Posted on 06/17/2002 6:27:47 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
Edited on 04/29/2004 2:00:42 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
I find it strange that Padilla's mug shots are few and far between. Hopefully more pics of him will turn up from his mid-nineties life.
p.s. OKCSubmariner is trying to locate one of the eyewitnesses of JD#2, whose name escapes me at the moment. I have confidence that OKCSub will locate him eventually.
Including better shots of his left cheek. I want to see that scar in more detail....if there is a scar. Also I am still waiting for independent confirmation on that scar on the John Doe #2 sketch. Was that scar there originally or did it just pop up in the last few days?
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Watch the personal attacks, and the language please. Oh and remember...shiney side out.
PMSNBC has some more info in an article dated today. I'm taking a break, may post it later if you don't.;-)
What a riot, the only resemblence Bunting has to JD#2 is dark hair.
I read some of the grief Bunting got for getting tagged as JD#2, even though the FBI says he was in no way involved. It's sad that the FBI would use an American Citizen, a soldier, to fit in with their own agenda and put his life in turmoil.
The next recorded event in his life was his marriage in 1996. And that's about the last definite date, aside from reports from the Pembroke Pines mosque that he attended prayer services there between 1995 and 1997, but those dates are highly suspect, since it seems the Pembroke Pines mosque leader had his memory "refreshed" in advance by Padilla's ex-wife last year -- I would guess right after 9/11, when Hassoun, the second suspect arrested last week was originally questioned. Someone (or Padilla himself) may have asked his wife to cover Padilla's tracks for that 95-97 time period, for whatever reason. It could be because Padilla was in OKC, or it could be because he was involved in some other illegal activity in connection with the Fort Lauderdale mosque.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
TULSA WORLD
September 11, 1997 Thursday
SECTION: CITY/STATE; Pg. A9
Second Man Seen, Witness Says; John Doe No. 2 With McVeigh Before Explosion, Grand Jury Told
Julie DelCour
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Rodney Johnson, the 18th witness to testify before the Oklahoma County grand jury, is certain he saw Timothy McVeigh and another man cross a street in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building moments before it exploded.
Johnson, 32, now a caterer near Dallas, said he called the FBI April 19, 1995, the night of the bombing, to report the information -- at least 24 hours before sketches of two suspects were released by the FBI.
On April 27, 1995, at McVeigh's detention hearing, FBI bombing case agent John Hersley testified about the sighting without mentioning Johnson's name.
Johnson said that he was interviewed by the FBI, and met with prosecutors in mid-July 1995 but was notified in January he would not be called as a witness at McVeigh's trial. Johnson said he kept his silence until April 24, the day of the trial's opening statements when he gave a television interview.
After McVeigh's conviction June 2, Johnson repeated his information to other reporters in Oklahoma City.
Johnson said that in a two-hour session with grand jurors he told them "what I saw. " He also showed them videotaped interviews he gave earlier this year.
"I saw two individuals, Timothy McVeigh and John Doe No. 2, cross Fifth Street before the blast. The other man was short, stocky, dark-skinned. He had slicked-back hair and jogging pants with a stripe," Johnson said.
Johnson's said he later saw FBI sketches of two suspects but was not asked to identify them. The descriptions for those sketches were given by witnesses in Kansas, where a Ryder truck used in the
bombing was rented.He said McVeigh strongly resembled the man he saw and the John Doe No. 1 sketch. He said he has never again seen the other man, who he identifies as John Doe No. 2, who he described as being
of Mexican or American Indian descent.
Johnson said he vaguely remembers seeing a yellow Ryder truck in his peripheral vision that day. But what he remembers better, he said, was that he came within 20 feet of the two men and had to brake to avoid hitting them. He said a woman riding in his truck knew he had to brake to avoid hitting the men but that she did not get a good look at the men. He said she may appear before the grand jury and has avoided media attention.
Johnson recalls that the two men "were in step, one behind the other. "
"They definitely were together. " And, he said, they were walking rapidly.
Johnson said that despite an in-depth interview with prosecutors, he was not called before a federal grand jury that indicted McVeigh and codefendant Terry Nichols on Aug. 8, 1995.
"The reason they didn't call me at trial was because of John Doe No. 2," Johnson said.
"It was a judgment call. In hindsight, they made the right decision.
Timothy McVeigh is guilty. But I know I also saw John Doe No. 2."
A few months before the trial, the FBI withdrew its sketch of John Doe No. 2, saying a witness had mistakenly identified Todd Bunting as being with McVeigh when the truck was rented. Bunting, prosecutors said, was in the rental agency another day and has no connection with the bombing. No prosecution witness called at trial testified about any John Doe No. 2 sightings and the prosecution did not call any witnesses placing McVeigh in downtown Oklahoma City that day.
Johnson said he does not believe "it is beneficial for the government to deny the existence of John Doe No. 2."
"It just fuels the conspiracy theories and (makes people) connect dots that maybe shouldn't be connected. I can't see how this hurts the case to deny the obvious," Johnson said.
Johnson attended part of the McVeigh trial and when he saw McVeigh in the courtroom he said he was even more certain that was the man, in Army fatigues and a white T-shirt, who made eye contact with him
the morning of the bombing.
"I thought they were going to stop but they never hesitated. It was 45 seconds to a minute later that the bomb exploded," he said.
Johnson was preceded in the jury room by an unidentified man and woman, who testified between about 9:05 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.Another unidentified woman testified for about an hour at the end of the day. None of the three would give their name.
State Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, has said that Germaine Johnson, a U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department employee who survived the blast, is expected to testify. He also has said that Vance DeWoody, owner of Opal's Answering Service, and his employee, Pat Houser, were expected to testify that they received an anonymous phone call before the bombing warning of an impending explosion.
Johnson (no relation to Rodney Johnson) has said that after the bombing she made her way to an alley and saw McVeigh and a stocky man with dark hair. She allegedly has claimed that McVeigh asked her if "anyone was killed" and she replied she didn't know.
The grand jury was impaneled June 30, primarily to investigate alternative theories in the Oklahoma City bombing.
The jury reconvenes Thursday.
Facinating thread!
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN
February 23, 1998, Monday
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1
Witnesses Offer Many Descriptions Of John Doe No. 2
Diane Plumberg, Staff Writer
(snip)
[Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City] said he also does not believe the government's theory that Bunting was mistaken as John Doe No. 2. He said workers at the body shop where the truck was rented told the late Glenn Wilburn, who also pushed for a grand jury, that Bunting was not the man they saw.(snip)
I guess I'm mistaken and the JD2 sketch(es) are only based on eyewitnesses at Muraah of 4/19/95?
According to the court testimony, JD2 was Bunting at Ryder the day before McVeigh. Former OKC FBI chief, Bob Ricks, gave an interview last week after the Padilla arrest and insisted that he was "100% certain" that JD2 was Bunting. Curiously, Ricks also said the JD2 sketch was from the Murrah bldg.
Video link: http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/player?skin=video1&video=j1110pm4.rm
Is it true that the glint from tin foil will hurt an ostriches eye? Is that why an osterich will keep it's head burried in the sand?
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
THE SUNDAY OKLAHOMAN
August 10, 1997, Sunday
NEWS; Pg. 1
Some Witnesses Leery Of Bombing Grand Jury
This story was written from reports by staff writers Judy Kuhlman, Diana Baldwin and Ed Godfrey.
(snip - lots of information about how the witnesses are afraid to testify.)[Debbie] Nakanashi was a postal clerk stationed at the post office on Fifth Street when the bombing occurred. Unlike other witnesses, she is anxious to testify before the grand jury.
She said two days before the bombing, McVeigh and another man entered the post office and asked where to go to fill out a federal job application. She pointed out the Murrah Building.
As they were leaving, McVeigh said something to his companion and laughed, Nakanashi said.
"Well, I know now he said, We almost blew up the wrong building' or something of that nature. Of course, I didn't hear any of that."
She said she was first interviewed by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and then frequently by the FBI in the months following the bombing.
"I met always with two men, always a different set of men, four, five, six times. I picked McVeigh out of a photo lineup, but I did admit I had seen him on television.
"Then they asked about John Doe No. 2, the guy I spoke with. I told them the guy they had a composite sketch of was not my guy at all."
Nakanashi said the FBI later released a sketch of suspect John Doe 2 based on her description.
"My John Doe No. 2 was the second sketch with the side view with the high cheek bones - that is my guy, the guy I saw."
She described John Doe 2 as being in charge of McVeigh that day."That is the man they need to catch and try for the murder of those people. I don't feel like McVeigh was the mastermind of this at all. This guy was the guy with authority. He was the one in command of that particular situation."
Nakanashi said the FBI dismissed her story.
"It got dropped and nothing more was said. ... I would love to go before the grand jury so I could tell this once and for all to a group of people who I feel like would at least be interested to listen to me."
FBI agents dismissed her account because of photos and other evidence proving McVeigh was in Kansas two days before the bombing. Also, agents have testified that the sketches of John Doe No. 2 were solely based on the recollection of a mechanic, who now thinks he described an innocent Army private renting a different Ryder truck.[Tom] Kessinger, the former mechanic at Elliott's Body Shop in Junction City where McVeigh rented the Ryder truck, testified at a pretrial hearing in Denver. Kessinger testified a second man was with McVeigh when the truck was picked up April 17, 1995.
Kessinger provided the descriptions that led the FBI to release three sketches of suspect John Doe 2. He has since admitted he made a mistake and was actually describing Army Priv. Todd Bunting, who was helping a friend rent a truck one day later, April 18, 1995.
(snip)
[Rodney] Johnson told reporters in June during the closed-circuit trial telecast at the Federal Aviation Administration center that he saw McVeigh with another man the day of the bombing.
"I kept my mouth shut for two years," Johnson said at the time. "He (John Doe 2) was dark-skinned, shorter, probably about 5-8 and maybe 160 pounds. He was wearing blue jogger pants with a stripe across the side. He had slicked-black hair."Johnson, who was driving a catering truck in Oklahoma City in 1995, said he had to brake to miss the two men who were running from the Murrah Building into the parking lot across the street.
"They were in a fast march, in step, one behind the other," he said.
I think too that either the Muslims were not quite ready to take full responsiblity for any of this, Not unti 9-11 did they want the attention to be directed to them, so what better way to get their deed done than to recruite such a person as McVeigh, let him take the blame for now. If they had been implicated at that time, then we would have a heads up for 9-11, OR the Clinton administration did know all about the Muslims and let McVeigh and the right wingers take the blame.
BTW:Lana Padilla/Nichols/Osentski's maiden name was Walsh.
This sounds totally plausible. Afterall, according to Janet Reno most Bible believing Christians belong to a "cult." Right up there with the Waco group on her little black list.
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