In order for me to entertain this idea that the OKC bombing had a mideast connection, one has to establish a connection between Nichols/McVeigh and mideast terrorists. The phone card by itself is not evidence, but if McVeigh had used it to call the Phillipines, that would be a red flag.
Your point about Nichols not having anything to lose is a good one. At this juncture, he could benefit from giving up information at this time, yet I am not aware he is at all.
These points are all circumstantial and pretty thin. The strongest may tie these two to Cebu, which is close, but not nrealy enough to convince me.
Actually, in a basic sense there has already been a connection between the middle east and the OKC bombing. McViegh himself stated that his motivation for his anti-US government stance was partially based on his experience fighting within the Middle East. Specifically within Kuwait and Iraq. McViegh is the connection between the OKC bombing and the middle east. Now we need to determine if the additional 'John Does' just consisted of other 'home grown' terrorist with similar views or was he assisted by other terrorist with direct connections to the middle east. IE - non-homegrown terrorists.