Posted on 11/14/2002 5:49:00 PM PST by sjersey
DALLAS - (KRT) - A Tulsa, Okla., airport police officer who has helped perpetuate persistent claims of Middle Eastern involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing has been accused of lying to Congress.
Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, asked Attorney General John Ashcroft late last week to prosecute J.W. Reser for lying in a sworn affidavit and interviews with congressional investigators.
Reser, who works a night shift at the Tulsa International Airport police department, could not be reached for comment.
A Justice Department spokesman said Wednesday that agency officials had not seen Burton's letter but added that it would be reviewed "as with all congressional requests."
Burton, R-Ind., opened an investigation last spring to examine claims long promoted by a former Oklahoma City television reporter, Jayna Davis, about foreign involvement in the April 19, 1995, blast.
Davis has complained that federal officials have ignored research that she says supports the Middle Eastern theory, including 23 sworn statements she presented in February to Burton's committee.
Davis' materials included an affidavit in which Reser claimed to have seen a surveillance video depicting a Middle Eastern man leaving a bomb-laden Ryder truck just before it shredded the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Reser also claimed that he was working as a Navy contract employee to help investigate the bombing when he viewed the tape at an intelligence briefing at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.
But U.S. Navy officials told committee investigators that the Navy never employed Reser, and they could find no record of the briefing or video.
Congressional investigators also determined that Reser had lied about many other aspects of his background, falsely claiming to have U.S. government intelligence experience. They learned that he lied about being a retired Oklahoma City narcotics investigator. He was actually fired from that department after filing a false report claiming to have been shot at, Burton's letter to the Justice Department indicated.
Burton wrote that Reser's false statements were of particular concern because of the seriousness of his claims and their "potential to cause serious pain and anxiety for the families and victims of the Oklahoma City bombing."
The blast killed 168 people and injured hundreds. Timothy McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001, for driving the bomb-laden truck to the federal building.
A massive dragnet led to the arrest of only one other person, Terry Nichols. A former Army buddy of McVeigh, Nichols is serving a life sentence following federal convictions for conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of eight U.S. law enforcement officers killed in the blast. He still faces state murder charges.
Federal investigators have long said they had no evidence that anyone else helped plan or carry out the attack. But some survivors and others have embraced theories promoted by Davis and others that Arab terrorists were involved.
Davis first began reporting that theory, fingering a former Iraqi soldier as McVeigh's accomplice, while working for an Oklahoma City television station. She fended off a defamation lawsuit by the former soldier, and eventually began working full time to research and promote her belief that the Oklahoma bombing was the work of Middle Eastern terrorists.
Davis said she helped fund her work with a $57,000 donation from the same Chicago-area real estate magnate who gave large donations to other conspiracy theorists and causes before his death in August. The Chicago man, Alexander Magnus, also funded attempts by a physician active in the anti-abortion movement to autopsy bodies of Branch Davidians killed in a 1993 standoff with federal authorities near Waco, Texas.
Officials at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks white supremacists and other extremist and fringe groups, said Magnus also helped fund efforts to prove government involvement in the crash of TWA Flight 800 and the 1993 World Trade Center attack, as well as a successful campaign by former Oklahoma state Rep. Charles Key to convene a state grand jury to probe his conspiracy theories surrounding the 1995 bombing.
Davis acknowledged that she used some of Magnus' donation to pay Reser to work as an investigator late last year. She said she then asked Reser in January to write the three-page affidavit in which he praised her work and detailed his claims about seeing a dramatic videotape proving Middle Eastern involvement.
Davis said Tuesday that she was concerned by the allegation that Reser had lied, but she added that she had no idea until she was told by congressional investigators that they were having difficulty verifying many of his claims.
"I don't think it reflects upon this investigation, my research," she said, adding that she was involved with Reser only briefly and relied little on his work.
But others who embrace her belief that the Iraqi government was somehow involved in the 1995 attack say they fear that it could harm efforts to prove their case.
"It's unfortunate because it's going to diminish the value of the good work she did, and it's going to hurt our side of the question as to whether or not there was more to the Oklahoma City bombing," said Mike Johnston, a lawyer who filed a wrongful death lawsuit in March against the government of Iraq on behalf of a survivors' group.
Johnston said his concerns about Reser led him to warn Davis last fall that the officer was lying about some aspects of his background and couldn't be trusted. But he said Davis responded by telling him in writing that he was fired from her effort to develop a lawsuit against Iraq, a letter that was among materials on Reser sent to the Justice Department.
"She took the position that he had better contacts than me, he had better information, and he was in a better position to talk with people in the government," Johnston said. "It's just unfortunate that she was so gullible."
If Reser is arrested and prosecuted I may be willing to accept he duped Jayna Davis.
If not I would suggest whoever coughed up the $57,000 was duped if their intent was to finance an effort to get the truth to the public.
I will reserve judgement until we here from Reser or see the perp walk on CNN.
Release the Herb Johnson letter
Release the Prior Warning Documents
Release the fasified FBI 302's documentation
That is the least Mr. Magnus should get for $57,000 because he is not going to get a congressional hearing.
Finally, it all makes sense.
Maybe if we take up a collection we can see these documents.
Most of you -- as have I -- have spent years trying to build a case for reopening an investigation into all the wrongs we have seen in the OKC bombing case. At this point in time, it seems to me that the materials that Jayna davis has amassed still hold our best (and , perhaps last) hope for achieving that goal.
Aside from personal pique over (real or percieved) affronts to you or to OKCSub, what motivates this frenzy to pick at the wound opened by the (alleged) perjury of our former FR colleague, J.W. Reser? Frustration? Egos out of control? Or are some true colors just beginning to show?
What gives any of us the right to damage the credibility of the work of dozens of good and selfless citizens (including one Patrick B. Briley) -- both on and off of FR --over the last seven years? For when you malign the credibility of one of us, you taint the credibility of all.
Earlier this evening, I finally took a look at that abysmal 'anti-freeping' bunch, and what I found there absolutely disgusted me. I certainly didn't expect to find more of the same when I returned home to FR! (I bet those 'anti-freep ba$t@rds are laughing their a$$es off at what has just been posted on this thread!) How long do you think it will take for it to be quoted and used against us over there?
If Jayna Davis feels that it is proper (or useful) to respond to these requests demands that she post some of her materials, I stand ready to let you know where they are available for you to examine.
I am not Jayna Davis' spokesperson; in fact, I have only been in (intermittent) contact with her since the Cate McCauley attack was posted here. (And only then, because I have personal knowledge of Cate's background.) However, I stand ready to do whatever I can to help keep this group focused on moving toward our (presumably) common goal (unveiling the truth about the OKC Bombing). And I'll try to be a voice of reason to counsel us against destroying ourselves from within...
(Please recognize, though,(as I've said many times) playing this role is not my thing; I would much prefer to remain focused on the technical aspects of the case!)
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My fellow FReepers, please stop and think about what you are doing. Reflect on all the years we have spent working toward our common goal -- and ask yourself, "Is venting of my temper or releasing my frustration or self-stroking of my ego worth throwing all of those years away?"
Patience, please. We've suffered a slight flesh wound; but our cause is not terminal yet --not by a long shot! Unless, that is, we commit suicide...
Bob Vernon
..better known here as -- TXnMA (No Longer!!!)
Burton shut down the Clinton investigations. Spector delivered that assinine single bullet cover story. Spector voted against impeachment, despite the fact that he knew all our secrets were being sold to the PRC, as well as to Pakistan, apparently.
It's not difficult for me to figure out who the undependable people are.
another great analogy!
SOP: dirty um up and hope to diminish their credibility.
Do you realize Jayna Davis has been working with that abysmal group you describe in an attempt to censor OKCSubmariner on a different forum after he was banned from Freerepublic? Does that provide you with a clue about what's going here. Consider the character of the group you are describing and consider the fact that Jayna Davis provided to this bunch a copy of a private email she sent to the manager of Libertypost.org threatening legal action against OKCSubmariner.Excerpts from the private email were posted on their abysmal site.
These threats worked at Freerepublic so I suppose she expected the same would work at libertypost.It didn't work.
Through her attorney, Tim McCoy, former KFOR reporter Davis disavowed some of the bombing conspiracy theories that have been reported.
"She also wants to make it perfectly clear that after her two-year exhaustive investigation, she has turned up no credible evidence that supports the theory that the federal government had sufficient prior warnings to prevent the bombing," McCoy said.
Don't you realize these remarks were used to discredit the work of Charles Key and General Partin? If Jayna did not want to go before the microphone and announce the falsified 302 documentation, the prior warning documents, or the Herb Johnson letter,all which supported the fact there was a conspiracy to cover up the Middle Eastern connection by the DOJ, then she should have said nothing.
We will never no what she said to the Grand Jury, but if this statement is any indication, then I understand why she fought in court the subpoena which requires her to testify.
Has it ever occurred to you to ask why someone who has accepted $57,000 to finance an effort to get the truth to the American people would fight a subpoena requesting her to provide her information to a Grand Jury?
These are hard facts Bob, but these are facts we must all face head on.
Providing the false affidavit to Burton's committee ended all hope for a Senate or House or investigation now or ever into the OKC Bombing, in my opinion.
Jayna Davis is not the only source for information supporting the Middle Eastern connection to the OKC bombing, but the false affidavit will be used as an excuse to close the doors to all investigations and investigators.
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