Here are some more OKC "Wild Theories". This Bin Laden OKC connection seems so plausible now. I've read elsewhere Abdul Hakim Murad said they did OKC (and Ramzi Yousef said they did Flight 800).
The Denver Post Online: Bomb Trial
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By Howard Pankratz Oct. 12 - In his new book, the lawyer for convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh claims that co-defendant Terry Nichols met with Ramzi Yousef, an Iraqi intelligence operative who masterminded the World Trade Center bombing and was behind a plot to blow up 12 U.S. jets. In Stephen Jones' "Others Unknown," he claims the meeting occurred sometime in the early 1990s on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, a "hotbed of fundamentalist Muslim activity." The 331-page book will be in bookstores Nov. 9. Present were Nichols - who referred to himself as the as "The Farmer" - and Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah, according to Jones. The subject of the meeting was terrorism. Specifically, three topics were discussed: bombing activities; providing firearms and ammunition; and training in the making and handling of bombs, claimed Jones. But Nichols' lawyer, Michael Tigar, and Larry Mackey, the former federal prosecutor who spearheaded the government's case against Nichols, say there is no evidence to support Jones' claim. "It is false, it is defamatory and he (Jones) knows it," said Tigar of the Yousef-Nichols allegation. "From the beginning, one of his (Jones') tactics has been to create a smoke screen by seeking to divert attention from the real serious issues that had to be decided in this case. "Repeatedly he has hatched the "Conspiracy Theory of the Week,' each one less credible than the last. I don't think behavior of this sort does credit to the justice system. I don't think it does credit to the lawyer who does it and I do not think it is in the interest of his client," said Tigar. Mackey said that federal investigators "left no stone unturned" and could find nothing indicating a Nichols-Iraqi-Muslim link. "We ran this down when it first came up long before trial," said Mackey. "And there was absolutely nothing to it." Mackey noted that just a couple of weeks before the McVeigh trial began, Jones made similar, although sketchier, allegations to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. But Mackey said the "defining moment" in the McVeigh case came during Jones opening statement when Jones didn't even raise the allegation about a Nichols-Iraqi link. Mackey said Jones "didn't dare try to sell" such a far-fetched story to a jury of 12 people. Like Tigar, Mackey questions whether Jones should now be trying to sell the theory to the American public. In his book, Jones admits some members of his staff were skeptical of the information that was developed about Yousef and Nichols. But Jones said it is credible. Jones said that after their meeting with Nichols, Abdul Hakim Murad, Wali Khan Amin Shah and Ramzi Yousef were charged in the plot to blow up the 12 U.S. jetliners. They were convicted in September 1996, and are serving time in U.S. prisons, said the Enid, Okla., lawyer. Jones claimed that an extensive investigation by his office in the Philippines, aided by Filipino officials, indicated that one of the convicted plotters, Wali Khan Amin Shah, was acquainted with Nichols' wife, Marife Torres Nichols, a Filipino by birth. Jones also claimed that Nichols' marriage to Marife was little more than a cover for Nichols as he made his way six times to the Philippines to perfect bomb-making techniques he originally tried to develop on the Nichols farm at Decker, Mich. Jones called Nichols a liar who fabricated vast portions of his tale about what transpired before the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Jones said Nichols set up McVeigh - using methods that Yousef had used over the years, including the attempt to hide the real perpetrators of the World Trade Center bombing. Jones said that after analyzing Nichols, he was forced to wonder if the Oklahoma City bombing was not a "very clever, well-executed conspiracy. "Could it have been designed to protect and shelter everyone involved? Everyone, that is except my client - who may or may not have been involved but whose role, if he had a role, would have been the designated patsy?" Jones asked. "I began to look at everything Nichols had said...and the more I looked, the more it appeared that Nichols, with Tigar as his advocate, was going to try to save his skin at Tim McVeigh's expense." But Tigar said Jones' portrayal of Nichols is not true. "I spent three years of my life, along with four other lawyers - and they are good lawyers - and five investigators and five para-legals, tracking every single moment of Terry Nichols' life from the time he was born until the time he walked into the Herington police station," said Tigar. "And this ain't true. "And I'll tell you something else. If there were any credible evidence that Nichols had been involved in a conspiracy to bomb the federal building with Muslim fundamentalists, the United States would have been free to put it on in their case," said Tigar, adding they would have put it on in a "heartbeat" had it been there. Jones bases his claims about the Nichols-Iraqi intelligence meeting on interviews he said Filipino police had with Edwin Angeles, described as an associate of Yousef, who was arrested in the Philippines and purportedly turned informant against Iraq. In videotaped and written interviews, Angeles said he met "The Farmer" at the meeting where the "farmer" discussed terrorism with Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah. Jones said Angeles also included a sketch of "the Farmer," which "was a dead ringer for Terry Lynn Nichols." Based on the sketch and the details provided by Angeles, and further investigation of Angeles by lawyer Jim Hankins, Jones concluded that "the Farmer" was Nichols and Nichols and had met Yousef. But when he asked U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch to subpoena Angeles to testify at the McVeigh trial, Matsch refused, said Jones. Jones said Angeles was also trying to squirm out of testifying in Denver. Angeles stuck to his original version as videotaped by his Filipino interrogators but started embellishing his story with additional and implausible details. Jones quoted Vincent Cannistraro, former chief of operations and analysis for the CIA's counterterrorism center, and Laurie Mylroie, of the University of Pennsylvania, as saying they were convinced that the Iraqi intelligence service was deeply committed to attacking the United States within its borders. A key figure in that effort was Yousef, said Jones quoting Mylroie and Cannistraro. Jones also claimed that Osama bin Laden, the Saudi multimillionaire linked to the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was in the Philippines about the same time as Nichols and Yousef. "Bin Laden - Yousef - Nichols. Now a lot of things made sense," wrote Jones. "The connections kept coming. Bin Laden was known to Ramzi Yousef. Terry Nichols had met Yousef, said Angeles. "How, given all this, could I not think that Terry had gone in and out of the Philippines at will, using Marife Torres Nichols as a beard, in order to meet with conspirators who had taught him to develop and assemble the ANFO bomb? "And...if this was true - if, that is, Terry Nichols had gone to the Philippines to be instructed by Ramzi and his band in the art and techniques of blowing up a nine-story building - then mightn't he have learned another part of Ramzi Yousef's modus operandi? That it's always prudent to leave someone else holding the bag?" Jones noted that this spring, Judge Matsch offered Nichols a deal. The only way Nichols could avoid life without parole, Matsch said, was for him to name names. If Nichols would identify "others unknown," then Matsch would consider a lighter sentence. However, Nichols failed to respond and received the life term. "I believe I know (Matsch) well enough to affirm that he never would have made such a proffer speculatively or frivolously or to gain attention for himself," said Jones. "Could it be that Richard Matsch, persuaded by evidence he refused to let our jury hear, has himself become a conspiracy theorist?" |
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