Oklahoma City's lost information ( repost of 4-23-01 article )

World Net Daily ^ | 4/23/01 | Jon Dougherty

[backhoe]

Oklahoma City's lost information

News/Current Events Front Page News
Source: WorldNetDaily
Published: 4/23/01 Author: Jon Dougherty
Posted on 04/23/2001 00:26:10 PDT by kattracks

---

---

TRAIL OF TERROR
Oklahoma City's
lost information
Early accounts differ from today's 'official' explanation of bombing

---

By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

An analysis of raw news footage and reports in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, Okla., shows local television reporters stating repeatedly that two additional, sophisticated, undetonated explosive devices were found by investigators on the scene.

The television reports raise questions about the official government version of events that an "extremist" and his friend acted alone, using a Ryder rental truck and a 1,200-pound ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, or ANFO, bomb to destroy the face of the building.

For example, initial news broadcasts by KWTV-9, KFOR TV-5 and Channel 4 News all feature reports confirmed by state, local and federal officials that a total of three bombs had been placed inside the Murrah building.

TV news footage showed Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department bomb squad vehicles being brought to the scene within a half-hour of the explosion, "amid reports" that "more bombs have been found" by rescuers.

Also, reporters at the scene confirmed that the two other bombs were larger than the first one, and that the bomb that had exploded blew up inside -- not outside -- the building.

Reports said the other two bombs were found on the east and west sides of the building; the explosion occurred at the front, or north side, of the building.

In one clip, the medical director for St. Anthony's Hospital told reporters that local OKC police had informed him that rescue efforts had been called off temporarily "because of the other bombs found in the building. …"

And, TV-9 reported that "the U.S. Justice Department has confirmed" that other bombs were found in the structure.

In subsequent reports, within the first few hours of the explosion, news crews were reporting that federal and local authorities had confirmed that the two other explosives had been "defused" and "moved off site."

The 'lone' suspects

Timothy McVeigh, now 32, was convicted in 1997 for his role in the April 19, 1995, bombing, and is scheduled to be executed by the government May 16 at a federal prison facility in Terre Haute, Ind.

The Justice Department said Friday that bombing survivors and victims' families would be able to view the execution via closed-circuit television. He will be the first federal prisoner executed in 36 years. In 1997, he was convicted in the bombing deaths of 168 people, including 19 children.

McVeigh has said he bombed the Murrah building in retaliation for the FBI's raid on a Branch Davidian religious facility April 19, 1993, in Waco, Texas, which led to a fire that killed 80 men, women and children.

McVeigh said he did it to give the federal government "dirty for dirty."

Meanwhile, Terry Nichols, also convicted in 1997 as an accomplice in the OKC attack, is currently serving a life sentence in federal prison. But he also faces Oklahoma state charges of capital murder pressed by prosecutors who have pledged to seek the death penalty.

Early news reports indicated government sources were saying that "bombs were brought into" the Murrah building, and that because they were able to find undetonated devices, authorities would be able to "find out who is responsible" for the bombing.

In one clip, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating also confirmed the presence of other explosives.

"The reports I have are that one device was deactivated … [and] apparently, there was another device. Whatever did the damage to the Murrah building was a tremendous … a very sophisticated explosive device. …" Keating was heard saying.

One TV news report then said that then-President Bill Clinton "has called Gov. Keating … and said three FBI anti-terrorist teams" were being sent from Washington, D.C., to OKC, ostensibly to investigate the incident. The report further stated that "the White House and Justice Department … have said [the bombing] was the work of a sophisticated group … and would have to have been carried out by an explosives expert."

McVeigh and Nichols were not explosives experts, critics of the government's official version of events point out.

Later in the day and into the next day, details of the official explanations and information that had been witnessed or confirmed early on by news organizations, reporters and authorities handling the rescue efforts began to change.

Within 24 hours, federal officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were saying that the explosion had not occurred within the building itself but instead the damage had been caused by a "car" parked in front of the building, loaded with the ANFO bomb. Soon afterward, the "car" became a Ryder rental truck and the explosives grew in size, to about 4,500 pounds.

Also, officials began to discount the second- and third bomb story, instead focusing only on the outside, north-face explosion as the one and only explosive source at the entire complex.

At one point, news reports began to suggest that officials believed the outside explosion was intended to set off the other explosions inside, but witness statements began to be reported that would refute the single-bomb claim.

Witnesses interviewed by local TV affiliates said they felt the Murrah building "shake and shift" for several seconds before "glass blew in" on top of them. One witness said he saw the ceiling collapse as he dove under his desk, "several seconds before the glass came in at me."

Experts began to theorize that the ANFO bomb in the Ryder truck was indeed integral to what happened, but not as Washington said. Rather, they theorized that the ANFO explosion -- which came after the internal explosion -- was intended to mask that first explosion and gave the government plausibility for its single-bomb-outside-the-structure version of events; the version that eventually became widely accepted.

Backup evidence

In the years following the bombing, independent investigators, journalists and bomb experts have studied the available evidence and found new evidence to suggest the earliest reports of what happened just over six years ago were probably the most accurate.

For instance, one particular website has published official government documents and statements that substantiate the 3-bomb reports first aired by local television news.

A Department of Defense Atlantic Command memo, issued one day after the bombing, says "… a second bomb was disarmed; a third bomb was evacuated. …"

A Federal Emergency Management Agency "SitRep" (situational report), dated April 20, 1995, also confirms the presence of three bombs inside the building. And a U.S. Forces Command daily log report from the same day said: "Two more explosive devices were located vicinity the explosion site. Evidently intended for the rescuers."

Finally, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol radio log said, "OC Fire Dept. confirms they did find a second device in the bldg/OK. …"

Also, independent engineers, explosives experts and military analysts conducted studies of the available evidence, many concluding that the government's "single truck-single bomb" explanation was technically impossible.

Perhaps one of the most dominant of these was conducted by Brig. Gen. Ben K. Partin, a retired Air Force officer with decades of military experience in the design of explosives and warheads.

His exhaustive study, completed July 30, 1995 -- less than three months after the bombing -- also concluded that explosive charges, or "demolitions," were most likely placed inside the structure at key points designed to "bring the building down. …"

Coming to closure

Despite those early reports and later studies that appear to substantiate the information contained in them, federal prosecutors and the FBI were resolute in discounting much of it when the case went to trial. Instead, the Justice Department's cases were entirely built on McVeigh, Nichols, and the Ryder truck bomb theory.

Even though McVeigh is scheduled to be executed in just a few short weeks, and even if Nichols ends up with a similar fate, there will always be questions from some who remain convinced -- as those early reporters were -- that something other than Washington's official version really happened that fateful day in 1995.

Many questions will probably never be answered, however. The Murrah building was demolished two weeks after the attack; the site was covered with dirt and the building materials were trucked to an off-site dump manned by armed guards and buried.

Further independent analysis of the materials was not, and has not, been permitted.

Other questions still nag critics of the government case:

• Two weeks after the bombing, Time and Newsweek magazines both ran "artist's conceptions" of the "immense 30-foot crater" allegedly left by the Ryder truck bomb. But news footage in the aftermath of the bombing showed no such crater.

• Domestic anti-terrorist bills were stalled in Congress before the bombing, but sailed through to become law shortly afterward.

• Witnesses reported seeing three men in the parking garage of the Murrah building (it had nine stories above ground and had a four-floor parking garage underneath) working with "electrical equipment and pointing at various parts of the garage in the days before the attack. Many survivors reported that some of these men were dressed in Government Services Administration uniforms but had never seen them before or since.

• An independent aerial photo was taken of a Ryder truck the size used in the attack parked at an Army facility near Camp Gruber-Braggs, Okla., outside of OKC, in the days leading up to the attack.

• One London journalist, Ambrose Evans Pritchard, uncovered evidence that suggested the entire OKC bombing was a government sting operation gone awry. BATF and FBI officials were working on a case involving a "Christian Identity" group prone to violence and plotting the OKC attack, operating out of Elohim City, Okla., but failed to arrest them before the bombing occurred.

---

Related stories:

Oklahoma City blast linked to Bin Laden

OKC: 'We knew this was going to happen'

---

Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed."

[honway]

Ping to a great thread

[honway]

Daily Oklahoman

Grand Jury Told Seismic Readings Unclear in Bombing

09/19/1997

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

[glorygirl]

Ping --If you want to be added or removed from the OKC Bombing ping list, please freepmail me.

[backhoe]

I greatly appreciate your finding that report- it's much as I recall it, but was not certain enough to comment further, and didn't have the opportunity to hunt it up.

[backhoe]

Thanks for those pings... this old post is just one more brick in a wall of information we are building with each new question and revelation.

[honway]

Michael Smerconish | SPECTER & THE JOHN DOE NO. 2 CONNECTION

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?

[glorygirl]

I don't think it is breaking news because it refers to an event that occurred yesterday.

I would post it under extended, if it is posted at all. Don't have time right now, maybe you can do it. Thanks --gg.

[glorygirl]

That is to say it was written in ADVANCE of something that happened yesterday...

[honway]

Thanks for the good advice.

[backhoe]

FWIW, "extended news" items seem to linger longer in the sidebar before being pushed out- it may be seen more widely there.

[dixiechick2000]

Thanks for the ping!

"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?

[backhoe]

Thanks for stopping by!

[backhoe]

Found another oddball story:

---

District judge criticizes FBI for keeping bomb files secret

Robert E. Boczkiewicz 08/16/2001

---

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.

[honway]

David Hoffman

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.

The Politics of Terror

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.

[backhoe]

Link and further info are appreciated. Let us hope more will read his book.

[honway]

but I listened to a recording that was made at the time of the explosion fairly near the building, and you hear a woman beginning to give a presentation for a meeting of some kind and then you hear a series of explosions that sounds distinctly like a demolition

Any information that would help me locate that recording would be appreciated. Thanks for the report.

[glorygirl]

I would check the cnn.com website. They posted a lot of sound files back in the mid '90s, although I don't think that recording was actually released until McVeigh's trial, or later. But I do recall hearing it on the news, so it could be on the web.

[eastforker]

In case you have not heard,Spectre is on FNC at noon Saturday to review info he received from Jayna Davis this week.Might prove interesting.

[Pistolshot]

Here is an additional link describing the bomb damage assessment.
Bomb Damage Analysis Of Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building July 30, 1995

[dixiechick2000]

"...Spectre is on FNC at noon ..."

Central time zone?