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Senator Specter to Host Presentation of Evidence on Possible 9/11 and Oklahoma City Connection
Senate.gov ^ | 10/9/02 | Specter's Office

Posted on 10/09/2002 4:19:30 PM PDT by glorygirl

Senator Arlen Specter, will host Philadelphia's talk radio powerhouse Michael Smerconish (The Big Talker 1210 AM WPHT) and former Oklahoma City Investigative Reporter Jayna Davis as they discuss whether there is a connection between the events of September 11 and the Oklahoma City bombing. Print and television media are invited to attend the broadcast as Senator Specter is presented with the evidence Jayna Davis has collected in a seven year investigation.

WHAT: Live Radio Broadcast w/ invitation to print and radio reporters

WHEN: 4:00 P.M., Thursday, October 10th, 2002 (Note: The full broadcast will occur from 3:00 to 6:00 pm. Senator Specter will be featured from 4:00 to 5:00 pm.)

WHERE: 711 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Smerconish is the host of The Big Talker 1210 AM WPHT, Philadelphia's talk radio leader.

Ms. Davis first became involved in the investigation while working as an investigative reporter for KFOR in Oklahoma City. Davis covered the FBI's international manhunt for the perpetrators of the bombing, and the infamous John Doe #2. On June 7, 1995, KFOR-TV broadcast its first story in which Timothy McVeigh was identified as drinking with a former Iraqi soldier in an Oklahoma City tavern.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: fredthompson; jaynadavis; mcveigh; okcbombing; specter; terrynichols
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To: RJCogburn
Hehe...now this is a banning.

Morning,

Your account has been banned and nuked as yet another alias of Pointy Stick & virtual gang.

If you want your new postings to stay on LP, you'll have to change your ways. From you, even the most reasonable comment is no longer welcome until you acknowledge your irresponsible actions.

Send me an email if you like.

Neil McIver
Manager, Liberty Post

21 posted on 10/09/2002 5:36:21 PM PDT by evad
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To: glorygirl
I'll lead the next mass email with this... I'm still in shock from that "Ophra Show lays out case against Iraq"--
22 posted on 10/09/2002 5:39:03 PM PDT by backhoe
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To: evad
;^)
23 posted on 10/09/2002 5:40:30 PM PDT by RJCogburn
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To: Vigilanteman
"While I don't agree with the gentleman's views on many issues"

I can't remember a time I've agreed with Specter on anything. I was ready to be flamed for being wrong about this appearance, but I would be happy to be wrong in this case.

Let's wait and see he does with the information, if anything.

My biggest curiousity, though, is how the media will handle it. Is the Washington Post going to stay away, or the New York Times? You betcha.(Hope I'm wrong about that, too)

I would encourage Freepers --particularly those in Pennsylvania -- to email this link to their local newspapers and talkshow hosts. At least it will make them aware that somebody in the federal government appears to be taking this seriously.

Who knows, maybe this is Specter's way of doing penance for the single-bullet theory. Again, we'll see.

24 posted on 10/09/2002 5:50:37 PM PDT by glorygirl
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To: backhoe
"I'm still in shock from that "Ophra Show lays out case against Iraq"--"

So now all we have to do is get Oprah interested in the Oklahoma City Bombing. Wouldn't that be a howl?

Never know. She might have the cojones to do it, right wing terorist connection and all, and have Bill Clinton on as a guest!

Maybe you ought to send her a couple of those Kenneth Timmerman stories!

25 posted on 10/09/2002 5:59:27 PM PDT by glorygirl
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To: glorygirl
She actually based Clinton on her show today....absolutely stunning. Some lady told her that it is only the Bush family that gets into problems with Iraq. Oprah responded "Don't you think Clinton just looked the other way, but the problem was still there?" (rough paraphrase from another thread)
26 posted on 10/09/2002 6:10:26 PM PDT by rwfromkansas
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To: glorygirl
Thanks for the ping.Does anyone know if you listen to
1210 AM WPHT via the internet?
27 posted on 10/09/2002 6:13:15 PM PDT by honway
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To: rwfromkansas
Saw that.

What I'd like to hear is discussion on whether Bush et al are responsible for Oprah's show as well as Arlen's appearance tomorrow. In other words, how many people think Bush gave Specter the okay and Oprah the idea to do this in an effort to help generate antipathy toward Iraq?

Remember, Bush kissed Oprah, while Gore would not.

28 posted on 10/09/2002 6:16:05 PM PDT by glorygirl
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To: All
The following is an excellent summary of some of the evidence that will likely be turned over to Senator Specter by Jayna Davis on Thursday
____________________________________________________________
The Middle Eastern connection to Oklahoma City

February 17, 2002

Ever since the country was savagely attacked on Sept. 11, the FBI has relentlessly investigated flight schools, airports, universities, mosques, Middle Eastern charities and Muslim communities, looking for connections to al-Qaida or other jihadist groups.

The only stone, it seems, the bureau hasn't been willing to turn over is its own investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing. Presumably, that's because the 1995 terrorist attack was the exclusive work of homegrown extremists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Or was it?

Even though McVeigh went to his death denying any larger plot, serious questions remain unanswered. Did John Doe No. 2 ever exist? If so, who is he? If not, why did a second suspect initially emerge? What material or witnesses did the bureau use to create its three sketches of this alleged co-conspirator?

And then there's that troublesome FBI-authorized all-points bulletin issued just minutes after the truck bomb exploded. The alert sent members of Oklahoma City law enforcement searching for two Middle Eastern-looking men seen speeding away from the blast area in a brown Chevy pickup with tinted windows and a bug shield. The APB was abruptly cancelled several hours later without explanation.

The evidence that the Oklahoma City bombing involved a larger conspiracy, one with Middle Eastern connections, is compelling. And the trail begins with that mysterious pickup.

The week after the bombing, Jayna Davis, a veteran Oklahoma City reporter at KFOR-TV, got a tip, which began her investigation of a local property management company. Dr. Samir Khalil owns Samara Properties, and several former employees told Davis they had seen a pickup, matching the APB's description, at the office.

Davis discovered that Khalil, a Palestinian expatriate, had pled guilty in 1991 to several counts of insurance fraud and served eight months in a federal prison. Khalil's court papers indicated that the FBI investigated him for alleged connections to the Palestine Liberation Organization. But Khalil vehemently denied any PLO links. And he's never responded to my calls for comment.

Former Samara employees also told Davis that six months before the bombing, Khalil hired a group of Iraqi refugees to do painting and construction work. This group had allegedly fled Iraq to escape Saddam Hussein's regime. But a Samara employee told Davis he saw them cheering the terror attack and vowing to die in Saddam's service.

Davis then used surveillance camera to take pictures of these Iraqis. Eventually, she focused on one man, Hussain Alhussaini (also known as Al-Hussaini Hussain), who seemed to match the last FBI profile sketch and description of John Doe No. 2.

Over the next several months, she interviewed witnesses who said they saw McVeigh in the company of a Middle Eastern-looking man in the days and hours before the bombing. Using KFOR's photo line-up, they identified that individual as Alhussaini.

Perhaps the most intriguing statements she collected came from a host of staff members at a motel near downtown Oklahoma City. They reported seeing McVeigh with a number of Middle Eastern men at the site in the months preceding the bombing. Using KFOR's photos, those men were identified as Samara employees. Alhussaini was included in that group.

The motel witnesses also said they saw several of the Iraqis moving large barrels around in the back of an old white truck. The barrels, they alleged, emanated a strong smell of diesel fuel, one of the key ingredients used in the Oklahoma City bomb.

Davis also discovered that the mysterious brown Chevy pickup was impounded by the FBI on April 27, 1995. The pickup had been abandoned in an apartment building lot. According to the police report, the truck had been stripped of its license plate, inspection tag and all its vehicle identification numbers. It also was spray-painted yellow, but the original color was listed as brown. One resident at the complex told the FBI the driver was "clean-shaven, with an olive complexion, dark, wavy hair and broad shoulders," in his late 20s or early 30s and of Middle Eastern descent.

Davis also used a hidden camera to interview Lana Padilla, Terry Nichols' ex-wife, about Nichols' repeated trips to the Philippines, a hotbed for terrorist activity. "Tim bought Terry the first ticket for the Philippines," Padilla said. That trip occurred in 1989. His last visit came in November 1994.

Ramzi Yousef, the Iraqi convicted for masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to blow up U.S. airliners, operated out of Mindanao and Manila in the Philippines. Yousef received funding from Osama bin Laden. According to a motion filed by the McVeigh defense team, an American fitting Nichols' description met with Yousef in the Philippines in 1992 or 1993.

Davis eventually aired a number of pieces, taking care to disguise the Iraqi's identity. However, Alhussaini voluntarily stepped forward on June 15, 1995, to publicly claim that KFOR and Davis had labeled him as John Doe No. 2.

Alhussaini told Channel 9 in Oklahoma City he was living in fear. He claimed to be working at one of Khalil's properties when the bombing occurred. And he produced a handwritten time sheet as proof. The former Iraqi soldier also denied knowing McVeigh, and demanded a public apology from KFOR.

KFOR and Davis stood by their reports and countered with witnesses who contradicted Alhussaini's assertions, including the time sheet, which was labeled a fabrication. Alhussaini responded by filing a state civil libel suit. However, he withdrew the suit the day before a judge was scheduled to rule on KFOR's motion for summary judgment.

Meanwhile, Alhussaini's suit froze KFOR's coverage of the story. And Davis eventually quit after The New York Times bought the station and the investigation was stopped. The former reporter, who had collected 22 signed affidavits from the witnesses she interviewed, was called to testify before a state grand jury that examined the bombing in 1997. With the witnesses' permission, she gave the grand jury the affidavits.

Alhussaini then refiled his libel suit in federal court. Once again attorneys for KFOR and Davis filed for a dismissal. On Nov. 17, 1999, U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard granted their motion. In his ruling, Leonard stated that all the facts in Davis' report were either true or statements of opinion, and did not libel the plaintiff. Alhussaini then appealed the ruling. A hearing was held on Sept. 10; a decision is pending.

Alhussaini moved from Oklahoma City and was reportedly living in the Boston area. His lawyer declined to give me a phone number for his client.

According to 1997 medical records produced during his federal suit, Alhussaini said he had worked for a while at Boston's Logan Airport (where two of the planes were hijacked on Sept. 11). Quoting from those records, Alhussaini first told his psychiatrist that he had quit his airport job because, "If anything happens there, I will be a suspect." However, he later told his doctor that he "wanted to look for another job because he feels unsafe in the environment he works in, the airport, given the recent events involving his being previously suspected of involvement in the Oklahoma bombing."

Alhussaini's specific job at the airport was never identified. I contacted the Massachusetts Port Authority, which oversees Logan, to obtain dates of employment. A spokesperson said the agency would not release any information.

During the course of her investigation, Davis made contact with Yossef Bodansky, executive director of the 13-year-old Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. Bodansky told Davis the task force had warned of an impending Islamic-sponsored terrorist attack in America's heartland back in 1995.

On Feb. 27, 1995, the task force had issued its first confidential warning to federal agencies that Islamic terrorists "may soon strike Washington D.C., specifically the Capitol and the White House." This confidential alert, which he said was quietly distributed to federal intelligence agencies and law enforcement, claimed the attacks were to begin after March 21, 1995.

"Striking inside the U.S. is presently a high priority for Iran," stated the warning. The alert also stated that upcoming terrorist strikes might be directed against "airports, airlines and telephone systems." In light of Sept. 11, it was a telling note.

On March 3, 1995, the task force issued an update. This "super-sensitive" alert stated there was a "greater likelihood the terrorists would strike at the heart of the U.S." Bodansky also told Davis that after the truck bombing, he reviewed intelligence data that confirmed, "Oklahoma City was on the list of potential targets."

Bodansky gave Davis copies of the task force's original alert and some of his confidential notes detailing the update and Oklahoma City's target status. His material notes an independent warning from Israeli intelligence a month before the bombing. The warning indicated a terrorist attack was impending and that "lilly whites" would be activated. Lilly whites, Bodansky writes, were people without any background or police records who would not be suspected members of a terrorist group.

Now President Bush has labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea an "axis of evil." And hyperbole aside, details of Iran's alleged involvement in terrorism were included in last summer's U.S. Department of Justice indictment issued in connection with the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Bodansky told me that Iran and Iraq agreed to cooperate in terrorist operations against the West.

Over the past seven months, I reviewed all of Davis' documents, including the material she got from Bodansky. I also conducted my own follow-up interviews and found no holes in her investigation. As for Davis, she's tried twice to give her material to the FBI.

According to her attorney Tim McCoy, Department of Justice attorneys prosecuting Nichols rejected Davis' documents in 1997 because they didn't want more material to turn over to the defense. McCoy testified to this at a recent hearing in Nichols' state murder case.

In 1999, former FBI agent Dan Vogel accepted the material, but he said that higher-ups later rejected it because the agency questioned Davis' ownership rights.

I called the bureau but it declined to explain this strange turn of events. Perhaps if Vogel had been allowed to testify at a recent hearing in Nichols' Oklahoma murder trial, details would have been forthcoming. But the Justice Department refused to let him take the stand.

Is this a case of FBI incompetence, political interference or the Justice Department's desire not to complicate a seemingly open-and-shut case against McVeigh and Nichols? I don't know.

I do know that too many questions remain unanswered. And I wonder: If the FBI had followed through on these leads, might agents have turned up links to sleeper cells or the network that planned the Sept. 11 massacre?




Crogan is a free-lance writer and investigative reporter based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in Newsweek , Time , the Los Angeles Times and other publications. His e-mail address is jc1invrep@worldnet.att.net


29 posted on 10/09/2002 6:16:47 PM PDT by honway
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To: abner
I personally am waiting for the 'magic bomb' theory.. That was presented by the Justice Department at McVeigh's trial. AFAIK, Specter concurs.
30 posted on 10/09/2002 6:17:05 PM PDT by Plummz
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To: honway
So where has Crogan been the last couple of months?
31 posted on 10/09/2002 6:19:03 PM PDT by glorygirl
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To: glorygirl
Iraqi Refugee Again Sues City TV Station

John Parker

09/25/1997

An Iraqi refugee who said he falsely was accused of being one of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing suspects recently renewed a lawsuit against an Oklahoma City television station.

Al-Hussaini Hussain, who now lives in Boston, accuses KFOR Channel 4 of airing false and defamatory accusations against him in June 1995.

Reporters falsely claimed he was early bombing suspect John Doe 2, the lawsuit said.

Station officials have defended the news stories, and they denied allegations of wrongdoing when Hussain filed a similar lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court. The county lawsuit was dropped earlier this year.

The new lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court and also names former KFOR reporter Jayna Davis, reporter Brad Edwards and former news director Melissa Klinzing.

After the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people, authorities issued a sketch of John Doe 2, identified as a suspect working with another bomber whose sketch was issued at the same time.

Prosecutors later dropped a criminal complaint against the mystery suspect, citing inaccurate witness reports about him.




Two of the hijacked planes departed Boston's Logan Airport on 9-11.


32 posted on 10/09/2002 6:28:25 PM PDT by honway
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To: honway
Bump. This is potentially big. I'm in the Philly area and will be listening tomorrow. Let's see if the national media picks up on this (not holding my breath!)
33 posted on 10/09/2002 6:35:16 PM PDT by Antoninus
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To: Antoninus
From the article in the Daily Oklahoman:

Al-Hussaini Hussain, who now lives in Boston

34 posted on 10/09/2002 6:44:55 PM PDT by honway
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To: glorygirl
So where has Crogan been the last couple of months?

Good question, I don't know the answer.

35 posted on 10/09/2002 6:47:04 PM PDT by honway
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To: glorygirl
Senator Specter will indeed report that a single "bullet" of evilness that fell upon the Kennedy lone gunmen apparently went through a time warp and fell down on the OK conspirators and those who hijacked the airplanes on 9/11. Now back to Greta.
36 posted on 10/09/2002 7:45:06 PM PDT by plain talk
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To: glorygirl
Thanks for the heads up!
37 posted on 10/09/2002 8:13:34 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: glorygirl
Bump for the truth! (Thanks for the head's up GG!)
38 posted on 10/09/2002 8:18:51 PM PDT by ladyinred
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To: plain talk; honway
The other thing to see is whether this is perhaps an attempt to "shut up" the "conspiracy people."

Maybe we'll get a glimmer of that tomorrow. I just find it hard to believe Specter is seriously committed to seeing this all come out.

Wish I could comprehend him -- but so far that's proven to be impossible --just the way he probably likes it.

39 posted on 10/09/2002 8:20:20 PM PDT by glorygirl
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To: Vigilanteman
Glad to hear this first hand info on Spector. I must admit he is not one of my favorite Pubbies, but I am grateful that he is at least doing something to get this story out. Ms. Davis is quite credible, and this needs to become household knowledge in this country........pronto!
40 posted on 10/09/2002 8:21:06 PM PDT by ladyinred
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