Saudis warned FBI about OKC bombing? Evidence suggests possible Iraq link

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Saturday, June 22, 2002 | By Jon Dougherty

[JohnHuang2]

Saudi Arabian intelligence officials warned the FBI about an Iraqi plot to attack federal facilities in 1995, including the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, according to an Oklahoma lawyer teaming up with a noted Washington, D.C., public-interest law firm.

Mike Johnston, co-counsel for Judicial Watch, said Thursday that on April 19, 1995 – the day of the Oklahoma City bombing – Saudi intelligence alerted CIA officials in Washington, who in turn advised FBI agents at the Washington Metropolitan Field Office.

"Vincent Canastraro, who is the former chief of counter-terrorism for the CIA … called Special Agent Kevin L. Foust and informed him that one of his best sources from Saudi Arabian intelligence specifically advised him that there was a squad of people currently in the United States, very possibly Iraqi, who, and I'm quoting, 'have been tasked with carrying out terrorist acts against the United States,'" Johnston said during an interview on the "Judicial Watch Report" radio program.

"The Saudi informant, who's part of the Saudi counter-terrorism service, told [federal officials] that he had seen the list and that 'first on the list was the federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla.'" Johnston continued.

Johnston said the Saudi agent reported that an Internal Revenue Service building in Houston, Texas, was "second on the list," followed by the FBI's field office in Los Angeles.

The FBI facility was targeted because, according to Johnston, it was the bureau's main counterintelligence operation at that time.

Johnston also said that documents obtained by Judicial Watch show that about a year later, on April 16, 1996, the FBI filed a follow-up report claiming the initial information gleaned from Saudi sources was most likely accurate.

"Even though the government has consistently maintained that no credible evidence exists linking McVeigh to international terrorists," Johnston said, "the FBI generated a follow-up 302 report one year later … where a supervisory special agent, name blacked out, contacted another source regarding the original information from Canastraro."

The special agent "was told that the information was confirmed as generated from a general within the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Service," said Johnston. "The FBI 302 memo went on to conclude that this information appears to have validity, citing Canastraro's former position within the CIA."

An FBI spokeswoman told WorldNetDaily the bureau had no comment on Johnston's allegations. CIA officials could not be reached for comment prior to press time.

When asked why the government did not do more to press McVeigh before his death if he was working for another government, Johnston said such a strategy" was apparently not in the game plan for the Justice Department …"

Johnston says some of his information came from documents ordered sealed by U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, the presiding judge in McVeigh's initial trial, which took place in Denver, Colo.

He went on to note that Matsch has never lifted the order, though "it’s kind of hard to see how it would affect Tim McVeigh now."

"The federal government continues to seek the maintenance of that sealing order on the basis of privacy concerns," he said.

Johnston's disclosure comes on the heels of a report Wednesday that said the U.S. government was warned before the bombing that Islamic extremists were planning attacks.

Islamic terrorists were planning to "strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future," said one warning memo, according to The Associated Press.

That report did not mention Saudi Arabia, but said only that U.S. officials were tipped by evidence "gathered across the globe from Iran and Syria to the Philippines."

AP said documents show the warnings became progressively more specific as to the time, place and type of attack.

Stephen Jones, McVeigh's attorney, was reportedly upset by the disclosure.

"We specifically asked on the record for all evidence, documents and tangible objects to show whether the government had received a warning of acts of terror against federal buildings. We didn't receive this," he told AP.

As WorldNetDaily reported in March, Johnston and Judicial Watch have filed suit against Iraq, charging that Baghdad masterminded and financed "in whole or in part" the OKC bombing.

Chris Farrell, investigative director for Judicial Watch, told WorldNetDaily that the suit has yet to be served on the Iraqi government, but that it is "trudging along" in its process. He said the suit is being handled "through diplomatic channels" in the State Department, which will hand it off to the Polish government.

The U.S. maintains a section in the Polish Embassy in Baghdad, and will serve the Iraqi government through it, with Polish assistance, Farrell said.

As to whether the U.S. government has responded to reports of the suit, Farrell said, "We haven't heard anything."

McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols were eventually charged and convicted for differing roles in connection with the OKC bombing. McVeigh was executed June 11, 2001; Nichols has been sentenced to life in prison, but could face state death penalty charges in Oklahoma.

Johnston, in his radio interview, also said there was some evidence suggesting that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed – a top al-Qaida lieutenant whom federal authorities believe may have masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks – trained Nichols for the OKC bombing in the Philippines.

Mohammed "was not only involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, he was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center attack" as well, Johnston charged. "He was in the Philippines at the same time as Terry Nichols, by the way, in the last trip that he made down there before the Murrah building bombing."

U.S. officials believe Mohammed was also in charge of transferring the funds used by the Sept. 11 hijackers.

"There's lots of links that tie him to 9-11," one government official told AP June 5. "He was intricately involved."

Mohammed is also believed to be an accomplice of Ramzi Yousef, who is currently serving a life sentence in the U.S. for his alleged role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Upon his arrest, Yousef was found in possession of plans to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners. Prosecutors also believe he had planned to crash a plane into the Pentagon.

[lawdog]

I've just sent you private mail.

[Sal]

Special Prosecutor Beth Wilkinson flat out lied to Judge Richard Matsch. She told the judge that Strassmeir was "A mere wisp of the wind." She said Strassmeir’s only problem was that he might have overstayed his visa. She falsely stated that the letters "A" and "O" on Strassmeir’s immigration record stood for "admitted" and "overstayed" respectively.

Wilkinson also falsely told the judge that Carol Howe had been fired by the BATF as mentally unstable and untrustworthy. She falsified the date Howe left the service of the BATF...."

I'm glad I'm not Beth Wilkinson because she sure looks like a prime candidate for goat. IMO she richly deserves it, but she looks like a good place to park the guilt of those who knew exactly what they were doing when they suppressed evidence and pressed for an early execution of McVeigh. It's also possible that some of them did mistakenly listen to and believe her lies. Anybody who stands to be in harsh light as this story comes out would do well to QUICKLY and LOUDLY tell the public they were mislead...

This story IS coming out--there are too many people with a public voice who are talking about it now. The one that shocked me was Greta Van Sustern, old Clintonista/Scientologist. Why did she give air time to Jayna Davis for this? Greta is not dumb. She has to see the implications this has for the TRIMexPOTUS Scumbag & Co.

Is it possible that the insiders have realized the lid is NOT going to stay on this one and they'll look a lot better as part of the exposure team than part of the cover up team? John A., take note! Is it possible that hooking Saddam to OKC has become important enough to leave the Scumbag twisting in the wind? I don't know why, but something has shifted somewhere.

Lawdog, the Murrah Bldg. security was contracted to TEG/AKAL. They are not Pakistani, but Sikhs (Indian). A couple loose facts--make of them what you will: One of the Indian languages is Urdu which is also spoken in Afghanistan and I THINK in Pakistan. Sikhs and Pakistanis both want to see a Kashmir separate from India.

Nita, I hear what you're saying about FBI cover up with orders coming from on high, but don't forget the presence of Andi the German. The BEST the Feds can hope for is to present their involvement/complicity as a sting gone wrong. Unless Strassmeier was working with the Iragis but not with our own Feds. Possible I suppose. That would have HUGE ramifications, bigger IMO than a ruined sting. Remember Freeh went to Germany a year or two earlier to set up cooperation between German intelligence (which Andi is) and the FBI.

Glorygirl, I've always thought the Chandra thing had to do with BOP and probably McVeigh.

Condit was quoted in Newsweek last Auguest as saying Levy seemed "overly concerned" about the McVeigh execution.

I didn't remember that, but it's astonishing! I wonder if that had anything to do with some of his colleagues continuing to support him or going back on their denunciations of him, not to mention that he was allowed to stay on the Intelligence Committee and work with Homeland Security... He's very lucky IMO that he only ended up discredited and out of office instead of like Ron Brown. That Newsweek quote sounds a lot like, "I'm not going down alone."

[Free Vulcan]

bttt. wow, excellent thread.

[VOA]

I reported in an article on FR that Nichols was with a ME John Doe and a Rider truck
in Newkirk OK on APril 18, 1995 the day before the OKC bombing. This has been known to
the FBI since late APril 1995.

Thanks for OKCSubmariner for keeping the faith on this issue.
And to all my "Okie"-connected friends who weigh in from time to time.

I keep an open mind about foreign involvement in the Murrah Building bombing...but we may
never find a "smoking gun".

But there is just too much smoke here for there not to have been a con-joined fire.
I won't be surprised if some day we find McVeigh and/or Nichols were unknowing
fronts for Iraqi/Iranian/Foreign terrorists interests.

[glorygirl]

From August 26, 2001 edition of Newsweek (had to pay to access it on the web)Michael Isikoff interviewed Condit:
***
Isikoff:
Was there any issue [between you at] that time?

Condit:
I never had a cross word with her. The kind of conversation we had would be--[when Timothy] McVeigh was executed and Juan Garza was executed. She seemed to have a lot of interest in those two things and a lot of more interest in them than I did. So she would talk about that.

Isikoff:
You talked about McVeigh--

Condit:
Yeah, because she was part of--she had something to do with distribution of information.... She might have called and said, 'Hey, I read they are building a new federal prison down in your district and they are going to employ 350 people,' and blah, blah, blah. And I might call her back and she might share information with me.... She read all the local newspapers on the Internet. She might call up and say, 'What's going on with that crazy mayor in Modesto? He sounds nuts. Let's talk about it.' So I know that may sound sort of mundane to you, but that's sort of the way the conversations took place. There was really no heavy--I mean, we might get into a philosophical discussion about Israel or foreign aid or something like that, but that was pretty unusual.

Isikoff:
But how about personal stuff, her personal life, her private life?

Condit:
She was very focused on her career--actually, I was advising her to slow down a little bit and not push herself so hard in terms of whether she had to make a decision about going to law school or she wanted to go to work for the FBI or CIA. We talked about that, but she was very focused on her career and what she was going to do. I actually thought that, which I think she thought, too, when she came and told me that morning that she had lost her possibility to get a job, she thought the next job that opened up she was going to get.

Isikoff:
And did you want her to come back to D.C.?

Condit:
I wanted her to do what she wanted to do.
***
It struck me as odd at the time that Condit said "when McVeigh was executed" as though McVeigh had been executed BEFORE Chandra's death.

[lawdog]

Thnaks for the info on the security firm. I couldn't remember but I knew they had a "foreign connection". Thanks.

[lawdog]

Dang, who keeps switchin' the letters around ?

"thanks"

[Abundy]

What's this? 66 replies to this article and no _Jim yet to tell us all that we're so tightly wrapped with tinfoil that it is cutting off the blood to our brains?

I'm wondering if his bosses are still trying to figure out what lies he can spread on this thread to distract us....

Some day I hope I get to mee that douchebag face to face.

[glorygirl]

"One of the Indian languages is Urdu which is also spoken in Afghanistan and I THINK in Pakistan"

Urdu is spoken in Pakistan.

[Fred Mertz]

It struck me as odd at the time that Condit said "when McVeigh was executed" as though McVeigh had been executed BEFORE Chandra's death.

That is an interesting catch, glorygirl. Also, interesting that this thread on the Saudis connects potential dots to McVeigh, the BOP, Chandra Levy and Gary Condit.

What an excellent thread.

[the crow]

"What an excellent thread." BTTT

[Nita Nupress]

Nita, I hear what you're saying about FBI cover up with orders coming from on high, but don't forget the presence of Andi the German. The BEST the Feds can hope for is to present their involvement/complicity as a sting gone wrong. Unless Strassmeier was working with the Iragis but not with our own Feds. Possible I suppose. That would have HUGE ramifications, bigger IMO than a ruined sting. Remember Freeh went to Germany a year or two earlier to set up cooperation between German intelligence (which Andi is) and the FBI.

Andi the German is a piece of it that I haven't thought about lately so I'm glad you brought that up.  Sometimes I tend to forget about him.  Thanks for your input in #62.  I always enjoy reading what you have to say about things.

lawdog, you can read more about Teg Security at this link.  Wallaby and rdavis84 did some amazing research on these threads:  Firm Ran Security at OK Bomb Site - Part 6

[aristeides]

Speaking of the OKC bomb(s), yesterday's Washington Post had a story claiming that the recent explosion at our Karachi consulate was caused by a "huge fertilizer bomb". The article noticeably does not claim that the bomb contained fertilizer alone or ammonium nitrate and fertilizer alone. I suspect that it, like the bombs at OKC and the East African embassies, contained fertilizer, nitroglycerin, and dynamite, like the formula found in the notebook in Kabul with the title "Explosivija za Oklahomu" (Serbo-Croatian for "Explosive Used in Oklahoma.")

[aristeides]

Matsch may have been specially selected (remember the suspicious death of his daughter at the volcano in Hawaii,) but how did DOJ get the Tenth Circuit to go along, especially with last year's extremely dubious decision not to grant a further stay of McVeigh's execution until the newly released evidence could be properly evaluated?

[aristeides]

That's a great idea, to issue a presidential pardon to the Clintons for listed offenses. Would they have the right to refuse such a pardon?

[Nancie Drew]

Thanks for posting the transcript of Jayna Davis’ appearance on John Gibson. That is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. I wish someone would give her more than six minutes, which seems to be the most she gets. She gets a lot of information out in a short time, but there is so much more if someone would just give her the time.

[lawdog]

" Steamroller ". Why the hurry to whack Mcveigh ? It was to save the victims the "pain". I believe this was the same reason used to raze the Murrah building as quickly as possible also.

[Nita Nupress]

Any time. Jayna Davis is ideal for getting the message out: She's poised, articulate, and like you stated already, she's able to say alot in a short amount of time. Most people who attempt that feat in a short TV segment are unable to do so.

[Nita Nupress]

For anyone who didn't see it, here's a transcript of Jayna's appearance on Greta's show. I think Jayna could have said more if Greta hadn't kept interrupting her.

Fox News Network 
SHOW: FOX - On the Record with Greta Van Susteren 
June 21, 2002 Friday 

Interview With Jayna Davis 

GUESTS: Jayna Davis 
BYLINE: Greta Van Susteren 

But our next guest has her own story. Former TV reporter Jayna Davis joins us from Oklahoma City. 

Jayna, you have -- in your opinion -- at least your research has produced a different version of the events of what happened involving the Oklahoma City bombing. What did you learn? 

JAYNA DAVIS, FORMER OKLAHOMA CITY TV REPORTER: Well, what I learned through seven years of research, which began when I was a reporter here at the local NBC affiliate on April 19th, is that there are 24 Oklahomans who swore under oath that they can specifically identify Middle Eastern men, most of whom are former Iraqi soldiers, acting in collusion with McVeigh and Nichols through various stages of the bombing plot. 

And, Greta, seven of those witnesses specifically identify a former Iraqi soldier named Hussain Hasam (ph) Al-Hussaini, and they can link him directly to Timothy McVeigh, the Ryder truck, the Murrah building, and the getaway vehicle that was ... 

... 19th, 1995. 

VAN SUSTEREN: Now, Jayna, obviously, that was not the theory of the prosecution of Timothy McVeigh. Why did the United States not pursue that theory if you believe it's so strong? 

DAVIS: Well, that, I believe, Greta, is a question for the former attorney general, the former director of the FBI, and the people that were working on the Oklahoma bomb task force. 

All I know is that I made repeated efforts to give this information to the ... 

... alibi of Hussain Hasam Al- Hussaini until the Oklahoma bomb task force took this case out of his hands. 

And then, back in 1997, I returned to the FBI. I set up an appointment, Greta. I went down. I met with this agent again, and I was turning over 22 witness statements and hundreds of corroborating documents that actually verified the critical aspects of all of their testimonies. 

VAN SUSTEREN: Is... 

DAVIS: ... ... America's heartland, and 12 cities were placed on the potential target list because of the radical Islamic factions operating in those cities, and Oklahoma City was on that list. 

The most startling information... 

VAN SUSTEREN: If -- you know, Jayna, if... 

DAVIS: The most startling information... 

VAN SUSTEREN: If you're right, this is the most incredible either cover-up or look-the-other-way. I mean, this is extraordinary because not only is it a prosecution where only one ... 

... DAVIS: ... believe it is a question that needs to be posed. 

VAN SUSTEREN: And, Jayna, maybe tonight -- after hearing you, maybe they will attempt to answer you. 

Thank you very much for joining us. 

DAVIS: Thank you, Greta.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you Nita. Excellent...