Posted on 10/11/2002 3:21:01 AM PDT by kattracks
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - The senior senator from Pennsylvania said Thursday that he will seek an investigation into alleged ties between the two Americans convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing, members of Islamist terrorist groups, and the Iraqi military.
"We will pursue it," said Sen. Arlen Specter, after hearing a one-hour presentation from former Oklahoma City television reporter Jayna Davis on the information she uncovered in a multi-year investigation.
"We will send it over to the FBI and we will continue to look at it," Specter told Davis during an appearance on the Michael Smerconish talk show broadcast on "1210 The Big Talker," WPHT radio in Philadelphia, live from Specter's office.
"This is a matter which warrants an inquiry, so we will do it," the senator concluded.
Davis presented Specter with 22 sworn affidavits from Oklahoma residents who have identified eight Middle Eastern men, allegedly including several former Iraqi soldiers, who the witnesses claim collaborated with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the bombing plot. McVeigh has been executed for his role in the attack, Nichols is in prison.
One of the alleged former Iraqi soldiers is Hussain Al-Hussaini. Retired Col. Patrick Lang, the former chief of human intelligence for the Defense Investigative Agency, identified a tattoo on Hussaini's shoulder as indicative of having served in Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard.
"Seven of those witnesses place Hussain Al-Hussaini in the company of Timothy McVeigh, riding in the Ryder truck, the morning of the bombing, stepping out of that truck at ground zero, directly in front of the federal building moments before the massive fertilizer bomb exploded and speeding away from downtown in a brown Chevrolet pickup that matched the FBI's all points bulletin for foreign suspects that morning," Davis told Specter.
She believes, based on her investigation, that Hussaini is the mysterious "John Doe Number Two" authorities sought for more than two weeks after the bombing on April 19, 1995. The witnesses she interviewed also claim to have seen Hussaini speeding away from the Murrah Federal Building after the bombing in a brown Chevrolet truck, identical to the one for which the FBI issued an all points bulletin. That all points bulletin was withdrawn shortly after McVeigh's arrest.
Hussaini filed a libel suit against Davis' employer in 1999 for broadcasting reports based on her investigation. The suit was dismissed, and the court found the facts in Davis' reports to be "undisputed," including the evidence allegedly tying Hussaini to McVeigh and discrediting Hussaini's alibi for April 19, 1995.
Davis also believes that Terry Nichols was the indirect link between Iraq, the Oklahoma City bombing, and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.
"Terry Nichols received his bomb-making expertise from Iraqi intelligence based in the Philippines," Davis said.
According to eyewitness accounts she obtained, Nichols met with Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing "in the early 1990s on the island of Mindanao ... to discuss acquisition of firearms and bomb making."
Davis claimed that she tried to surrender the 22 witness statements and corroborating documentation she uncovered to the FBI in 1997, but requested that agents sign a notarized receipt for the evidence. She said, after consulting with "the legal department," they refused to accept the documents.
"My attorney spoke to that DOJ attorney [involved in the prosecution of Nichols] and was told they didn't want any more documents for discovery that they would be required to remit to the defense teams," Davis said. "From there, I have been flatly refused."
Specter's office wrote the FBI Oct. 4 requesting information about why Davis' evidence was not accepted by the FBI. A staff member informed him during the presentation that the Department of Justice is "still drafting a written response" to Specter's request.
Specter noted that the U.S. Senate was debating the resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq while the presentation was in progress.
"If there was a provable connection between Iraq and the Oklahoma City bombing, that kind of terrorism, that would be a very big point in support of using force," he said. "If there is a provable connection between al Qaeda and the Oklahoma City bombing and Iraq, or if there is a connection provable between al Qaeda and Iraq, that would be a matter of enormous importance."
After completing her presentation to Specter, Davis told CNSNews.com, "I feel much better."
She added that she would "really feel better" when the evidence had been examined and the remainder of the individuals her investigation allegedly shows were involved in the Oklahoma City bombing were brought to justice.
Smerconish told Specter and his listeners that he believed the presentation had accomplished its goal.
"We want the assurance that somebody within the government who has the expertise in analyzing these types of security matters has given her the opportunity that you've afforded her today to sit and to listen and to look at the material," he told Specter. "We want to know that the government has taken Jayna Davis seriously, evaluated her work product, and made some kind of a determination."
E-mail a news tip to Jeff Johnson.
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and look ... and look ... and look ... and look ... and look ...
I think it's just the opposite: the Dems played dirty with GWB and now it's payback time. It's no coincidence it's happening now. GWB is fair but if you don't play fair with him, he won't take it down... Dirty laundry alert....
a.cricket
Perhaps I'm naive but wasn't it the FBI that covered up this evidence in the first place?
I would rather see the investigation turned over to the Oklahoma State Police as an uncompromised, NONFEDERAL, third party. The FEDs have no credibility.
Specter has actually taken (or, at least, called for) action re the Iraq/OKC connection!
I'm going to contact Charles Key to get his reaction on these developments. (When I caught Charles on his cell phone to give him a heads-up re the forthcoming Davis/Specter radio show, he was doing his usual thing: he was out somewhere in the boonies, chaperoning a campout for the youth of his church.) He had missed the Specter news...
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Everyone please do all you can to keep raising the visibility of this subject. We're finally making some headway!
TXnMA (No longer!!!)
...if ever there were a worthless RINO, this guy's it.
Yes, I believe we may finally get enough of the public convinced that they did not get the whole story that there will be pressure from the grassroots level. All we can do is keep hammering on this- it certainly has had a history of blowing hot, then cold.
From what I observed during my work with the OKBIC, we would be no better off with the OKSP under (ex-FBI Governor) Frank Keating. :-(
TXnMA (No Longer!!!)
What do you think "finding" some of the records was about just before they executed McVeigh? The records were purged and everything was sanitized then.
It is possible that this is the administration's way of reintroducing just enough to trace the Republican Guard's involvement back to Iraq, should that be required to move forward with the war. But you can bet that the government's records will show this as new information--no one will be held accountable for the murders of the policeman or the assistant DA. And no one-such as Keating or the FBI - will be shown to have participated the coverup.
And if it's not needed to move forward with the war, the information will disappear again and Davis will be ruined.
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