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Police Officer Misled Investigators -OKC Bombing
New York Times ^ | 11/14/02 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted on 11/14/2002 12:27:33 AM PST by TexKat

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A House committee has halted an inquiry into allegations of a wider conspiracy in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and asked the Justice Department to investigate a policeman who allegedly provided false information to the panel.

J.W. Reser, the policeman, told the House Government Reform Committee staff that he viewed a videotape of a Middle Eastern man leaving the truck used to bomb the building. He also claimed that he worked as a contract employee for the government, including Army and Navy intelligence.

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the committee, wrote Attorney General John Ashcroft that those statements were false, as were other statements Reser made about his background.

``I write to bring these false statements to the attention of the Department of Justice for investigation and, if warranted, prosecution,'' Burton wrote Ashcroft recently. Army and Navy intelligence officials wrote the committee that they had no evidence Reser worked for the military.

The committee provided The Associated Press with the lawmaker's criminal referral to the Justice Department and other documents, including a sworn statement that Reser provided to the committee.

Reser is a one-time Oklahoma City police officer who left the force more than a decade before the April 19, 1995, bombing, and now works as a Tulsa International Airport policeman.

He did not return a telephone message left with the Tulsa airport police, who confirmed he worked there. Committee officials said Reser has not responded to recent attempts to contact him. Reser's home number is unlisted.

While the bombing took place seven years ago, committee officials said Reser and others had contacted the panel this year seeking a fresh look at any possible conspiracy.

Reser exaggerated his length of service with the Oklahoma City police department, falsely said he served with a special projects unit on the force and described government connections that federal officials said did not exist, Burton contended.

``Mr. Reser's statements have had the potential to cause serious pain and anxiety for the families and victims of the Oklahoma City bombing,'' which killed 168 people, Burton wrote.

Timothy McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001, for planting the bomb in a truck outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The only other person charged, Terry Nichols, is serving a life sentence following federal convictions for conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of eight U.S. law enforcement officers.

Nichols also is charged in Oklahoma with 160 counts of first-degree murder.

In a sworn statement to the Government Reform Committee, Reser said he saw a videotape while attending a meeting in Washington with military and civilian intelligence officials as a government contract employee.

He said the two-minute tape ``captured the arrival of the explosives-laden Ryder truck as it parked on the north side of the federal complex shortly before 9 a.m. on April 19. Moments later, I observed an individual descend from the passenger side of the truck. He appeared to be of Middle Eastern extraction with dark hair, olive complexion and a ball cap,'' Reser said.

Rear Adm. R.B. Porterfield, director of naval intelligence, wrote Burton that a Navy search found ``no records of any contract employment of Mr. Reser'' by the service and ``no records of any video or still photographic surveillance cameras in or around the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City ... on April 19, 1995.''

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Oklahoma; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: danburton; okcbombing
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To: TexKat
So where are the tapes???? Are they trying to tell us there never were any tapes? That's hard to believe.
21 posted on 11/14/2002 5:56:19 AM PST by FR_addict
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To: Hitlerys uterus
Isn't there still recordings of police, fire/rescue, and BATF confirmation of unexploded bombs still in the bldg?

No. What you had was rescue efforts stopped while EOD teams checked SUSPECTED unexploded bombs. The rule of thumb is that, when in doubt, assume it's live.

What of the bldg. on the other side of the street suffering little damage though it was at about the same distance?

The truck detonated curbside next to the building. The other building was across the street. For the situation you describe to exist, the truck would have had to have been in the center of the street--which it was not.

22 posted on 11/14/2002 5:59:06 AM PST by Poohbah
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To: honway; glorygirl; Nancie Drew; thinden; AtticusX; Nita Nupress; OKCSubmariner; BlueDogDemo; ...
Army and Navy intelligence officials wrote the committee that they had no evidence Reser worked for the military.

This doesn't look very good for Reser. What was his agenda?

23 posted on 11/14/2002 6:23:26 AM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: Fred Mertz
Or what is ther comittees agenda? Stop the investigation before it gets out of hand?
24 posted on 11/14/2002 6:29:47 AM PST by B4Ranch
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To: B4Ranch
Good point.
25 posted on 11/14/2002 6:39:29 AM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: TexKat
Seems to me that even if this article is true (and since it's in the NYT I am NOT taking it as gospel), this doesn't begin to address all the info that Jayna Davis has gathered.
26 posted on 11/14/2002 6:43:03 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: B4Ranch
Or what is ther comittees agenda? Stop the investigation before it gets out of hand?

Yes, I believe that is the agenda. Reser is a nut. But he is not connected with Jayna Davis and her groundbreaking investigation. Reser is a guy, that I believe was looking for his 15 minutes. Not uncommon in this sort of thing. Remember the guy in DC that claimed to have seen 2 middle eastern guys in a cream colored van during the sniper incident. As a former LEO member, I can say, that in all big investigations, there is a certain number of supposed "witnesses" that come out of the woodwork to try and get their 15 minutes. The sad fact is that Reser is damaging the efforts of those who truely have evidence. I was there on 4-19, in LE, and within minutes of the blast, there were numerous witnesses interviewed that observed 2-3 middle eastern males fleeing the scene at a high rate of speed. In fact, there were BOLOS put out over the police radio looking for 2-3 middle eastern males in a certain vehicle. I have a copy of the police tapes. The authorization was the FBI. There was extensive discussion at the command post at 7th and Harvey between FBI and local officials regarding the middle eastern suspects.

Jayna Davis has around 20 affidavits from various witnesses that have identified McVeigh in the company of ME males days before and up to the morning of 4-19, and witnesses placing a ME male exiting the truck. She has even identified John Doe #2, and to this day, the Justice Department has not cleared or exonerated that man. He sued Jayna but a federal court judge threw out the suit because the evidence that Jayna had compiled against him was so strong. After his suit was dismissed, he left Oklahoma City, and moved to Boston and began working at Logan International Airport. Unusual coincidence, don't you think. This is fact. I have seen the documents to prove it.

As to the buildings across the street. They were destroyed by the bomb. They didn't completely fall down from the blast, but neither did the Murrah building. But the two buildings in question, "the Oklahoma Water Resources Board" building, and the "Athenian" were both so extremely, severely damaged, that portions collapsed on 4-19, and the remainder of the buildings had to be razed because they were so structurally damaged that they couldn't remain or be repaired. In fact, some of the fatilities came from these two buildings.

As to the claim that there were other bombs in the building, that is nonsense. There were items discovered in the ATF office that appeared to firemen to be explosives (possibly the fake TOW missile) but they were quickly discovered to be false alarms. I was there when that occurred. It did provide for several minutes of "oh sh!t" reactions from all of us, and we were evacuated, but it was soon cleared up.

There is just too much evidence proving ME involvement. But there are now too many buried bodies for the Feds to allow an official investigation to go forward.

27 posted on 11/14/2002 6:49:16 AM PST by yukong
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To: zarf
Right.

The Gummint has destroyed both the videotape and this cop's life, and that somehow puts an end to the conspiracy?!

You've got to be joking... or stoned.

28 posted on 11/14/2002 7:00:05 AM PST by Gargantua
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To: B4Ranch
Or you have an asshole who wanted news media attention so bad - he shot himself in the foot.
29 posted on 11/14/2002 7:13:57 AM PST by zarf
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To: TexKat
This is my first time hearing his name.

Hmmmm...a search on "Oklahoma City bombing, J.W. Reser" turns up nothing on him...that is interesting in itself.

30 posted on 11/14/2002 7:15:10 AM PST by ravingnutter
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To: FR_addict
I think that they are talking about 1 particular tape that Reiser said he saw. But still, where is it? Wasn't there another or other tapes from buildins across the street that did not surface?
31 posted on 11/14/2002 7:21:28 AM PST by TexKat
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To: TexKat
There are several tapes that did not surface. There were cameras on each end of the Murrah building that were angled toward the center of the building. I have seen those cameras before the bombing. And I have seen photos of the cameras. They were there when the bombing occurred. They were removed within a few hours of the bombing. There were cameras on the Journal Record Building. One was actually blown off by the blast. There were cameras at the Regency Towers apartments, the Southwestern Bell Telephone building, and a couple of others. There are numerous video tapes in existence. During one of the criminal cases, after the convictions of both McVeigh and Nichols, a motion was filed in federal court in Denver for the release of most of the evidence and the video tapes. Judge Matsch released all of the items requested, but denied the release of the surveillance video tapes that purportedly showed the truck, the occupant(s) and the blast.

Why won't they release the video tapes. If they are right, and there was no one else involved, and the tapes only show McVeigh, or only show one suspect, why won't the feds release them and clear this whole thing up? Just release the tapes.

32 posted on 11/14/2002 7:35:05 AM PST by yukong
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To: Gargantua
You're living proof that one doesn't have to smoke doobies in order to see gummint moles under every rock.
33 posted on 11/14/2002 7:35:36 AM PST by zarf
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To: All
-- A House committee has halted an inquiry into allegations of a wider conspiracy in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and asked the Justice Department to investigate a policeman who allegedly provided false information to the panel.

For Burton to suggest that the only basis for a congressional investigation into the Middle Eastern participation in the OKC bombing was the testimony of a single individual is simply not believable. Burton was pursuing a congressional investigation before Jayna Davis and her crowd ever introduced him to James Reser. So why then would he end an investigation because one witness was discredited? Simple. Smoke screen.

This little development is very reminiscent of activities outside the Oklahoma Grand Jury:

________________________________________________________________

U.S. Postal Employee Testifies for Grand Jury - TV Reporter Disavows Conspiracy

Judy Kuhlman, Diana Baldwin
09/20/1997

NOTE: Staff writer Ed Godfrey contributed to this report.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Through her attorney, Tim McCoy, former KFOR reporter Davis disavowed some of the bombing conspiracy theories that have been reported.

"She also wants to make it perfectly clear that after her two-year exhaustive investigation, she has turned up no credible evidence that supports the theory that the federal government had sufficient prior warnings to prevent the bombing," McCoy said.

34 posted on 11/14/2002 7:52:10 AM PST by honway
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To: thinden; glorygirl; Fred Mertz; TXnMA; PhilDragoo; Plummz; rubbertramp; backhoe; Sabertooth; ...
This article and these developments convince me that Patrick Briley may be the wisest man I have known in my 40 plus years. Patrick Briley once posted on Freerepublic as OKCSubmariner,however, he was banned from this site.

I am not absolutely sure of the reason he was banned.

Jayna Davis may be the most brilliant woman I have ever read about, or either she surrounds herself with very bright associates.

Any hope for a congressional investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing is over.

After the failure of the Oklahoma Grand Jury, the only remaining hope for justice for the victims of the OKC bombing was a congressional investigation.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant

35 posted on 11/14/2002 7:58:36 AM PST by honway
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To: zarf
The conspiracy mouth breathers have just had their hearts ripped out.

Is it true their lips move when they are trying to think? ;~)

36 posted on 11/14/2002 8:02:17 AM PST by verity
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To: yukong
Thank you very much for your eyewitness input. That you were actually there during the investigation and feel that way is very interesting indeed.
37 posted on 11/14/2002 8:06:35 AM PST by Zack Nguyen
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To: zarf
The conspiracy mouth breathers have just had their hearts ripped out.

So this guy is a liar. That does not mean people are stupid who wanted his testimony investigated.

38 posted on 11/14/2002 8:08:56 AM PST by js1138
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To: zarf
"The conspiracy mouth breathers have just had their hearts ripped out."

What do the non-conspiracy mouth breathers have to say about the refusual of the feds to release the video tapes from the several surveillance cameras ?

39 posted on 11/14/2002 8:15:09 AM PST by gatex
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To: honway
Thanks for the ping.
40 posted on 11/14/2002 8:16:47 AM PST by carenot
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