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Mideast link to car bomb appears to fade; TERROR IN THE HEART OF AMERICA
EXAMINER NEWS SERVICES
The San Francisco Examiner NEWS; Pg. A-17
April 21, 1995, Friday; Second Edition
DALLAS

excerpts from the article........

Three men of Middle Eastern extraction were detained and questioned by authorities in Dallas and Oklahoma City Thursday after media reports said the license plates of the car they were driving may be linked to a truck associated with the bombing.

But by day's end, officials discounted their significance to the Oklahoma City case. "It's not as strong as we initially thought it was," one said.

One of the three detained men, since released, told his story to the Associated Press.

Anis Siddiqy, 24, a cab driver from New York City, said his brother, Asad R. Siddiqy, 27, and an acquaintance, Mohammed Chafi, were in Oklahoma City seeking immigration documents for an emergency return to their Mideast homeland when they were arrested Wednesday.
Siddiqy said he needed the documents to get home because of a family matter. He refused to be more specific or identify his Mideast homeland.

Siddiqy said he was arrested Wednesday at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport while trying to rent a car so he could join the others in Oklahoma City.

Earlier that day, police raided an apartment in Dallas that was being rented by two of the men. A copy of a search warrant left in the apartment showed that a black bag, containing clothing, a calendar and an address book was seized.

The items were sent to a federal lab for testing after a bomb -sniffing dog indicated they may have been exposed to chemicals used in explosives, officials said.

The man's two acquaintances were picked up Wednesday night soon after they had asked an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer for directions. The tag number recorded from their vehicle by the trooper was allegedly traced to a blue Chevrolet Cavalier rented by one of the men from National Car Rental at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a law enforcement official said.

The Cavalier was found with one of the men Thursday morning at an Oklahoma City motel, the official said.

The man said he was questioned for 16 hours and given a lie-detector test before being released Thursday. Chafi was also released Thursday, but his older brother remained in custody.

Federal officials have denied that suspects were taken into custody in Dallas.

Dallas police spokesman Jim Spencer referred requests for comment to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The U.S. District Court order resulted from a defamation suit filed by Hussain Al-Hussani against Palmer Communications, KFOR-TV, and reporters, Jayna Davis, Brad Edwards and Melissa Klinzing. The court denied a request by Al-Hussaini for more discovery because he failed to show how specific depositions would create a genuine issue of fact as to whether defendant statements are defamatory. But worse yet for Al-Hussaini, the order publically documented long suppresssed, devastating evidence collected by KFOR-TV reporters implicating him in the April 19, 1995 bombing. Here are some key excerpts taken verbatim from the the court order without commentary:

"...The court accepts as undisputed the following facts as stated by defendants:

3. A witness reported to the FBI that two Middle-Eastern looking men were seen running from the vicinity of the Murrah Building toward a brown Chevrolet truck. A third person was believed to be in the truck.

4. On April 19, the FBI issued an all points bulletin for authorities to be on the look-out for a late-model Brown Chevrolet pickup truck with tinted windows and a smoke-colored bug deflector.

6. On April 20, 1995, the federal government issued an arrest warrant for "John Doe #2," who was described as of medium build 5'9"-5'10" tall, about 175-180 pounds, with brown hair and a tattoo on his left arm.

9. On April 20, 1995 federal authorities detained Abraham Abdallah Ahmad, a Jordanian-American resident of Oklahoma City, in London, England as a possible witness in the bombing. Ahmad was reported to have duffel bags containing electrical tape, silicone, a hammer, tweezers and a photo album with pictures of missiles and other weapons. Ahmad was reported to have left his home in northwest Oklahoma City approximately a half hour after the bombing and flown to Chicago, then London en route to Jordan.

11. At about the same time as her interview with Ahmad, Davis interviewed Ernie Cranfield, who knew Ahmad. Cranfield told Davis that Ahmad had been to Cranfield's place of employment with unusual frequency in the days just before the bombing. Cranfield said that several of his co-workers were Iraqis who had been hired by his employer, Samir Khalil, in about November, 1994.

13. Cranfield said that one of his Iraqi co-workers, Al-Hussaini, had a tattoo on his left arm.

14. Cranfield also told Davis that he had seen a brown pickup truck with tinted windows and bug shield at Khalil's place of business prior to the bombing.

16. Davis also interviewed Sharon Twilley, Samir Khalil's secretary. Twilley confirmed Cranfield's statements that Ahmad had visited Khalil's office several times a day in the weeks before the bombing, which was far more often than usual; and that she had also seen a brown pickup truck with tinted windows and a bug shield at Khalil's office. Twilley confirmed Cranfield's statements about the arrival of the Iraqi employees, including Al-Hussaini about November, 1994. Twilley told Davis that Khalil had become unusually secretive after that.

18. KFOR took surveillance photographs and videotape of Khalil and his Iraqi employees including Al-Hussaini. The photos were taken from a public street while the subjects of the photo were in public places.

19. On April 25, 1995 federal authorities isssued an enhanced composite photo of John Doe #2 the full face sketch shows the supect wearing a ball cap.

20. On May 1, 1995 federal authorities released a third sketch of John Doe #2, a profile view of the suspect wearing a ball cap.

21. After comparing videotape and still photos of Khalil's Iraqi workers with the composite sketches of John Doe #2 and talking wih law enforcement persons, Davis formed the opinion that Al-Hussaini bore a strong resemblance to the composite photo of John Doe #2. Law enforcement persons expressed their opinions to Davis that Al Hussaini looked like the sketches of John Doe #2.

22. Al-Hussaini approximated the physical description of John Doe #2 and bears a strong resemblance to the composite sketch of John Doe #2. He has a tattoo of an anchor and a snake on his left arm.

23. In their investigation of the bombing, Davis, defendant Brad Edwards, and other reporters for KFOR discovered several witnesses who believed that they had seen John Doe #2 in the company of Timothy McVeigh a few days before the bombing in a bar along N.W. 10th street, or speeding away from downtown Oklahoma City moments after the bombing in a brown pickup truck with tinted windows and a bug shield. Each of these witnesses gave videotaped interview in which they described what they saw, picked Al-Hussaini out of a photo line up as the person they saw, and assured Davis on camera that they believed their observations enough to testify to them under oath before a grand jury.

28. The plaintiff claims that at the time of the bombing he was painting a house for his employer in Oklahoma City.

29. The plaintiff's co-workers dispute his alibi.

30. The person who prepared a timesheet which the plaintiff showed to the other media to substantiate his alibi later admitted she fabricated it."