The Oklahoma City Bombing And The Politics Of Terror Part 37

Naturally, the Was.h.i.+ngton Post and New York Times blamed the bombing on the Sandinistas.[1341][1342]

Yet Garcia knew better. "There are people here who are above the Const.i.tution," recalled Garcia. "I didn't know the federal system was like this. I never dreamed."[1343]

Garcia was eventually set up by Saum on a federal gun charge, he figured, either because he refused to go along with the first plot, or simply because of his knowledge of it.[1344]

John Mattes, Garcia's defense lawyer, while investigating Garcia's story, began uncovering North and Casey's twisted web of gun and drug smuggling. While Mattes was eager to present the evidence in court, he never got the chance. The "Justice" Department, which initially started a probe, suddenly switched tracks. They "weren't interested" in going any further with it, Mattes said. He and his investigator were later called into the U.S. Attorney's office in Miami and told, "Get out. You're out. Stay out. You've crossed the line. You've gone too far." (The U.S. Attorney threatened the public defender with "obstructing justice.")[1345]

During testimony, Saum admitted that he had operated "under orders" to bring about Garcia's arrest. Saum's wife told c.o.c.kburn that he was working for the CIA.

Terrell would eventually express his misgivings to the press. As he writes in Disposable Patriot: During an operation, the gravity of what you are doing is obscured by the determination to do whatever it is you have been programmed to do. If you whack a bunch of people, blow up cars or hotels, or murder children, it doesn't make any difference. Something in your character sets you apart from normal people, and once it's trained and propagandized to where you start believing what people are telling you, you lose your sense of right and wrong, and in some cases, your sense of morality. In the end, when the veil of perceived sanction is lifted and you no longer have the protection of the invisible barrier that justifies all your actions, then those unspeakable acts committed in the name of freedom and democracy, come back in a more objective retrospect. Finally, you understand the impact. You say to yourself, did I do that? Usually, you did.[1346]

Former CIA officer Victor Marchetti discovered this unfortunate truth long ago. As Marchetti writes in The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence: The "clandestine mentality" is a mind-set that thrives on secrecy and deception. It encourages professional amorality - the belief that righteous goals can be achieved through the use of unprincipled and normally unacceptable means. Thus, the cult's leaders must tenaciously guard their official actions from public view. To do otherwise would restrict their ability to act independently; it would permit the American people to pa.s.s judgment on not only the utility of their policies, but the ethics of those policies as well....

Finally, there was the blatantly uninhibited statement of former OSS Colonel George White, one of the original founders of the CIA: "I toiled wholeheartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, rape and pillage with the blessings of all the highest?"[1347]

Ten years later the Octopus would demonstrate similar ethics by bombing the Federal Building in Oklahoma, taking out two potential whistle-blowers in the process - Secret Service agents Alan Whicher and Mickey Maroney, while blaming it on Timothy James McVeigh - a "disposable patriot."

Were Whicher and Maroney - like Gannon and McKee - a "strong secondary target?" As HUD employee Jane Graham said, "Maybe there was a sting within a sting... to eliminate agents who knew too much."

Whicher formerly served on the White House detail, and was reportedly involved in a little-known incident involving electronic bugging of the White House by the j.a.panese. Whicher was subsequently transferred to the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.[1348]

It was also rumored that the Secret Service agent had talked to his wife just minutes before the blast, telling her that he had to get off the phone because he was told to wait for an important call. Apparently... that call never came.

Maroney served on Clinton's presidential campaign and transition detail, and told friend and bombing survivor V.Z. Lawton about some of the many Clinton-related improprieties he witnessed. Maroney, described by Lawton as a "Christian person" and a "super guy," said that the Clinton's were "two of the most foul-mouthed... low-lifes" he had ever been around. In one humorous incident, he recalled how Hillary threw an ashtray at Bill, only to miss and have it strike a Secret Service Agent (who no doubt courageously threw himself between the President and the deadly ashtray). One has to wonder however if Maroney witnessed more than just obscene word play.[1349][1350]

Yet perhaps most interestingly, it was rumored that one of the charges that destroyed the Murrah Building was beneath the Secret Service office. This possibility became all the more apparent when The Daily Oklahoman recently reported that a warning call was placed to an answering service several days before the bombing, claiming that an explosive charge was placed inside the Secret Service office: ...Vance DeWoody, owner of Opal's Answering Service, and his employee, Pat Houser... received an anonymous telephone call saying that a bomb was going to go off in the office of the U.S. Secret Service on the ninth floor of the Murrah Building....[1351]

Opal's Answering Service... has a contract with the Secret Service.

It seems the deaths of Whicher and Maroney can be added to the growing list of approximately 40 victims involved with or knowledgeable of Clinton's financial, extra-marital, and drug-related activities at Mena, Arkansas who have met violent and untimely deaths.

The murders of Whicher and Maroney also have ominous parallels to the deaths of Major Charles McKee and Agent Matthew Gannon aboard Pan Am flight 103.

Describing how an organization might blow up an airplane or a building to kill one or two people, former DEA Agent Mike Levine says: "Once you arrange a death, once you employ one of these organizations that do this sort of thing, it's out of your control."[1352]

The deaths of Whicher and Maroney also meant two less witnesses to testify about the Octopus' drug-running and related skull-duggery.

While scratching that itch, the Octopus managed to remove sensitive files, conceivably implicating it in its illegal and murderous activities.

Finally, with the destruction of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, the Federal Government could point to a new "terrorist threat" in our midst, while effectively halting political dissent, and successfully arguing for a whole new spate of laws and regulations that threaten to do away with what little freedoms Americans have left.

15.

Let Them Eat O.J.

["All men will see what you seem to be; only a few will know what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose the many who have the majesty of the state on their side to defend them."

- Niccolo Machiavelli, 1532 A.D.]

McVeigh is sentenced to death. We are all saved.

Anyone who believes this is brain dead and deserves the consequences. Lies beget new lies. Crimes beget new crimes. Murder begets new murder. Nothing has changed in people's thinking in five thousand years. If there is a blood sacrifice for the G.o.ds, all is well. The rule of ritual blood sacrifice is supplanting the rule of law, due process and const.i.tutional rights under the rubric of "victims' rights." The regression to social barbarism is matched by individual regression to infantile magical thinking and The Lord of the Flies is the ultimate destination.[1353]

On June 2, 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted of all 11 counts in the federal indictment: eight counts of murdering federal agents, and one count each of possessing a weapon of ma.s.s destruction; of conspiring to use a weapon of ma.s.s destruction; and of destroying federal property with a weapon of ma.s.s destruction. The sentence was death by lethal injection.

In the trial, which was hailed as "brilliant," "textbook," and "close to perfect" by government legal pundits, prosecutors presented largely circ.u.mstantial evidence combined with emotional tales from bombing victims, and won immediate convictions.

In the last murder "trial of the century," prosecutors displayed an impressive array of hard, solid evidence against former football star O.J. Simpson and were met with acquittal.[1354]

Federal prosecutors introduced no witnesses who could have placed McVeigh in Oklahoma City on April 19... because McVeigh was always seen in the company of other suspects - a can of worms the government, and the defense, could not afford to open. Yet while prosecutors interspersed relatively circ.u.mstantial evidence with heart-wrenching and completely irrelevant tales from tearful bombing victims, the defense wasn't allowed to present any expert witnesses debunking the government's "single bomb" theory, or any evidence linking other suspects to the crime!

Finally, just one month before the start of McVeigh's trial, the Dallas Morning News "leaked" alleged doc.u.mentation that McVeigh had "admitted" to a defense team member Richard Reyna that he alone drove the Ryder truck to the Alfred P. Murrah Building (hardly a credible a.s.sertation at this point). Like the startling revelations of McVeigh's racing fuel purchases a year and-a-half after the fact, this well-timed ruse was engineered to resuscitate the government's rapidly deteriorating case.

While Jones' superbly crafted and highly revealing Writ of Mandamus barely registered a blip on the official radar screen of the mainstream press, McVeigh's highly dubious "confession" became the immediate focus of tabloid attention.

In doc.u.ments recently discovered by the National Globe, it was learned that Lee Harvey Oswald made a "confession" to Dallas Police on November 22, in which he states that he, a) Acted alone; b) Had no ties with any mob or intelligence organizations; and c) Was mad at the President and wanted to make a political statement.

"That should put this controversy to rest for all time," said former president and Warren Commission member Gerald Ford.

Lee Harvey Oswald didn't live to tell the truth. Timothy McVeigh chose not to speak it. Yet, as Stephen Jones noted, if McVeigh dies, the truth may die with him.

While Judge Richard Matsch bared much of the relevant evidence pertaining to the case, he permitted numerous victims' completely irrelevant testimony about their personal trauma, obviously designed to sway the emotions of an ignorant and confused jury.

Matsch also barred ATF informant Carol Howe's testimony as "irrelevant," saying that it "would confuse or mislead the jury." Howe's attorney, Clark Brewster, said his client could have given "compelling testimony in support of a potential conspiracy theory."

The trial was also one of the most secretive ever held. According to the a.s.sociated Press, a "review of 1,000 doc.u.ments filed between Feb. 20 and Sept. 5 found 75 percent of the records have been at least partially sealed."[1355]

Given the mainstream media's largely acquiescent att.i.tude towards the government's fairy tale, it would hardly have mattered. One of the most important and revealing doc.u.ments in the case, McVeigh's Writ of Mandamus, was dismissed as a concoction of conspiracy theories designed to cast doubt on McVeigh's guilt. Judge Matsch would have no part of "conspiracy theories." He ordered all important exhibits of McVeigh's Writ sealed.

While Jones and the government both decided that McVeigh couldn't receive a fair trial in Oklahoma, critics argued that the case was moved to Denver to put it under the careful control of federal lap-dog Richard Matsch. In one of the most controversial environmental cases ever, Matsch used a one-sided hearing to brush aside charges that radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver was adversely undermining the health of area residents.

A Nixon appointee, Matsch also presided over the Silverado Savings and Loan case, involving George Bush's son Neil - a case thick with dirty covert operatives and shady criminals linked to the CIA and the Iran-Contra operation. Bush walked.[1356]

McVeigh's defense lasted little more than a week. In that regard the trial was little different than the trial of the surviving Branch Davidians, who were not allowed to introduce evidence that they had acted in self-defense. The superficial two day defense, presented after weeks of bogus evidence presented by the government, resulted from Judge Smith who said he would not allow the defense to "put the government on trial." Yet in fact several jurors expressed their opinions that the government should have been on trial - not the surviving Branch Davidians.

While he wasn't allowed to introduce evidence of a broader conspiracy, Jones did spend considerable time focusing on the disembodied leg, clothed in camouflage military garb, found amid the rubble of the Federal Building.

Jones introduced expert testimony that such a leg could be left intact from a blast that disintegrated the remaining body. It was this leg, which wasn't matched to any other victim, Jones suggested, that belonged to the real bomber.

Yet Judge Matsch wasn't about to allow Jones reveal his knowledge of a wider plot, as was portrayed in his Writ of Mandamus: The theory of the prosecution in this case, not the Grand Jury's theory, is that the two named Defendants constructed a simple device capable of toppling a nine-story building at a public fis.h.i.+ng lake and that one of them transported this device over two hundred miles without blowing himself up. That is the heart of the prosecution's case. Any evidence concerning the partic.i.p.ation of others, the complexity of the device, or foreign involvement takes away the heart of the government's case and there is therefore an inst.i.tutional interest on the part of the government in keeping such evidence s.h.i.+elded from the defense and the public.

Some critics argued that Jones' decision to wait until one week before the start of his client's trial to file the important and revealing doc.u.ment ensured that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals would reject the motion.[1357]

Other, such as prominent "Patriot" attorney Nancy Lord, insisted that Jones "should have violated the judge's order, presented evidence of a larger conspiracy to the jury, and gone to jail for contempt. If I would have been the defense attorney, some things are important enough to go to jail for," Lord said. "I am shocked at Stephen Jones' conduct in this case."

An attorney on Jones' legal team rated his defense as "no better than a C-minus," although he added, "I think he had some high-points."[1358]

As Jones solemnly stated in November of 1995, "Some day, when you know what I know and what I have learned, and that day will come, you will never again think of the United States of America in the same way."

The American public never learned what Stephen Jones knows. Yet on the day of his sentencing, Timothy McVeigh finally spoke out: "Our government is the potent and omnipresent teacher for good or for ill," McVeigh boldly if somewhat enigmatically announced to the court. "It teaches the whole people by its example. That's all I have to say."[1359]

Naturally, the government and many of the bombing victims took this as a sign of McVeigh's confession. The rest of the quote may shed some light on the meaning: "Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means - to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal - would bring terrible retribution."

McVeigh also accused Jones of lying and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up. "The truth is this guy only succeeded in getting [me] the death sentence," said McVeigh, "and now he doesn't want to let go."

Asked what lies Jones told him, McVeigh was not specific: "It's for Congress, the bar, and the judiciary to investigate and discover. You would not believe some of the things that have occurred in this case. The man has repeatedly lied to me in the past."[1360]

Obviously, Timothy McVeigh is holding his cards close to his vest. As Jones stated during his closing argument: "Two people share a terrible secret. One will not talk, the other is bound by law and can not talk."

The public still hasn't learned what that terrible secret is.

Other rumors abound that Jones - who stands to make millions in legal fees from the government - purposely threw the case.

"He is the most dishonest person I've ever met, including all the criminals I've defended," says his onetime law partner Alec McNaughton, who nevertheless describes Jones as "brilliant."[1361]

As a young attorney in 1964, Jones began his career working for a lawyer named Richard Milhous Nixon. His clients have run the gamut from '60s radicals such as Abbie Hoffman to establishment politicians such as Governor Frank Keating.

Jones and Nichols' attorney Michael Tigar share a common bond through the late Edward Bennett Williams, senior partner of Williams & Connolly (later Williams, Wadden & Stein). Williams' client roster included Senator Joseph McCarthy, Mafia don Frank Costello, Teamster Jimmy Hoffa, industrialist Armand Hammer, and Texas Governor John Connally.

A man on intimate terms with the CIA, Williams was offered the post of CIA director by two presidents, a job which he declined, probably because he was already a de facto CIA official.[1362]

While Jones openly admires Williams, Tigar was actually employed by him in the late '60s and mid 70s. Williams often referred to Tigar as his "most brilliant protege."

A University of Texas Law School professor, Tigar himself claims an interesting bevy of clients, ranging from "Chicago Seven" member Angela Davis, who was tried for conspiracy to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention, to John Demjanjuk, accused of being the notorious n.a.z.i concentration camp guard "Ivan the Terrible."

Jones and Tigar have collaborated before, defending a controversial Oklahoma City psychotherapist.[1363]

"Tigar is a pa.s.sionate defender of people who have been oppressed by the government," said 24-year Oklahoma City attorney Jim Bellingham, who thinks the possibility of Jones and Tigar running "damage control" for the government is "hogwash."

"I can't imagine the man selling out, and n.o.body's going to tell him how to run his defense," said Bellingham.[1364]

But former Nebraska State Senator John DeCamp, who investigated a child abuse ring run by high government officials, doesn't put much faith in Stephen Jones. DeCamp believes Jones actually made a deal with the feds. DeCamp represented a bombing victim in an early action against the Federal Government and was just about to file a motion to preserve the building as evidence. As he wrote in The Franklin Cover-Up: Only hours before I was to file the legal papers for a civil action to keep the building standing, I was contacted by Timothy McVeigh's attorneys, who presented me with two major requests.

First, they asked that I allow them to file the motions to keep the building standing so that the investigation could be conducted. They had cogent legal arguments for this request: because McVeigh was/is under federal criminal charges, he had the definite legal right to keep the building standing under the federal rules of evidence which grant criminal defendants the right to preserve evidence that would significantly impact their defense. It was clear that if McVeigh's attorneys believed, or even suspected government cover-up, they would definitely want the building examined.

Their second request was that I release from retainer the bomb investigation team I had a.s.sembled - John A. Kennedy and a.s.sociates - which, they claimed, they wanted to hire.

I granted these requests to McVeigh's attorneys.

A few hours later, I watched in horror as CNN and all the national news channels reported that McVeigh's attorneys had no intent to file any motions to keep the Federal Building standing. They had "just reached agreement with the government," the reporters explained, to permit the building to be destroyed almost immediately.

Angry beyond belief, I called McVeigh's attorney and asked what they were doing. Since this all occurred on a weekend, I could take no legal action to stop the building's destruction. McVeigh's attorney told me, "Oh yes, we are going to allow the building to be destroyed." "Why?" I demanded. "Because we could not afford to pay the retainer fee that the Kennedy and a.s.sociates firm wanted," he answered.

Shocked by this feeble explanation, I asked, "Well, just how much do they want?" McVeigh's attorney floored me: "$30,000," he said. "and we have no resources to pay it, because we are a court-appointed attorney and there are no funds for this purpose."

"For G.o.d's sake!" I screamed at him. "I will raise the money! I will pay the fee! There's too much at stake for America. "How," I demanded, "can McVeigh go along with wanting that building destroyed, when that building is the one thing that can tell America the story of what really happened? I will get you the money, somehow, but don't refuse to keep the building up for that reason!"

My protests were futile. Within hours of my call, by mutual agreement between McVeigh's attorneys and the government prosecutors, the building was destroyed, and any evidence was destroyed with it.[1365]

Jones desputed this, stating in a letter to the author: ...if anyone took the trouble to check the public filings in the case of United States v. McVeigh they will find that one of the very first Motions that I filed was to stop the implosion of the Murrah Building until the Defense could go in and take films and moving video pictures. The Court sustained my Motion and we were able, together with an architect and an explosives expert, to tour the building. Any claim that we made a "deal" with the Federal authorities to permit the demolition of the Murrah Building before the Defense could inspect if is absurd and contradicted by the public record.[1366]

A source within the defense team told me that Jones' team actually did go into the building to conduct forensic a.n.a.lysis. The group consisted of a videographer, a still photographer, and one bomb expert, who were accompanied by several FBI and ATF agents. The source said that the bomb expert walked around with only a jeweler's loupe, no forensic kit, and did not take any samples for a.n.a.lysis. The agents restricted their pa.s.sage through the building, and by the time they arrived, the crater had been filled.

Jones also made no mention of the amazing letter McVeigh sent to his sister, describing his recruitment into a secret government team involved in illegal activities, which she had read before the Federal Grand Jury.

What he did do was show a film about Waco, further reinforcing the allegations of his client's guilt, including the absurd notion that McVeigh murdered 25 innocent children in Oklahoma to avenge the murder of 25 innocent children at Waco.[1367]

Did Jones have a quid pro quo with the government not to reveal any evidence that his client was a government agent? Did he purposely throw the case? His highly incriminating Writ of Mandamus and impressive opening statement tend to belie that theory. As Jones said in his opening statement: "I know who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah building. It was NOT Tim McVeigh.

"Even more important, the government knows who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah building. The government knows it was NOT Tim McVeigh.

"The government also knows that its case against Tim McVeigh is corrupt. At its core, it's rotten. I will show you in what way, and why.

"The most important difference between us, is that the government won't tell you who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah building.

"I will."

Jones never got the chance. The exclusion of ATF informant Carol Howe sounded the death knell for other defense witnesses such as bomb expert General Benton Partin, seismologist Dr. Ray Brown, and the many witnesses who saw additional suspects. While the prosecution called 27 phone company employees to testify that McVeigh and Nichols used a pre-paid calling card to make chemical purchase inquiries, they didn't call even one of the many witnesses who would have placed McVeigh downtown on the morning of the blast!

While the government solicited the testimony of British explosives expert Linda Jones, McVeigh's attorney curiously did not call General Partin, who could have blown the lid off the government's single bomb theory.

"The judge would not permit... in his ruling he would not permit anything except one man, one bomb," said Partin. "...they structured the whole case - the whole prosecution - completely eliminating the building and anything to do with it.... because they couldn't afford to get into that."

Referring to Jones, Partin added, "I didn't expect to be called by these guys. I had absolutely no confidence in them. I didn't expect it - not from Jones."[1368]

In response, Jones said, "I did not put Partin on the stand because my experts do not credit his theory...."[1369]

Yet the question still remains: why didn't Jones take the issue of Judge Matsch's illegal decisions before the Appellate or Supreme Courts? Jones replied by stating that the appellate court "refused to accept jurisdiction of the case and said [it] would review the issues on appeal, if there was a conviction."[1370]

Some have speculated that the millions Jones stands to make in legal fees from the government played a part in his apparently poor defense.

Those who expected a similarly poor defense from Michael Tigar were shocked to find him introducing evidence of other suspects, and putting ATF informant Carol Howe on the witness stand.[1371]

No doubt Nichols' conviction of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter stemmed from the critical opinions jurors had of the prosecution's "limited hang-out."

"I do not believe that the government gave us the whole case," said Linda Morgan, one of the jurors who decided Nichols only had a minor role in the bomb plot. McVeigh, she said, "was seen with too many other people. Who were these other people?"

"I think that the government perhaps really dropped the ball," said jury forewoman Niki Deutchman, who criticized the FBI for halting its investigation after arresting Nichols and McVeigh.[1372]

"I think there are other people out there," she said, recalling defense witnesses who saw others with McVeigh before the bombing. "I think this was a horrible thing to have done... and I doubt two people were able to bring it off."[1373]