Posted on 07/06/2005 1:45:48 PM PDT by GlockGrrl
Nichols' comments tie McVeigh firmly to Elohim City By J.D. Cash
During a jailhouse interview Monday in Colorado with U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., Terry L. Nichols admitted traveling to the outskirts of Elohim City with Timothy McVeigh in October of 1993.
The admission is the first time Nichols has confirmed McVeigh's ties to the terrorist training camp and should finally lay to rest years of speculation as to McVeigh's longstanding connections there.
After the April 19, 1995, bomb-ing of the Oklahoma City federal building, this newspaper reported a phone call made from McVeigh's motel room in Kingman, Az., to Elohim City. That call was made only seconds after McVeigh called a Ryder truck rental, checking on truck sizes and other details.
During a subsequent investiga-tion, it was established that McVeigh's April 5, 1995, call to Elohim City was for Andreas Carl Strassmeir, also known as "Andy the German," the camp's paramili-tary expert.
Interviewed Friday by telephone, Rohrabacher said Nichols would not divulge any specifics of the camp n not even that he personally went inside there with McVeigh.
However, Nichols did tell the congressman that as they drove to the immediate area adjoining the compound, McVeigh made state-ments that clearly indicated he'd been to Elohim City before.
Recounting his interview, Rohrabacher said: "Terry told me that, along the drive McVeigh told him about the place and the people there. His best friend at Elohim City was Strassmeir. And Nichols said McVeigh called him "Andy the German" and that that his name came up often."
Rohrabacher also said this first trip to Oklahoma occurred during the same timeframe the pair were looking at real estate, some dis-tance away in northern Arkansas.
Indeed, Nichols' story does find support in the records and from Nichols' friends and family mem-bers.
Several years ago, James Nichols said his younger brother was down on his luck and broke in the fall of 1993 when he and his army buddy left Decker, MI.
Interviewed shortly after the bombing, James Nichols told this reporter that the pair said they were going to Arkansas to look at a berry farm that was for sale. How the two planned to pay for the property, apparently was not discussed, James Nichols told the Gazette in 1995.
Records support story
According to the newspaper's investigation, on Oct. 11, 1993, Nichols used his real name when he checked into a room at a Motel 6 in Fayetteville, Ark.
Three years later the manager of the budget motel said that the only reason he recalled the event was because the FBI came to the chain motel after the bombing and asked to review the registration records. When they found Nichols' name, they picked up all the records for that time period and left. The man-ager said he never got them back.
Also supporting Nichols' com-ments to Rohrabacher: A traffic ticket issued by an Arkansas state trooper places McVeigh quite close to Elohim City during the same time period.
The day after Nichols and McVeigh spent the night in Fa-yetteville, McVeigh was stopped on a winding two-lane highway just outside Van Buren, Ark. The ticket reflects that the highway patrolman issued McVeigh a citation for mak-ing an illegal lane change. McVeigh never paid the ticket and a warrant was eventually issued for his arrest.
The evidence places McVeigh only six miles from Elohim City that day. And with Nichols' admis-sions on Monday that McVeigh's statements established he'd been to the terrorist training camp before, the FBI's longstanding argument that the agency has no information linking McVeigh to Elohim City, and other conspirators, might fi-nally end. But will it?
Reached on his cell phone Satur-day morning, Special Agent Gary Johnson said his agency could not comment on the Rohrabacher inter-view, as he was unaware it had even taken place until the newspa-per called.
The public affairs spokesman for the Oklahoma City FBI office said he would ask for a copy of the in-terview notes of the agent attending the Rohrabacher/Nichols interview and respond after that.
Longtime Nichols' family friend, Bob Popovich of Snover, MI., said Saturday he did not know for cer-tain that Nichols ever went inside Elohim City with McVeigh, but, "I suspected that happened when I heard McVeigh was ticketed so close to that place. I knew about their trip to Arkansas. I'm sure if he (Nichols) went there with Tim, he wasn't happy to be there."
Popovich also said Nichols told his mother and sister last month that he was fearful for his life and for the lives of his family.
"Terry is scared," said Popovich. "He's not so much scared of the Tim's old friends, he's more scared of the FBI and scared for his fam-ily."
I'm a lot more interested in what Nichols was doing in the Phillipines before the bombing.
I'm a lot more interested in what Jamie Gorelick knew and why they closed the investigation. Just another case of Bubba's "ignore the terrorists" policy.
There does seem to be a concerted effort to keep telling us things we know while overlooking some pretty blatant holes in the investigation.
Everything that Nichols says is a lie. If you want the truth, take what he says and turn it around 180 degrees. Jayna Davis is right in her book "The Third Terrorist."
What an incredible thing to say. Unless the gummint gave him a deal in return for his life.
And would he have gotten a deal unless he knew the gummint was involved and could prove it, even after his demise?
What other POSSIBLE reason would he be fearful of the FBI, rather than other accomplices -- if they existed?
So I have to ask, was Andy on loan or what?
Is Nichol's jail cell more of a safe-house than it is a place of confinement and punishment?
And is McVeigh really basking in the sun on a beach somewhere?
And what of the mid-easterners? Just peripheral to the plot, red herrings, or the real master-minds?
Makes one rightfully wonder who is in cahoots with whom?
Check out this story from The Oklahoman today:
Bomb-hearing evidence lacking, lawmaker says
By Nolan Clay
The Oklahoman
A U.S. representative said Tuesday he has not heard anything yet "dramatic enough" to warrant a congressional hearing on the Oklahoma City bombing, even after meeting with conspirator Terry Nichols.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., talked with Nichols two hours June 27 at the federal prison in Florence, Colo.
"I've yet to come to the threshold where I believe that all of the expense and effort that goes into a hearing and an investigation would be justified," Rohrabacher said by phone from California.
He said he is still gathering information and "I'm not ruling out having a hearing ... in the future."
Rohrabacher contends others besides Nichols and executed bomber Timothy McVeigh were behind the 1995 attack on the Oklahoma City federal building.
Nichols admits role in bombing
Rohrabacher said Nichols admitted helping McVeigh but did not identify anyone else.
"McVeigh was the guy calling shots ... ," Rohrabacher said.
"I thought I was going to get more from him. ... I thought I would get some specific names. He said that Timothy McVeigh had compartmentalized this whole scheme. And that he was one of the compartments. So, he didn't know everybody else in the other compartments. But he did believe that other people were working with Tim in other parts of this conspiracy to blow up a building."
Nichols, 50, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of release for his state and federal bombing convictions. He also recently admitted to the FBI and his family he was involved in the bombing.
Rohrabacher said there would be no reason for Nichols to testify at a congressional hearing unless "he comes up with more than what he's given me."
http://www.newsok.com/bombing/article/1544763/?template=bombing/main
Wouldn't someone who's scared tell a lot more to a Congressman who wants to open an investigation?
The MSM didn't even mention that admission. What a strange non-story this is turning out to be.
Forgot to answer your question.
I guess it depends on how high up on the food chain Nichols thinks the congressman is -- or how low.
It has been proven that the f.b.i. has lied outright to the American folks.
To the point where they let some poor soul go to jail for years to protect an informant that really did the crime.
After the jet went down off long island agent halstrum stated that he can never tell the real story here.
And if you haven't been under a rock you know theat little fiasco in waco was a coverup.
The f.b.i.? I don't and wouldn't trust them either.
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