The Oklahoma City Bombing And The Politics Of Terror Part 12

Interestingly, Lyons told the German magazine Volkstreue: "There are many spies within [the Klan] and most of its best leaders have left the Klan to do more effective work within the movement.... The man who is mainly responsible for the success of the Klan in Germany - Dennis Mahon - has left the Klan."

Apparently, Mahon is still concerned enough about his responsibility to the white supremacist movement to have telephoned Germany with orders to kill Stra.s.smeir. According to a conversation overheard by Cash, "[Mahon] wanted Andreas shot in both kneecaps and a confession elicited from him, then hold a 30-minute trial and then execute him."[448]

Investigator Jeff Steinberg takes this one step further, believing that Mahon himself may be an ATF operative. He says the ATF had him on a charge then dropped it. "He may have been turned," said Stienberg.

Obviously, Stra.s.smeir wasn't the only informant at Elohim City. Mahon, who knew Guthrie, McCarthy, Stedeford, and Langan, had introduced his new-found friend Carol Howe to the white separatist community. It was there that the attractive 24-year-old daughter of a prominent Tulsa businessman would meet Stra.s.smeir. As Howe told the Gazette: "I kinda had a relations.h.i.+p with him for a while. We talked about relations.h.i.+ps once, and he said he wasn't interested in settling down with a woman. All he wanted to do was blow up federal buildings. It was also at that same meeting that he shoved his hand down my dress and I thought, well, he was doing something else, but now that I think about it, I think he was feeling for a wire."

Howe also said she overheard Mahon and Stra.s.smeir discuss plans to bomb the Oklahoma City Federal Building. As Howe related it: "I started going to as many of their meetings as I could and met a lot of people who were very secretive. But sometime in November there was a meeting and Stra.s.smeir and Mahon said it was time to quit talking and go to war, and time to start bombing federal buildings."

"I reported all this to Angie."[449]

According to her attorney, Howe provided telephone numbers, license tags, names, family trees, (including the location and design of tattoos) drawings of buildings, pictures, and descriptions and lists of individuals who were involved in criminal activity.

In fact, Confidential Informant 53270-183, or CI-183 (whose neo-n.a.z.i handle was "Freya" and "Lady MacBeth") made over 70 reports to Finley-Graham during 1994-95 time frame. Finley paid Howe $120-a-week to provide the ATF regular updates on the activities at Elohim City, and those of Stra.s.smeir and Mahon in particular. Finley-Graham filed her preliminary ROI (Report of Investigation) on Carol Howe on August 30, 1994. Ent.i.tled "White Aryan Resistance, W.A.R." It states, in part: On August 24, 1994 this agent met with CI-183 in the Tulsa ATF Field Office and discussed in great detail the federal firearms and conspiracy violations of the White Aryan Resistance, "W.A.R."...

W.A.R. is described breifly as being radical, paramilitary, Neo-n.a.z.i, anti-government, and violent. W.A.R. has national and international affiliates to include the KKK and a racist following in Germany....

W.A.R. has several training sites in Oklahoma. The primary training location is called Elohim City which is in a rural area near the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas in Adair County, Oklahoma. The members of the religious organization, The Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord live at Elohim City. The The Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord is a separatist organization that conjointly trains with and exchanges weapons with W.A.R....

Regarding statements by Mahon that were secretly videotaped by Howe, Finley-Graham writes: Mahon has made numerous statements regarding the conversion of firearms into fully automatic weapons, the manufacture and use of silencers and the manufacture and use of explosive devices. Mahon has stated both the knowledge and ability to manufacture a range of explosive devices. Mahon intends to manufacture and use any or all of the above when he deems necessary. Mahon and his organization are preparing for a race war and war with the government in the near future and it is believed that they are rapidly stockpiling weapons.[450]

Mahon responded to Howe's allegations in the Village Voice: "This woman has got some s.h.i.+t on me. They're lies. But it's my word against hers...."

Some s.h.i.+t indeed.

It was after Mahon and Howe had a romantic falling-out that the 24-year-old Howe switched from being an avowed white supremacist to a ATF informant. A temporary protective order was issued against Mahon by a Tulsa court in August of '94 after Howe alleged that Mahon threatened to "take steps to neutralize me," by breaking her knees if she tried to leave the white supremacist movement.[451]

"I was contacted by Dennis Mahon after I ordered some literature from this group called White Aryan Resistance," Howe told the McCurtain Gazette. "He wanted to have a closer relations.h.i.+p than I did, and later he threatened me when I tried to get away from his group.[452]

It was after Howe sought the restraining order that Finley-Graham recruited her into the ATF. Mahon claims it was Howe-the-informant who advocated most of the violence. Depicting himself as the fall-guy in the affair, he told the press, "They want to drag me into this thing and I barely remember even meeting Tim McVeigh. It was Stra.s.smeir who was meeting with McVeigh, not me."[453]

Curiously, Mahon later sent a videotape to McVeigh's prison cell expressing his views on the "movement." McVeigh's defense team was concerned about the video, not knowing whether the intended message "was to encourage the Defendant to 'sacrifice' himself for the eventual 'justice' of the cause or was a subtle threat intended to remind the Defendant that members of his family were vulnerable."[454]

While Mahon vehemently denied Howe's allegations, the ATF's ROI of January 11, 1995 (three months before the bombing) states, in part: During the Sabbath meeting, Millar gave a sermon soliciting violence against the US government. He brought forth his soldiers and instructed them to take whatever action necessary against the US Government. It is understood that ATF is the main enemy of the people at EC.... He explicitly told 183 that they were preparing to fight a war against the government....[455]

Howe reported to Finley-Graham that James Ellison also planned to reconstruct the CSA. Her report also stated that Millar planned to consolidate his compound with groups in Texas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma to prepare to fight a war with the government. Posse Comitatus members from Pennsylvania allegedly lent a hand by helping Elohim City residents convert their weapons to full automatic.[456]

"These people have the means and the desire to start a terrible war in America," wrote Howe in a letter to her father in August of 1994. "They must be stopped, one group at a time."[457]

To precipitate that war, Stra.s.smier was apparently willing to procure grenades, C-4 and other explosives.[458]

This is hardly surprising. In 1979, ATF informant Bernard Butkovich and FBI operative Edward Dawson led a group of KKK and n.a.z.i Party members on a shooting spree during a parade in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the deaths of five members of the Communist Workers Party.[459]

Interestingly, the Was.h.i.+ngton Post reported how Butkovich "urged members to buy equipment to convert semi-automatic guns to fully automatic weapons, and offered to procure explosives (including hand grenades)."

According to the New York Times, witnesses reported that Butkovich, a veteran demolitions expert, also offered "to train them in activities such as making pipe bombs and fire bombs," and that "the n.a.z.is take weapons to the [Communist] rally in the trunks of their cars."[460]*

With a map of the parade route supplied by Greensboro Police Department Detective Jerry Cooper, Dawson, Butkovich, and their KKK and neo-n.a.z.i comrades were able to select the most advantageous site for their ambush.

According to Stephen Jones's appeal brief, Finley-Graham's handwritten notes confirmed a report from Howe that Dennis Mahon had bomb-making expertise, including allegedly exploding a 500lb ammonium nitrate bomb in Michigan five years earlier.[461]

Howe also told the agents that Stra.s.smeir and Mahon cased the Tulsa IRS building and the Oklahoma City Federal Building in November and December of 1994, and once during February of '95. Interestingly, Mahon told reporters that as a "revolutionary," he would indeed blow up the Federal Building, but do it at night, when no one was around.

Shockingly, most of this information was provided to the ATF before the bombing.[462]

J.D. Cash, reporting for the McCurtain Gazette, claimed to have received information from an intermediary that a source at the headquarters of the Aryan Nations in Hayden Lake, Idaho, said that Mahon was "one of the ring leaders in the group that bombed the Federal Building." Cash, who interviewed Mahon on numerous occasions by posing as a white supremacist, wrote the following in the Gazette: And he (Mahon) indicated that the results of the bombing were not as he antic.i.p.ated. He felt like this would cause a coming together of radicals around the country who would begin a campaign of terrorism. In retrospect, he feels like the IRS building should have been bombed instead of the Murrah Building and probably should have been bombed at night. The day care center and the killing of the children was having a negative effect.

For his part, Mahon claims he has an alibi for the morning of April 19. Yet Bricktown witness David Snider is sure the driver of the Ryder truck which slowly made its way past his warehouse that morning was Dennis Mahon. Although the driver had long hair and was wearing sungla.s.ses, Snider is adamant. He showed the Oklahoma County Grand Jury a video showing Mahon wearing the same sungla.s.ses he was wearing on the morning of the blast.[463] (See drawing) Mahon, who said he believes there were others involved with McVeigh, told the Daily Oklahoman, "I have never been in downtown [Oklahoma City]. I am squeaky clean."[464]

Interestingly, Mahon also claimed himself to be a make-up artist, and described himself as "the master of all disguises." In a somewhat startling statement, Mahon told Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Sunday Telegraph: "I always deliver my bombs in person, in disguise," he said mischievously. "I can look like a Hispanic or even a Negro. I'm the master of disguise."[465]

Reverend Johnny Lee Clary, a reformed Ku Klux Klansman who also testified before the County Grand Jury, told the Daily Oklahoman: "There is no mistake that the lips and chin and facial features [of the man Snider saw] is Dennis Mahon in one of those disguises."

"He always bragged he is the master of disguise," said Clary, who claims to be an ordained minister in Tulsa. Mahon "used to dress up like Mexicans and Orientals or like blacks."[466]

Howe, who was debriefed by the ATF and FBI after the bombing, told agents Blanchard and Finley-Graham that the sketches of the suspects who rented the Ryder truck appeared to be Elohim City residents [and Mahon and Stra.s.smeir a.s.sociates] Peter or Sonny Ward. She also reportedly told the agents, "...no one in the world looks more like the sketch of John Doe 2 than Michael Brescia." Howe's report to Finley-Graham stated, in part: SA BLANCHARD and SA ANGIE FINDLEY, ATF, talked with SA FINDLEY's confidential source "CAROL." CAROL stated she believes in 1994, she saw an individual resembling the composite of UNSUB # l in a white separatist paramilitary camp called "Elohm City" (phonetic) (EC). This camp is located around Stillwell, Oklahoma. CAROL knows this person as "PETE." CAROL has seen an individual named "TONY" resembling the composite of UNSUB # 2. TONY is PETE's brother, and is not well liked at EC. TONY would do as his brother directed however.

When CAROL saw the television pictures of TIMOTHY JAMES MCVEIGH, she said MCVEIGH doesn't look like "PETE." CAROL recalled that she did see a person who looked like MCVEIGH in a photograph in a photo alb.u.m she saw at a 1994 Klan Rally.

NBC, putting the official Justice Department spin on the story, claimed Howe's reports contained no specific information regarding the plot. Yet according to the Gazette, "Howe was routinely polygraphed by the government during the time she was making her monthly reports. The government's own doc.u.ments indicate she pa.s.sed, 'showing no deception on her part in any polygraph examination.'"[467] As Finley-Graham testified during Howe's pre-trial hearing: Brewster: "Now, you were interested in knowing as much as you could about Mr. Stra.s.smeir, weren't you?"

Graham: "Yes."

Brewster: "What kind of guns he had?"

Graham: "Yes."

Brewster: ''And the kind of threats he made about wanting to blow up federal buildings? You were interested in that, weren't you?"

Graham: "I was interested in anything I could find out about any violation."

Brewster: "And Ms. Howe told you about Mr. Stra.s.smeir's threats to blow up federal buildings, didn't she?"

Graham: "In general, yes."

Brewster: "And that was before the Oklahoma City bombing?"

Graham: "Yes."

At the time of this writing, federal authorities were still insisting that Howe's reports contained no specific warnings of any plot to bomb any federal building. They also claimed that they were only alerted two days after the bombing, when they debriefed their informant.[468]

Yet seems Howe's reports were specific enough to warn the ATF not to be in the office the day of the bombing. No ATF employees were among the 169 killed.

Nevertheless, federal prosecutors still insisted, after Howe went public, that the informant couldn't have had any specific information about the bombing, because she was "terminated" on March 27, three weeks before the attack.

Also "terminated" it seems, was the ATF's December, 1994 report regarding Howe's activities at Elohim City. That report, sources told The New American, contained specific warnings about the pending attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building. Had this report, like so much of the ATF's evidence concerning their and the FBI's atrocities at Waco, conveniently "disappeared?"

Unfortunately for the ATF, the records which show that Howe remained an active informant until January 9, 1996, hadn't disappeared. As Finley-Graham's ROI of January 31, 1996 states: It is requested that CI 53270-183 be retained as an active informant. It was requested by the Dallas Division office that this informant be retained as an active informant for the duration of the Oklahoma City bombing investigation.

On April 22, Finley-Graham sent the following memo to Lester Martz, SAC of the Dallas Field office: This informant is involved with the OKC bomb case which is pending prosecution in Denver and was the key in identifying individuals at Elohim City, which is tied to the OKC bomb case.[469]

In addition to denying her employment with the ATF, the bureau attempted to claim that Howe was "unstable," her emotional state and her "loyalty" to the ATF being in question. Yet once again, the official records, which describe Howe as "stable and capable," contradict these claims. As the ATF's ROI of April 22, 1996 notes: [This agent has] known CI 53270-183 for approximately two years and can a.s.sert that this informant has not been overly paranoid or fearful during undercover operations.

As 24-year ATF veteran Robert Sanders told The New American, "Howe was 'a very good informant. She is obviously intelligent, resourceful, cool and convincing under pressure,' and has a good sense for 'the kind of detailed information that is most helpful' to law enforcement and prosecutors."[470]

Yet the feds would make every attempt to distance themselves from their own informant in the aftermath of the bombing. Not surprisingly, this was the same ruse the FBI used in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing - pulling undercover operative Emad Salem off the case two weeks before the tragic attack (which he had also warned them about) then claiming that he was "unreliable."

Yet the FBI reactivated Salem after the bombing, just as they did with Howe, sending her back to Elohim City to gather additional information on Mahon, Stra.s.smeir, and the others. Her new contract raised her pay from $25.00 per day to $400.00.

Curiously, neither the ATF nor the FBI offered Howe any protection. FBI agent Pete Rickel admitted during subsequent court testimony that Howe had come to him in May of '96 seeking protection, but he had offered none. In fact, Rickel said he didn't even make a note of their conversation.

Not only did the FBI fail to protect what the ATF called their "key" witness linking Elohim City to the bombing, but the FBI went one step further, leaking a confidential report to the press. As Finley-Graham wrote in her April 1, 1996 report: On March 29, 1996 this agent received a telephone call from S/A Harry Eberhardt. S/A Eberhardt stated that the ident.i.ty of CI 53270-183 had been severely compromised. S/A Eberhardt stated that a report by FBI agent James R. Blanchard II contained the formal name of CI 53270-183 and enough information to reveal the ident.i.ty of CI 53270-183 without his/her name being used. S/A Eberhardt stated that he had attempted to relay this matter to FBI ASAC Jack McCoy, however ASAC McCoy showed little concern and denied that S/A Blanchard was at fault. S/A Eberhardt stated that he became irate because it was apparent that nothing was going to be done in an effort to rectify the problem or at least provide help for the safety of CI 53270-183.

Finley-Graham "immediately telephoned CI 53270-183 and informed him/her that their name had been disclosed and that he/she should take every precaution for their safety.... This agent told the CI that anything and everything will be done to insure his/her safety." It seems the government was fully aware of the danger posed to their informant, as Finley-Graham's report of April 22, 1996 notes: Individuals who pose immediate danger to CI 53270-183 are: (1) Dennis Mahon, (2) members of Elohim City, and (3) any sympathizer to McVeigh.... This agent believes that s/he could be in serious danger when a.s.sociates discover his/her ident.i.ty.

In fact, one of Finley-Graham's initial reports indicates that Dennis Mahon "stated that he would kill any informant." Mahon subsequently sent Howe on a "night reconnaissance mission" to a secluded area - straight into the arms of a black gang, whose members pistol-whipped her and cut her with a knife. In what looked like a deliberate attempt to rid itself of an embarra.s.sing informant, Howe was provided with no protection by the government which she had so loyally and courageously served.

When public criticism and liaze a' faire attempts to make Howe "disappear" failed, the government resorted to silencing her on phony, trumped up charges.

The "Justice" Department found it expeditious to indict Howe just in time for McVeigh's trial, putting her safely behind bars. The charge? Compiling a list of bomb ingredients, acquiring photographs of federal offices in Tulsa, and using her home telephone to distribute racist information - all undercover activities committed on behalf of her employer - the ATF. Howe was unanimously acquitted.[471]

Attorney Stephen Jones believes that Howe was indicted "for the purposes of 'leverage' against her in order to keep her mouth shut about what she knows about the activities of Mahon and Stra.s.smeir," and her employer, the ATF.[472] As the reader will soon discover, this is not be the time the Federal Government would seek to silence and discredit one of its own informants.

Perhaps most surprisingly, during a July, 1997 pre-trial hearing for Howe, FBI agent Pete Rickel revealed that "Grandpa" Millar was a confidential FBI informant! When asked if Millar had been a source of government information or an informant, Rickel replied, "generally, yes."

It now appeared that there were at least three government informants inside Elohim City - Howe, Stra.s.smeir, and Millar, the later two who were inciting a war with the Federal Government. Add to that the probability of Brescia, Mahon, and McVeigh being informants, and Elohim City begins to look like one great big government-run neo-n.a.z.i training camp.

According to a former government informant interviewed by the Gazette, "It is typical for agencies such as the CIA, FBI and ATF to place multiple 'moles' inside a place like Elohim City and play one resource off the other, without either one knowing the ident.i.ty of the other." Federal law enforcement, even different offices of the same agency, often do not share informants' names unless the mission calls for it.

"The reasons are obvious. First, there is no way a law enforcement agency is going to risk exposing the life of one of their a.s.sets should the other 'resource' succ.u.mb to torture or decide to double-cross the agency. And, of course, the monitoring of information can best be verified if neither resource knows who the other is. That's the only way this game works, and it's the only way it succeeds."

And what of Michael Brescia? Was he also an informant? Given the close, often revealing nature of a roommate relations.h.i.+p, it is likely that an undercover agent would room with another agent, even if nothing more than one might overhear the other talking in his sleep.

Stra.s.smeir himself admitted the difficulty of going "deep cover," and having to keep your guard up 24 hours-a-day. "If you were an undercover agent," said Stra.s.smeir, "you have to keep your guard up, you can't get close."

Is that why he roomed with Brescia, so he wouldn't have to maintain his guard? Not according to Stra.s.smeir: "I would be very surprised if he (Brescia) was an undercover agent. He's a very honest, straightforward guy."

Stra.s.smeir, along with friends Peter and Sonny Ward, fled Elohim City in August of '95, after McVeigh defense team investigators began looking into activities at the secretive compound.

Brescia left Elohim City around the same time as Stra.s.smeir, with his fiance Ester, traveling to Canada, and remaining mostly underground. He subsequently returned to his parents' house in Philadelphia, where he was actively sought by the media.

Curiously, like his friend Stra.s.smeir, Brescia was completely ignored by federal authorities for his possible role in the bombing. He was finally arrested for the Wisconsin bank heist in February of 1997. Was it a legitimate bust, or did the arrest serve to silence him for his role in the bombing as the government tried to do with Carol Howe?

Shawn Kenny gave the FBI the tip that led to the arrest of Guthrie, who was apprehended after a high-speed chase outside of Cincinnati in January of 1997. He was found dead in his cell in Covington, Kentucky six months later, on July 12, hanged with a bed sheet. Authorities quickly ruled his death a suicide. According to a note found at the scene, Guthrie was apparently feeling guilty over his turncoat att.i.tude, and didn't want to endanger his family.

"Sometimes it takes something like a suicide to settle a problem," he'd written to his attorney. "Especially one that's like... mine."[473]

Yet Dennis Mahon told Village Voice reporter James Ridgeway he believes Guthrie was murdered because he had threatened to reveal information about the proceeds of the loot, which was believed to have gone to the Aryan Nations and other neo-n.a.z.i groups. Guthrie was found dead only a few hours after telling a reporter from the Los Angeles Times that he intended to write a tell-all book that "would go a lot further into what we were really doing."[474] He was also just days away from appearing before a grand jury.

With Guthrie's help, Stedeford was arrested on May 24 at the Upper Darby recording studio where he worked as a guitarist, and McCarthy was captured in the Bustleton section of Philadelphia. Thomas was eventually arrested in conjunction with several robberies as well.[475]

Langan was arrested at his rented house in Columbus, Ohio several days after Guthrie, in a fusillade of bullets fired by over-eager FBI agents. The wanted fugitive, who had fired no shots, likened the arrest to an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt. Another silencing attempt perhaps? (The FBI claimed they were warned that Langan wouldn't be taken alive.) Ironically, during his trial, the self-styled revolutionary shouted hackneyed phrases such as "Power to the People!" and told the judge that the ARA's mission was to overthrow the government and "set free the oppressed people of North America." Except, apparently, for Blacks, Jews, and h.o.m.os.e.xuals.[476]

Yet eyebrows everywhere raised when Langan showed up in jail with pink-painted toenails and long manicured fingernails. Langan's lover, a transs.e.xual named Cherie Roberts, appeared at the trial and exclaimed during a scene with U.S. Marshals, "I can't even talk to my wife!"

Roberts, who met Langan at a Kansas City group called "Crossdressers and Friends," called the neo-macho revolutionary bank robber by his charmed pet moniker, "Donna."[477]

In a "recruitment" video confiscated during a search of Langan's house, "Donna" appears in a black ski-mask, exhorting potential revolutionaries to eradicate all non-whites and non-Christians from the country, and eliminate federal "wh.o.r.es."

"In solidarity with our Serbian brothers we understand the meaning of ethnic cleansing. To us, it's not a dirty word." Apparently, preoperative transs.e.xuals were not included in Langan's targeted population group.

The 107-minute propaganda film, ent.i.tled "The Aryan Republican Army Presents: The Armed Struggle Underground," plays out like a bad Monty Python skit. Langan shouts orders in Spanish from behind a desk festooned with hand grenades and bank booty, while his "troops" goose-step in the background. "Our basic goal is to set up an Aryan Republic on the North American continent," states "Commander Pedro."[478]

The neo-revolutionaries also expound their philosophy and tactics, which include, not surprisingly... blowing up federal buildings. "We have endeavored to keep collateral damage and civilian casualties to a minimum," announces their leader, "but as in all wars, some innocents shall suffer. So be it."

The video was completed in January, 1995, four months before the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building. Langan, for his part, says he had nothing to do with the bombing. "Most of my family, my siblings work in federal buildings," he told the Was.h.i.+ngton Post.[479]

Yet given Langan's connections to Brescia, Stra.s.smeir and Mahon, and their connections to Nichols and McVeigh, and the group's ties to the violent neo-n.a.z.i underground, it is singularly curious why the FBI hasn't seriously pursued these leads.[480]

Then there is the CSA's 1983 plot to blow up the Oklahoma City Federal Building, and Snell's strangely fortuitous statements about April 19, 1995.

What is even more shocking is why the ATF apparently ignored warnings from it's own informant, Carol Howe. Had they figured they could ensnare the bombers in a highly publicized bust?

"Elohim City is not a current subject of interest," a law enforcement official in Was.h.i.+ngton told the a.s.sociated Press, almost two years after the blast.[481]

Was Elohim City of so little interest to authorities because it was a government-infiltrated spook center, kept on hand for contingencies, much as elements of the KKK were by the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover?

And what of Iraq's connections to Dennis Mahon? Is this a subject of interest? Was it just an innocent business relations.h.i.+p, or, like the Syrian's offer of funding to Robert Mathews, was it something more?

5.

Teflon Terrorists.

In the wake of the bombing, the media was abuzz with reports of a Middle-Eastern connection. Reporters were reporting claims of Muslim extremists, and talking heads were talking about a familiar modus operandi. Then on April 21, less than 48 hours after the bombing, the FBI announced that they had snared their elusive quarry, an angry white guy named Timothy James McVeigh. The following day, the Bureau announced that they had captured angry white guy number two: Terry Lynn Nichols.

The mainstream media, having their information spoon-fed to them by the FBI, quickly launched into in-depth a.n.a.lysis of the two "prime suspects." All other information quickly became buried in the great collective memory sink hole. It was as if, with the "capture" of McVeigh and Nichols, all other information became suddenly irrelevant and obsolete. The Justice Department waved their magic wand, President Clinton winked at the Middle-Eastern community, and all the world was set right again.

What remained hidden behind the official curtain of deceit however, were scores of witness accounts, official statements, and expert opinions regarding a Middle-Eastern connection. For 48 hours after the bombing, FBI officials and terrorism experts poured forth their opinions and a.n.a.lyses: Robert Heibel, a former FBI counter-terrorism expert, said the bombing looked like the work of Middle East terrorists, possibly those connected with the World Trade Center bombing.[482]

Speaking on CNN, ATF director John Magaw said: "I think any time you have this kind of damage, this kind of explosion, you have to look there (Middle East terrorists) first."

"This was done with the attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible," said terrorism expert Steven Emerson on CBS Evening News. "That is a Middle Eastern trait and something that has been, generally, not carried out on this soil until we were rudely awakened to it in 1993."