The Oklahoma City Bombing And The Politics Of Terror Part 14

Others think the informant isn't reliable. A friend of Gagan's who's known him for 30 years told me he thinks Gagan's "full of s.h.i.+t," and "not in touch with reality."

Another, a Federal Public Defender who represented Gagan, told me, "Cary has an encyclopedic memory, of events, places and times." She said that Gagan was "bright [and] well-intentioned," although she added, "My gut sense is that the pure facts may be right, but I sometimes questioned the legal significance of some of it." Overall, she said she "liked" the informant.[524][525]

Moreover, if Rowe's allegations regarding Gagan's credibility are valid, why then did U.S. Attorney Henry Solano grant him a Letter of Immunity? If the feds thought Gagan was incompetent, they had a full decade of experience with him [as did the Denver Police] from which to establish his credibility or lack thereof.

"If I had a history of mental illness," explained Gagan, "they couldn't take me on as an informant."

The feds' opinions may have stemmed from a 1983 incident where the informant was blacklisted by the DEA due to allegations he provided false information to the benefit of several drug dealers. Yet Gagan claims he redeemed himself by obtaining sensitive DEA-6 files that had been stolen from their office. Gagan said the DEA noted the informant's a.s.sistance on his record.[526]*

Then in 1986, while Gagan was in jail for insurance fraud, he was visited by Kenny Vasquez, Bill Maten, and two FBI agents: Phillip Mann and Stanley Miller. They offered to get him early release if he would work again as an informant. Gagan declined. "They wanted to take me out of jail, and bring me back at night," said Gagan. "I Didn't want any part of it."

In January of 1989, Agents Miller and Mann again asked Gagan to a.s.sist them in a joint FBI/Customs counterintelligence sting operation known as Operation Aspen Leaf. Their interest centered on one Edward Bodenzayer, a Soviet spy whom Gagan had met in Puerto Vallerta in 1982. Bodenzayer had been exporting cla.s.sified technology to Russia through his import/export company.

Finally, on September 14, 1994, the Justice Department granted Gagan his immunity. The agreement, printed on an official U.S. Justice Department letterhead, read [in part]: This letter is to memorialize the agreement between you and the United States of America, by the undersigned a.s.sistant United States Attorney. The terms of this agreement are as follows: 1. You have contacted the U.S. Marshals Service on today's date indicating that you have information concerning a conspiracy and/or attempt to destroy United States court facilities in [redacted] and possibly other cities.

2. The United States agrees that any statement and/or information that you provide relevant to this conspiracy/conspiracies or attempts will not be used against you in any criminal proceeding. Further, the United States agrees that no evidence derived from the information or statements provided by you will be used in any way against you....[527]

In spite of the sensitive nature of Gagan's information, and the Letter of Immunity, "In the period of one year, from September 14, 1994, to the first week of September, 1995," said Gagan, "not one agent recontacted me, not one U.S. official of any kind recontacted me except [FBI SAC] Dave Shepard in Vegas."

Naturally, the FBI denied any wrongdoing.

a.s.sistant U.S. Attorney James Allison was quoted in the August 12, 1995 issue of the Rocky Mountain News as saying, "Why would I grant somebody immunity and then not speak with him?"

When this author contacted Allison, he said, "I'm not going to discuss who is or who isn't a federal informant."

Yet U.S. Attorney Henry Solano, Allison's boss, granted an interview with Lawrence Myers of Media Bypa.s.s magazine, violating the informant's confidentiality agreement, placing Gagan in danger. In the October, 1995 issue, Myers printed Gagan's letter which had been hand delivered to U.S. Marshall Tina Rowe. When Myers reprinted the letter - which was faxed to him by Solano - "April 6" was changed to "April 1," a weekend, in an attempt to show that Gagan couldn't possibly have delivered the warning. It is not clear whether Solano or Myers changed the date.

Discharged from a mental hospital in 1980 with a personality disorder, Myers was convicted of extortion in 1985 and was later asked by FBI Agent Steve Brannon to work as an informant. Myers denied working for the FBI.

Yet in 1991 he showed up at the trial of Leroy Moody, working as an "explosives expert" on behalf of the defense. Curiously, he then turned around and fed confidential information to the FBI and the state prosecutor.[528]

Interestingly, Myers claimed to have worked for the CIA in Central America, apparently at the behest of Wackenhut, a CIA proprietary infamous for gathering intelligence on U.S. citizens. Even more interestingly, he wrote several books on explosives for Palladin Press, another CIA proprietary, including Counterbomb, Smart Bombs, and Improved Radio Detonation Techniques. One Myers t.i.tle, called Spycomm, instructs readers on the "dirty tricks of the trade" regarding "covert communication techniques."

Myers also showed up at ex-spook Charles Hayes' home in London, Kentucky on the premise of writing a flattering story on the CIA agent turned whistle-blower. Hayes subsequently wound up in jail on a murder conspiracy charge - a charge he adamantly denies.

Hayes says he thinks that Myers was working for the government when he came to Kentucky to write a flattering profile of Hayes for the magazine Media Bypa.s.s, then privately told FBI agents that Hayes was looking for someone to kill his son.[529]

Were Solano and Myers part of a coordinated effort to discredit Gagan? Said a private investigator and retired Army CID officer regarding Myers: "I got the impression he was probably Counterintelligence... just by knowing these parts. The people he mentioned - the people he knew - told me that he was probably in the C.I.C. (Counterintelligence Corps) at one time."[530]

Conetta Williamson, an investigator for the Tennessee Attorney General's office, described Myers in court testimony as "a professional and pathological liar."[531]

Myers also wrote a piece about Federal Grand Juror Hoppy Heidelberg, the only grand juror who dared question the government's line. In fact, Heidelberg never consented to be interviewed by Myers, who had obtained the content of a privileged attorney/client interview of Heidelberg surrept.i.tiously. The information was then crafted into an "interview" and published in Media Bypa.s.s, ultimately resulting in Heidelberg's dismissal from the grand jury.

It seemed that Myers, using Media Bypa.s.s as a cover, had managed to put a government whistle-blower in jail, discredit a federal informant who had embarra.s.sing information implicating the government in the bombing, and cause the dismissal of a troublesome grand juror.

If the feds were so intent on discrediting their own informant, why had they granted him a Letter of Immunity? Not only did Solano grant Gagan immunity, but the informant had retained it for a full 17 months. If Gagan was actually incompetent, why didn't Solano revoke the immunity instead of letting Gagan continue working with terrorists?

"It doesn't make much sense does it?" said Gagan.[532]

It appears that the Justice Department had granted Cary Gagan immunity so they wouldn't look bad. After all, Gagan had already informed Dave Floyd at the U.S. Marshals office in September about the meeting with Omar and Ahmed.

The cat was out of the bag.

Gagan believes he was granted the Letter of Immunity as part of a more sinister scheme - a plan to allow him to proceed with the bombing plot unhindered - at which point the Letter of Immunity was revoked.

"What if at that time I was told to go in and get immunity by the terrorists, and somebody working with the terrorists... like the U.S. Government?" said Gagan. "I can't get prosecuted, can I? [The terrorists] knew that they would give me a Letter of Immunity and they knew that the FBI would cut me loose. So what's that enable them to do? If there needs to be something moved, and I'm the one that's moving it, I can't be prosecuted. I can haul as much s.h.i.+t as I want, and I have immunity, as long as I call the FBI, and let them know."

As a Florida police detective who's investigated connections between Arab-Americans, the PLO, and the Cali Cartel told me, "Who has the best route for getting something across? Drug dealers."[533]

Was Cary Gagan part of some sinister plot by the feds? Or was he merely used as a "mule," allowing the terrorists to move money, drugs, and explosives while another government agent monitored the situation from within? Perhaps the new man from Oklahoma City who appeared on the scene in March?

Was Cary Gagan a "throwaway?"

Recall that Gagan had transported a duffel-bag filled with C-4 and cocaine, and had driven a truck laden with explosives across the state at the behest of his terrorist friends. He claims the FBI did nothing to stop him.

"You got to understand something here," said Gagan. "Federal law prohibits me from doing what I was doing. You cannot go out as an informant - I'm not an agent - I cannot take drugs and explosives from point A to point B...."

Yet it seems that permitting the informant to commit such illegal acts would focus more light on the government's role - whether it involved foreknowledge or an actual conspiracy - as Gagan began to go public with his story. But Gagan, who believes he was scheduled to be "terminated" after the bombing, disagrees. The informant displayed medical records showing that he was badly beaten, and claims to have been the victim of a drive-by shooting.[534]

Whatever the case, it is interesting to note that authorities alleged that the bombing conspiracy began in September of 1994, the same month that Gagan received his Letter of Immunity and began informing the FBI.

On April 10, four days after he delivered the warning letter to Tina Rowe, Gagan received a note instructing him to appear at the law library of the U.S. Courthouse.

"I just gave the U.S. Marshals a bombing warning," said Gagan. "They didn't call me back. I had to go somewhere to cover my a.s.s. I came back, I got a note saying, 'We need to see you; come to the U.S. Law Library.' I thought it was the U.S. Marshals or the FBI."

When Gagan arrived at the law library, he met his contact: an "athletic looking dude, 40s, short hair," dressed in a blue Nike cap and jumpsuit. "I get there and say, 'Hey, you got the s.h.i.+t?' He said, 'Hey, we've got everything taken care of. We need you to do this....'"

The man was not one of Gagan's Arab friends. "He was government," said Gagan. "He was probably CIA."

The mysterious figure asked Gagan to drive a trailer to Junction City, Kansas. In the trailer was the same Lely mixer that Gagan had driven to Golden on January 14. This mixer - the one that was driven to the Mariott at the behest of an Arab terrorist - was now on its way to Junction City at the request of a government agent!

The date was now April 11, three days before Timothy McVeigh checked into the Dreamland Motel in Junction City. As previously mentioned, David King, who was staying at the Dreamland, recalled seeing a Ryder truck with a trailer attached to it in the parking lot on April 17. The trailer contained a "squarish object about three or four feet high that came to a point on top," secured by a canvas tarp. This was the exact description Gagan gave of the Lely mixer.[535]

On April 13 Gagan drove to Oklahoma City, he said, to case the Murrah Building.

Three days later, Gagan says he drove a van from Denver to Trinidad, Colorado, that was picked up by Omar and Ahmed.

According to Gagan, it wasn't until three months after the bombing, in July of '95, that Las Vegas FBI Agent Dave Shepard agreed to meet him. "We're sitting in the car behind the Sahara, and Shepard tells me we're not interested in pursuing the lead."[536]*

That lead - was the two Arab suspects seen running from the Murrah Building towards a late model brown Chevy pick-up minutes before the blast - the same suspects that the FBI had issued an All Points Bulletin (APB) for on April 19: "...Middle-Eastern males 25-28 years of age, six feet tall, athletic build, Dark hair and a beard - dark hair and a beard. Break."[537]

"And these two Middle Eastern dudes that were seen running from the scene - that's the same description I had given," said Gagan. "Gray in the beard, you know - Omar and Ahmed - to the FBI... on September 14."

Gagan had provided that information to the FBI six months before the bombing. After the bombing, Gagan contacted Solano and said, "Isn't that amazing. You know, these are the [same] two dudes...."

In a letter to Gagan dated February 1, 1996, Solano and Allison wrote: Attempts by federal law enforcement officers to meaningfully corroborate information you have alleged to be true have been unsuccessful.... Therefore, the immunity granted by the letter of September 14, 1994 is hereby revoked....

You are warned that any statement you make which would incriminate you in illegal conduct, past, present or future can be used against you. You are no longer protected by the immunity granted by letter on September 14, 1994.

Recall that after ATF informant Carol Howe had revealed that her knowledge of the bombing plot was reported to federal authorities before April 19, they tried to discredit her, claiming that she was "unstable," just as they had done with Gagan. While they revoked Gagan's Letter of Immunity, they indicted Howe on spurious charges.

Howe also reported a subsequent bombing plot by neo-n.a.z.i activists, but, like Gagan's warnings both before and after the bombing, she claimed her calls weren't returned.[538]

Interestingly, Howe was also told by her ATF handler, Angela Finley-Graham, not to report her informant payments, and was led to believe that her debriefings were not being taped when they were. Both are a violation of C.I. (Confidential Informant) procedures. Was this a way to discredit Howe in case they needed to distance themselves from her later, as they attempted to do with Gagan?

One year later, Gagan filed a lawsuit alleging that numerous federal officials had failed to uphold their agreement with him; failed to exercise proper procedures in regards to the handling of an informant; failed to investigate a terrorist conspiracy against the American people; failed to warn the public; and failed to properly investigate the crime after it occurred.

It is not surprising that officials wouldn't take Gagan's warning seriously. On December 5, 1988, a Palestinian named Samra Mahayoun warned authorities in Helsinki that a Pan Am 747 leaving Frankfort was to bombed within two weeks.[539]

Two weeks later, on December 21, Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the skies by a terrorist's bomb. Two hundred and fifty-nine people plunged to their deaths over Lockerbie, Scotland, and 11 more died on the ground.

State Department official Frank Moss later called Mahayoun's warning a "goulish coincidence." Mahayoun, they claimed, was just not credible.[540]*

Demonstrating the limits of absurdity the government will go to in order to cover up its complicity and negligence, the U.S. Marshals Service was still insisting - after 169 people lay dead in Oklahoma - that Cary Gagan was still not credible.[541]*

Yet this is not the first time the government has ignored viable warnings. Prior to the World Trade Center bombing, the FBI's paid informant, Emad Eli Salem, had penetrated Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman's Jama a Islamiya and had warned the FBI of their plans. The agent in charge of the case, John Anticev, dismissed the former Egyptian Army Colonel's warnings, calling him "unreliable." On February 26, 1993, a large bomb detonated underneath the twin towers, killing six people and injuring 1,000 more.

At the same time as "unreliable" people like Cary Gagan were warning federal authorities in Denver about the pending attack, The Star Ledger, a Newark, New Jersey newspaper, was reporting: U.S. law enforcement authorities have obtained information that Islamic terrorists may be planning suicide attacks against federal courthouses and government installations in the United States.

The attacks, it is feared, would be designed to attract worldwide press attention through the murder of innocent victims. The Star Ledger has learned that U.S. law enforcement officials have received a warning that a "fatwa," a religious ruling similar to the death sentence targeting author Salman Rushdie, has been issued against federal authorities as a result of an incident during the trial last year of four persons in the bombing on the World Trade Center in New York.

The disclosure was made in a confidential memorandum issued by the U.S. Marshals Service in Was.h.i.+ngton calling for stepped-up security at federal facilities throughout the nation....

According to the source, Iranian-supported extremists have made it clear that steps are being taken to strike at the "Great Satan," a phrase that has been used to describe the United States...

Even more strenuous security precautions are being taken in New York, where 12 persons, including the blind fundamentalist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, are currently on trial on charges of conspiring to wage a war of urban terrorism against the United States by blowing up the United Nations, FBI headquarters and the tunnels between New York and New Jersey...

The memo, issued by Eduardo Gonzales, director of the U.S. Marshals Service, warns that attacks may be designed to "target as many victims as possible and draw as much media coverage as possible" to the fundamentalist cause...

The terrorists, possible suicide bombers, will not engage in negotiations," the memo warned, and said "once the press is on the scene, the new plans call for blowing everyone up.[542]

If that last statement is true, it could explain the presence of a box of explosives found in the Murrah Building with a timer on it set for ten minutes after nine. The initial bomb(s) blew up at two minutes after nine.

The U.S. Marshal's Service - the federal agency charged with the task of protecting federal facilities - had clear warning from at least two different undercover informants. Why then was there no security at the Murrah Building on April 19?

It was also reported that the Israelis, the Saudis, and the Kuwaitis all warned the U.S. about an impending attack. Whatever the U.S. Marshals Service felt about Cary Gagan's warning, Gonzales apparently felt his other sources were reliable enough to issue a nation-wide alert. Perhaps that memo, like the one issued by the FBI in 1963 to its field offices warning of an attempt on the life of President Kennedy, just "disappeared."

A Trail of Witnesses On April 19, Abraham Ahmed, a Jordanian, was detained by authorities as a possible bombing suspect as he attempted to fly from Oklahoma City to Amman, Jordan. American Airlines personnel observed Ahmed "acting nervous," prior to his flight, and notified security personnel, who in turn notified the FBI.

Agents detained Ahmed in Chicago, where the Oklahoma City resident explained that he was on his way to his father's wedding, and was scheduled to return to the U.S. in July.

Yet Ahmed's story changes. He told reporters alternately that he had gone back to Jordan: a) for a wedding, b) to build a house, c) to replace the youngest son who had moved out, and d) to attend to a family emergency.

After being questioned for six hours, the FBI allowed Ahmed to continue on his way. Yet he was detained in London the following day, where he was questioned for another five hours, then handcuffed and put on the next plane back to the U.S.

In the meantime, Ahmed's luggage continued on to Rome, where authorities discovered a suitcase full of electronic equipment, including two car radios, silicon, solder, s.h.i.+elded and uns.h.i.+elded wire, a small tool kit, and, incredibly enough, a photo alb.u.m with pictures of weapons and missiles! Security sources at London's Heathrow Airport also said that a pair of blue jogging suits and a timing device was found in one of his bags.[543]

When asked what he was doing with these items, Ahmed explained that they were for his relatives in Jordan, who could not obtain good-quality electrical components. Ahmed also had a blue jogging suit similar to what a Middle-Eastern suspect was wearing at the Murrah Building on the morning of the blast. According to an account in the London Telegraph, Ahmed was reportedly in Oklahoma City on Wednesday - the day of the bombing.[544]

If Ahmed had been cleared by U.S. authorities for the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, why did British authorities refuse to allow him into the country? Did they know something the U.S. did not?

The Justice Department's Carl Stern downplayed the breakthrough saying only, "There are a number of good, solid leads in this investigation."[545]

Yet in FBI agent Henry Gibbons' affidavit, special mention was made of the items in Ahmed's suitcase, and his coincidental April 19, 10:43 a.m. departure time, and Gibbons stated he considered Ahmed's testimony in front of the Federal Grand Jury vital.

One FBI source interviewed by KFOR's Jayna Davis admitted that he didn't think Ahmed was telling the truth on a polygraph test. Yet Ahmed was simply allowed to go on his way, and like so many other suspects and witnesses, was never called before the grand jury.

Interestingly, the Middle Eastern community was apologized to by President Clinton. This is very interesting coming from a president that failed to apologize to Randy Weaver, the Branch Davidians, and the thousands of people wrongly accused, imprisoned and murdered each year by U.S. law-enforcement personnel.

A possible explanation may be found in the bombing of Pan Am 103. In February of 1989, a prime suspect in the case, Jordanian bomb maker Marwan Kreeshat, admitted in a statement provided by Jordanian intelligence that he had manufactured at least five highly sophisticated, powerful bombs for PFLP-GC (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command) leader Ahmed Jibril, by cleverly concealing them in portable radios - the same type which destroyed flight 103. Jordanian intelligence officials, who have maintained a close, long-standing relations.h.i.+p with the CIA, admitted that the Jordanian national was actually an undercover agent, and was also an a.s.set of U.S. intelligence.[546]

Could this explain why the FBI released Ahmed?[547]

Taylor Jesse Clear, a retired State Department Counter-Terrorism expert who has studied the case, disagrees with this a.n.a.lysis. Clear believes that Ahmed's conspicuously timed departure, complete with nervous act and a suitcase full of electronic gear, was a diversion. "They wanted to inoculate the media to the Arab connection," explained Clear. Letting Ahmed get caught with a suitcase full of that stuff, then discovering he was innocent, inoculated everybody to the Middle Eastern connection. Then they could come back, beat their chests, and say, 'look what you did to the Arab community.'"[548]*

Yet the brown Chevy pick-up seen speeding away from the Murrah Building was traced to an Oklahoma City business run by a Palestinian, with possible PLO ties. That man... is a good friend of Abraham Ahmed's. According to a witness who worked for the Palestinian, Ahmed was seen driving the pick-up in the weeks before the bombing.

Numerous witnesses also place McVeigh in Oklahoma City in the days before the bombing with a friend of Ahmed's - an Iraqi - a man who bares a strong resemblance to the mysterious, stoic pa.s.senger seen in the Ryder truck by Mike Moroz on the morning of April 19 at Johnny's Tire Store.

KFOR reporters Brad Edwards and Jayna Davis broke the story on June 7, 1995 with a series of interviews with witnesses who saw McVeigh with the Iraqi, first in a bar, then in a restaurant, then in a p.a.w.n shop.

One of the witnesses, a barmaid at the Roadrunner Tavern on South May Avenue, saw McVeigh buying beer for the man on Sat.u.r.day, April 15. "He was dark, kind of muscular, he had on a ball cap," said the barmaid. "He talked like they do over in Iran or Iraq, or whatever during Desert Storm, when you would hear the way they talked on TV."

When Davis asked her how sure she was that the man they had been tracking was the man she saw with McVeigh, she replied, "I'm sure."

The tavern owner also saw the Iraqi a few days after the bombing. He picked him out from a group of photos. While the Iraqi claimed he was never in any bar on NW 10th Street, a co-worker interviewed by KFOR said he had drank with him at a bar on NW 10th and Indiana, and in fact he was arrested for driving under the influence around the corner, at NW 8th and Blackwielder in early June.[549]

In another interview, three women who worked at a p.a.w.nshop stated that McVeigh and two other men came into their shop twice: "...on April 14 and again on April 17, just two days before the bombing."

"It had to have been McVeigh," said the p.a.w.n shop owner. "If it was not McVeigh, it was his twin brother."

"They spoke in a foreign language," said one of the p.a.w.n shop employees. "They huddled together and they all three spoke secretively to one another, and it was a foreign language."

A restaurant owner down the street also remembered McVeigh and the Iraqi. "[McVeigh acted] like a contractor coming in and buying his hand lunch, that was the impression I had," recalled the proprietor.

As previously mentioned, restaurant worker Phyliss Kingsley recalled a Ryder truck pulling into the Hi Way Grill at SW 104 and Portland on April 16. Accompanying the truck was a white long-bed Chevy pick-up, and a darker pick-up, possibly blue or brown. She recalls Timothy McVeigh strolling in and ordering two "trucker burgers" and fries to go. Accompanying McVeigh was a short, stocky man of about 5'2", either Mexican or American Indian (or Arabic) descent, with black, curly hair. She said the man closely resembled the FBI sketch of John Doe 2, but with slightly thinner features. Kingsley recalled that the man spoke briefly with McVeigh.[550]

Waitress Linda Kuhlman described him as having straighter hair and being slightly taller. She described him as wearing green army fatigue pants and a white t-s.h.i.+rt.

Kuhlman, who grew up around trucks and hot-rods, is positive that one of the trucks was a Chevy long-bed, most likely an '87 model. When shown photos, including the Iraqi and Michael Brescia, they came close to picking out the Iraqi, but could not positively identify either man. The pa.s.senger in the Ryder truck, they said, a man with longish wavy, permed-out brown or dirty blond hair and gla.s.ses, never got out.[551]

Dennis Jackson, a VA worker, recalled seeing two or three Arabic men in the Murrah Building the following day, April 17. "There was a distinct air about them," recalls Jackson. "We were working late that day, the office had closed, and they were just kind of hanging around the Social Security office. I thought that was kind of unusual... They might have been there for Social Security, but I hardly think so."

Jackson's co-worker Craig Freeman recalled one of the men as a short, stocky Arabic man, about 5' 2'', 150 pounds, wearing khaki military style pants, combat boots and a white T-s.h.i.+rt - the same combination seen on the Middle Eastern suspect described by Linda Kuhlman.

In a bizarre twist, a white Chevy pick-up showed up a Freeman's house several days after the bombing. Freeman recalls a Caucasian looking man in the truck, which was parked near his house on two consecutive days. "It was right before and right after the FBI and OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) came and interviewed me," recalls Freeman. "I could tell this guy was watching me because when I walked by, he sort of turned away and hid his face. I'm a former Air Force Master Sergeant and a third degree black belt, and I'm trained to be observant."[552]

Could the man Freeman saw have been there to intimidate him?