The Oklahoma City Bombing And The Politics Of Terror Part 24

"They wanted to set our minds at ease our minds that there wasn't anything sinister going on," said Wilburn.

Two days later Smith and Wilburn were visited by an entourage of federal agents including Ryan, ATF Agents Chris Cuyler and Luke Franey, an IRS Criminal investigator, and a member of Louis Jolyon West's victim's a.s.sistance team.

"They all came in and sat down and said 'We want to answer your questions and make you feel good.' I said 'fine.' Then I looked them right in the eye and said, 'You guys had no indication that April 19th could be a dangerous day down there?' They both answered, 'no sir.'"

"Well, two hours later I tuned on the TV, and CNN is interviewing ATF Director John Magaw. The interview starts out, "Mr. Magaw, based on the significance of April 19th, did you take any precautions?'"

"Clearly there was an interest all over the country to do that," replied Magaw. "And I was very concerned about that. We did some things here in headquarters and in all of our field offices throughout the country to try to be more observant...."

"Well, if there was ever a point that I was hooked into this thing, and there was nothing that was gonna' stop me," recalls Wilburn, "that was it... because by G.o.d, somebody lied that morning."

Ryan's conciliatory meeting with the family did not last long. The federal prosecutor became nervous after Wilburn casually mentioned that he had talked to a family lawyer. Ryan quickly got up and left.

While Edye Smith was quoted as saying that she was "satisfied" the agents had explained their whereabouts, she later told me, "I believe they sat their and lied to us."

Unmarked cars soon began showing up at Glenn Wilburn's house. When Wilburn went out to confront them, they sped off.[865]

Two months later, Edye Smith and Kathy Wilburn had their Workers' Compensation checks cut off. Out of 462 federal employees affected by the blast, they were the only two employees who were mysteriously "denied."

Moreover, out of thousands of checks sent to Smith through the Red Cross, none were ever received. All the letters had been opened, the checks missing, including some sent via the Governor's and Mayor's office. "All the mail that the Red Cross delivered to my house, probably thousands of pieces of mail, every single piece was opened before I got it. And it all had my name on it," said Smith.

"We started noticing that the mail that came to the house had money in it," said Kathy Wilburn, "but the majority of the mail that came to us through the Red Cross... it was all opened and there was never a thin dime in any of it."

When Smith called the Red Cross to complain, she was told that her mail wasn't being opened, and that no money was being taken. When Wilburn confronted the head of the local Red Cross, she was told that their letters were being opened to check for "hate mail." Wilburn told her that the explanation was "ridiculous."

"A mother sent me a little card that her little boy drew." said Smith, "She said 'my little boy saved this three dollars and wanted you to have it.' And the three dollars was gone."[866]

Keating's answer to the missing funds? Interning college students were responsible for the thefts. Perhaps former G-Man Keating was training the young lads for upcoming counter-intelligence operations. Such would not be unusual tactics for a man who worked as an FBI agent during COINTELPRO (the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program of the late-60s to mid 70s), where he personally infiltrated anti-government activists like the Weathermen, the Black Panthers, and the SDS (Students For A Democratic Society), and stated he sees little difference between them and the militias.[867][868]

Keating also served as a.s.sistant Attorney General under Edwin Meese. Meese was Attorney General during the 1985 fire-bombing of MOVE headquarters. MOVE was a group of black housing activists living in a squatted building in Philadelphia. The satchel charge, dropped from a helicopter by Philadelphia's finest (with a little help from the FBI), resulted in the deaths of over 11 people, including five children, and destroyed numerous square blocks of the city.

Instead of launching a proper investigation into the matter, Meese's response was "consider it an eviction notice."

Meese would later be implicated in the October Surprise scandal, which propelled Ronald Reagan into the White House via a secret deal to release the hostages in Iran after the defeat of Jimmy Carter. As his reward, Meese was appointed Attorney General, where he would go on to commit then cover up other crimes, the two most notorious being Iran-Contra and the Inslaw affair.

But Keating's involvement with the scions of truth and justice doesn't end there. Keating served in the Bush administration as a.s.sistant Treasury Secretary during the Iran-Contra investigations. Gene Wheaton, a former Tulsa police officer and Army CID investigator who worked for the Christic Inst.i.tute, observes that it was George Bush who personally selected Keating as a.s.sistant Treasury Secretary in 1985, where he supervised INTERPOL, the Customs Service, The Secret Service, and the ATF.[869]

As Wheaton writes: The word in Tulsa is that Bush is his "political G.o.dfather;" that Keating got his job in the Treasury Department through Bush's good offices and that Bush "loves Keating." The connection appears to be an old-boy connection through the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[870]

"In his position, Keating could control both the investigative and prosecutorial side of any scandal that came his way," adds Portland Free Press publisher Ace Hayes. "1985-88 had guns, drugs, and illegal money moving all over the globe. Was the ATF, who couldn't find it's a.s.s with both hands, as really as incompetent as it appeared, or was Frank Keating there to make sure they did not?"[871]

In fact, it was while Keating was serving as a.s.sistant Treasury Secretary that IRS investigator Bill Duncan - who was investigating Iran-Contra drug-running activities at Mena - was instructed to perjure himself. As Duncan stated in a deposition before a joint Congressional/Arkansas Attorney General investigative committee: Duncan: In late December of 1987, I was contacted by [the] Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime... who told me that they were looking into the reason why no one was indicted in connection with the Mena investigations. The Internal Revenue Service a.s.signed to me disclosure litigation attorneys, which gave me instructions which would have caused me to withhold information from Congress during my testimony and to also perjure myself.

Committee: And how did you respond to the Treasury Department?

Duncan: Well, I exhibited to them that I was going to tell the truth in my testimony. And the perjury, subornation of perjury resulted in an - resulted because of an allegation that I had received, that Attorney General Edwin Meese received a several hundred thousand dollar bribe from Barry Seal directly. And they told me to tell the Subcommittee on Crime that I had no information about that.[872]

Arkansas State Police investigator Russell Welch, who provided the information to Duncan, was subsequently poisoned. Two months later, Keating was appointed as a.s.sociate Attorney General.[873]

It seems that Frank Keating has served as a point-man, weaving a twisted trail through some of America's most notorious crimes, including Iran-Contra, BCCI, Iraqgate, the S&L crisis, and... Oklahoma City.

Keating has always been at the nexus bridging the agendas of good ole' boys like George Bush, with their elitist agendas, and the subsequent covert-operations sub-cultures which they sp.a.w.ned. In an article in the Portland Free Press ent.i.tled "Another Bush Boy," Wheaton writes: The covert-operations "lunatic fringe" in Was.h.i.+ngton, which took over key operations at the national security level, [and] still controls them today, was Bush's 1981 agenda, and Keating is the next generation to carry it on.[874]*

It was only three months after Keating's inauguration as Governor that the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building occurred. Given his background and grooming, Keating was in a perfect position to direct "damage control." As Wheaton notes: Keating is an a perfect position to control the direction and scope of any state investigation which might not correspond to the official federal inquiry.

It appeares Keating did just that. As Governor, Keating was in a position to halt the hurried demolition of the Murrah building, ordered by federal authorities under the guise of "safety." Bob Ricks, the FBI PR flack who spoon-fed a daily dose of lies to the press during the Waco siege, was appointed Oklahoma Director of Public Safety by Keating after the demolition. Keating and Ricks were good friends from college.

The demolition was ordered under the pseudo-psychological premise of providing "closure" to the festering wound hanging over the city. The demolition also effectively prevented any independent forensic investigation of the bomb site.[875]

Said a victim whose spouse was killed in the explosion, "I was upset right from the start when there was the big rush to destroy the crime scene, to take the building down. A lot of important evidence was destroyed that could have helped solve this."[876]

The feds' decision to destroy crucial forensic evidence has an eerie parallel to the demolition of Mt. Carmel. The destruction of the Branch Davidian church prevented independent examiners from determining that the ATF had fired into the roofs of the building during the early part of the raid, and that FBI snipers had deliberately shot people trying to escape.

The destruction of the Murrah Building is also akin to the Secret Service's hasty (or carefully planned) decision to illegally remove President Kennedy's body from Parkland Memorial Hospital. Once under control of military officials, including Generals who were undoubtedly involved in the a.s.sa.s.sination plot, Kennedy's autopsy could proceed under carefully controlled parameters. While observing the autopsy, these military officials prevented a thorough examination of the body, which would have revealed the presence of multiple entry wounds. Back in Dallas, Secret Service agents carefully washed Kennedy's limousine to remove all traces of bullet fragments, and had Governor Connolly's clothes, bullet holes and all, cleaned and pressed.

Said Jannie Coverdale, who lost her grandsons Aaron and Elijah in the bombing, "Everyone I talk to has the same questions: What happened? What is going on? We don't want this to be another John F. Kennedy deal, where 32 years later the real story is still unknown."

The Federal Bureau of Intimidation "There is no place on earth where you will be safe from the most powerful forces of justice." - FBI director Louis Freeh.

In a motion filed by Stephen Jones, affidavits show that numerous witnesses were instructed by the FBI to "keep quiet" so the facts of the case "wouldn't get distorted." This aura of secrecy quickly turned into obstruction of justice, as FBI agents routinely instructed witnesses not to talk to defense team investigators or journalists.

When defense investigator Marty Reed attempted to interview Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Charlie Hanger (the patrolman who had arrested McVeigh), he was told by OHP chief legal counsel John Lindsey, "The FBI has requested that no one interview Trooper Charlie Hanger."

Mitch.e.l.l Whitmire, who knew McVeigh when they were both in the Army, was contacted by defense investigator Neil Hartley. Whitmire told Hartley he was instructed by the FBI not to talk to anyone about the case unless he obtained permission from the FBI.[877]

When this author tried to interview two members of the Sheriff's Bomb Squad, they became visibly nervous. They claimed no other bombs were pulled out of the building, clearly contradicting news accounts showing additional bombs that were taken away and detonated.

As discussed previously, FBI agents put up a protective perimeter around Eldon Elliott, preventing him from talking to journalists and defense investigators.

KFOR-TV, who took the lead in investigating the case, found it almost impossible to interview witnesses. "We get there and all of a sudden they've been told to shut up," said Melissa Klinzing, KFOR's former News Director.[878]

A Tulsa fire captain told investigator Craig Roberts he saw machinegun-toting black-clad agents with no markings removing boxes of files from the Post Office ten days after the bombing. When he was subsequently interviewed by this author, he denied seeing anything.

Ann Domin, who originally told a Tulsa police officer she had seen two Middle Eastern males loitering near the front of the Murrah Building just before the blast, later denied saying that.[879]

According to a conversation Jon Rappaport had with Daily Oklahoman reporter Ann Defrange, witness Peter Schaffer told Defrange he had seen the Murrah Building collapse in on itself, suggesting that cutting charges were used. When Rappaport questioned Schaffer, he denied seeing the building falling down at all. When Rappaport got back to Defrange, she remained adamant about what Schaffer told her. "She didn't budge at all," said Rappaport.[880]

"The FBI must have gotten to him," said Heidelberg. "You know, the FBI has been able to get witnesses to shut up about important things they know. We've talked to some of these people. In certain instances the witnesses believe that concealing evidence is the right thing to do. They really believe it. The FBI has sold them a bill of goods about national security or something like that. In other cases the FBI has used straight-out intimidation on witnesses. They size up people. On one witness they'll use something like national security. On another, they'll go for intimidation."[881]

Heidelberg's own brush with the government didn't end with his dismissal from the grand jury. Several minutes after agreeing to do an interview with Jayna Davis, he received a call from U.S. Attorney Joseph Hartzler telling him that a reporter was on her way and that he was not to talk to her, or he would be arrested. Obviously, Heidelberg's phone was tapped.[882]

"They tried everything to shut me up," said Heidelberg. "They have said they were going to throw me in jail. When that didn't work, they got down on their hands and knees and begged. I mean... they have tried everything to keep me from talking to the press about this."

On July 19, FBI agents Jon Hersley and William Teater appeared at Heidelberg's home, just hours after Judge Russell called him and discovered that he had taken his grand jury notes home. Apparently Teater wasn't too pleased with Heidelberg's casual att.i.tude. At one point, he pulled back his jacket, revealing his gun, which he had conspicuously stuck in his waist belt.

"They were trying to impress upon me the seriousness of... they were trying to give me the message that this is big time, that this is heavy weight," said Heidelberg, "and I was supposed to be frightened... Guns mean business... I was supposed to behave and be a good boy and not give them any trouble. The implication was that they were gonna' shoot me, but I knew better than that," Heidelberg said.[883]*

Heidelberg doesn't feel he will serve any jail time for his actions. "They don't want me exonerated or indicted," said Heidelberg. "They want me twisting in the wind."[884]

In February of '97, ABC planned a follow-up to their 20/20 "Prior Knowledge" piece, which included an interview with ATF informant Carol Howe. Hours before the piece was to air on "World News Tonight," it was killed.

According to ABC producer Roger Charles: "They were uncomfortable with it after a series of phone calls from high-level Justice Department and ATF people, saying that well, yes, the story is right, but you're going to draw the wrong conclusions unless we can explain it." According to an interview with ABC conducted by McVeigh's defense team, the conversation went something like this: Justice Dept: "We have to admit now Stra.s.smeir has been investigated."

ABC: "But you have denied over and over that he was ever the subject of an investigation."

Justice Dept: "Well, we're undenying that now. He has been investigated, but we could not involve him specifically in the bombing of the building.... [Regarding Howe's reports of others involved, we] "could not find anyone who bought fertilizer, could not find anyone who rented a truck, so therefore we could not charge them with anything. [Besides], we're not sure the information was credible."

ABC: "But did you or did you not send her back out?"

Justice Dept: "Yes, she was sent back out."

ABC: "Well, what in the h.e.l.l does that mean?"

Justice Dept: "She did go back out, but she was unable to develop any evidence that these people had partic.i.p.ated, [although] essentially your information is correct."

ABC then said the Justice Department press spokesman attempted to downplay the credibility of Howe by stating that the government hears these types of statements all the time from "White Supremacist compounds."

ABC: "Yeah, but there's one difference here."

Justice Dept: "What is that?"

ABC: "The G.o.d d.a.m.n building blew up, that's what."[885]

Not only would Howe's testimony have had unfortunate consequences for authorities, it would not have jived with the FBI's fantasy of the "lone nut" bomber. It seemed authorities were replaying the same scenario they had played out 28 years before. In the JFK investigation, the FBI focused on the "lone nut" scenario too. Witnesses who did not support the FBI's case against Oswald as lone partic.i.p.ant were intimidated, debunked or misquoted in reports. Most who saw shooters other than the one on the 6th floor of the Book Depository were never subpoenaed to testify.

In 1963, Julia Ann Mercer told the FBI and the Dallas Police that she saw a man carry a rifle case up to the Gra.s.sy Knoll just before the shooting. The FBI took her statement. Later, when she was interviewed by District Attorney Jim Garrison and shown the statements she had given the Bureau, she began shaking her head. "These all have been altered, she said. "They have me saying just the opposite of what I really told them."

In the Oklahoma City case, witnesses whose statements didn't fit the government's official timeline and scenario were either ignored altogether, or intimidated into changing their stories.[886]

Cheryl Wood, an employee at Love's convenience store, who saw McVeigh and John Doe 2 on April 17, told FBI agents their security camera had captured images of the two men. The FBI didn't take the tapes and didn't want to use Wood's story. "They tried to convince Wood that she was crazy - that she hadn't really seen them," said a Newsweek reporter who interviewed Wood. "They rattled her real good." When the store manager decided to take the video home himself, the FBI changed their minds, and confiscated the tape.

McVeigh and his friends also stopped at another convenience store about 45 minutes from Love's. As a Newsweek reporter who interviewed the employees told me, the FBI didn't use the statements of those witnesses either, because it didn't fit the FBI's "official" timeline.[887]

Mike Moroz, the Johnny's Tire Shop employee who gave McVeigh and John Doe 2 directions to the Murrah building on the morning of the blast, was interviewed by the FBI several times. On the last interview they told him that he had seen McVeigh drive in a different direction than he had originally stated. The FBI then claimed to the press that Moroz had made a mistake and was confused.

Danny Wilkerson, the Regency Towers employee who sold McVeigh two softdrinks and a pack of cigarettes 10 minutes before the bombing, claims FBI agents tried very hard to get him to change his story. Wilkerson saw McVeigh and another man in an older, shorter Ryder truck with a cab overhang. FBI agents showed Wilkerson a catalog of different Ryder models, trying to coerce him into stating that the truck he saw was bigger and newer than the one actually seen. Wilkerson refused to change his story.

As previously discussed, Catina Lawson knew McVeigh when he was stationed in Kansas, and saw him at parties with Andreas Stra.s.smeir and Michael Brescia. When Lawson saw the artist's sketch of John Doe 2, she said, "That's Mike [Brescia]. Lawson repeatedly called the FBI to tell them it was Brescia, but they didn't want to listen, and stopped returning her calls.

"I kept telling them that the man in the [John Doe 2] sketch was that Mike guy, a nice-looking guy, dark-skinned. But the FBI made me feel guilty, then ignorant, as if I didn't know what I was saying. Then, later, I tried to call in with more information and they wouldn't even talk to me."

Debra Burd.i.c.k had seen the yellow Mercury, the brown pick-up, and the blue Chevy Cavalier at 10th and Robinson on the morning of the blast. Burd.i.c.k called the FBI and the OSBI, and "they blew me off. They said they didn't have time to get over there.... they told me, 'you didn't see anything.' And that's when I thought I was going crazy...."[888]

Jane Graham, along with three other women, had seen a trio of suspicious-looking men in the Murrah Building's underground garage the Friday before the bombing. The men were working with wire and a small, putty-colored block which appeared to be C-4 plastic explosive.

FBI Agent Joe Schwecke made two appointments to interview Graham, but kept neither of them. "He never showed up," said Graham. "I again called and set up another appointment for the following week and that was never kept."

When Schwecke finally spoke to her, he "only wanted to know if I could identify McVeigh or Nichols. Apparently the FBI was not interested in any time other than the Monday or Tuesday - the week of the bombing!" exclaimed Graham, "...and only if the responses pointed directly to McVeigh!"[889]

The manager of the Great Western Inn in Junction City was certain the Middle Eastern man who had stayed in room 107 on April 17 was a dead ringer for John Doe 2. Yet the FBI tried to discredit him, saying that the inquiry there had been a waste of time. If that is true, why did the FBI confiscate the hotel's register?[890]

Barbara Whittenberg at the Sante Fe Trail Diner told Bill Jasper the FBI tried to get her to change her story.[891]

Jeff Davis, who delivered Chinese food to a man in room 25 at the Dreamland Motel, had been interviewed numerous times by the FBI. They appeared interested in trying to get Davis to say that McVeigh was the man he saw.

During trial, prosecutor Larry Mackey attacked Davis' credibility, noting that two days after the bombing, he told FBI agents that the man was a white male, 28 or 29, about 6 feet tall, about 180 pounds with short, sandy hair, clean-cut with no mustache.[892]

Yet Davis originally told the FBI, "The man to whom I delivered that bag of Chinese food is not Tim McVeigh."[893]

Still, Mackey tried to shake Davis' confidence in his memory, suggesting that Davis had told a bartender and an ABC sketch artist that he saw McVeigh.

Mackey: "You deny that?"

Davis: "Yes, sir, I do,"

In fact, the person Davis saw had "unkempt" hair, a regional accent, possibly from Oklahoma, Kansas or Missouri, and an overbite. McVeigh possesses none of those characteristics.[894]

"I was frustrated quite a bit because they just didn't seem to want to say 'Okay, there's somebody we may not have.' A lot of it seemed 'd.a.m.n! I just wish he'd say it was McVeigh so we could be done with it.'"[895]

Davis told The Denver Post that the FBI never even bothered making a composite sketch of the man he saw. A TV network finally hired an artist to do one.

Daina Bradley had seen only one man - olive-skinned, dark-haired, wearing jeans, jacket, and baseball cap - get out of the pa.s.senger side of the Ryder truck in front of the Federal Building moments before it blew up. Yet when she testified for the defense during McVeigh's trial, she switched tracks, saying she saw two suspects.

What is interesting is that in numerous interviews with the media, prosecutors, and the defense team, Bradley adamantly maintained that she had seen only one suspect - John Doe 2. Just weeks before her testimony, Bradley again told U.S. Attorney Patrick Ryan and defense attorney Cheryl Ramsey she was certain the man she saw wasn't Timothy McVeigh.

Yet shortly after the start of McVeigh's trial - after meeting with federal prosecutors - Bradley suddenly "changed her mind."

It seemed that FBI agents were conveniently waiting at the airport to intercept some of McVeigh's defense witnesses, who would then be "persuaded" to change their testimony.[896]

Under cross-examination by Ryan, Bradley - who had maintained a rock-solid story of John Doe 2 since the day of the bombing - now claimed she saw a second man. Yet during trial she was nervous and faltering, her testimony wavering constantly. At one point, she covered her face with her hands and quietly said, "I want to talk to my lawyer."

Ryan eventually got Bradley to say she wasn't sure whether the second suspect was McVeigh, but that there was "nothing different" between McVeigh's features and those of the second man.

In addition, Bradley told the jury she thought the truck was parked against the flow of traffic on the one-way street - a ludicrous proposition, but convenient for a government intent on convincing a jury that Bradley saw the suspect - who was not John Doe 2, but possibly McVeigh - get out of the driver's side.[897]

Gary Lewis, the Journal Record pressman who was almost run over by McVeigh and two of his a.s.sociates in the yellow Mercury shortly before the blast, suddenly denied seeing them at all! Just before he was subpoenaed to testify before the county grand jury, Lewis told reporters, "What I seen wasn't a fact, it wasn't true."

Claiming the FBI had "cleared up his confusion" more than a year ago, Lewis said the FBI showed him a photograph of McVeigh's distinctive battered yellow Mercury, and convinced him it wasn't the same car he spotted on April 19. "It was real similar to it," Lewis said. "It was real close but it wasn't it."

Lewis then claimed his eyewitness account, which had already been published in striking detail, had been exaggerated by Representative Key and Glenn Wilburn. "I don't care for [Wilburn] or Charles Key," Lewis told The Daily Oklahoman. "They kind of pushed it along for reasons I don't know why. That is about all I have got to say."[898]

This was quite a change from the nervous witness who checked the underside of his car every morning for bombs, afraid he was targeted for a.s.sa.s.sination by either bombing suspects or the feds.[899]

As previously mentioned, Dr. Paul Heath, the VA psychologist, had spoken to McVeigh and two of his a.s.sociates at his office several weeks before the blast, when they approached him looking for "jobs."

Heath was interviewed by the FBI no less than ten times. On the last visit, "He (the FBI agent) confronted me saying he did not want me telling the story any longer. He said it was a false story, that I had made it up, that it was a figment of my imagination, and that if I pursued it, he would publicly discredit me.

"I said to him, 'that is the most despicable, uncalled for att.i.tude that I've ever seen, and I don't know why you said that to me, but I can tell you, you're not going to change my reality with it.'"[900]