Posted on 10/11/2002 9:48:32 AM PDT by backhoe
Grand Jury Told Seismic Readings Unclear in Bombing
09/19/1997
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A geophysicist said Thursday it cannot be determined from seismic readings if more than one bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
Raymon Brown, a scientist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey on the University of Oklahoma campus, said the seismic recordings are inconclusive. Brown appeared Thursday before an Oklahoma County grand jury investigating a larger bombing conspiracy.
"There's no evidence in the bomb signals for any additional charges," Brown told reporters.
The bombing was recorded on seismographs at the Omniplex Science Museum, about four miles northeast of the federal building, and at the Oklahoma Geological Survey site, about 16 miles southeast.
Multiple-bomb theorists have pointed to the presence of two signals - seconds apart - on each seismograph as proof of their claim.
Timothy McVeigh, 29, was convicted June 2 of destroying the Murrah Building with a massive truck bomb. The explosion resulted in 168 deaths. McVeigh has been sentenced to die. His Army friend, Terry Nichols, 42, is scheduled for trial Sept. 29 in Denver.
Federal prosecutors presented evidence at McVeigh's trial that a single bomb of fertilizer and racing fuel blew up the building.
Seismographs recorded two separate signals on the day of the April 19, 1995, bombing.
Brown said the number of recorded signals complicated the situation.
"The question remains just exactly what those signals represents," Brown said. "In geophyscial terms, there are too many possible explanations."
Brown was previously quoted in media reports saying the simplest explanation for the recordings was another bomb. On Thursday, he told reporters it can't be determined from the recordings whether more than one explosion occurred.
Brown said Thursday that he has never changed his story and that initial media reports misrepresented his findings.
"I had difficulty in explaining myself," he said. "This is technical, and I had a hard time explaining it."
Brown said two pulses were recorded after the truck bomb, but what caused them cannot be explained.
Also appearing before the grand jury Thursday was Jayna Davis, a former reporter for KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City.
In the weeks after the bombing, Davis aired reports from unidentified witnesses who said they saw McVeigh with another man days before the bombing in an Oklahoma City bar. Davis claims another witness identified the same man in a brown Chevy truck speeding away from downtown Oklahoma City minutes after the bombing.
Davis told The Oklahoman before her grand jury appearance that those witnesses wanted her to share their information with Oklahoma County prosecutors.
She said she gave prosecutors the information in January but did not reveal the witnesses' identities. Davis said prosecutors never contacted her before she received a subpoena to appear before the grand jury.
The witnesses want to cooperate with the grand jury, but not before they are guaranteed police protection, Davis said. They also want prosecutors "to express a legitimate interest" in pursuing indictments against the suspects they can identify, she said.
Davis said some of the witnesses have received death threats and apparent attempts on their lives, but she would not elaborate.
Davis testified for nearly three hours but would not comment as she left the grand jury.
Her attorney, Tim McCoy, said, "The only thing we can say at this time is that in accordance with the court order that was given a few days ago, she did not reveal any of her confidential sources. And we have been admonished not to make any further statements."
Davis is expected to return today to finish her testimony. Grand jurors also may hear from another witness before recessing until Oct. 6.
State Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, and the late Glenn Wilburn, who lost two grandsons in the bombing, led the effort to impanel the grand jury. Key contends the federal government had prior knowledge about the bombing and hid the identity of others involved.
The next day, I summarized her presentation in the Daily News. My column last Thursday received great play via the Internet. It was picked up by a number of national Web sites, including Newsmax.com, Lucianne.com and FreeRebublic.com. Meanwhile, Sen. Specter, whom I had previously provided with a copy of Davis' file, agreed to meet with her and listen to her briefing.
I really think this article in the Philadelphia Daily News deserves a Breaking News thread because it acknowledges the work going on here. What do you think?
"I recall a seismograph report of multiple shocks..."
Yes, I remember that, as well, backhoe.
Thanks for posting the article about this, honway. So the question is, which one of Brown's stories is correct?
DENVER - An Oklahoma City judge has criticized the U.S. Justice Department's conduct in resisting a person's request to make public the FBI's secret files about the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
U.S. District Judge Wayne Alley, in recent court orders, called the department's conduct "shoddy" and "unacceptable."
The judge's criticism was disclosed in a court filing Wednesday in Denver. In the filing, David Hoffman contends that public disclosure of the FBI's investigative files is needed to determine whether everyone involved in the bombing was prosecuted.
Hoffman's filing asks the judge who presided over the trials of the two bombing defendants, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, to undo his 1996 order that kept secret all evidence not presented at the 1997 trials.
In his request to U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch in Denver, Hoffman attached court orders by Alley in June and July in which Alley criticized the Justice Department's court conduct in its efforts to maintain "its shroud of secrecy."
Alley is assigned to Hoffman's 1998 lawsuit against the Justice Department seeking the FBI records under the Freedom of Information Act . The judge criticized the department's several written arguments against disclosure as "patently insufficient," "ambiguous," and "cursory."
"Defendant's conduct has been unacceptable, to the point that one might question whether the FBI views its FOIA obligations seriously," Alley wrote.
The Oklahoma City judge said, however, that the Denver judge is "the only federal judge who can alter the existing limits on the FBI's disclosure of its (bombing case) records."
Matsch ordered that evidence not presented in court be kept secret, a practice sometimes used in high-profile criminal cases in federal court.
Alley said Hoffman should give Matsch a copy of Alley's comments "so that Judge Matsch will know how defendant (the Justice Department) has behaved in this case" in the past two years.
Hoffman pleaded guilty in 1999 to tampering with the state grand jury in Oklahoma City that investigated the 1995 bombing. He had sent his book about his theory of unsolved conspiracies in the bombing to an alternate grand juror.
Alley was assigned to the bombing case until an appeals court in 1995 turned the case over to Matsch who moved it to Denver.
Source: Daily Oklahoman archives, a for-pay service, so unless you fork over the money you can't follow the link. For those willing to spend a few bucks, you can click here.
What a guy.
The only man indicted by the Oklahoma City Bombing Grand Jury. His only crime was trying to get the participants in the OKC bombing prosecuted.
He is still plugging away.
His book is free here, that that speaks volumes.
David Hoffman strikes me as the kind of guy when the $hit hits the fan, you are very glad to look forward and see him leading the way.
Any information that would help me locate that recording would be appreciated. Thanks for the report.
Central time zone?
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