Iraqis linked to Oklahoma atrocity

Iraqis linked to Oklahoma atrocity By James Langton in New York, for the Evening Standard

The FBI is under pressure from the highest political levels in Washington to investigate suspected links between Iraq and the Oklahoma bombing.

Senior aides to US Attorney-General John Ashcroft have been given compelling evidence that former Iraqi soldiers were directly involved in the 1995 bombing that killed 185 people.

The methodically assembled dossier from Jayna Davis, a former investigative TV reporter, could destroy the official version that white supremacists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were solely responsible for what, at the time, was the worst act of terrorism on American soil.

Instead, there are serious concerns that a group of Arab men with links to Iraqi intelligence, Palestinian extremists and possibly al Qaeda, used McVeigh and Nichols as front men to blow up the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Davis, who was one of the first reporters on the scene after the blast, has spent seven years gathering evidence of a wider conspiracy. But it is only as America prepares to wage war on Iraq and Saddam Hussein that her conclusions are being taken seriously at the highest level. Finally, she says, the authorities are examining the idea "that the Oklahoma bombing might not simply be the work of two angry white men".

After hearing her evidence, several senior members of Congress have called for a new probe.

What triggered Davis's investigation was a report immediately after the Oklahoma explosion of Middle-Eastern looking men fleeing in a brown Chevrolet truck only minutes earlier. The FBI launched an international hunt for the men but later cancelled the search.

Within days McVeigh and Nichols were arrested, and the case seemed to be one of home-grown terrorists, motivated by a hatred for authority. But the case has always had loose ends. In particular, several witnesses in Oklahoma City that April morning saw a third conspirator with McVeigh. The elusive dark-haired suspect became known as "John Doe 2".

Terry Nichols, now serving life for conspiracy in the bombing and involuntary manslaughter, was the original "John Doe 1" but, with his arrest, the FBI claimed that the case had been wrapped up. They eventually concluded that "John Doe 2" was Nichols all along.

Davis thought otherwise. Early on, she found that a brown Chevrolet truck almost identical to that once hunted by the FBI had been seen parked outside the offices of a local property management company several days before the bombing.

The owner was a Palestinian with a criminal record and suspected ties to the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Later she found that the man had hired a number of former Iraqi soldiers.

He had recruited them to carry out maintenance on his rental properties, but several were later discovered to be missing from work on the day of the bombing. Eyewitnesses have told Davis that they saw several of them celebrating later that day.

But what increasingly drew her attention was another Iraqi living in Oklahoma City, a restaurant worker called Hussain Hashem Al Hussaini, whose photograph was almost a perfect match to the official sketch of "John Doe 2".

Al Hussaini has a tattoo on his upper left arm, indicating he was once a member of Saddam's elite Republican Guard.

Since then, Davis has gathered hundreds of court records and the sworn testimony of two dozen witnesses. Several claimed to have seen a man fitting Al Hussaini's description drinking with McVeigh in a motel bar four days before the bombing.

Others positively identified former Iraqi soldiers in the company of McVeigh and Nichols. Two swore that they had seen Al Hussaini only a block from the Murrah building in the hours before the bombing. With the case against McVeigh and Nichols seemingly watertight, the FBI has until now consistently refused to reopen it. McVeigh went to his death in the execution chamber two years ago, insisting he alone was responsible.

Davis thinks he may have done so out of loyalty to his family, not wishing to go down in history as a traitor to his country.

But she has evidence that up to 12,000 Iraqis were allowed into America after the Gulf war. Some of these, she suspects, are using their status as refugees for cover. "They are here," she said. "And they are highly trained and motivated."

The renewed interest in Washington is clearly linked to America's case against Saddam as broker of world terror.

And there is more. Al Hussaini, who entered the US from a Saudi refugee camp, worked after the Oklahoma bomb as a cook at Boston's Logan Airport - from where the two hijacked aircraft that hit the World Trade Center took off.

There is another confirmed incident that suggests something more sinister. Two of the 11 September conspirators held a crucial meeting at a motel in Oklahoma City in August 2001. The motel's owner has since identified them as ringleader Mohammed Atta and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, who has known links with shoebomber Richard Reid.

The motel is unremarkable - except for one thing. It is where a number of Davis's witnesses are sure they saw McVeigh drinking and perhaps plotting with his Iraqi friends.

I agree with Rush when it comes to coverups- you can't keep three people to keep the lid on a surprise birthday party, I think someone would be talking about an Iraqi-OKC link.

Actually WE ARE talking about it.

At one time I agreed with your (and Rush's) thinking. However, after watching the coverup of Ron Brown's death, I have changed my mind. The evidence is there, multiple credible witnesses came forward (only to be destroyed), and the media even showed some interest in the story. As soon as Jesse Jackson demanded an investigation into it, a new story (Monica Lewinski, remember her?) hit the front pages and everyone simply forgot Ron Brown. I do not think that the timing was a coincidence and I KNOW that Ron Brown's 45 caliber hole exists.

Also, think about how many eye-witnesses there were to TWA 800 being shot down, yet they still get away with calling it a mechanical failure.

I need a clarification on the phrase "suspected ties to the palestinian liberation organisation". Which faction of the PLO is the man being accused of being tied to? The Palestinian faction most associated with Iraq is the "Fatah Revolutionary Council" also known as "Abu Nidal". This is different from Arafat's group which is "al Fatah". If the man is accused of being a member of abu nidal, that would be much more incriminating of Saddam than if he were a member of al-fatah.

freeps had a fabulous poster who was on top of this story from day one. His articles were thoughtful, well documented and well written. He's been on radio shows as well, went by the name of OKCSubmariner here. Unfortunately,like so many other good posters here who contributed actual decent and original content, he got banned and all his previous (years) work nuked into the memory blackhole because he wasn't an "approved" lock step fascist bushbot/adl clone

Yes, but you can still find him and read his stuff HERE

Point taken but I still don't understand why Aschcroft would not have gotten on board

Ashcroft has stayed off board in all matters that relate to government corruption....Chinagate, Boston FBI office, lynx fur scandal, BIA backdating....

Me too. Still,if Drudge has condescended to cover it, maybe something is up.

Continually suprised by all the freepers who aren't familiar with this story.

If you'd like to be added to the ping list on this subject, please freepmail me --don't post, freepmail. Thanks.

What is going on in the sniper arena this evening had some of the reporters calling the Alabama facility for shooting a militia training ground. They will not pillory foreign terrorists for using it, as they have; instead they pronounce that American militia train there-----which I doubt.

It will be hard to explain away some black guy named "Muhammad" as a militiaman.

As suspected, it appears thse may be Muslim terrorists, but home-grown varieties, further emphasizing the critical need to surpress this vicious cult masquerading as a religion.

All Muslims should be detained and then deported and no Muslims allowed anywhere on American territory or in American planes - they are vermin - all of them.

Smething has got to be done about the major media. They have all become lying organs of the far left. Un;ess the conservatives can take over at least one major media station, its all over for us - and fo America. Thye will continue to broadcast tripe attacking conservatives, the constitution, American values, etc. and slowly brainwash the masses. They put a leftist spin on eveyr major news item.

This slimy bastard never explained what the hell he was doing in the Soviet Union while a student during the Viet Nam war, at a time when the Soviets were openly supporting the North Vietnamese and he was openly demonstrating on foreign soil against American foreign policy. His election to the Presidency was the greatest disgrace in American history, dwarfing even slavery and the extermination of the American Indian. Even the damned woman who bore him visited the Soviet Union at that time. They were a nest of traitors. His continued antics overseas attempting to undermine Bush's foreign policy while under protection of U.S. Secret Service Agents and while receiving pay from the American public is beyond all tolerance. The man should be arrrested and incarcerated.

The continued political careeer of that harpy he was married to is merely a continuation of that disgrace.

You are right this guy should be tried for treason, found guilty and executed, along with Hanoi Jane and a host of others. However, the DemocRATs in Congress, the courts and the state legislatures would never permit it.

I don't know. Its possible. This story has been circulating for some time.

Thye Republicnas, due to Clinton's popularity, the power of the DemocRATs in Congress and the blotched attempt to impeach Clinton may be responsible for failure on their part to follow it up.

The failure of the Clinton adminstration to do so was obviously tied to their efforts to attack American "militia" groups and undermine the Second Amendment even further.

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