Mueller orders review of bombing investigation 2004-02-27 -- OKC Bombing

Breaking News The Oklahoman ^ | Feb 27, 2004 | John Solomon, AP

[PhiKapMom]

Mueller orders review of bombing investigation

2004-02-27

By JOHN SOLOMON
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI on Friday ordered a formal review of some aspects of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing investigation, reopening the question of whether Timothy McVeigh may have had more accomplices in the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, The Associated Press has learned.

Reacting to an AP story earlier this week, the FBI ordered agents to determine why some documents did not properly reach the bureau's Oklahoma City task force during the original investigation or get turned over to McVeigh's lawyers before he was executed in 2001, officials said.

The review of evidence and documents will also try to determine whether FBI agents in a separate investigation of white supremacist bank robbers may have failed to alert the Oklahoma City investigation of a possible link between the robbers and McVeigh, and allowed some of that evidence to be destroyed.

AP reported Wednesday that documents never introduced at McVeigh's trial showed FBI agents destroyed evidence and failed to share other information that raised the possibility that a gang of white supremacist bank robbers may have assisted McVeigh.

The evidence includes documents showing the Aryan Republican Army bank robbers possessed explosive blasting caps similar to those McVeigh stole and a driver's license with the name of a central player who was robbed in the Oklahoma City plot.

The documents don't prove additional accomplices were involved - blasting caps are plentiful and the gang was expert in document fraud. But the FBI agent who ran the investigation, Dan Defenbaugh, said his team never got the chance to investigate the evidence and he called for the probe to be reopened.

The April 19, 1995, bombing killed more than 160 people and McVeigh was put to death for it in 2001. His co-defendant, Terry Nichols, will stand trial in Oklahoma next week on state charges that could carry the death penalty.

Nichols' attorneys asked Thursday for the trial to be delayed in light of the AP story, but the judge refused.

FBI officials and Nichols' attorneys declined comment Friday night, citing a gag order in the case.

Government officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the review will be handled by the FBI's inspection division, a unit of senior agents that routinely conducts reviews to ensure the bureau follows its own rules and conducts investigations properly.

The officials said the review was ordered ``out of an abundance of caution'' to ensure that any questions about additional conspirators be put to rest.

It is not the first time issues in the McVeigh case have had to be reopened. In 2001, the Justice Department was forced to conduct an internal investigation to determine why 4,000 pages of documents from the case were belatedly turned over to defense lawyers just days before McVeigh was supposed to be executed. The revelation prompted a one-month delay in the investigation.

Peter Langan, one member of the ARA robbery gang, told AP he plans to testify at Nichols' trial that federal prosecutors several years ago offered and then withdrew a plea deal for information he had about the Oklahoma City bombing.

Langan said he plans to testify that at least three fellow gang members were in Oklahoma around the time of the bombing and one later told him that they had become involved.

Agents who worked both the McVeigh bombing and the bank robbery spree - two of the FBI's highest priority cases of the 1990s - said they suspected a link between the two because of physical evidence as well as statements made by the robbers and a girlfriend.

The agents said they ruled out a connection when the bank robbers denied their involvement and provided an alibi showing they left Oklahoma three days before McVeigh's bomb detonated outside the Alfred P. Murrah federal building on April 19, 1995.

That alibi, however, was contradicted by information Langan offered prosecutors and by car sales records that showed the bank robbers were still in the Oklahoma area after they claimed to have left, FBI documents show.

McVeigh in 1994 stole from a quarry hundreds of construction blasting caps, some which he used to explode the Oklahoma City bomb. The FBI spent months unsuccessfully trying to locate many of the other stolen caps.

Agents collected witness testimony that McVeigh had placed some of the extra caps in two boxes wrapped in Christmas paper in the back of his car along with mercury switches and duffel bags.

One electric and five non-electric blasting caps were found in the Aryan Republican Army robbers' Ohio hideout in January 1996, along with mercury switches, a duffel bag and two items described as a ``Christmas package,'' FBI records show. The FBI allowed firefighters to destroy the caps at the scene, and they were never compared to the Oklahoma case.

FBI agents in the robbery case also determined that the bank robbers had an Arkansas driver's license in the name of Robert Miller, the alias name used by Arkansas gun dealer Roger Moore.

The government contended at McVeigh's trial that Moore was robbed at his Hot Springs, Ark., home in November 1994, and the proceeds were used to fund the Oklahoma City bombing.

One of the bank robbers, Mark Thomas, claimed in a newspaper in 1997 that one of his gang was involved in the Oklahoma bombing. And Thomas' ex-girlfriend told FBI agents her boyfriend stated shortly before he traveled to an Oklahoma white supremacist compound in spring 1995 that a federal building was about to be bombed.

02/27/04 19:33 EST

[Oorang]

Thanks for posting that info. Very interesting. I hope something comes of this, although I have my doubts. I'm afraid that the Clinton's evil hand still has a far reach. I still don't put anything past them in their desire and ability to cover up their evil ways.

[PhiKapMom]

That terrorist motel deal has gotten some play here. Too much of coincidence to me and the fact that they never really followed up with the motel bothers me a lot.

[PhiKapMom]

I still don't put anything past them in their desire and ability to cover up their evil ways.

That makes two of us! Having _Jim show up once again to steer the thread makes me even more convinced.

[Oorang]

Have you read this article? If so, what is your opinion?

Explosives Recipes Tie OKC to al Qaeda Manuals

[TXnMA]

Hello Nita! Haven't seen you much lately. God bless. :)

I was just thinking the same thing, NN. Good to see you!

I'm just laying back and enjoying watching other folks hammering our resident OKC FedShill (_Jim) as he tries to derail the thread by regurgitating his usual propaganda and ad hominem attacks.

I have long since grown tired of blowing him and his BS out of the water...

My hopes all along were that discovery in the OK trial of Nichols would bring out some of the evidence we all know is there -- but suppressed by the DOJ, et al. Now it may be about to happen... :-)

[PhiKapMom]

Very interesting link especially the part about the Philippines where Nicholas was at for some time. I have never seen this link -- sends chills up my back!

Please see the link in #124.

[SierraWasp]

BOOKMARKED! And Thank You!!!

[TXnMA]

Having _Jim show up once again to steer the thread makes me even more convinced.

Many thanks for "carrying the load" for truth in OKC for a while!

As I told Nita Nupress a few posts back, I've long since tired of blowing _Jim and his BS out of the water...

If you want to have some fun with _Jim, ask him this some time:

"The FBI analyzed lots of blue plastic fragments (found on top of buildings) from the drums the ANFO/ANNM was supposedly in. McVeigh's alleged sketch of the truck loadout shows he put the three empty, bright blue steel nitromethane drums in the back of the truck, next to the door.
Where is the evidence that any trace of those three steel drums was ever found?"

(They should have wound up back by the Regency Towers -- near where the truck's rear axle landed on that little red car...)

I will bet you that _Jim will never answer -- except, perhaps, with some ad hominem sneer!

Check my FRProfile...

[SierraWasp]

"Check my FRProfile..."

I did and you link to okcbombing.org doesn't work!

[SierraWasp]

So? What?

[PhiKapMom]

I have to keep that one in mind! It really is amazing how he shows up immediately when you start discussing the Clintons involvement in a number of high profile cases that smell of cover-up. The 6th paragraph in the link at #124 talks about a Philippines connection. Thought this smell when I lived outside San Antonio when it happened but after moving to OK, it smells even more after touring the Bombing Museum. The night of the bombing, the local San Antonio TV station had a news crew outside the federal building where they were loading crates of items into vehicles and taking them to Kelly. It was stated it was the munitions stored in the basement of the Federal Building in case of attacks on either coasts, Middle America would be able to fight. They said the munitions were stored in Federal Buildings all over this part of the Country. I was up all night that first night and saw the report but several days later there was never another mention. Just like John Doe II -- no mention after several days.

Until the Clintons took office, I was never a conspiracy theorist -- they have managed to change all of that.

[SierraWasp]

Excellent!!!

[TXnMA]

I did and you link to okcbombing.org doesn't work!

Same results here. Looks like they may have let the domain registration expire -- or there is a DNS problem at their ISP. Last time I checked, the website was being maintained by some guy I never heard of. I'll check with Charles (Key) and the other Board members and see what I can find out.

Thanks for the heads-up!

BTW, I did the section on analysis of the collapse of the MFB. Needless to say, _Jim and I disagree on many points. Most of which deal with believing the FBI's badly-skewed presentation of the evidence -- especially the actual size of the truck-bomb crater.

[TXnMA]

I knew the ATF had a munitions locker in the MFB, (9th floor, IIRC) But yours is the first report I've seen that the practice may have been much more widespread.

OTOH, I have seen no indication that the ATF's munitions played any role in the MFB's collapse.

Thanks!

[SierraWasp]

_Jim's not all bad, but brother... Does he ever have an erection over this subject!!! He must search FR every hour, on the hour, looking for any oblique reference to this subject so he can pounce on any such posting and "clear the matter all up from his point of view ONLY!"

Like PhiKappaMom said about him showing up on the thread. I've seldom seen anyone so obsessed with putting something this suspicious down since the Warren Report!!!

[SierraWasp]

_Jim's not all bad, but brother... Does he ever have an erection over this subject!!! He must search FR every hour, on the hour, looking for any oblique reference to this subject so he can pounce on any such posting and "clear the matter all up from his point of view ONLY!"

Like PhiKappaMom said about him showing up on the thread. I've seldom seen anyone so obsessed with putting something this suspicious down since the Warren Report!!!

[SierraWasp]

Huh? Wonder why that happened???

[PhiKapMom]

I was actually referencing more of something that was on the news and then totally disappeared just like John Doe #2. Found it strange that it occurred in the middle of the night of the bombing too. My understanding was this was widespread all of Middle America. Know several AFB's that received the munitions after this happened.

If the munitions would have brought down the building, you would have had them going off over a period of time would be my guess not all at once. I never really considered that to be what brought down the building.

[Stallone]

Iraq is at the center of the OKC bombing, in the humble opinion of anyone with a brain.

[judicial meanz]

I was one of the first police officers on the scene of the Murrah Building back then, and it has haunted me every day since it happened.

I wanted answers, and I have never felt like I had them since the investigation ended. I am so glad they are re-opening this case, but I really want to know if they are sufficiently interested in following this case to its logical conclusion instead of just "band-aiding" it to please the public.

#1-
I want to know why the US Customs Service Intelligence Center (EPIC) in El Paso put out a warning a few days prior to the OKC Bombing warning law enforcement agencies to beware of possible terrorist attacks on Federal Buildings on APRIL 19, 1995? ( they claimed it may be retaliation for the Waco mess. They cant deny they did it, because I held this paper in my hand and read at roll call after it came off NCIC)

#2

I heard the BOLO for the two middle eastern men when it came out, and was activeley engaged in looking for the vehicle while also being involved in rescue operations. I also know the OCSO dispatcher personally who read it ovewr the air.

#3

I dont doubt there is some kind of connection to some organized group. Two men couldnt have pulled this off by themselves. I want facts, not some partial investigation and feel good conclusion. The FBI is a good organization when it comes to investigation. Why did they stop short in this case, and not dig up every bone in the graveyard? There has to be an explanation.

#4

The memorial is a good thing. I saw it the first time last year. I moved out of the area a few years after the bombing, and had never wanted to see it again. I probably won't see it again, however, because some government worker is now posted at the site telling the story to visitors, and I have a much different recollection of the scene in my memory. Once was enough for me.

I dont need the USPS to tell me the story of the OKC Bombing. I saw the wounded and the dying, smelled it, and saw the paper flying through the city streets. I want to forget it.

#5
If Clinton, Freeh, and Reno knew anything and intentionally squashed it, I want some type of justice so they learn that peoples lives are the not things to play with in order to get a political advantage.

Thanks to both of you for your interest and care. This history book definitely needs another chapter.