The Iraq Connection
Was Saddam involved in Oklahoma City and the first WTC bombing?
BY MICAH MORRISON
Thursday, September 5, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT
OKLAHOMA CITY--With the Sept. 11 anniversary upon us and President Bush
talking about a "regime change" in Iraq, it's an apt time to look at two
investigators who connect Baghdad to two notorious incidents of domestic
terrorism. Jayna Davis, a former television reporter in Oklahoma City,
believes an Iraqi cell was involved in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building here. Middle East expert Laurie Mylroie links Iraq
to the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, and has published a
book on the subject.
Both cases are closed, of course--in the public mind if not quite
officially. Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder in the Oklahoma City
bombing and executed in June 2001; Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in
prison for conspiracy and manslaughter, and faces a further trial on murder
charges. In the World Trade Center bombing, prosecutors convicted six men of
Middle Eastern origin on the theory that they operated in a "loose network."
One suspect remains at large, but the apparent ringleader, known as Ramzi
Yousef, was captured in Pakistan and is now in federal prison in the U.S.
The prosecutors in both episodes believe they got their men, and of course
conspiracy theories have shadowed many prominent cases. Still, the long
investigative work by Ms. Davis and Ms. Mylroie, coming to parallel
conclusions though working largely independently of each other, has gained
some prominent supporters. Former CIA Director James Woolsey, for example,
recently told the Journal that "when the full stories of these two incidents
are finally told, those who permitted the investigations to stop short will
owe big explanations to these two brave women. And the nation will owe them
a debt of gratitude."
Full article:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110002217