Saudis warned FBI about OKC bombing? Evidence suggests possible Iraq link

Saudi Arabian intelligence officials warned the FBI about an Iraqi plot to attack federal facilities in 1995, including the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, according to an Oklahoma lawyer teaming up with a noted Washington, D.C., public-interest law firm.

Mike Johnston, co-counsel for Judicial Watch, said Thursday that on April 19, 1995 – the day of the Oklahoma City bombing – Saudi intelligence alerted CIA officials in Washington, who in turn advised FBI agents at the Washington Metropolitan Field Office.

"Vincent Canastraro, who is the former chief of counter-terrorism for the CIA … called Special Agent Kevin L. Foust and informed him that one of his best sources from Saudi Arabian intelligence specifically advised him that there was a squad of people currently in the United States, very possibly Iraqi, who, and I'm quoting, 'have been tasked with carrying out terrorist acts against the United States,'" Johnston said during an interview on the "Judicial Watch Report" radio program.

"The Saudi informant, who's part of the Saudi counter-terrorism service, told [federal officials] that he had seen the list and that 'first on the list was the federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla.'" Johnston continued.

Johnston said the Saudi agent reported that an Internal Revenue Service building in Houston, Texas, was "second on the list," followed by the FBI's field office in Los Angeles.

The FBI facility was targeted because, according to Johnston, it was the bureau's main counterintelligence operation at that time.

Johnston also said that documents obtained by Judicial Watch show that about a year later, on April 16, 1996, the FBI filed a follow-up report claiming the initial information gleaned from Saudi sources was most likely accurate.

"Even though the government has consistently maintained that no credible evidence exists linking McVeigh to international terrorists," Johnston said, "the FBI generated a follow-up 302 report one year later … where a supervisory special agent, name blacked out, contacted another source regarding the original information from Canastraro."

The special agent "was told that the information was confirmed as generated from a general within the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Service," said Johnston. "The FBI 302 memo went on to conclude that this information appears to have validity, citing Canastraro's former position within the CIA."

An FBI spokeswoman told WorldNetDaily the bureau had no comment on Johnston's allegations. CIA officials could not be reached for comment prior to press time.

When asked why the government did not do more to press McVeigh before his death if he was working for another government, Johnston said such a strategy" was apparently not in the game plan for the Justice Department …"

Johnston says some of his information came from documents ordered sealed by U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, the presiding judge in McVeigh's initial trial, which took place in Denver, Colo.

He went on to note that Matsch has never lifted the order, though "it’s kind of hard to see how it would affect Tim McVeigh now."

"The federal government continues to seek the maintenance of that sealing order on the basis of privacy concerns," he said.

Islamic terrorists were planning to "strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future," said one warning memo, according to The Associated Press.

That report did not mention Saudi Arabia, but said only that U.S. officials were tipped by evidence "gathered across the globe from Iran and Syria to the Philippines."

AP said documents show the warnings became progressively more specific as to the time, place and type of attack.

"We specifically asked on the record for all evidence, documents and tangible objects to show whether the government had received a warning of acts of terror against federal buildings. We didn't receive this," he told AP.

As WorldNetDaily reported in March, Johnston and Judicial Watch have filed suit against Iraq, charging that Baghdad masterminded and financed "in whole or in part" the OKC bombing.

Chris Farrell, investigative director for Judicial Watch, told WorldNetDaily that the suit has yet to be served on the Iraqi government, but that it is "trudging along" in its process. He said the suit is being handled "through diplomatic channels" in the State Department, which will hand it off to the Polish government.

The U.S. maintains a section in the Polish Embassy in Baghdad, and will serve the Iraqi government through it, with Polish assistance, Farrell said.

As to whether the U.S. government has responded to reports of the suit, Farrell said, "We haven't heard anything."

McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols were eventually charged and convicted for differing roles in connection with the OKC bombing. McVeigh was executed June 11, 2001; Nichols has been sentenced to life in prison, but could face state death penalty charges in Oklahoma.

Johnston, in his radio interview, also said there was some evidence suggesting that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed – a top al-Qaida lieutenant whom federal authorities believe may have masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks – trained Nichols for the OKC bombing in the Philippines.

Mohammed "was not only involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, he was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center attack" as well, Johnston charged. "He was in the Philippines at the same time as Terry Nichols, by the way, in the last trip that he made down there before the Murrah building bombing."

U.S. officials believe Mohammed was also in charge of transferring the funds used by the Sept. 11 hijackers.

"There's lots of links that tie him to 9-11," one government official told AP June 5. "He was intricately involved."

Mohammed is also believed to be an accomplice of Ramzi Yousef, who is currently serving a life sentence in the U.S. for his alleged role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Upon his arrest, Yousef was found in possession of plans to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners. Prosecutors also believe he had planned to crash a plane into the Pentagon.

There were a lot of people on this forum clammoring for McVeigh's death last year. I urged that we think long and hard before we kill one of the few people who knew the whole story, motivation, depth of involvement, major players and other inside details. To no avail, McVeigh was executed.

Folks, McVeigh might have been duped into committing the OKC Bombing. Whether duped or not, he certainly deserved exactly what he got. But there are times, when in the interest of self-interest for the nation, men and women need to show restraint. IMO we screwed up last year, BIG TIME.

At the time I suggested that Tim McVeigh might one day see things differently. Little did I know that aound six months after his death this nation would be attacked in a manner exponentially worse than the attack on the OKC Federal Building. McVeigh was involved in an attack against the FBI, BATF or other federal entities, and the building occupants. I suspect he was so focused on the BATF or FBI that he was blinded to the children and others in the building. Or perhaps he felt their deaths were warranted in exchange for those at Waco. Frankly it's difficult to understand how he could have done what he did. But I none the less feel that he would have seen the attacks on 09/11 differently.

I suspect McVeigh saw the OKC Bombing as an attack on federal agencies with colateral damage. I don't think he would have seen the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon as mere attacks on federal agencies. He would have likely seen them as attacks against the nation as a whole. I have no way of knowing, but I suspect he might have been willing to loosen up with some information if he were appoached correctly after 09/11. Terry Nichols hasn't. Perhaps McVeigh wouldn't have either. Or perhaps neither of them would if the feds didn't bother to ask them. Somehow I doubt the feds are too anxious to have Nichols or anyone tie in the middle-east to OKC. But then we have made sure that at least McVeigh will never be able to help us.

Now there is talk of middle-easterners being connected to the OKC bombing. The John Gibson show on 06/20 presented a former CBS reporter's (Jayna Davis) report about the ME operatives that witnesses insist that they saw with McVeigh. This was as emphatic a presentation as I have every seen with regard to middle-eastern involvement in the OKC bombing. John Gibson ended his show with a resounding question that earily implied that the government's attempt at a cover-up may just be coming unraveled. Here is that editorial by Gibson. I appologize that I as unable to obtain the text from the interview of the reporter earlier in the program. But I belive this editorial will display the impact it had on Gibson.

Thursday, June 20, 2002
By John Gibson

I think we're all convinced by now that George W. Bush has the cross hairs on Saddam Hussein.

And it's clear from the latest Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll that the American public supports action against Saddam by a huge, huge margin: 75 percent for — 14 percent against. In electoral politics that's a landslide.

But what do you think those numbers would be if it turns out reporter Jayna Davis is right? If the Iraqis were behind the Oklahoma City bombing, and Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols were in fact so called 'lilly whites' recruited to act as fronts for Muslim or Iraqi, or maybe even Iranian, terror against the U.S. heartland.

And what if it turns out that Tim McVeigh, as a matter of pride and profound embarrassment, would never admit, never let it be known that he was acting in concert with, or on behalf of an actual enemy of the United States — Iraq — an enemy that he personally fought against?

Or what if he was so worried about the fate of his beloved sister if he ever confessed that John Doe No. 2 was in fact hussein alhussani, the Iraqi identified by Jayna Davis?

How much angrier would the American public be to learn that the horror of April '95 was in fact Iraqi terror, carried under the shroud of two disgruntled, ticked off at the feds over David Koresh, white guys?

How angry would the American public be if it turns out that the prosecution of McVeigh as the executive in charge of the Murrah bombing was in fact a diversion, so as to let the real perps slip away quietly to gloat about their death and destruction in the safety of their lairs in Baghdad and Tehran.

This is nightmare scenario stuff, and what's so scary about this bad dream is there is actual evidence underpinning the fear that it could be true.

Did we execute Tim McVeigh when there was evidence that might have mitigated his involvement in the plot?

Did we send McVeigh to his grave keeping the secret of John Doe No. 2, and the terrible secret of treason and the hand of Iraq in that bombing?

Were we so anxious to get a conviction in that case and give the families closure, that we didn't follow the leads that would have led to an invasion of Iraq years ago, the toppling of Saddam, and maybe — just maybe — the destruction of the terror network that later killed more than 3,000 in New York and Washington, DC?

These are provocative questions that deserve answers and luckily Terry Nichols is still breathing and is facing a state trial in Oklahoma.

Let's hope the prosecutors there get to the bottom of this once and for all.

That's My Word.

Davis presented a strong case regarding witnesses seeing middle-easterners with McVeign and Nichols. For once a talking head did not treat a person offering up information like Davis' in a hostile manner. Gibson asked questions that probed and developed the case Davis was trying to make, that there was clearly a middle-eastern involvement.

If that show pops up this weekend, I'll tape the segment I missed and air it. I think that show was something every American should hear.

I'd like to think this show caught a few people's attention across America.

I am glad Johnstons interview is getting the attention it deserves.

What is frustrating for Mike and me is that we and others have been writing and talking about the info in his interview for over 6 years and no one in the press or government officials until recently would take it seriously. I have written articles about the same info which I have been posting on FR for over two years and started going to COngress with it in 1997. The Senate Judicairy would not even listen to the PEntagon terrorsim advisor about all this when the advisor and I briefed the Judicairy and Intelligence committees legal counsels in 1997 and 1999.

I have also written extensively on FR about documents and witnesses that prove prior knowledge and forewarning by the FBI and USG and a coverup of this fact. I went to Senator Shelbys aide,William Dunke, on the Senate Intell COmmittee in early January 1999 and told him directly about the 22 affadavits of witnesses who saw McVeigh with seven ME men in OKC (seven is the same number of men Saddam Hussein alleged hired according to thre Saudi intell people).

Dunke told me to have Jyana Davis go to the OKC FBI and have them receive the evidence and let the FBI know that the Senate Intelliegence COmmittee would be watching whether or not the FBI would receive the info. FBI agent Dan Vogel recieved the evidence in a meeting with Davis and her husband and her attorney (this has been now widely reported in the press and in Nichols pretrial hearings)in late January 1999 after they received my instructions from Dunke. In my opinion the FBI already knew most of what was turned over to to VOgel in January and February 1999 by Davis and her attorney.

Nelson also told me he , Nelson, also saw another ME looking man fleeing in a vehicle in front of the Murrah building at a high rate of speed one minute before the bombing.

The story of Cannistraro being told by Saudi intelligence (Prince Turki Faisal) about the Iraqi hit on the Murrah building (with the help of seven Pakistanis?) was in David Hoffman's book, the Politics of Terror, in OK State legislator Charles Key's bomb report, in William Jasper articles in the New AMerican, in Stephen Jones book, "Others Unknown", and in my articles on FR.

I have reported this month in several replies on FR about Khalid Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks having a possible connection to the OKC bombing via the Phillipines, Ramsy Youseff and Nichols. I reported this when the FBI and DOJ named Mohammed as the mastermind in a NYTImes article by James Risen. Last year the secretary (Sharon Twilley) of the man (Samir Khalil)who employed two ME suspects (Abraham Ahmad and Al Hussaini) in the OKC bombing identified a picture of Mohammed as the man she had paid three times for her employer(Khalil) in OKC in 1995. I gave all the info in this paragraph about Mohammed plus more to Mike Johnston and the Senate Intelligence Committee (Senator Shelby) last weeek.

I reported in an article on FR that Nichols was with a ME John Doe and a Rider truck in Newkirk OK on APril 18, 1995 the day before the OKC bombing. This has been known to the FBI since late APril 1995.

There were two ME males (likely Ahmad and Hussain) fleeing from in front of the Murrah building in a late model Chevy pickup truck(FBI APB on this). These mem were seen running and jumping into the truck by a witness interviewed live at the scene by KTOK radio reporter Cary Hulsey. The truck and its occupants were seen and identified speeding down the street by witness Kay Heron as she was crossing the street.

And there was a Mexican or ME looking man who crossed the street with McVeigh after they exited the Rider truck according to witness Rodney Johnson. McVeigh and the second man then drove off at a high rate of speed in McVeighs yellow Mercury Marquis down the ally behind the Journal Record building and across the street from the Murrah building according to witness Gary Brewer. This second Mexican or ME looking man may have also been riding in the Rider truck as McVeigh drove it up to and in front of the Murrah building.

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

Fox News Network
SHOW: THE BIG STORY WITH JOHN GIBSON
June 20, 2002 Thursday

Interview With Jayna Davis

GUESTS: Jayna Davis
BYLINE: John Gibson

GIBSON: Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that our government was warned that Islamic terrorists were planning attacks on American federal buildings around the time of the Oklahoma City bombing. The Clinton administration even stepped up security around such buildings.

So could this mean that Timothy McVeigh was acting in league with those militants? My next guest says, yes, indeed.

Jayna Davis is a former Oklahoma City television reporter. She joins us now from Oklahoma City.

So, Jayna, this warning that was issued in February of 1995, a -- essentially a couple of months before the Murrah building explosion -- do you think it was connected to that bombing?

JAYNA DAVIS, FORMER OKLAHOMA CITY TV REPORTER: Well, it dovetails with the information that we generated when I was working as a reporter for the NBC affiliate here in Oklahoma City, and we gathered information from 24 witnesses who identified eight Middle Eastern men, the majority of whom were of Iraqi descend, working in collusion with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols during various stages of the bombing plot to blow up the Murrah building.

The warning you refer to, John, I have in my possession. It was issued by the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, and what -- why it's startling to me is because it stated in February of 1995 that there would be an Iran-sponsored Islamic attack on U.S. soil. This specific target was Washington, D.C., primarily Congress and the White House.

Once security was beefed up after the dissemination of this warning, then there was an updated warning that was then issued by the director of the Congressional Task Force, Mr. Yossef Bodansky. He stated in the updated warning the specific language that the terrorists planned to strike at the heart of the U.S. but not acting alone.

The Islamic terrorists were going to employ the services and recruit what they call two lily whites. And in the jargon of the intelligence community, lily whites means anybody that's not connected or ostensibly connected to any Middle Eastern terrorist organizations and they have no police record, they're clean, they wouldn't be flagged by any law- enforcement agencies. Both Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh fit that criterion.

GIBSON: Now, Jayna, you have long held that a character named Hussain Al-Hussaini is John Doe #2, and I think we have pictures of him here. This is Hussain Hasham Al-Hussaini, and then, of course, we'll see the picture of John Doe #2, and he does bear a resemblance to him. What evidence do you have that Hussain Al-Hussaini, an Iraqi, was with Tim McVeigh?

DAVIS: Well, let's start with four days before the bombing. Two witnesses who independently identified him out of a photo line-up of 35 photographs of eight different Middle Eastern men. These witnesses identified him independently of each other as drinking beer with Timothy McVeigh in a tavern in Oklahoma City on April 15th of 1995.

Then there were two more witnesses that identified him jogging outside the Murrah building, dressed in blue jeans with a backpack and a windbreaker, racing from the Murrah building, one block east of the building, timing his run, before daybreak, the day of April 19th. These witnesses walked past this individual they saw running within about three to four feet and looked him square in the face. He was positively identified...

GIBSON: Where is Hussain Al-Hussaini?

DAVIS: ... Hussain Al-Hussaini.

GIBSON: Who...

DAVIS: Excuse me.

GIBSON: Where is he now?

DAVIS: Well, we don't know. I do know that he went and moved to Boston sometime around 1997 and claimed that he was working at Boston International Airport...

GIBSON: Logan?

DAVIS: ... in '97 and '98. Logan. Yes.

GIBSON: And he was an Iraqi soldier?

DAVIS: It's also important to note, John, he was identified in the Ryder truck with McVeigh 30 minutes prior to the bombing when McVeigh stopped to ask for directions at 10th and Hudson, which is about five blocks north of the Murrah building.

He was also identified at ground zero stepping out of the Ryder truck. He was identified in the passenger seat -- I'm sorry -- in the driver's seat of a brown Chevrolet pickup speeding away from the bomb site 60 seconds after the blast in a truck that matched the description of the official FBI all-points bulletin issued the morning of the bombing for Middle Eastern terrorists.

GIBSON: Jayna Davis, former Oklahoma City television reporter.

Jayna, thanks very much.

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