Thanks for you very insightful input. Perhaps that explains what may have happened. Strassmeir might have been working for German Military Intel. But why did Janet Reno prosecute Carol Howe, who is apparently getting strong support from many former DOJ and FBI officials? What's up with that, other than political power playing?
You have to remember that when the bombing took place, government officials were loathe to admit they had advance warning that one site in Tulsa and two sites in Oklahoma City were likely to be attacked.
Carol Howe desparately sought to get the feds to wake up, and they acted as if there were no concern.
On the Friday before the blast, some people in the Oklahoma City area were warned. One was a judge. Another was a fireman. A friend of the judge called him from Oregon (I believe it was) to ask how his day went. He stated, "I didn't go to work that day." I was told to stay home. (My memory does get a bit fuzzy on this, but suffice it to say that the judge's friend was left scratching his head.)
Howe had been a paid informant for several years. She must have been giving pretty good intel or she would have been terminated. She remained employed for a period after the bombing. Then it became public that Howe had been an information and had told her handlers of the danger.
Suddenly it became quite important to descredit Howe. She wasn't a pristine character. I believe she had a shady past and was ripe for being attacked on character issues.
That was something many of us had to take into account, with her reports. Does she have ulterior motives? I more or less took what she had said with a grain of salt, but over time her comments remained credible.
Their last straw attempt to trash her, was the criminal prosecution. That was a big mistake in my book. In effect they overplayed their hand. Here was someone that remained on their payroll long after the bombing, who by their account was a 'cook' 'criminal' and not credible.
I'd have believed her a lot less, if they had ignored her. I'd have believed her a lot less if they had allowed her to testify at McVeigh's trial. If I remember correctly, they refused to let her testify. I may be wrong about that.