Posted on 10/22/2002 1:33:44 PM PDT by glorygirl
CBN.com – OKLAHOMA CITY — Before 9-11, it was the worst act of terrorism ever committed on American soil. The Oklahoma City bombing has been portrayed as an attack by Americans Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols against their fellow Americans. But that was never the whole story. There is strong evidence that McVeigh and Nichols were only two members of a broad conspiracy, one that included other white supremacists and possibly Iraqi agents. But what has always been puzzling has been the government's lack of interest in pursuing other suspects.
The execution of Timothy McVeigh helped bring a feeling of closure to the family and friends of the 168 people killed in 1995 in the Oklahoma City bombing. But McVeigh's lawyer, Stephen Jones, cautions that if the government thinks it convicted the chief suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing, it got the wrong man.
"I believe Timothy McVeigh's role in the Oklahoma City bombing was a very minor one," Jones said. "A member of the conspiracy? Yes. The leader? No. The financier? No. The organizer? No. Timothy McVeigh saw his role as the cover for everybody else, to be the person to fall on the sword. It served deep-seated emotional needs that he had, and it furthered the role of the conspiracy."
Ever since the McVeigh trial, Jones has accused the federal government of a cover-up, and indeed, the government was found to have withheld 4,000 pages of evidence during the McVeigh trial.
Jones' book, Others Unknown refers to the other suspects the government stopped pursuing. Several witnesses saw McVeigh with other men up to and after the Oklahoma City bombing. John Doe #2 was described as dark complected. Some said he looked Hispanic. Some said Arab.
Rodney Johnson had to swerve his truck to avoid hitting McVeigh and John Doe #2 as they crossed the street right before the bombing. "Timothy McVeigh was in the lead, and John Doe #2 was right behind him — a dark skinned, possibly Mexican American, possibly native American, some people say, but dark skinned," Johnson recalled.
Shortly after the Murrah Federal Building was blown up, the FBI issued an all points bulletin for Middle Eastern suspects, but then within hours the manhunt was called off. The Justice Department was no longer interested in a Middle East connection. But it goes further than that.
In the months and years that followed, it certainly seemed as if the Justice Department did not want there to be any other suspects, Middle Eastern or otherwise. In the trial of Timothy McVeigh, the government did not call a single witness who could place McVeigh at the scene of the crime, presumably because each one of those witnesses would also testify that they saw McVeigh with other suspects. Eyewitnesses complained that in some cases, FBI agents were not interested in their accounts of John Doe #2.
Debbie Nakanashi, who is considered an important witness, said, "At first they were very excited with what we had to tell them. They brought in a sketch artist, Jeannie, I can't remember her last name, Boylan, who worked with me. And they were very excited with what I had to say. As the months went by, however, their attitude gradually changed to a point where I felt they were just kind of like, the last time I saw them it was like they were just cleaning up a little mess, there, you know."
Oklahoma police sergeant Don Browning said that on the day of the bombing, while rescue efforts were still going on, he saw FBI agents in blue raid jackets using tall ladders to remove all the surveillance cameras from the remains of the Murrah building. None of that video, which might reveal the identity of at least one of McVeigh's co-conspirators, has ever been released, except one tape showing only the Ryder truck.
Former Oklahoma State Representative Charles Key said, "There's at least a total of, according to a court document, 22 different surveillance videos. Why don't they release those videos and let the people see what those videos show? I mean they surely would clear up who and how many and what nationality some of these John Does are, and the Justice Department has continued to fight every effort to release those surveillance videos."
There are several possible explanations for what is either the government's lack of interest or a cover-up. One is that the Clinton administration wanted a simple open and shut case that would lead to a speedy execution.
Others believe the pursuit of other suspects would have revealed how badly the government bungled the investigation, or might have showed that the government could have prevented the bombing.
Federal informant Carol Howe had warned the government that a federal building would be bombed. And on the morning of the bombing, witnesses saw a bomb squad in the vicinity of the Murrah building.
And there are new questions about the government's failure or unwillingness to establish a Middle Eastern connection to the bombing, despite a sizeable amount of clues. An FBI report says that on the day of the bombing, then CIA counter-terrorism official Vincent Cannistraro took a call from Saudi Arabia.
Stephen Jones said, "He received a telephone call from a credible source, high up in Saudi intelligence. A person with some responsibility for protecting the Saudi royal family advised him that the work of the bombing was the work of four or five agents, recruited by Iraq, but who did not know they were working for Iraq, who were in this country."
Earlier this month, Senator Arlen Spector sent FBI chief Robert Mueller a letter complaining that the FBI and the Justice Department were stonewalling his efforts to look into an Iraqi connection.
Congressman Dan Burton, chairman of the Government Reform Committee, has reportedly subpoenaed Naval intelligence for a photograph or video believed to show McVeigh and John Doe #2 getting out of the Ryder truck before the bombing.
Earlier this year, a group of relatives of the victims filed suit against Iraq for involvement in the attack. They link Iraq through Muslim extremists in the Philippines.
In the time before the bombing, Terry Nichols made several trips and phone calls to Cebu City, the Philippines. The plaintiffs allege that Nichols met with members of the Abu Sayyaf terror group, but most importantly with Ramzi Youssef, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, in which the bomb and the method used were almost identical to the Oklahoma City bombing.
"We have proof from a previous case that Ramzi Youssef was an agent of Iraq," said Mike Johnston, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the suit against Iraq.
And Johnston says the Iraq connection is solid. "I think the strongest piece of evidence is the absolute, incriminating pattern of telephone calls, made by Terry Nichols and others to the Philippines leading up to bombing. It is apparent that both Nichols and some other individual or individuals were checking on and receiving instructions from the Philippines via phone in the critical time leading up to the April 19th bombing."
Stephen Jones says there is no doubt Nichols, who was married to a Filipino, met with Youssef in the Philippines. "His own father in law, who is a Philippine policeman, said to us and to the Philippine police that he found books on explosives and bomb making in Terry Nichols' luggage at the house. Why would Terry Nichols carry books on and explosives and bomb making to the Philippines?"
The suit also alleges a name and a face for John Doe #2. The alleged name is Hussein Al-Husseini, a former Iraqi soldier who witnesses have sworn was with Timothy McVeigh. When Al-Husseini was first named by an Oklahoma City reporter, he sued for libel, and lost.
Johnston said, "Mr. Al-Husseini failed to provide any cognizable response or plausible explanation in opposition to the circumstantial evidence that he was John Doe #2. We think the circumstantial evidence, the physical similarities, the lack of an alibi, indicate to me that we can prove in a legal context, more probably true than not, that the individual we name in our complaint is John Doe #2."
Mr. Al-Husseini's whereabouts are not known, and his attorney did not return our call.
While Jones is unsure about an Iraqi connection to the Oklahoma City bombing, he says McVeigh was very sympathetic to Iraq.
"I can talk about it now, since he's waived attorney client privilege. He thought the United States policy against Saddam Hussein was wrong, that he'd been used, these were innocent people over there, it was a poor country and we were fighting the wrong enemy," Jones said.
It is still up to the United States government to tell what it knows. The FBI has said it is "unaware of any foreign terrorist connection."
Jones says that when he accepted Timothy McVeigh as his client, he received what would be a prophetic warning from McVeigh's first attorney.
"She said to me, when you know what I know, you will never think of the United States of America again in the same way. I learned that government law enforcement agents will do, at the direction of their political masters, whatever it takes to see that their instructions are followed...destroy evidence, withhold evidence, lie. They will do it. They did do it," Jones recalled.
The question remains...why would they do it?
Charles Key said, "You're trying to get your government to do the right thing, to just tell the truth. To just pursue those people who were involved and let the chips fall where they may."
The Oklahoma City bombing case is not closed. Suspects are still at large. The government may even know their identities. It may also know they have Middle East connections. But for whatever reason, the government is not interested.
She represents Mujahid Abdulqaadir Menepta, who has been charged in a sealed proceeding in New York federal court and on weapons charges in Oklahoma.
...Susan's last words to me - and she is one I listen to carefully, for she chooses her words with care - were "When you know everything I know, Stephen, and you will, soon enough, you will never think of the United States of America again in the same way>"
For those who have not heard about the connection, Menepta was Moussaoui's(20th hijacker) Norman,OK roommate.At his bail hearing an ATF Agent testified the day after the OKC bombing an informant had implicated Menepta in the bombing. Funny how Menepta and Timmy had the same lawyer for a while. She must be good at damage control.
Hello...Chief Moose???
Where is this blonde girl now? Does anyone remember how they tried to make her look like a loon on the TV interview years ago? As I remember she was a debutante from Austin and had quite a colorful life and story to tell. I wonder where she was put!
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http://63.147.65.175/books/chap99.htm
ONE OF OURS Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing
The three hundred people outside were getting noisy. Many of them knew somebody who had been hurt or killed in the bombing in Oklahoma City, where McVeigh knew the FBI was going to take him, and they all wanted more than just a glimpse. He implored the agents, "Take me out the roof."
What do you mean? they asked.
"Jack Ruby," he said. "You remember what happened with Jack Ruby"
Or is it ......... Inspector Moose-eau?
You MAY be one of the stupidest people in the world. Get your head out of the sand ........or from elsewhere!
Yeh, drango is one of those strange-os who just find facts an inconvenient pain. He (or she) is a waste.
The more I think about think about this, the madder I get.
Yo --media people -- who clandestinely peruse these threads and then pretend you don't -- has it ever occurred to any one of you that the blood of Americans --including possibily the snipers's victms -- could be on your hands>?
What more do you want?
Jones is as much as saying McVeigh told him about the connection to the Phillippines, to Ramzi Youssef, and thus to Iraq --Who would know the true story better?
What would it serve Jones to be saying this TODAY, this long after McVeigh is executed?
It would only serve to demonstrate that what he said all along was true.
But nobody listened then, and it appears only a few in the media are listening today, and even fewer are willing to cover the story. But you can bets the feds are listening and watching closely.
I am truly disgusted with Fox News, and any other media organization that refuses to pursue this particular story at this particular point, and any politician in the know who refuses to press the Bush administration to address this issue.
Are you listening, Wall St. Journal?
Are you listening, Arlen Specter?
Since Ms. Otto made this statement prior to discovery and prior to seeing any 302's, it is a logical conclusion that whatever made her make such a strong statement was based on information she received directly from McVeigh and confirmed by the government's side.
It is my view that Ms. Otto's role was to broker a deal between McVeigh and the government, and once the deal was made, she and her co-counsel had to be replaced with Jones, who was likely never privy to the details of the deal.
If you read Jones' book, it is clear that McVeigh did everything in his power, up to threatening to fire his attorneys, to help the prosecution win. In a letter in the book McVeigh directed Jones to go to a major media outlet and "leak" that McVeigh had accepted full responsibility for the bombing. That is just the tip of the iceburg of McVeigh's attempts to help the prosecution and subvert his defense.
What deal Otto brokered we are likely to never know, we can only speculate. However, the McVeigh role of full cooperation with the prosecution is undeniable, based on the record. Perhaps, as he alluded to, he was just a patsy. This is consistent with the statements by Jones in this article.
Susan Otto brokered the deal --then turned the case over to Jones, who must have known something about it, given his comments. Then McVeigh fired Jones, but the "deal" was still in place?
This deal, ostensibly, would have "protected" McVeigh's sister from prosecution, but required McVeigh to agree to be executed "quietly," correct?
So please explain the missing documents appeal. What was the point of that? To make it appear as though McVeigh was actually trying to fight his execution, knowing already that he would lose any appeal? Hence his refusal to appeal to the Supreme Court?
That is was all sort of a "show" just to make everybody feel good?
If that's the case, why did Ashcroft mention the missing documents at all? Why was the execution delayed?
To satisfy the public's mind that "justice was done" as Ashcroft alleged?
I have a hard time believing the Bush administration would have been that creative, that early in the game.
I also have a hard time believing his post-Otto attorneys would take as many risks as they did, if such a deal was in place. Even the trial itself might have been avoided.
Except that Clinton promised early on that the perpetrators would be executed, and executed "sooner rather than later."
My biggest problem with this, though, is that if Jones were in on a deal, why in the world would he be speaking out now, without giving all the details?
If it was true, and if it was revealed, he would be putting himself at considerable risk on a number of levels, especially now, post 9/11. Do you think he is simply concerned about the country? If so, why not tell it all, then? And make it clear to the rest of us.
It doesn't yet make complete sense.
But there's probably some very simple answer.
I don't think McVeigh told his attorneys everything. I think he hated the government, and went to his death knowing -- or at least having a good idea of -- what would come later.
AG Ashcroft has demonstrated no interest in dealing with corruption at the government level, so this is no surprise.
You mean like the other two dozen witnesses and emergency workers who've died in *accidents* *plane crashes* and of *suicides.* But who could possibly profit from such a thing...?
Oh...that's right...the investigation into drug smuggling at the Mena, Arkanssas airport was run out of the DEA's OKC offices. And BOTH corrupt Democrats AND Republicans were involved....
AG Ashcroft has demonstrated no interest in investigating federal government corruption in the St Louis area that resulted in the fraudulent misappropriation of more than 50 million dollars from the Farmers Home Administration, much of which turned up in the political campaign chests of both Republican and Democratic candidates in the Midwest during the 1988 and later elections.
Perhaps he's too busy counting his money.
-archy-/-
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