Claim of Surveillance Tape in OKC a Hoax

The Daily Oklahoman ^ | 11/13/02 | Larry Margasak

[sam101]

Police officer misled investigators, House committee chairman says

2002-11-13 By Larry Margasak Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A House committee has asked the Justice Department to investigate a police officer it alleges misled congressional investigators by claiming he saw a videotape of a Middle Eastern man leaving the truck used to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. J.W. Reser, the policeman, told investigators he viewed the surveillance tape while working as a contract employee for the government, including Army and Navy intelligence, but officials from both services said they knew nothing about Reser or the tape, the committee said.

The House Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., 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.

Burton, in a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, said that in addition to Reser's statements about viewing the surveillance tape, he made false statements to the committee about his personal background.

"I write to bring these false statements to the attention of the Department of Justice for investigation and, if warranted, prosecution," Burton wrote. 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 wrote Ashcroft that the allegations about the videotape and his employment caused the committee and the Navy to waste considerable resources in an attempt to verify the statements.

"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.

Kathy Wilburn of Oklahoma City, who lost two grandsons in the bombing, said she believes others besides McVeigh and Nichols were involved, but didn't know Reser and could not verify his assertions.

But speaking generally, she said, "These folks who are opportunists, they're hurting us. A lot of investigators make up theories and try to make the pieces stick. That doesn't work for me but I need to know the truth."

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."

[FreePaul]

I'll put the eyewitness problem in the same category as a government employee who says a Navy search found "no records of any contract employment of Mr. Reser". To me that sounds more like "we, of course, knew where not to look" or "I sure am glad we destroyed those records".

[F.J. Mitchell]

But now they are saying the tapes never existed and that Reser just made it all up. It is amazing how the powers that be and those that used to be, can, when it serves their purpose, make buildings, tapes and d*mn near all of reality disappear, and make everyone who remembers the facts sound delusional and incoherent.

Defining the enemy these days is as impossible as catching your shadow, and the most amazing thing of all is how the crimes of the previous are covered and/or ignored by the present, for the sake of the future. Maybe there is honor among crooks-such as it is.

[Tymesup]

Paging Winston Smith, paging Winston Smith, go to the Ministry of Truth.

[gnarledmaw]

Any time that Bury a ton is involved you know that theres a coverup of some type going on...

[F.J. Mitchell]

No Comprende?

[Tymesup]

In Orwell's 1984, Winston Smith's job at the Ministry of Truth was to edit stories to agree with the party line. The old article went down the memory hole.

It's scary to realize how much of that novel has come to pass.

[Fred Mertz]

Is MB1 still out there?

[Tymesup]

Haven't seen MB1 in quite some time, unfortunately.

[Fred Mertz]

I saw MB1 about a month or two ago; from out of the blue.

[F.J. Mitchell]

I am aware of Orwell's 1984 and I believe I saw part of the movie one time-It is scary to see so much of what seemed far fetched at the time of it's publication, slowly materilizing right before our eyes. 1984 as a date pulled out of the Authors hat long before that time and missing it by only a decade or two before and several after, with 1984 being central point between the onset and the fruition of double speak, is remarkable prophesy.

Now I Comprehende.