The Oklahoma City Bombing And The Politics Of Terror Part 38

Deutchman also criticized the FBI for sloppy crime lab procedures, and claimed agents were "arrogant" for failing to tape-record Nichols' initial 9-hour interrogation. "It seems arrogant to me on the part of the FBI to say, you know, 'We have good recall and you can take what we have said.'"[1374]

Nor could jurors agree on the scope of Nichols' involvement. While most believed he played a major role, others questioned if he did much at all or had backed out completely or been coerced.

"Some people felt he wasn't involved at all in building the bomb," Deutchman said before echoing an oft-repeated mantra from the defense: "I think he was building a life."

Juror Holly Hanlin, too, felt the government failed to fully prove its case. "We couldn't find enough evidence to convince at least all of us that he intended, that he was involved from the very beginning, that he built the bomb. We felt that evidence was shaky at best...."[1375]

Others, like juror Keith Brooks.h.i.+er, said"[I] know that Terry Nichols was into it up to his eyeb.a.l.l.s and that's the only thing I had to decide.... We're not trying John Doe 2, or 3 or 4 or whatever." U.S. Attorney Beth Wilkinson naturally added her voice to the ensemble, stating that "sightings of John Doe 2 were about as common and about as credible as sightings of Elvis."[1376]

As the trial of Terry Nichols winds down, the public's attention will resolve itself to the latest scandal, reported in the same expose-tabloid fas.h.i.+on that riveted its attention on the O.J. Simpson trial. As in both cases, the relevant facts will remain obscured behind the colored smoke and lights of what will certainly be more circus trials. Attorney Larry Becraft told Media Bypa.s.s, "They got Oswald, they got James Earl Ray, they got McVeigh and once they're finished with Nichols, they've offered the public a couple of sacrificial lambs, and they hope it will all go away."

By the time this book is published, a few select facts may be brought to light. They will first be revealed by a few victims' families, angrily demanding justice; by the few public officials courageous enough to risk their careers. And finally, they will be echoed in the courts by the inevitable specter of civil litigation.

Then, the powers that be will hasten to construct a new layer of damage control, and the cover-up will begin anew. Like the crime scene quickly demolished, and the John Does that never existed, this new "limited-hangout," in the form of a few "startling revelations," will be used as a dam, to hold back the onrus.h.i.+ng tide of truth.

Will Timothy McVeigh ever choose to reveal that truth - what he knows of it - or will it go with him to the grave, or die with him in a prison "suicide?"

As Fletcher Prouty states: "The whole story of the power of the cover-up comes down to a few points. There has never been a grand jury and trial in Texas (referring to Lee Harvey Oswald). Without a trial there can be nothing. Without a trial it does no good for researchers to dig up data. It has no place to go and what the researchers reveal just helps make the cover-up tighter, or they eliminate that evidence and the researcher."[1377]

The government illegally prevented a state trial in Dallas in 1963, as they tried to do in Oklahoma City in 1995. It came down to one courageous District Attorney in New Orleans to open up that can of worms.

As this book went to press, a County Grand Jury, convened at the behest of two courageous men in Oklahoma, began hearing evidence.

Will these jurors will more objective and effective than the highly manipulated Federal Grand Jury? One juror, Ben Baker, was quoted in The Daily Oklahoman as saying: "Everyone I've talked to believes this is a waste of time and taxpayers' money. I believe the same thing."

Another juror, Kenneth Rickenbrode, is a lieutenant with OCPD Internal Affairs, which should serve rather nicely to hamstring any serious inquiry into the murder of OCPD Officer Terrance Yeakey.

Fortunately, Bob Macy's Chief a.s.sistant DA, Pat Morgan and a.s.sistant DA Suzanne Lister-Gump are on hand to "advise" the jurors and "pre-screen" the evidence.

Charming.

Representative Key had little choice but to work with Macy's people, the alternative being a special prosecutor being appointed by political hacks Attorney General Drew Edmondson or Governor Frank Keating. Although Key could have objected to both Edmondson and Keating based on their obvious prejudice, he felt the Supreme Court would have sat on the issue, perhaps not appointing a special prosecutor for over a year. After waiting two years, he was anxious to get the process started. The choice was "deciding between bad, worse, and worse," said Key, who now believes that Macy is "on our side."[1378][1379]

Bob Macy - a man who "investigated" the case by thumbing through an old copy of The Turner Diaries - now insists he intends to uncover the truth. "I'm prepared to do what ever it takes to get to the truth!" Macy declared. "My sole intent is in learning the truth." This Macy stated to the author five months before he kowtowed to "Justice" Department wishes in opposing the grand jury.

Of course, Macy's most telling statement came when he was asked if he intended to pursue an investigation independent of the feds. "Well... I don't want to be a party to anything that will interfere with the Feds' prosecution," said Macy. "I don't want to open up a new can of worms." [1380]

This is not surprising, coming from a man who refused to prosecute eight felony indictments against a sitting governor who was a campaign manager for President Clinton.

Consequently, Key pet.i.tioned the Oklahoma Supreme Court to order Macy to do his job. In reply, Macy stated, "I am going to do my job. This action by him won't have any effect one way or another. I am still going to do it the way it is supposed to be done."

Former Congressman George Hansen (R-ID) thinks Macy, whom he says was "straddling the fence," has now turned around. "Look, "he's obligated to do the will of the establishment," said Hansen. "He went along... with defending the establishment."

An old friend of Macy's from Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., Hansen learned the hard way what it's like to suffer at the hands of a corrupt and vindictive "Justice" Department. Not one to easily trust the Federal Government, Hansen genuinely believes his old friend from the Department of Agriculture is now honestly going to challenge that government. "Give the guy a chance to turn around," said Hansen. "He honestly wants that grand jury to come out with as much of the truth as possible."[1381]

If true, perhaps Macy should imbue a sence of open-mindedness in his so-called investigators. In an affidavit filed by Richard Sinnett, the eyewitness claims that one of Macy's investigators made sarcastic comments to him about the grand jury investigation shortly before he was subpoenaed.

Sinnett could not identify the person. However, he said in the signed affidavit, the man who called him said "he did not know why he was having to do this, that Charles Key was pus.h.i.+ng this and that nothing would come of it and that is was a waste of time."

Naturally, Macy's office denied the charge.

Perhaps the Supreme Court should order Judge Burkette, presiding over the County Grand Jury, to do his job. Burkett attempted to disallow hearsay evidence to be presented to the grand jury - a clear violation of Oklahoma grand jury procedures.[1382]

"Do not accept hearsay," Burkett said in his opening instructions to the grand jurors. "Hear only those witnesses who would present facts, which if true, would substantiate an indictable offense and not needlessly delay the courts in their other functions by listening to radical persons or facts about which you could do nothing if it were true."[1383]

"...radical persons or facts about which you could do nothing if it were true"??? Judge Burkett's subtle signal is suspiciously reminiscent of the 1976 House Select Committee on a.s.sa.s.sinations investigation of the Kennedy a.s.sa.s.sination, which admitted that the evidence led to a probable conspiracy. No indicments were ever handed down.

KFOR's Jayna Davis, who testified before the Grand Jury, didn't miss this subtle signal. She told The Daily Oklahoman she expects prosecutors "to express a legitimate interest" in pursuing indictments against the suspects her witnesses identified.[1384]

Even if Macy and Burkette are eventually forced to do their jobs, the FBI can undoubtedly be counted on to intimidate key witnesses, as they did in the federal trial. Kay H., who saw Hussain al-Hussaini speed away in the brown pick-up, reportedly is afraid to testify before the Grand Jury, after publicly stating - twice - that Hussaini was the man she saw. Gary Lewis, the Journal Record pressman who was almost run over by McVeigh and John Doe 2, has now recanted his story. After his testimony before the County Grand Jury, Professor Ray Brown of the University of Oklahoma had a change of heart: "There's no evidence in the [seismographic] bomb signals for any additional charges," Brown told reporters.[1385]

The federal agents who might be subpoenaed will no doubt attempt to quash them on the grounds of "national security."

It is been rumored that no grand jury indictments will ever be returned.

Said Stephen Jones, "...a living nightmare for the Department of Justice is an Oklahoma state criminal trial, not only a nightmare for them, but a nightmare for the intelligence community, for the ATF. There isn't going to be any Oklahoma trial...."

"If I thought the State of Oklahoma was really interested in the truth as opposed to just some political side show," added Jones, "I would insist that Mr. McVeigh have a state trial and demand that he be released to the state authorities. But this is all politics."[1386]

"What [Joseph Hartzler] is trying to do is not have people learn," said McVeigh in an interview from his prison cell. "He wants to have them put their heads in the sand."

What McVeigh states may be an unfortunate axiom. Many Americans aren't interested in knowing the truth. Like Becraft said, they want it to go away. They don't want to open up a new can of worms. Many people, even those in Oklahoma, don't want to believe that the government, or elements within that government, could or would, do, or cover-up, such an evil act.

However, "very few will cover up the violent deaths of their sons and daughters, or the children of a close family friend, no matter what the price," argued a poster to an Internet newsgroup called OKBOMB.[1387]

Surprisingly, many of these people - including a significant number of bombing victims - are naive, intellectually lazy, and unreasonably indignant. Like this poster, these people haven't done their homework regarding the legion of evil and corruption in this country, so they don't have any basis for understanding or challenging it. Driven solely by instinct and emotion, and speaking from a place of ignorance, they react angrily to those attempting to expose the truth, whatever that truth might be.

Simply stated, they are in denial. Such denial absolves one of the responsibility of having to do something about the problem - to take a stand - and, on an even deeper level, to challenge their comfortably held belief systems. While the public servants who know the truth and choose to remain silent are guilty accomplices after-the-fact, to deny that such a truth exists to begin with is intellectual cowardice. Faced with such a choice between examining their falsely cherished values and, consequently, themselves, most people opt for the safer approach.

As another OKBOMB poster observed, "They want their lives to go on as easily as possible, without being hara.s.sed by the government, but without admitting to themselves that they sold their souls for a continued paycheck and a good credit rating."[1388]

The author has no respect or sympathy for such individuals, or for that matter, the majority of Americans who mindlessly subscribe to the baleful fantasies perpetrated by government liars and mainstream media wh.o.r.es. They can twist in the wind.

Two hundred years ago, Samuel Adams said: "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you...."

Fortunately, there are enough people who want to know the truth. These are the people worth fighting for. Approximately 500 bombing victims and their relatives are beginning to seek answers. They have brought two civil suits against the Federal Government. The suits seek to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the government had advance knowledge of the plot but failed to stop it, in what amounted, at least on one level, to a sting operation gone wrong.[1389]

As Stephen Jones said in his opening statement, "Outrageously, the government shares part of the blame. It's hands have blood on them as surely as the hands of the man who lit the fuse. Horrifically, the government knew what was coming, but failed to stop it. Then it covered up its role for fear of being held accountable for its inexcusable conduct."

The acquittal of ATF informant Carol Howe and the resulting publicity surrounding Elohim City will no doubt affect the balance of evidence. Yet given the fact that no Middle Eastern witnesses have been called (at least as of this writing), the revelations of Howe will only serve to highlight the role that neo-n.a.z.i elements played in the bombing - to the exclusion of the Arab faction.

This is nothing more than a "limited hang-out." Given the government/ma.s.s-media propaganda effort aimed at linking McVeigh and Nichols to the Militia Movement, and the Militia Movement to the neo-n.a.z.i community, the end result differs little from the government's original premise - that the militias, being essentially neo-n.a.z.is, are in effect, responsible for the bombing.

Should Howe's testimony reveal the government's prior knowledge, perhaps the ATF, FBI, and the "Justice" Department will eventually be forced to admit a minor role in their "tragic blunder," and those starved for a little truth will be, at last, temporarily satisfied.

Then the hearings will begin. Like the Warren Commission, the Watergate hearings, or the Iran-Contra hearings, it will eventually be revealed that a few bad apples, acting alone and outside the realm of official responsibility, were "negligent." Inevitable wrists will be slapped.

Then, as the hearings draw to a close, the deeper and more pressing questions will be swept under the rug, as the shock and tragedy of the moment gradually fades in the wake of next year's TV sitcoms. Those who orchestrated the conspiracy will disappear into the invisable cracks of time, protected by the same malignant forces that nurtured them into being.

One Congressman who allegedly displayed an interest in alternative bombing evidence was Senator Arlen Specter. As a young a.s.sistant prosecutor on the Warren Commission, Specter propounded the "magic bullet" theory. Now, on the same day as the bombing, Specter's foregone conclusions could be heard on McNeil-Lerher, propounding the "magic bomb" theory.

Soon after, Specter, who is head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked KFOR for all the evidence they'd collected on John Doe 2. No doubt the good Senator's collecting this information for the next Warren Commission report.[1390]

One American's foregone conclusion of the Oklahoma City bombing may be more revealing however. It is from a letter sent to the hospitalized survivors by a 3rd grade boy. It reads: h.e.l.lo, I hope you feel better from the explosion in Oklahoma. I wish it never happened. I felt sad when it happened. I felt bad for the people who died and the people who got hurt. That's only the beginning of what's going to happen to America. Hope you feel better.

Endnotes [E: In the original printed edition, there were both unnumbered footnotes and numbered endnotes. In this digital edition, all notes have been converted to endnotes and re-numbered. The numbers of the printed edition endnotes are shown in parentheses. Footnotes of the printed edition are also shown in parentheses, but with the format (:

:). Thus, the footnote ** from Chapter 6, page 268, would be shown as (6:268:**). Some endnotes have been added or modified by the author or the digital editor, and these are surrounded in double square brackets [[]], with those of the editor prefixed with "E:".]

1. (1) Detective Jay Einhorn, interview with author.

2. (2) Nancy Gibbs,"The Blood of Innocents," Time, 5/1/95.

3. (3) Ibid..

4. (4) According to "journalist" Larry Myers, McVeigh exited the vehicle and met Hanger between the two cars. Hanger asked McVeigh for his license. He then informed the cop that he was moving from Arkansas, at which point Hanger walked back to his vehicle and ran McVeigh's license. Hanger's video camera was on, as well as his microphone. As he walked back to McVeigh, he noticed a bulge under his jacket, and as he handed McVeigh his license, he quietly flipped the snap on his holster. He asked McVeigh if he was carrying a gun, and McVeigh informed him he was, at which point Hanger drew his weapon, shoved McVeigh against the car and spread his legs. McVeigh told Hanger that he had a concealed carry permit and showed him is old Burns Security badge. McVeigh sat in the pa.s.senger side of the patrol car and talked about the bombing as it flashed over the radio. When he arrived at the jailhouse, he asked, "when's chow?"

5. See Partin Report and diagrams in appendix.

6. (5) Sam Cohen's letter to Representative Key, 6/29/95, copy in author's possession.

7. (6) William Jasper, "Explosive Evidence of a Cover-Up," The New American, 8/7/95.

8. (7) Ibid.

9. The Atlas Powder Co. is in Dallas, Texas.

10. (8) Christine Gorman, "Bomb Lurking in the Garden Shed", Time magazine, 5/1/95.

11. (9) Rick Sherrow, interview with author.

12. (10) Linda Jones, trial transcript, U.S. v. McVeigh.

13. (11) Sacramento Bee, 4/30/95.

14. (12) Brian Ford, "McVeigh Placed at Kansas Store," Tulsa World, 9/12/97.

15. (1:5:*) They claimed they didn't know where it was built.

16. (13) Military Explosives, TM 9-1910/TO 11A-1-34, Dept. of the Army and the Air Force, 4/14/55, p. 121.

17. (14) Michele Marie Moore, Oklahoma City: Day One (Eagar, AZ: Harvest Trust, 1996), p. 122.

18. (15) KFOR-TV, 4/19/95.

19. (16) USA Today, 4/28/95.

20. (17) New York Times, 10/19/95.

21. (18) Memorandum to all US Attorneys from Acting a.s.sistant Attorney General John C. Keeney, 1/4/96, and letter of Frederick Whitehurst, 1/9/96 copy in author's possession.

22. (19) "Outside Experts to Review FBI Crime Lab,"Wall Street Journal, 9/19/95; OIG report, copy in author's possession.

23. (1:7:*) "Williams' report also states that the initiator for the Primadet or the detonating cord was a non-electric detonator; non-electric, burning type fuse of either hobby fuse or a commercial safety fuse was used as a safe separation and time delay system; and the time delay for the burning fuse was approximately 2 minutes and 15 seconds.... No evidence of a non-electric detonator or the named fuses, however, were found at the crime scene.... Williams also stated in his report that [a] fertilizer base explosive, such as ANFO... among other commercial and improvised explosives, has an approximate VOD of 13,000 fps. The statement of the VOD of ANFO, however, is incomplete because ANFO has a broad VOD range. For example, the Dupont Blasters' Handbook (Dupont) shows commercial ANFO products with VODs in the 7,000-15,600 feet-per-second range. When Williams wrote his Oklahoma City report, he was aware of this range...."

24. (20) The Gundersen Report on the Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building, Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995, 11/1/96, copy in author's possession.

25. (21) Ibid.

26. As the OIG report states: "Whitehurst questions Williams' conclusion that none of the structural damage evident within the Murrah building was caused by secondary explosive devices or explosions."

27. (1:8:*) Partin pointed out that while the truck bomb that damaged the World Trade Center was in an enclosed s.p.a.ce, thereby creating a much higher destructive force than a bomb out in the open, it did not destroy the support column next to it.

28. (22) Richard Sherrow, "Bombast, Bomb Blasts & Baloney,"Soldier of Fortune, 6/95.

29. (23) Rabauch's letter to Partin dated 7/18/95, copy in author's possession.

30. (24) CNN World News, 6/26/96.

31. (25) Jim Loftis, interview with author.

32. (1:10:*) The Israelis' host in the U.S. was Oklahoma City business leader Moshe Tal, an Israeli. According to William Northrop, another Israeli and Oklahoma City resident, Tal initially circulated the report, which was three pages and mentioned the Middle-Eastern bomb signature. After Tal was summoned to Israel, he returned denying those aspects of the report. It was suddenly, in keeping with the U.S. Government's position, no longer a Middle-Eastern bomb, and the report itself incredibly shrank from three pages to only one.

33. (26) Lou Kilzer and Kevin Flynn, "Were Feds Warned Before OKC Bomb Built?" Rocky Mountain News, 2/6/97. The fuel dealer reported the purchasing attempt to the ATF, but the agency did not follow up.

34. (27) Gronning's letter to Key, dated 6/27/95, copy in author's possession.

35. (28) James L. Pate, "b.l.o.o.d.y April: Waco Anniversary Triggers Oklahoma City Atrocity," Soldier of Fortune, August, 1995.

36. (29) Larens Imanyuel, interview with author.

37. (30) Engineering News, May 1, 1995, page 10-11.

38. (31) The Gundersen Report on the Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building, Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995, 11/1/96, copy in author's possession.

39. (32) Larens Imanyuel,"The Bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building: Was a Cruise Missile Warhead Design Used?" Veritas, 12/18/95.

40. (33) Timothy McVeigh's Pet.i.tion for Writ of Mandamus, 3/25/97, p. 35.

41. (34) Ramona McDonald, interview with author.

42. (35) "The Worst Terrorist Attack on U.S. Soil: April 19, 1995," CNN, 12/20/95.

43. (1:13:*) Other people who were working in office buildings at the time reported that sparks flew out from their computers just before the blast. The manager of the Journal Record parking garage, two blocks from the Murrah Building, reported that the electronic computers in at least half a dozen cars had malfunctioned as a result of the blast.

44. (36) Sam Cohen, interview with author.