What have you found regarding a Terry Nichols connection to terrrorists in southern Asia? Does your book include copies of documents etc. to bolster your case of a ME connection to OKC?
The second answer: affidavit of Abu Sayyaf terrorist Edwin Angeles and his Philippine interrogation and debriefing reports, FBI 302s (i.e. Abdul Hakim Murad), government telephone records tracking calls to and from the OKC bomber's residences and the calls placed on the "Daryl Bridges" debit card, as well as classified, ex-parte briefings filed in the McVeigh case.
The first answer: A probing look into the background and travels of convicted bomber Terry Nichols further substantiates that disturbing notion of foreign sponsorship of the 1995 strike on America’s heartland.
I have obtained sealed filings by McVeigh’s defense team that outline reasons why they believed Terry Nichols received bombing making expertise through Al-Qaeda ntelligence based in the Philippines.
Nichols’, a small-time Kansas farmer of modest means, took expensive and unexplained trips to the Philippines, frequently without his Filipino mail order bride.
The court record reveals the Oklahoma City bomber, Terry Nichols was in Cebu City in December 1994 at the same time as the convicted mastermind of the first World Trade Center attack Ramzi Yousef – who was also a chief explosives expert and bombmaker for bin Laden’s network – Al Qaeda.
In 1996, I began my quest to answer one question - did Ramzi Yousef and Terry Nichols cross paths?
According to the sworn statement of the co-founder of the Filipino Muslim terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, which is a spin-off organization of Al Qaeda, that meeting did, in deed, take place in the early 1990’s on the island of Mindanao.
The Abu Sayyaf terrorist said he was present when Terry Nichols, Ramzi Yousef, and two of Middle Eastern co-conspirators met to discuss the acquisition of firearms and bomb making.
Richard Clarke, President Clinton’s former chief terrorist advisor, disclosed in his new book that the FBI “could never disprove” the theory that the Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols and the Al Qaeda general Ramzi Yousef collaborated.
Clarke stated – “We do know that Nichols’ bombs did not work before his Philippine stay and were deadly when he returned.”
Phone records reveal that Nichols received and made a plethora of calls to a boarding house in Cebu City, which according to McVeigh’s defense lawyers, sheltered students from a university well known for Islamic militancy.
In an attempt to cover their tracks, Nichols and McVeigh used a phone debit card to make a series of cryptic calls to untraceable numbers and pay phones in the Philippines from public pay phones in Kansas.
Why were the majority of calls placed on the phone debit card that was used to the plan the bombing pouring into the Philippines? That question has never been answered by the DOJ.
Abdul Hakim Murad claims credit for Oklahoma bombing
On April 19, 1995, Abdul Hakim Murad, a Middle Eastern terrorist who was later convicted with Ramzi Yousef in a foiled plot to blow up twelve U.S. airliners in Manila, boasted of involvement in the heartland attack.
Murad told a prison guard at a New York City detention center where he was confined that as a member of the Philippine Liberation Army, he was responsible for the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
In addition to his verbal confession, Murad put this startling admission in writing.
Official interrogation reports detailing Murad’s 1995 statements to U.S. and Filipino authorities revealed the Islamic terrorist disclosed visionary details of the 1994 plot to hijack commercial airlines and convert them into flying missiles.
One of the alleged targets, according to Murad, was CIA headquarters.
In summation, Abdul Hakim Murad proved he was familiar with intimate details of the failed 1995 plot to destroy U.S. airliners, the 1993 attack on World Trade Center, and a future scheme to convert commercial jets into bombs – the paradigm for 9-11.
But FBI investigators discounted the confessed terrorist’s emphatic claim on April 19 that a radical Islamic group based in the Philippines was behind the Murrah building attack.
This is the same individual, whom according to the leader of Abu Sayyaf, was present when Terry Nichols and Ramzi Yousef met to discuss bomb making.
Detailed description of telephone trail of evidence
In an attempt to cover their tracks, Nichols and McVeigh obtained a phone debit card issued under the alias to purchase bomb components.
They also used the card to make a series of cryptic calls to untraceable numbers in the Philippines from public pay phones in Junction City, Kansas.
Defense filings documented two hundred calls to the Philippines, seventy-eight of which were placed to a Cebu City boarding house that sheltered students from a local university well known for Islamic militancy.
Nichols’ Filipino bride, Marife, resided there for a brief period while taking some college courses in physical therapy.
However, Nichols continued to phone that location after Marife returned to their Kansas home.
From April 2 to April 10, an unidentified party placed thirteen calls to Nichols’ Herington, Kansas home from an untraceable number in the Philippines.
On April 21, two hours before Nichols surrendered to the FBI, he phoned this same Cebu boarding house which was a lodge for Muslim students.
Throughout the bomb plot, Nichols made a maniac barrage of phone calls to the Philippines from public pay phones.
Was this consecutive pattern of rings indicative of a code or covert form of communication?
If so, such a clandestine method of sending messages would circumvent government monitoring of overseas phone conversations.
More importantly, they incorrectly assumed the use of public payphones and a debit card would render the evidence trail of calls invisible.
Stephen Jones made discovery demands for classified information which included possible National Security Agency intercepts of Nichols’ international conversations to the South Pacific. The court refused his requests.
Incredible detail. You have really done your homework.
I want to offer my personal congratulations on a job well done. Your book is a must read for everyone. I have bought two books - one for myself and one for my local library.
Your research is impeccable and you are very brave and tenacious. Thank you.
Peach
The "pattern of rings" code theory is intriguing. Have al Qaeda, Iraq or any other terrorists been known to use pattern of rings to covertly communicate?