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Wednesday, May 08, 2002

This is a partial transcript from The O'Reilly Factor, May 7 , 2002.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the Unresolved Problems segment tonight, the true story behind the terror of 9/11.

Last year, we interviewed investigative reporter Jana (ph) Davis from Oklahoma, who believes there was a tie-in between the bombing in Oklahoma City and 9/11.

Joining us now from Washington is Larry Johnson, the former deputy director of the State Department's Office on Counter-terrorism under Presidents Bush and Clinton.

So you think there's some validity to this?

LARRY JOHNSON, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT COUNTER-TERRORISM OFFICE DEPUTY DIRECTOR: I was skeptical at first, Bill. I took the evidence, I looked at it, and I started talking to some of the witnesses. Where there's smoke, there's fire. You've got several things going on here that have not been thoroughly looked at and need to be checked out.

For example...

O'REILLY: Go ahead.

JOHNSON: ... John Doe number two is probably a guy by the name of Hussein Hashema Husseini (ph), former Republican Guardsman. The guy he worked for is a fellow named Samir Khalil (ph). Samir Khalil was only interviewed once. He was interviewed just before the McVeigh trial. And nowhere in that interview did they ask him about the whereabouts of Husseina Husseini or the fact that Mr. Khalil has been allegedly linked to the Holy Land Foundation down in Texas.

Relevance of that, Holy Land Foundation was identified by the Bush administration as one of the charitable groups that's sending money to terrorists.

O'REILLY: All right. Now, you lost me...

JOHNSON: OK.

O'REILLY: ... and I think you lost a whole bunch of other people, so let's just pull back.

JOHNSON: All right.

O'REILLY: John Doe number two was the man who was seen with Timothy Mcveigh, correct?

JOHNSON: He was seen with Timothy Mcveigh three days before the bombing, the morning of the bombing. And he was seen by one of the witnesses getting out of the Ryder truck after it pulled up in front of the Murrow building. And he was seen driving away from there.

O'REILLY: All right, but the FBI has never really acknowledged that person, have they?

JOHNSON: Yes. They started off looking for it, and then it dried up. My concern is this angle was never pursued. And to this day, the FBI has refused to exonerate this man. They've refused to go out and check out his alibis. And the real thing that concerns me relevant to 9-11, when he left Oklahoma in around '96, '97, he we want to work at Logan Airport in Boston.

O'REILLY: All right, now, the man you are accusing of being John Doe number two is a man -- you said a former Republican guardsman. That's in Iraq, the Republican guardsman in Iraq.

JOHNSON: Correct.

O'REILLY: Now after he left Oklahoma City, you say he went to Logan Airport in Boston?

JOHNSON: That's correct.

O'REILLY: And then what happened to this man?

JOHNSON: We don't know where he is now.

O'REILLY: How long was he in Boston?

JOHNSON: He's been there at least since 1997.

O'REILLY: All right, but you don't know where he is now?

JOHNSON: Don't know where he is. In addition, Bill, he's -- there are two other former Iraqi...

O'REILLY: Well, let's stay with this guy.

JOHNSON: OK.

O'REILLY: But we should be able to trace this guy to Logan Airport, right?

JOHNSON: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: When he left, when he came?

JOHNSON: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: Do you know what happened to him?

JOHNSON: I do not. I've looked into it to the extent that I -- of what I can do with my limited resources.

O'REILLY: All right, well, we'll make some calls and try to find out when he left there. But he was gone when 9-11 happened, right?

JOHNSON: He was gone out of Oklahoma City when 9-11 happened. We don't know if he was gone from Logan Airport when 9-11 happened.

O'REILLY: OK, now, the Philippine connection, is there anything to that?

JOHNSON: I think there may be. You've got some very odd things. Steven Jones laid them out in his book, where Terry Nichols, an unemployed guy virtually. He's not making a lot of money. He's making several trips to the Philippines. Unexplained sources of cash. And there are other evidence that had been presented in the separate lawsuit, which suggest that, in fact, the groups that were operating in the Philippines, Abu Sayyef in particular, were involved with Terry Nichols and Tim Mcveigh. Let's emphasize, Bill, this doesn't exonerate Nichols and Mcveigh.

O'REILLY: No.

JOHNSON: But...

O'REILLY: Right. It gives a bigger picture that this may have been the first attack, and 9-11 might have been the second attack in American -- on American soil by organized terrorist groups. Now, is there an al Qaeda connection at all?

JOHNSON: I think that -- I think that's very likely. One of the things that's evident right now in connection with this investigation, the motel in Oklahoma City where the April bombing against the Murrah building was planned and executed from, that same hotel figures in two of the 9-11 hijackers and Zacarias Moussaoui, who's currently in jail. Those three guys tried to check into that motel. And there is another fellow in Oklahoma City that links them to the April bombing against the Murrah building.

O'REILLY: How do you know we know they tried to check into the motel?

JOHNSON: I have spoken to the owner of the motel. After the 9-11 attack, he called the FBI. The FBI came out and interviewed him, as he identified Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehi and Zacarias Moussaoui. They came in. They said, we're looking for a room. He said I don't have any room. What do you need it for? They said we're going for flight training.

O'REILLY: And that was around the time of the Oklahoma City bombing?

JOHNSON: That was the last week of July 2001, first week of August 2001, in that timeframe.

O'REILLY: All right. And just to refresh my memory, that was before, after?

JOHNSON: That was before 9-11. So this was about a month before.

O'REILLY: OK, but it was the same motel they used to plan...

JOHNSON: Exactly.

O'REILLY: All right, Mr. Johnson, very compelling. We appreciate it. We'll try to get to the bottom of it.