Police search for Oklahoma bombing video

Kansas City Star ^ | February 3, 2004 | AP

[MosesKnows]

The possibility that a video exists

How would you prove you didn't have something?

[GLDNGUN]

What guy is dead?

[b4its2late]

Rep. James Traficant

Wonder how 'ole raccoon head is doing and is he still running for president from prison?

[job]

Tell me what the significance is? Just that it caught the explosion on tape? or that it shows something different than our current understanding?

[MizSterious]

Hmmm....

[Shermy]

The OKC police should talk to the Fed govt. They really do have videos.

"June 9, 2001 | The main thing Joann Van Buren says she remembers about Timothy McVeigh is the $50 bill he wanted her to break. That, and the two men who accompanied him.

One day before he tore a hole in the nation's psyche with the bomb that destroyed Oklahoma City's Murrah Federal Building, McVeigh, Van Buren says, pulled up to the little Subway sandwich shop where she worked in Junction City, Kansas, driving the yellow Ryder truck that would contain the bomb.

Van Buren didn't pay any particular attention to them at first. Another clerk waited on the men, but when they tried to pay for their meal with a large bill, she took notice.

"As soon as the $50 bill came up, I had to go to the safe to get the change," says Van Buren today. "And when I gave them the change and they got their sandwiches, I remember them going back over to the corner, sitting down. And when they left, I remember three people getting into the truck. There were three people at the table."

The clerks she worked with later told FBI agents that two of the men matched the descriptions of McVeigh and his cohort, Terry Nichols. The third was a shorter, dark-haired and muscular man with an olive complexion: a perfect fit for the figure destined to be known as John Doe 2.

Luckily, the Subway shop actually had a video camera recording that day's events. When Van Buren contacted the FBI, agents interviewed everyone working in the shop on April 18. And when they were done, they confiscated the video recorded that day.

Where's this tape?

The mystery of John Doe No. 2

[OXENinFLA]

Well, If someone intentional set up a camera to film it would be BIG news.

[TLI]

Culbertson said he showed such a video to Mills but that he had subsequently turned this material over to the House Judiciary Committee

And right there it will vanish.

[donozark]

Not to defend Traficant, but he was a constant thorn in the side of the Reno gang. Hence, their hatred of him. He blasted them for refusing to at least investigate an international side to the OK City bombing. Instead, Clinton only pursued a domestic etiology.

Rumors of a "video" have existed for years. I am from Missouri...SHOW ME.

[weegee]

Unless it shows the complete destruction of the building it could be a hoaxed up computer image. Computer graphics are pretty convincing these days (and just consider how many films are using such technology).

If he got the footage from an ATF agent then that would point to the government supressing evidence. Here they are trying to acquire the footage to prosecute Terry Nichols; this could backfire by showing that the government had some evidence that it "lost" or denied existing.

The government videotapes of the original Waco raid also have never been found. Maybe tracking devices need to be put on all government tape (not so out of the question, a brewer recently had a can tagged to send out a beacon signal for a contest winner and Wal-Mart is using such tags to track inventory).

[Eva]

The only problem with this testimony is that presenting a fifty dollar bill for lunch for three people at Subway would not have necessitated a trip to the safe. The lunch could easily have cost twenty-five, and I am sure that there would be at least another twenty five in the register.

[weegee]

Instead, Clinton only pursued a domestic etiology.

People forget the BIG push that Bill Clinton made for investigation of right wing extremists as being the single biggest threat to America's national security. Talk radio was demonized for rallying "the troops", his critics were part of a "right wing conspiracy", he had the FBI investigating a "rash" of "unexplained" church fires (nothing out of the ordinary was happening and some were even insurance scams by pastors). Meanwhile America got "whacked" on 9.11.2001 and everyone is blaming George W. Bush for not being prepared.

[steve50]

Tell me what the significance is? Just that it caught the explosion on tape? or that it shows something different than our current understanding?

It allegedly shows the explosion taking place inside the building.

[Shermy]

Interesting. But the article also mentions "clerks", so there were other witnesses apparently.

[weegee]

That $50 couldn't be used to dispense any change (except for a $100). It would take a fair amount of the cashier's "bank" without giving them anything to draw on (except to swap it for smaller bills back at the safe).

Even if it there was enough to provide change for these 3 men, it might have necessitated a trip for the next customers.

Many businesses won't accept anything over a $20 bill (partly because of forgeries and partly because of the change issue). As it is, all ATMs give out nothing but $20s these days (and even tellers at the banks seem to default to giving out these bills).

[Cicero]

You took the words out of my mouth. The FBI took the tapes and they will never be seen again. They went in the same black hole as the reinforced concrete columns in the basement that would have shown local bomb damage, or the front door of the building in Waco which might have shown who fired the first bullets in which direction.

Or the Xrays and photos that vanished out of a safe in the Vince Foster murder case. Or the Xrays that vanished out of the safe in the Ron Brown murder case. One of bill clinton's favorite sayings was: "There is no evidence!" Of course not. He shredded, erased, deleted, and destroyed it.

[OneTimeLurker]

"How would you prove you didn't have something?"

Proving a negative is tough but it's not surprising the government would try to get somebody to do so.

[Eva]

Yes, they say that the woman didn't wait on the men, but only went to the safe to make the change. The other clerk is not quoted as remembering the men.