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FBI investigates Army imposter (re: interstate bridge collapse)
News Oklahoma ^ | June 5, 2002 | AP

Posted on 06/05/2002 9:52:05 PM PDT by Prodigal Daughter

FBI investigates Army imposter
2002-06-05
By The Associated Press

The FBI is investigating a man who called himself an Army captain and looked through a briefcase and laptop computer belonging to a victim of last month's deadly interstate bridge collapse.

The man, wearing fatigues and a beret, showed up within two hours of the Interstate 40 collapse and told the mayor he was in charge. He identified himself as Capt. William Clark.

Mayor Jewell Horne said Wednesday that the man told her Army Capt. Andrew Clements had died in the river and that his briefcase and laptop were in the water. A fisherman found the items the day of the collapse and gave them to a Webbers Falls police officer.

The officer gave the items to Clark, who took them and went through them, the mayor said. He brought the briefcase and computer to city hall later that day and asked the mayor to lock them in a safe.

He wanted the key, but Horne said she refused to give it to him.

"He kept trying to say that he was in charge," Horne said. "I finally looked at him and said, 'No, you're not. Until the governor declares martial law, you are not in charge in this town.'"

The mysterious man left Webbers Falls on Monday night, she said.

The mayor said it was eerie that the man knew Clements was among the victims even before his body was recovered.

"But he was correct," she said. "There was a Capt. Clements. There was a briefcase and there was a computer."

Clements, 35, of Woodbridge, Va., was among 14 people killed May 26 when a barge hit the Interstate 40 bridge, causing it to topple into the Arkansas River.

Horne said she was so busy answering phones and directing rescuers that she "didn't have time to think a lot" or check the man's credentials. Two volunteers from the Tulsa medical examiner's office eventually called authorities to check on him, she said.

The FBI, the Army and police in Van Buren and Fort Smith, Ark., are looking for the man, said FBI spokesman Gary Johnson. He said the man obtained goods and services by impersonating a rescue worker.

"It's certainly a very intense investigation," Johnson said.

Authorities are looking into whether the man stayed at a hotel in Van Buren, Ark., free under the auspices of taking part in the rescue operation.

The man also told an Associated Press reporter his name was Capt. William Clark and that he was from Fort Carson, Colo. The fort has no record of the man, said spokeswoman Kim Tisor.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bridgecollapse; conspiracy; fbi
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Maybe Army Captain Clements had time to call this man from his cell phone. That's all I can think of.
1 posted on 06/05/2002 9:52:06 PM PDT by Prodigal Daughter
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To: Thinkin' Gal; 2sheep; Jeremiah Jr
The plot thickens.
2 posted on 06/05/2002 9:52:47 PM PDT by Prodigal Daughter
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To: Prodigal Daughter
With a bridge falling? unless he was already on the phone. Spooky - a very well connected imposter, it seems. very odd, -Thanks for this. It's these local papers, you can find some intrigueing items. Wonder if we see this in the national press anytime. Sort of like all those incidents in the weeks and months after 9/11.
3 posted on 06/05/2002 9:59:08 PM PDT by swarthyguy
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To: Fred Mertz, Travis McGee
This is just plain weird....
4 posted on 06/05/2002 10:03:45 PM PDT by Mulder
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To: Prodigal Daughter
Why would the mysterious Clark fellow give the stuff BACK to the Mayor if his purposes were nefarious? Seems like he would have taken the items and disappeared. Why ask the mayor to lock them up and let him keep the key? This is a pretty weird story. What do you think, PD?
5 posted on 06/05/2002 10:03:57 PM PDT by gg188
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To: swarthyguy
Now if they tell me the dead guy is an expert in Biological and chemical warfare, I am gonna faint....
6 posted on 06/05/2002 10:06:53 PM PDT by gg188
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To: swarthyguy
I agree. Very strange.
7 posted on 06/05/2002 10:07:47 PM PDT by Kermit
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To: Prodigal Daughter
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....I wonder if Captain Clark was adept at loosening bridge supports.
8 posted on 06/05/2002 10:08:28 PM PDT by brat
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To: brat
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....I wonder if Captain Clark was adept at loosening bridge supports.

Too many variables for that. Timing the Captains car against currents ect. But it does sound likely Captain Clements was a courrier and being tailed. The barge collision was an accident and Captain Clark {?} moved in. For what purpose though and by whom would be the question. It's easy enough to put a pinger on a car and follow it at a safe distance.

9 posted on 06/05/2002 10:14:20 PM PDT by cva66snipe
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To: conspiracy;glorygirl

10 posted on 06/05/2002 10:15:19 PM PDT by Libertarianize the GOP
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To: gg188
Or the imposter.....very x-files grassyknollish, imposter official and all.
11 posted on 06/05/2002 10:20:36 PM PDT by swarthyguy
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To: cva66snipe
Or those new Digital Angels.
12 posted on 06/05/2002 10:21:15 PM PDT by swarthyguy
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To: Prodigal Daughter
Has it been possible for the accident investigators to determine in what order vehicles went off the bridge? Was Clements headed east or west? Was an autopsy done to know the cause of death (did he have water in his lungs)?
13 posted on 06/05/2002 10:23:58 PM PDT by soundbits
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To: Prodigal Daughter
Very possible that the second man would be unknown, to anyone. Doing his job unknown to regular army authorities.
14 posted on 06/05/2002 10:28:26 PM PDT by cynicom
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To: gg188
Maybe the car had global positioning technology. Would that work underwater?

And maybe he wanted to return the computer because he already purged the information that he wanted to remain a secret, and he figured that a sanitized computer would be less suspicious than no computer at all?

15 posted on 06/05/2002 10:29:24 PM PDT by Prodigal Daughter
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To: swarthyguy
Or those new Digital Angels.

One thing seems certain he knew who was in that car. Most police and rescue services will not announce names over a radio of victims. That likely rules out someone with a police scanner unless it was an analog cell phone call that was intercepted and the alleged Captain Clark was a mental case who just likes to respond to emergencies.

16 posted on 06/05/2002 10:30:48 PM PDT by cva66snipe
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To: cva66snipe
How did he know about puter and briefcase???
17 posted on 06/05/2002 10:32:39 PM PDT by cynicom
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To: cynicom
Maybe he was just bobbing for Apples?
18 posted on 06/05/2002 10:39:41 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: cynicom
How did he know about puter and briefcase???

He wouldn't under that type of senerio of hearing a police report. Which says Clements possibly was a courier and either had a following escort or an unfriendly following him.

19 posted on 06/05/2002 10:40:07 PM PDT by cva66snipe
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To: cva66snipe; swarthyguy; gg188; all
Uh-oh.

I just found this on a Google search for "bridge collapse Oklahoma":

USMA at West Point website has an article on the middle of the page: Graduate dies in Oklahoma bridge collapse: 31 MAY) Capt. Andrew Clements, 35, a 1991 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, was among those killed Sunday in the I-40 bridge collapse in Webbers Falls, Okla.

But the link is broken! The other links on the page aren't broken!

20 posted on 06/05/2002 10:48:20 PM PDT by Prodigal Daughter
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