Posted on 05/27/2002 12:22:53 PM PDT by kattracks
An al Qaeda conspirator who was involved in a plot investigators now say was an early blueprint for the 9-11 attacks had also claimed credit for the Oklahoma City bombing seven years ago, according to an FBI 302 witness statement revealed by Insight Magazine on Monday.
Immediately after the 1995 blast was reported, Abdul Hakim Murad, who was about to stand trial in New York for his involvement in a Philippine al Qaeda plot to fly hijacked airliners into targets like the World Trade Center and Pentagon, told a prison guard that "the Liberation Army was responsible for the (Oklahoma) bombing," according to the FBI document.
A Philippine police case file obtained by Insight investigative reporter Kenneth Timmerman states that the "Liberation Army" was a fictitious organization used as a code by Murad's partner, Ramzi Yousef and other al Qaeda members "whenever they are making announcements" of responsibility for terrorist attacks.
In 1993, Yousef masterminded the first attempt by Islamic terrorists to take down World Trade Center.
Timmerman reports:
"A scant two weeks after his arrival in the United States, Murad was listening to the radio when a news report came on the air announcing that the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City had been bombed. Lt. Philip Rojas, a prison guard, asked Murad what he thought and found his response so startling that he informed his superiors. They, in turn, called the FBI.
"Special Agents Francis J. Pellegrino and Brian G. Parr arrived later that morning, within hours after the Oklahoma City blast. 'Murad responded to the guard's question by stating that the Liberation Army was responsible for the bombing,' they reported in a witness report (No. 302). 'A short time later, Murad passed a note to the guard, again claiming that the Liberation Army was responsible for the bombing in Oklahoma City.'"
If accurate, the Insight report could shed new light on possible involvement by Osama bin Laden in the worst terrorist attack on the U.S. prior to 9-11, for which anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh was executed last year.
While no one doubts McVeigh's involvement in the Oklahoma bombing, accounts unearthed by former NBC reporter Jayna Davis, who covered the bombing for the network, suggest a wider conspiracy with al Qaeda ties. (See: McVeigh Cites Osama Bin Laden in Letter to Fox News)
In his book "Others Unknown," McVeigh's lawyer Stephen Jones says that he attempted to probe a possible connection between the Oklahoma bombing and the Philippine al Qaeda cell.
But police in Manilla, who were initially eager to cooperate with his investigation, were ordered to drop the inquiry by Clinton FBI. (See: McVeigh's Trial Att'y Alleges FBI Blocked Conspiracy Probe)
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Interesting, isn't it? Whenever the issue of a broader conspiracy was addressed by Clinton, the DoJ, FBI, CIA, the response was to drop the investigation in one way or another. Yet we now know that the FBI field agents were investigating Al Qaeda in the months and years prior to 9/11. The leadership didn't want to know, even going to far as to reprimand and discipline the field officers who were reporting on the terrorists. Why?
And then? Bush becomes president and evidently isn't told very much - yet he's accused of having prior knowledge. The hypocrisy is staggering, but it gives some indication concerning the corruption involved.
It's not like they'd done anything else like that.
We all know that David Koresh was the only real threat to national security.
Besides, you can't hurt a federal building with a .308 from hiding so such a plan would never have gone any further.
This was not picked up in the US press, however, perhaps because anything occuring in the Philippines tends to get a bit hazy in details.
This is news thaat has been around forever but the FBI didn't do their job (probably following the orders of Clinton - Reno). Ambrose Evans Pritchard wrote a book about it.
Just in the last couple of years David Schippers has been yelling, but again no one was listening. ...and I'm sorry to say that even now that our good guysare in power nothing has yet been heard.
Please, Mr. Bush make the FBI into an organization we can believe in again. Also it would be nice to have you look into flight 800 again.
Mrs K
Secret Gulf War Syndrome Documents Destroyed In Oklahoma City Blast [Free Republic]
Note the dates; it's old stuff here.
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