Nichols' Wife Tells of McVeigh Affair

McALESTER, Okla. (April 9) - Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was a frequent but unwelcome guest at coconspirator Terry Nichols' Kansas home, Nichols' second wife said.

Marife Torres, testifying Thursday at Nichols' state murder trial, said she eventually became jealous of McVeigh because Nichols spent more time with him than he did with her and their daughter, Nicole.

During one of McVeigh's visits in 1994, Torres says she had an affair with McVeigh, a relationship that Nichols did not know about until years later.

Torres, a native of the Philippines, became emotional when prosecutor Sandra Elliott asked her if she had been intimate with McVeigh.

She said she had an affair with McVeigh in July or August 1994, when McVeigh visited the couple on a ranch near Marion, Kan., where Nichols was working as a ranch hand.

"He was there a lot and he basically got between the two of you, is that correct?" Elliott said.

"Yes," Torres said. "He's the kind of person who would just stay. He wouldn't ask if it was OK, was he imposing. He takes over, that's what I mean."

Glancing at Nichols during her testimony, Torres said she did not tell Nichols about the relationship because she did not want to drive a wedge between him and his best friend.

Torres, who married Nichols in November 1990, said she returned to the Philippines on September 20, 1994. She said Nichols telephoned her while she was overseas and asked her to come back.

Torres said she agreed to return on the condition that McVeigh no longer visit them. She said the affair had nothing to do with her ultimatum.

"I just don't want him to spend time with us," she said. "I think he agreed to that. That's why I come back to the United States."

Nichols' defense attorneys plan to cross-examine Torres on Monday, when the trial resumes after the long Easter weekend.

Nichols is serving a life prison sentence on involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy charges in the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people.

In Oklahoma, he faces 161 state counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of the other 160 victims and one victim's fetus. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Torres testified that Nichols became frightened when he heard news reports two days after the bombing that linked him to McVeigh.

"He was scared, mainly scared," Marife Torres testified in Nichols' state murder trial. "I never seen him more scared."

Nichols, accused of helping McVeigh collect components for and assemble the homemade bomb, was at his Herington, Kan., home on the day of the April 19, 1995, explosion.

Torres said Nichols bought several newspapers the next day and had cable television installed. On April 21, Nichols heard reports that linked him to McVeigh and the bombing investigation. The news left him visibly shaken, Torres said.

The lies about terror attacks on American soil started very early in the Clinton administration. The first World Trade Center bombing was listed not as a terror attack, which we all know it was, but a “crime.” Clinton asked the American people not to jump to conclusions and “over react” to this bombing.

One of the planners of that attack was Ramzi Yousef--an Iraqi agent and proud member of al Qaeda. The radical Islamic blind sheik, Abdel-Rahman, was also convicted and is in prison. Bin Laden himself was finally listed as an “un-indicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 bombing, yet, this “crime” was never reclassified as a terror attack on America.

Most Americans now realize that attack in 1993 was a terror attack but they can “forgive” Clinton for not seeing it, since it is believed it took them years to figure that out. It did not. The FBI knew within days. Clinton knew within days. The great lie had begun.

Ramzi was quietly arrested and brought here for trial in 1995. He was convicted and is now in prison. Prior to his arrest, Yousef was in the Philippines where he was planning the 9/11 attack and, it seems, assisted in at least one other successful terror attack on America--Oklahoma City--1995.

Terry Nickols, already convicted in Federal court for the Oklahoma City bombing, made several visits to the Philippines and there are sworn statements from witnesses who confirmed meetings between Nickols, Yousef, and other known terrorists several times prior to the Oklahoma City bombing. Nickols was there to learn the fine art of bomb-making from the Iraqi-al Qaeda -master—Ramzi Yousef. Nickols also made over 70 phone calls to the Philippines prior to the bombing.

Tim McVeigh, convicted and executed for his part in the bombing, was also seen by sworn witnesses in the company of men authorities suspect were “former” Iraqi Republican Guard who were introduced simply as “some Iraqi guys who work in Oklahoma City.” Evidence such as a motel registration book, with the Iraqi’s names with McVeigh’s--turned over to the ATF--was never seen again. Even today, at the Nickols trial, the prosecution is trying to push the theory of “white supremists” instead of the real perpetrators, Islamic terrorists. They do what they must do to protect themselves.

Witnesses who saw Mohammed Atta at that same small Oklahoma motel were ignored. After 9/11, they realized whom they had seen years before in Oklahoma. Was Atta there to check on the progress of the plans? What are the odds of the ringleader of the 9/11 attack showing up at this same, small motel in Oklahoma?

Janya Davis, an Oklahoma reporter with the tenacity of Woodward and Bernstein, has pursued this story since the day the Oklahoma bombing happened. Ms. Davis had boxes of evidence refused by the FBI. She had her life threatened to the point her husband would not let her travel alone. She would not send her evidence through the mail for fear it would not make it to its destination.

Abdul Hakim Murad, a Yousef cohort in jail at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing, laughed and bragged that he and his friends in the “Liberation Army” helped carry out the bombing. Philippine police case files show that the “Liberation Army” is a fictitious name used by Ramzi Yousef whenever he referred to al Qaeda. Murad’s confession was refused by the judge in the original Nickols case on the basis that it “was voluntary.” It would have been admitted if it was beaten out of him?

Stephen Jones, Timothy McVeigh’s attorney, traveled to the Philippines to interview men in the Immigration Ministry who were very familiar with Yousef and his terrorist group. Jones wanted to prove the connection between al Qaeda and the bombing. Initially eager to help, they had a sudden change of heart after a visit from an FBI agent, flown in from Japan, warning them not to cooperate with Jones. Who ordered the FBI to threaten those Philippine agents and why? Who would benefit from there being no connection made between Nickols, McVeigh, and Islamic terrorists?

Stephen Jones related on “The O’Reilly Factor” that "The government was sufficiently concerned about what we were doing out in the Philippines and the help we were getting from the Philippine government that one of the prosecutors went out there with an FBI agent from Japan to shut us down."

Within days of 9/11 Clinton staffers were out in force denying all. Secretary of State Albright had a gross memory lapse and apparently forgot about the 1993 World Trade Center attack. She and other Clinton staffers repeated to all who would listen—there were no terror attacks on American soil until 9/11…here was no connection between Saddam and al Qaeda…there was no proof al Qaeda had anything to do with any attacks within our borders. Their mantra was, “The Clinton administration did everything it could do to stop bin Laden.” This simply isn’t true and they know it. The theory is if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.

While dribs and drabs of information have gotten out via guilt-ridden retired FBI agents, ambitious and courageous reporters, testimony, and affidavits it’s difficult to put it all in a form that makes a clear path that can be followed backwards to expose those who are at the genesis of this big lie.

The decision made in 1993 meant Clinton had to go to elaborate means to continue to keep the American people ignorant of the impending threat. Clinton could not have carried this out without extensive assistance from those around him. He could not have done it without totally corrupting virtually everyone under him including the CIA, the FBI and the Justice Department.

They must now all cover for each other or perish. If the American people ever learn the truth, they would demand swift and harsh punishment. How does one deal with an ex-president if he were to be found guilty of such crimes? If you are the present Commander-in-Chief, what do you do with this information?

In her book, "The War Against America: Saddam Hussein and the World Trade Center Attacks — A Study in Revenge" (Harper Collins, 2001), Dr. Mylroie laid out a case not made in the prosecution of the first World Trade Center bombers. She describes the hapless Islamist radicals who were tried for attempting in February 1993 to topple one of the twin towers into the other as mere pawns used by far more sophisticated operatives with ties to Iraq.

One of the latter, Ramzi Youssef, was subsequently arrested in Pakistan, extradited and convicted for his role in the bombing. But as Dr. Mylroie wrote in a National Interest article in 1995, when she told prosecutors "that Iraq was probably behind the Trade Center bombing, they replied, 'You may be right, but we don't do state sponsorship. We prosecute individuals.' Asked who does 'do' state sponsorship, they answered, 'Washington.' 'Who in Washington?' No one seemed to know."

The need to get to the bottom of apparent Iraqi complicity in attacks on the American homeland is even more apparent in a new book by Ms. Davis titled "The Third Terrorist: The Middle Eastern Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing," to be published next month by WND/Thomas Nelson Publishers.

The author did path-breaking reporting for the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City after the deadly destruction of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995. The fruits of that on-air work and the exhaustive research behind it were a wealth of eyewitness accounts, affidavits, interviews and other documentary — if circumstantial — evidence that lead inexorably to the conclusion that two convicted perpetrators, American militiamen Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, did not act alone. According to Ms. Davis and her sources, their principal co-conspirator, the once-sought John Doe No. 2, appears to have been a former Iraqi soldier who wears a tattoo from Saddam's elite Republican Guard.

The extraordinary reluctance of government officials, which dates back to the Clinton administration, to give serious consideration to the evidence compiled by Dr. Mylroie and Ms. Davis argues for making a fresh look at this data an important responsibility for the independent commission on the Iraq threat. If this is done, the conclusion seems inescapable: Whether or not it can be established Saddam Hussein was also involved in the September 11 attacks, he was what President Bush has called him — a "grave and growing danger." And the president was absolutely right to deny him the ability to translate his residual capacity for WMD-equipped attacks into future, far more lethal acts of revenge against the United States and its people.

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