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 That all points bulletin was withdrawn shortly after McVeigh's arrest.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.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Welllll, I guess I could be cynical about Arlen Specter (or should that be spectre????) The guy is almost as looney as Robert Byrd.
I'm not at all convinced that Clintoncide has gone away just because there is a different administration.
I remember at least one FR post on that exact subject, but FR keyword search is apparently not working. However, here is an excerpt from a FR Post "oklahoma city bombing: startling evidence proves government cover-up" that I had bookmarked:
-------------------
Disinformation: There were a couple of surveillance cameras right out side the Murrah Building that would have caught everything on tape that morning--they would have shown who pulled the Ryder truck up to the building, and how the building came down. The FBI confiscated the film from those cameras and they're not releasing it. If the FBI would just release those tapes, then we could see exactly what happened, couldn't we? The film would show who drove the Ryder truck up to the building.
Charles Key : Yes, they could prove real easily with those tapes and with some others across the street that they also will not release whether or not people like me are a bunch of conspiracy theorists or not, you know. They could prove finally whether or not McVeigh really was alone, and whether there really was another car, other vehicles across the street, that were working in conjunction with his activities.
Disinformation: They won't release those?
Charles Key : They will not release them. Recently we had a Freedom of Information Act trial here in an attempt to get the government to release the tapes. They stonewalled it. They won't release them.
--------------------
IMHO, one of the most useful things Specter (yes, I know, "useful + Specter" = oxymoron) could do is to push for release of these surveillance tapes. Or, at least force Mueller/Ashcroft to give American citizens a dam#ed good reason why they can not be released. (And, IMHO, "We lost them." or "They were erased" or redacting them WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED by We the Pepole!)
Here's one that's still on this site, but rarely seen:
Mayhap I should copy & repost it, since it can't be bumped anymore...
At the time OKC occurred, the entire country was consumed with Donna Shalala's statement that we didn't send our best and brightest to Viet Nam. OKC happened and it never was mentioned again.
OKC saved the bent one's presidency and provided him with a second term because he skillfully used it to demonize his enemies. While the FBI was ordered to look to the right, the diaper heads continued to plot against us.
-archy-/-
The one (bullet) and the same, unfortunately...
TXnMA (No Longer!!!)
Please pardon the pun/takeoff on Specter's "single magic bullet" theory...
That is true, BUT if anyone in our government is taking the Jayna Davis report seriously, then I am pleased. The connection of John Doe #2 to the Middle East is extremely important and is an issue I have been writing/screaming about for a long time. It is time to "connect all the dots."
Not so sure McVeigh did "it." But McVeigh, I'm sure, thought he did it. The weird thing is how did they manage to get McVeigh to be exactly where they wanted him to be.
Interesting questions you -- of all people -- ask, sultan.
Pretty much parallels my exact thinking about OKC too, would you believe?
Although in all honestly?
I'm -- as a rule -- somewhat hesitant to say so; as, I'm sure our friend, "scholar," would attest to?
"The weird thing is how did they manage to get McVeigh to be exactly where they wanted him to be."
Really think it's all that weird, sultan?
I mean??
It's kinda reminiscent of an incident which happened on a November day in Dallas Texas, 1963.
Involved a hapless loser armed with an antique bolt-action rifle; who, as the *story* goes, supposedly shot at a moving motorcar traveling away from the alleged line of fire?
Yea, this stooge gets himself three hits, two of which were dead-on "Bull's Eyes" -- so to speak -- on of all people none other than a sitting American President??
Whew!
Some shot, that one *was*.
That guy also managed to turn up in the oddest of places, too.
The oddest place of all was his *appearence* in the basement of the Dallas TX police department; where, a jamoke walks right in & wastes him directly in front of -- how many? -- Texas Rangers, city, & county cops & media and all on *live* television?
Then they said he was a "lone gunman" & turned right around & *legally* buried the findings until you, I, & our children will be long gone & buried??
But then again, that's another issue altogether, isn't it? ;^)
...suffice to say: strange *things* happen in America's southwest, huh.
And that "magic" bullet sure defies the laws of physics, as I know them.
Yea-yea...
The ballistic evidence (photograpic, impact hole size etc et al...) or the reported accounts regarding suspect "description(s)" directly following OKC do some defyin', too; v.s., the official politbureau line?
~eh? ;^)
HA!!
It's that American southwest, I tell ya!
I mean let's face it, the Bermuda Triangle's got nothing on our beloved American southwest.
...in the American southwest, apparently, there's no stinkin' physics. :o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.