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

[PhiKapMom]

What did the Clintons, Freeh, and Reno know and when did they know it?

[rwfromkansas]

This is a surprise, though it goes way back to the Aryan link, not the ME connection.

[PhiKapMom]

Look at this. Been saying for sometime that McVeigh and his stooge, Terry Nichols, were not the only people involved. There still is the subject of the extra leg they found in the building.

[Peach]

My understanding is that the feds will only be focusing on the links McVey and Nichols had to white supremist groups.

It's a pity they don't explore the links Nichols had to Islamic terrorists as outlined in several books but especially well researched in The Two Jackals, written in 1999 (pre 9/11 when this all became a political football).

[PhiKapMom]

It is a shock they are going to reopen. Was told by someone a long time ago if they could link the Aryan group that you would eventually find the Middle East connection and their money.

Is that true? I have no idea but there are too many people saw a Middle Eastern type with McVeigh not to wonder. Not to mention Nichols visit to the Philippines which we now know had terrorists.

Would say a lot of the story is yet to be written and that Terry Nichols is not going to sit there and say nothing at his trial -- hope he blows the whole thing wide open in order not to get the death penalty.

One of the family members of someone in the bombing was on the radio today saying that she is receiving correspondence and has been for years that the two -- McVeigh and Nichols -- did not act alone and it went farther than eastern OK.

[Nita Nupress]

I wish I could still get excited about news like this.

Thanks for the post, though. ;-) Good find.

[PhiKapMom]

Don't be too sure -- I heard on the radio this afternoon that the original McVeigh lawyer may have a few things to say. I told RWfromKansas that I heard the Ayrian Link would lead to the Middle East sometime ago if they could get the FBI to reopen the files.

[Dan from Michigan]

I honestly think that Klinton would not have won election in 96 if it wasn't for McVeigh and the rest of them.

[NYC GOP Chick]

have no idea but there are too many people saw a Middle Eastern type with McVeigh not to wonder.

Notice how that aspect got buried *real* fast?!

[Lexington Green]

The first cover-up failed... The second cover-up will apparently cover-up the ME connection... but it will be interesting to see Strassmeir investigated further. Why was this German Military Intelligence working for ATF at Eloheim City?

[PhiKapMom]

When The Oklahoman does breaking news it is big news here in OK -- I never get a news alert from them at this time of night. Been all over the radio for several days that the Government case in the OKC Bombing was about to unravel.

The Judge in McAlaster ruled that two witnesses can testify in the Court case of Nichols that the defense wanted to testify which was a blow to the Prosecutor's office. Knew something big was coming because Nichols offered to plead no contest in exchange for life in prison and they turned him down. Not totally sure the Prosecutor's office is that unhappy as most people in this area just want the truth.

That Murrah Building came down way too fast -- ordered by the Clintons and Reno. I have said ever since the Bombing Museum opened that both Clintons look like the cat that swallowed the canary at the Memorial Service that is a huge mural in the Museum. She is as happy as a lark and so is he with everyone around them devastated.

[independentmind]

What did the Clintons, Freeh, and Reno know and when did they know it?

There are plenty of threads on FR that try to answer that very question. Finding them may be something of a challenge, though.

[deport]

Should I go invest in some aluminum foil stock? Or do you think this may be the real deal?

[Cicero]

I don't expect anything to come of this, regretably. Mueller must have felt some heat, so he is going through the motions. But he has already shown himself eager to cover up for clinton and promote and reward clintonoids within the bureau.

[PhiKapMom]

He would not have won reelection in 1996 without the Bombing and yet Oklahomans hated him and his wife because of their actions during the Bombing. It was nothing more than a photo op for them. They tried to make the Country understand but no one would listen. Remember how he made the remark that this just got him reelected. He was right -- stupid people fell for it.

In fact, when they dedicated the Bombing Memorial, the families of the victims refused to have Clinton or Reno attend the dinner that day at noon before the dedication but our whole Congressional delegation did attend. Clinton got mad and arrived late at Tinker AFB an had to be rushed downtown to the Service blocking off main arteries. Then the lowlife did a photo op after he had promised Gov Keating he wouldn't. His aide knocked a rose off of one of the chairs and he stooped to pick it up with cameras flashing -- same with posting the reflecting pool -- photo ops galore. He arrived late and go very little response from the people gathered.

I remember watching on TV and one of the anchors asked why Reno was even bothering to come or Clinton. They were not happy that our Governor and Congressional delegation were kept waiting forever at Tinker AFB as Clinton took off late from NM.

[captbarney]

Nicols can litterly "blow the lid" of this country if he names his Iraq and Al Qaida connections. It's may our greatest hope. Freepoers should try to get in with Nichols and ask for HIS FULL COOPERATIN.He'd bring down the "DIRT" in our Gov't and a NEW REPUBLIC can begin

[monkeywrench]

There's that John Doe 2 picture that looks so much like Padilla. They have Padilla in custody, so, maybe the clintonistas should worry.

[Carton boy]

Can someone tell me. Did some people stay home that day.If they did and that is a big if WHY.

[PhiKapMom]

Have been involved in some of those. Figured I would throw Hillary's words back at her.

If those two lowlifes along with Reno and Freeh didn't know something was going to happen, I would be the most surprised person in the world.

Don't you find it odd that one of the Federal Law Enforcement agents that was killed in the bombing was a USSS agent for President Bush #41. Present George W Bush was really shooken up about the agent when he talked about visiting the room where they have articles from each of the victims in these glass boxes. He choked up when speaking at the dedication of the Museum Memorial. I took my youngest daughter to see him speak and you could see the strong emotion as he spoke.

All people want is the truth -- it is going to come out sooner or later! Too many people are questioning just what happened and have been since 9/11. I hope that Terry Nichols spills everything he knows including who he met in the Phillipines.

[PhiKapMom]

USSS did not stay home BUT some Feds had a "picnic" in the morning and the number of Feds in the building was very small in relation to how many worked there. As I mentioned earlier, a USSS Agent killed had been on the team of President Bush 41 -- he was there that morning. Another agent survived the bombing and made a sign on the top floor he was alive. Most Federal agents were NOT in the building at 9:03 that morning!