Posted on 04/02/2004 7:32:42 AM PST by Wallaby
"Another Conspiracy Theory intrigued me because I could never disprove it. The theory seemed unlikely on its face: Ramzi Yousef or Khalid Sheik Muhammad had taught Terry Nichols how to blow up the Oklahoma Federal Building. The problem was that, upon investigation, we established that both Ramzi Yousef and Nichols had been in the city of Cebu on the same days. I had been to Cebu years earlier; it is on an island in the central Philippines. It was a town in which word could have spread that a local girl was bringing her American boy friend home and that the American hated the U.S. government.
Yousef and Khalid Sheik Muhammad had gone there to help create an al Qaeda spinoff, a Philippine affiliate chapter, named after a hero of the Afghan war against the Soviets, Abu Sayaff. Could the al Qaeda explosives expert have been introduced to the angry American who proclaimed his hatred for the U.S. Government? We do not know, despite some FBI investigation. We do know that Nichols's bombs did not work before his Philippine stay and were deadly when he returned. We also know that Nichols continued to call Cebu long after his wife returned to the United States. The final coincidence is that several al Qaeda operatives had attended a radical Islamic conference a few years earliler in, of all places, Oklahoma City.
(Against All Enemies, p. 127.)
As far a source goes, I just grabbed the first one that came up on google. There are many more out there.
google
Talk about changing the course of history... Wish I'd known about FR, back then... Or maybe it didn't even exist, yet.
careful, some leftist might call you a racist now.
The jig is up for the 'Rats.
Your question trigger my memory of northern California talk radio discussions in the days following 9/11/01.
I will simply copy a googled source to express it
"What mayor of a major west coast city claimed just hours after 9-11 that he'd been warned not to fly the week of 9-11 by what he described as his 'airport security.' None other than Willie Brown!"
This was reported in the broadcast news immediately after the bombing; I remember hearing it. I doubt that there are "federal sources" that are readily available to a casual search, but I will pass on a few non-federal references for your benefit. It was one of the findings of the Key Commission, headed by former Oklahoma state representative Charles Key, as quoted below. To be fair, the Grand Jury that was impaneled based on the Key Commission's report issued a finding that ATF employees were, in fact, present at the Murrah building the day of the bombing; then again, the Grand Jury's findings have been found to be controversial in other matters as well.
I have to confess, researching this on Google was something of an eye-opener...the only sites that referenced it had a definite right-wing tabloid feel to them, starting with WorldNet Daily at the top end and diving right down into the ultra-right weirdo underground. References to this from more reputable sources, such as the website for the NPR outlet on which I originally heard it, seem to have dried up.
http://www.serendipity.li/more/okb3.html
"Glen Wilburn and his wife Kathy, who lost two grand children in the daycare center of the federal building, joined Key in the petitioning to have the County Grand Jury impaneled.
Wilburn has also conducted an extensive investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing. Wilburn stated, "The many witnesses in Kansas, Northern Oklahoma and in Oklahoma City who saw Timothy McVeigh driving the Ryder truck, and in the company of several individuals, have not been allowed to give their testimony yet. The reason we believe that the ATF offices were conspicuously absent that morning of the bombing, is because there was a federal sting operation being conducted the night before of which the ATF lost control.
http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=4225
"In the wake of the '95 bombing, questions were raised as to why there were no ATF field agents killed or injured in the attack that left 168 dead - including 19 toddlers as young as a 1-year-old.
Similar questions arose as to why no one from the Federal Protective Service was present when the bomb detonated.
A Gazette investigation uncovered information that the head of the Federal Protective Service at the Murrah building had an office near that daycare, but was spared because he was not on duty when the bomb went off.
Conflicting records from the government present a hazy picture of the security situation in place that morning.
A response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reports the security officer was not on duty because he called in sick. But other records received through the FOIA Act show the man was in fact paid for 12 hours of work on April 19, 1995.
Last summer this reporter and Gazette publisher Bruce Willingham went to the man's house, hoping to clear up this issue. No one would answer the door and repeated phone calls inquiring about security at the federal building went unreturned."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22888
"ATF absent from Murrah Building
According to the Key commission's report, several witnesses reported that ATF agents were not in the Murrah Building the morning of the bombing because, as some alleged, agents had been warned ahead of time to stay out.
Tiffany Bible, a paramedic with OKC's Emergency Medical Services Authority -- the city's ambulance service -- arrived four to five minutes after the bombing, she told the commission.
"She recalls having thought that there must have been a natural gas line explosion," the report said. "She approached an entrance to the building where an ATF agent was standing and asked how a gas line explosion could do that much damage. The agent replied that it was the result of a car bomb."
Bible "expressed concern" to the agent, the report said, "because there were fellow agents of his in the building. The agent responded by saying, 'No, we weren't in there today.'"
Another witness, Bruce Shaw -- whose wife worked in the Murrah Building at the Federal Credit Union -- testified that another ATF agent said "agents were tipped on their pagers not to come into the office that morning," the report said."
This isn't the same as "not one ATF agent came in that day." I teach at a university, and several professors aren't here today. That doesn't mean they were "tipped off" not to come in. It means they don't work today!
As for Shaw's comment, this is highly suspect. Did he see a pager that "told people not to come in?" Was it verified it came from the government? I'm highly suspicious of this entire line of thinking. I don't doubt that Iraq or AQ could be involved, but I don't buy people being 'warned' not to come to work.
Well, deconstruct all you like. I'm telling you that it was reported in the news that all the ATF field agents were absent from the building on the morning of the bombing. I heard that report myself. It may be in error, but I am not lying to you.
I'm saying that there is no way the "news" would KNOW if "all" the ATF people stayed away or not---it's not in their power to know that. It's clearly a case of some guy saying that and an irresponsible (or lazy) reporter passed it along as truth.
"No more song about Cebu...needs another verse or two. Audience is standing, and leaving, bye-bye-moo-moo, bye-bye-moo-moo, bye-bye-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo."
Both Nichols and McVeigh 'appeared' to be disgruntled vets. How often does someone who is a 'soldier's soldier' make 180 turn? McVeigh was described as someone who, if ordered to march straight off a cliff, would do it. Neither of them sound like the type to hate the US government. Pass the tinfoil please.
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