering the missiles to the United States, and the rejection of this offer. These sources provided me with precise details of the negotiations to give the missiles to the United States, the agreement by Afghan rebel leader, General Rashid Dostom, and a CIA attorney.…
[One] possibility for CIA and Justice Department rejection of the Stinger missiles is that the CIA wants the missiles to fall into terrorists' hands, and actually wants an airliner to be shot down. The shoot-down of a commercial airliner could then be used to justify the continuation of CIA activities.(929)
In fact, Israel intercepted unconfirmed reports that 50 of Stingers were smuggled into the country in 1995. A letter reportedly presented to members of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committee after the shootdown of flight 800 not only claimed credit for the attack, but provided the serial number of the missile that was used.
Naturally, government would trot out its usual stable of spokesmen to claim that the plane hadn't been downed by a missile, especially a shoulder-launched SAM, which the Pentagon claimed couldn't down a jumbo-jet flying at 13,700 feet.
"There's no American official with half a brain who ought to be speculating on anything of that nature," said White House spokesman Mike McCurry. "There's no concrete information that would lead any of us in the United States government to draw that kind of conclusion."
Yet the State Department has catalogued 25 incidents between 1978 and 1993 in which commercial airliners were shot down by SAMs, killing more than 600 people. (Israeli commercial airliners, like the President's Air Force One, are equipped with special flares capable of diverting surface-to-air missiles.) During the Vietnam War, Russian Grail missiles routinely shot down planes at altitudes of 11,000 and 12,000 feet. Some SAMs--including the Stinger, and the Swedish-built Bofors RBS 70 and 90, which military and aviation analyst Ronald Lewis, writing in Air Forces Monthly believes was used--are reportedly capable of reaching altitudes of between 15,000 and 18,000 feet.(930)
It is for precisely this reason that the government kept changing the altitude of the plane, which they first reported at 8,500 feet, then 10,000 feet, and finally at 13,700 feet (Apparently they didn't take into account the range of the Bofors). This is strikingly similar to their altering of the size of the bomb in Oklahoma, originally stating it was 1,200 pounds, then 2,000 pounds, then 4,000 pounds, then finally 4,800 pounds, to match their magic ANFO theory.
Given the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, however, the talking heads would modify their statements. "They will be looking at all three scenarios," said Former FBI Assistant Director Oliver "Buck" Revell, "and probably the least likely will be the missile, but it will be one that is very carefully examined."(931)
Even the FBI's James Kallstrom was later forced to admit, "We do have information that there was something in the sky. A number of people have seen it."(932) As the New York Post reported on September 22:
Law-enforcement sources said the hardest evidence gathered so far overwhelmingly suggests a surface-to-air missile--with the sophisticated ability to lock on the center of a target rather than its red-hot engines--was fired from a boat off the Long Island coast to bring down the airliner July 17.(933)
On December 17, the Washington Times quoted a congressional aide who verified that an unnamed DIA official confirmed the missile attack: "'In his opinion, the plane was brought down by at least one shoulder-fired missile,'" said the congressional source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."(934)
Interestingly, the FBI focused part of its investigation on boats on Long Island that had been chartered or stolen. One report that surfaced early on reported that two Middle Eastern men had rented a boat. A boat 30 or 40 feet in length would provide a stable enough platform for a someone aiming a heat-seeking or laser guided SAM, even if the waters had not been perfectly calm.
Obviously, the government was perfectly capable of determining who, or at least what shot down TWA flight 800. Aviation Week reported that technology is available to establish, within hours, the exact composition of any explosive, even after days of submersion in sea water. Yet months after the disaster, the government was still claiming it hadn't determined the cause of the crash. At times, the explanations offered by government officials bordered on the ridiculous. On July 11, 1997, a NTSB official was heard postulating before members of Congress that the plane may have been destroyed by errant "space junk."
It is hardly surprising that the government would want to cover up the truth, especially if flight 800 had been destroyed by a Stinger missile, one given to the Mujahadeen by the Central [Stupidity] Agency. If the public learned that a commercial jet could be shot down by a hand-held missile, one of many smuggled into this country, the airline industry would suffer huge financial loses. In countries where tourism is essential to the economy, such a revelation would be devastating.
Moreover, if TWA 800 had been downed by our own military, the government would be even more desperate to cover up the truth.
At a press conference on November 8, IWW reporter Hillel Cohen asked, "Why is the Navy not a suspect?" In response, Kallstrom said, "Remove that man." As about 10 security guards swiftly removed Cohen from the room, as he shouted, "We want an independent investigation!"
Nor were journalists investigating Oklahoma City immune from harassment. Jayna Davis, the courageous KFOR reporter who tracked down Hussaini and Khalid, received a warning from the Bureau that she was getting "too close" to the truth, and should drop her investigation.
Journalists and investigators who have attempted to interview rescue workers, including firemen, police and other city officials are denied interviews. Most workers say they've been told not to talk by their superiors or the FBI. "…they're afraid of losing their jobs or being subjected to abuse if they say something," said Jane Graham.
Nurse Toni Garret was one of many people who had volunteered to help tag dead victims that terrible morning. Garret and her husband Earl had just taken a break when they noticed federal agents arriving to set up a command post. "They acted like it was just a drill, like it was no big deal, said Garret. "They were kind of joking around and all that kind of stuff."
Approximately 20 minutes later, when the Garrets re-entered the makeshift triage center, they found many of the doctors and nurses gone, and a completely different atmosphere prevailed. "There was nobody helping anymore," said Earl. "Before, there were people bringing in food and medical supplies--just everything. When we came back in, there was a cold, callous atmosphere. I found out later that the FBI had taken over.…"
But what really upset Toni Garret was the fact that the FBI and the Medical Examiner were suppressing the body count, which they had claimed as only 22 dead. Garret, who had personally tagged over 120 dead bodies that day, was shocked. "I was being interviewed by a lady from TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). I told her that I was highly upset because the news media and the information they were being given was not accurate information. There were many more bodies than what they were saying on the news media and releasing at the time.…"
"[The FBI] didn't like that Toni was being interviewed by the media," said Earl. "An agent came [up] to me and said, 'Do you know her?' pointing to Toni. I said, 'Yes, she's my wife.' He said, "What is she?' I said, 'Well, she's been down here all day trying to get people out of this building and help people.' He turned around to his friends and said, 'Well, we need to get her out of here.' Toni then told me that the agents had told her that the FBI was taking over and all of us could get out. They told us to keep our mouths shut."
Said Toni, "When they came over to me, one of the agents was very pompous and arrogant about asking me who I was, what I was doing there, if I was a civilian, where I worked, and what my name was. I didn't feel like any of that pertained to what was going on that day or what had happened that day, and he wanted to know everything about me.…
"He said, 'Well, we're down here now, and we're taking over the building. It would be advisable and recommendable that you keep your mouth shut."(935)
Norma Smith, who worked at the Federal Courthouse across from the Murrah building saw, along with numerous others, the Sheriff's bomb squad congregated in the parking lot at 7:30 that morning. Shortly after Smith's story appeared in a local newspaper, her house was broken into--twice. Smith, frightened, took early retirement and moved out of state. She is currently too afraid to talk to anyone.
The bomb squad, incidentally, denied being there.
New American editor William Jasper learned from an OCPD officer that during a mandatory daily security briefing at the Murrah Building, he and other assembled police/rescue/recovery personnel were told "in no uncertain terms" by one of the lead federal officials that it was necessary for "security" reasons to provide the public with "misinformation" regarding certain aspects of the case, and that this "official line" was not to be contradicted by any of those in attendance.(936)
"There's a lot that's being covered up, for some reason," charged a federal employee who narrowly escaped death but who lost many friends in the terrorist attack.
Said a man who lost his father, "…I'm angry because I know I'm being lied to."
"Many of us are going to come forward and challenge what's going on as soon as we get some more of the pieces figured out," pledged a law enforcement officer.(937)
This same police officer later told me he was called into the offices of OCPD Chief Sam Gonzales and U.S. Attorney Pat Ryan and told to "cease and desist."(938)
Another officer who was told to "cease and desist" was Sergeant Terrance Yeakey. On May 8, 1996, only three days before Sergeant Yeakey was to receive the Oklahoma Police Department's Medal of Valor, he "committed suicide." The 30 year-old cop was found in a field near El Reno, not far from where El Reno Prison guard Joey Gladden "committed suicide." His wrists were slashed in numerous places, as was his neck and throat. Apparently not satisfied with this initial attempt to take his life, he got out of his car, walked a mile and-a-half over rough terrain, then pulled out his gun shot himself in the head.
The media claimed Officer Yeakey "was wracked with guilt" over his inability to help more people that fateful morning. They also claimed he led a "troubled family life," having been recently divorced from his wife Tonia, and separated from his two daughters, aged two and four, whom the Daily Oklahoman claimed he was not permitted to see due to a restraining order.
Other accounts suggest that Yeakey was reluctant to receive the Medal of Valor due to his "guilt" over being injured in the Murrah Building. "He didn't like it," said his supervisor Lt. Jo Ann Randall. "There are some people that like to be heroes and some that don't. He was not one that wanted that."
"He had a lot of guilt because he got hurt," added fellow officer Jim Ramsey.(939)
Apparently, there was much more behind Officer Terrance Yeakey's reluctance to be honored as a hero.
"He kept telling me it wasn't what I thought it was," said his ex-wife, Tonia Rivera, "that they were only choosing officers who were not even at the site, you know--who didn't see anything--to take public rewards, recognition, that sort of stuff.
"They started pressuring them into taking [the rewards]," added Rivera. "There came a time about mid-year, where they were forcing him into going to these award ceremonies. As in, 'Yes, you could not go, but we'll make your life hell…'
The story of the reluctant hero, she added, was nothing more than a "real thin veil of truth" which covered up a "mountain of deceit."
"[T]erry wanted no part of it."(940)
His sister, Vicki Jones, agreed. "Terry hated that stuff. 'I'm no hero,' he would say. 'Nobody that had anything to do with helping those people in that bombing are heroes."
Why would the Medal of Valor recipient make such a bizarre-sounding statement? In a letter he wrote to a bombing victim and friend Ramona McDonald, the officer tells the real reason for his reluctance to be honored as a hero:
Dear Ramona,
I hope that whatever you hear now and in the future will not change your opinions about myself or others with the Oklahoma City Police Department, although some of the things I am about to tell you about is [sic] very disturbing.
I don't know if you recall everything that happened that morning or not, so I am not sure if you know what I am referring to.
The man that you and I were talking about in the pictures I have made the mistake of asking too many questions as to his role in the bombing, and was told to back off.
I was told by several officers he was an ATF agent who was overseeing the bombing plot and at the time the photos were taken he was calling in his report of what had just went down!
I think my days as a police officer are numbered because of the way my supervisors are acting and there is [sic] a lot of secrets floating around now about my mental state of mind. I think they are going to write me up because of my ex-wife and a VPO.
I told you about talking to Chaplain Poe, well the bastard wrote up in a report stating I should be relieved of my duties! I made the mistake of thinking that a person's conversation with a chaplain was private, which by the way might have cost me my job as a police officer! A friend at headquarters told me that Poe sent out letters to everyone in the department! That BITCH (Jo Ann Randall) I told you about is up to something and I think it has something to do with Poe. If she gets her way, they will tar and feather me!
I was told that Jack Poe has written up a report on every single officer that has been in to see him, including Gordon Martin and John Avery.
Knowing what I know now, and understanding fully just what went down that morning, makes me ashamed to wear a badge from Oklahoma City's Police Department. I took and oath to uphold the Law and to enforce the Law to the best of my ability. This is something I cannot honestly do and hold my head up proud any longer if I keep my silence as I am ordered to do.
There are several others out there who was [sic] what we saw and even some who played a role in what happened that day.
[Two Pages Missing]
My guess is the more time an officer has to think about the screw up the more he is going to question what happened… Can you imagine what would be coming down now if that had been our officers' who had let this happen? Because it was the feds that did this and not the locals, is the reason it's okay. You were right all along and I am truly sorry I doubted you and your motives about recording history. You should know that it is going to one-hell-of-a-fight.
Everyone was behind you until you started asking questions as I did, as to how so many federal agents arrived at the scene at the same time.
Luke Franey (a ATF agent who claimed he was in the building) was not in the building at the time of the blast, I know this for a fact, I saw him! I also saw full riot gear worn with rifles in hand, why? Don't make the mistake as I did and ask the wrong people.
I worry about you and your young family because of some of the statements that have been made towards me, a police officer! Whatever you do don't confront McPhearson with the bomb squad about what I told you. His actions and defensiveness towards the bombing would make any normal person think he was defending himself as if he drove the damn truck up to the building himself. I am not worried for myself, but for you and your group. I would not be afraid to say at this time that you and your family could be harmed if you get any closer to the truth. At this time I think for your well being it is best for you to distance yourself and others from those of us who have stirred up to many questions about the altering and falsifying of the federal investigation's reports.
I truly believe there are other officers like me out there who would not settle for anything but the truth, it is just a matter of finding them. The only true problem as I see it is, who do we turn to then?
It is vital that people like you, Edye Smith, and others keep asking questions and demanding answers for the actions of our Federal Government and law enforcement agencies that knew beforehand and participated in the cover-up.
The sad truth of the matter is that they have so many police officers convinced that by covering up the truth about the operation gone wrong, that they are actually doing our citizens a favor. What I want to know is how many other operations have they had that blew up in their faces? Makes you stop and take another look at Waco.
I would consider it to be an insult to my profession as a police officer and to the citizens of Oklahoma for ANY of the City, State or Federal agents that stood by and let this happen to be recognized as any thing other than their part in participation in letting this happen. For those who ran from the scene to change their attire to hide the fact that they were there, should be judged as cowards.
If our history books and records are ever truly corrected about that day it will show this and maybe even some lame excuse as to why it happened, but I truly don't believe it will from what I now know to be the truth.
Even if I tried to explain it to you the way it was explained to me, and the ridiculous reason for having out own police departments falsify reports to their fellow officers, to the citizens of the city and to our country, you would understand why I feel the way I do about all of this.
I believe that a lot of the problems the officers are having right now are because some of them know what really happened and can't deal with it, and others like myself made the mistake of trusting the one person we were supposed to be able to turn to (Chaplain Poe) only to be stabbed in the back.
I am sad to say that I believe my days as a police officer are numbered because of all of this….
Shortly after the bombing, Yeakey appeared at his ex-wife's. "About two weeks before his death, he'd come into my home at strange times," said Rivera, "two-thirty in the morning, four in the morning, unannounced--trying to give me life insurance policies.… He kept telling me we needed to get remarried immediately, or me and the girls would not be taken care of.
"I mean, why would a guy tell you to take a life insurance policy, knowing damn well it wouldn't pay for a suicide? He obviously knew he was in danger."
Yet Officer Terrance Yeakey was not the type of person to easily show his feelings. He didn't want to tell his family anything that might get them hurt.
"He told me enough to let me know that it was not what they were making it out to be," said Rivera, "and that he was disgusted and didn't want any part of it, but he never went into detail.… It scared me."(941)
Within days of the bombing, according to a sympathetic government source who has spoken to Rivera, Yeakey began receiving death threats. He was at his ex-wife's apartment when the calls came. Afraid for his family, he got up and left.
"When he came to my apartment two weeks prior, trying to give me these insurance policies," said Rivera, "he sat on my living room couch and cried and told me how he had a fight with [his supervisors] Lt. Randall and Maj. Upchurch. He did not tell me what that entailed, but he was scared--he was crying so badly he was shaking.
"He wouldn't totally voice whatever it was," recalled Rivera. "It was like he'd be just about to tell me--he'd want to spill his guts--and then he stopped, and he just cried. And that's when he kept insisting that I take the insurance policy."
Although Yeakey was concerned for his family, the marriage was not without abuse. Rivera had filed a VPO (Victim's Protective Order) against him slightly over two years ago. In a fit of temper, Yeakey had once threatened to take his life and those of his wife and children.
"I think it was said in the haste of, well, he's going to kill all of us kind of thing--cop under pressure," said Rivera. But that was over a year and-a-half ago. Yeakey had spent considerable time with his wife and children since then, taking them on family outings and so forth.
Nevertheless, the Oklahoma City Police Department (OCPD) attempted to use the incident to claim that Yeakey was suicidal. It was on the day of his death, around 1:30 p.m., that they called Rivera, trying to get her to file a VPO Violation based on the two-year-old report. "They wanted me to come down and make some statements against him," Rivera said.
On the same afternoon, in-between messages on his answering machine from his sister, Vicki Jones and his supervisor Lt. Jo Ann Randall, Yeakey had a message from Tonia. "The message was like at 5:30 in the afternoon," recalled Rivera. "I sound like I'm whispering, and I'm apologizing for waking him up--at 5:30 in the afternoon--on Wednesday."
It seems the intent behind this cleverly-crafted deception was to convince the family and potential investigators that Rivera was an "evil person," who was sleeping with him the night before, but "went down and filed a VPO the next day."
"That tape was planted," said Rivera. "I never called his house."
It seemed the OCPD was playing an elaborate game to sow confusion and mistrust, and create the appearance that Rivera was responsible for her ex-husband's death.
"So it comes out in paper after paper how he's having problems with his ex-wife, how he's not allowed to see his children.… "They're trying to play up the story of the bitch-ass wife whose trying to get him fired.…"
Yet Rivera claimed she never filed a VPO violation. "The OCPD wanted to file one," said Rivera. "But I never signed it." Rivera claimed she had gone to the police station, but simply out of concern for her ex-husband, who had been acting strangely.
"Nobody ever said, 'Mrs. Yeakey, Terry's missing. Do you know anyplace he might have gone to? They never told me that they weren't able to locate him, that they were concerned, you know--nothing. I never knew he was missing."
If Officer Yeakey's death was anything more than a suicide, the OCPD didn't go to any great lengths to find out. While his death occurred in El Reno, the OCPD took over the crime scene, squeezing the El Reno Police Department out of the picture. The OCPD's Media Relations officer, Cpt. Ted Carlton, explained, "It was our police officer who was killed. It's not uncommon [to take over the investigation] in the case of a smaller police agency."(942)
Although forensics are also standard procedure in the event of a violent or suspicious death, especially that of a police officer, Yeakey's car was never dusted for prints. "And the next day, they gave us the damn car!" said Mrs. Jarrahi. "It was full of blood."
When Yeakey's Brother-in-Law, Glenn Jones, inspected the dead man's car, he discovered a bloody knife stashed underneath the glove compartment. Yet according to the responding officer, Yeakey had apparently used a razor blade. Where did the knife come from? Since no forensic investigation was conducted, this remains unclear.
No autopsy was ever conducted.
"There were common sense things that were wrong about the whole thing, that makes it so weird," added Mrs. Jarrahi. "It just doesn't seem right. Why would policemen and the authorities make such common mistakes that would leave questions? It's just really weird."
If Yeakey's death was a suicide, he left no note. Although he was upset over his divorce, according to the family, he was not suicidal. It is also unlikely that he abused drugs, as he was an instructor at DARE, a program designed to keep children off drugs.
Former Canadian County Sheriff Clint Boehler, who claims to have known Yeakey, doesn't concur with this analysis. Boehler said that Yeakey showed up at his house in El Reno on the afternoon of his death, his car stopped at an angle in the middle of the road. When Boehler and his girlfriend Kate Allen, a paramedic, ran outside, they found the police officer virtually passed out.
"He couldn't tell us his name initially," said Allen. "He was ill, and he was very anxious. His heart rate was rapid; he was sweaty.… He told us he had been having concentration problems, he hadn't slept. He had all the appearances, my first guess would be, of someone who was having emotional problems. And my second guess would be, of some kind of substance abuse problem. But that's a pure guess."
Boehler added that Yeakey said he hadn't eaten, and was "throwing up, taking medication, and incoherent. "He was taking medications for his back," said Boehler. "He had four or five medications in the car."
Boehler and Allen didn't know that Yeakey had Sickle-Cell Anemia--a blood-sugar-related condition that caused seizures. It was these seizures, Rivera explained, that would occasionally cause her ex-husband to act "out-of-sorts," or even to slip into unconsciousness.
In spite of his medical condition, Rivera insisted that Terrance Yeakey was a health fanatic. The prescriptions were for his condition, she said, but he used only the minimum amounts.
According to Canadian County Sheriff Deputy Mike Ramsey (no relation to OCPD Officer Jim Ramsey), who drove Yeakey home, Yeakey was not suicidal. "He didn't give me any indications that he was out to do harm to himself," said Ramsey. "He seemed more disoriented, tired…"(943)
There are many things about Officer Yeakey's death that remain a mystery. While Boehler described a man on drugs, the Medical Examiner claims they didn't bother to conduct a drug test because it "costs too much."(944)
The ME's field investigator, Jeffrey Legg, also reported that Yeakey "had been drinking heavily" the day before, based on statements made by OCPD Homicide Detectives Dicus and Mullinex. Yet Terrance Yeakey didn't drink, and their own report concluded that there was no alcohol in the body at the time of death.(945)
Canadian County Sheriffs discovered the abandoned car, filled with blood, about two and-a-half miles from the old El Reno reformatory. The OCPD was notified, and Police Chief Sam Gonazles flew out by chopper. Using dogs, they followed a trail of blood, and found the body in a ditch, about a mile and-a-half from the car. (Legg reported the body was 1/2 mile south of the car, when in fact it was 1 1/2 miles north-east of the car.)
Apparently Yeakey had tried to cut himself in the wrists, neck, and throat, then, after losing approximately two pints of blood, got out of his car (contentiously remembering to lock the doors), walked a mile and-a-half over rough terrain, crawled under a barbed-wire fence, waded through a culvert, then lay down in a ditch and shot himself in the head.(946)
As is this weren't strange enough, Yeakey's diet-related condition would have made him too weak to walk the mile and-a-half from his car to where his body was found--especially after losing two to three pints of blood.
Nevertheless, the OCPD ruled it a suicide on the spot. Their investigation remained sealed. This reporter was unable to obtain it, and not even the family was allowed to see it.
"There were so many things that were weird," said Mrs. Jarrahi. "My daughter kept going back to the Police Department. She said, 'Well what about this… we knew he had a camcorder, we knew he had a briefcase…'
"These are things we never got back. The kid always carried camera and film. [He] never went anywhere without his camera and briefcase. He had all his important papers in there.… We got the camera back. We never got the film back. We never got the briefcase. They said they never saw it…."
In regards to Yeakey's videos, Detective Mullinex, who "investigated" the case for the OCPD, told Vicki Jones, "I really don't think you'll want to see those; they contain pornography." Jones didn't believe him and didn't care. "I want those tapes!" she demanded.
The Homicide detective finally told her she'd get them back after they had "examined the evidence."
"One minute the guy would say he had them," said Jones, "the next minute he'd say 'we don't have anything.…'"
According to Jones, Mullinex then said, "Now, we all loved Terry. I hope you understand that, but I'm not going to let you see any pictures. And I don't know anything about a briefcase, but if there's anything back there, I'll give you a call, and you can come back and get them."
"And I just sat there and looked at him, and said to myself, 'You're doing a great performance, but it's not working.…' Then he got really uptight and said, 'Well, some of us hated Terry.' [Then] he kind of grabbed his face and said 'oh shit.'"
For his part, Mullinex had "no comment either way." He then told me, "I don't remember what I said to the lady, but I certainly was not rude to her.… This comes as a big shock to me, because he was a police officer and a friend of mine. It was a hard thing and hurt me to have to work it."
Cpt. Carlton likewise feigned shock at Jones' rebuffs, and said he would have to know who the officer was who made those statements. He then asked me to have the family contact the OCPD directly (as though they hadn't already done so numerous times), and he would meet with them and discuss the case, but that Cpt. Danny Cockran, Chief of the Homicide Squad, would have to make the decision about whether or not to let the family see the files.
Yet Carlton's statements fly in the face of the experiences of not only Yeakey's mother and sister, but those of his ex-wife. In a letter to Police Chief Sam Gonzales dated September 4, 1996, Rivera writes:
Needless to say, I have many questions regarding the investigation. What type of weapon was used to inflict the gunshot wound to his head? Who located the body? How could the cause of death be determined with such confidence with the multitude of injuries to his body and how did he walk the distance indicated in People magazine with the great loss of blood from razor cuts not only to both wrists, but both his forearms as well as two razor cuts to his neck? Not only did he walk this distance, but he struggled with bobwire fencing to reach his chosen destination to die then inflicted the gunshot wound to himself? I request that a copy of the investigative report of his death be made available to me.
Gonzales didn't respond.
Police officials eventually responded to Vicki Jones' complaints by telling her she needed to see a psychiatrist. "They said, 'We're just trying to protect you.'"
Exactly what were they trying to protect her from? When I called Mrs. Jarrahi, the telltale signs of a tapped phone were clearly present. If Terrance Yeakey's death was a simple suicide, why would law-enforcement agencies be tapping the family's phones?
The OCPD soon began conducting surveillance on the dead man's family.
"There was always an officer out there in front of our apartment," said Jones. Anywhere we went, we had an officer or someone in a marked car following us around. It started right after I started going to the Police Department quite a bit."
They also tailed Rivera. When she confronted the officers, they ignored her, hid their faces, or sped off. Cars were parked outside her childrens' school. When she spoke to school officials about the surveillance one afternoon, she went to work startled to find the conversation on her office answering machine! Rivera had spoken to the school principal in person. How did the conversation wind up on her answering machine?(947)
The harassment against Officer Yeakey's family wasn't limited to mere surveillance. After Rivera met with State Representative Charles Key, her car was broken into. Her house was broken into twice.
She finally moved to Enid when the heat became too hot. "I lived in an apartment on the third floor with a security alarm in it," said Rivera. "I'd come home and the alarm would be off. I'd notice things out of place. There'd be cabinets open that I'd have no reason to have opened."
About two weeks after Terry's death, Rivera went downstairs around 6:30 one morning to do some laundry, "and there was a man downstairs with huge headphones on, at 6:30 in the morning, right behind my apartment.…"
The individual, who was wearing a jogging suit--wasn't jogging, and was not doing laundry. "He looked startled when I came around the corner," said Rivera. "I came back down at 8:30 and the guy was still there."
It appears that what Rivera was describing was an audio technician with a "Shotgun Mic," a portable surveillance tool designed to pick up conversations through windows and across fields. They are commonly used by private detectives and law-enforcement agencies.
One day Rivera came home to find her front door open and off its hinges. When the frightened single mother walked into her bedroom, she found a balloon tied to her door. It read: "Get well soon. This will keep you busy until you do."(948)
It seems the OCPD and the FBI thought that Officer Yeakey had passed off some incriminating documents concerning the bombing cover-up to his ex-wife, and were intent on obtaining the documents.
The surveillance, break-ins, and thinly-veiled threats soon escalated into more serious incidents. Right before Yeakey's murder, the couple's Ford Explorer began getting mysterious flats. "And when I'd roll it into a shop," said Rivera, "they'd pull out like six or seven nails." This occurred between eight and ten times, she claims.
Rivera explained that once during a quarrel, Terry had removed some fuses from her car to keep her from leaving. The police knew about the incident, said Rivera, who thought the subsequent events were created by the OCPD to sow mistrust and provide a convenient trail of evidence to prove that Yeakey led a troubled family life. Yet while Yeakey admitted to removing the fuses, he repeatedly and adamantly denied that he had damaged the car--a car that was registered in his name and carried his cherished children to and from school.
On April 24, two weeks before he was found dead, the Explorer began acting strangely. When Rivera pulled it into the local Aamco Transmission Center, she found that it had been tampered with. "Somebody who knew what they were doing pulled hoses from your car," said Todd Taylor, the chief mechanic. "I'm sorry to tell this ma'am, but this is not just something you can pull randomly.…" Taylor also said he though Rivera's brakes had been tampered with.(949)
About two weeks before this story went to press, the Ford's brakes went out suddenly while Rivera was traveling at 40 mph. "I went to brake," said Rivera, "and guess what? No brakes!" The large 4 X 4 slammed into the back of smaller car, damaging it badly. "The message is 'we can get to you if we want to,'" she concluded.
Officer [Jim] Ramsey also began making his presence felt. "All of the sudden, when we moved to Oklahoma City [from El Reno]," said Jones, "there was Ramsey. When we joined a new church, Ramsey was there. Ramsey was everywhere. You turn the corner, there was Ramsey.… Everything we did, he was like the helpful old guy. This went on for two months."
"He was keeping tabs on everyone," added Rivera. "He was showing up in a lot of places… just casually, in fact, places where he knew that people knew me just as well as they knew Terry, and weren't buying into the 'it's Tonia's fault' routine.
"[Ramsey] tried to claim it was his ex-wife and love for his children he couldn't see that made him commit suicide," she added. He would talk to her friends. "'How's she taking it? What does she think, blah, blah, blah.'"
Both Rivera and Jones feel the OCPD officer was sent to "baby-sit" them--to maintain an ever-present watchful eye. "[When he showed up]," Jones said, "I looked at him and said, that is not a friend of Terry's. He was never at the house. I never met him before."
Ramsey, who told People magazine that Yeakey was his "dear friend," also told the press that he was Terry's partner.
"That was a lie," declared Jones.
Rivera concurred. The ex-wife said that not only was Ramsey never Yeakey's partner, but that the two men didn't even get along. "Terry hated Jim Ramsey," said Rivera. "He put on a real good performance," she added. "He's hiding something, I believe.… It burns me up."(950)
For his performance, Ramsey was promoted to Detective, and made "Officer of the Year."
If Terrance Yeakey did have many friends in the Police Department, they were among the beat patrolmen, not the upper echelon. While Detective Mullinex said everybody "loved Terry," according to Rivera, the brass "hated his guts." "Him and [Maj.] Upchurch had a hate-hate relationship," she said.
For his part, Mullinex claims he was "totally unaware" of any problems Yeakey was having in regards to what he knew about the bombing. "It is my opinion as a fourteen-year homicide veteran that it was a suicide," said Mullinex.… If we thought it was anything [other than a suicide] we would have pursued it to the ends of the earth. We're not hiding anything."(951)
Really?
According to Rivera, three government sources, including a U.S. Attorney and a U.S. Marshal, hold a slightly different view. As relayed by Rivera, the events on the morning of Officer Yeakey's death transpired as follows:
At 9:00 a.m., Officer Yeakey was seen exiting his Oklahoma City apartment with nine boxes of videos and files. He then drove to the police station where he had a fight with his supervisors.
He was told to "drop it" or he'd "wind up dead."
Yeakey was also due for a meeting with the heads of several federal agencies that morning. He apparently decided to skip the meetings, instead, driving straight to a storage locker he maintained in Kingfisher.
What he didn't realize was that the FBI had him under surveillance, and began pursuit. The six-year OCPD veteran and former Sheriff's Deputy easily eluded his pursuers. Once at his storage facility, he secured his files.
What were in the files? According to one of Rivera's sources, incriminating photos and videos of the bombed-out building. Perhaps more.
On the way back, the feds caught up with him just outside of El Reno. "He had nothing on him," at that point, said Rivera, "just copies of copies."
While it is not known exactly what transpired next, Rivera's confidential source "described in intimate detail," the state of the dead man's car. The seats had been completely unbolted, the floor-boards ripped up, and the side panels removed, all in an apparent effort to find the incriminating documents.
There were also burn marks on the floor. Apparently, the killers had used Yeakey's car to destroy what little evidence they had discovered.(952)
At approximately 6:00 p.m. that evening, Canadian County Deputy Sheriff Mike Ramsey was cruising the area near the old El Reno reformatory when he noticed an abandoned vehicle in a field. "Immediately [the] hair stood up on the back of my neck," said the deputy. Ramsey came upon the empty car which he immediately recognized as Yeakey's. There was blood on both seats, and a razor blade lying on the dash. Yeakey was nowhere to be found.
The deputy immediately called for a homicide investigator, and taped off the scene. It wasn't until several hours later that police dogs finally located Yeakey's body in a ditch, a mile and-a-half away.(953)
While it was a macabre scene, the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's report was even more gruesome. The report released from the Medical Examiner described numerous "superficial" lacerations on the wrists, arms, throat, and neck, and a single bullet wound to the right temple.
The report also showed another curious thing. The bullet had entered just above and in front of the right ear, and had exited towards the bottom of the left ear. Apparently, whoever held the gun held it at a downward angle. A person shooting themself would tend to hold the gun at an upward angle, or at the most, level. It would rather difficult for a large, muscle-bound man like Yeakey to hold a heavy service revolver or other large caliber weapon at a downward angle to his head. (See Appendix)
While it is true that a slug can alter its trajectory once inside the skull, a pathologist in the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office told me that a 9mm or other large caliber weapon--the type commonly used by police officers--usually tends to travel in a straight line.
But perhaps the most revealing evidence was that the wound did not have a "Stellat," the tell-tale star shape caused by the dissipating gases from the gun's muzzle. At the close range of a suicide weapon, such markings would clearly be present, unless of course… the shooter used a silencer.(954)
While Dr. Larry Balding, Oklahoma City's Chief Medical Examiner, quickly ruled the death a "suicide," another Medical Examiner's report would, according to Rivera, surface like an eerie, prescient message from the grave. This other report, quickly redacted and hidden from public view, showed a face that was bruised and swollen; blood on the body and clothes that was not the dead man's blood type; and multiple deep lacerations filled with grass and dirt, as though the body had been dragged a distance.
Yet according to Rivera, Maj. Upchurch denied that Yeakey's throat was slashed at all. She was later told by a sympathetic police dispatcher that his throat was indeed slashed--deeply.
Dr. Larry Balding, who signed off on the Yeakey report, is adamant. "I can tell you unequivocally and without a doubt that there was no other ME report."
Yet while attending a social function, Rivera claims her sister had a chance encounter with the mortician who worked on Yeakey's body. She was discussing the strange inconsistencies of his death with someone at the party, when the mortician, not knowing the woman was Rivera's sister, spoke up. "That sounds just like a police officer we worked on in Oklahoma City," he said. When asked if that man happened to be Terrance Yeakey, the mortician "freaked."
When pressed, he told the shocked relative that the dead man's wrists contained rope burns and handcuff marks. A former FBI agent and police officer, the mortician said that Yeakey's lacerations were already sewn up when the body arrived from the Medical Examiner's office. Dr. Balding's response to this was that the marks were merely "skin slippage," resulting from the natural decomposition of the body.
Yet stranger still, the body was not supposed to go to this particular funeral home at all, but to one in Watonga. While the OCPD was supposed to pay the expenses of the funeral, no funds were ever allocated, according to Rivera. "Vicki had to pay off the burial to Russ Worm [Funeral Home]. So I wonder if we paid somebody off to do the job."(955)
Was that job to clean up Yeakey so that his manner of death wouldn't appear suspicious?
This incident is similar to the murder of President Kennedy, whose body was taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital instead of being examined by the Dallas Medical Examiner as is standard procedure. Once there, military pathologists and those controlling them were able to skew their findings to the satisfaction of the murderers. The chief pathologist burned his notes, and years later, when researchers went to examine Kennedy's brain, it was found missing from the National Archives.
Apparently, Terrance Yeakey's murderers and those covering up his death had not counted on this particular mortician's testimony.
Was Terrance Yeakey tortured? Was he murdered, then made to look like a suicide? Did he know something he wasn't supposed to know, or was he simply despondent over life's circumstances?
Said friend Kimberly Cruz, "I don't believe he would have done something like that. He was always happy and joking a lot."
Another friend, Karen Von Tungeln, said, "[Terry and I] talked about a friend in high school… who had committed suicide, and how stupid and selfish he was for having done so.… 'I just can't understand it man,' said Terry. 'It makes no sense to me.'"(956)
If the officer was bent on taking his life, it would appear strange, since he had spent most of the previous month taking entrance exams for the FBI. Yeakey and best friend Barry McCrary were looking forward to becoming FBI agents. Perhaps if he had known the role that the FBI played in the bombing, perhaps even in his own death, he would have changed careers.
Like Dr. Don Chumley, Terrance Yeakey was one of the first rescuers in the Murrah Building on April 19. Had he seen something he wasn't supposed to see? Had he heard something he wasn't supposed to hear?
One afternoon, while the family was at Police Headquarters, an officer who Rivera described as Yeakey's "only true friend," pulled them off to the side, and whispered "They killed him."(957)
Like Terrance Yeakey, the press claimed that Dr. Don Chumley was saddened and disturbed that he hadn't helped more people that terrible day. Chumley, who ran the Broadway Medical Clinic about half a mile from the Federal Building, was one of the first to arrive at the bombing site on April 19. Shaun Jones, Chumley's step-son, was assisting him. Jones recalled the scene:
"They had sent us around to the underground parking garage, where some people were trapped. Suddenly, three guys come running out of the basement yelling, 'There's a bomb! A bomb! It's gonna' blow!' Everybody panicked and ran screaming away from the building as fast as they could."
Chumley, who was working with Dr. Ross Harris, was one of the few doctors who actually went into the Federal Building, while the others waited outside. He had helped many people, including seven babies, whom he later pronounced dead.
Chumley was killed five months later when his Cessna 210 crashed near Amarillo, Texas in what Jones calls "mysterious circumstances."
"It's a pretty mysterious circumstance," said Jones. "There's no apparent reason--there's nothing we can think of."
Jones added that Chumley had been in a minor wreck during a landing a year earlier when his plane became trapped in a vortex caused by a large jet landing nearby. The small plane was forced into a snow bank causing some damage to its left wing tip. The damage had been repaired.
Would this contradict Jones' hypothesis?
"Well, from talking to pilots I that know, they say that can't cause a plane to crash. I mean, as good a pilot as he is, that's not going to cause his plane to go straight down into the ground.
Another pilot said, 'that's just like a car that's out of alignment--it happens all the time--it's just something you learn to fly with.' The plane had been flown several times since that."
According to reports in The Daily Oklahoman, Chumley, who was on a hunting trip that weekend, had twice landed earlier--on Friday, due to bad weather conditions. The crash occurred three days later, on a Monday.
"The thing that's odd to me is that Don was perfectly healthy," said Jones. "He was talking to the tower, and from one minute to the next he just went straight smack down into the ground."(958)
Investigators said they could find no evidence of an explosion at the macabre scene. Chumley's throttle was still set at cruise, and his gear and flaps were up. The FAA inspector stated there were "no anomalies with the engine or the airframe," and "pathological examination of the pilot did not show any preexisting condition that could have contributed to the accident."(959)
"To me it's unusual because I know he was a good pilot," added Jones. "Everything was fine, he was in the air for 15 minutes, he was climbing, he had just asked permission to go from six to seven thousand feet. They tracked him on the screen at 6,900 feet, and the radar technician said he saw him on the radar, then he looked back and he was gone, and the plane came straight, straight down. I mean, no attempt to land… nothing, just straight down."
Chumley's hunting partner Joey Chief said in an interview in The Daily Oklahoman:
"He was the kind of guy who did everything right, always. He was very cautious, very professional," Chief said, adding [that] Chumley's plane was equipped with extra safety instruments.
Mike Evett, a Federal Public Defender, had known Don Chumley for over twenty years. "I would never get into an airplane with anybody I didn't know," said Evett, "and I would never be afraid to fly with Don. For the life of me, this doesn't sit right with me."(960)
Yet Clint Boehler, a former FAA inspector, discounts that notion. "That was an accident waiting to happen," said Boehler. "He didn't have an instrument rating, and he went out into adverse conditions. One of the classic symptoms of what's called stall-spin accidents, is people who are in limited visibility or full IFR, meaning they can't see the propeller in front of their face. And, they're not current or trained or in some way up to speed on their operation. And they'll get into some particular mode of flight, particularly a climb, and their body and mind tells them their not doing what their instruments say they're doing, and they tend to react to that. And the results is sometime they stall the airplane, and not necessarily spin it, but what it then does is it rolls over to one side and begins a very tight, steep spiral that is gaining speed all the way down. And if they ever do come out of the clouds or obscuration or whatever it is, often they see the ground at low altitude and they pull back on the wheel and overstress the airplane as it hits the ground. And this is not an uncommon thing. Its called spatial disorientation followed by the graveyard spiral. And I can cite numerous examples of that. There was a local doc here went out west some time ago--went out in a 210--and had the same scenario exactly."(961)
Yet Boehler is incorrect. The doctor did in fact have an instrument rating, and was an experienced pilot, having logged over 600 hours of flying time.
Did Dr. Don Chumley crash on the evening of September 25th due to bad weather? Did he commit suicide due to his grief over what he saw on the morning of April 19th. Or was Don Chumley murdered?
The Daily Oklahoman article described how he had cried in front of his friend Jim Taylor on the day of the bombing, after tagging seven babies, and was not satisfied he had done all he could, even after helping to organize a fund-raiser for the victims.
It was also rumored that Chumley was about to go public with some damning information. According to a local journalist who has investigated the bombing, Chumley was asked to bandage two federal agents who falsely claimed to have been trapped in the building morning. Since the pair was obviously not hurt, Chumley refused. When the agents petitioned another doctor at the scene, Chumley intervened, threatening to report them.
Chumley's crash is reminiscent of that of Dr. Ronald Rogers, whose plane went down on March 3, 1994 near Lawson, Oklahoma in good weather. Clinton's former dentist, Rogers was on his way to be interviewed by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Sunday Telegraph, where he intended to reveal evidence of Clinton's alleged cocaine use.
He never made it.
Like Rogers, Hershel Friday, a "top-notch pilot," died in the crash of his small plane only two days earlier during a light drizzle at his private airstrip. Friday had been a member of Clinton's presidential campaign finance committee, and was a close associate of C. Victor Raiser, another member of Clinton's presidential campaign, who died in a suspicious plane crash two years earlier.(962)
In fact, the list of those who had potentially damning evidence on everything from the Kennedy assassination to Clinton's improprieties is a long one and sordid one, stretching to hundreds of names and spanning at least three decades.
A few years after the Kennedy assassination, a disgruntled CIA official was on his way to Chicago to inform a journalist of the CIA's complicity in the murder. His plane exploded and fell into Lake Michigan.
Another well-known crash was that of Gary Caradori, a private investigator who was hot on the trail of a pediophile ring being run by Larry King and other prominent businessmen and politicians in Omaha, Nebraska.
Caradori and his eight-year-old son Andrew died when their plane crashed in July of 1990. Caradori radioed that his compass was swinging wildly just before he went down. Moments later, the plane went into a steep dive from which it never recovered.(963)
What is interesting is that only several days earlier, the courageous investigator had informed a friend that he had obtained evidence which threatened to break the case wide open. Among those implicated in the child pornography ring was none other than George Bush.
Like Caradori, Rogers, and numerous other whistle-blowers, Don Chumley had evidently learned of the government's hastily planned cover-up surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing.
Had he, like so many others, made the fateful decision to go public?
Glenn Wilburn, who lost his grandsons Chase and Colton in the bombing, was one of the very first to go public. A staunch opponent of the government's case, Wilburn had teamed up with reporter J.D. Cash and State Representative Charles Key to investigate the crime.
Key and Wilburn petitioned for the County Grand Jury investigation. Wilburn worked tirelessly to investigate the truth about what really happened that fateful morning, and his evidence was proving more and more embarrassing to authorities.
About a year after he began his investigation, Wilburn, 46, came down with a sudden case of pancreatic cancer. Initially recovering after surgery, he died on July 15, 1997, the day after the County Grand Jury which he convened began hearing evidence.
Three weeks later, on August 5, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Richardson was found in a church parking lot with a shotgun wound to the chest. The Medical Examiner's report stated: "No powder residue is apparent, either on the external aspect of the wound or in the shirt." An interesting observation considering Richardson had allegedly pushed a shotgun up to his chest and pulled the trigger.(964)
The death was ruled a "suicide."(965)
Yet the circumstances seemed to concur. Richardson had been depressed. He had been seeing a psychiatrist and was on Prozac. He once told a hunting buddy he "felt like ending it all."(966)
One sunny morning, Richardson rose, fed his two dogs, got in his car, drove to a church near his house, pulled out a shotgun and shot himself through the heart.
He left no note.
Was Ted Richardson depressed enough to kill himself? And if so, why? The 49-year-old father of two had a happy marriage, and adored his 8-year-old son.
The two weeks he took off of work due to unexplained "pressures" may provide a clue. Richardson was the bombing and arson specialist for the Western District of Oklahoma. He was inexplicably transferred to the bank robbery detail after the bombing--an area in which he had no expertise. As his brother Dan explained, "Ted should have gotten the bombing case."(967)*
Instead, the case was given to Joseph Hartzler.
Friends described Richardson as "one of the few good guys," and a man with a "strong sense of conscious."(968) It is uncertain if the same can be said of Hartzler. Given the Federal Government's conduct in this case, such labels might tend to render a man such as Richardson a piranha.
Interestingly, Richardson was the U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Sam Khalid in 1990 for insurance fraud. It was rumored that he was looking into Khalid's suspicious activities subsequent to the bombing, and was about to bring charges.
He decided to kill himself instead.
Is it a coincidence these individuals, who had witnessed events on April 19, or had been vocal opponents of the government's case, had died?
"Out of roughly 5,000 of us who were originally involved in Iran-Contra," said Al Martin, "approximately 400, since 1986, have committed suicide, died accidentally or died of natural causes. In over half those deaths, official death certificates were never issued. In 187 circumstances, the bodies were cremated before the families were notified."(969)
Craig Roberts and John Armstrong, who investigated a similar spate of suspicious deaths for their book, JFK: The Dead Witnesses, revealed that most of the deaths peaked in the months leading up to one of the investigations, with the deaths often coming days or even hours before the person was supposed to testify.
In the three years following the Kennedy assassination, 18 material witnesses perished. In the time period leading up to 1979, when the last of the Kennedy investigations ended, over 100 witnesses had died. Interestingly, most of the deaths coincided with one of the four main investigations: The Warren Commission (1964-65); the Jim Garrison investigation (1965-69); the Senate Committee investigation (1974-76); and the House Committee on Assassinations investigation (1976-79).
Naturally, the CIA had an answer for these mysterious deaths. In a 1967 departmental memo, a CIA officer wrote:
Such vague accusations as that more than 10 people have died mysteriously can always be explained in some rational way: e.g., the individuals concerned have for the most part died of natural causes; the [Warren] Commission staff questioned 418 witnesses--the FBI interviewed far more people, conducting 25,000 interviews and re interviews--and in such a large group, a certain number of deaths are to be expected.
Yet Roberts and Armstrong correctly note that if the CIA were not involved in any of the deaths, why was such a memo disseminated?
Then, to add further fuel to the fire, CIA technicians testified before the Senate Committee (Church Committee) in 1975 that a variety of Termination with Extreme Prejudice [TWEP] weapons had been used throughout the years, and many were chosen because they left no postmortem residue.
In one particular memo, the author states:
You will recall that I mentioned that the local circumstances under which a given means might be used might suggest the technique to be used in that case. I think the gross divisions in presenting this subject might be:
(1) bodies left with no hope of the cause of death being determined by the most complete autopsy and chemical examination;
(2) bodies left in such circumstances as to simulate accidental death;
(3) bodies left in such circumstances as to simulate accidental death;
(4) bodies left with residue that simulate those caused by natural death…
Regarding deaths that could be simulated to appear as "natural causes," the various assassination experts within the intelligence communities of the world knew quite well of the effects of such chemical agents as sodium morphate, which caused heart attacks; thyon phosphate, which is a solution that can suspend sodium morphate and provide a vehicle to penetrate the surface of the skin with the chemical (which is used to coat something the victim might touch); and beryllium, which is an extremely toxic element that causes cancer and fibrotic tumors.(970)
As the daughter of a CIA contract agent who worked with Oliver North told me: "They eliminated my father, and I know what they do in the Agency. I know how they work as far as the Mafia goes.… They have no scruples. And they don't go by any law but their own. There is no conscious to these people; the end justifies the means.… They will shut anybody up that they possibly can. They're amazing. And they will go through anything to make you look crazy, to make you appear to be a liar.…
"And they go into these operations, and they run amok. They run amok. And then when it gets carried away or there's a leak, here comes the damage control, and you have to make everybody else appear like they're crazy. I mean people out there drop like flies. How many people can commit suicide for God's sake. How many people can be handcuffed behind their back, and they can call it suicide because they were shot in the head?"(971)
Continued below . . .
Tip of the Iceberg
"Justice can kill or thwart any investigation at will, and it does so on a regular basis." - Former U.S. Senate investigator
"[Justice] has been engaged in sharp practices since the earliest days and remains a fecund source of oppression and corruption today. It is hard to recall an administration in which it was not the center of grave scandal.
- Publisher and scholar H.L. Mencken
As an experienced investigator once said, "A cover-up often proves the crime, and lifts the identities of the perpetrators into relief."
In this case, those covering up the Oklahoma City bombing appeared to be the Federal Government itself. Law-enforcement officials, including those at the local level, lied about their foreknowledge of the attack. They rushed to destroy all forensic evidence of the site. They ignored dozens of credible witnesses and intimidated others. They organized a media smear campaign against anyone who threatened to reveal the truth. And they murdered those with critical knowledge of the facts who had tried to come forward.(972)
Ironically, the letters "FBI" stand for "Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity." A more appropriate definition might be "Federal Bureau of Intimidation." As will be outlined in Volume Two, the FBI is guilty of an whole litany of crimes, ranging from obstruction of justice to outright murder.
It might be interesting to note that the FBI's current director, Louis Freeh, rose to his position on the victory of the Leroy Moody case. Freeh's chief witness, Ted Banks, later told an appeals court that Freeh threatened him into testifying against Moody. Banks was subsequently sentenced to 44 months in prison for "perjury."
For his part, Freeh was promoted to FBI Director, where he drew around him such figures as Tom Thurman, Roger Martz, and Larry Potts, who led the murderous debacles at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
Freeh placed Potts in charge of the "investigation" in Oklahoma City.(973)
Overseeing the FBI is the Department of Justice (DoJ), undoubtedly the most misnamed federal agency ever created. While purporting to be a law-enforcement body independent of the legislative and executive branches, in reality it is little more than a political tool utilized by corrupt leaders to cover up high crimes and intimidate and imprison whistle-blowers.(974)
Janet Reno, the current Attorney General, rose to her position on a wave of highly dubious child abuse cases, where the only abuse, it appeared, was fostered by Reno herself.
In 1984, Reno, then Dade County District Attorney, prosecuted Ileana Fuster, a 17-year-old newlywed who helped her husband Frank by operating a day-care out of their home. To illicit the required confession from Ileana, Reno had her locked away in a solitary confinment. Stephen Dinerstein, a private investigator employed by the Fuster's attorneys wrote in his report that the formerly bright, attractive 17-year-old:
…appeared as if she was 50 years old. Her skin was drawn from a large loss of weight.… She had sores and infections on her skin and states that no sanitary conditions exist or are provided, that the shower, when received, is a hosing down in the cell. That she is in a cell with nothing in it but a light in the ceiling and that she is often kept nude and in view of everybody and anybody." [Dinerstein also noted that Ileana had become] a constantly crying, shaking, tormented person who understands little if anything about the whole process and is now being threatened and promised and is totally in a state of confusion to the point of not having the slightest idea as to month and date.… Mrs. Fuster's condition has deteriorated so badly she could hardly move and was very slow to respond to any questions. When asked if Mr. Van Zamft (her attorney) was present, she could not even recall, but said simply that the woman State Attorney (Reno) was very big and very scary and made suggestions as to problems that would arise if she didn't cooperate.
After almost a year kept in this deplorable condition, including visits by Reno to coerce her, and visits by psychiatrists to get her to confess, Ileana cracked, "confessing" to a whole legion of imaginary acts.
After serving three out of a ten year sentence, she was deported to Honduras, where her mind now clear, she immediately recanted her confession.
Only days before she was scheduled to retestify via satellite (the DA's office threatened to charge her with "perjury" if she returned), she retracted her retraction in a letter to the Miami Herald. Rosenthal believes she was threatened.(975)(976)
Several weeks after Janet Reno was sworn in as Attorney General, she authorized a plan to flood the church at Waco (containing women and children) with tear gas and ram it with battle tanks, based on allegations of "child abuse."
A 1988 Amnesty International report claimed that "CS gas contributed to or caused the deaths of more than 40 Palestinians--including 18 babies under 6 months of age--who had been exposed to tear gas in enclosed spaces."(977)* Reno's latest attempt to "save the children" resulted in the deaths of 86 people, including 25 children.
As for the allegations of child abuse, both the County Sheriff and the Texas Welfare Department, who were two of the first to interview Davidian children, indicated that there was no signs of abuse. The FBI later acknowledged their own reports to be false.(978)
Representative James Traficant (D-OH) summed up the situation at "Justice" when he wrote to members of Congress on April 15, 1997:
There have been numerous case of prosecutorial misconduct, fraud and outright murder on the part of Justice Department personnel that have gone largely unpunished. The American people expect the Justice Department, more than any other federal agency, to be beyond reproach when it comes to ethics and responsible behavior. Something is seriously wrong in our democracy if criminal and unethical behavior at the nation's top law enforcement agency goes unpunished.(979)*
The crimes Traficant's speaking of are legion. The scandals covered up by corrupt DoJ officials are endless. The cases of individuals who have been singled out for prosecution by the so-called "Justice" Department would fill volumes.
Probably the most infamous case of DoJ corruption in modern history is the Inslaw affair, where DoJ officials conspired to steal software from the small computer company, defraud them out of payments, then force them into bankruptcy. The Inslaw case provides a perfect example of how the DoJ regularly lies, destroys evidence, selectively prosecutes people, obstructs Congressional investigations, and murders those who threaten to reveal their wrongdoing.
In 1982, the DoJ signed a $10 million contract with Inslaw to install an enhanced version of their PROMIS (Prosecutors Management Information System) software in 42 U.S. Attorneys offices. Inslaw completed the project, but was never paid for their services. Heavily in debt, they had no choice but to file for bankruptcy.
It seemed that a rival firm named Hadron, had attempted to purchase PROMIS from Inslaw. "We have ways of making you sell," said CEO Dominic Laiti, who warned Inslaw owner Bill Hamilton that Hadron was connected to Attorney General Edwin Meese. Both Meese and his close friend, Earl Brian, had financial interests in Hadron.
After the DoJ refused to pay Inslaw, Meese handed the software over to his crony Brian, who had CIA contract agent Michael Riconosciuto reconfigure the program with a special "trap door," allowing U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor and manipulate accounts of banks and intelligence agencies who subsequently purchased the program. The profits, of course, went to Brian and his cronies at the DoJ.(980)
When Inslaw attempted to sue the DoJ, their attorney was threatened and dismissed from his firm.(981) In spite of the stonewalling and harassment, Inslaw eventually won their case. Judge George Bason, ruling in favor of the company, wrote:
[DoJ officials] took, converted, stole, [the plaintiff's property] by trickery, fraud and deceit. [They made] an institutional decision… at the highest level simply to ignore serious questions of ethical impropriety, made repeatedly by persons of unquestioned probity and integrity, and this failure constitutes bad faith, vexatiosness, [a] fraudulent game of cat and mouse, demonstrating contempt for both the law and any principle of fair dealing.(982)
After Judge Bason ordered the DoJ to pay Inslaw $6.8 million in licensing fees and roughly another $1 million in legal fees, he suddenly discovered that he was not being reappointed to the bench.(983)
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator Sam Nunn, agreed wholeheartedly with Judge Bason. Yet the committee's efforts to probe the Inslaw scandal were blocked by the DoJ, who refused to allow their personnel to testify under oath. The Senate report stated that it had found employees "who desired to speak to the subcommittee, but who chose not to, out of fear for their jobs."(984)
Said a former Congressional investigator who dealt with the Justice Department for 15 years, "I've got to tell you, the bottom line is that the DoJ as presently constituted is a totally dishonest organization, riddled with political fixes. They know how to write the memo, how to make the phone call, how to deny access to Congress. The game over there is fixed."
The stonewalling by the DoJ during the Inslaw investigations paralleled that of the Oklahoma City bombing, where defense attorneys encountered continuous denials in their requests for discovery. The stonewalling of the Inslaw investigation, stated the Congressional report, included, "restrictions, delays, and outright denials to requests for information… obstructed access to records and witnesses, [and] the "illegal shredding of documents."
Yet the committee did nothing to punish those responsible, merely recommending that the DoJ request the Court of Appeals to appoint an "independent" prosecutor. While Attorney General William Barr initially refused, he eventually succumbed to media pressure, appointing one of his old DoJ cronies, Nicholas Bua, to "investigate" the matter. Bua impaneled a Federal Grand Jury. But, as in the Oklahoma City case, the prosecuting attorney, Bua's law partner Charles Knight, manipulated and controlled the witnesses. When the jury began giving credence to the allegations against DoJ, Bua quickly dismissed the jury and impaneled another one.(985)
Not surprisingly, one of Bua's chief investigators was none other than Joseph Hartzler. In a letter Hartzler wrote to Assistant Associate Attorney General John Dwire in October of 1994, the noble government prosecutor states:
I applaud your efforts and especially your conclusions. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, we spent ourselves on a worthy cause….(986)
Hartzler's next "worthy cause" would be to serve as lead prosecutor in the Oklahoma City bombing case, assisting the DoJ in one of the largest cover-ups of the 20th Century.
"I don't understand where they found him or why they chose him," says Michael Deutsch, who as an attorney in Chicago defended a Puerto Rican terrorist in a 1985 bombing case prosecuted by Hartzler, a successful prosecution that is often cited as one of the reasons Hartzler got the Oklahoma City job.…(987)
Deutsch is referring to the prosecution of four Las Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion National Puertorriqueo (FALN) members, a Puerto Rican nationalist group which the government claimed was responsible for more than 100 bombings or attempted bombings since 1970. The defense of the FALN paralleled that of the Oklahoma City bombing defendants, with crucial evidence being withheld--evidence that would have implicated the FBI and ATF in COINTELPRO-style illegal activites directed against the Chicano and Puerto Rican Movements. The judge in the FALN case, Federal District Judge George Leighton, has reported connections to the CIA.(988)
Yet Hartzler claimed he volunteered for the role of lead prosecutor. Whether or not that is true, Hartzler, a wheelchair-bound multiple sclerosis victim, is the perfect choice--a man able to pander to the sympathies of a jury already overwhelmed by images of dead and handicapped victims. This astute observation was made obvious by none other than Newsweek, which wrote: "Some suggested that a wheelchair-bound prosecutor would appeal to a jury in a case with so many maimed victims.…"(989)
As the Legal Times observed:
Having a lead prosecutor who maneuvers around the courtroom in a motorized scooter, some say, is a good tactic for gaining sympathy with a jury--especially in a case where more than 500 people were injured.(990)
"Others saw a malleable personality easily micromanaged by superiors in Washington," added Newsweek. A rather candid observation in a case where "micromanaging" is key.
"I don't think that Joe is in charge of the prosecution team," said Stephen Jones. "The shots are called by [Deputy Attorney General] Jamie Gorelick and [her top aide] Merrick Garland."
Justice Department officials scoff at such a notion, pointing out that they are too far away and too busy to micro-manage the trial team. Hartzler, they say, is firmly in charge.…(991)
Interestingly, Hartzler was chief of both the civil and criminal division of the Chicago U.S. Attorney's office during his 10-year term, a jurisdiction not unknown for its share of corruption-ridden scandals.
His assistant, Scott Mendeloff, was accused by Sherman Skolnick of the Chicago-based Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts of covering up the murder of Wallace Lieberman, a Chicago Federal Bankruptcy Court official ready to finger several judges for bribery.
"The assassination of Lieberman, as Mendeloff knew, was tied to the corrupt activities of First National Bank of Cicero, a Mafia/CIA laundry," writes Skolnick.(992)
Naturally, Hartzler doesn't see any corruption in Oklahoma. "I am 100 percent confident that when this case is resolved, everyone will think that complete and fair due process was obtained by the defendants," Hartlzer told the American Bar Association Journal.
To facilitate this "complete and fair due process," the DoJ transferred Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Richardson from his position as chief bombing and arson prosecutor for the Western District of Oklahoma to the bank robbery detail (where he had no experience). As previously noted, Richardson was the U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Sam Khalid for insurance fraud. It was rumored that Richardson, who friends claim had a "very strong sense of conscious," was looking into Khalid's subsequent activities. On August 5, 1997, Richardson "committed suicide."(993)
As previously noted, the number of suspicious deaths skyrocketed in the 1980s, as the government attempted to cover up an increasing pattern of fraudulent and illegal activities.
Even reporters weren't exempt from the DoJ hit-list. On August 10, 1991 reporter Danny Casolaro, who had been investigating the Inslaw scandal and a related web of corruption he called "The Octopus," was found dead in his Martinsburg, West Virginia hotel room. Casolaro was there to meet with a witness who was supposed to provide the key link between the DoJ and Inslaw.
Like Sergeant Yeakey, Casolaro's wrists were slashed numerous times. Like Yeakey, his notes and briefcase were missing. And like Yeakey, the death was immediately ruled a suicide by police, who made no attempt to contact Casolaro's family before ordering an immediate and unprecedented embalming of the body. A team of contract cleaners was brought in to scour clean the hotel room from top to bottom, eliminating all forensic evidence.
The death of Casolaro led to an investigation by the Congressional Subcommittee on Economic and Commercial Law, headed by Representative Jack Brooks (D-Texas). The report stated:
Instead of conducting an investigation into Inslaw's claims that criminal wrongdoing by high level government officials had occurred, Attorney Generals Meese and Thornbugh blocked or restricted Congressional inquires into the matter, ignored the findings of two courts and refused to ask for the appointment of an independent counsel. These actions were taken in the face of a growing body of evidence that serious wrongdoing had occurred which reached to the highest levels of the Department. The evidence received by the committee during its investigation clearly raises serious concerns about the possibility that a high level conspiracy against Inslaw did exist and that great efforts have been expended by the Department to block any outside investigation into the matter.
The DoJ also prosecuted a key witness in the Inslaw case, Michael Riconosciuto, who was set up on phony drug charges to prevent him from testifying. The Congressional committee probing the matter noted:
[A DEA agent] reassignment in 1990 to a DEA intelligence position in the State of Washington, prior to Michael Riconosciuto's March 1991 arrest there on drug charges, was more than coincidental… The agent was assigned to Riconosciuto's home state to manufacture a case against him. Mr. Coleman stated he believes this was done to prevent Mr. Riconosciuto from becoming a credible witness concerning the U.S. government's covert sale of PROMIS to foreign governments.(994)
Another example of selective prosecution on behalf of DoJ is Juval Aviv, owner of the investigative firm Interfor. A former Israeli intelligence agent, Aviv was hired to look into the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. His report was directly at odds with the government's "official" conclusions--that two Libyan terrorists were responsible for the bombing. Aviv discovered that not only had U.S. officials been specifically warned of the ensuing attack, but may have had direct complicity in the murder of 270 people.
For his embarrassing disclosures, Aviv was targeted for prosecution, and investigated by the very same FBI agents who "investigated" the Pan Am case. To punish Aviv, DoJ fabricated evidence that Interfor had defrauded G.E. Capital Corporation, a client who was completely satisfied with Interfor's work, and hadn't even filed a complaint against the firm.
Nevertheless, in 1995, the DoJ indicted Aviv on three counts of defrauding G.E.--charges for which he was unanimously acquitted. In his ruling opinion, the judge wrote:
The chronology of the investigation, the fact that it is resulting from no external complaint whatsoever but simply internally within the FBI as far as any witness has testified, leads to an inference that it was generated from some other sources, and the only source in the record so far for which any such purpose could be ascribed is the report in the other case, in the Lockerbie case.
Yet DoJ wasn't finished with Aviv. They canceled their contract with Interfor and began a systematic campaign to intimidate his clients. Interfor was financially devastated. The U.S. government, through the DoJ, believed that by intimidating people such as Juval Aviv, they could prevent public knowledge of their complicity in the murder of 270 innocent people.
As in Oklahoma City, witnesses who knew too much about Pan Am 103, or those who possessed politically inconvenient facts, were intimidated. Five years on, volunteers and policemen who participated in the search remained recalcitrant--most so those who had searched the area where the heroin was found.
The "Justice" Department also brutally attacked Pan Am's lawyers, attempting to sanction them with huge fines for daring to challenge the government's case.
The government went after Allan Francovitch, producer of the award-winning documentary on Pan Am 103, The Maltese Double Cross, which was due to premiere at the 1994 London Film Festival. Strangely, for the first time in its 38 year history, the festival pulled the film at the last minute.(995)
Suspiciously, a few weeks after the film previewed at London's alternative Angle Gallery, it suffered a major fire.
One day before the film was to air on Channel 4, both the Scottish Crown Office and the U.S. Embassy sent every national and Scottish newspaper a press pack smearing four of the film's interviewers.(996)
Within days of film being broadcast, Juval Aviv was indicted on fraud charges. His attorney, Gerald Shargel, applied for a dismissal on the grounds of selective prosecution. Even the judge was forced to condemn the prosecution's arguments as "pathetic" and "dishonest."(997)
Allan Francovitch wasn't so lucky. Within minutes of arriving in the United States to testify at Aviv's trial, he was detained by Customs agents in a private interrogation room, and dropped dead on the spot. All evidence and documents in Francovitch's brief case were found "missing" from the scene. Francovitch had been working on three other documentaries at the time, including a devestating exposé of the U.S. atrocites in Panama.
For his role in revealing the truth, former DIA agent Lester Coleman would be arrested on fabricated passport charges and forced to seek asylum with his family in Sweden.
In Oklahoma, ATF informant Carol Howe would be arrested on trumped up charges and forced to take refuge inside a jail cell, her testimony of the bombing blocked from even her own trial.(998)
While reporter Danny Casolaro was murdered investigating matters related to Inslaw and BCCI, he was also checking on a lead provided to him by Lester Coleman.
Curiously, Pan Am has never been able to review those documents which the government claims would merely show its "innocence." Like so many other heinous crimes, the government sought to hide its wrongdoing under the catch-all of "national security." The government, claiming it had nothing to hide, conspired with Federal Judge Thomas Platt to deny Pan Am's discovery requests on the grounds of "national security." As Pan Am's lawyer, James Shaughnessy, wrote in opposition to the government's motion to dismiss the company's third party liability suit:
The government has fought strenuously and successfully for three years to prevent any discovery of it.… Now, the government seeks millions of dollars of sanctions to punish and bankrupt my firm and me for having the temerity not only to assert claims against the government but also for even seeking discovery from the government.…
The government condemns as sanctionable any view of the facts that differs from its own. In effect, what the government condemns is defendants' refusal to blindly adopt its version of the facts despite the government's refusal to produce the evidence from which defendants could have determined whether the government's version of the facts was correct.…
The government expects this blind trust even though we had information from multiple sources that conflicted with the government's sweeping assertions and that suggested the government was responsible for the failure to prevent the bombing.…
Seven years later, the DoJ and FBI would ask the victims in Oklahoma City for this same blind trust--lying about their prior knowledge of the attack. Lying about the number of bombs found. Lying about the APB put out on the brown pick-up. Lying about the presence of other suspects. Ignoring witnesses who saw those suspects and trying to get them to change their stories. Tapping people's phones and exhorting them into not talking to the press and defense investigators. And intimidating several witnesses into silence.
In their attempt to frame ATF informant Carol Howe on phony explosives charges, the government was unsuccessful. In his closing argument, Howe's attorney Clark Brewster waved his arms and passionately announced to the jury, "there was no bomb threat here, the only threat here is what the government can do to people when they don't like what you say or what you might say…."
Howe was acquitted.
Many others wouldn't be so fortunate.
Footnotes for this and the previous post:
702. * As Washington insider journalist Sara McClendon told me, "Bush has a hold on the Clinton administration, and I don't know what it is.… George Bush starts these things… he's pushing Mena, Arkansas off on Clinton.… Most of the people don't know that Bush is manipulating the administration."
703. 520. McVeigh was indicted on 11 counts: conspiracy to use a bomb to destroy the Federal Building, detonating the bomb, destroying a federal building, and murdering eight federal law enforcement agents.
704. 521. Brandon M. Stickney, All American Monster: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh (New York, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996), p. 177; "Richard Serrano, "Clues Sought in Details from McVeigh's Arrest," Los Angeles Times, 9/10/95, quoted in Armstrong, Op Cit. p. 118.
705. * McVeigh was taken over to Hanger's patrol car, where he heard radio broadcasts about the bombing, and casually chit-chated with Officer Hanger. When he arrived at the jailhouse, he simply asked, "when's chow"?
706. 522 Col. David Hackworth and Peter Anninn, j"And We're Going to Go to Trial," Newsweek, 7/3/95.
707. 523. Richard A. Serrano, "Clues Sought in Details from McVeigh's Arrest," 9/10/95, quoted in Ibid.
708. 524. Application and Affidavit FBI Special Agent Henry C. Gibbons.
709. 525. Elizabeth Gleick, "Who Are They?" Time, 5/1/95.
710. 526. New York Times, 4/22/95.
711. * For that matter, why would he rent an easily traceable truck, apply for jobs at the Federal Building using his real name, allow himself to be filmed by numerous security cameras, stop to ask directions minutes before the bombing, hang around two blocks from the crime scene minutes after the blast, speed away without a license plate, and fail to shoot the cop who stopped him?
712. 527. United States v. Timothy James McVeigh, direct testimony of FBI Agent James Elliott, 4/28/97. The complete confidential vehicle identification number was 1FDNF72J4PVA26077.
713. * The author saw a close-up videotape of the axle taken by Deputy Sheriff Melvin Sumter, which clearly shows the serial number on the differential housing, which is part of the rear axle assembly. It was not, as some amateur researchers claimed, on the axle itself.
714. 528. FBI FD-383 (FBI Facial Identification Fact Sheet) of Tom Kessinger, dated 4/20/95, copy in author's possession. Tim Kelsey, "The Oklahoma Suspect Awaits Day of Reckoning," London Sunday Times, 4/21/96.
715. 529. Cash, Op Cit.
716. 530. Edward Zehr, "The McVeigh Trial Gets Underway: Mainstream Media Miss The Real Story," Washington Weekly, 5/5/97.
717. * Elliott stated in his FBI 302 that a second man accompanied "Kling" on April 17, and thought he saw "fair size" light blue sedan.
718. * In fact, Elliott testified that he met with the prosecution for two hours, several days prior to the his appearance at trial.
719. 531. Affidavit of Richard Renya, July 5, 1995
720. 532. Newsweek reporter, confidential interview with author.
721. * An anonymous informant who contacted State Representative Charles Key several times stated, "…the ATF regularly uses leased Ryder trucks to move ordinance. And you know it's against ICC regulation and everything but he said they secretly do it." Investigator Craig Roberts said the Army also has "open contracts" with Ryder.
722. 533. "Phone Records Link Suspects Before Blast," Daily Oklahoman, 5/3/96.
723. 534. Testimony of OPUS Telecom expert John Kane, U.S. v. McVeigh.
724. 535. Kevin Flynn, "Computer Records Show Calls Made But Aren't Clear Who Made Them," Rocky Mountain News, date unknown. "Prosecutors have pressured OPUS representatives not to discuss this issue with the News, even asking them not to verify how their computer systems work, the employees said."
725. 536. Steve Wilmsen, "Records Point to John Doe 2," Denver Post, date unknown; Steven K. Paulson, Associated Press, 2/15/97. In a later ruling, Judge Matsch stated that Manning denied prosecutors did anything wrong to elicit his testimony.
726. 537. J.D. Cash, interview with James Sargeant, Media Bypass, July, 1996.
727. 538. Barbara Whittenberg, interview with author.
728. * Interestingly, McGown did not state on his FBI 302 who was driving the truck on April 16, when his mother had asked him to request that the driver move it.
729. 539. Investigation on 5/7/95 at Junction City, Kansas File # 174A-OC-56120-D-815 by SA Mark M. Bouton -WSA, date dictated 5/8/95.
730. 540. Robert Vito, "Oklahoma Bombing Investigators Hit Troublesome Snags," CNN, 11/24/95.
731. 541. Newsweek reporter, confidential interview with author.
732. 542. Hoppy Heidelberg, Interview with author.
733. 543. Joseph Vinduska and Dennis Euwer are two witnesses who saw the truck at the lake on the 18th.
734. 544. Steve Wilmsen and Mark Eddy, "Who bombed the Murrah Building?" Denver Post, date unknown.
735. 545. Jack Douglas Jr. "Bomb link to lake reportedly scrapped, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3/25/97.
736. 546. Evan Thomas, "This Doesn't Happen Here," Newsweek, 5/1/95; U.S. v. McVeigh.
737. 547. U.S. v. James Douglas Nichols and Terry Nichols, Criminal Complaint, statements of FBI Special Agent Patrick Wease.
738. 548. "Some Witnesses Leery Of Bombing Grand Jury," Daily Oklahoman, 8/10/97; Gary Antene, interview with author.
739. 549. U.S. v. McVeigh, testimony of Richard Chambers.
740. 550. "FBI Investigates Possible McVeigh Link to Fuel Buy," Rocky Mountain News, 4/11/97.
741. * However, the indictment named Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi as the customer. Authorities' second witness, Abdu Maged Jiacha, a Libyan intelligence officer who defected to the U.S., was put into the Federal Witness Protection Program and given a $4 million dollar reward for his testimony against Megrahi.
742. 551. Ed Hueske, interview with author.
743. 552. Frank Shiller and Max Courtney, interviews with author.
744. 553. Lou Kilzer and Kevin Flynn, "Were Feds Warned Before OKC Bomb Built?" Rocky Mountain News, 2/6/97.
745. 554. Testimony of Kevin Nicholas, U.S. v. McVeigh.
746. 555. Padilla and Delpit, Op Cit., p. 209; David Johnson, "Agents in Kansas Hunt for Bomb Factory as Sense of Frustration Begins to Build," New York Times, 4/30/95, quoted in Keith, p. 37.
747. 556. James. D. Nichols, Freedom's End: Conspiracy in Oklahoma, self published, 1997, p. 164.
748. 557. "McVeigh's Fingerprints Not on Key Items," CNN, 5/15/97.
749. * As the Associated Press recently reported, police in upstate New York had been falsifying evidence, including fingerprints, for years.
750. 558. Jim Garrison, On The Trial of the Assassins (New York, NY: Warner Books, 1988), p. 113.
751. 559. Whitehurst contended the problems in the FBI's lab had been occurring since at least 1989.
752. 560. David Johnston and Andrew C. Revkin, "Report Finds FBI Lab Slipping From Pinnacle of Crime Fighting," New York Times, 1/29/97.
753. 561. "Report: FBI Lab Botched Oklahoma Bombing Evidence," CNN, 3/22/97.
754. * As Whitehurst stated: "…Mr. Thurman, in my estimation does intentionally misrepresent evidence and is, absolutely, without a doubt, beyond any possible other explanation's grasp, result oriented. He wants the answer that will prove guilt.…"
755. ** Whitehurst testified that he was told not to provide any information or evidence, such as alternate theories to the urea-nitrate theory, that could be used by the defense to challenge the prosecutors' hypothesis of guilt in the World Trade Center case. (Ryan Ross, "Blasting the FBI," Digital City Denver, 1997)
756. 562. John Kelly, "FBI: McVeigh Contradictions," Unclassified, date unknown; Memorandum to All U.S. Attorneys from John Keeney, Acting Assistant Attorney General, 1/4/96, copy in author's possession; "Outside Experts to Review FBI Crime Lab," Wall Street Journal, 9/19/95; "Team to Investigate FBI Chemist's Bias Claims," Associated Press, date unknown; Pierre Thomas, "FBI Lab Audit Finds Some Discrepancies," Washington Post, 9/15/95.
757. ** "Mr. Williams… rewrote my reports in an unauthorized rewriting, issued these reports, unauthorized, changes being in them, and changed the meaning of the reports I think, without realizing it," Whitehurst later testified.
758. 563. Memorandum to Scientific Analysis Chief James Kearny, copy in author's possession, date unknown.
759. 564. Garrison, Op Cit., P. 116.
760. 565. "FBI Furor,"Unclassified, Summer, 1997.
761. 566. Ryan Ross, "Blasting the FBI," Digital City Denver, 1997.
762. 567. Nolan Clay, "McVeigh Items Seized From Home, Brief Says," Daily Oklahoman, 6/11/96; U.S. v. McVeigh, testimony of Special Agent Steven Burmeister.
763. 568. Karen Abbott, "Defense Says FBI Tainted Residue: Evidence Questioned; British Expert Testifies; The Tables Turn Today, Rocky Mountain News, 5/21/97. Burmeister said he photographed the crystals before they disappeared.
764. 569. Deputy Sheriff Clint Boehler, interview with author.
765. 570. Ryan Ross, Digital City Denver, 1997. Reno would later comment, "It is unfair, it is unreasonable, it is a lie to spread the poison that the government was responsible at Waco for the murder of innocents. That kind of language is unacceptable in a society that values truth."
766. 571. U.S. v. McVeigh.
767. * McVeigh selected Oklahoma City for the fact that the agents and the orders that came out of that building were responsible for the tragedy at Waco, Fortier alleged at trial.
768. 572. The gun--a Ruger Mini-30 rifle, Serial No. 18957425--was actually purchased by Terry Nichols on November 10, 1993, from Randy's Hunting and Sport in Bad Axe, Michigan.
769. 573. Hoppy Heidelberg, interview with author.
770. 574. Copy of letter in author's possession.
771. 575. David Maranise, Pierre Thomas, "Officials See Conspiracy of at Least Four in Blast; Probe Focuses on Suspect's Right-Wing Ties, Washington Post, 4/23/95.
772. 576. Ibid.
773. 577. Dallas Morning News, 6/15/95.
774. 578. Peter Carlson, Washington Post, 3/23/97.
775. * Hartzler's letter, Jones said in his brief, "indicates that the Justice Department is still searching for John Doe No. 2 and may be releasing disinformation to lessen public pressure to find [him]."
776. 579. Nolan Clay and John Parker, "John Doe 2 Still Sought, Letter: Says Prosecutors Doubt Witnesses Mistaken," The Daily Oklahoman, date unknown.
777. 580. William Jasper, New American, date unknown.
778. 581. Nolan Clay and Penny Owen, "'Wacky Theories' Unfair, McVeigh Attorney Says," Daily Oklahoman,10/29/96. "We have an obligation to investigate everything," Hartzler told a group of bombing victims. "And if we find some rumor or whatever it is, it makes it into an FBI report."
779. 582. John Gibson, interview with Charles Key and V.Z. Lawton, MSNBC, 4/25/97; V.Z. Lawton, interviews with author.
780. 583. New York Times, 12/3/95.
781. * The federal prosecutors' lame excuse for confining the evidence to McVeigh and Nichols was to maintain a "deadline" set by federal guidelines on providing speedy trials.
782. 584. Harry Wallace, CBS This Morning, 10/16/95.
783. 585. Jon Rappaport is the author of The Oklahoma Bombing: The Suppressed Truth (Santa Monica: Blue Press, 1995).
784. 586. Hoppy Heidelberg, interview with author.
785. 587. J.D. Cash, "New Investigation Into Oklahoma City Bombing Demanded," Jubilee, Nov/Dec, 1995. In the Whitewater affair, a special federal judge panel, by statute, appointed an Independent Counsel, Kenneth Starr, supposed to be separate and apart from the Justice Department. Under the law, this was supposed to assure the public that there would be an "independent" investigation of possible high-level criminality, not a white-wash. Miguel Rodriguez was reportedly blocked by Starr and others from probing and calling independent witnesses, not necessarily FBI nor forensic experts beholden to a political agenda. All this, in respect to suspicions that White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster, jr. was not really a suicide but murdered. "Whitewater And The 'Runaway' Federal Grand Jury", Sherman H. Skolnick. Conspiracy Nation, Vol. 5, No. 30.
786. * It seemed that the John Doe 2 lead was officially dropped in early May. An FBI memo regarding a John Doe 2 lead instructs all FBI offices: "In view of the fact that the Oklahoma Command Post has directed all offices to hold unsub #2 leads in abeyance, San Francisco will conduct no further investigation regarding this lead." (174A-OC-56120 TPR:tpr, investigation was conducted by Special Agent (SA) Thomas P. Ravenelle regarding Richard Dehart, DOB 6/21/65, as a Phoenix resident and a possible look- alike for unsub #2, dated 5/3/95.)
787. 588. Reddy and Wilmsen, Op Cit.
788. 589. Dr. Paul Heath, interview with author.
789. 590. Sharon Cohen, Associated Press, 4/27/95, quoted in Armstrong, Op Cit, p. 27.
790. * It should be noted that McVeigh was supposedly on the road on April 12, traveling from Kingman to Junction City.
791. 591. Barbara Whittenberg, interview with author.
792. 592. Jayna Davis, interview with author.
793. 593. Linda Kuhlman and Phyliss Kingsley, interviews with author.
794. 594. Connie Hood, interview by Glenn Wilburn and J.D. Cash; Keith, Op Cit., p. 147.
795. 595. Ibid.
796. 596. Tony Boller, Assistant Project Manager, Goodwill Industries, interview with author.
797. 597. Jerri-Lynn Backhous and Dorinda Hermes , interviews with author.
798. 598. Kevin Flynn, "Guard saw 2nd truck at building: Story Mirrors Bombing Trial Witness' Account of Blast Day," Rocky Mountain News, 5/24/97.
799. 599. Arnold Hamilton, Dallas Morning News, 11/27/95.
800. 600. Brian Ford, "McVeigh Placed at Kansas Store," Tulsa World, 9/12/97.
801. 601. Hamilton, Op Cit.
802. * This is the same thing that Brian Marshall, the Johnny's Tire Store employee, said.
803. * David Snider, interview with author. Snider appeared to be a credible witness.
804. 602. Mark Eddy, "Witnesses Tell a Different Story," Denver Post, 6/16/96.
805. 603. Rodney Johnson, interview with author.
806. 604. "Some Witnesses Leery Of Bombing Grand Jury," Daily Oklahoman, 8/10/97.
807. 605. Monterey County Herald, 4/29/95, quoted in Armstrong, Op Cit, p. 8.
808. 606. Judy Kuhlman and Diana Baldwin, "Witnesses Say McVeigh Not Alone--Testimony Places John Doe 2, Another Man With Bomber," Daily Oklahoman, 9/11/97.
809. 607. "FBI Searching for Third Man in Oklahoma City Bombing," CNN, 3/10/97.
810. * "Reference lead #10,220: Referenced lead #10,220, San Francisco was directed to locate and interview LESTER SCANLON concerning his knowledge of STEVEN COLBERN. In view of the fact that COLBERN has been eliminated as a suspect in this matter, San Francisco will conduct no further investigation concerning lead #10,220." (FBI memo dated 5/3/95.)
811. 608. Cash, Media Bypass, February, 1996, Op Cit.
812. * As the Legal Times noted: "Within hours of landing, [Deputy A. G. Merrick] Garland was hit by a barrage of legal concerns.… In subsequent days, Garland met with Oklahoma County District Attorney Robert Macy, gently notifying him of the Justice Department's desire not to have a local investigation going on simultaneously."
813. 609. Foreign Policy Institute expert, confidential interview with author.
814. * The Brady Rule and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16(a)(1)(C) provides: "Upon request of the defendant the government shall permit the defendant to inspect and copy and photograph, books, papers, documents, photographs… which are within the possession, custody or control of the government, and which are material to the preparation of the defendant's defense.…"
815. 610. U.S. v. McVeigh, Timothy McVeigh's Petition for Writ of Mandamus, 3/25/97.
816. 611. Ambrose Evans Pritchard, "Victims Sue in Oklahoma: Fight for Truth," London Sunday Telegraph, 3/23/97.
817. 612. J.D. Cash and Jeff Holladay, "Day of Blast 'an Amazing Coincidence,'" McCurtain Gazette, 12/1/95.
818. 613. Pat Briley, interview with author.
819. * Judge Matsch was not impressed with this evidence. He commented during trial that there must be half a million blue GMC pick-ups with camper tops.
820. 614. Ken Armstrong, interview with Oklahoma Highway Patrol, August 30, 1995.
821. 615. Amber McGlaughlin, interview with author.
822. 616. Ken Armstrong, No Amatuer Did This (Aptos, CA: Blackeye Press, 1997).
823. * The assertion was that McVeigh was demonstrating how to make a "shaped charge," which would have been impossible to make using 55-gallon barrels of ANFO.
824. 617. Testimony of Deborah Brown, U.S. v. McVeigh. The author has had personal experience with methamphetamine users, and can vouch for the drug's ability to induce psychotic states.
825. * In fact, Fortier was very intent during testimony on impressing upon the jury that the guns from the Moore "robbery" were stolen, saying in response to Jones' cross-examination: "No, no! I'm convinced those guns were stolen!" As J.D. Cash observed, Fortier's successful plea-bargain was partly dependent on carrying that fact forward.
826. 618. Hoppy Heidelberg, interview with Jon Rappaport.
827. * Even Judge Matsch was forced to tell the jury: "You should bear in mind that a witness who has entered into such an agreement has an interest in this case different from any ordinary witness. A witness who realizes that he may be able to obtain his own freedom or receive a lighter sentence by giving testimony favorable to the prosecution has a motive to testify falsely. Therefore, you must examine his testimony with caution and weigh it with great care."
828. 619. The Fifth Estate, Fall, 1996, Vol. 31, #2.
829. 620. Denver Post, 5/6/97.
830. 621. "Juror's Emotions With Crying Witnesses," The Spotlight, 5/26/97.
831. 622. "Nichols' Wife Says She Didn't Understand FBI Consent Form," CNN, 6/28/96
832. 623. Keith, Op Cit., p. 35.
833. 624. Chris Hansen, "His Brother's Keeper," Dateline, 1995, quoted in Keith, p. 36; Bob Popavitch, interview with author.
834. * Most noticeably the Tulsa World, which earned the knick-name, The Tulsa Pravda." The Daily Oklahoman has been called the "Daily Joke-la-homan" by locals.
835. ** Levine also graciously represented Representative Key and several investigators, including the author, who had set up a charitable trust to investigate the bombing, for free, and brought Chicken soup to the author when he was sick.
836. † Keating told Gary Harper during one of his weekly citizen chat sessions that Key was sleeping with a judge's wife. Keating also unsuccessfully tried to find a political candidate to run against the popular 5-term Representative. As Portland Free Press publisher Ace Hayes writes, "[Keating] is a pure devotee of Imperial State power and his approach is, 'to hell with free speech, free thought or free association.' He will protect the rich by attacking people no matter what fine words he swears an oath to.…"
837. 625. Robby Trammel and Randy Ellis, "Call For Bomb Investigation Debated," Daily Oklahoman, 6/29/95.
838. 626. As we argued when Key first set out on this course, the Legislature and its staff had no business investigating the bombing. It was, and is, poorly equipped to do so. The same can be said of a panel of local citizens who would be asked to investigate one of the most complicated cases ever to come before the courts. Yet as The New American pointed out, state legislatures are regularly tasked on important and sensitive investigations. And the County Grand jury? Is that not "a panel of local citizens," the same as the Federal Grand jury that originally "investigated" the bombing?
839. ** It is interesting to examine the attitudes of the Tulsa World and Daily Oklahoman in light of their sister papers in Nebraska and Arkansas, two other corruption-ridden states. Former Nebraska State Senator John DeCamp investigated a shocking pattern of financial improprieties, child abuse, and murder in his home state. In his book, The Franklin Cover-Up, DeCamp exhorts the media to honestly report the facts. But, as DeCamp notes, "…the World-Herald's long-standing pattern of behavior is just the opposite. If it has an editorial attitude on a story, its news coverage and every other aspect of the newspaper are mustered to accentuate the preferred side of the issue and suppress opposing views.… "Why all this effort? Because, tragically, the people who control the World-Herald appear to have a strong vested interest in suppressing the truth.…" As The Clinton Chronicles notes with regard to Arkansas: "First, the Clintons have very cleverly manipulated and compromised the press in Arkansas, a small state with only one major newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.... Despite revelations of scandal after scandal regarding the Clintons, the Arkansas press has been in a state of denial, portraying most of the revelations as attacks on the people of Arkansas themselves." [John W. DeCamp, The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska (Lincoln, NE: AWT, Inc., 1996), p.95; Patrick Matrisciana, The Clinton Chronicles, (Hemet, CA: Jeremiah Books, 1994), p. 21.]
840. 627. Nolan Clay and Penny Owen, "'Wacky Theories' Unfair, McVeigh Attorney Says," Daily Oklahoman,10/29/96.
841. * Shortly after Key and Wilburn drew up their petition to impanel the grand jury, a bill was introduced in the State Legislature to change the grand jury petitioning process.
842. 628. Mark Sanford, interview with author.
843. 629. Even Palmer admitted that the statutes were limited as to what Judge Owens could do or how he could interpret the law.
844. * The County didn't possess the resources and funds, Palmer replied, to pursue such a big case. Besides, she pleaded, the "investigation" was already "complete," being a "thorough investigation" from "several different federal agencies." Palmer claimed a County Grand Jury would "jeopardize the Federal case." The federal gag order prevents interviewing prospective witnesses, she claimed. Sanford countered that there would be no interference with the federal case as long as they were interviewing witnesses and suspects that federal prosecutors ignored, which seem to be in abundance.
845. 630. Moore, Op Cit., p. 140.
846. 631. District Attorney Bob Macy, interview with author.
847. 632. Rep. Charles Key, interviews with author.
848. 633. Diana Baldwin and Judy Kuhlman, "Court Filings Stop Bombing Testimony of Postal Worker," Daily Oklahoman, 9/9/97.
849. 634. Rita Cosby, FOX News, 4/4/97.
850. 635. Interview with Jayna Davis. Macy's Assistant DAs who handled that case were John Farely and Jane Brown.
851. 636. Daily Oklahoman, 8/14/97.
852. ** "They're coming up with a substitute for proof," said Denver defense attorney Larry Pozner. "They're softening the jury up with emotional testimony about the bombing and McVeigh's politics. They're saying, 'We'll give you every reason in the world to hate Tim McVeigh.'" (Kevin Flynn, "Softening the Jury," Rocky Mountain News, 5/8/97.)
853. 637. "The CIA & The Media," Rolling Stone, 10/20/77, cited in Mark Zepezauer, The CIA's Greatest Hits, 1994.
854. 638. Mark Sanford, interview with author; William Jasper, "OKC Investigator Under Attack, " New American, 6/23/97.
855. 639. Brian Ford, "Fund-Rasing Probed: Jury Looks into Efforts of Rep. Charles Key," Tulsa World, 5/6/97.
856. 640. Jasper, Op Cit.
857. * Just as the letter is a sham masquerading as an honest response from bombing survivors, Drew Edmondson [and Frank Keating] are sub-human pieces of effluvia masquerading as human beings.
858. * Nor the rewards of political office and bribes.
859. 641. Ibid.
860. 642. Brian Ford, "McVeigh Placed at Kansas Store,"Tulsa World, 9/12/97.
861. * Fortunately, the smear tacticians weren't successful at disuading everyone from the truth. In a CNN/USA TODAY/GALLUP poll conducted in April of 1996, 68 percent of those surveyed said they didn't agree that all of the suspects have been captured.
862. * The building was demolished because officials claimed it was an eyesore, an errie reminder of that tragic day. Yet authorities made no effort to remove the charred, twisted, gutted remains of the Athenian Restaurant directly across the street, which to this day still stands as a shocking monument to the brutality of the bombing.
863. * According to a 1988 GAO (General Accounting Office) report, the Federal Building was not a "safe" place to install a day care center. Allegedly based on the 1983 plot by white supremacist Richard Wayne Snell (CSA member and friend of Robert Millar) to bomb the facility, the report concluded that a day care center should not be placed inside the Murrah Building. "No federal law enforcement agents who worked in the building, including the BATF, Secret Service, and the DEA, ever had any of their children in the Murrah's day care center… ever," said Smith.
864. * Smith complained that when she appears on local radio shows, it seems to her that "more people around here now hate me than like me... People that don't want to think that the government would do such a thing."
865. 643. Glenn Wilburn, interview with author.
866. 644. Kathy Wilburn and Edye Smith, interview with author.
867. 645. "Tested by Fire," People magazine, date unknown, quoted in, Gene Wheaton, "Another Bush Boy," Portland Free Press, July 1995. Keating stated, "The leftists I dealt with would never consider themselves patriots, and they had contempt for the government. The right-wing crowd has contempt for the government, and yet see themselves as patriots. It's a curious anomaly, but both of them are very similar."
868. * "Because of my youthful appearance, I did undercover work on the Berkeley campus," Keating said. The assignment dissolved shortly after Keating attended a Black Panther rally. A federal informant who later identified people at the protest took one look at a photo of Keating and muttered, "That's a pig." (Oklahoma Gazette, 9/26/97)
869. * Keating also presided over the federal prison system. His wife, Cathy, is a consultant to U.S. News & World Report, a magazine that often serves as an organ of black propaganda.
870. 646. Gene Wheaton, "Another Bush Boy," Portland Free Press, July 1995.
871. 647. Ace Hayes, letter to author.
872. 648. Deposition of William C. Duncan, copy in author's possession.
873. * Interestingly, Mena/Iran-Contra player Raymond "Buddy" Young, the former Arkansas State Police Captain who told ADFA director Larry Nichols he was a "dead man" if he did not drop his suit against Clinton, was appointed director of FEMA's (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Region IV post by Clinton. FEMA played a significant coordination role in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Was Young given the $90,000-a-year job to keep his mouth shut?
874. ** In fact, Wheaton suggested that Keating is being groomed for the 2000 presidential [or vice-presidential] candidacy.
875. † The same reason for demolishing the Federal Building was given for demolishing the buildings at Waco: "Safety concerns." Yet the Waco buildings were miles from anywhere. Furthermore, an architect who inspected the Federal Building soon after the bombing said there was no immediate danger. But, according to David Hall, owner of KPOC-TV in Ponca City, Oklahoma, this architect was later "persuaded" to change his opinion.
876. 649. William Jasper, New American, date unknown.
877. 650. Affidavit of Neil Hartley.
878. 651. Melissa Klinzing, interview with author.
879. 652. Ann Domin, interview with author.
880. 653. Rappaport, Op Cit.
881. 654. Hoppy Heidelberg, interview with Jon Rappaport.
882. * In fact, many times that I have spoken to Heidelberg, I could hear the distinctive clicks of a tapped phone.
883. ** "They sent another team out on October 20," added Heidelberg. "Agents Marry Judd and Dave Swanson. "They said 'do you know how much trouble you're in?', and I said 'well, apparently not,' and I just laughed at them like I'm laughing now (bursts out laughing). And they don't know what the hell to do with that. What do you do with a guy that just laughs at you?"
884. 655. Hoppy Heidelberg, interview with author.
885. 656. Timothy McVeigh's Petition for Writ of Mandamus, 3/25/97, pp. 71-72.
886. * Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (Warner Books, 1988), p.252. In 1993, shortly before Vince Foster's body was found at Fort Marcy Park, Patrick Knowlton saw a car with a suspicious looking character. He informed the FBI, but later complained that the their rendering of his testimony was inaccurate. After he was subpoenaed by Kenneth Starr's Whitewater committee, he was stalked and intimidated by cars with license plates registered to the U.S. government.
887. 657. Newsweek reporter, confidential interview with author.
888. 658. Debra Burdick, interview with author.
889. 659. Deposition of Jane C. Graham, 7/20/97; Statement of Jane Graham, 11/15/96.
890. 660. Sharon Cohen, Associated Press, 4/26/95; Brian Duffy, "The Manhunt: Twisting Trail," U.S. News & World Report, 5/8/95.
891. 661. Bill Jasper, interview with author.
892. * Mackey also accused Davis of telling a bartender in Denver that McVeigh was in the room. Davis denied it.
893. 662. Testimony of John Jeffrey Davis, U.S. v. McVeigh.
894. 663. Timothy McVeigh's Petition for Writ of Mandamus, 3/25/96, p. 36.
895. * During the Pan Am 103 investigation, authorities attempted to coerce a civilian searcher into signing a statement that he had discovered a piece of microchip on which the government's theory hinged. In fact, the searcher was brought a bag of various unidentified components and asked to sign the statement, eventhough he wasn't sure he had found the items.
896. 664. J.D. Cash, McCurtain Gazette, quoted in B.C. Specht, "Ministry of 'Slick Justice' Scores Big Coup," posted on Internet, 5/26/97.
897. 665. Ryan Ross, "Final Witness Before Explosion--Two Men in Truck, Neither was McVeigh?" Digital City Denver News, 5/23/97; Adrian Croft, "Oklahoma City Bombing Trial Takes Dramatic Twist," Reuter, 5/23/97.
898. 666. Diana Baldwin and Ed Godfrey, "Sighting Accounts Differ--Grand Jury Witnesses Put Bomber in 2 Places," Daily Oklahoman, 7/15/97.
899. 667. Rep. Charles Key, interview with author, account of interview with Gary Lewis.
900. * Heath called the agent's supervisor and complained, then, when he asked how he could fill out a Freedom of Information Act request to see what the FBI had said about him, was told they didn't know where he could get one. When he went to the FBI office, he was rebuffed once again. After he finally got the FOIA filled out, he received word 60 days later that his request was denied.
901. 668. Dr. Paul Heath, interview with author.
902. 669. David Keen and Connie Hood, interview by J.D. Cash, tape transcribed by author.
903. * This was originally reported on the major networks, then retracted as a "radar anomaly."
904. 670. Roberts, Op Cit., p. 311. Part of Roberts' current assignment as a liaison officer to an Air Force Reserve fighter squadron entails analyzing surface-to-air threats.
905. 671. ABC World News Sunday, 07/21/96.
906. 672. New York Daily News, 11/09/96, quoted in Ibid.
907. 673. Elftherotypia, Athens, 08/23/96. Ian Williams Goddard, "The Veracity of the Russell Report," 11/20/96, posted on Internet. Goddard is the author of the book, The Downing of TWA Flight 800.
908. 674. Ibid.
909. 675. David Fulghum, "ANG Pilot: Jet by Object," Aviation Week & Space Technology, 3/10/96, quoted in Goddard, "TWA 800 Missile Theory: Stonger Than Ever," © 1997.
910. 676. "Report: Pilot Saw Projectile Near Jet," Associated Press, 7/29/97.
911. 677. E. Phillips, P. Mann, "Terrorist Fears Deepen with 747's Destruction," Aviation Week & Space Technology, 7/22/96, quoted in Goddard, Op Cit.
912. 678. Associated Press, 7/20/97, quoted in William F. Jasper, "What Happened to TWA 800?" The New American, 10/8/96.
913. 679. David Fulghum, "ANG Eyewitnesses Reject Missile Theory," Aviation Week & Space Technology, 7/29/96, quoted in Goddard, Op Cit.
914. 680. Joe Sexton, "Behind a Calm Facade Investigation Embodied Chaos, Distrust, Stress," New York Times, 8/23/96, quoted in Goddard, Ibid.
915. * Lt. Comdr. Rob Newell, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, said the Navy's only aircraft in the area was a P-3 Orion anti-submarine plane, which does not carry missiles.
916. 681. Letter to David Hendrix, Riverside, CA, Press Enterprise from CINCLANTFLT (Commander in Chief Atlantic Fleet), Public Affairs office, 8/30/96, quoted in Roberts, Op Cit., p. 324-25.
917. 682. Pat Milton, "Salinger Sticks By Missile Theory While Feds Shoot It Down," Associated Press, 11/9/96.
918. 683. Minton, Op Cit.
919. 684. Bo Gritz, Center For Action Monthly Newsletter ,Vol. 6 No 11, June, 1997.
920. 685. "Sonar Finds Underwater Wreckage," Lexington Herald-Leader, 7/21/96, quoted in Ian Williams Goddard, "TWA 800 Investigation Cover-Up: The Proof," 7/26/97, posted on Internet.
921. 686. Ronald W. Lewis, "Uncivil Air War" (The Shootdown of TWA Flight 800)," Air Forces Monthly, No. 104, November 1996, quoted in S.A.F.A.N. Internet Newsletter, No. 213, 12/21/96.
922. * Another story that circulated among the press for a time reported that the DEA, along with Customs, the National Guard, and the Coast Guard, were practicing how to shoot down drug-smuggling planes with SAMs (surface-to-air missiles). The P-3's job was to drop white phosphorous flares, called Willie Peters, to use as targets. According to some reports, the C-130 was seen dropping white phosphorous parachute flares before TWA 800 went down. If this is true, were the flares being dropped as part of a target exercise for heat-seeking missiles? Or had C-130 been alerted to a possible missile threat and dropped flares to divert missiles from targeting it and other aircraft in the area?
923. 687. Jasper, Op Cit.
924. 688. W. Michael Pitcher, "Fax Gives Glimpse of Crash Investigation,"The Southampton Press, 7/24/97, quoted in Ian Williams Goddard, "Navy Missile Drone Debris Found at TWA Crash Site?" 07/28/97, posted on Internet.
925. 689. Indeed, a major terrorism summit sponsored by Tehran in June of 1996 saw delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other Mid-East and African states, as well as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, and the U.S. come together to form a joint working committee under the command of the new HizbAllah International--transforming that group into "the vanguard of the revolution" of the Muslim world.
926. 690. Murray Weiss, "TWA Probers: Missile Witnesses 'Credible,'" New York Post, 9/22/96.
927. 691. Michael D. Towle, "Missile Unlikely, but not Ruled Out in Crash," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7/20/96.
928. 692. "U.S. Worries Over Missiles it Gave Afghan Rebels: U.S. Concerned that Stinger Anti-aircraft Missiles Could Get into the Wrong Hands," New York Times, 4/27/92; "As Afghan War Funding Dries Up, Weapons Flood Pakistani Market," Christian Science Monitor, 1/8/92; "Afghan Rebel Bars Return of U.S. Stingers" (Islamic Party of Yunis Khalis), New York Times, 3/14/89; numerous other articles reported this.
929. 693. Letter from Rodney Stich to Senator Arlen Specter, 10/20/95, posted on Internet.
930. 694. In the late 1970s, two Rhodesian airliners were reportedly shot down by Russian SA-7s. In 1986, a Sudan Airways jet was shot down by a SAM. And in September of 1993, Abkhazian separatists of the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia shot down three Tu-134 and Tu-154 airliners using shoulder-fired SAMs from boats out on the Black Sea. The FBI was advised that small missiles such as the Russian SA-14 Gremlin, SA-16 Gimlet and SA-18 Grouse, are equipped with "proportional convergence logic" systems sensitive enough to home in on airframe radiation once it nears its target.
931. 695. Towle, Op Cit.
932. 696. Jasper, Op Cit.
933. 697. Weiss, Op Cit.
934. 698. Washington Times, 12/17/96.
935. 699. Allen, Op Cit.
936. 700. William Jasper, New American, date unknown.
937. 701. Ibid.
938. * He said they made up a bogus complaint about him threatening a reporter. I spoke to that reporter and discovered the complaint was false.
939. 702. Paul Queary "Oklahoma Hero Commits Suicide," Associated Press, 5/13/96.
940. * According to Rivera, the recalcitrant police officer was forced into making a public service announcement with Governor Keating. "He was told he'd make that or he was fired," said Rivera. The officer they sent to Washington to accept an award on behalf of the OCPD, he told Rivera, wasn't even at the site!
941. * Yeakey was also angry because he couldn't get access to his own report about the bombing (which numbered between 9-10 pages). "He was in a full-fledged rampage over the report," said Rivera, whom he wouldn't even show it to.
942. 703. Cpt. Ted Carlton, interview with author.
943. * Interestingly, Yeakey's superiors, Major Upchurch and Lt. Randall, according to Rivera, were claiming Yeakey was "delusional" from the back injury he sustained during his fall in the Murrah Building on April 19.
944. 704. Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Report, copy in author's possession; Dr. Larry Balding and Dr. Fred Jordan, interview with author. They said the drug test costs between $400 and $500 dollars.
945. 705. Report of ME investigator Jeffrey A. Legg, CME-1 Report, copy in author's possession.
946. * Several Medical Examiners explained that it is not uncommon for an individual to attempt suicide by one method, then continue to take additional measures until they are dead. San Francisco's ME told me about a man who, upon discovering he had AIDS, tried to hang himself, then threw himself off the balcony. Perhaps Terrance Yeakey was not satisfied with his alleged attempts to slash himself. As Dr. Fred Jordan, Oklahoma's Chief Medical Examiner explained, "It hurts, and nothing much is happening."
947. 706. This was verified by school officials.
948. 707. The harassment and surveillance on Rivera and the rest of the family was confirmed by Vicki Jones, and her husband, Reverend Glenn Jones. Reverend Jones told me that Rivera had come to them several times "frantic" that she was being tailed and harassed. Vicki saw evidence of the break-ins at Rivera's apartment.
949. 708. Taylor recalled the incident for this author. "There's only a few times in my life that I remember that somebody had done something weird like that, and that's why I wrote it down."
950. 709. Tonia-Rivera Yeakey, interview with author. They had at one time been friends, she explained, but had a falling-out in 1992, and had remained apart ever since. Rivera attempted to hire an attorney to bring a Slander suit against Jim Ramsey, based on the false allegations of his death. No local attorney would accept it.
951. 710. OCPD Detective Mullinex, interview with author.
952. 711. Regarding Rivera's source, she claimed he knew things about her that no one could possibly have known. "He sat there and told me about stuff I hadn't told anybody," which included break-ins at her apartment.
953. 712. Officer Mike Ramsey, interview with author.
954. 713. This finding is based on the testimony of a former police officer and Marine sniper.
955. * This funeral home, curiously enough, has been mixed up in some rather strange incidents.
956. 714. Karen Von T., letter to author.
957. 715. The author knows the name of this individual, but cannot release it at this time.
958. 716. Shaun Jones, interview with author.
959. 717. FAA report, copy in author's possession. Investigators and pilots I've talked to indicated various ways a plane can be rigged to crash, including tampering with the fuel gauge so it reads full when empty, and putting a corrosive acid on the control cables.
960. 718. Mike Evett, interview with author.
961. 719. Clint Boehler, interview with author. Interestingly, Boehler would later discount the murder scenario of police officer Terrance Yeakey, despite overwhelming evidence that Yeakey was murdered.
962. 720. Christopher C. Lyons, "The Whitewater FAQ: Deaths & Injuries," 1996, posted on Internet.
963. 721. John De Camp, The Franklin Cover-Up; FAA report, copy in author's possession.
964. 722. Medical Examiner's report, 8/5/97, by Dr. Fred Jordan, copy in author's possession.
965. * He was wearing a t-shirt inscribed: "Nameless Saints We Give Our Thanks--The hundreds of people that give it their all without personal individual acknowledgment, April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City, OK"
966. 723. Dan Richardson, interview with author.
967. ** His partner was ATF agent Harry Eberhardt.
968. 724. John Michael Johnston, interview with author.
969. 725. Al Martin on the Tom Valentine show, date unknown. The author has interviewed Martin extensively.
970. 726. Craig Roberts and John Armstrong, JFK: The Dead Witnesses (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Consolidated Press Int'l, 1995), pp. iii-vii, 173-76.
971. 727. D'Ferdinand Carone, interview with author. Carone was subsequently threatened by anonymous telegram after I interviewed her on my radio show, KHNC, Denver, American Freedom Network.
972. * The only mainstream media who have made some effort to report the truth have been CNN, the Dallas Morning News, the Denver Post, FOX News, and ABC 20/20. Unfortunately, the information 20/20 presented only covered limited aspects of prior knowledge by the government. KFOR, the only station that has covered the Middle Eastern connection, ceased their reporting when they were bought out by the New York Times Broadcasting Company.
973. * Potts was later taken off the case due to the heat from the Ruby Ridge incident.
974. * As a sideline, the FBI and DOJ occasionally arrest and prosecute real criminals.
975. 728. Rael Jean Isaac, "Abusive Justice: Janet Reno's Dirty Secret," National Review, 6/30/97.
976. * In 1984, Reno prosecuted Grant Snowden, Miami's 1983 Police Officer of the Year, whose wife ran a day-care center. Snowden had threatened to report a father whose son showed up with bruises. The man retaliated by accusing Snowden of the abuse. The case was finally dropped when the psychiatrist examining the boy revealed that the father had coerced the child into perjury. Reno pervservered, however, bringing in two self-styled child-abuse experts--Joseph and Laurie Braga--to elicit the required testimony from the latest victim that Reno's office had turned up. Snowden was acquitted. Making good on her promise to try Snowden one child at a time until there was a conviction, Reno pushed ahead. While the latest child was not even able to identify Snowden in court, the judge allowed the testimony from the previous two children (eventhough Snowden was found to be innocent), excluded testimony of Snowden's flawless record, and sentenced him to secure five consecutive life sentences. These cases, although highly manipulated by government prosecutors, should not be taken as an inference that child-abuse, including ritual child abuse, does not occur, as some media pundits have tried to suggest.
977. ** Reno had previously displayed her concern for children when several days earlier, two men who had driven all day and all night from Indiana to bring baby food to the children at Waco were arrested.
978. 729. Thompson, Op Cit.
979. ** Letter from Rep. James Traficant to members of Congress, 4/15/97, copy in author's possession. Traficant introduced a bill (H.R. 692) that seeks the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate cases of DOJ misconduct. The bill is pending as of this writing.
980. * As the Congressional committee probing the Inslaw affair later wrote: "The enhanced PROMIS software was stolen by high level Justice officials and distributed internationally in order to provide financial gain to Dr. Brian and to further intelligence and foreign policy objectives of the United States."
981. 730. Ratiner was then paid $120,000 over the next five years on the condition that he not practice law during that time. Former Mossad agent Ari Ben-Menashe claimed he personally saw a cable from Israel's Joint Committee to the U.S., requesting that $600,000 be transferred from the CIA-Israeli slush fund to Hadron to pay Rariner. Former National Security Advisor Robert "Bud" McFarlane had sold PROMIS to the Israelis.
982. 731. Rodney Stich, Defrauding America (Alamo, CA: Diablo Western Press, 1994), pp. 371-97.
983. 732. Barron's, 3/21/88. As Judge Bason wrote, "I have come to believe that my non-reappointement as bankruptcy judge was the result of improper influence from within the Justice Department which the current appointment process failed to prevent."
984. 733. Stich, Op Cit., pp. 377-78.
985. * Ibid., pp. 394-95. Sherman Skolnick and Mark Sato of Chicago's Citizens Committee to Clean Up the Courts filed a lawsuit against Bua and Knight, charging them with obstruction of Justice. They informed Bua that they were going to circumvent the special prosecutor and present evidence to the grand jury themselves. Bua replied that he would hold them in contempt. "I do not intend to prosecute anyone," he told them.
986. * Those within the DOJ who had an interest in covering up Casolaro's death were quick to point out that the investigative reporter suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, and was therefore despondent. Interestingly, Hartzler also suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. In his letter to Dwire, he adds: "The more the implicit connection between Mr. Casolaro's Multiple Sclerosis and his suicide may create too dire a picture of Multiple Sclerosis. That linkage invites readers to cluck with pity and nod knowingly about the presumably devastating effect of Multiple Sclerosis.… I trust that if Ms. Reno, Ms. Gorlick and Mr. Smith are not already familiar with MS, you will offer them this note of balance and assure them that Multiple Sclerosis flourishes even in the Justice Department and expects no pity."
987. 734. Robert Schmidt, "Low Key, High Pressure," Legal Times, 9/2/96.
988. * Leighton was the secret attorney for Lee Harvey Oswald.
989. 735. "An Irrestibale Case," Newsweek, 8/14/95.
990. 736. Schmidt, Op Cit. Justice Department officials say Hartzler's disability played no role in his selection.
991. 737. Ibid.
992. 738. Sherman Skolnick, Conspiracy Nation, date unknown.
993. * It has also been speculated that Richardson was the Assistant U.S. Attorney who was providing information to Tonia Rivera-Yeakey about the murder of her ex-husband, through an intermediary. According to Richardson's brother Dan, Ted had a stable, loving relationship with his wife, Julie, and adored his children. Dan told me his brother had no reason to commit suicide. He was allegedly suffering from "work pressure."
994. 739. The committee noted: "Riconosciuto stated that a tape recording of the telephone threat was confiscated by DEA agents at the time of Riconosciuto's arrest.… the timing of the arrest, coupled with Mr. Riconosciuto's allegations that tapes of a telephone conversation he had with Mr. Videnieks were confiscated by DEA agents, raises serious questions concerning whether the Department's prosecution of Mr. Riconosciuto was related to his cooperation with the committee.
995. 740. The government also attempted to destroy William Chasey, author of The Lockerbie Cover-Up.
996. 741. Ibid.
997. 742. John Ashton, "US Government Still on Ropes Over Lockerbie," The Mail on Sunday, 6/9/96.
998. 743. Kevin Flynn, "Testimony Blocked at Trial of McVeigh," Rocky Mountain News, 7/14/97.
Author is charged with jury tampering: He's accused
of sending Oklahoma-bomb book
( The Dallas Morning News ) Associated Press; 01-20-1999
OKLAHOMA CITY - The author of a book about conspiracy theories in the Oklahoma City
bombing said Tuesday he is being prosecuted for "speaking the truth" about the 1995 explosion that
killed 168 people.
David Hoffman, 38, surrendered at the Oklahoma County Jail on two counts of attempting to
influence a juror in an Oklahoma County grand jury investigation of the bombing of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building. The grand jury returned the indictment Dec. 30.
Mr. Hoffman told journalists who met him outside the county jail that he was being persecuted by
Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy.
"Bob Macy has put 53 people on death row, some of whom he knew to be innocent," Mr. Hoffman
said as sheriff's deputies escorted him into the jail's booking area.
"Now he's trying to prosecute a lowly reporter for speaking the truth about a crime he was charged
to investigate but failed to do so," Mr. Hoffman said.
Mr. Hoffman, author of The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror , is accused of
sending a copy of his book and a note to an alternate member of the grand jury, Frank Simms of
Edmond, in September, according to copies of the indictment and an affidavit made public Tuesday.
Among other things, the letter says "do not let them tell you what to do, and do not take your cues
from them. If you do, you will be making a grave mistake, and shortchanging the people of this
nation, " the affidavit says.
Mr. Hoffman said he didn't try to contact grand jurors directly.
Mr. Hoffman, who runs an alternative San Francisco-based newspaper, the Haight-Ashbury Free
Press , was arraigned on the misdemeanor charges before state District Judge Russell Hall. Judge
Hall set bail at $10,000 and scheduled formal arraignment for Feb. 25.
He said Mr. Hoffman's attorney, Mike Johnston of Oklahoma City, has already discussed possible
trial dates with authorities and that a date may be set at next month's hearing.
"I suspect that's what'll happen," the judge said. If convicted, Mr. Hoffman faces up to two years in
jail.
Mr. Hoffman, who was expected to be released from jail Tuesday evening, has said he is serving a
deferred sentence on a stalking charge and does not want the indictment to lead to a lengthy jail
stay.
He served five days in the Oklahoma County Jail on the stalking charge, which stemmed from his
attempt to court a woman who spurned his attentions.
The grand jury met for 18 months. In its final report last month, it dismissed one after another of the
theories that have been put forth about a larger conspiracy or a government coverup. Mr. Hoffman'
s book makes just such allegations.
"We can state with assurance that we do not believe that the federal government had prior
knowledge that this horrible terrorist attack was going to happen," grand jurors wrote.
In a statement distributed after his arrest by a friend, Mr. Hoffman accused Mr. Macy, Gov. Frank
Keating and Attorney General Drew Edmondson of obstructing justice.
"That's who influenced and coerced the grand jury. These are the people who tampered with the
legal process," Mr. Hoffman said.
"The jurors are not good people," Mr. Hoffman said shortly after he was indicted. "If they were
good people, they would have returned more indictments. This is the biggest government cover-up
since the Kennedy assassination."
PHOTO(S): (AP) David Hoffman was taken into custody
Tuesday at the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City. The
author of The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of
Terror says he is being persecuted for speaking the truth.
ACROSS THE USA News from every state
( USA Today ) ; 06-11-1999
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City -- David Hoffman, the author of a book that explores conspiracy
theories surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing, said that he plans to plead guilty to tampering
with the grand jury that investigated the theories. Hoffman is accused of sending a copy of The
Oklahoma Bombing and The Politics of Terror and a note to an alternate member of the grand jury.
The April 19, 1995 bombing killed 168 people.
BTTT
It's amazing what the government will do, then do to cover up what they've done.
I lost all faith when they tried to cover up the explosion that happened onboard the USS IOWA.
yeppers, the old tree of liberty grew into a huge sprawling monster of a tree and the rot within is insidious and pervasive. It will be interesting to see which branch comes crashing down first.
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