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Document: Oklahoma City Bombing Was Taped
AP via Yahoo! ^ | April 19, 2004 | John Solomon

Posted on 04/19/2004 1:23:06 PM PDT by RippleFire

WASHINGTON - A Secret Service document written shortly after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing described security video footage of the attack and witness testimony that suggested Timothy McVeigh (news - web sites) may have had accomplices at the scene.

"Security video tapes from the area show the truck detonation 3 minutes and 6 seconds after the suspects exited the truck," the Secret Service reported six days after the attack on a log of agents' activities and evidence in the Oklahoma investigation.

The government has insisted McVeigh drove the truck himself and that it never had any video of the bombing or the scene of the Alfred P. Murrah building in the minutes before the April 19, 1995, explosion.

Several investigators and prosecutors who worked the case told The Associated Press they had never seen video footage like that described in the Secret Service log.

The document, if accurate, is either significant evidence kept secret for nine years or a misconstrued recounting of investigative leads that were often passed by word of mouth during the hectic early days of the case, they said.

"I did not see it," said Danny Defenbaugh, the retired FBI (news - web sites) agent who ran the Oklahoma City probe. "If it shows what it says, then it would be significant."

Secret Service spokesman Charles Bopp declined to discuss the video footage reference, saying it would be addressed by witnesses later this week at the capital murder trial of McVeigh co-defendant Terry Nichols. "It is anticipated Secret Service employees will testify in court concerning these matters," he said.

Other documents obtained by AP show the Secret Service in late 1995 gave prosecutors several computer disks of enhanced digital photographs of the Murrah building, intelligence files on several subjects in the investigation and a file detailing an internal affairs inquiry concerning an agent who reconstructed key phone evidence against McVeigh.

"These abstract sheets are sensitive documents which we have protected from disclosure in the past," said a Secret Service letter that recounted discussions in late 1995 with federal prosecutors on what evidence would be turned over to defense lawyers.

Lawyers for Nichols say they have never been given the security video, photo disks or internal investigative file referenced in the documents.

The trial judge has threatened to dismiss the death penalty case if evidence was withheld. McVeigh was executed in 2001 on a separate federal conviction. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison on federal charges before being tried by the state this year.

The government has maintained for years that McVeigh parked the Ryder rental truck carrying a massive fertilizer bomb outside the Murrah building and left alone in a getaway car he parked around the corner. The bombing killed more than 160 people.

The only video prosecutors introduced at trial showed the Ryder truck without any visible passengers as it passed a security camera inside a high-rise apartment building a block away from the Murrah building.

But the Secret Service log reported on April 24 and April 25, 1995, that there was security footage showing the Ryder truck pulling up to the Murrah building. The log does not say where such video came from or who possessed it.

A log entry on April 25 states that the security footage allowed agents to determine the time that elapsed between suspects leaving the truck and the explosion.

An entry a day earlier on the same log reported that the security video was consistent with a witness' account that he saw McVeigh's getaway car in the lead before a woman guided the truck to its final parking spot in front of the Murrah building.

"A witness to the explosion named Grossman claimed to have seen a pale yellow Mercury car with a Ryder truck behind it pulling up to the federal building," the log said. The witness "further claimed to have seen a woman on the corner waving to the truck."

A Secret Service agent named McNally "noted that this fact is significant due to the fact that the security video shows the Ryder truck pulling up to the Federal Building and then pausing (7 to 10 seconds) before resuming into the slot in front of the building," the log said. "It is speculated that the woman was signaling the truck when a slot became available."

Defenbaugh said the FBI had talked to several witnesses suggesting two people had left the truck, but prosecutors never introduced the scenario at trial because it couldn't be corroborated. That's why a new security video would be significant, he said.

"It would have taken the investigation in a very specific direction," Defenbaugh said. "Rather than having to go down an eight-lane highway during rush hour, we would have gone down a faster path with just two or four lanes."

Defenbaugh said the FBI kept a log similar to the Secret Service document inside the Oklahoma City investigation command center that might help solve the mystery of the video. Justice officials declined to discuss documents, citing the ongoing Nichols' trial.

In addition to the witness mentioned in the Secret Service document, a woman working in Murrah's Social Security (news - web sites) office who was rescued from the rubble and a driver outside the building both reported to the FBI seeing two men leave the truck, according to government documents.

The Secret Service (news - web sites) log contained other information about the case — including that McVeigh made 30 calls to an Illinois gun dealer in the months before the attacks to seek dynamite and that the gun dealer subsequently failed a lie detector test. The Secret Service lost six employees in McVeigh's bombing, the single largest loss in agency history.

Nichols' attorneys last week asked the judge to dismiss the case on grounds the government withheld evidence, including the security video footage.

New documents obtained by AP show the Secret Service provided prosecutors other evidence that may not have been provided to defense lawyers, including a file showing the Secret Service agent who reconstructed crucial phone evidence against McVeigh was subjected to an internal affairs investigation and eventually cleared for her conduct in the case.

FBI officials say that file details allegations the agent wrongly collected grand jury-subpoenaed phone information about McVeigh's calls without FBI knowledge, and kept it for weeks while she produced analysis that helped the investigation.

The internal investigation caused complications for prosecutors. They decided it tainted the agent as a witness and they chose instead to hire an outside expert to re-do the phone analysis for trial, officials said.

Bopp said the Secret Service did nothing wrong.

"The Secret Service worked cooperatively with the FBI and other federal state and local law enforcement throughout the investigation," Bopp said. "The expertise of the Secret Service on electronic crimes and telecommunications provided unique and timely information to the ongoing investigation."

On the Net:

The FBI: http://www.fbi.gov

The documents obtained by The Associated Press can be viewed at http://wid.ap.org/documents/okc/okcdoc2.pdf


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: atf; ci; clintonfailure; clintonfailures; clintonlegacy; colbern; conspiracy; coverup; dea; defenbaugh; elohimcity; fbi; gorelick; grossman; howe; jaynadavis; johndoe2; mcnally; mcveigh; murrah; murrahbuilding; nichols; ok; okc; okcbombing; okcvideo; oklahoma; oklahomacity; secretservice; strassmeier; twa800; whitewash
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To: RippleFire
reading for later
361 posted on 04/19/2004 10:40:01 PM PDT by sully777 (Our descendants will be enslaved by political expediency and expenditure)
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To: archy
Bump. Gary Powers didn't swallow the pill he had been given.

McVeigh did.

362 posted on 04/19/2004 10:55:00 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray.)
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To: RightWingTeenager
The following is an excerpt from the Secret Service documents mentioned by the story this thread refers to. It is available in pdf format here: http://wid.ap.org/documents/okc/okcdoc2.pdf
Strangely, a google search for Dennis Motowiak turns up NOTHING.

"1935: SA AU, Lexington, KY advised he had been contacted by Anna LNU, telephone [redacted], who claimed that about one year ago, she dated a person who resembled the composite sketch of John Doe #2. Anna LNU stated that she knows this person Dennis Motowiak (NRID), 5'07", dark complected, black hair, stocky build, early to mid 20's. Anna LNU claimed that Motowiak is originally from North Carolina and had to return there due to his sttus as a parolee. She stted he has military experience and is part American Indian. Anna LNU provided that Motowiak has a cousin, Avery Crabtree (NRID), and uncle, Chester Crabtree (NRID), [redacted], telephone [redacted], who may be able to provide a current address for subject Motowiak."
363 posted on 04/19/2004 11:10:29 PM PDT by norcalvet
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
Bump. Gary Powers didn't swallow the pill he had been given.

McVeigh did.

Essentially. But Francis Gary Powers didn't have a pill as his *just in case* way out, but instead carried a silver dollar bored with a hole containing a needle coated with a saxitoxin. [STX]

Powers did not use the needle and warned his captors to be careful in handling the silver dollar. The Russians pricked a dog with the needle and the dog died in ten seconds.

364 posted on 04/19/2004 11:22:17 PM PDT by archy (The darkness will come. It will find you,and it will scare you like you've never been scared before.)
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To: archy
BTTT!!!
365 posted on 04/19/2004 11:45:36 PM PDT by Lael (Patent Law...not a single Supreme Court Justice is qualified to take the PTO Bar Exam!)
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To: Carry_Okie
Care to be more specific?
366 posted on 04/19/2004 11:55:34 PM PDT by Boot Hill (Candy-gram for Osama bin Mongo, candy-gram for Osama bin Mongo!!!)
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To: Imal
"Let's see the truth for a change."

That'll be the day! ;-)
367 posted on 04/19/2004 11:58:55 PM PDT by Veracious Poet (Cash cows are sacred in America...GOT MILKED???)
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To: RippleFire
I'll bet there's a bunch of tapes. but there's no chance in hell we'll ever see them. they might reveal "inconsistencies" from the official story.
368 posted on 04/20/2004 12:31:23 AM PDT by isom35
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To: RippleFire
Much today about the Oklahoma City bombing,but precious little on the "shot heard 'round the world".
369 posted on 04/20/2004 12:58:10 AM PDT by kennyo
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To: Piranha
In the nineties there were a few things that if you claimed to have seen them you were branded a conspiracy kook, Black helicopters over your house or White Vans full of black-suited, well armed Gov't enforcers of some kind were two of them. But, as I said, I encountered the WV guys in person @ 1984. As for the black choppers.....I'm not saying...
370 posted on 04/20/2004 3:59:49 AM PDT by wtc911 (Europe without God plus islam = Eurabia)
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To: Warlord David
Fox doesn't have those tapes. They have been withheld from the Terry Nichols case now underway, as a matter of fact. Jayna Davis is the reporter. www.jaynadavis.com

The Iraqi 'third terrorist' is probably Alhuseini, a guy who ended up working at Logan Airport, probably aiding Atta and the 18 other Al Queda agents.

Review the threads concerning the Gorelick wall, Terry Nichols and OKC over the past week, it's all starting to come together.
371 posted on 04/20/2004 4:50:59 AM PDT by ovrtaxt ( Communism has bowed the knee to Jesus. *** Allah is next.)
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To: RBroadfoot
What McVeigh had to gain by keeping quiet was the lives of his family, which he placed high value on. He was also a very disciplined soldier and placed value on his conduct, however misguided it was. Remember, after Waco and the Branch Davidian slaughter, he saw our federal agencies as true enemies of the state. McVeigh lived in a black and white world governed by agencies of grey.
372 posted on 04/20/2004 4:53:05 AM PDT by blackdog (I feed the sheep the coyotes eat)
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To: Smokin' Joe; archy
By dropping the bombshell of the Gorelick memo, and the rest yet to come while things are rolling,

I hope you're correct. These surveillance tapes coming to light are a result of the Nichols trial, outed by a Secret Service agent. Any info on his connection to the GOP?

And why does the Secret Service have a dog in this fight anyway? I thought they were to protect the President.

373 posted on 04/20/2004 4:57:55 AM PDT by ovrtaxt ( Communism has bowed the knee to Jesus. *** Allah is next.)
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To: Freepers Son
Bump for a read
374 posted on 04/20/2004 4:58:03 AM PDT by WhirlwindAttack (Invite a muslim to a hog roast and make your day)
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To: RippleFire
General Partin mentioned a video in his analysis of the blast, which concluded:

"The Murrah Federal Building was not destroyed by one sole truck bomb. The major factor in its destruction appears to have been detonation of explosives carefully placed at four critical junctures on supporting columns within the building."

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/PARTIN/okm.htm
375 posted on 04/20/2004 5:25:55 AM PDT by dsc
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To: dubyaismypresident
Oh, gee, suppression of Evidence for political reasons During the Clinton Administration...Who'da thunk it?
376 posted on 04/20/2004 5:33:45 AM PDT by hobbes1 (Hobbes1TheOmniscient® "I know everything so you don't have to" ;)
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To: isom35
I'll bet there's a bunch of tapes. but there's no chance in hell we'll ever see them. they might reveal "inconsistencies" from the official story.

Including a certain parking lot videotape of 07-20-93.

377 posted on 04/20/2004 5:34:28 AM PDT by PJ-Comix (Saddam Hussein was only 537 Florida votes away from still being in power)
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To: hobbes1
Oh, gee, suppression of Evidence for political reasons During the Clinton Administration...Who'da thunk it?

Just another brick in the Wall....

378 posted on 04/20/2004 5:35:16 AM PDT by NeoCaveman (Is Arlen a Republican? Not proven.)
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To: RippleFire
I couldn't even finish reading the article. DAMN YOU FREE REPUBLIC. ignorance truly is bliss. . .
379 posted on 04/20/2004 5:53:57 AM PDT by bored at work (confidence in certain victory)
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To: Marie Antoinette
Congratulations on William Elijah! My thoughts exactly. I still remember the police sketch of the one guy that was seen with McVie in that store but nothing ever came of it... there were a few mysteries and interesting things that never seemed to be investigated and being the skeptic that I am I always wonder what "they" are hiding.
380 posted on 04/20/2004 6:00:58 AM PDT by Paved Paradise
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