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Film examines Okla. bombing's long fuse
Denver Post ^ | 4/12/02 | Howard Pankratz

Posted on 04/12/2002 10:12:56 PM PDT by glorygirl

The horror of April 19, 1995, crosses like a dark cloud over Kerry Noble's face. On that day, Timothy McVeigh drove a rental truck to Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and lit a fuse. At 9:02 a.m., thousands of pounds of explosives detonated, shattering the building, killing 168 and injuring hundreds more.

Twelve years earlier, Noble and fellow members of a militaristic group known as the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) had targeted the Murrah building for destruction.

They and other members of America's ultra-right contingent had declared war on the United States. The Murrah building was to be the biggest target of the new revolution.

But by 1995, Noble had renounced violence and changed his life.

In a 90-minute documentary by MGA Films Inc., of Fort Collins, Noble recalls his anguish at seeing the destruction of the Murrah building.

He relates how he searched his soul to see if the CSA plans and those of avowed racist Richard Wayne Snell might have resulted in McVeigh's actions.

Jason Van Vleet, producer and director of the documentary, called "Terror From Within," said the film won the Gold Grand Jury Award at the Houston International Film Festival last weekend - an overall category in which all films at the festival are ranked.

He said HBO is now reviewing the film and he hopes a network will pick the film up. If one doesn't, MGA plans to find a distributor to distribute the documentary in U.S. theaters.

The documentary, drawing on many sources, argues that the 1995 bombing was a plot originally hatched in 1983 and carried out by fresh, new converts to the far right, epitomized by disgruntled military veterans like McVeigh and his co-conspirator Terry Nichols.

The film took three years to make.

As Noble notes, April 19, 1995, was a day that for many on the extremist fringes evoked memories. On April 19, 1993, the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, went up in flames; on April 19, 1985, federal and state authorities began their siege of the CSA compound in Arkansas, and 12 hours after the 9:02 a.m. blast in Oklahoma City, Snell - the man who originally targeted the Murrah building - was executed in Arkansas.

"When . . . I'm watching the news reports, this is hard because I'm looking at this and "I thought, "They've done it. Wayne has finally done it,' " Noble said.

"It could easily have been me involved in the same thing in 1983," Noble added. "Wayne Snell was going to be executed that evening. What better way could this man die than to give him a going-away present of the very building he targeted in Oklahoma City?"

The CSA plot to destroy the Murrah building was outlined in a series of articles by The Denver Post on May 12, 1996.

Noble sees similarities between McVeigh and Snell, executed after killing a black Arkansas state trooper and a pawnshop owner he mistakenly thought was Jewish. Both targeted the Murrah building.

Both were zealots who believed the federal government had to be destroyed.

"It's no coincidence as far as I am concerned that the same building in 1995 was targeted in 1983," said Noble. "No coincidence. For McVeigh to just randomly pick the same building on the very day Richard Wayne Snell is to be executed, what's the chances? The chances are just too extreme."

Noble recounts how Snell was attracted to the CSA in the 1980s, and how the CSA embraced Snell, who acted as an "emissary" between various radical right-wing groups.

"Snell was more than willing to help us, was radical enough and when we started talking . . . about what we could do, Snell says there is a building in Oklahoma City - the Murrah federal building. "I think it would make a great target,' " Noble said in the documentary.

The CSA, like McVeigh 12 years later, "cased' the Murrah building and found it a perfect target. Snell, like McVeigh, wanted to load a van with explosives and blow it up.

But another CSA leader wanted to attack with rockets instead, and that plan was adopted.

The plot ended, said Noble, when one of the rockets blew up in the hands of the rocket maker.

The CSA took that as a sign from God that a Murrah building attack should be abandoned.

The documentary also focuses on two women who each lost grandchildren in the 1995 blast - Kathy Wilburn and Jannie Coverdale.

Wilburn traveled throughout the United States, England and Ireland visiting people in the international neo-Nazi movement and becoming friends with the relatives of Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh. Wilburn believes viewers of the documentary will walk away sure that the 1995 bombing was not carried out by a "lone wolf," Timothy McVeigh.

And she wonders what happened to all the "John Doe No. 2s" that McVeigh was seen with in the months and days before the bombing.

In an interview with the FBI sketch artist, the documentary reveals that the original sketch of "John Doe #2" was wrong. That was the sketch of burly, squared-jawed man with a large nose.

The artist reveals that the second sketch, showing an older man in profile with a distinctive baseball cap, is what John Doe No. 2 looked like.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: covenant; fredthompson; mcveigh; nichols; okcbombing; snell
Anybody else wondering about next Friday?
1 posted on 04/12/2002 10:12:56 PM PDT by glorygirl
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To: okcsubmariner
ping
2 posted on 04/12/2002 10:13:36 PM PDT by glorygirl
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To: glorygirl
Its articles like this that serve as a reminder for me why I did not join the CSA . This is a good find and thank you !
3 posted on 04/12/2002 10:27:05 PM PDT by Ben Bolt
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: glorygirl
I wonder how disappointed MGA Films, HBO, et al will be if it turns out that McVeigh and Nichols were working for Iraq...
5 posted on 04/12/2002 10:42:12 PM PDT by okie01
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To: archy,lawdog,Uncle Bill,Marianne,ratcat,honway,thinden,Fred Mertz,aristeides,ronneil
They'll just plan another movie...maybe....
6 posted on 04/12/2002 10:53:44 PM PDT by glorygirl
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To: *OKCbombing

7 posted on 04/12/2002 11:03:39 PM PDT by Libertarianize the GOP
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To: glorygirl
I think ratcat has been banned from free republic.
8 posted on 04/12/2002 11:06:15 PM PDT by Libertarianize the GOP
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To: glorygirl,MizSterious,honway,amom,rdavis84,lawdog,Uncle Bill,archy,Plummz,aristeides,thinden,Dona
About a year ago I told Kathy Wilburn and Janie Coverdale in detail about the three John Does seen at the Travelers Aid one block west of the Murrah building with McVeigh and his car on April 18, 1995.

I told them with the witnesses permission more details than what I had even posted on the FreeRepublic in my articles because they both suffered the loss of their grand children in the Murrah Day care Center and deserved to be told.

I had hoped that Wilburn would put the story in the documentary I knew she was working on at the time. However, Kathy and Janie have not followed up with the witnesses at Travelers aid for almost a year now so I think it is unlikely that the story will be in the documentary. This would be sad to me.

I do not know yet what is in the documentary other than what is described in this article.

I have uncovered more very important information about another group of domestic and foreign John Does involved together with McVeigh in Oklahoma that has not been reported before. I hope to have a story out on FR on this soon. It will be another example of a pattern of FBI and DOJ corruption to not do sketches, to falsify FBI interview reports, to not do interview reports and to threaten and intimidate witnesses, and to withhold surveillance camera tapes showing McVeigh with John Does in several cities besides OKC.

In my opinion this corruption is engrained and endemic to the institutions of the FBI and DOJ no matter who the AG or FBI director or President should be. It does not bode well or give me confidence that Americans will be adequately protected from terrorists by the FBI and DOJ.

I pray Jesus Christ will protect His own that trust and believe in Him because the FBI and DOJ surely have not and likely will not adequately protect us.

9 posted on 04/12/2002 11:43:27 PM PDT by OKCSubmariner
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To: OKCSubmariner; honway; MizSterious
heads up
10 posted on 04/13/2002 9:19:39 AM PDT by thinden
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To: OKCSubmariner
Amen.
11 posted on 04/13/2002 9:49:26 AM PDT by Fred Mertz
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To: OKCSubmariner
thanks for the ping...and bump
12 posted on 04/13/2002 11:06:55 AM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA, glorygirl,MizSterious,honway,amom,rdavis84,lawdog,Uncle Bill,archy,Plummz,aristeides,thinden
Kerry Noble was an FBI informant while he was at CSA. Noble worked directly for the FBI starting in 1995. Noble was a follower of Rev Millar at Elohim City in Oklahoma. Millar testified at the Carole Howe trial that he informed also for the FBI. Elohim City is where German national Andreas Strassmeyer worked in association with McVeigh and where FBI informant Peter Ward (seen in McVeigh's room 25 of the Dreamland in Kansas and at the Travelers AId in OKC with Mcveigh on APril 18,19995)also lived. The FBI knew in advance and encouraged the Murrah bombing via the FBI and BATF informants at Elohim City.

Because of Noble's direct ties to the FBI ( I have the articles and docs to back this up)and because the FBI lied about and covered up the FBI and BATF informants,provacateurs and John Does in the OKC bombing case, I do not believe that Kerry Noble should be a reliable resource for the MGA documentary "Terror From Within". His role in my opinion may have tainted what was put in and what was left out of the documentary.

In 1998 and 1999 I spoke for months with Van Fleet Senior and his legal advisor about their documentary on the OKC bombing. I parted company with Van Fleet when it became obvious to me that he was not truthful with me on a number of major issues and did not want to use most of my information or research for the documentary. As noted in reply #9 earlier I tried to get the Travelers Aid story about John Does put in the documentary via Kathy Wilburn and Janie Coverdale but it appears to have not been included by the Van Fleets.

13 posted on 04/13/2002 2:27:42 PM PDT by OKCSubmariner
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To: Prodigal Daughter,nunya bidness,Nita Nupress,honway
Please see replies #9 and #13.
14 posted on 04/13/2002 2:31:03 PM PDT by OKCSubmariner
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To: OKCSubmariner
Thanks for the heads up and the info. Someday....*sigh*
15 posted on 04/13/2002 6:15:44 PM PDT by amom
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To: OKCSubmariner
"His role in my opinion may have tainted what was put in and what was left out of the documentary."

That was my thought as I read the original article. So now we have another "documentary" that in reality documents nothing, just spreads more propaganda. If the video is aired on HBO, I'll tape it and save it with the rest of them, though, just to have a complete record of the whole thing--truth, lies, and whatever lies between.

16 posted on 04/14/2002 9:46:40 AM PDT by MizSterious
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To: MizSterious
Can you say "disinformantion" campaign ? I believe such "documentaries" as mentioned above very likely serve such a purpose. Really they have it down to quite an art form and a lot of people will eat this stuff up, it's quite a distraction but that's it's purpose.
17 posted on 04/14/2002 11:23:51 PM PDT by lawdog
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To: MizSterious
oops.. "disinformation"
18 posted on 04/14/2002 11:25:12 PM PDT by lawdog
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To: okcsubmariner
Alex Jones's latest video has a lot on OKC and an interview with David Shippers. infowars.com
19 posted on 04/15/2002 2:35:06 PM PDT by lelio
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To: lelio
Thanks for the info about infowars and Schippers.
20 posted on 04/15/2002 2:46:21 PM PDT by OKCSubmariner
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